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Indiana Legislature overrode Gov. Holcomb's veto to enact HB 1041, a K-12 transgender sports ban

The Indiana General Assembly voted to override Gov. Eric Holcomb's veto of HB 1041 on May 24, 2022 — the House 67-28 and the Senate 32-15 — enacting House Enrolled Act 1041 into law. The statute bars students who are male based on sex assigned at birth from participating on girls'-designated K-12 athletic teams, creating a civil cause of action against schools that allow a transgender girl to compete while immunizing schools that exclude her.

Jurisdiction
Indiana
Location
Indianapolis, Indiana

Abuses documented

Actors

On May 24, 2022, the Indiana General Assembly overrode Gov. Eric Holcomb's veto of HB 1041, enacting House Enrolled Act 1041 into law. The House voted 67-28 and the Senate 32-15 to override in a one-day technical session, both comfortably above the simple-majority threshold Indiana requires. The new law, codified at IC 20-33-13, requires K-12 school corporations, public schools, nonpublic schools that compete against them, and athletic associations to designate athletic teams as male/boys, female/girls, or coeducational, and bars a student who is male based on sex assigned at birth from participating on a team designated female/girls — excluding transgender girls from girls' K-12 school sports statewide, effective July 1, 2022.

The law also creates a private civil cause of action against a school or association that allows a transgender girl to compete on a girls' team, while immunizing schools that exclude her from civil-rights liability for doing so. Holcomb had vetoed the bill on March 21, 2022, saying he had found no documented case in Indiana of the problem the bill claimed to solve and warning it would invite litigation; the Republican-controlled legislature reversed him two months later.

Updates

2022-07-26 — Federal judge blocked ban for one plaintiff [3]

U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson granted a preliminary injunction in the ACLU of Indiana's Title IX challenge, allowing 10-year-old plaintiff A.M. to rejoin her school's girls' softball team while the case continued. The judge found the ban likely violated Title IX; the injunction covered only the plaintiff, and HEA 1041 remained in force for other Indiana students.

2023-01-18 — Lawsuit dismissed as moot, injunction vacated [4][5]

The federal case was dismissed after the plaintiff transferred to a charter school outside the original defendant district, mooting her claim. The court vacated the preliminary injunction, and HEA 1041 took full effect statewide.

Why we recorded this

Equal protection under law requires that government not exclude people from public programs based on protected characteristics such as sex and gender identity. Indiana's HEA 1041 barred transgender girls from competing on girls'-designated K-12 sports teams based solely on sex assigned at birth, and created a private right of action against schools that let a transgender girl compete. The legislature's veto override, against the governor's own objection that the law addressed no documented problem, illustrates a government codifying unequal treatment of a vulnerable group into law.

Sources

  1. House Enrolled Act No. 1041 (2022) — Indiana General Assembly primary accessed July 17, 2026
  2. Indiana lawmakers override governor's veto of transgender sports ban — Courthouse News Service secondary accessed July 17, 2026
  3. Indiana Trans Athlete Ban Blocked in Court — ACLU of Indiana primary accessed July 17, 2026
  4. Indiana transgender girls school sports ban to take effect after lawsuit dismissed — WFYI investigative accessed July 17, 2026
  5. Court challenge to Indiana trans sports ban has been dropped — The Washington Post investigative accessed July 17, 2026

See also