Senate Republicans Push Trans Bills Despite Likely Vetoes
Measures would ban transition surgeries for minors, restrict transgender athletes and reshape who controls state agency rules.
The door to the Wisconsin State Senate on Monday, July 14, 2025, at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
Wisconsin Senate Republicans passed a series of bills Wednesday aimed at restricting gender transition surgeries for minors and which sports teams transgender students can join.
The legislation furthers an ongoing culture war issue for GOP lawmakers heading into a midterm election that will determine the balance of power in state government.
Among the five bills passed along party lines were measures that would block health care providers from performing gender transition surgeries on minors and allow people to sue hospitals for any “physical, psychological, emotional, or physiological injury” caused by such operations. Other bills would force K-12 schools and colleges to create policies blocking transgender students from playing on sports teams that don’t correspond with the gender on their birth certificates, prohibit male students from using female locker rooms and create a new avenue for female college students to sue campuses that don’t follow those policies.
All of the bills face an almost certain veto from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who has opposed similar legislation in past sessions.During debate on the bill related to injuries from gender transition surgery, Sen. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, accused his Republican colleagues of trying to “legislate trans kids out of existence” in order to score political points ahead of the midterm election, though he acknowledged some GOP colleagues have sincere concerns.
“But I worry that the scheduling of this bill to move forward in the Senate and the other bills on today’s calendar might be less sincere,” Spreitzer said. “That these bills will be helpful, and more an advancing of a political effort for political expediency, a throwing of red meat to a political base.”
Sen. Cory Tomczyk, R-Mosinee, fired back, stating that Democrats’ “political theater is entertaining” and said their “rhetoric is fun to watch.” He said their opposition to the bills shows the people of Wisconsin where Democrats stand on transgender issues. While speaking in favor of the bill to ban gender transition surgeries on minors, Tomczyk said children shouldn’t be allowed to make “irresponsible, irreversible decisions when their brains aren’t even completely formed.”
“There are two genders, period,” said Tomczyk. “No trans, no cis. Male, female, end of story … genetics. Anyone allowing someone who is a minor to make irreversible decisions is a catastrophic failure of parenting and society in general.”
Opposition to transgender policies has been a major issue for Republicans in recent years. During his second term in office, President Donald Trump has issued several executive orders defining gender, scrubbing terms like “transgender” from federal websites and directing federal agencies to enforce the prohibition of transgender individuals from playing on female sports teams.
GOP lawmakers pass bills aimed at reclaiming power over state agency rulemaking
Legislative Republicans have fumed about Wisconsin Supreme Court rulings in 2025 that restricted their ability to indefinitely block new rules proposed by state agencies like the Department of Natural Resources. On Wednesday, GOP Senators passed a series of bills attempting to get some of that power back.
The legislation would limit the number of rules agencies can submit, mandate that all administrative rules expire in seven years unless they’re extended by a committee currently controlled by Republicans, block agencies from working on proposed rules anticipated to cost businesses more than $10 million and award legal fees to anyone that successfully sues to strike down a rule. The bills passed with all 18 Republicans in favor and all 15 Democrats opposed.
Bipartisan bill criminalizing grooming heads to Evers’ desk
One of the few bills to pass the Senate with wide bipartisan support Wednesday would make it a felony to groom a child. Grooming is defined in the bill as any actions to entice a child into having sex with an adult or producing child pornography.
The legislation followed a story from the Cap Times in Madison that found the Department of Public Instruction investigated more than 200 accusations of grooming by teachers and other school employees between 2018 and 2023.
The bill passed the Assembly with a vote of 93-6 in January. It passed the Senate on a voice vote and now heads to Evers’ desk.
Wisconsin Senate passes bills restricting transgender athletes, banning gender transition surgeries for minors was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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