Illinois GOP gubernatorial candidate Richard Irvin says he believes boys should be able to compete in girls' sports in Illinois if they so choose.
Irvin made the comment in response to a question by NBC-5 reporter Mary Ann Ahern at the station's gubernatorial forum Tuesday night.
Ahern asked Irvin whether, in response to the trend of boys pretending to be girls so they can participate in girls' sports, he would follow Republican governors across the country in barring the practice.
Irvin said he would not.
"Should (men) be banned from being able to participate in women's sports," Ahern asked.
"Each sports agency needs to determine what's best for competition and fairness in their particular agency," Irvin said.
"Again the question is, should (men) be barred?" Ahern responded.
"Each organization. Whether it be basketball, football, swimming, has to determine what is fair and who should be able to compete," Irvin said.
"You don't want to have a say?,"Ahern asked.
"(No). It should be totally local. The governor should not have a say," Irvin said.
Irvin's rivals for the GOP nomination-- Darren Bailey, Max Solomon, Gary Rabine, Paul Schimpf and Jesse Sullivan-- all disagree, saying they would support a ban.
Earlier on Tuesday, Indiana became the latest state to ban boys from playing girls sports, with the state legislature overwhelmingly approving a bill.
"This is a huge step forward to saving women’s sports. Female athletes through high school will not have opportunities stolen from them by biological males in the name of wokeness," said Indiana Family Institute executive director Ryan McCann.
Illinois is one of eleven states that allow boys to play girls sports with "restrictions" -- like requiring the athlete to have had sex change surgery, changed their sex on their birth certificate, or have started so-called "hormone therapy"
But activist groups like the Chicago-based "Gender Cool" project, financed by Illinois companies including State Farm, Abbvie, Jones Lang LaSalle and Allstate, are pushing hard to end those restrictions, claiming bans are "illegal" and based on "fictitious reasons."
There are 19 states that currently explicitly allow boys to play girls sports: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, along with the District of Columbia.
Including Indiana, some 15 states have passed laws barring boys from playing girls sports since 2020.
Bans were signed into law in Oklahoma and Arizona on Mar. 30.
Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said the bill would "protect participation and fairness for female athletes."
Last month, University of Pennsylvania male swimmer Will "Lia" Thomas won the women's NCAA swimming championship in the 500 yard freestyle.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis slammed Thomas' participation in women's events as an effort to "destroy women's athletics."
"The NCAA's actions serve to erode opportunities for women athletes and perpetuate a fraud against women athletes as well as the public at large," the proclamation read. "Florida rejects the NCAA’s efforts to destroy women’s athletics, disapproves of the NCAA elevating ideology over biology and takes offense at the NCAA trying to make others complicit in a lie."
On June 13, Irvin will preside over Aurora's third ever LGBTQ+ "pride" parade. He founded it in 2019.
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