Right-wing pundits couldn’t wait to label citizens of Oklahoma who were excising their 1st amendment rights as a “mob”. Jayar Jackson, Ramesh Srinivasan, and AB Burns Tucker discuss on The Young Turks. Watch TYT LIVE on weekdays 6-8 pm ET. http://youtube.com/theyoungturks/live
“Hundreds of supporters of transgender people gathered at Oklahoma’s capitol this week to protest a slate of proposed legislation that would bar certain gender-affirming medical care for trans minors and young adults in the state.
Though local reports describe the protest as peaceful, some right-wing media personalities have been comparing it to the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The protestors gathered Monday on the fourth floor of the Capitol in Oklahoma City outside of the House chamber about an hour before Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, delivered his State of the State address, according to NBC affiliate KFOR.”
Politicians and media outlets are courting anti-trans talking points – and it’s trans kids who are feeling the effects. (Getty)
When Laura’s daughter Jessica came out as trans, aged 13, she felt “total shock” – but believed every word she said.
“We believed and accepted our daughter from the beginning, even though we were processing a lot as parents,” Laura tells PinkNews. Jessica had been suffering from severe depression and anxiety.
“I sprung into action and just started reading all I could about the transgender experience. I called the paediatrician, I researched gender clinics, and we got on a waitlist for an appointment.
“There was just such a sense of urgency because we feared for her life.”
One of the first articles Laura stumbled across was one in The Atlantic – a controversial piece titled “When Children Say They’re Trans”, by Jesse Singal, which focused on the stories of detransitioners and suggested some young trans men are actually just struggling with the fact “society makes it difficult to be a girl”.
“That article really messed with my head, as the parent of a newly out trans teen searching for help,” Laura says.
“I read that article, by a publication I thought was very legitimate, and thought, ‘That does not sound right to me. What he’s saying goes against what my child has told me and it doesn’t ring true.’
“I had to wade through a lot of articles online that were literally trying to get me to question my child and it made an already really challenging time even more so.”
It’s a terrifying climate for a mother like Laura. She wasn’t aware of just how bad things were for the trans community until she started reading everything she could to inform her response to Jessica.
In the United States – and across much of the world – politicians are using trans lives to distract from their own failures. Many media outlets have shown they’re only too happy to aid lawmakers in their efforts to drum up a moral panic.
While some states have banned gender-affirming care for minors, major news outlets like The New York Timeshave published articles questioning whether kids should be able to access healthcare that’s widely seen as vital by experts.
Anti-trans media coverage pushes parents to ‘question’ their trans kids
Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of the most vocal anti-trans politicians in the United States. (Drew Angerer/Getty)
Laura kept digging and eventually she found the gender-affirming resources she needed, but she also discovered her own state was considering its own anti-trans bills, including one which would ban gender-affirming care for minors.
“All of this while my child was just starting care that was saving her life,” she says.
That revelation pushed Laura to become her daughter’s fiercest advocate – but it also inspired her to start fighting for trans rights across the board.
“It is hard enough for all of us existing in this climate, but for so many parents like me and for trans people everywhere, it feels like we are yelling into the void, imploring everyone we can to see what’s happening, to speak out, to act up, to help us.”
Trans teens shouldn’t have to fight for their right to exist
One of the most difficult days in Laura’s life as a parent came when she had to explain to Jessica that legislators were doing their best to stop her from accessing the care she needed.
“No one should have to explain to their child why a group of people wants them gone. But so many parents are in this exact position in this country right now, whether they are fighting for their trans kids, for their loved ones to be able to access abortions, for their children to not be shot by police.
A young activist joins in a protest supporting trans people. (Getty/Romy Arroyo Fernandez)
“What kind of person, what kind of country, stands by and allows a group of people to be attacked and demonised in this way?”
Laura just wants her daughter to be allowed to live her life like any other young person and not have to think about how her life can be destroyed by a politician’s whims.
“My daughter is like every other teen her age. She doesn’t want to have to fight for her right to live – she just wants to live and be free.”
The impact anti-trans debates are having on kids isn’t just anecdotal. According to The Trevor Project, an organisation that works to prevent suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, “ugly rhetoric” is causing harm.
“When you see your elected officials, neighbours, and even family members debate your very existence, those feelings of stigma and rejection can be very harmful to a young person’s sense of self,” says Kasey Suffredini, vice president of advocacy and government affairs with The Trevor Project.
“Experiences of rejection and trauma in adolescence can have long-lasting effects on a young person’s health and wellness. Adults, especially those in positions of power, should strongly consider the weight of their words and actions.”
It’s a tough time out there for trans kids, but Suffredini has some simple advice for adults who are wondering how they can help: try letting them know that you support them and that you’ll defend their right to be themselves.
“It can be tough for LGBTQ youth to always bear the burden of educating others about what it means to be LGBTQ.”
Laura and Jessica’s names have been changed to protect their identities.
Despite how the republicans like to frame these bills it is about removing the LGBTQ+ representation from schools and society. It is not about protecting kids against sexualization because in Wyoming GOP Opposes Bill To Ban Child Marriagein a state with no limits to how young kids can get married; the republicans refuse to limit that to 16 and above. They say it goes against religious liberties. Yes I guess the right to marry and have sex with 10 or 12 year olds is not sexualizing them but don’t let a drag queen read to them or them know that their teacher is in a same sex marriage because they will rush to be gay? Plus the way these bills are written shows the target is anything not straight heterosexual 1950s norm. Schools would not be able to provide any program, curriculum, material, test, survey, questionnaire, activity, announcement, promotion, or instruction of any kind relating to gender identity or sexual activity in grades K-3. That would require no use of Mr. or Mrs. / Miss. It would require no use of the word boy or girl. It would require no mention of either boy / girl dating as well as stopping any same sex dating in school. Teachers wouldn’t be able to announce they are pregnant and might even have to hide it or be removed as that happens only to females and is caused by sexual activity. Really it would mean getting rid of separate boy / girl gendered bathrooms as the bills are written. No gender roles can be discussed such as who can play on which teams as that is related to gender. Also no girls or boys only clothing as that is gender promotion / instruction. But all that is ignored with a wink and a nod because everyone understands these are targeted to stop acceptance of gay and trans or other LGBTQ+ kids / people. It is to stop kids who are different from seeing themselves in books or movies, making it seem they are wrong, evil, sick, or just not to be tolerated in the US society. It is to promote hetero straight society and remove those who don’t fit that mold. It is to roll back all the advancements in society. These same people will target blacks and native people next to be removed. Also what is social-emotional learning. That is anti-bullying and programs to promote tolerance of those that are different. It is about being kind and civil to others. That is what these republican maga haters are desperate to prevent. They don’t want kids taught to be nice to others, but they want their kids to be allowed even encouraged to attack and target those who are different from them. They don’t want non-straight kids to feel safe, they want them scared and in hiding. I am tired of the attacks, and the clear assault on the rights of people to just be who they really are that harms no one. Just as straight people are born straight so are gay kids / trans kids. But these republicans insist that everyone be just like them and that only they have rights. We must fight to stop what the right is doing to harm the kids and people in our country. One republican Governor said on the news that there seems to be more trans people now and he did not understand that, maybe kids were being pushed into it. But that has been debunked. Has he thought that kids who were not being targeted for how they felt about themselves felt free to express it? These republicans don’t want information they want to run on feelings, impressions, and misinformation that reenforce their feelings that it is not a true thing. One republican on the panel said that rather than letting kids change their hair and go by a different name that they should be forced into mental health treatments. Hugs
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds proposes a wide range of changes for schools including restrictions on LGBTQ topics, new history class requirements and a process to restrict access to certain books.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds unveiled a sweeping education bill Thursday that would set new standards for what students can and can’t learn. It also establishes more control for parents over their children’s education. Here’s what’s in the bill:
Restrictions on topics involving gender identity and sexual orientation
The bill would ban any instruction related to gender identity and sexual activity in school districts, accredited nonpublic schools, charter schools and innovation zone schools in grades K-3.
Schools would not be able to provide any program, curriculum, material, test, survey, questionnaire, activity, announcement, promotion, or instruction of any kind relating to gender identity or sexual activity in grades K-3.
Schools would be required to tell parents any information their child shares with a teacher or staff member about their gender identity if what the student expresses is different from the “biological sex” listed on their birth certificate.
The bill does provide an exception if a school district believes that notifying the parent or guardian would lead to a case of child abuse. In that instance, the school district does not need to notify the parent but would be required to immediately report the safety concerns to the department of health and human services. The department would then determine whether the child is in need of assistance.
Parents would have to give schools written permission for teachers or any school employee to use a nickname or pronoun that does not match the biological sex listed on their child’s birth certificate.
Removing books from schools
The bill would require each school district to publish online all materials used in all classes throughout the district, all employees in direct contact with students, all books available in classrooms and school libraries, and a detailed process for parents to request any material be removed.
Districts would be required to update that information two times a semester or at the start of each trimester.
Any book removed from a school would be put on a statewide “removal list” maintained by the Iowa Department of Education. The “comprehensive removal list” would be available online, updated every month and sortable by the book’s title, author and the school districts that have removed the book from school libraries, classrooms or any areas on school property.
A school district must receive written parental permission before allowing a student to check out or access any book that is on the statewide removal list.
Establishes ‘parental rights’
The bill establishes that “a parent or guardian bears the ultimate responsibility, and has the constitutionally protected right, to make decisions affecting the parent’s or guardian’s minor child, including decisions related to the minor child’s medical care, moral upbringing, religious upbringing, residence, education, and extracurricular activities.”
Schools would be required to receive parental permission for students to attend any activity or instruction provided by a guest lecturer or outside presenter or any activity or instruction that involves obscene or sexually explicit material.
If school districts break that rule, they could face fines of up to $5,000.
Changes to the social studies curriculum
The bill would require all Iowa high school students to take a U.S. citizenship test, and schools would be required to provide the results to the Department of Education.
High school students would need to answer at least 70% of the questions to graduate. Students can continue to retake the citizenship test until they earn a passing grade.
Removing HPV from health curriculum
The bill would remove the current requirement that Iowa schools teach seventh-grade through 12th-grade students instruction related to human papillomavirus and the availability of a vaccine to prevent HPV.
Restrictions on social-emotional learning
Schools would be required to receive written parent permission in order for a student to take any survey or test that evaluates mental, emotional, or physical health that is not required by state or federal law.
Teachers would have to give parents written notice at least seven days before any test or survey that evaluates their child’s mental, emotional, or physical health.
The republicans are not even trying to hide it anymore; it is about bigotry and being able to bully other openly without any consequences. It is about installing the right to hurt and harm others into law and preventing anyone from being able to stick up for the bullied persons. It is about the right to discriminate freely against a marginalized minority which says it is wrong to be that minority so if you are then the rest of us get to hurt you. That will make those damn trans and gay kids stay hidden, right. It won’t make their gender identity be the same as their assigned sex nor make gay kids straight, it will only make them too afraid to admit who they are making them hide it as best they can for as long as they can. It tells gays and trans kids they are bad, evil, need to be hidden away, and that it is good that others hate them. Damn it we left that thinking long ago. It is thug thinking. It is gang thinking. We suffered that back in the 1950s to 1990s. Let the past go. This is not about protecting kids, it is about hurting kids. It is about bigots wanting to make sure their kids can be bigots. The one guy says his kids learned gender based on the sex of the cows on their farm. Talk about being ignorant of what sex and gender are, and also thinking cows and humans are the same in either respect. They want to set the US society back a century.
It is time to realize what this really is. These are the same type of people that want to call black people the “N” word and don’t want their kids punished for calling black kids that at school. These are the same parents that don’t want those people / kids in the schools / stores / restaurants as white people or white kids. If you think it is OK to bully trans or gay kids, substitute the word black or jew or even a religion in the place of the word gay or trans. Now would you think it is OK? Hugs
Montana schools would not be able to punish students who purposely misgender or deadname their transgender peers under a Republican-backed legislative proposal that opponents argue will increase bullying of children who are already struggling for acceptance.
The proposal, co-sponsored by more than two dozen GOP lawmakers, would declare that it’s not discrimination to use a transgender classmate’s legal name or refer to them by their birth gender. Schools would be prevented from adopting policies to punish students who do so.
It comes amid a wave of legislation this year inMontanaand other conservative states seeking tolimit or ban gender-affirming medical carefor transgender youth. Montana’s Senate passed a ban on gender-affirming medical care or surgery for minors on Wednesday.
But the proposal on misgendering and deadnaming is apparently the only existing legislation of its kind in the country this year, said Olivia Hunt, policy director for the National Center for Transgender Equity.
“This would make Montana unique in enshrining the right to be bigoted toward or the right to bully trans children in the state code,” Hunt said.
The proposal would not apply to teachers, but some states are considering bills that would protect teachers’ rights to refer to students by their birth names and gender.
The main sponsor, Rep. Brandon Ler, said Wednesday during a hearing that his children, who live on a farm and ranch, “have learned from a very young age that cows are cows and bulls are bulls” and it’s not open for interpretation.
“Children should not be forced to call somebody something they’re not,” Ler said.
Opponents agreed that students who accidentally use a wrong pronoun or name should not be punished, but said schools should still be able to respond to purposeful misgendering and deadnaming, perhaps under an anti-bullying policy. Refusing to acknowledge a transgender student’s preferred name and pronouns amounts to bullying, said SK Rossi, testifying on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign.
“The problem with the bill is that it takes away the ability of schools and teachers and administrators to intervene when something becomes cruel, before it becomes physical,” Rossi said.
The issue of punishment for misgendering or deadnaming doesn’t appear to be a problem in Montana, according to Emily Dean, director of advocacy for the Montana School Boards Association. She said she was unaware of any students who had been punished for such actions.
Max Finn, a transgender middle schooler from Missoula, said he faces backlash from fellow students, including having crude remarks made about him and being tripped in the hallway, even though his teachers try to stop it from happening.
“If my teachers can’t or won’t intervene, it gets much worse,” Finn said.
People representing educational organizations, pediatricians, parents of transgender children and students testified against the bill, saying it would lead to unchallenged bullying and harassment as well as anxiety and depression among transgender students.
Layla Riggs told lawmakers about defending friends who were being bullied because they are transgender or gender nonconforming. Someone once threw rocks at her and a nonbinary friend after school, she said.
“School is supposed to be a place where you are accepted and a place where your safety is supposed to be one of the top priorities,” Riggs testified. “With the passage of this bill, even the illusion of safety for transgender and nonbinary students would be gone.”
A survey by The Trevor Project in 2022 found that 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the previous year, but that those who were supported socially or at school reported lower rates.
Jeff Laszloffy with the Montana Family Foundation told lawmakers his group supports the measure because it would avoid students possibly facing civil lawsuits over using the wrong pronoun or name. He was the lone supporter to testify in a hearing that ended without lawmakers voting on the measure.
Richard Schade told lawmakers his 9-year-old nonbinary stepchild is bullied on a near daily basis with little to no intervention from school administrators.
“This demonstrates that the stated purpose of (the bill) is to address a problem that doesn’t exist, and that the real intent is to send a message to trans kids that they deserve to be bullied because of who they are,” he said.
During his testimony against the bill, Montana Pride President Kevin Hamm intentionally misgendered Laszloffy and a male lawmaker who had earlier sought to block opposition arguments that the bill would lead to bullying. Hamm said he wanted to hear “her” reasoning on that.
“Does she feel that misgendering isn’t a bullying tactic?” Hamm asked.
At that point, Rep. Amy Regier, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, interrupted, saying: “Please don’t attack other testimony.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Hamm retorted. “Is it a bullying and an attack? So you do understand what this bill will do. Thank you for proving my point. Don’t enshrine a tool for bullying into the law.”
Del. Danica Roem at a 2017 White House protestPhoto: Ted Eytan/via Wiki
Out transgender Virginia lawmaker Del. Danica Roem (D) shut down opponents of transgender students participating in school sports by calling out the hypocrisy of conservatives who say they want to protect girls’ sports.
“When we want to deal with the idea of how do we support women athletes, how about we show up to their games?” she said.
Roem was speaking against H.B. 1387, a Republican bill that would ban transgender students from participating in school sports as their authentic selves, effectively banning many of them from participating in school sports. Del. Karen Greenhalgh (R) said the bill is needed to “encourage” cisgender girls to participate in school sports.
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“Similarly gifted and trained males will always have the physical advantage over females, which is the reason we have women’s sports,” she said, defending her bill.
Her rhetoric echoes that of Republicans across the country over the past several years: girls’ school sports need to be saved from transgender girls, and only transgender girls, not from a lack of interest from local communities, sexual predation, and harassment, or bullying girls face for participating in school sports.
Prominent Republican politicians have claimed to have saved girls’ sports, despite never showing any interest in girls’ or women’s sports except when they could attack transgender girls for wanting to participate.
Roem wasn’t having it.
“How about we pay them equally?” Roem said, calling out income inequality between women’s and men’s professional sports.
“How many times have any- any of you here gone to a girls’ basketball game followed by a boys’ basketball game where the girls’ game starts at 5 or 5:30 and the boys’ game starts at 7 or 7:30, and you saw the gym get packed right in the very end of the fourth quarter of the girls’ game because so many people were there excited for the boys’ game, regardless of how competitive, regardless of the skills, regardless of the rankings of the girls’ team?” Roem asked her colleagues.
“If we want to support female athletes, then show up to their games! Fight for equal pay for them! But at the same time, to beat up on trans kids because nine trans kids last year wanted to play sports, we’re now going to affect a policy for more than 1.2 million students?”
WATCH: Del. @pwcdanica's powerful statement on the House floor today, calling out the hypocrisy behind the anti-trans sports ban.
This is great. The short post details his upset and anger at a lot of religions being accepting of gay people. Many have come to the idea that the sin is the sex act not the person’s orientation, and some sects are allies and supportive of gay people and same sex relationships. But you see this interferes with their grift of raising money from bigots, mostly older religious people who are sure gays being allowed to exist in society will anger the god of all things to the point he will destroy or hurt the entire country including maybe them. If most churches catch up with the modern era, well the people won’t be told how bad and evil it is so they won’t give up their merger social security check or make the big donations these hate groups have come to depend on to keep them living well. Think of the fund raising pitches they have lost recently. They can not raise money on stopping abortion after the SCOTUS gave a completely religious ruling on the issue. They fund raised hard to stop same sex marriage before the congress and Biden signed into law the Respect for Marriage Act with every pitch saying they could stop it if you gave just another donation. But of course, they failed again. Now Brian Brown has another pitch about the gays he is pushing to grift more money. That is not to say these people are not dangerous and that they don’t still have a lot of inflance on the right with the republican leaders. Bigotry and fear raise a lot of cash and gets votes. And both the republicans and the fundamentalists / evangelical religious groups do want to wipe the LGBTQ+ out of society to install their religious doctrines into laws to regress the US society back to the past and keep it there. Simply put their comfort zones and what they can deal with is 70 or 80 years old, and their holy book is stuck in the deep past of 2,500 years ago. They can not accept the modern age when their all knowing god only knew what was accepted by a minority 2,500 years ago. Hugs.
Want to live in a theocracy? This is the situation in the US, we have a set of Christian Nationalist aided by traditionalist conservatives that think 1950s was the golden days in society in the US. This is not just an attempt to roll back the advances in society the last 70 years, changes that are normal if you look at history, this is an attempt to lock all of society to a point in the past with it never changing. We are at a very dangerous point in history. Look how this people project their actions on others claiming the LGBTQ+ and their supporters are violent thugs, are brown shirts and SS troopers, are intolerant of others views, all the things these Christian nationalists do to the LGBTQ+ community. You don’t see the LGBTQ+ removing Christian books or the bible from libraries defunding them for having books with Christian characters, attacking churches or places where bible studies are happening. The Christians are not the victims here. Hugs
OT. I am really trying to post and to make sense of the information. I had a setback with my pharmacy for the new medication my pain doctor prescribed due to the Florida government’s laws so I had to call them, and it will be three days from when prescribed to when I may be able to get it. There were other problems. The pain doctor removed one medication to add another stronger one, but that caused a problem with the pharmacy which is under threat from the Florida government on any pain medication. I hurt so bad right now in back, arms, legs, fingers that I can hardly reason and make this post. The doctor offered me several different changes of medications including OxyContin and its versions, Vicodin, and the one that scares me the most Fentanyl. They agree I need more pain relief than I am getting. They scheduled an appointment next month for an injection into my T6 /T7 vertebrae but there is also a problem with my T8 vertebrae. Another issue is under Medicare I can only get 4 injections a year in any one area. Plus another issue is the amount of steroids I can take with my poor bones VS the number of injections I need to relieve the pain. Also remember the state of Florida legislators think they know more than the trained professions so they restrict the help I can get. The important thing is my doctors now all agree I am beyond functioning, and they need to go to a higher level to help me. Also a side note: I got a jury summons. I showed it to my pain doctor. She said no way you can do that; they would be calling an ambulance if you tried. She wrote a letter to the clerk of court and had her office fax it to them. I also sent an email to the clerk of court with the same. I got a reply very shortly saying I was permanently removed from jury duty. Understand I have done jury duty before, and I take it seriously and back then wanted to do it. I even might say I enjoyed doing it. But there is no way I can do so now when I cannot sit to read news or even handle my blog that I love. Hugs
He tried to de-fund Sesame Street for letting a gay actor appear on the show. Now he’s taking on the drag queens running America.
A staunchly anti-LGBTQ+ Arkansas Republican is warning his constituents about the dangers of drag queens “running this place” and said that Christians have to “take authority” over the government in the U.S.
“We must take authority,” Arkansas state Sen. Jason Rapert (R) said on his Save the Nation with Jason Rapert broadcast. “God told us to go out there and be fruitful, multiply, fill the Earth, subdue it, and have dominion over everything.”
“Friends, the reason the country is struggling,” he continued, “is because the Christians in America have failed to take authority and now is the time to choose, now is the time to stand.”
“Look, do you think that America is gonna be free with a bunch of drag queens running this place? No!” he said, not mentioning any drag queen by name who is in a position of political power in the federal government. There is only one known former drag queen in Congress, Rep. George Santos (R-NY), and he haspromoted staunchly anti-LGBTQ+ political positions.
“If you’re tired of that stuff, it’s time to make a change,” Rapert continued.
“This is a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people. It was created for you to be in charge,” he said, likely referring to his conservative constituents and no one else.
Former Arkansas state senator and founder of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers Jason Rapert declares that Christians “must take authority” over government: “Do you think that America is gonna be free with a bunch of drag queens running this place?” pic.twitter.com/cUp6pyr4XF
Former Arkansas state senator and founder of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers Jason Rapert declares that Christians "must take authority" over government: "Do you think that America is gonna be free with a bunch of drag queens running this place?" pic.twitter.com/cUp6pyr4XF
Rapert has a history of anti-LGBTQ+ statements and actions. In 2020, he suggested cutting off funding for PBS because out actor Billy Porter was going to appear on an episode of Sesame Street.
“I can pass a bill to cutoff all funding for the rebroadcast of PBS programming through AETN [Arkansas’s PBS affiliate] and also stop all funding for AETN altogether if necessary,” he wrote on Facebook at the time.
In a separate Facebook post, Rapert claimed to have signed a petition to stop Porter from appearing on Sesame Street, a petition started by Canadian rightwing website Lifesite News that claims to have over 38,000 signatures.
The petition said that Sesame Street was trying “to push drag queens on children,” even though Billy Porter isn’t a drag queen. It claimed that Porter’s appearance on the show would “sexualize children” and cited a statistic about the epidemic of suicide among transgender youth, implying that Sesame Street will turn kids transgender and being transgender leads to suicide.
“The LGBT activists who behave as Nazis are trying to ruin anyone who ‘disagrees’ with them – even grandmothers,” he said on Facebook. “Simply believing in the Bible is offensive to these activists. They can’t stand it if you disagree. They demand full compliance with their diminished morality. They clearly behave just like the ‘brown shirts’ and ‘SS’ troops that Nazis used to destroy Jews and anyone who disagreed with the Nazi ideology.”
“I don’t care what THEY believe, but I refuse to let them intimidate those who disagree with them,” he continued. “Our laws should not give special protections to people who behave this way. It is a sad time in American history.”
That same year, he tried to get the Arkansas Senate to ban marriage equality despite the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges protecting same-sex couples’ right to get married in every state. He claimed that a “silent majority” spoke out against equal rights in the 2016 election and “they’re going to speak again.” His bill failed.
“It is not bigoted to say that marriage is between a man and a woman,”he said at the time.
In 2020, he spoke out against his state’s mask mandate, calling measures to fight the COVID-19 pandemic “draconian measures” as originating from “liberal hacks” who are “spreading fear.”
“There is no question that Covid19 is serious and can be very deadly for those with underlying conditions and the elderly,” he wrote in a Facebook post about then-Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s (R) mask mandate. “But the fact is 99% of our nation has not been afflicted and this pandemic is no worse statistically than other severe outbreaks we have endured without draconian measures isolating the healthy and shutting down our entire economy.”
By July 2020, he had been hospitalized for pneumonia after testing positive for COVID-19. He told his supporters that his family was “sincerely grateful for the many prayers of love and support that have been expressed on our behalf.”
This bill is specifically aimed at gay and trans people, especially gay and trans kids. In the article on Rep talks about traditional values and we all know what that is code for. A view that society was better in 1950 when white Christian men were in assumed to always be in charge, women were subservient to those white Christian men, black people knew and kept to their place, while the LGBTQ+ were hidden from society never being seen or talked about publicly. These republicans want to enshrine in law the right to discriminate against those they think shouldn’t be in society. They want to have it be legal to show your displeasure / hate by denying people public services that are extended to the people they think are good normal people. If you think this is OK for doctors to deny care to LGBTQ+ people because they don’t like them, substitute black for LGBTQ+ and do you still see it as OK. I worked around doctors and I can tell you many are bigots and racists. Especially now that it costs so much to go to college and medical school new doctors tend to be from families of doctors. It is fast becoming a profession that runs in families while those not wealthy students tend to be come either Phyicians Assistants or go into nursing and become Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner. I have sat at the nurses desk and listened to the most bigoted religious doctors (Catholic doctors seem to have a huge moral superiority chip on their shoulders or at least the ones I worked with did.) talk about their patients / the families of patients that horrified me. I have told the story of a highly religious catholic doctor that refused to recognize or honor the legal paperwork giving a same sex partner authority over his lovers care going to the extent to contact the estranged family to instead follow their wishes. When told by the hospital legal department that he was not allowed to do that and to include the same sex partner the doctor came in, signed himself off the case, and left. Our ICU director had to scramble to find a doctor with the needed credentials to take over care as the patient was in an ICU which needs doctors with certain qualifications. The point was his bigotry and hate for gays meant more to him, was more important to him than the health of the patient, the patient’s wishes, or the patient’s long term same sex relationship. Think what would have happened had this law that they are trying to pass would have let that doctor do? How is that tolerable? Hugs
HB 303, which allows medical providers to decline services based on moral or religious beliefs, cleared a key House vote Monday.
State lawmakers in the House of Representatives gave broad approval Monday to a bill that would allow medical providers, health care facilities and insurers to deny services based on “ethical, moral, or religious beliefs or principles,” signaling the bill’s likely advancement to the Senate this week.
House Bill 303, sponsored by Rep. Amy Regier, R-Kalispell, passed the Republican-majority chamber largely along party lines, with 65 votes in favor and 35 against, after roughly 20 minutes of debate.
Regier portrayed the bill as a “preservation and protection for medical conscience” in the state for practitioners and health care institutions that object to specific “lifestyle and elective procedures” such as physician aid in dying, prescribing marijuana or opioids, abortion procedures and gender-affirming medical care for transgender people.
“To be clear, this bill would not give the right to refuse to serve a person. It would only apply to the narrow circumstances where a nurse or physician cannot conscientiously perform a specific procedure,” Regier said.
A subsection of the bill says it is not meant to conflict with the federal emergency health care access law known as EMTALA as it applies to health care institutions, such as hospitals. But the bill does not provide a holistic exemption for emergency departments and emergency health care providers. When it comes to abortion, for example, the bill would require providers to opt-in to participating in those procedures in writing beforehand.
Similar legislation has had recent success in other states. For instance, a Medical Ethics and Diversity Act was signed into law in South Carolina last spring. The legislation in that state saw support from the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative religious advocacy group that is also backing the Montana proposal.
The opposition to South Carolina’s legislation, including from transgender patients and LGBTQ advocacy groups, echoes concerns now surfacing in Montana over HB 303. Medical associations and groups, including the Montana Hospital Association, Montana Primary Care Association, Montana Nurses Association and the Montana Medical Association, testified against the bill during a January committee hearing, saying it would put patients’ care at risk.
During Monday’s debate on the House floor, Democrats reiterated that the bill includes no discrimination protection for patients, and does not guarantee that a patient has a right to access health care even if a specific provider declines to participate in those services.
Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, told fellow lawmakers the bill would mean transgender people like herself could be turned away from medical services they need.
“What is actually going to happen is it will be a denial based on diagnosis. Something like, I am diagnosed with gender dysphoria,” Zephyr said. “And the thing is, that is inherently discriminatory because you cannot pass my diagnosis from who I am. To deny me based on my diagnosis of gender dysphoria is to deny me based on my being a trans woman.”
Republican moderates appeared to try and derail the bill by proposing a strategic amendment during Monday’s floor session.
As written, HB 303 does not apply to a “health care institution or health care payer owned or operated by the state or a political subdivision of the state.” Some Republican representatives showed interest in striking that provision from the bill, an amendment that would have triggered a higher threshold for the bill to pass because of a specific provision of the state constitution. That amendment, proposed by Rep. Tom Welch, R-Dillon, failed in a 39-61 vote.
Republicans who spoke in support of the bill on the floor said they hoped the bill would protect freedom of expression for medical providers, even those they disagree with.
“I think in this increasingly lack of traditional values and conscience world, and oftentimes profit-driven world, that protection needs to be provided for providers and health care workers that do have those values and do have that conscience,” said Rep. Jerry Schilling, R-Circle.
Other Democrats who considered the bill as part of the House Judiciary Committee urged lawmakers to consider the unintended consequences of the bill. Rep. Laura Smith, D-Helena, said she’d heard stories from parents of young children faced with challenging medical circumstances who feared that, had HB 303 been in place, their desires for care would have been trumped by the prerogative or ideology of their providers.
“This is just one of many examples that I receive where medical teams have tried to deny parents’ rights to choose procedures for their children,” Smith said. “If the bill passes, it will take away parental rights, and your constituents’ parental rights, to make these life-and-death procedural and medical decisions for our own children.”
The bill ultimately passed with widespread Republican support and one affirmative vote from Rep. Frank Smith, D-Poplar. Four Republican lawmakers joined Democrats in opposition.
If the bill passes a third, non-debatable vote this week, it will then be transmitted to the Senate and assigned to a committee for a second hearing.
Speaking to Montana Free Press Monday afternoon, Regier said she was pleased by the vote margin.
Del. Danica Roem at a 2017 White House protestPhoto: Ted Eytan/via Wiki
State Sen. Jason RapertPhoto: Screenshot
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