- Nebraska senators filibustered all bills in Congress this year.
- Senator Machaela Kavanaugh is doing so in opposition to the anti-trans bill. Washington Post report.
- The bill would ban medical care and gender reassignment surgery for transgender youth in the state.
Lawmakers in Nebraska have launched a series of filibusters in protest against anti-transgender laws conservative lawmakers are trying to pass, stalling all legislation in the current legislature.
Democratic Senator Machaela Kavanaugh has filibustered all bills after early 2023, voicing opposition to a bill on the legislative agenda that would ban gender-confirming surgeries for transgender youth under the age of 19. Did. According to the Washington Post.
The Nebraska Legislature will consider just 30 of the 820 bills introduced in this session, and Cavanaugh — the first Nebraska senator to adopt the blanket filibuster strategy — shows no signs of folding. The Washington Post reports that they did not.
“This bill codifies hate and targets transgender youth,” Cavanaugh told The Post.
Bill LB574 bans puberty blockers, gender reassignment surgery, and hormone therapy for young people.
Nebraska’s 49-member unicameral legislature needs 33 votes to end the filibuster. So far, we don’t have enough supporters.
“I’m going to burn this meeting down over this bill,” Cavanaugh told colleagues at a February meeting, according to the Post.
Cavanaugh’s protest filibuster has also blocked five other anti-transgender bills, as well as a bill banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, but her priority is LB574, she said.
“The dream is for the bill to be repealed and for us to move forward with the state’s work,” Cavanaugh told the Post.
Senator Kathleen Cout, who introduced LB574, told The Washington Post that lawmakers were prepared to “debate all night” to find a way around the Kavanaugh protest filibuster.
Nebraska is just one of many states currently engaged in a nationwide move to legislate the types of medical care available to transgender people.
American Civil Liberties Union Tracker for Anti-Trans Bills in Congress in 2023 Confirmed 273 bills so farmany of which are concentrated in Republican states like texas and Florida.
So far, seven state legislatures have passed bills limiting recommended medical care by medical professionals For transgender youth.Republicans in the Kentucky Legislature recently Passed a bill limiting gender-affirming care Not just for young people, but forcing doctors to de-transition young people who are already medically transitioning.Her ACLU in Kentucky it ‘Worst anti-trans bill in the country’
In Florida, where similar laws are being proposed, experts told insiders Katherine Tangalakis Lippert and Katie Barevich that these bills would negatively affect transgender youth and “wipe them out of public life entirely.” He said he was aiming to leave.