Our Fragile Democracy and Transgender Rights, SB140
Check in on Saturday for our Civic Saturday action list both local and national. They are quick but needed actions. In the meantime we need to spend today, Friday and the weekend, contacting senators who need to hear from their constituents about SB140.
March 16th was the thirty-fifth day of legislative session. SB 140 (anti-trans bill) passed the House Floor 96-75, on a party-line vote. Because the amendment criminalizing health care providers was added while it was in committee, it has to return to the Senate where our fight will continue. You can see today’s vote in Josh McLaurin’s Tweet here. You will see that Rep. Buckner was excused and not present at the house today, sadly Rep. Naghise passed away last week. A couple of representatives on the Republican side of the house, were not present. Please use the Georgia Equality link to lodge your opposition to this bill as it travels to the senate on Monday. Please use their talking points and also call your senator whom you can find at Open States.
As many of you will know, the attack on transgender youth is a planned attack, it solves no problems, it only spreads hate and gives right-wing politicians the opportunity for show-boating. You may have seen the blog post last week from Heather Cox Richardson about the attack on transgender people at CPAC. Cox-Richardson writes: “Make no mistake: this attack on transgender people represents a deadly attack on the fundamental principle of American democracy, the idea that all people are created equal.” That is at the core of this battle. Dehumanization and demonization is that thing that once deployed spreads like wildfire and becomes the foundation for war and genocide. We must stand resolute in this moment and push back to protect vulnerable children, transgender adults, our neighbors, our democracy. This attack is just the beginning if we do not stop it.
