* WaPo…
Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) signed a bill into law Wednesday that makes it a crime for an adult to help a minor obtain an abortion without parental consent, including by traveling to a state where abortion is legal.
The new law brands such involvement by adults as “abortion trafficking.” With a near-total abortion ban already in place in Idaho, the legislation, passed by Republican state lawmakers, adds restrictions to prevent minors from going out of state when their parents aren’t involved. […]
An adult convicted of breaking the law will face two to five years in prison, and the minor’s parents and siblings can sue, as can the person who impregnated the minor and children of the minor.
Even in cases of rape, someone who helps a minor obtain an abortion can be charged, the Associated Press reported, though the person who raped the minor can’t sue under the law.
* The ACLU of Idaho plans to sue the state for also prohibiting medical procedures for youth gender affirming care…
Starting next year, anyone in Idaho who provides gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth could end up a convicted felon, after the state’s Republican governor signed legislation banning the treatment late Tuesday.
At least one organization has already promised to sue over the new law. The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho announced Wednesday it was looking for potential plaintiffs for the lawsuit and asked anyone impacted by the legislation to reach out.
Idaho is one of at least 13 states to enact a law restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors, and nearly two dozen more are considering similar bills. Under Idaho’s new law, physicians will face up to 10 years in prison if they provide hormones, puberty blockers or other gender-affirming care to people under age 18. […]
ACLU of Idaho executive director Leo Morales said the law is discriminatory.
“For lawmakers to interfere in decisions that ought to be made by families and their healthcare providers is clear government overreach and is unacceptable,” Morales said in a statement.
The ACLU has a handy map to track anti-LGBTQ+ bills.
* Indiana…
Indiana’s governor signed a bill banning all gender-affirming care for minors Wednesday, joining at least 12 other states that have enacted laws restricting or banning such care.
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed the legislation after Republican majorities in the Legislature approved it. The law will go into effect July 1, and trans youth currently taking medication to transition would have until the end of the year to stop doing so. […]
Opponents of the legislation said the types of care the bill would ban, such as hormone therapy and puberty blockers, are vital and often life-saving for transgender kids. Medical providers say most of the procedures banned in the bill are reversible and safe for minors. Transgender medical treatments for children and teens have been available in the U.S. for more than a decade and are endorsed by major medical associations.
But supporters of the legislation have contended such care is not reversible or carries side effects that only an adult — and not a minor’s parent — can consent to.
* Tennessee via the NYT…
As teenagers and demonstrators flooded the Tennessee state legislature last week to call for lawmakers to toughen access to guns after a deadly shooting at a Christian school, three Democrats headed to the well of the House chamber.
Holding a hand-drawn sign calling to “protect kids, not guns” and speaking through a megaphone, State Representatives Justin Jones, Justin J. Pearson and Gloria Johnson led chants and called on their colleagues to pass stricter gun laws, forcing the legislative proceedings to a temporary halt.
Now, in what would be an extraordinary act of retribution for the protest, Republicans are poised to vote on Thursday to oust the three Democrats from the General Assembly and carry out the first partisan expulsion in the state’s modern history.
The House of Representatives has voted only twice since the Civil War to expel a member, once in 1980 after a sitting lawmaker was convicted of soliciting a bribe and again in 2016 after the House majority whip faced allegations of sexual misconduct while in office.
Despite the absence of any criminal charges or investigation, Republicans argue that the expulsions are warranted because the protest flouted the rules of procedure and decorum, with the House speaker going so far as to invoke the violence of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. And with Republicans holding a supermajority that provides the necessary two-thirds majority for expulsion, Democrats have little recourse to stop the vote.
Here’s video from Tennessean reporter Vivian Jones of the Democratic Reps. today…
Tennessee also advanced a bill in the House to let teachers carry firearms without notifying student’s parents. But…
Even if the Tennessee bill clears the full House, it’s not likely to pass in the Senate this year.
Bucking gun control advocates who have called for an urgent response to the tragedy, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Tuesday to defer all gun-related legislation — including the companion bill to let teachers go armed — until 2024, the second year of the legislature’s two-year session. Chairman Todd Gardenhire, a Republican from Chattanooga, said he didn’t want to rush legislation as the city mourned the victims and police continued their investigation.
* Kansas…
Kansas is banning transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports from kindergarten through college, the first of several possible new laws restricting the rights of transgender people pushed through by Republican legislators over the wishes of the Democratic governor.
The Legislature on Wednesday overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s third veto in three years of a bill to ban transgender athletes, and came a day after state lawmakers passed a broad bathroom bill. Nineteen other states have imposed restrictions on transgender athletes, most recently Wyoming.
The Kansas law takes effect July 1 and is among several hundred proposals that Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have pursued this year to push back on LGBTQ rights. Kansas lawmakers who back the ban are also pursuing proposals to end gender-affirming care for minors and restrict restroom use.
The measure approved by Kansas lawmakers Tuesday would prevent transgender people from using public restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities associated with their gender identities, and bars them from changing their name or gender on their driver’s licenses. Kelly is expected to veto that.
Also…
The legislation requires children to participate in school activities based on the gender they were assigned at birth, from elementary school to college. Challenges could require them to undergo genital inspections, or require a birth certificate for proof of the child’s gender.
* Dallas Morning News…
The Texas Senate on Wednesday voted in favor of two bills that would restrict, and at times criminalize, drag shows and anything else deemed a “sexually oriented performance.”
Both bills were expanded broadly during debate on Tuesday, which was punctuated by contention and raucous reaction from members of the public gathered in the Senate gallery. Both bills now head to the House for more debate.
Senate Bill 12 by Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, would criminalize performances that occur or could occur in front of a minor if they appeal to the “prurient interest in sex” or meet several other definitions for “sexual conduct,” including real or “simulated” touching of the buttocks, breasts or genitals, real or simulated sex acts or the “exhibition” of sex toys.
Performers could be charged with a class A misdemeanor, and businesses who host them would face $10,000 in fines.
- Jerry - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 11:14 am:
Interesting that Mrs Doubtfire is illegal in Texas, yet you can still find copies of Art of the Deal. The author of that book made some kind of reference to sodomizing their own female children.
“Xtians” sure have a strange deity they worship!
- Norseman - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 11:21 am:
Genital searches seem to be the next thing to come from opposite land. “Porky’s” becomes reality. The boys will be in put in a line-up for a wienie check.
MAGA GOP insanity continues.
- Arsenal - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 11:23 am:
Between Idaho, Florida, and the judge in Texas, “this don’t end abortion it just sends the issue back to the states” is in absolute shambles.
- Lurker - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 11:25 am:
I don’t know how you handle this transgender athlete issue as I feel bad for the ones that want to compete. Likewise, it seems unfair to the female athletes if we allow them to compete as many of the transgender athletes have an unfair physical/genetic strength advantage.
- Roadrager - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 11:26 am:
Worth noting in regard to Tennessee that a Republican legislator could have faced expulsion over credible and voluminous allegations of abuse, but was not because the GOP is in power and would never go after one of their own.
- Jocko - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 11:28 am:
Wait until they find out newborns can be intersex and 10 year olds can get pregnant.
- Skeptic - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 11:30 am:
“as many of the transgender athletes have an unfair physical/genetic strength advantage.” Both of them?
- MisterJayEm - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 11:42 am:
“as many of the transgender athletes have an unfair physical/genetic strength advantage.”
I had to compete against several athletes who were bigger and stronger than me because they had been held back in school.
Was that “unfair” to me?
Should such academically challenged students be barred from competing in sports?
Or is banning students from competition in the pursuit of an unattainable, pure and perfect “fairness” both futile and cruel?
– MrJM
- workingfromhome - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 11:43 am:
Again, Illinois has its faults, but with all this whackadoodle going on elsewhere I sure am glad I live in this state.
- Jocko - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 11:50 am:
==I don’t know how you handle this transgender athlete issue==
The same way you got over gay marriage (”People will marry their pets.”) and legalized weed (”It’s a gateway to heroin and PCP.”)
- Earnest - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 11:51 am:
Reading stories like these makes me queasy. I can’t imagine the toll of the stress on the targets of the hatred who are actually living in these states, especially those not hardened by living through AIDS in the Reagan years. That said, we could easily be a national election away from republicans having control of all three branches the federal government and falling under the same laws ourselves.
- Competing - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 11:51 am:
“I had to compete against several athletes who were bigger and stronger than me because they had been held back in school.Was that “unfair” to me?”
let’s just do away with multiple teams. All sports will just have one team, no more boys or girls teams. So your local schools and colleges will just take the best athletes regardless of sex.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 11:56 am:
===let’s just do away with multiple teams. All sports will just have one team, no more boys or girls teams. So your local schools and colleges will just take the best athletes regardless of sex.===
Argue like an adult.
No one is merely deciding as one gender to compete against the other as a whim.
If you want a discussion about the issue and can’t find it within yourself to understand what the issues and positions are, then please look for a Facebook group for support.
To the post,
The Reagan Rule is 80% “agreement”…
If you agree with 80% of this, you’re likely intolerant or worse, and a cult-like party is indeed for you.
This is a devolving in real time, and it’s no wonder the party is intensely shrinking not broadly growing
- T.S. - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 12:04 pm:
—I had to compete against several athletes who were bigger and stronger than me because they had been held back in school.
Was that “unfair” to me?——
Yes, it was unfair to you as the kids that were held back were further developed once in high school. This is happening in multiple states. I believe Pennsylvania just passed a law in regards to this practice to try and curb kids having an extra year in junior high to be further developed for sports for high school.
- Just a Citizen - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 12:07 pm:
I don’t believe in gender inspections which are silly and invasive, but I do believe that kids should compete in sports IAW the sex they were assigned at birth. Remember we all have the right to our opinion in this country….both your opinion and mine.
- Sir Reel - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 12:08 pm:
Ah yes, the Republican party. The party of small government, the party of individual liberty, the party … oh wait, wrong party.
- The Truth - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 12:08 pm:
History won’t be kind to these lawmakers. (Unless, of course, they pass more laws outlawing the teaching of history.)
- RNUG - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 12:09 pm:
== don’t know how you handle this transgender athlete issue ==
I haven’t been able to figure out what should be fair either. Sports competition has always been somewhat unfair or put someone at a disadvantage. From here on, I’m going to paint with a fairly broad brush, keeping it generic and realizing there were exceptions and niches.
Years ( centuries?) ago, sports was primarily a man’s game. But, at one time, only certain men because you had segregated teams. And the segregation was not only race, but ethnicity and other factors.
They eventually got past segregated teams, but it was still primarily just the boys. Yes, girls teams existed, but we’ll just say they got unequal treatment.
Title IX did help elevate women’s sports to somewhat the same level as men’s. And you even saw some women actually on men’s teams in the less, shall we say, physical contact sports. Things weren’t totally fair, but you have some equivalence … or, in other words, separate but more or less equal. Still a form of segregation, but less so than previously.
So recently it was, more or less, equal sports divided along the male / females gender lines.
Now we have to figure out how to add trans-male and trans-female into the mix. As others have pointed out, in the physically challenging sports (I’m thinking the sports that primary depend on physical strength or stamina), it doesn’t seem fair to let males compete in women’s sports; kind of defeats the whole idea of Title IX. In the same vein, the opposite. So do we create two more sports categories? Or what, add *’s to the records?
Note: I realize there are already successful women athletes that do compete on the same level / in the same competitions in various sports. As one example, since I’m a car guy, I’m more than aware of all the successful female competitors in the sport of racing … and all the sub-categories of it.
I don’t think anyone has a really good answer at the moment.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 12:11 pm:
===Remember we all have the right to our opinion===
Don’t be “shook” when blowback happens with an unpopular opinion.
The foolish thing now is “lemme say what I think but don’t push back on a thought you think is unpopular”
I always appreciate each and every time someone tells me exactly who they are. Saves me a great deal of disappointments
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 12:13 pm:
===how you handle===
Maybe stop treating K-12 sports as if they were the Olympics?
- Jerry - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 12:24 pm:
When are Erectile dysfunction meds going to be made illegal?
Those meds certainly contribute to the baby murders!
Or how about if it’s public record if you take them?
“Conservatives” like to say there is no Right to Privacy in the Constitution.
Plus I think when women are shopping they’d like to know about the merchandise and if it’s defective.
- Proud Papa Bear - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 12:40 pm:
Wonder if Texas will ban heterosexual wedding receptions. They expose children to far more sexually than I’ve ever seen at a drag show.
- /s - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 12:45 pm:
==it doesn’t seem fair to let males compete in women’s sports==
Trans women aren’t males. Hope that helps.
- Mr. Big Trouble - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 12:56 pm:
Maybe stop treating K-12 sports as if they were the Olympics? , Rich,you may not live in the suburbs where dads, and moms, treat these sports as ways to get a kid a scholarship or just to walk around and gloat about how their kid is the star. The manipulative crap parents did was disgusting. Many of the kids gave up sports in high school or college because they had enough of mom and dad and the year round commitment to sports. Sad reality.
Clearly Rich
- Garfield Ridge Guy - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 12:59 pm:
Often these moments in history require not that we identify “the right thing” and “the wrong thing” to do, but instead require us to realize that certain rights are more important than other rights.
In the days when racial discrimination was more blatant and generally acceptable than it is today (not that it’s gone away at all, just that it today manifests in more insidious forms), people argued that people had a right to exclude others from their own businesses based on race. And, it’s true, business owners often have the right to exclude people that they won’t want to include (no shirt, no shoes, etc). We realized, however, that the ideal of having a society where it is unacceptable to discriminate on the basis of race for entering a business is much, much more important than a business owner’s right to exclude others.
The same holds true in sports when it comes to trans persons. Even if there are legitimate and sensible arguments that the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports is not “fair” to cisgender folks, those arguments are less important than the arguments that we cannot set up our public schools and athletic competitions in a way that “others” and excludes people on the basis of how they identify. We get to pick what kind of society we want to live in, and the society I want to live in is one that picks validating people’s gender identity over ensuring that a ninth-grade swimming competition is, arguably, slightly fairer in this specific way.
- Dotnonymous - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 1:12 pm:
It’s hard enough to be human…without other humans intentionally making it harder.
Genital searches?…maximum creepy.
- OneMan - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 1:16 pm:
== “as many of the transgender athletes have an unfair physical/genetic strength advantage.” ==
Looking forward to the weight and height groupings in HS sports.
I played line at 6-2 220 (I weigh a lot more than that now) and was a decent-sized 6A lineman.
Every Freshman A game I reffed this past season had at least three linemen that weighed at least 250. That’s a genetic advantage over those other kids, the size disparity was much bigger (no pun intended) than when I played.
But that’s the way life is, I can’t do anything about that.
Fine, you want to deal with the real ‘disparity’ and ‘unfairness’ of High School sports? Disallow club sport participation or offer money so all kids can use it. When watching HS Volleyball (my oldest played), you could easily tell which schools had kids playing club and which did not.
Deal with that disparity in terms of fairness, then let’s talk about other stuff.
- Lincoln Lad - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 1:53 pm:
I guess there must be trans athletes dominating women’s sports at a scale that has made this an important issue. Or is it just another opportunity to oppress people to convince yourself that you are yourself powerful and better than someone else? This is a non-issue promoted and carried by non-serious people who don’t have a clue as to what equality means. As to limiting healthcare - I believe the oppression to be unconstitutional and if not criminal, it should be.
- Person 8 - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 2:08 pm:
***Looking forward to the weight and height groupings in HS sports.***
Welcome to the sports of; wrestling, boxing, ect….
Outside of HS….I played in a under 6 foot basketball league once. I was a 5′11.5″ center. Youth Football in illinois is by age AND weight.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 2:14 pm:
===Welcome to the sports of; wrestling, boxing, ect….===
Can you name a third sport?
How many IHSA high schools have school boxing teams, when is their IHSA sponsored championships? If they exist, I’d like to know.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 2:30 pm:
=Maybe stop treating K-12 sports as if they were the Olympics?=
Amen.
=How many IHSA high schools have school boxing teams, when is their IHSA sponsored championships? If they exist, I’d like to know.=
My hand is up, please pick me. I am answering anyway…
None, 0, zilch.
- Person 8 - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 2:37 pm:
**How many IHSA high schools have school boxing teams’**
The OP didn’t specify IHSA sports just HS (schools have clubs)… I’m not sure of the flex your trying to pull on me here.
Odd…
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 2:42 pm:
Here I’ll help.
===***Looking forward to the weight and height groupings in HS sports.***
Welcome to the sports of; wrestling, boxing, ect….===
Since the “wonder” is about “HS sports”…
What high school has boxing that’s sponsored by first IHSA and further is there an IHSA aspect… I think - JS Mill - answered that
:)
===schools have clubs===
How many high school boxing clubs out there sponsored by the school or school district? Chicago?
I’d like to know.
- very old soil - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 2:53 pm:
“The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to immediately reinstate a West Virginia law barring transgender athletes from playing on female sports teams from middle school through college.”
WaPo just now
- Person 8 - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 2:54 pm:
**I’d like to know.**
Google it then.
How about judo? Just down the street from you there’s a high school club.
Still not sure what you are arguing or calling me out on? Some sports use other classifications other than male/female. Could that be something we see in the future? I dunno.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 2:56 pm:
===Google it then.===
I didn’t pick boxing as a cite, you did.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 3:01 pm:
I can only think of ONE sport IHSA has where any physical limit or measure exists.
I also can’t envision an Illinois sport that is currently recognized by IHSA changing its guidelines to include such things.
I’ve “heard of” 7 on 7 football, the number of players and game modified, sanctioned, but if I’m wrong, there are others…
- H-W - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 3:08 pm:
== transgender athletes have an unfair physical/genetic strength advantage ==
Hogwash. Utter hogwash.
This is high school for crying out loud. We want children to exercise. We want them to play sports. We want them to learn to play together and play by the rules.
If you want children to prioritize winning, you have the wrong goal in mind. In competitive sports, only “one” wins, and everyone else loses.
That is not the purpose of sport - to create losers of us all.
Competition in childhood cannot be the reason we offer sports to all children. It is about the experience, not about sorting and sifting out those we deem to be losers.
And as some suggest above, if competition is the goal, then the vast majority of children should simply be deemed losers to begin with, and we can save time and money by just giving trophies and contracts to the biggest XY males.
- Original Rambler - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 3:14 pm:
RNUG makes a lot of sense (as usual). I haven’t come seen any good solutions. I get that there are so few transgender athletes out there that this in many ways is much ado about next to nothing. Then again, as the parent of a female student athlete, I would be distressed to see her have to compete against a transgender athlete who has a built in advantage to start. I get that makes me sound like a troglodyte but I have to be honest about how I would feel.
- Jerry - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 3:19 pm:
More Big Government, Nanny State, Socialism from Republicans!
The guv’mint will tell you how to live your life.
- Person 8 - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 3:30 pm:
**I also can’t envision an Illinois sport that is currently recognized by IHSA changing its guidelines to include such things.**
While not a direct physical correlation. The IHSA does school size differences for different team sports. I honestly don’t know the original rationale put forth for that, but my guess would be that schools that have more kids are going to be better. As bigger schools have a greater chance to have more physically talented kids. So the IHSA said my small high school with 400 kids, was not physically capable of competing with my currents kids high school of a few thousand kids.
Why do we need 8 state football champs? 4 basketball champs? Why are there different divisions within the same weight for wrestling champs? I think the IHSA can and has changed over time.
Not going to happen overnight, but could they make certain modifications for sports like swimming, track and field in the future? Don’t see why not.
- Jocko - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 3:30 pm:
==I would be distressed to see her have to compete against a transgender athlete who has a built in advantage to start.==
This would be the IHSA/NCAA equivalent of the 1986 movie ‘Soul Man’…a work of fiction.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 3:37 pm:
===The IHSA does school size differences for different team sports. I honestly don’t know the original rationale put forth for that, but my guess would be that schools that have more kids are going to be better.===
No. The larger pool of students that are participating.
It’s allowing equality to the pool, you can still have 6’6” 305lb linemen in 1A schools
===So the IHSA said my small high school with 400 kids, was not physically capable of competing with my currents kids high school of a few thousand kids.===
The pool of potential athletes.
You says it’s not about “physical”, yet you project “physical” as the rationale.
===Why do we need 8 state football champs? 4 basketball champs? Why are there different divisions within the same weight for wrestling champs? I think the IHSA can and has changed over time.===
Again, pushing “physical” instead of understanding the pool of potential athletes
When any of the 8 state football divisions have a height or weight criteria, lemme know.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 3:38 pm:
===Not going to happen overnight, but could they make certain modifications for sports like swimming, track and field in the future? Don’t see why not.===
Collegiate. Athletic. Scholarships.
That’s why.
- Arsenal - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 3:43 pm:
==Rich,you may not live in the suburbs where dads, and moms, treat these sports as ways to get a kid a scholarship or just to walk around and gloat about how their kid is the star.==
I mean, I think he’s saying that they should stop doing that.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Apr 6, 23 @ 3:47 pm:
- Person 8 -
Here’s the IHSA link to classifications.
It’s five pages.
Height, weight, speed, or any physical measure is not listed
https://www.ihsa.org/data/school/2019-21%20cycle/Policy%2017.pdf