Kauth said the purpose of her bill is to protect youth from undertaking gender-affirming treatments they might later regret as adults, citing research that says adolescents' brains aren't fully developed. The hard feelings by lawmakers on both sides of the bill emerged almost immediately Tuesday, with Kauth calling Cavanaugh's filibuster 'self-serving and childish.' That amendment, she said, does have enough votes to advance.Ĭavanaugh has said if the bill advances on a vote expected Thursday, she will resume filibustering every bill through the end of the 90-day session in early June. Lawmakers convened on Tuesday to begin that debate with the understanding that the bill didn't have enough votes to break a filibuster.īut Kauth introduced an amendment to drop the restriction on hormone treatments, instead banning only gender reassignment surgery for minors. The Senate debate expected to stretch into Thursday.Ĭavanaugh eventually decided to abandon the filibuster and said she wanted a vote, to put on the record of which lawmakers would 'legislate hate against children.' Senator Brad von Gillern, of Omaha, compared gender-affirming treatment to shock treatments, lobotomies and forced sterilizations of years' past.Ĭarol Blood, a senator for Bellevue, countered that if lawmakers really cared about medical procedures affecting children, 'how come we're not talking about circumcision?' John Lowe, a senator for Kearney, cited an activist group's claim that gender dysphoria in youth 'is just temporary.' The senate is currently debating a transgender child healthcare bill Senator John Arch is seen in January speaking in the Nebraska senate. The debate soon grew contentious, with supporters and opponents angrily voicing their frustration and admonishing each other for a lack of collegiality. On Tuesday, debate finally began on LB574. This is an assault on a population of people because they are different from you.' I want the bloody hands recorded. This is a genocide. For those who had an opportunity to change the course of history - the direction in which we are moving as a state and a country. 'And I want a record for the history of this genocide for those who stood by it. 'I want us to have the debate on these bills, and I want us to take a vote on these bills,' she said on March 15. In the last three weeks since Cavanaugh began her bill blockade, only three bills have advanced. If LB574 gets an early floor debate, and moves forward, it will be very painful for this body.' 'I laid down on the floor, a hard floor, and took a 20 minute nap before going to committee hearings. 'I literally left the floor yesterday, went up to my office, and laid down on the floor. 'If people think that they are going to wear me down, if yesterday didn't show you that you cannot wear me down - you cannot wear me down. 'I have nothing, nothing but time,' she declared at one point. There would normally be two to three times that number by mid-March, Metzler said. Only 26 bills have advanced from the first of three rounds of debate required to pass a bill in Nebraska. 'Usually, we're a lot further along the line than we're seeing now.' 'But what is really uncommon is the lack of bills that have advanced,' Metzler said. 'Because if you want to inflict pain on our children, I am going to inflict pain upon this body. I will burn the session to the ground over this bill.'Ĭavanaugh succeeded in slowing the business of passing laws to a crawl by introducing amendment after amendment to every bill that makes it to the state Senate floor, and taking up all eight debate hours allowed by the rules.Ĭlerk of the Legislature Brandon Metzler said a delay like this has happened only a couple of times in the past 10 years. 'If this Legislature collectively decides that legislating hate against children is our priority, then I am going to make it painful - painful for everyone,' said Cavanaugh, a married mother of three. The bill, LB574, was introduced on January 17 and 'would forbid gender-affirming care such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries for those under 19.'Ĭavanaugh and her supporters said that the bill was harmful to transgender teenagers, calling it 'genocide' and vowing to slow legislation to a halt in protest. Machaela Cavanaugh, a Democrat representing an Omaha district in the state senate, launched her obstruction after Kathleen Kauth, a Republican also representing Omaha, introduced the bill. Nebraska's politicians started debating a bill on Tuesday to ban surgery for transgender children and young adults - after an opponent of the bill spent three weeks blocking a vote with a filibuster.
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