States!

Two states surprisingly did the right thing and one state is doing what is expected from a Republican controlled state.

Surprise! Surprise!

Tennessee becomes first state in the South with hate crime law protecting transgender people
The Tennessean
By Natalie Allison
February 14, 2019

Tennessee has become the first state in the South with a hate crime statute protecting transgender individuals.

State Attorney General Herbert Slatery issued an opinion Feb. 8 in response to a question posed by Rep. Mike Stewart, D-Nashville.

"A defendant who targets a person for a crime because that person is transgender has targeted the person because of his or her gender within the meaning" of the current state law that outlines sentence enhancements for hate crimes, Slatery wrote.

Tennessee does not have an explicit hate crime charge, though the General Assembly in 2000 added a hate crime factor to judges' sentencing rules for crimes targeting a person based on race, religion, color, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry or gender.

That was a surprise, most southern states are very anti-LGBTQ+, it would be nice if there was a statute that codified the Attorney General opinion, I have seen too many cases where the next political pundit does away with the previous politician rulings.

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Meanwhile across “The Big Muddy” in Kansas, the Republican legislature is doing what Republicans are doing in other states… attacking LGBTQ+ people.

Kansas GOP introduces the ‘most vile, hateful & disrespectful’ anti-LGBTQ bills in the country
LGBTQ Nation
By Alex Bollinger
February 14, 2019

Several Kansas lawmakers have introduced two bills that would severely curtail LGBTQ rights.

The bills, which each have about half a dozen co-sponsors, were introduced yesterday and cover a range of topics, including marriage equality and civil rights legislation.

One of the bills would ban state officials from granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples and define same-sex marriages as “parody marriages,” something South Carolina Republicans tried to do last year.

The other bill defines LGBTQ people as a religion and says that the rainbow flag is a symbol of a “faith-based worldview,” an argument that a conservative crackpot tried to use several years ago to get a court to ban members of Congress from displaying the rainbow flag.

Their hate knows no bounds; it ranges from the draconian to the absurd.

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In South Dakota we had a victory over the Republican stupidity.

Bill killed in ongoing battle on transgender rights in South Dakota
Inforum
By Sarah Mearhoff
February 7, 2019

PIERRE, S.D. — For the third time nearly halfway into South Dakota’s 2019 legislative session, a committee hearing erupted into a debate about the rights of transgender children.

The House Health and Human Services committee on Thursday, Feb. 7, debated and ultimately killed House Bill 1205, which would have established a parent’s right to refuse transitional health care treatment for their transgender child.

Proponents of the bill said it was about protecting parents’ rights — not about denying rights to transgender children.
[…]
But opponents of the bill said the bill was discriminatory and excused parents from providing not only physical health care — such as hormone therapy or surgery — but also mental health treatment or therapy to transgender children.

Under HB 1205, an official could not penalize a parent for refusing their child transitional treatment. For example, a judge could not use it as a reason to deny a parent custody in family court.

Sanity wins out over bigotry.