'Because of bullies like' you: Nebraska Democrat skewers GOP lawmaker over anti-trans hypocrisy

'Because of bullies like' you: Nebraska Democrat skewers GOP lawmaker over anti-trans hypocrisy
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Nebraska State Senator Megan Hunt (D-8th District) tore into State Senator Kathleen Kauth (R-31st District) during a hearing on Wednesday over two proposals that Kauth sponsored that strip away rights from transgender Nebraskans.

"Legislative Bill 574, dubbed the 'Let Them Grow Act,' would prohibit gender-altering procedures for individuals under 19, which includes surgical procedures, hormone treatment and puberty blockers. Under the bill, a person who received such a procedure — or the person’s parent or guardian — would be able to sue the person who performed the procedure," the Omaha World-Heraldexplained in January. "Legislative Bill 575, the 'Sports and Spaces Act,' would restrict access to school bathrooms and locker rooms on the basis of biological sex and would add similar restrictions to most school sports teams. This would effectively ban transgender youths from entering the spaces or participating on teams they otherwise would based on their gender identity."

In a floor speech, Hunt excoriated Kauth for not only discriminating against LGBTQ+ individuals but also for her hypocrisy over the choices that she believes teenagers are "mature" enough to make:

I don't know why I was surprised to hear Senator Kathleen Kauth open by talking about how we have to save these children from the pain that they're in because they aren't mature or developed enough to make their own decisions. But then in a couple weeks, she's gonna turn around and vote for a bill that would force 12-year-olds to have a baby, to have a whole entire human child. She thinks they're mature enough for that.

READ MORE: Watch: Nebraska Democrat rips Republicans for telling women 'to get a better husband'

Sparing no mercy for Kauth, Hunt pressed on:

Trans people are not all in pain. Trans youth are not all in pain. The ones in pain are because of the actions and rhetoric of people like Senator Kathleen Kauth. Kids know who they are, and when they get affirmation from their communities and their family members and their schools and their loved ones, as many, many trans and gender-expansive kids do today, they're not in pain. You know what? They're normal. They do activities with their friends. They go to dances. They date. They start clubs and join clubs and hang out after school and have the same problems as everybody else. And that's the kind of future that I'm working toward to live in, not a future that codifies the bigotry and discrimination and hate that people like me grew up with, perpetuated by people like Senator Kathleen Kauth. She said that she hasn't talked to anybody who would want to go back to middle school, to being an adolescent to junior high. A big reason I wouldn't wanna go back to junior high and middle school is because of bullies like Kathleen Kauth.

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: 'I will burn the session to the ground' over anti-trans bill, says Nebraska Democrat

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