Bismarck – Emily Chudy writes for PinkNews that North Dakota legislators have been widely criticized for passing a record-setting ten anti-LGBTQ+ bills in one day. The state senate passed all ten bills on April 3rd, with eight now headed to the desk of North Dakota’s Republican governor Doug Burgum, where they will either be signed into law or vetoed. Two have been returned to the state’s House of Representatives after having amendments added.
The raft of horrifying legislation includes bans on trans students joining sports teams that match their gender identity, sweeping bans on gender-affirming healthcare for young people, and a ban on public drag performances. A bill also advancing would see the removal of trans individuals from state data collection. The passing of ten anti-LGBTQ+ bills represents the most legislation of its kind advanced in a single day, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), via NBC News.
North Dakota state senator Ryan Braunberger – a Democrat and out gay man – denounced the wave of anti-LGBTQ+ bills being put forward during a stirring senate speech in which he recalled how he’d tried to take his own life in his youth. “I was lucky to survive that suicide attempt – to be here – but many others have not and will not,” Braunberger said. He added that if the bills were to be passed, “kids like me across the state will feel like the world is against them. They’ll eventually feel like they can no longer go on.”
It remains unclear whether North Dakota Governor Burgum will veto any of the legislation being put before him. The Republican state leader recently rejected a bill that would have allowed school staff to misgender trans students. Burgum explained at the time that the “teaching profession is challenging enough without the heavy hand of state government forcing teachers to take on the role of pronoun police.”
Source: Emily Chudy for PinkNews.
Cover Photo via Twitter @ACLUNorthDakota