Republican Sen. Kathleen Kauth has introduced legislation, LB 574, to the Nebraska Senate, that aims to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
But one Nebraska state senator is doing everything she can to stop that bill.
Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, a Democrat from Omaha, began a filibuster Thursday night. “Cavanaugh promised to take every single bill to cloture, meaning hours of debate on every single bill that comes to the floor,” TV station WOWT reports. Cavanaugh has vowed to keep up the filibuster to keep the bill from passing.
“If this legislature collectively decides that legislating hate against children is our priority, then I am going to make it painful, painful for everyone,” Cavanaugh said, according to NBC News. “If you want to inflict pain upon our children, I am going to inflict pain upon this body, and I have nothing but time, and I am going to use all of it. […] I will burn the session to the ground over this bill.”
The filibuster continued until the legislature recessed Friday afternoon, and resumed Tuesday when the body reconvened. Despite having strep throat, Cavanaugh has kept up the filibuster and her vow to trans youth.
“At the end of the day, this is going to hurt children,” she told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Monday. “I don’t care how sick I get. I don’t care how tired I am. I am not going to look back on this moment in time and say I didn’t do everything that I possibly could to fight for and protect children, especially our most vulnerable children, which are trans youth.”
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