Sine Die...but not quite

 By Marilyn Moore

The Nebraska legislature adjourned Sine Die on June 2.  Another session, done.  Another session, with a huge budget deficit to manage.  Another session, with daily references to reducing property taxes.  Another session, with bills that hurt real people – bills that restrict access to food and health care.  Another session, where the will of the people, the legislature’s second house (that would be us, the Nebraska voters), is ignored with bills that counter our passage of legislation regarding minimum wage, paid sick leave, and medical marijuana.  Another session, with deliberate attempts to infuse religious instruction into the school day and provide public funds for private schools.  Another session, where one very small group of Nebraskans was vilified, humiliated, and lifted up for public abuse.  Our trans neighbors, especially, our trans children, were the targets.  

An inordinate amount of time was spent by the legislature on LB89, which defined “male” and “female” according to biological reproductive characteristics at the time of a person’s birth, and restricted athletic competition and use of locker rooms and bathrooms accordingly, according to a person’s sex assigned at birth.  A last-minute profile in courage moment by Senator Marv Riepe stripped the provisions about locker rooms and bathrooms from the bill; his statement that he didn’t run for office to be a part of the “Nebraska potty patrol” is the most memorable line of the session.  Without those provisions, the bill passed, and the governor signed it into law with a big press conference, proudly announcing his support for women.  

I’ve written about this before, and I told myself I would not address this again.  There’s only so much that can be said, and I’ve said a lot.  Until…in the governor’s press conference as he signed LB89 into law, he commented that the provisions about locker rooms and restrooms would be addressed in legislation next year.  No surprise there, of course it will be back, because it’s one of the hot culture items that a segment of our population expects.  But then he said that until laws are passed regarding who can and cannot use school bathrooms, he has confidence that most young boys and men in Nebraska know right from wrong, “and they’ll take care of whoever tries to go into the locker room.”  

That sounds like vigilante language.  The governor said later that he didn’t mean that at all, that he would never promote violence.  He simply meant that he expected boys to have peer-to-peer conversations.  I hope that students will always encourage each other to follow the school rules; that’s part of being a good citizen.  Some peer-to-peer messages that would be helpful would include, “No means no.”  “Don’t interrupt her.”  “Yes, girls can be scientists, and boys can be artists.” But I’m very concerned about vigilante language, language that encourages people to take rule-enforcement, or law enforcement, into their own hands.  Because it’s easy to move from “it’s against the rules” to “it’s wrong to be gay, or trans.”  At its most extreme, this led to a century of lynching of Black Americans.  And it leads today to violence again LGBTQ persons; Matthew Shepard’s story is a part of this generation’s story.  

In addition to the vigilante language, I’m also concerned with the repeated messages that trans kids are getting from some elected officials – that they’re not normal, they’re not okay, they’re not who they know they are, they’re not welcome.  And when the next iteration of LB89 is introduced next year, they’ll hear those messages again and again and again. Those messages inflict very real damage.  The suicide rate for trans teens is way higher than that of cis teens.  I know families who are moving out of Nebraska to states with a more friendly stance toward trans children and their parents.  And when a teen who is different from the norm in some way, e.g., size, skin color, religious practice, sees a trans teen threatened because of who they are, that teen will likely fear that they, too, could be threatened because of who they are, different, in some way.  Vigilante language invites this.

Not every social issue needs to be addressed by state law.  Who plays on sports teams doesn’t need to be codified by statute.  There are state and national organizations that govern everything about interscholastic and intercollegiate competitions; they will figure this out.  It’s noteworthy that in the past seven years, exactly eight trans students in Nebraska have applied to the Nebraska School Activities Association to play on a high school sports team matching their gender identity.  Eight, in seven years, out of more than 100,000 high school students in that time period.  Not an overwhelming problem.  

Who uses what restroom or locker room doesn’t need to be decided by the legislature.  If a student is assaulted in a bathroom, the assault is a school rule violation and likely a statutory violation; there are procedures to handle that.  If a student is bullying another student, or harassing a student, or threatening a student, there are school rules against that, and a school procedure to deal with it.  Principals do not need state statutes on this issue.  

Most of all, our trans children and young adults do not need to be the subject of ridicule, fear, and exclusion.  They did not choose to be trans, any more than I chose to be cis.  They are who they are, real human beings, loved by God, struggling to live in a society that at best does not understand and at worst is hateful.  In this Pride month, I’m looking for ways especially to support the “T” people in the LGBTQ population.  I invite you to join me.