Once again, lawmakers are introducing and prioritizing discriminatory legislation that will negatively impact all Nebraskans. Three anti-trans bills have hearings this week and we need your voice to oppose this legislation because we all deserve better than antiquated stereotypes and invasive policies.
Let’s get into it.
❌ Oppose LB 730 – Bans Trans People from Public and School Bathrooms
For the third year in a row, lawmakers have brought a bill that would ban trans and gender-expansive people from using restrooms at state agencies (like the DMV and courthouses) and from bathrooms and locker rooms in public schools (K-12 plus colleges and universities). Gender discrimination and harmful bills like LB 730 result in gender policing, scrutiny and harassment of anyone who looks or acts outside the confines of someone else’s idea of femininity. This puts ALL girls and women at risk by reinforcing the very stereotypes we’ve been fighting for decades.
❌ Oppose LB 731 – Criminalizes Medical Providers Who Provide Gender-Affirming Care
This bill adds dangerous language to the state statute about gender-affirming care, politicizing and effectively further restricting care for both trans youth and adults by increasing physician liability, raising insurance costs and singling out this often life-saving care. This is another example of inserting politics into health care, dictating how physicians must practice medicine, including requiring unnecessary and potentially harmful conversations with patients. Punitive measures like LB 731 put medical providers who offer this care at risk, drive doctors out of our state and weaken the state’s overall health care system all while pushing essential gender-affirming care further out of reach for Nebraskans and deepening stigma against transgender people.
❌ Oppose LB 732 – Expands Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth
During the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill to ban access to gender-affirming care for trans youth. Now, the same lawmakers are trying again to further expand the ban on this life-saving care, specifically around puberty blockers and hormone treatments. LB 732 also adds a provision for care being provided by telehealth, so doctors who are licensed in our state but live elsewhere would not be able to continue to care for patients living in Nebraska. Like LB 731, this bill also inserts politics into medically approved health care while also criminalizing doctors. We all have a right to bodily autonomy, being trans doesn’t change that.
Attacks on trans individuals must end now.
The continued introduction of policies that target Nebraskans, including trans youth and gender-expansive people, have been steady for the past couple of years — but we have defeated them before, and we can do it again. Like you, I know that no one is freer or safer when the law is used to discriminate against historically marginalized communities. Now, we need to make sure that all lawmakers hear this message loud and clear.
ACTION ONE: Attend the hearings in person to oppose these bills.
- Wednesday, January 28
- LB 730 will be heard by the Government, Military and Veterans Affair.
- Thursday, January 29
- LB 731 will be heard by the Judiciary Committee.
- LB 732 will be heard by the all-male Health and Human Services Committee.
All hearings begin at 1:30 pm and will follow an annotated hearing process, which basically means that supporters will start and testify for an hour before any of us in opposition will testify. Each “side” will get an hour and then it will switch back. These days can be long so please come prepared.
We will have Comfort Buddies available both days (look for their bright lanyards) to assist with any support you may need at the Capitol, and members of our team will be there along with other community partners to support folks who want to testify. The only way through is in community so make your plan to show up and oppose these harmful bills.
ACTION TWO: Submit online comments in opposition.
If you aren’t able to attend a hearing in person, please submit an online comment to oppose each of these bills. Online comments can be submitted up until 8:00 am (CST) the day of the hearing to be considered as part of the official record. If you don’t want your information and testimony to be part of the record, simply select “no” under “including comment in public hearing record.” This means committee members can see your comment, but it won’t be part of the public committee statement.
Not sure how to submit online comments? Learn here!
The discrimination of trans Nebraskans hurts us all.
Anti-trans bills have always come down to this — policing women’s bodies and punishing them for deviating from the norm. Everyone deserves to be themselves, be safe and be free from violence and discrimination; and we deserve leaders who prioritized ALL Nebraskans safety and freedom.