LGBTQ+ Caucus Chair Sen. Mark Spreitzer argued Wisconsin should update its constitution to ensure no residents’ marriages are in doubt.
“This constitutional amendment would remove discriminatory language from our state constitution and ensure that my right to marry the person I love, and every Wisconsinite’s right to marry the person they love is not dependent on the votes of nine US Supreme Court justices, some of whom have publicly threatened to roll back these rights,” the Beloit Democrat said at a press conference yesterday.
Legislative Democrats and members of the LGBTQ+ Caucus introduced a package of legislation defending LGBTQ+ rights heading into Pride Month in June.
Rep. Lee Snodgrass, D-Appleton, presented a bill she authored that would ban conversion therapy.
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“Conversion therapy is a harmful, pseudoscientific practice of trying to counsel someone away from their true self to change a person’s individual sexual orientation or gender identity using psychological or spiritual interventions,” Snodgrass said.
Other legislation the caucus presented yesterday includes:
- The Marriage Equality Act, which would update state statutes to ensure equal right to adopt or artificially inseminate for any married couple.
- A ban on the viability of the “trans panic” defense in court, which allows defendants to mitigate culpability for their actions by citing a sudden reaction to learning a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
- A bill implementing LGBTQ+ rights training for school counselors or social workers.
Some GOP lawmakers slammed a bill in the package that seeks to recognize same-sex marriage by making references to spouses gender-neutral. It also would adopt gender-neutral language for referring to parents.
For example, some sections would replace the word “mother” with “pregnant person” or “expectant parent.”
“Today, Democrats introduced a 164 page bill that strikes out the word ‘mother’ over 370 times and replaces it with phrases like ‘pregnant person,’” Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, posted on X. “They also use phrases like ‘person’s breastfeeding’ because apparently men can breastfeed. The Party of Science, everyone.”
