Following the votes taken on five anti-trans bills today in the Wisconsin State Senate, Fair Wisconsin’s Executive Director released the following statement:
“Every new day in the Wisconsin State Capitol brings with it an incredible opportunity for our elected officials to listen to their constituents, take action on their concerns, and cast votes on bills designed to make our lives as Wisconsinites markedly better. Today, the Wisconsin State Senate did not do that. In the face of rising health care costs, untenable child care shortages and a housing crisis, an under-funded public school system, and federal administration threats against the civil rights of Americans, anti-equality state senators chose to advance legislation attacking trans kids. Wisconsin’s kids deserve better.
These votes on five anti-trans bills (AB100, AB102, AB103, AB104, and SB405), which fell entirely on party lines, represent an abdication of the responsibility every elected official takes on when they are installed into public office: to promote the general welfare. Attacking a trans kid’s ability to access the health care they need, the sports team they belong on, and the name and pronouns they hold true for themselves – none of that helps anyone. These bills do nothing to reduce health care costs, nothing to increase support for our youngest learners or address our housing, nothing to improve our student’s access to high-quality education, and nothing to keep our neighbors safe. What they do instead is create an unsafe environment for trans kids, their families and friends. To be clear, these bills are not law. But introducing them, holding hearings on them, and voting on them is harmful; we saw that during the seven hearings on anti-trans bills held this session. Those hearings included testimony from people who spread dangerous lies and others who denied the very existence of trans people; however, those hearings also saw Wisconsinites from every corner of the state show up in support of our trans kids, testifying for hours and submitting written testimony numbering in the tens of thousands of pages. We are heartened to see that every Democrat in the State Senate voted to protect the LGBTQ+ community, and disappointed to see that not a single Republican had the courage to stand up to the bullies driving this agenda. Again, Wisconsin’s kids deserve better.
To every Wisconsinite witnessing these actions on the Senate floor today, remember that you have a voice and a vote. We invite you to join us in using both to make sure we have elected leaders who work to improve the lives of every Wisconsinite, including our trans kids. Fair Wisconsin will be working hard this election cycle to elect a pro-equality majority that will pass comprehensive protections for Wisconsin’s LGBTQ+ community and all our most vulnerable communities, as well as legislation that expands Medicaid, protects the right to access abortion and all medically-necessary health care, and reduces costs for Wisconsinites across the board.
And finally, all of us at Fair Wisconsin want to say this to the trans kids of Wisconsin:
We want better for you. You deserve to be represented by leaders who value you, your health care, and your joy; you deserve to live in a state that has laws that support you. That is the Wisconsin we are working towards, and it is the Wisconsin we will make happen.”