If this legislature collectively decides that
legislating hate against children is our priority,
then I am going to make it painful, painful for everyone.
Cuz if you wanna inflict pain upon our children,
I am going to inflict pain upon this body and I have nothing,
nothing but time and I am going to use all of it.
If people think that they're gonna wear me down, if yesterday didn't show you that
you can't wear me down, you cannot wear me down.
>> I want her to be my best friend.
I wanna reach out to her and I wanna hang out with her,
because she is exactly the kind of woman that I gravitate toward.
I love that.
You're probably wondering, who is that woman?
Well, she's actually a Democratic State Senator in Nebraska.
Her name is Machaela Cavanaugh, and get this,
she's on her third week filibustering an anti-transgender GOP Bill.
She does not want it to become law, which is why she's engaging in this filibuster,
which again has been taking place for three weeks.
I wanna give you some more details, first, on the bill itself, which is similar
to other red-state bills that we've discussed on this show, ufortunately.
The so-called Let Them Grow Act, Legislative Bill 574,
which advanced to the Senate floor in late February would bar transgender and
non-binary people under the age of 19 from obtaining gender-affirming healthcare.
Now, just a quick statement about where I stand on this.
I do not believe that gender-affirming care should be banned by law for minors.
I believe that we should allow parents to make the right decisions
through going through the process with the doctors,
having conversations with medical professionals about it.
I do not believe that it makes sense for
the government to interfere with these incredibly important decisions.
Now, if there needs to be more attention paid to a standardized model of,
I don't even know what the right word is, but basically making sure that
the doctors are doing the right screenings and doing the due diligence.
So they don't jump to conclusions and
offer treatments that the minor might regret later.
That's fine.
Let's have that conversation, but overall I'm against banning it
because there are instances in which a minor identifies with a gender
that is different from what this individual was assigned at birth.
And having to go through puberty, having to go through developing
a body that they don't resonate with, that they feel they're trapped in.
Again, it's not up to me, it's not up to you,
it's not up to the government to decide.
It's up to the parents with the help and council of medical professionals, period.
That is where I stand on that.
Now, let's get back to State Senator Cavanaugh here, because she's incredible.
How is she doing this in a Republican-controlled Senate?
Well, Republicans do hold 32 seats in the State Senate compared to
Democrats 17, but it takes 33 votes to overcome a filibuster.
So Cavanaugh has spent every day on the Senate floor introducing dozens of
amendments to other pieces of legislation to slow down the Senate's business.
See, this is what a filibuster actually looks like.
It's very different from the legislative filibuster in the United States Senate,
which doesn't require any hard work, it doesn't require anyone speaking for
hours and hours, days and days, weeks and weeks on end,
they just get to block bills through voting to block it.
That's the filibuster they do.
But in the State Senate in Nebraska, things are a little different.
So why is she against the bill?
Well, Cavanaugh said that 58% of transgender and nonbinary youths in her
state seriously considered suicide in 2020, according to a 2021 survey by
the Trevor Project, and more than 1 in 5 said they had attempted suicide.
The children of Nebraska deserve to have somebody stand up and fight for them,
Cavanaugh told the Associated Press.
I just love watching a Democrat, even if it's on a local level,
fight like this, and it's inspiring to see it.
Maybe it'll light a fire under the ass of Congressional Democrats,
when it comes to federal politicians.
We'll see, but curious what your take on this is, RM.
I don't know where this is gonna lead.
I think Republicans ultimately might get their way, but
I do think there's value in seeing a Democrat fight the way that she is.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
Definitely, I agree with you on the fighting spirit is great.
I haven't watched everything that she said, but
it would be nice if she hit on the point that you hit on a little bit where
these rare cases are for professionals and parents have to deal with.
It's a very difficult situation, it's for them to deal with.
And this is something that's been dragged by these conservative lawmakers into using
these people as political pawns, would like to see her press on that a little bit
more, but otherwise, it's great.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
Because, look, I do wanna just say, the previous commentary
that I had on this issue was a little misinformed, right?
So my take on things like puberty blockers was just ill-informed because
I was under the impression that there are no side effects, everything's fine.
But there are side effects, okay, which is why countries like Finland,
Sweden, decided to pause on hormones and
puberty blockers specifically because they were concerned about bone density.
They were concerned about future fertility.
So it's not completely clear that it's 100% safe,
and I get those who are, the non-bigoted individuals
who are legitimately concerned about that, I hear you.
But again, ultimately, when you consider the prevalence of
suicidal ideation among minors who identify as transgender,
you have to balance those two things out and make the best decision for the minor.
And I don't think that any elected lawmaker is in the right
position to make that decision on behalf of the parent [LAUGH] or
on behalf of the minor who identifies as transgender.
Again, I really think that's up to the family with the counsel of actual
medical professionals.
Okay, so with that said, I do wanna go to one final thing on this story.
So other reports support the views that she mentioned, right,
the suicidal ideation.
We've talked about that a lot on the show.
In a radio interview last week, Cavanagh said that even her Republican
colleagues are frustrated with the culture war against transgender people,
but they're too cowardly to say that publicly, they'll hit her up later.
They'll be like, culture war's messed up, I'm not for it either.
My votes say otherwise, but still, this is wrong.
She says this,
what has been expressed to me is a frustration over discussing policies like
this instead of discussing policies that most of them ran to be here discussing.
This is what a culture war looks like apparently.
What I'm asking of them is to rise up and say that if this really isn't who they
are, rise up and say that and stop having private conversations with me,
telling me how much you don't like the bill, how much you
don't want to be focusing on this issue, and rise up and say something about it.
I'm challenging them.
But the problem, Senator Cavanaugh,
is that the other issues that they purport to wanna talk about tend to
be issues that they don't actually wanna talk about, right?
Maybe their donors don't want them to legislate on those issues.
I'm guessing she's referring to bread-and-butter issues.
Pretty sure Republican lawmakers don't actually wanna talk about those
issues [LAUGH].
Let's keep it real, because they're unpopular on economic-related topics.
So, they're not gonna speak up.
They're going to continue telling you they don't like these policies behind
the scenes, but they'll keep voting on them, and
it's absolutely disgusting to see it.