Thread by @RavBogard

*Live thread* for the EIGHT anti-trans bills that the Missouri Legislature is about to hear (with 25h of notice). 3 trans athletics bans; 3 medical bans (the scary ones); & two attempts to classify drag shows as pornography. 🧵

We just had a moving, powerful rally with @PROMOMissouri in the Capitol Rotunda. Some superheroes there: @crystal_quade @MoRepMackey @gregrazer @Manlove4M and so many others. And it was noticeably a less optimistic, less hopeful tenor than in past years.

The feeling in the room--from parents of trans kids, in particular--is exhausted, terrified, and dreading what is about to come. These hearings are truly awful & traumatizing. I have a panic attack almost every night before coming to Jeff City now.

The Chair just announced that they're going to be taking these bills in batches. They'll hear the 3 athlete bans first, and then the 3 bans on gender affirming care for trans kids, and then the two bills on drag queens.

So why is it that we're hearing multiple bills targeting trans kids that are basically identical? It's because so many @MissouriGOP-ers want to make sure that such cruelty is associated with *their* name as the bill sponsor.

First up is a bill on increasing the number of pay periods for employees in the Capitol. So it's going to be a couple more minutes until we get going. So let me tell you about the room:

The room for these hearings attacking trans kids is *packed*. It's filled with clergy, and drag queens, and queer and trans young people who have driven hours and hours (and are braving a snow emergency) in order to be here to stand up to #ProtectTransKids

I'm sitting next to the inspiring Maharat @roripn and @rmneiss; I'm a few rows behind @StacyCaySlays; our commander-in-chief @shiraberk is working the aisles, making sure everyone is ready. The overflow room is *also* totally packed. It would be inspiring if it wasn't so scary.

@roripn @rmneiss @StacyCaySlays @shiraberk In years past there has been something inspiring about all this. This year it's just scary. We've never heard a bill targeting trans kids this early in session, and we've never seen this many bills all at once. The bigotry and the hatred feel thick in the air.

Here they come. First up the "Save Women's Sports" bills. The first sponsor is ranting about "fairness"...and about making parents sign an affidavit testifying to a child's "biological sex at birth." Lots of "biological males" talk...

Seriously, why are these @MissouriGOP politicians so obsessed by what the genitals of children look like? It's so telling when they start talking...and it's just so disgusting.

It's really hard not to hate these people #ProtectTransKids

Next up are five minutes for Rep Jamie Burger, who has a bill that is basically identical to the first one, but evidently Rep Burger wants to make sure that he also gets credit for bulling some of the most vulnerable children in our State. #ProtectTransKids

Rep Burger is mentioning the other 18 States that have passed this *same* bill. Which is really important to understand, because this is a concerted, national effort led by shadowy conservative think-tanks. This isn't about an actual 'problem' in Missouri; it's political bigotry.

Here comes the heroic @RepKeriIngle: "Do you know how many trans kids are asking to play sports in the State of Missouri? Because there are more bills targeting trans kids than there are trans kids asking to play sports."

@RepKeriIngle @RepKeriIngle's voice is just *dripping* with disdain for these bills and these (white, male, GOP) bill sponsors, and I am *here* for it! The sponsors keep misgendering kids, and she is just tearing them apart. This is what it looks like to #ProtectTransKids while in a minority.

@RepKeriIngle @RepKeriIngle to the sponsor: "are you familiar with the term 'intersex'?"
GOP sponsor: "no"
@RepKeriIngle: "well, you're about to be!" 🔥🔥🔥#ProtectTransKids

@RepKeriIngle is on to the third bill sponsor:
"What are we protecting girls' sports from?"
Confused GOP sponsoring Rep: "ummm...let me read from my bill"
@RepKeriIngle: "What are we protecting girls from? Because it's certainly not predatory coaches, is it?"

Seriously, @RepKeriIngle is incredible. She's now quizzing the sponsors on MSHSAA (state HS athletics org), NCAA policies, and Olympic policies on trans kids...and they know *nothing* about them. The GOP sponsor just keeps saying, "I'll read the bill for you if you want?"

@RepKeriIngle: "Do you know that these 18 States that have passed these bigoted bills are also the poorest States in our Nation?...Because there is a direct connecting between these sorts of bigotry and the poverty we see in those States."

@RepKeriIngle House Minority Leader @crystal_quade: "We've all been here before. We've all sat here, with the same cameras, and the same bills. And we've asked you the same questions about...MSHSAA policies, and intersex people. And I just wonder why you still haven't read these policies?"

@RepKeriIngle @crystal_quade @crystal_quade totally eviscerating these sponsors for not having done any due diligence around understanding their (copy/pasted from national right-wing-org) bills 🔥🔥🔥

Seriously, ya'll, these @MOHouseDems are heroes. They come down here again and again to fight for us, and fight for our kids, knowing that they have almost no power other than their voices...and use their voices they do. #TruthToPower

Three @MissouriGOP sponsors of three bigoted bills targeting trans kids. And *NONE* of them have had *ANY* conversations with trans kids. NONE. @Emily4Mo with the brilliant questioning

Now the GOP sponsors arguing that really it's the "biological men who should be here testifying, because they are being discriminated against by not being able to compete against women." #IHateThesePeople

"If you really want to help women, this is not it! Thank you, gentlemen, for wasting our time." --God bless @Emily4Mo for speaking to these people with *exactly* the amount of respect that they deserve.

Now onto questing by Democratic House Whip @Ashley4MO, who wants to know exactly what "biological advantage" our three GOP sponsors have over her in athletics? (lots of laughter in the galley...)

And now @PeterforMO: "I'm a little frustrated...we've had all these conversations before. It just feels like you're not even interested in engaging in these questions. But...I'm going to try again, anyway."

"Do any of your bills deal with folks whose biological sex does not fit neatly into one binary or another?" --@PeterforMO
Sponsors: "mine do not"
@PeterforMO : "do any of you acknowledge the existence of people who don't fall into one category or another?"

The intellectual gap between the @MOHouseDems and the @MissouriGOP folks is just enormous. Like, there's a grand-canyon level of a chasm between them. These GOPers just look silly, and ignorant.

@MOHouseDems @MissouriGOP @PeterforMO just eviscerating these GOPers, who literally don't even know about the existence of intersex folks. "Ignorance wins out; you've all made a choice not to listen...we've got experts getting up and talking about complex situations, and you are being willfully ignorant."

"I'm way more worried about my girls growing up in a world built on fear, and hate, and bullying for political motives...than I am about my kids playing sports with trans kids." @PeterforMO is *sooo* good

Every Democrat is asking basic questions about these bills, and all three GOP sponsors are totally and completely unable (not just unwilling) to engage. It's sad--and terrifying--that these are the people ruling over us in Missouri. #ProtectTransKids

Rep @aaroncrossley: "Do you know the rate of LGBTQ youth seriously considering suicide? It's 1/2, and it's because of this; it's because of bills like yours that target them."
GOPers: "well, this doesn't have to do with L, G, B...um, T youth"
@aaroncrossley: "The T is for trans"

That's it for the cross-examination of the bill sponsors, now on to public testimony (starting with those testifying in favor of the bills)

The first testimony in favor of these bigoted bills is none other than... Secretary of State @JayAshcroftMO (who is likely running for Governor). @RepKeriIngle: "what is the job of the SecOfState?...What in your job responsibilities constitutes you as an expert witness?"

@RepKeriIngle: "Because you are the expert @JayAshcroftMO , please explain to us why MSHSAA policies aren't acceptable."...speaking to him with *exactly* the respect he deserves.

@RepKeriIngle now asking Sec of State @JayAshcroftMO if "we need to start dividing kindergartners in sports?"

Now @crystal_quade (who is one of my heroes) questioning the appropriateness of the Secretary of State being in the room to testify on this bill (there were gasps when he stepped up to the mic). "Historically, do SecOfStates testify about things that aren't in their scope?"

Side note: there is an awful row of people sitting behind @roripn and me who just broke into applause to cheer on the bigotry being expressed by Sec of State @JayAshcroftMO (who is in this room to get soundbites for his run for Governor).

"The fact that you're in here testifying..when we've never seen you testify on anything other than election related maters makes it clear that this is really about politics...and that suggests that maybe it's actually about the fact that you're running for Governor." @PeterforMO

The awful, contemptuous tone that @JayAshcroftMO is speaking with is disgusting, particularly because it's so clear that he is here to run for Governor, and is using trans kids as a political football for his own political benefit. Shame on him. #ProtectTransKids

@JayAshcroftMO walked out of the room looking ashamed and nauseous. It's almost like he knows how evil this all is, his targeting of vulnerable trans kids for his own political gain. His face is the look of a man who has hardened his own heart, and knows it.

@JayAshcroftMO This is all hurting my heart so much. It's so hard to sit here and listen to this. #ProtectTransKids

There's now someone testifying in favor of these bigoted bills from "Concerned Women of America" or some other innocuously terrifyingly named org. I'm not going to share much of what she says, because I need a break for a moment. This all hurts too much.

God bless you @RepKeriIngle. I'm sitting here crying from how awful these people are, and there you are, finding the words to fight for us and our kids. Bless you. Truly, bless you. #ProtectTransKids

@MayorLucasKC now stepping up to the mic to defend our kids. "Look at the children in this room! Stop telling them that they are wrong, that they are a mistake, and that God didn't put them here on purpose!"

Apologies if I take a break or two in this thread; I can't stop crying.

I know this will be *incredibly* surprising, but @MayorLucasKC is now getting questioned by GOP Reps with rather racist, dog-whistling questions about "crime" in KC

And now another testimony in favor of these bigoted bills. "Stacy Shore" who says that she is here as a former NCAA athlete...and how she "isn't anti-trans, just pro-woman."

Slow, deep breaths. This is going to be a marathon.

These aren't even the worst of the bills; next come the criminalizing medical bans on gender affirming treatments. That'll be when our elected reps accuse us of being child-abusers, and threaten to take away our children.

I remember the first year I came out to testify against these bills there was almost something affirming about it; something hope giving. We spoke truth to power, and it felt like we were winning. That's not how it feels anymore. Now it just hurts. So so much 💔

The lobbyist from KC Chamber of Commerce: "Missourians are being murdered; people are addicted to drugs; families are falling into poverty; and you all are here spending your time just picking on kids...we've got a lot of issues to tackle here, and this just isn't one of them."

"There are a lot of people who just won't come here to Missouri because they think Missouri is just a bigoted and backward State...and they think that because of hearings like this one." --Incredibly powerful testimony from the KC Chamber of Commerce lobbyist (!)

There are children in this room who are crying, because of the hate and bigotry and bulling that is being spewed by the @MissouriGOP reps in this room, and their awful supporters. Teenagers openly weeping.

Democrats are now starting to ignore and refuse to pay attention to those who are testifying in favor of these bills. Just playing on their phone while they speak, and then popping right up the moment the bigots are done talking.

House Minority Leader @crystal_quade now stepping off the dais to bring tissues to crying kids...hugging them, comforting them💔

@crystal_quade "I have prepared remarks for today, but I have to say that sitting here for these past two hours has been one of the most painful experiences of my entire life...and we've been doing this for four years." --@roripn

"For two hours, this body has been debating whether or not my son counts as a person. Some of the most powerful people in our State are debating our kids' humanity right in front of them, and they are being tortured. By you." @roripn

"You are giving people the excuse to discriminate against one of the most discriminated groups in our entire State." --@roripn

Stepping out to sit with an incredibly brave teen who has been hurt and traumatized by the cruelty of these people.

Back in the room again. It's almost 8--which means we've been going for 3.5h, and we're only through the first of the three bills. Meanwhile, it's supposed to snow 5" in STL (where we all are/were hoping to drive back 2h to when this is over)

The amazing organizers at @PROMOMissouri are telling us that this is likely to keep going, that we really are going to take on the medical bans after this. The exhaustion in this room--emotional, spiritual, physical--is palpable.

Interrupting this thread to give a plug for CampIndigoPoint.org, the camp for trans, gender expansive, and LGBTQ+ youth that @shiraberk and I started last year as a hope-giving response to all of this awfulness.

We need to raise another $60,000 or so to pay for scholarships (we're committed to making sure *every* kid who needs camp can come to camp), staff salaries, and, tragically, security. We will be official at our fiscal sponsor *very* soon, but until then gofundme.com/campindigopoint

Ok--here we go. Now the medical bans. So I'm going to start by speaking personally. Because these medical bans are what keep my up at night, terrified. These are the laws that make me scared of government goons showing up at my door, threatening to take away my child.

The three (different) bill sponsors of trans health care bans have a very different tone that they are going with. They very much are "we care about kids and need to protect them from this whole trans thing that will ruin their lives!"

@RepKeriIngle pointing out to the bill sponsors that their bills would criminalize breast augmentation for trans girls, and yet breast augmentation for cis-girls remains totally legal in the State of Missouri.

Seriously--all the democrats in this room are awesome, but @RepKeriIngle has been *rocking* it all night. She's just a total badass, and is uninterested in the BS being spewed by her colleagues.

@RepKeriIngle is powerfully pointing out that banning gender affirming care for trans kids, but not gender affirming care for cis and intersex kids, is deeply a-scientific, immoral, and hypocritical.

These bill sponsors couldn't be clearer when talking about why they support allowing gender-affirming care for cis & intersex folk but not trans folk: because they believe that everyone should conform to their imagined gender/sex binary.

@PeterforMO is absolutely schooling these people. Line by line, point by point, he is going through with a trial-lawyer's approach and just tearing apart everything they are saying. It's pretty freaking awesome to watch. Tearing apart the "Swedish study" and on and on.

Ps--I'm getting kind of giddy. I haven't eaten in hours, and am pretty exhausted...so my apologies if these tweets start getting a touch unhinged ;-)

ps, if you're following me on here, but not following @roripn , you're doing twitter wrong ;-)

To be clear, this hearing is *still* going on, with no real signs of ending...I've just totally run out of steam to keep tweeting it out. Sorry friends!