 But if this legislature collectively decides that legislating hate against children is our priority, then I am going to make it painful, painful for everyone. Because if you want to 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 going to wear me down. If yesterday didn't show you that you can't wear me down, you cannot wear me down. I literally left the floor yesterday, went up to my office, and laid down on the floor. I laid down on the floor, hard floor, and took a 20 minute nap before going to committee hearings. You cannot stop me. I will not be stopped. If LB574 gets an early floor debate and moves forward, it will be very painful for this body. That was Nebraska Democratic Senator Makayla Kavanaugh warning her colleagues in the legislature that in the event they pass LB574, there is going to be hell to pay. Now what is the bill that she's referring to? Well, LB574 is a brazenly anti-trans bill that would inflict a lot of harm on trans people in the state of Nebraska. As Insider explains, LB574 or the Let Them Grow Act would ban doctors in the state from performing or referring anyone under the age of 19 for gender-affirming care, including surgical procedures, hormone treatment, and puberty blockers according to a release about the proposed bill. So that right there is what she's fighting against. It would do actual harm. These authoritarian Republicans are saying that they have the authority to override what parents want, and even though they have no medical expertise whatsoever, they can even override what doctors say is medically necessary care. For some adults, I mean 19 years old, they're honestly saying that adults at that age don't have the right or shouldn't have the right to express themselves with regard to their gender. It's insane and it would cause pain. They know that this would increase suicidality, but that's the point. Like the cruelty is the point. They know that what they're going to do will inflict pain. But Kavanaugh says, okay, have it that way. If you want to inflict pain on them, I'm going to inflict pain on you. So what is her strategy? Well, she's going to bring the entire legislature to a screeching halt by filibustering every single bill until they choose to give up on this particular piece of legislation. Insider continues, a Democratic lawmaker in Nebraska on Thursday vowed to filibuster every bill the GOP led legislature tried to pass to stop the state from passing bans on abortion and transgender health care. Quote, I want to annoy you. I want you to genuinely be frustrated to all get out with me. Senator McKayla Kavanaugh told the Nebraska legislature at a meeting Thursday night, local CBS News outlet KMTV reported at Thursday night session, Kavanaugh was heard filibustering through legislative bill 147 KMTV reported, but she isn't stopping there. She promised they would be hearing from her on every bill being presented during this term. Quote, this body decided they want me to go on. I don't know what we want to call this my vendetta on behalf of trans kids, because this is how the session is going to be for every bill Kavanaugh said KMTV reported. Damn. That right there is what it looks like to wield power effectively. This is what you do when you don't have a majority in Congress in any state legislature. You bring the entire body to a screeching halt. That is genuinely brilliant. It takes stamina. It takes a lot of energy, but she's doing it because she knows that stopping this bill from going through would potentially save lives. And that's not hyperbole. Again, if you deny medically necessary gender affirming care to this portion of the population that is already at increased risk of suicide, this could lead to many trans kids killing themselves. So she's saving lives here by doing this potentially. And what she's doing is noble. And she is doing all of this while being sick with strep throat. So let's listen to her explain her strategy in more detail on MSNBC. This was from a couple of days ago. Well, tell me how this works in practical terms. I know that it's a 90 day session, I think we're in like day 36. And with the way the filibuster rules work, you can effectively spend hours, you can use up hours of the legislative clock and calendar for anything without anything coming up to a vote through this tactic. By using this tactic, what do you think you could logistically accomplish in terms of stopping legislation, stopping the legislature from governing? Well, by my back of the envelope math, we have approximately 518 maximum hours left of debate this session. And that means that we could pass potentially no more than 42 bills. And that's not very many for the entire legislative session. And this is a long session. And that means we have to pass a budget. So I'm just going to practically make sure that my colleagues have to make a choice about what it is they want to do, what our job is, and is our job to legislate hate, or is our job to govern and work on tax cuts and work on the economy. So I'm forcing their hand. And you're calling the question as to what they are doing and what they do want to spend their legislative hours and their capabilities on. You're forcing them to choose this or everything else. Let me ask what this strategy entails from you. I know you spent Thursday and Friday talking for hours on the floor. I understand part of that time you were fighting a cold and a sore throat. I mean, presumably this is physically kind of a big ask just for yourself being able to do this as a human. Yes. Well, it turns out I had strep throat. Oh, which I didn't know. Yeah, that was a fun. So I apparently I can literally filibuster through a virus that attacks your vocal chords and that I'm proving I'm willing to do. I'm willing to do whatever it takes. This is too important. I think it's important for us to focus on what it is we're responsible to do as state legislators as legislators across the country. What is our job? Our job is public policy. Our job is not to legislate hate. But at the end of the day, this is going to hurt children. And I don't care how sick I get. I don't care how tired I am. I am not going to look back on this moment in time and say I didn't do everything that I possibly could to fight for and protect children, especially our most vulnerable children, which are trans youth. Incredible. That right there is what being a good ally looks like because this individual is presumably a straight cis woman. But she doesn't have to turn a blind eye because this doesn't affect her family as a lawmaker as a public servant. She knows that she has to fight for people in this state. And that means putting herself on the line, staying there, not leaving, talking nonstop to help these families who send her there to represent them. And what she's doing is a public service. And not only that, I think she's created this blueprint that other Democratic lawmakers need to follow around the country. And it's not the only bill that she's filibustering, by the way, that's bad. They also are proposing a heartbeat bill in Nebraska that would ban more abortions. So what she's doing here is really important. And I just want to dream for a moment if Democratic lawmakers in all states had the courage to do something like this, because obviously Nebraska isn't the only state where Republicans are proposing deeply harmful policies. For example, Texas lawmakers introduced a brazenly discriminatory bill that would give tax cuts exclusively to straight couples that have kids while excluding gay couples who adopt. So imagine if a Democrat in Texas filibustered every single bill until that was defeated. Iowa Republicans proposed a bill ban and gay marriage in the year 2023. Tennessee is poised to become the first state to ban drag performances. I mean, there's been over 300 anti LGBTQ plus bills proposed in 2023 alone, most of them anti trans bills. So imagine if rather than just speaking out against these policies, Democrats in these states actually wielded power effectively and blocked them. I mean, this isn't the only strategy filibustering every single bill isn't the only thing that you can do in my state of Oregon, for example. Well, Republicans just left. So the legislature couldn't actually reach a quorum to pass climate change legislation. There's that as well. There are things that you can do to block these bills that are very harmful if you are in the minority. And I just want more people, more representatives to be clear to learn from politicians like Kavanaugh, who I think are just fierce and really, really instrumental in protecting our civil rights and civil liberties. I mean, imagine how much pain and suffering Democratic lawmakers around the country could prevent by being as courageous as Makayla here. Now, what's interesting is that you would think that this is something that is just going to appeal to Democrats, but even some Republican voters might like what these Democratic lawmakers are doing, because believe it or not, these anti-trans bills, they're not actually popular. At least in the deep red state of Kentucky, as trans activist Aaron Reid points out, a new poll shows that 71% of people in Kentucky oppose laws that ban gender, affirming care, even 62% of Republicans oppose these laws, yet Republican politicians waste political capital on them anyway. Hell, even Republicans are fed up with their own party's onslaught of attacks against LGBTQ people. Wyoming Republicans, for example, are trying to rein in their party's hyper fixation on culture war issues. So what Kavanaugh is doing isn't just popular. More importantly, it's moral. Fighting for disadvantaged people, fighting for marginalized people is exactly what politicians should be doing. So if every single Democratic politician around the country did what she did, I think we'd be in a much, much better place. So watch and learn, Democrats, because she just showed you that the situation isn't hopeless if you don't hold power. You can still do a lot as a member of the minority party in government. So do it.