 We've talked about Nebraska and state senator Makayla Kavanaugh's ongoing filibuster of literally everything in her state's government until her Republican colleagues agree to pull an anti-trans piece of legislation that would ban gender firming care for trans youth. Now, I've been personally fascinated with this story. We've done multiple videos about this and even received a shout-out from Senator Kavanaugh herself, which was incredibly cool. But the reason why this story is so important, and it speaks to me so much, is because Senator Kavanaugh has created a blueprint that all Democratic politicians should be following right now in order to defeat these draconian bans on LGBTQ plus rights. And this strategy is needed now more than ever, considering that there has already been 300 plus anti-LGBTQ plus bills in 2023 alone, including 91 gender firming care bans, 30 anti-transports bans, 44 proposed bans on LGBTQ speech, 27 drag bans, and 12 bans that legally erase trans people from existence. And it's so bad that several states are seeing multiple bans on gender firming care being proposed with varying degrees of strictness. So this is an all-out assault across the country on LGBTQ plus rights. So now more than ever, we need people like Makayla Kavanaugh, who are actually standing up and fighting against this wave of hate. Now, Makayla temporarily paused her filibuster to debate the anti-trans bill that she's trying to stop, and after going scorched earth, she's trying a little bit of a different strategy temporarily. She's trying to level with her GOP colleagues by appealing to what's left of their sense of humanity. Let's watch. I've been asked a lot. It's no surprise. I've been asked to do a lot of interviews nationally from remarks that I made on this floor, and I've been asked time and again. Why do Republicans want this? Colleagues, Democrats, I'd like to speak to the Republicans in the room. Just the Republicans. My answer has always been, this is not a Republican issue. This is not something that Republicans want. I know so many of you I've served with you for four years. I know you. I know your families. I know your hearts. I know that you are caring, kind, and compassionate people who are here to do public service. And I am asking you to pay attention to this debate, to pay attention to this conversation, open your hearts and your minds and think about what brought you here to begin with. What did you believe government should be? How did you believe government should function? So many of you have talked to me about government over each time and time again, big government, inflated government, parental rights. This bill stands in opposition to the tenants that many of you expressed to me are at the foundation of why you are here. It will not be popular to vote against this. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't. And I know many of you have voted against things that were not popular in the past. And I know that you have a heart for service and I ask that you use that heart for service in this debate. And to those of you that are watching, who are part of the LGBTQ community, the trans community, you are loved, you matter. I am here to serve you. Thank you. So she's trying absolutely everything. Carrots, sticks, whatever it's going to take to convince these Republicans to give up on this potentially deadly piece of anti-trans legislation. And during the debate, she proved that all it takes sometimes is just one person to do what's right and others will follow. If one person shows courage, others will too. And I say this because her Democratic colleagues didn't just stand in solidarity with her and trans youth in denouncing this bill, but one lawmaker even agreed to join Makayla in filibustering every single piece of legislation until the Republican Party agrees to pull this bill and they were very clear there will be no compromise on this particular issue. If this bill advances, the filibuster will resume. I will join it with my whole heart, with my whole chest. And every bill will be going to cloture. This is a recycled playbook. A lot of these things were said in the 60s, 70s and 80s. About gay people, this idea that we were somehow confused, we'll grow out of it. It's just a phase. We don't know who we are. It's insulting. And I think it's a bit dehumanizing. The only compromise with bills like this is to just leave people alone. There is no such thing as compromise when we're talking about taking away the right to be a parent to your own child. Just leave people alone. If you agree to disagree, that's fine. We can do that. Then pull the bill and you can do and parent the way you want to and the rest of us can do and parent the way we want to. That's the compromise. Leave people alone. It's really easy to make medical procedures sound barbaric and awful when you're talking to people who don't understand or practice medicine. We have the same conversation when we talk about abortion. We use triggering and emotional words like murder or mutilation to describe medical procedures. But the thing is, is that none of us know what we're talking about. None of us practice medicine. So to a lot of people, it does sound barbaric because it removes the humanity in the situation. It removes the nuance involved in really difficult private medical decisions. And that's what we're fighting for. We're fighting for people to be able to maintain their humanity. So one in 2000 children are born neither boy nor girl. And a decade ago, doctors often encouraged families to pick a side, pick a sex, and you know why they stopped doing that. Because gender identity is complex and doctors can get it wrong and ruin that child's life forever. You give examples in the bill, but there's a long list of biology that can come into play and saying things in the text like such as is a dangerous way to describe this potential. And by the way, my first babysitter when I was a little kid was a hermaphrodite. So I learned from a very early age that people's biology can be very different than male or female. Now, hermaphroditism is a dated term, but for those unaware of what she's talking about, she's referring to intersex people who are born with ambiguous genitalia. But every single one of those speeches was just incredible. They were authentic, genuine, but most importantly, they were correct. Especially that comment from this Senator, Senator Day, who put it very simply, leave people alone. Now, I'm sure that Democratic lawmakers in states across the country are also vociferously condemning similar bills. But the question is, what are they doing to block these bills? Are they going as far as Makayla and her Democratic colleagues? See, Nebraska lawmakers are proving that fighting for LGBTQ plus people isn't a lost cause in red states just because you're outnumbered. You still have a number of tools at your disposal. The question is whether or not you're going to use them. Now, because Republicans are demons, well, everything that these lawmakers said predictably went in one ear and out the other. In some bills, we've argued, at least so far in hearings, that 13-year-olds can't be responsible for murder because their brains aren't sufficiently formed to understand that murder is wrong or that it's final or that, you know, somebody will never draw another breath after you kill somebody. But here, we're saying that people can be, have their gender changed, well, operations to attempt to change their gender, they can't be reversed. And maybe 10 years from now, they may not think that that was a good idea, they may have medical complications from that, I think that's wrong. God created us male and female. And it's kind of strange that when you go in for surgery to change your identity, you only get one choice. If you're male, your choice is to become female. If you're female, your choice is to become male. But our society says we have many different genders, but it is strange that you only get to choose one when you make the choice to change. There are people who have made that decision to make that transition when they're young. And as Senator Kahl said, when their brain matures, they realize that was not the best decision or perhaps it was the poorest decision they've ever made in their life. But it's irreversible. It's irreversible. And so for the life of me, I can't imagine why we want to mess with something that God created. Spoken like a true ignorance imbecile. First of all, not all of us are part of your little book club. And we don't subscribe to your antiquated belief system, so stop trying to push that on all of us. Second of all, gender-affirming care for trans youth is not irreversible. These Republicans don't even know what they're talking about. For children who show persistent signs of gender dysphoria, gender-affirming care for them at younger ages simply means social transition, not surgery, contrary to popular belief. That means that they get to choose different clothes and use different pronouns, maybe a different name. And when they become pre-teens and they've shown persistent gender dysphoria over a long period of time, well then a doctor may prescribe them puberty blockers if their parents agree to that. This just gives them additional time to make a more long-term decision about their gender. And so long as they're not on puberty blockers for more than two years, the effects are completely reversible. And when it comes to teenagers, they may be prescribed hormone replacement therapy as a treatment for persistent gender dysphoria. Bottom surgery is not permitted on minors. No genital mutilation is happening unless of course you count circumcision. But something tells me these Republicans don't really have a problem with that kind of mutilation. The point is these treatments for gender dysphoria have been approved by various medical associations. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and they've been deemed medically necessary since they reduced suicidality among trans youth. They are important, they save lives. All of these medical decisions are made by the child, the parents, and the doctor. And these theocratic Republicans should have no say over these private medical decisions. So, you know, you can see that the words that their democratic colleagues said didn't resonate. They didn't take to heart the recommendation that they mind their own fucking business or educate themselves because, predictably, Republicans are going to Republican. And that means you act like a demon and you go after the most vulnerable in society. But with that being said, I want to share Makayla's closing thoughts because even though she tried to initially be more nice to these Republican ghouls in order to gently guide them to the correct and humane decision, she still made it very clear that she is not fucking around. And she's blocking any amendments to this anti-trans bill. And if they're going to vote for it, well, she wants them to put their name on the most evil iteration of this legislation so people can see who these Republicans really are. And she is going to speak about this idea of compromise with regard to this bill. And as you're going to see, she points out that there's no compromise on this issue. You're not going to pass a less harmful version of this bill. We're going to pass no ban on gender affirming care. So let's listen. When it comes to the protection of children in this state, I will not compromise. I will not compromise. I have ensured that there are motions to block any amendments from coming to debate. That's my prerogative in using the rules. So if you vote for this, you vote for this. You vote for LB574 in its purest evil form. You vote for 574 to go after the medical community, to go after parents, and to go after trans children. That's what you vote for. You can blame me for voting for it, but I can't push any of your fingers on your buttons. You vote for it, you vote for it. I'm going to block anything from changing this bill. I tried to get the committee to change this bill before it came out of committee. I tried to convince the committee members that we should consider an amendment. I asked if the introducer had requested an amendment. No, no, no. So now you want to compromise to assuage your guilt? No, thank you. I will not allow you to assuage your guilt. If you want to find a way to vote for 574, vote for 574. It's there for you. Go for it. Have at it. But it's not going to get better. It's going to be in its pure form that Senator Kalk and the male members of the HHS committee decided it would be in. And that right there, my friends, is how it's done. She is the one setting the tone. She is the one dictating to them how things are going to be. She's not going to allow them to pass some watered down version that's still harmful. And she's also not going to let them run away from this bill after they learn how harmful it really is. I mean, if you come for trans kids, she'll come after you. And now she has backup. That's the message that I saw from Democratic Party lawmakers in Nebraska today. Nothing but solidarity for each other and trans people. Now here's what happened after this debate took place as KETV ABC7 reports, lawmakers adjourned Tuesday without taking any other action. Hunt and Omaha State Senator Makayla Kavanaugh have since filed a series of motions that likely will further delay a first round vote on advancing the measure. So true to her words, she is continuing to do everything she can to stop this bill from advancing. And I said this the last time that we talked about this, but I'm going to say it again because I think that it's important that I repeat this point. Democratic lawmakers across the country need to take notes. They need to learn from Senator Kavanaugh. This is what they need to do. Right now, you can stop these harmful anti-LGBTQ plus bills if you do what Senator Kavanaugh is doing. If your state proposed anti-LGBTQ plus legislation, then you now have a viable strategy that will work. So if you're watching this and you've seen these bills proposed in your state, call your state representative and ask them why they're not doing what Senator Kavanaugh in Nebraska is doing. And if they don't know about her story, educate them. Let them know that they too have the power to block these bigoted bills. The question is, will they use the power that they have to protect some of the most vulnerable people in our society? And if not, then why are they even there? Why were they elected in the first place? So in closing, Makayla has single-handedly raised the standards for what it means to be an LGBTQ plus ally with power. The question is, why aren't other democratic politicians in states across the country doing what she's doing? So if you're as touched by Makayla's advocacy as I am, hit the like button and be sure to subscribe for more updates on this story because I'm assuming I'm going to keep talking about this because this story is incredible because it gives me hope. It shows that you don't have to lie down and take it. You can actually stand up and fight these Republicans and guess what? Sometimes you might actually be successful. All it takes is courage.