 Last week on the program, we talked about a bill that the Republican controlled legislature in Arkansas passed that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth, something that would be absolutely detrimental to the well-being of young transgender people because this is a group that isn't just more susceptible to bullying and this would further make them a target, but they're also highly statistically likely to attempt suicide or contemplate suicide much more so than their cisgender peers. So all this would do was make their lives, which are already difficult, that much more hard. And it seemed very likely that the governor of Arkansas would sign this into law given that he just recently signed a bill that would ban transgender high schoolers from participating in sports. The unthinkable happened, actually. We got some unexpectedly good news. Asa Hutchinson, the governor of Arkansas, who's a Republican, actually decided to veto this legislation. So as the ACLU reports, the governor of Arkansas just vetoed HB 1570, an extreme ban on healthcare for trans youth. This victory belongs to trans youth in Arkansas and the parents and doctors that have come together to speak up. Now upon vetoing this legislation, he explained his reasoning and he says, I was told this week that the nation is looking at Arkansas because I have on my desk another bill passed by the General Assembly that is a product of the Cultural War in America, Mr. Hutchinson said, and announcing his veto. I don't shy away from the battle when it is necessary and defensible, but the most recent action of the General Assembly, while well intended, is off course. Actually, it's not well intended. It goes against the advice of medical experts and scientists having said that though I don't necessarily care what his reasoning is, regardless the fact that he vetoed this is exactly what I was hoping would happen. The bad news, however, is that that doesn't necessarily mean that this won't become law. Because there are other bills being considered currently in other legislatures controlled by Republicans. Alabama may be the next state to pass something like this. And even in Arkansas, the battle isn't necessarily over just yet because as the New York Times explains, the Arkansas State Legislature could override Mr. Hutchinson's veto of the bill known as HB 1570. Republicans hold large majorities in both chambers and passed the bill last month with mostly party line votes 70 to 22 in the House and 28 to 7 in the Senate. So if they want to, they could easily override his veto. And it seems as if that may very well be the case. Although the fight continues and I will say the video that I put out last week is still super relevant because I don't just talk about the legislation in Arkansas. I explained specifically using the medical experts and scientific data that we have why these types of bills are absolutely detrimental to the well being of trans people. But if you look at the comments on any video when as it pertains to trans youth, all you see is ignorance. Denial of science, denial of the existence of transgender people. They say, oh, there's no such thing as a young transgender person. Absolute nonsense and your ignorance, if you are part of that is fueling these types of legislative efforts. Trans youth exist and you can choose to ban gender-affirming care for them and make them suffer, make them highly susceptible to self-harm and suicide. Or you could actually trust the science and medical experts and the community of doctors that treat trans youth who say this care, it's medically necessary. It's medically necessary and puberty blockers are 100% reversible. So rather than trying to justify your bigotry with bad data and misinformation, actually listen to transgender people get to know a trans person and it might actually change your mind. You might actually learn something, but you see in America what we usually do is we spend a lot of time demonizing one particular group of people. And even though we know that historically we're going to be frowned upon for the way that we're treating this group, we still do that anyway. Because ignorance and prejudice, it's as American as apple pie, right? I mean, we just learned that anti-gay prejudice is immoral because a lot of people slowly but surely got to know. The gay people, they found out that their siblings and friends are gay. And so they realized, okay, they're not the boogie man and boogie women that we were told. But rather than applying what we just learned to the trans issue, people are choosing once again to not do that, to be prejudiced. And as a result of people's unwillingness to learn and change and open their minds, guess who's suffering for that? Transgender Americans and disproportionately trans youth who are the targets of these types of legislative efforts. But I don't want to be too down because this is good news, but I don't want to celebrate too much because this could be a short-lived victory. We just have to wait and see and continue to push back against these types of absolutely horrible, destructive pieces of legislation that we are going to continue to see around the country.