Trans "Sports and Spaces" Bill Sponsor Responds to GOP Defections

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good morning. I'm Scott Vorhees infor Gary Sadelemeyer here with Jim Rose,
Lucy Chapman, Terry Lahey. Wewelcome onto the program someone who's latest controversial
bill was LB five seventy five,These Sports and Spaces Act, which would
have said, you can play sportsin the state, especially as young people.

(00:20):
You can go into locker rooms andbathrooms, but you must choose those
things that correspond with your gender.It was overwhelmingly supported, but defeated in
a thirty one fifteen vote after twolawmakers who originally said we support this ended
up changing their votes. We welcomethe sponsor of this bill, State Senator
Kathleen Kuth of Omaha here on newsradio eleven ten. Kfab Senator, good

(00:44):
morning, Good morning, Scott.So Brand emails in the Zonkers custom woulds
in box Scott atkfab dot com andsays, so sixty seven percent support in
the Nebraska legislature doesn't prevent a filibustersa thirty one one fifteen vote. It's
pretty overwhelming, but it ends upfailing. Can you explain this well,

(01:07):
So for any filibuster to stop,we need thirty three votes, and that's
a big issue. With a lotof our bills. So at the beginning
of the year, during our rulesdebate, we had asked for a rule
to be brought to the floor calledpresent and voting, which would say that
your vote only counts if you actuallytake a vote and you're there on the

(01:29):
floor, which would mean that ifthirty one people or if two people said
present not voting them, thirty onewould have passed. So we get thirty
one. Two state senators had previouslyindicated to you they supported this. I
believe one co sponsored it. Thesestate senators are Tom Brandt of Plymouth that's

(01:49):
just west of Beatrice, and mervRepee of Ralston here in the Omaha area.
What are your thoughts on these senatorsand what conversations did you have have
along the way as they changed theseimportant votes. So mervs. Senator Repea
had last year pulled off after theabortion surprise. He pulled off a lot

(02:13):
of bills. He gave me aletter saying he was just gonna sit and
think and not be a co sponsoranymore. I haven't bothered him about it
too much. He indicated he justdidn't want to be pressured. Last I
had heard he said as long ashe's not pressured too much, he'll he'll
support it. But he was givinga lot of encouragement from the other side.

(02:35):
I think that that probably swayed hisvote. Senator Brand had said that,
you know, he was still listeningand still so he Senator Brand was
at least willing to engage in discussion. I was disappointed that he wouldn't give
us closure so that we could workon some of the issues that we had
a couple of good suggestions during thedebate. We could have made the bill
a little bit better, but wehad to get select file, so with

(02:59):
not vote, we were not ableto get to flat file. It seems
to me, Senator Kyle, thatthe entire message of this bill was hijacked
and missed. And I don't knowthe depth of the intellectual capacity of Senator
reape Er Senator Brant, but I'mbeginning to see it just in light of
some of the things they said inthe awake of the bill. But it

(03:19):
seems to me that the message wasnot about transgender kids, but about protecting
the rights of girls, and inparticular young girls, girls in competition in
high school and beyond. Why isit that that happened, and do these
two people have the intellectual capacity toascertain the difference. I'm sure they do.
You know, it's it's the messagewas hijacked. The message is very

(03:46):
easily manipulated to be, Oh,you're so mean, you hate trans kids,
And that's kind of the less talkingpoints is they weaponize compassion and try
to make people feel bad. Mypoint of this bill is this protects all
kids, and it's not just girls. Boys do not want to have girls
showing up into their locker rooms andtheir bathrooms. It's very uncomfortable. So

(04:08):
this message gives dignity and privacy toall kids, and it protects girls' sports.
There's no way girls should be forcedto compete against boys. But it's
not just on the field of competition. It's the invasion of privacy into bathrooms
and locker rooms. But beyond that, it's about safety. Because there was
the story of the Massachusetts girls teamwho had three of their players seriously injured

(04:31):
by a male a guy who thinkshe's a girl in a game, such
that the team had to forfeit therest of the game because three of the
girls were injured. And if anybodythinks if anybody thinks that it's going to
stop here. And again I wonderabout the intellectual capacity of Senator Carol Blood
too, because she popped off andsaid something pretty buffoonery after the remark to

(04:51):
say, we don't have a problemhere. This is no big deal.
Women are winning. No they're notwinning, actually, Senator Blood, they're
losing big And if anybody thinks it'sgoing to stop here, then they're just
in a fantasy world. It's goingto get bigger and better for them all
the time, all right, deliberatelyignoring. And these are what, to

(05:13):
me is the most surprises when womensay this is not a problem. Anyone
can be a woman and you know, being a woman in a state of
mind, no it's not. Andso when you have people who should be
supporting women, women don't need otherwomen sabotaging them to let men win.
Just have a minute left here withState Senator Kathleen Count of Omaha, the

(05:36):
argument is is that the Nebraska SchoolActivities Association already has a gender participation policy
where you have to apply and beapproved to play on the sporting team of
your choice. And we're really nottalking about very many because in the last
eight years, fewer than ten studentshave applied and been approved, and they
say this is a this is asolution in search of a problem. Well,

(06:00):
I think prevention is always a littlebit better than reaction. The NSAA
policy says every member school can figureout how they want to define that,
So each individual school could have adifferent way of saying, Okay, yes,
you maybe are too strong, toobig, you're about the right size,
We'll let you do it. Youdon't really believe you are, you

(06:24):
just want to me every member school, so we want to have maybe a
thousand different ways that this is interpreted. I would encourage every parent to call
your school, talk to the principleand ask what is the policy and is
my student currently sharing bathrooms and lockerrooms with someone of the opposite sex.
As a parent, you have theright to know that information, and parents

(06:46):
need to get very involved because thisis happening. I've talked to it and
I read into the record a bunchof teachers who have said, look,
we can't speak up because our jobsare threatened, because we will be ostracized
by peers. There are kids whoare afraid to speak up, and that's
the scariest part to me is thatthis is such a will silence anyone who

(07:08):
opposes this will shame them and makethem look like they're horrible people if they
stand up. I mean, lookwhat is happening to Riley Gaines Selina Soule,
who is a track star from Connecticutwho've lost out of scholarships because two
boys decided they wanted to compete atthe high school level. We have Peyton
McNabb in North Carolina who is smashedin the face with a volleyball because a

(07:30):
boy on the other team decided hewanted to play. She has permanent neurological
damage. You know this is goingto increase, and now because this bill
was defeated, we are going tosee more and more of it here in
Nebraska. And you're bringing it backnext year. Yes, oh yes,
absolutely, we'll talk more throughout theyears. I'm sure to come on this

(07:54):
issue. You're right, this issomething that a lot more students are dealing
with now than they were just evena few years ago. Stay, Senator
Kathleen Cauth of Omaha, thank youvery much for the time for us this
morning. Thanks very much. Jet