Legislating Discrimination: Emailed Testimony About ‘Grotesque’ Anti-trans Youth Sports Bill Redacted as Public Opposition Silenced
Trump's 2016 presidential campaign energized far-right groups as he harshly attacked immigrants, Muslims, and progressives. He embraced "white grievance" politics, attracting large numbers of white voters, most frequently men, who believed that they had been the victims of racial discrimination — a fact that should come as no surprise, considering Trump's racism (which conservatives have primarily chosen to ignore) has been on full display for over 30 years.
Since being tossed out on his ass by over 81 million voters, Trump's supporters have sought to perpetuate his legacy of extremism and hate by fabricating non-existent problems they claim are caused by gays, lesbians, and transgender people — waging some of the most intense political assaults against LGBTQ people in recent years.
In Anchorage, these attacks have been borne out in attempts to censor LGBT books from the Anchorage Public Library through the Library Advisory Board and Youth Advisory Commission — both stacked with loyalists of anti-LGBT demagogue Anchorage Mayor David Bronson, who appointed Judy Eledge as director of the Anchorage Public Library last year.
Eledge, aside from sharing numerous anti-trans social media posts, posted an "article" from The Epoch Times titled "Social Media, Schools, and the Secret Rise of Transgender Children: The New Social Contagion" in August 2020.
Eagle River Assemblyperson Jamie Allard, a candidate for state office, called all transgender people "mentally ill" on the Louisiana-based Dan Fagan show last year — an attempt to score cheap political points with far-right voters and an act that underscored her lack of understanding about the transgender community.
Now, on the state level, Republican Alaska Senator Shelly Hughes, who, like Allard, is a far-right Save Anchorage group member, has proposed legislation (SB 140) that would prevent transgender female athletes from competing against other female athletes in school sports.
That a state senator would use sports as yet another avenue to attack the rights of trans people and cause harm to trans youth is, for lack of a better word, vile. Even before the pandemic hit, 1 in 3 transgender youth reported attempting suicide, as one national crisis-prevention organization reported in 2019. Trans youth, like all kids, feel isolated and need support after two years of enduring a global pandemic — they do not need hatred and rhetoric from so-called "compassionate conservatives" who actively seek to segregate trans youth athletes from their peers.
After public hearings for SB 140 were announced, Identity Inc., a statewide non-profit organization dedicated to advancing Alaska's LGBT community through advocacy, education, and connectivity, called on Alaskans to oppose the discriminatory bill and testify against it. Identity says SB 140 would "profoundly violate all students' privacy" by forcing educators and coaches to identify and separate transgender youth from their peers.
Alaska ACLU Advocacy Director Mike Garvey was more direct — writing that the mechanics of SB 140 were "especially grotesque" and pointing out that the bill would require schools and sports teams to determine a student's "biological sex."
"How do you suppose they'll do that?" Garvey said.
Last Thursday, on the day of the hearing for Hughes' bill, Senator Roger Holland, Chair of the Education Committee, pulled a bait and switch — and canceled public testimony. Holland claimed there was "no subterfuge" associated with the move to silence the public and said the committee would hear testimony on March 12, assumably so that trans haters could plan their weekends accordingly and be available to share their misinformation with the committee.
What the committee did do was permit out-of-state anti-trans sympathizers to speak in support of Hughes' anti-trans crusade.
One of those who spoke at the hearing was Idaho Representative Barbara Ehardt. Ehardt, in addition to the national hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), has collaborated with state legislators and testified in support of anti-trans sports legislation in multiple states – including Idaho, Montana, and Indiana.
ADF has supported the recriminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the U.S., has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people overseas, has contended that LGBTQ people are more likely to engage in pedophilia and claims that a "homosexual agenda" will destroy Christianity and society.
A strange series of events led to public testimony submitted in the form of emails being released redacted — with the names of those who emailed the committee about the bill blacked out.
Shannon Mason Phelps, deputy press secretary for Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, said last Friday it was her understanding the redactions were "an accident" caused by a misunderstanding of a new staffer who didn't understand the assignment.
"But like I said," Phelps wrote on Friday, "they are fixing it now."
As of this morning — five days after the hearing on SB 140 took place — emailed testimony still appears on the bill's history page...redacted.
As Senator Hughes kicks her hateful war against trans youth into high gear, remember that she's proposing a "solution" to a problem that simply does not exist.
Trans-inclusive sports, according to research from the progressive think tank Center for American Progress, do not harm children as Hughes asserts, since standards enabling any students to engage in athletics promote participation across all groups. However, excluding trans adolescents from gender-affirming sports experiences deprives them of the benefits that children gain from sports, such as decreased chances of anxiety, sadness, and suicide attempts.
Public testimony for SB 140 will be taken this Saturday, March 12 at 10:00 am.
