Nebraska state Senator Machaela Cavanaugh made it her mission to oppose legislation to ban sex change operations on minors and to impose a ban on abortions at twelve weeks. Legislation of both bans was merged into one bill and it was approved by lawmakers last week. The bill was sent to Governor Jim Pillen, a Republican, for his signature.
The week was a chaotic one for the state’s legislative session. Democrat Senator Machaela Cavanaugh behaved in a manner that can only be described as freaking out at the lectern in her opposition to the bill. Her unusual and extremely dramatic behavior has garnered attention because it is not normal behavior for a lawmaker. On Friday morning, before the vote was taken, Cavanaugh put on quite a performance. She repeatedly hit the lectern and shouted, “Transgender people belong here, we need trans people, we love trans people” over and over and over again. It looked like she was having an emotional breakdown of some kind.
Believe it or not this is an elected state government official in Nebraska.
Senator Machaela Cavanaugh.
Who elected her? 🧐😅pic.twitter.com/TPLaqpNJam
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) May 20, 2023
Have you ever seen anything like that before during a state legislative session? To add to the crazy that is going on there, others are walking past her like nothing odd is happening.
When I saw the video clip, my first reaction was one of wondering what in the world is happening in Nebraska? What the hell happened to Nebraska that lawmakers stand up and throw a hissy fit and it’s just another day at the office? People have lost their minds over the transgender agenda being rammed down our throats. State legislatures are responding by passing bills to protect minors from sex change operations, medical procedures that change their lives forever. If a minor boy’s penis is surgically lopped off or prevented from maturing due to puberty blockers, that decision cannot be reversed if that child has a change of mind. A minor cannot make other adult decisions like purchasing beer or liquor, joining the military, renting a car, or getting a tattoo. Why would minors be allowed to make such decisions that affect the rest of their lives?
Cavanaugh, a freshman state senator, said she would filibuster most bills during the session, even the bills she supported, to make her point.
Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh led an effort to filibuster nearly every bill this session — even ones she supported — to protest the proposed restrictions on gender-affirming care. She railed against conservatives who voted for the hybrid bill and warned that people, medical professionals and businesses will leave the state over it.
Cavanaugh declared in early March that she would “burn the session to the ground over this bill,” and she and a handful of progressive allies followed through. They introduced hundreds of amendments and motions to slow every bill at each stage of debate, impeding the work of the Legislature and sending leadership scrambling to prioritize which bills to push through.
It’s her way or the highway, which is how most transgender activists operate these days and it does not win over the hearts and minds of those who oppose such behavior. She describes her behavior as “standing up against hate.”
My colleagues have chosen to stand with hate.
I will never stop standing against it. If you’re with me, consider supporting @DontLegHatePAC.
➡️ https://t.co/1vsC5hfWiy pic.twitter.com/ZMiDDNkqQb
— Senator Machaela Cavanaugh (@senatormachaela) April 13, 2023
Cavanaugh vows to continue her fight.
“You matter. You matter and I am fighting for you. I will not stop,” exclaimed Cavanaugh, who displays she/her pronouns in her Twitter bio. “I will not stop today, I will not stop tomorrow. You are loved. You matter. You belong here.”
The left does not act in good faith on transgender issues and minors. We have seen countless stories of students and teachers working together to shut out parents who may prefer their children wait until they are legal adults to make such radical decisions. The secretary of education and the president insist that children are everyone’s children, a communist way of thinking, that children belong to everyone and not just their parents. All children are not wards of the state and politicians don’t raise children, other than their own. Parents don’t give up their children to the state or to teacher unions when they send them to school. This country is going in a very dangerous direction.
She railed against conservatives who supported the abortion ban, too. She accused them of being bought by the governor.
“Your children are posting things on social media, your children are calling you, colleagues,” Cavanaugh said. “You have to live with your vote.… You have to live with the role that you play in history in the making today. You have to live with the fact that you vote to take away people’s rights. You have to live with that. The rest of us have to live with the implications of that, but you have to live with that.”
“If you didn’t sleep after Tuesday night, reflect on that. You don’t have to vote for this,” she added, just shortly before she called those who support the measure “weak.”
Cavanaugh also claimed that those who supported the measure “allowed” themselves to be “bought by the governor.”
The majority of Americans support bans on abortions at the 12 to 14 week mark. This bill provides for exceptions for rape and incest and the life of the mother, also supported by the majority of Americans.
The Nebraska bill allows the state’s chief medical officer to set rules for puberty blockers and hormone therapies for transgender minors. There are some exceptions for those already receiving treatment before the ban is enacted.
Protests broke out and at least six people were arrested at the state capitol building after lawmakers passed the bill.
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