Assembly passes bills targeting transgender youth in school and their medical decisions

Yahoo

21-03-2025

Rep. Barbara Dittrich (R-Oconomowoc) speaking during floor debate Thursday. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner.
The Wisconsin State Assembly passed several bills Thursday that target transgender youth in sports, their medical care and decisions on pronouns and names used in school.
The bills are part of a national wave of actions targeting transgender people that have been taken since President Donald Trump took office. According to the Trans Legislation Tracker, 796 bills have been introduced across the country in 2025.
Hearings on the bills over the last two weeks were emotional and lengthy, lasting over 20 hours, with the vast majority of people testifying against the bills. Republicans dismissed the public feedback, saying the policies are popular. They cited recent surveys, including a Marquette Law School poll that found 71% of U.S. adults favor requiring transgender athletes compete on teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth.
It's unlikely the bills will become law as Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed similar bills in the past and vowed to veto any legislation targeting LGBTQ+ youth.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said lawmakers were still pursuing the bills because they provide an opportunity for the public to tell Evers what it thinks.
'At some point you would hope that public pressure would convince Gov. Evers that he has to change his stance,' Vos said. 'We have seen some brave Democrats across the country realize that their party has veered way too far to the left, and then if they want to win elections again, and they want to be on the side of the public, they're going to change their stance.'
When asked what he made of the overwhelming opposition to the bills at hearings, Vos referenced a saying by former Wisconsin Gov. Lee Dreyfus that Madison is '30 square miles surrounded by reality.'
'If you look at where the most part of Wisconsin is, I think everywhere there's broad bipartisan support,' Vos said. The area surrounding the Capitol 'is the one place where the majority of people think that it's OK to mutilate your kids. It's OK to have women never win another sporting event. Yes, did they succeed in getting a couple dozen people to come and testify? Yes, they did and to that, they deserve the credit, but the reality is, we had elections. This was an issue.'
Since the 2024 elections, some Democrats across the country, including U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have challenged other Democrats' positions on policies related to transgender people. Wisconsin Democrats were mostly united against the bills, giving impassioned speeches about how the bills would do more harm than good and citing testimony delivered at the hearings.
Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said that denying children health care is a 'new low' and accused Republicans of proposing the legislation in order to create a political issue and rile up their own base.
'We are here because the majority party is trying to gain an advantage in the Supreme Court election by bullying kids. We know it. You know it. It's mean-spirited, and it's not helping people of Wisconsin,' Neubauer said.
One Democrat, Rep. Russell Goodwin (D-Milwaukee), joined Republicans voting in favor of AB 100, which would ban transgender girls in Wisconsin K-12 schools from participating on teams that reflect their gender identity.
AB 102, which would ban transgender women attending UW System schools and Wisconsin technical colleges from participating on women's teams, passed 50-43 along party lines. Goodwin left before voting on that bill or any of the other bills on the calendar.
Rep. Barbara Dittrich (R-Oconomowoc) said the sports bills are needed to fill the 'gaps' left by recent policy updates by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which recently barred transgender girl athletes from competing on teams that don't correspond with their sex at birth. The changes came in reaction to an executive order signed by Trump.
The bill was amended to explicitly exclude transgender women from locker rooms and shower areas as well.
Dittrich said the bills are about fairness and inclusion for women, saying that a co-ed option for teams is included.
'If you want to play with boys, have at it, there's a co-ed track for you to do that,' Dittrich said.
Rep. Angelina Cruz (D-Racine) and Rep. Angela Stroud (D-Ashland) questioned how the legislation would be enforced.
'This bill would inflict harm on girls. This bill is an attack on girls. This bill is about exclusion and not protection. This bill does not contemplate enforcement mechanisms — raising concerns about girls' privacy,' Cruz said. 'It is unclear whether the bill would require them to answer intrusive questions about their bodies or undergo physical exams.'
Stroud said it would likely require people to carry documents to avoid harassment and discrimination. She said the bill wouldn't help women as a group.
'One of the reasons we so often celebrate Title IX is because sports have allowed women to defy narrow definitions of acceptable femininity. We could be strong. We could be aggressive. We could be tough. We could be leaders,' Stroud said. 'No woman is benefited by narrowing the definition of what counts as being a real woman.'
Several Republicans complained throughout the debate about 'name-calling' and harsh words that were said to them during hearings.
'The only bullying I saw was coming from the trans community,' Dittrich said, adding that she was physically threatened, called a Nazi and had to be escorted to her car from her office. She added that there were 'vile' comments posted about her and her family on social media.
AB 103 would require school districts to implement policies that require a parent's written permission for school employees to use names or pronouns different from a student's legal name. There is one exception in the bill for a nickname that is a shortened version of a student's legal first or middle name. The bill passed 50-43 along party lines.
Dittrich, the author of the bill, said it is necessary for parents to be included in those decisions.
'We don't want to divide between home and school,' Dittrich said. 'This is meant to heal that.'
AB 104 would ban gender-affirming care, including the prescribing of puberty-blocking drugs or gender-affirming surgery, for those under 18. It would also require revocation of a medical provider's license found to be providing the care. It passed 50-43 with Democrats against and Republicans in favor.
Republican lawmakers said that the bill is necessary because children often change their minds about things, and shouldn't make medical decisions that cannot be reversed.
'It would be a failure on our part to allow children to make life-altering decisions, decisions that they will have to live with for the rest of their life, even when that choice is made with parental support,' Rep. Rick Gundrum (R-Slinger) said.
Gender-affirming medical care is often a lengthy, multi-step process. For those under 18, it typically focuses on pubertal suppression or hormone therapy and surgeries are extremely rare for those under 18, according to KFF. Decisions in the process are made with the input of children, their families and health care providers, including mental health providers.
Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) said her office had gotten many calls from people who have concerns about the actions lawmakers are taking, including a Wisconsinite she said was 'afraid that standing up for trans people would result in retaliation to her business.'
Hong said the bill is 'deeply shameful' and she was 'embarrassed' to be there as the Assembly passed it.
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