Latest news with #ElenaParent
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gold Dome Nuggets: Channeling Obama, pulling rank and a wink and a nod to a small horse
Sen. Elena Parent. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder A Democratic Atlanta state senator got some unwanted attention this week over a vote on gender-affirming care for Georgia inmates and a leaked conversation with a constituent. Sen. Elena Parent was one of four Democrats who voted with Republicans on the bill, sponsored by Cataula Republican Sen. Randy Robertson. Four other Democrats did not vote on the measure when it passed Monday. Parent proposed an amendment that would have allowed transgender prisoners to continue to take hormones they were prescribed before they were incarcerated but still disallowed surgeries, but the amendment did not pass. Flummoxed by their loss to President Donald Trump in November, some Democrats believe the party has focused too much on social and cultural issues like transgender rights, to the exclusion of economic issues. A recording of Parent going back and forth with a constituent over Zoom before the vote shows the pressure some Democratic lawmakers face to not step back on transgender issues. Clips of the exchange have gone viral on social media. Audio of the entire conversation is available via Decaturish. The constituent is Lena Kotler, the mom of a transgender child, who wanted Parent to vote against the health care ban. Parent argued that that would not be a wise political decision, invoking former president Barack Obama. 'I've had to remind a lot of people about that recently that, likely Barack Obama was smart in saying that he believed marriage was between a man and a woman in 2008, because he wouldn't have won the election without it, and then it was his Supreme Court and his presidency where progress was able to be made,' Parent said. Former top aide David Axelrod has said that he encouraged candidate Obama to publicly oppose same-sex marriage in 2008 to boost his political chances. 'In my capacity as senator from the 44th, I would be delighted to vote no on all these bills, as I always have for 13 years,' Parent said in the call. 'In my capacity as chairwoman of the Democratic caucus, I have been forced by Trump's reelection to realize what damage has been done, and unfortunately, the only way to get people to vote for your party that are not already with you and don't already agree with you is to get them to listen –' '–By throwing trans people under the bus,' Kotler said. 'I think that's a very unfair characterization,' Parent said. 'How would you characterize voting against trans people's constitutional rights?' By the 14-minute mark of the 42-minute recording, Kotler had called Parent a 'piece of sh-t' and pledged to do everything within her power to see her out of a job. After the meeting but before voting on the inmate health care bill, Parent took to the floor to speak against a Republican-sponsored bill opening up librarians to charges if they knowingly distribute materials deemed 'harmful' to minors. 'Sometimes it's appropriate to tell activists in your own district, in your own party, 'You know what, sit down and shut up,'' she said, referring to Republicans supporting red meat conservative bills. 'And we don't see that enough, and this is a prime example of where we need to say 'We hear you, but sit down and shut up.'' Newbie Georgia legislators are traditionally ribbed by their colleagues the first time they introduce a bill. Senior lawmakers often haze freshmen by asking inane or highly detailed questions or pretending they intend to vote against their bill. Last week, however, the upper hand of banter would reverse course when 30-year retired Army Maj. and Fayette Democratic Sen. Kenya Wicks presented a bill to the Senate Rules Committee that would allow military families to use their orders as proof of residence for school registration. A military order is an official document that verifies a person's military service. Wicks said the bill is intended to simplify the process of registering children when moving between school districts for military service members. Wicks' office suitemate and retired veteran Sen. Michael 'Doc' Rhett asked her why she had not presented her military orders to him this session when she moved in. The Marietta Democrat is a retired master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force who was elected to the Senate in 2014. The banter took a different turn when Sen. John Albers, a Roswell Republican, reminded Wick that she outranked Rhett during their military careers. 'Mr. Chairman, he does owe me a salute,' said a chuckling Wicks to Senate Rules Chairman Matt Brass. Rhett responded by standing up to salute Wicks. 'I'll hold him in the brig for a couple of days,' Brass said. The Senate passed Wicks' bill during Crossover Day, the deadline for bills to advance out of a chamber during a session. A proposal to name the marsh tacky horse Georgia's official state heritage horse breed cantered its way out of the House. It's now among the stable of House bills ready to shoot out of the gate in the Senate in the wake of Crossover Day. But the bill's sponsor is not foaling around about it. Rep. Mike Cameron, a north Georgia Republican, says he didn't think much of the proposal at first, but he couldn't say neigh to helping to honor a storied horse whose numbers have dwindled to critical lows. Once a common sight, the marsh tacky horse was first documented in Georgia in the 1500s, and since then, they have aided colonists, indigenous tribes and the Gullah Geechee. The horse even played a role in the Revolutionary War. But as farmers turned to larger cattle, they also started to favor horse breeds that towered over the more diminutive marsh tackies. Now, the Livestock Conservancy, which works to protect America's endangered livestock and poultry breeds from extinction, has classified the marsh tacky horse as endangered. 'This is the first step in recognizing that we need to preserve this animal,' Cameron said of this bill. 'They're good horses, and we need to preserve this breed.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Georgia Senate OKs bill to outlaw gender-affirming care for inmates in state custody
Democratic Sens. Kim Jackson, left, and Elena Parent watch votes come in for the Senate's gender-affirming care ban for inmates. Jackson opposed the bill and Parent voted for it. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder A bill banning gender-affirming treatments for inmates in state custody passed the Georgia Senate Monday. Senate Bill 185's sponsor, Cataula Republican Sen. Randy Robertson, said there are three lawsuits ongoing from inmates seeking gender-affirming care and he wants to nip the issue in the bud. 'When you see the tsunami coming, a lot of people wait until it's at the shore, to start sandbagging and evacuating everybody and doing what you need to do,' he said. 'I think if you look at the temperature that not only are we experiencing here in the United States, and obviously by these three lawsuits, people are attempting to do this, and it is the responsibility of this body and the body across the way to make sure we are prepared for what comes down the road, because as someone who understands crisis management and other things, you don't wait.' The bill passed with some bipartisan support, with several Democrats joining all Republicans voting in favor of the bill, and others simply not voting. Sens. Sonya Halpert, Ed Harbison and Elena Parent crossed party lines to support the bill, while Sens. Tonya Anderson, Jason Esteves, Randal Mangham and Nikki Merritt did not vote. Roswell Republican Sen. John Albers gleefully pointed out the disunity among the Democrats. 'Let's be honest, you as Democrats, in your own caucus are divided on this issue,' he said. 'Throughout the last several votes, some of you voted with us, and others took a walk and did not vote at all. The overwhelming number of Georgians and Americans, both Republicans and Democrats, support this bill and the others. Candidly, if you vote against this bill, you are politically tone deaf.' Parent proposed an amendment that would have allowed some inmates to continue taking hormones they had already been taking. 'I don't believe that taxpayers should be responsible for funding the surgeries outlined in lines 68-69 and 71-72, including gender affirming surgeries, cosmetic procedures, or prosthetics,' Parent said. 'But on the other hand, I believe that denying transgender prisoners access to gender affirming hormones that they are already taking, and in some cases may have been taking for years, is cruel and unnecessary.' The Senate voted down the amendment. Halpern characterized the bill as a distraction. 'Not one tax dollar in Georgia has ever been spent on sex change surgeries for inmates, so let's not pretend this is about fiscal responsibility,' she said. 'This bill simply makes explicit what is already the practice in Georgia, and yet here we are debating this as if it were some looming crisis, as if Georgia's prisons were on the verge of becoming gender-affirming care centers at the taxpayer's expense. Let me be clear, that is not the reality here in Georgia.' 'But I am also a pragmatist,' she added, 'and the simple truth is that I cannot in good conscience support taxpayer-funded medical procedures for prisoners that we do not provide to law-abiding citizens who are struggling every day to afford basic health care.' Democrats who opposed the bill characterized it as cruel and unconstitutional. 'I know good and well that public polling does not support gender-affirming care for people who are incarcerated,' said Stone Mountain Democratic Sen. Kim Jackson. 'But I am keenly aware of our history, a history in which public opinion has often not been on the right side of justice, a history in which public polling has often sided with the majority and further isolated and forsaken the minority. I know this is not politically popular, but I stand here today urging my colleagues to vote no on this bill, to vote no as a sign of your commitment to humanity. Vote no for dignity. Colleagues, I beg you, do not let public polling persuade you to do something that you know in your heart is fundamentally unconstitutional, and quite frankly, is downright immoral.' Sen. Josh McLaurin, a Sandy Springs Democrat, said the bill could be seen as a violation of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. 'The Eighth Amendment being the one that says no cruel and unusual punishment,' he said. 'I.e. you can't deny medical care while you're incarcerated because you don't have the means to go get your own care. You're stuck. So the state has to provide your health care. And the study committee in question was the safety and welfare of all individuals in the Georgia Department of Corrections. And yet, this bill just exempts medical care from one group of those individuals.' Robertson said he welcomes prospective lawsuits. 'People came to the committee and said this will open up more opportunity for individuals to sue, and my response to that is I'm fine with that,' he said. 'Every piece of legislation that comes out of this building is subject to being challenged in court. We say it many times, you can write the best piece of legislation you want, but until it is evaluated and pressure-tested by a man or woman wearing a black robe, then you really don't know how good the legislation is.' The Senate separately passed a bill Monday banning puberty blocking medications for minors. The Senate has previously passed anti-transgender bills including bills to ban gender-affirming treatments from transgender state employees and their children on the state health care plan and to keep transgender girls off girls' school sports teams. The House has passed its own transgender sports ban. The bills have until April 4 to make it to the governor's desk. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
