Latest news with #SB104
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
As a queer former teacher, I know Ohio's bathroom law will harm students
Ohio's anti-trans "bathroom bill" − Senate Bill 104 − requiring K-12 schools and colleges to ensure that students use the bathroom corresponding with their sex assigned at birth went into effect on Feb. 25. Teachers and administrators who care deeply about creating a safe and respectful environment for all students are now in the difficult position of enforcing a law that causes harm to transgender, nonbinary and gender expansive students. As a former teacher, I'll break down some key reasons why this law is both unnecessary and harmful for everyone involved. Teachers already have a lot on their plates. They juggle lesson planning, student safety and countless other responsibilities. Adding "bathroom monitoring" to their list is unreasonable. This law was created by politicians who don't understand the daily realities of teachers or their students. Forcing teachers to follow unnecessary and harmful rules only increases their stress, takes time away from students and takes time away from teaching. This law isn't about protecting students; it's about demonizing transgender students. More: Cincinnati Children's Hospital doesn't threaten minors. Anti-trans politicians do. | Opinion Forcing students to use the wrong bathrooms leaves them feeling unsafe and distressed. According to the Trevor Project's 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People, "53% of LGBTQ+ young people reported experiencing recent symptoms of depression, including nearly three in five transgender and nonbinary young people (59%) and more than two in five cisgender young people (44%)." Creating an environment where students feel unsafe and distressed seven-plus hours a day, five days a week for months out of the year would just add to those numbers in Ohio. Ultimately, teachers want to help their students, but this law creates confusion and limits their ability to provide support. Transgender students already face challenges, and laws like this ignore their needs and cause lasting harm. As Randy Marsh from South Park famously said, "I thought this was America." This law strips away our students' freedom to choose how to express their gender. For many transgender students, being able to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity is essential to their dignity and self-expression. When we take that away, we strip away the freedoms that define us as Americans. In doing so, SB 104 limits freedom of speech and expression - a constitutional right - by forcing people to act and speak in ways that don't reflect who they truly are. Teachers work hard to create safe and inclusive spaces for all students. Research from GLSEN, an organization focused on ending discrimination and bullying of LGBTQ people, shows that LGBTQ+ students feel a stronger sense of belonging when schools adopt inclusive policies. This law undermines those efforts. As someone who grew up queer and attended a public school in Centerville, Ohio, I know how important it is for students to feel safe and supported. School was one of the few places where I could explore my identity without fear. By enforcing this law, we are denying future generations the chance to do the same. Instead of divisive laws like SB 104, let's focus on real issues like school-based violence, access to healthy lunches, educational achievement and more. Let's stop trying to govern bathrooms over baseless claims and start addressing the challenges facing our schools and students. Nico Schrenk is an openly queer LGBTQ+ advocate and public speaker who serves in the Department of External Affairs at Equitas Health as the Name Change Clinic Coordinator for the Ohio Name Change Legal Clinic, which is a partnership between Equitas Health and TransOhio. These legal clinics offer free monthly legal assistance to the transgender, nonbinary, and gender expansive community of Ohio in accessing their legal name changes and/or gender marker changes on identity documents. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio's bathroom law is a cruel attack on trans students
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
More election info might become public record
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — Cast vote records and ballot images captured by automated tabulating machines in future South Dakota elections would become public records under a proposal moving forward in the South Dakota Legislature. The Senate Local Government Committee on Wednesday endorsed an amended version of Senate Bill 104. The panel's 6-0 vote moves SB 104 to the Legislature's Joint Committee on Appropriations. That is because it requests $516,000 from state government's general fund for grants to be made available through the South Dakota Secretary of State office to county auditors to assist with the costs. The 18 Senate and House appropriators assemble and oversee state government's annual budget. 'Trapped' film raises human trafficking awareness Republican Sen. Tom Pischke is SB 104's prime sponsor. It is supported by South Dakota Canvassing Group, which focuses on election integrity. The group's leader, president Jessica Pollema of Sioux Falls, and election technology specialist Rick Weible of Elkton testified as supporters Wednesday. The legislation defines a ballot image as 'a digital rendering or facsimile of a paper ballot tabulated in the election' and defines a cast vote record as 'an electronic record of how the marks on a ballot are tabulated as a vote for a candidate or other ballot question.' Weible said that the availability of ballot images and cast vote records would enable county auditors to better identify whether election fraud had occurred. He said counties would need special laptops and special software. Currently four South Dakota counties have that equipment. The grants would cover 60 other counties that don't, including those handling elections for Todd and Oglala Lakota counties. Minnehaha County has the laptop and software and experimented during the 2024 primary election, according to Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson. Testifying as a supporter, Anderson told the senators that her office also used the equipment last year for post-election audits. 'It was very useful and a great learning experience,' she said. Counties would be responsible in future years for annual licensing fees, however. McPherson County Auditor Lindley Howard said the $5,600 annual cost for the fee was 'a real sticking point' in her county, which had a population of 2,411 in the 2020 census. Howard is a member of the state Elections Board that sets rules and awards grants. She spoke as an opponent to SB 104. The cast vote records and ballot images would make post-election audits unnecessary, according to Howard. The Legislature passed a 2023 law requiring post-election audits, a step Howard supported. 'I think we need to do one or the other. Both is not feasible,' she said on Wednesday. Another opponent was Rachel Soulek, director for the state Division of Elections within the Secretary of State office. Soulek said the legislation that Secretary of State Monae Johnson brought last year would have designated cast vote records and ballot images as public records if a county had the equipment to make them available. The 2024 bill contained no funding. Soulek argued Wednesday that the $516,000 now being requested in Pischke's bill wasn't 'a prudent use' of public funds. Soulek also warned that the federal Help America Vote Act funding which South Dakota receives would be strained. She distributed a handout. 'As you can see, the HAVA dollars would quickly go away if this was passed,' she told the senators. Pischke in rebuttal said the Legislature controls the purse strings and can make the county grants a priority. Regarding designating the information as public records, he added, 'Other states already do this.' Weible answered a series of questions from Republican Sen. David Wheeler about funding. Weible said South Dakota hadn't applied for some of the available federal election funding in the past. Weible said he's been in contact with some members of Congress to see whether states could be allowed to apply in the future for money that was previously available. Regarding timing, Weible said he sees the legislation as 'a go-forward type' of bill. 'The vision-cast should be for the 2026 primary election,' he said. Wheeler voted to send SB 104 forward to the appropriations panel. He said a small group of people wants access to the information and he doesn't want counties to be without money to fulfill public record requests for it. 'That's my ultimate fear of what's going to happen,' Wheeler said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
