News Stories:
Transgender Sports Ban Bill Heads to Governor’s Desk
House Freed Caucus Votes with Democrats to End Voting – Killing Chloe’s Law
Guest Column: Freedom Caucus Didn’t Kill “Chloe’s Law”
When I moved to Wyoming I was under the impression that it was an actual Red state and I wouldn’t have to worry about the liberals changing the state even close to purple. Three years later, I see myself getting more into what the Wyoming legislators are doing. As a former California conservative he left that state to find a state that was not a nanny state and anti-gun, I was surprised recently at two news stories in the Cowboy State Daily and then learning more about how the RINOs in the House of Representatives make the true Republicans look bad with the help of bad journalism.
The two bills I am referring to are SF133 and SF144. SF133 is a bill that would if signed by Governor Gordon, ban biological male students from playing female sports from grades 7-12. SF133 was passed the House with a vote of 42 – 19 with one delegate absent. SF144 was a bill that was killed in the House that would have banned transgender treatments and/or surgery to be performed on minors. SF144 was killed in the House due to being gutted by the RINOs. I will explain more below.
SF133 passed the Senate and House but not with the RINOs attempting to change the grades from the 7-12 levels to 9-12. The reasonings for the attempt was because a few Representatives stated that in middle school girls mature quicker than boys, and as such would not be such a problem for girls to compete. As you will see in the linked stories, Rep. David Northrop, R – Powell stated, “When I was in junior high I was a stick, and needless to say any girl could’ve whooped my ass at the time.” While I will agree that many girls do mature quicker than boys at that time period, boys are still in general stronger and more aggressive. Not to mention that boys at that age are also learning that they like the female form.
The RINOs then went on to say that the ban should only apply to the high school level because of championship and scholarship opportunities. Not because the fact that in high school is when boys start to mature more and obtain a more muscular body. Nothing about the fact that during this time puberty starts to happen. Nope, it is like they don’t want to even be on the record that male and female bodies are different and not interchangeable.
Thankfully, SF133 was passed and is now on the governor’s desk awaiting his signature without the change to only protect high school level grades. Here are the votes that were against expanding the ban to 7-8:
Reps. Ryan Berger, R-Evanston
Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne
Forrest Chadwick, R-Evansville
Ken Chestek, D-Laramie
Ken Clousten, R-Gillette
Steve Harshman, R-Casper
Bill Henderson, R-Cheyenne
Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander
Sandy Newsome, R-Cody
Bob Nicholas, R-Cheyenne
David Northrup, R-Powell
Jerry Obermueller, R-Casper
Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie
Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie
Liz Storer, D-Jackson
Tom Walters, R-Casper
Mike Yin, D-Jackson
Dave Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne
Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne
Now SF144, the bill that would have protected children from life-changing treatments and mutilating surgeries. Doing my own research I found the original bill to be almost perfect. Defining each subject perfectly, explaining what was not to be allowed, and the punishment that would be given to those that perform or administer treatment to children. Then I read how the bill was gutted to the point that there was no punishment, deletion of key points of treatments and surgeries that were banned, and really just a shell of the original bill.
Link to original SF144
Link to Amendments
The process of going to the committee in itself is questionable. The House Speaker Rep. Sommers, R – Pinedale sent the bill to the Appropriations Committee even though there was nothing in the bill that dealt with appropriations. The Freedom Caucus twice tried to have the bill move to the Health and Labor Committee as the bill actually health with healthcare issues, but the Speaker of the House refused to move it Health and Labor Committee because the Appropriations Committee was the more experienced panel. I question that move, especially after reading the names of the Appropriations Committee’s members and comparing it to the list of names that tried to prevent the expansion of the grades on SF133. Listed are the Appropriations Committee members:
Chairman: Bob Nicholas, R-Cheyenne
Bill Henderson, R-Cheyenne
Llyod Larsen, R-Lander
Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie
Clark Stith, R -Rock Springs
Tom Walters, R-Casper
David Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne
After gutting the bill in the Appropriations Committee, they voted to release it to the floor with a “Do Not Pass” recommendation that placed the bill at the bottom of bills to be heard on the floor. In essence, killing the bill along with other bills that went through the Appropriations Committee with similar “Do Not Pass” recommendations.
In the end, the conservative Freedom Caucus did vote to complete the killing of the remains of SF144 by voting with Democrats. But when you look at the remains of SF144 you will find that it really did nothing that the original bill stated. This is where I now find that I have a trust issue with the Cowboy State Daily news site. This issue is due to their lack of detailed information as to the whole story. They pretty much allowed the RINOs to spin the story and only made it seem as if the Freedom Caucus killed the bill for no real reason. I originally fell for this misinformation and thankfully wrote to my representative, Rep. Dalton Banks, R-Cowley. After talking with him and doing my research I found the true answers as to what happened with both bills.
Sadly, I did not believe I would have to deal with this type of “California” politics in the Cowboy State. I thought I left that type of politics when I left California, but at least there you could normally tell the liberal from the conservatives by the “D” behind their names.
