Democratic senators in the Nevada legislature passed a “last-minute” amendment Friday which would fine school boards if they adopted policies restricting biological boys from entering girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms, as well as participating in girl’s sports.
Amendment 674 of AB 423 passed the Nevada Senate with 12 Democrats voting for the measure (with one excused) and all eight Republicans voting against it, according to the Nevada legislature’s website. The measure would enable the Nevada Department of Education to fine school boards $5,000 per day if they attempted to block biological boys from “school facilities or activities,” according to the amendment’s text. (RELATED: Another State To Consider Banning Transgender Athletes From Women’s Sports)
Sen. Ira Hansen (R-Sparks) said in a tweet it was an “abuse of power” to put the amendment up for a vote without a “hearing at the last minute.”
🚨#nvleg Dem abuse of power:
Took a bill w/ unanimous support & dropped a floor #BudLightAmendment w/out any hearing at the last minute in the last waning days of the session fining NV school boards $5k/day that try to block boys from girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports. pic.twitter.com/iE17otyysy
— Ira Hansen (@Irahansen) May 27, 2023
On the floor he said he understood the amendment aimed to deny “the right of school boards to block biological males from going into biological female bathrooms, locker rooms, or any sporting events.”
Sen. Hansen asked for clarification on the amendment.
The amendment’s sponsor, Sen. Fabian Doñate (D-Carson City), responded by reading the text:
A board of trustees shall not adopt a policy that limits the access of a pupil because of race, religious creed, color, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, ancestry, familial status or sex, to school facilities or activities.
He continued, saying that it was “pretty much what the amendment says.”
Sen. Hansen said the original bill was “fully supported” in the Assembly but became “controversial” with the amendment, especially since it was “last minute.”
He encouraged the Senate to drop the floor amendment, saying it did not have any hearings, and he suggested further discussion before voting for it.
“I would call this amendment the Bud Light Amendment. That is a major controversy across this state. There’s an enormous backlash across this country on this very issue, and to do this as a floor amendment and not have any hearings, and put it on a bill that originally was fine is absolutely an abuse of the process,” he said.
“Local school boards are tethered to the local community and the parents who are the stakeholders. Adding a fine to local school boards to hold them hostage to a radical ideology is unacceptable,” Erin Phillips, president of the parental rights group, Power2Parent, told The Daily Caller.
Phillips said parents want sex-segregated spaces, including in sports.
“Denying the reality of gender in sports and private spaces is disadvantaging our daughters and erasing every gain Title IX afforded women. Dems are forcing ideology on them families that is unpopular and unsafe,” she continued.
Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) has not yet voiced his thoughts on the amendment.
The amendment came over a week after one of the school district boards considered a policy which would have blocked transgender students from locker rooms, bathrooms and sports teams that corresponded with gender identity, according to the Douglas County School Board’s May 16 meeting agenda.
Voting on the policy was postponed, the school board reported.
The Assembly later rejected the amendment on May 30 with a voice vote, according to a local CBS affiliate.