NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE I f there is any question about where transgender ideology leads and the lengths to which its proponents will go to defend it, one need look no further than this year’s legislative session in Nebraska. While a weeks-long filibuster intended to “burn the session to the ground” over a bill to protect children from gender-transition drugs and surgeries has drawn national media attention, it may also provide an important lesson in principled, common-sense conservative leadership in the face of overwhelming adversity.
On January 17, Republican state senator Kathleen Kauth introduced LB574, the “Let Them Grow Act,” in the unicameral Nebraska legislature. The bill prohibits puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender-reassignment surgeries on minors. It is similar to laws adopted by 13 states and currently being considered by more than a dozen others.
What has set Nebraska apart, much to the delight of the national press, is the extent to which opponents have gone to delay the bill’s passage. The day after LB574 was introduced, opposing senators made a motion to adjourn the legislature “sine die,” which would have ended the session entirely before any bills, including a state budget, could be adopted. The motion failed 7–33. Since then, a small minority of Democratic senators have been on crusade to derail the entire session by filibustering not just LB574, but every single bill that comes before the legislature.
Bills must go through three separate rounds of debate before being sent to the governor. Debate can last up to eight hours on the first round alone. As it stands, the Nebraska legislature is now more than two-thirds of the way through its 90-day session and not a single bill has been passed. This is the intended and best possible outcome for those opposed not only to LB574, but to any major conservative proposal. Political insiders and senators leading the ongoing filibuster know that much is at stake this session. The Nebraska legislature is within striking distance of passing major pro-life, school-choice, religious-freedom, tax-reform, voter-ID, and Second-Amendment legislation that, in addition to LB574, could create a history-making session with generational impact.
Thirty-three votes are needed to end a filibuster and allow a bill to move forward. Republicans hold 32 of the 49 seats in the Nebraska legislature. But Omaha Democratic senator Mike McDonnel is a pro-life Catholic with true convictions who has demonstrated tremendous courage in co-sponsoring LB574, as well as pro-life legislation. Apart from him, however, there is a small minority of legislators putting politics above the well-being of children and the governance of an entire state. In doing so, they provide more evidence of the quasi-religious devotion that proponents of transgender ideology have to their cause.
After LB574 passed through first round debate on March 23 with the exact minimum 33 votes, Senator Kauth offered an amendment limiting her bill so that it only prohibits gender-transition surgeries on minors. But even this amendment was a non-starter for those carrying on the filibuster and was rejected. Any acknowledgement that even the most permanent and irreversible form of “gender-affirming care” might not be appropriate for six- or seven-year- olds undermines their entire ideology and is therefore, for them, impermissible.
What’s happening in the Nebraska legislature is about whether doctors should be allowed to perform sex-change procedures on children. This is a fundamental issue. Do we protect children who cannot consent to elective, permanent, and irreversible surgeries? Do we allow their bodies to be mutilated in the name of “gender affirming care,” or do we not? Children who are struggling to embrace their biological sex need love, support, and time — not drastic surgeries with lifelong, irreversible consequences.
Thankfully, despite the partisan political theater, there are still adults in the room committed to doing the right thing. While the focus has been on the senators holding up the session and making the rounds on national television to raise money for their PAC, it should instead shift to those who are advocating for truth, human flourishing, and the protection of children with grace, tact, and conviction. Senator Kauth and other conservative senators in Nebraska have demonstrated a high level of courage and composure throughout the session. In the face of unprecedented obstruction and daily, personal invective, including accusations that their bill is akin to supporting “genocide,” conservative legislators have met name-calling and slanderous attacks with reason, science, and common sense to do justice for children. First-year Nebraska governor Jim Pillen has also been an outspoken champion for the same conservative and Christian values he campaigned on, declaring that protecting our kids is his top priority as he announced his support for LB574.
This year’s legislative session should serve as a reminder to us all about the type of commitment we must have to good governance, and to the truth. The Nebraska legislature will pass a historically low number of bills this year. But senators are continuing to work through priority bills one filibuster at a time. With each passing day, they are closer to passing meaningful legislation, including LB574. Indeed, senators recently advanced the Nebraska Heartbeat Act through first round debate and yesterday, LB574 advanced to the final round unamended.
The common-sense approach and consistent, principled commitment to conservative values of Senator Kauth, Governor Pillen, and others may not win headlines, but it will win the day. Because by the time the session ends and there’s nothing left to filibuster, it will have been the bills passed into law, not the empty soundbites, that made it one of the most consequential sessions for pro-life, pro-family, and conservative values in years.