Transgender youth bill moves forward, questions remain

Several key developments today as Nebraska lawmakers battle over a bill targeting certain transgender individuals.
First and foremost, the legislation that would prohibit gender altering procedures, including surgeries, for anyone under the age of 19, is still alive.
The bill, which has found opponents filibustering every other bill for weeks, moves forward without a vote to spare. Identical to yesterday’s vote for a ban on abortions after six weeks, all 32 Republicans and one Democrat—south Omaha State Sen. Mike McDonnell—voted in favor of the measure.
But the bill’s future is still up in the air.
The main sponsor, Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, had proposed an amendment prohibiting only surgeries but she changed her mind, asked that the amendment be voted down, and it was. Instead, she is now promising work on an unspecified amendment before the bill hits final reading.
Some of her opponents voiced mixed feelings on the move, looking forward to some “common ground” while “hesitant and nervous” about that unknown amendment.
At the same time, while it’s not every day that doctors at the state’s premier medical facility are accused of being in it for the money, that was the case today.
While defending her “Let Them Grow Act,” Kauth accused physicians at the University of Nebraska Medical Center of opposing her bill for their personal bottom lines.
Her critics, specifically State Sen. Carol Blood called the accusation “ridiculous.”
By the way, the Associated Press reports that with two-thirds of the 90-day session already over the filibusters have handcuffed lawmakers who have yet to pass one single bill so far this year.