You've no doubt heard that the South Dakota state legislature has passed HB 1008, which would mandate that students use only the restrooms, locker rooms, and showers aligning with their "biological sex" at birth. HB 1008 "allows" schools to make accommodations for transgender students, like giving them their own bathrooms -- which will result in transgendered students being ostracized and beaten up. It's hard for me to figure out what proponents of "bathroom bills" really want anymore. They can't want to protect children, since no one has ever advanced an example of a child injured or threatened by the presence of a transgender person in their bathroom. And they can't want to protect themselves from discomfort, either, since they would know better to codify such selfishness in law. No, this must merely be more politically-correct swordfighting between politicians desperate to prove they're more "conservative" than others. The ACLU helps you tell South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard to veto HB 1008.
Meanwhile, closer to home, SB 484, and Common Cause helps you tell your Pennsylvania state legislator to support SB 484, and thus support real redistricting reform. SB 484 would amend the Pennsylvania state constitution to create a redistricting commission composed of five members, four of whom would be the Majority and Minority leaders of the state House and Senate, and the fifth a civilian appointed by the other four. Currently the state legislature composes new districts every 10 years, which means that the party in power in the legislature composes Congressional districts that favor that party, so SB 484 would certainly represent an improvement. And Iowa redraws its Congressional districts every 10 years with a similarly-composed five-member commission (albeit in a system where the legislature retains final say), and they consistently draw competitive districts, whose members, as a result, face more popular pressure to do well by their constituents. So let's have more of that.
Finally, H.R. 699, the Email Privacy Act, would actually accomplish something we've been demanding for a long time: it would prevent our government from looking at "abandoned" emails "left" on servers, or, indeed, any emails without a warrant. And H.R. 699 has an astounding 310 House sponsors! The House only has 435 Representatives to begin with, and 194 of the bill's sponsors are Republicans, so House leadership can't even invoke that stupid majority-of-the-majority rule in refusing to pass the bill. Yet House Judiciary Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte hasn't moved the bill, nor has House Speaker Paul Ryan pressured him to do so. Mr. Ryan will no doubt say (as he has regarding the Voting Rights Advancement Act) that he doesn't want to step on Committee Chairs' toes, but when the people demand something, and their Representatives actually prepare to do it, doesn't it behoove the House Speaker to show some leadership? Demand Progress helps you tell House leadership to put H.R. 699 to a vote.
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