By Trisha Ahmed | Associated Press/Report for America
Teachers in North Dakota can still refer to transgender students by the personal pronouns they use, after lawmakers on Monday failed to override the governor’s veto of a controversial bill to place restrictions on educators.
House lawmakers fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to block the veto, days after Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s office announced the veto and the Senate overrode it.
The bill would have prohibited public school teachers and employees from acknowledging the personal pronouns a transgender student uses, unless they received permission from the student’s parents as well as a school administrator. It would have also prohibited government agencies from requiring employees to acknowledge the pronouns a transgender colleagues uses.
Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have drafted hundreds of laws this year to push back on LGBTQ+ freedoms, particularly seeking to regulate aspects of transgender people’s lives including gender-affirming health care, bathroom use, athletics and drag performances.
“Ask yourself, does Senate Bill 2231 treat others the way you would want to be treated?” Democratic Rep. Emily O’Brien of Grand Forks said on the House floor, adding that overriding the veto would perpetuate “discrimination, hatred or prejudice.”
Republican Rep. SuAnn Olson of Baldwin said the bill protects freedom of speech for teachers and keeps “inappropriate” topics out of the classroom.
North Dakota will consider other bills this session about transgender students, she said.
Olson said that if lawmakers “are firm on this bill, on girls’ athletics, on separate bathrooms, we will strengthen public schools.” But allowing what she called an “emphasis on sexuality” in schools would cause students and teachers to abandon the public education system.
State representatives voted 56-36 to override the governor’s veto, but 63 votes were required.
All 12 Democrats in…
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