Democrats within the Georgia Home walked out of the chamber Wednesday in protest as lawmakers debated a invoice that might block using taxpayer cash for intercourse change surgical procedures in state prisons.
The protest befell throughout deliberations on Senate Bill 185, which handed the Home by a 100-2 vote.
Solely two members voted in opposition to the invoice—Democratic Reps. Regina Lewis-Ward and David Sampson.
The invoice now goes to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s for approval.
The laws bans state funding for intercourse reassignment surgical procedures, hormone therapies, and beauty procedures that alter sexual traits for jail inmates.
It consists of exceptions for medical care unrelated to gender dysphoria, resembling remedies for sure congenital situations, partial androgen insensitivity syndrome, or the continuation of pre-existing hormone remedy when used solely for transitional functions.
Watch the walkout beneath:
Not all Democrats participated within the walkout.
Three Democratic representatives stayed and voted for the invoice, whereas two others stayed and voted in opposition to it.
Those that stayed have been applauded by Republican lawmakers.
“I might be supporting this invoice as a result of I help a person’s selection however I help the folks’s determination on whether or not or not they pay for these elective procedures,” stated Democratic Rep. Lynn Heffner.
Earlier than the Democratic walkout, Republican Rep. Scott Hilton, who launched the invoice within the Home, stated his constituents help the laws.
“We’re offering a better customary of care than law-abiding residents obtain,” Hilton stated.
Democratic Rep. Tanya Miller, chair of the Home Democratic Caucus, accused Republicans of pursuing an “excessive agenda.”
“Our constituents despatched us right here to handle severe urgent points affecting their day by day lives,” Miller stated.
“But, as a substitute of addressing actual issues, my colleagues within the majority social gathering proceed their excessive agenda.”
Rep. Houston Gaines, vice chairman of the Georgia Home Majority Caucus, denounced the walkout as a “disgraceful show of misplaced priorities.”
“By storming out of the legislative session, these lawmakers deserted their responsibility to symbolize their constituents and interact within the democratic course of, all to grandstand over a problem that the majority Georgians discover absurd,” he stated.
Many different Republican-controlled states together with Idaho, Kentucky, Texas and Utah have handed comparable laws over current years.
In the meantime, lawmakers in Georgia are moving forward with different essential laws together with a ban on transgender athletes from girls’s sports activities which presently sits on Governor Kemp’s desk.
