Following a rural school district’s policy forcing students to use locker rooms, bathrooms, and participate on sports teams that align with their biological sex, Nevada legislators passed a last minute amendment to a piece of legislation that would fine school districts $5,000 per day for instituting the policy.
The amendment to Assembly Bill No. 423 passed Friday, May 26 without a hearing and states:
A board of trustees shall not adopt a policy that limits the access of a pupil because of race, religious creed, color, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, ancestry, familial status or sex, to school facilities or activities.
If the Department finds that a board of trustees adopts a policy that violates the provisions of subsection, the Department may impose an administrative penalty of not more than $5,000 for each day that the policy is in effect.
The original draft of the bill, which excluded the above language, passed unanimously with bipartisan support. The late-night amendment passed with 12 Democrats voting in favor and all eight Republicans voting against the change.
State Sen. Ira Hansen called putting the amendment up for a vote last minute without a hearing an “abuse of power.”
🚨#nvleg Dem abuse of power:
Took a bill w/ unanimous support & dropped a floor #BudLightAmendment w/out any hearing at the last minute in the last waning days of the session fining NV school boards $5k/day that try to block boys from girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports. pic.twitter.com/iE17otyysy
— Ira Hansen (@Irahansen) May 27, 2023
“I would call this amendment the Bud Light Amendment. That is a major controversy across this state. There’s an enormous backlash across this country on this very issue, and to do this as a floor amendment and not have any hearings, and put it on a bill that originally was fine, is absolutely an abuse of the process,” he said.
Parents rights organizations have come out against the measure.
“Local school boards are tethered to the local community and the parents who are the stakeholders. Adding a fine to local school boards to hold them hostage to a radical ideology is unacceptable,” Erin Phillips, president of Power2Parent, told The Daily Caller. “Denying the reality of gender in sports and private spaces is disadvantaging our daughters and erasing every gain Title IX afforded women. Dems are forcing ideology on the families that is unpopular and unsafe.”
The bill, which would go into effect on July 1, is expected to be vetoed by Gov. Joe Lombardo.
