MONTGOMERY — Transgender activists flooded the House Education Committee on Wednesday to speak at a public hearing on legislation from House Majority Leader Scott Stadthagen (R-Hartselle) prohibiting public school and university employees from using alternative names and pronouns without parental consent.
House Bill 246 (HB246), also called the Freedom to Speak Act, was the second hearing related to gender ideology and transgenderism at Wednesday’s committee meeting, bringing nearly a dozen advocates to speak out against legislation they believed was discriminatory and even dangerous.
“This bill would prohibit employees of public school and public institutions of higher education from using names and pronouns inconsistent with a student’s legal name [and] biological sex without written permission from a student’s parents or legal guardian,” Stadthagen told the committee. “That is it in a nutshell.”
The bill would protect students and employees from disciplinary action for declining to use names and pronouns that don’t correspond to a student's biological sex. If a school or university violates the bill’s provisions, the offended party would be entitled to monetary damages, reasonable attorney fees and costs, and any other appropriate relief.
In keeping with lawmakers’ habit, the Education Committee did not vote on the bill during Wednesday’s hearing due to the public hearing. However, lawmakers did not explicitly state either opposition or support.
Most speakers against the legislation were males in female attire, identifying as either transgender or non-binary.
First to the podium was Dr. Paige Gant, a transgender former math professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, who opposed the bill as a “solution in search of a problem.”
“In my eight years of teaching, I have not come across a single situation in which a lawsuit would have been appropriate against a university regarding the pronouns someone did or did not use,” Gant said. “Secondly, this act would create a classroom environment where teachers could potentially risk legal action for performing basic duties such as handing back tests and assignments. Students do not have to put their legal names on tests and assignments, and often they don’t.”
Alyx Kim Yohn, another regular face around the State House when transgender issues are on the docket, also spoke out against the bill, claiming it removes the “minors right to self-determination.”
“Parents would have to grant permission for a teacher to use a name other than the student’s legal one,” Kim Yohn said. “A teacher is not obligated to use the name based on personal preference, therefore enforcing their will over the wishes of said parents if it suits that teacher.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom, Eagle Forum of Alabama, the Foundation for Moral Law and others were among the bill's proponents.
Ted Halley is another regular face in Montgomery, frequently speaking against pro-transgender legislation and initiatives at libraries, local boards and state committees. Halley, who underwent multiple transgender surgeries only to have them reversed later on, spoke about the negative impact so-called gender ideology can have on young people.
“I think this bill codifies, which it needs to, that respect goes both ways,” Halley said. “Just because you think my respect means that I agree with you, it doesn’t. Respect can mean you disagree. So I think it’s important that we speak truth. And yes, it’s hard but I think those, in my mind, that go down this road need to realize, not everyone accepts you and they may call you Bill when you want to be called Susie.”
Leah Billye Welburn, a self-proclaimed "transgender, non-binary resident of Auburn, Alabama," likewise stated the bill was “a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”
Colonel John Eidsmoe, senior counsel for the Foundation for Moral Law, spoke in favor of the legislation, contradicting the claim that the bill was gratuitous.
“This is not a solution in search of a problem,” Eidsmoe said. “At the foundation, we have handled several cases in other states, Iowa, Ohio and several others, involving students who have been disciplined for not using preferred pronouns and teachers, one who was fired for that.”
“I believe that a student has the right to call himself any pronouns he wants, but he doesn’t have the right to force others to use that same pronoun, especially if it violates that person’s religious or moral or medical or social or scientific beliefs," he declared.
Following the public hearing, Stadthagen stated he planned to offer a substitute to the bill without elucidating what the changes would be.
The Education Committee is poised to meet again next week, meaning that is the soonest the bill could receive a vote.
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