Repeat off

1

Repeat one

all

Repeat all

GOP lawmaker got so mad at a school for protecting trans kids that he’s trying to impose fines
January 30 2025, 08:15

A North Dakota lawmaker introduced legislation on Monday to punish the Fargo Public Schools district and their superintendent for standing up for LGBTQ+ students in defiance of the state’s draconian bathroom law.

The proposed measure, House Bill 1144, would require the state Attorney General’s Office to penalize schools that allow transgender students to use their preferred bathroom or locker room. The AG would be directed to take them to court, where a judge could impose a penalty of up to $2,500 per violation.

Related

North Dakota Gov. signs bill that allows teachers to misgender their students
It also requires schools to out trans kids to their parents.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Bill Tveit, said he brought up the legislation in direct response to actions by the Fargo Public Schools’ superintendent in defiance of the state government’s anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.

Stay connected to your community

Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

“There’s 11,000 kids he’s teaching, ‘If you don’t like the law, you don’t have to obey it,'” Tveit told the House Human Services Committee during a hearing on the bill.

He said the punitive legislation would “protect the innocence” of North Dakota children, The Grand Forks Herald reported.

The bill also adds impediments to accommodating students by banning “multi-stall” gender-neutral bathrooms and shower rooms, and adds further restrictions to policies related to preferred pronouns.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum signed House Bill 1522 in May 2023. The law prohibits transgender students from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity, and bars schools from adopting policies that require or prohibit “any individual from using a student’s preferred gender pronoun.”

Burgum has since been nominated for Interior Secretary by President Donald Trump.

In an emotional speech to the school board following enactment of the law, Fargo Public Schools Superintendent Rupak Gandhi said, “We’re going to do what’s right for our kids” and “double down to advocate for our youth.”

“I think that we as adults in North Dakota and our legislative session failed our children because we are putting our politics over their humanity, when at a time every piece of data will show you that our students need advocates, not opposition,” Gandhi said.

“Unless the board tells us otherwise, we will not openly out any student because of one law if we know that’s going to cause harm to that child. Unless dictated by the board otherwise, we will not participate in anything that we think is going to subject them to further discrimination or increase their self-harm,” he said.

The school board backed Gandhi’s open resistance.

“We have open enrollment in North Dakota,” board member Greg Clark said to the state’s LGBTQ+ students. “Come to Fargo.”

The new bill’s author also introduced Senate Bill 2104, which would divert authority from district superintendents to the state superintendent. The bill provides yet additional penalties against public schools out of compliance with state mandates.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.


Comments (0)