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Transgender name ban advances

Bill would deny kids say on identity by Frank E. Lockwood, Rachel Herzog | April 9, 2021 at 7:04 a.m.
“This bill is just a first step to help protect our teachers but when we have students in school now that don’t identify as a boy or a girl but as a cat, as a furry, we have issues,” Rep. Mary Bentley (shown) said Thursday in presenting her bill that would require public school employees to address students only by the name and sex designated on the student’s birth certificate. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Metthe)

Arkansas teachers wouldn't be required to address students by a name or pronoun inconsistent with the student's biological sex under proposed legislation that passed Thursday in the House, one of the latest of several measures in the state Legislature that human-rights advocates say targets transgender people.

The vote on House Bill 1749 came two days after lawmakers prohibited hormone treatments, puberty blockers and transition-related surgeries for transgender minors.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who vetoed the bill only to see it overridden by Republican supermajorities, faced sharp criticism again Thursday afternoon, this time from former President Donald Trump.

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