By Howard Fischer || Capitol Media Services
State lawmakers are once again wading into the area of the rights of transgender minors.
A new proposal by Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, would bar school employees from knowingly referring to a student by a pronoun “that differs from the pronoun that aligns with the student’s biological sex” regardless of the student’s preferences. Only if the adult first gets parental permission would that be permissible.
And Kavanagh already is planning to expand what has been introduced as SB 1001 to close what he sees as a possible loophole where teachers could avoid pronouns and instead address a student by the first name he or she prefers.
He wants state law to read that only a student’s given name or some variant could be used. So someone named Edward could be addressed as Eddie or Ed.
But calling that student Emma or Evelyn would be breaking the law.
Kavanagh bills his measure as ensuring that parents know if their children are identifying themselves by a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth. That, he said, ensures the children can get the psychological treatment they may need to deal with depression and possible suicide.
