URGENT – Share Your Opposition to AB 469

URGENT CALL TO ACTION

Please share your opposition to the harmful and unnecessary Assembly Bill AB 469!

This Thursday the Wisconsin State Assembly Education Committee is holding a hearing on AB 469, the so-called “Student Privacy Protection Bill.”  This bathroom bully bill, which seeks to ban transgender (and by default intersex) students from using the gender-segregated facilities that align with their gender identity, is an attack on transgender students in our K-12 schools.  The bill would require transgender students to either use the facility that aligns with their sex assigned at birth or use single-occupancy facilities.  It would also allow individuals to sue a school district if they suspect they are in violation of this policy.

GSAFE is opposed to this bill and is organizing against it.

Supporters of AB 469 say this bill would provide reasonable accommodations for transgender students.  Any law that singles out a group of students for different treatment isn’t a reasonable accommodation.  It’s discrimination. This law would make some of our youngest and most vulnerable students targets for increased bullying and harassment by adults and their peers.

Supporters of AB 469 are playing up gross and harmful stereotypes that cast transgender students – particularly transgender girls – as deviants, perverts, and sexual predators.  This is the same thing they have been saying about LGB people for decades, and now they are saying it about elementary students.

Please take action by contacting the Assembly Education Committee Members TODAY and letting them know you oppose AB 469.

If this bill becomes law, it would undermine the work of dozens of Wisconsin school districts that have developed local solutions to support transgender students while ensuring the safety, privacy, and dignity of ALL students while following federal laws.

Listen to GSAFE’s Sr. Director of Education and Policy Brian J. on WPR’s Joy Cardin show discussing the bill – CLICK HERE.  [Please note: Wisconsin Family Action’s Julaine Appling, who worked to get the bill introduced, is the guest for the first half hour.]

Follow the GSAFE Facebook page and our website for updates on AB 469 and the hearing.

Please contact our office at (608) 661-4141 if you have questions or need assistance.

PLAN TO ATTEND

Attend the upcoming public hearing on Assembly Bill 469, Wisconsin’s bathroom bully bill, and either register or speak in opposition to this harmful and unnecessary bill. More information below:

PUBLIC HEARING on AB 469

WISCONSIN TRANSGENDER BATHROOM BILL

THURSDAY, 11/19, 10 a.m. 

417 North, GAR Hall

Wisconsin State Capitol

If you are simply registering in opposition to the bill, pick up a slip as you enter the room and fill it out.

If speaking, be sure to pick up a slip, indicate you will be speaking in opposition to AB 469, write the time you registered to speak at the top of the slip, and turn it in to the page.

CLICK HERE for helpful information for testifying at a public hearing.  CLICK HERE for additional tips on preparing your testimony.

If you cannot make this public hearing, please contact your legislator and let him/her know you want them to oppose this bill.  In addition, please contact the members of the Assembly Education Committee to let them know this bill is unnecessary and will harm students across the state.

2015 Wisconsin Assembly Education Committee Members

Find your legislator HERE. Simply type your address in the search bar at the upper right-hand corner of the page and hit “enter.” Your legislators will appear along with their contact information.