News/Commentary

Nebraska state sen says she won’t ‘acknowledge’ GOP colleagues who don’t support puberty blockers for kids

May 20, 2023 | | Print Article

An uncooperative Nebraska state legislator has gone viral over her tough and unaccommodating stance on puberty blockers and reassignment surgery for kids.

Nebraska state Sen. Megan Hunt, a former Democrat turned Independent, supports such so-called “transgender care” and doesn’t like Republicans who oppose it. Indeed, speaking with Semafor this week, she straight-up said she doesn’t think Republicans who oppose it are good people.

“Reasonable people can have disagreements on whether we should ban abortion at 20 weeks or 12 weeks, or even six weeks. But some of this basic civil rights sh-t, I’m just like: What the f–k is wrong with you? I don’t talk to them. I don’t acknowledge them. I don’t want to work with them. I literally don’t think that they’re good people,” she said.

Hunt became a viral sensation on the left in March when she joined Democrats in filibustering every bill being passed by Republicans.

The filibuster was launched a month earlier in February by Democrat state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh.

“Starting in February, Cavanaugh has filibustered every bill that has come before the legislature this session. She is protesting proposal LB574 — or the ‘Let Them Grow Act’ — which was put forward by a Republican lawmaker,” according to NPR.

The “Let Them Grow Act” would ban puberty blockers and reassignment surgery for kids. Hunt is herself no fan of the “anti-trans” bill, as she calls it.

“The woman who introduced these anti trans bills, Kathleen Kauth, she’s new — she was appointed. Because her anti-trans bill made it out of committee, and it’s on the floor for debate, we’re forced to take it seriously,” she told Semafor.

“It’s really taken up all of the oxygen in the whole legislature. If I were one of the more experienced lawmakers who have been working on their pet projects for seven, eight years, that would annoy me,” she added.

As noted earlier, Hunt joined the filibuster in March.

“My son is trans. And this bill, colleagues, is such an affront to me personally and would violate my rights to parent my child in Nebraska,” she said at the time, as reported by the New York Post.

Asked by Semafor about how she’d made the time pass during the lengthy filibuster, Hunt pointed to her ability to perform “a stream of consciousness.”

“I really try not to read things. I’ve gotten kind of good at doing a stream of consciousness thing that wraps up everything in a bow. When I talk, I tell myself that nobody’s listening, and then it takes all the pressure off me and I don’t feel nervous,” she said.

“Sometimes I pretend in my head that I’m on a talk radio show, like I’m a little Rush Limbaugh or something, and I have to fill up three hours with content. I actually worked for a radio station for a while, doing prep for their drive-time show, and it’s not super different,” she added.

As noted earlier, Hunt used to be a Democrat. Interestingly, she made the switch to Independent AFTER the filibuster began. But why?

“The way they talk about it just really doesn’t represent the way things actually are here. What I hate is when, on TV, they’ll say something like ‘Democratic hero Megan Hunt claps back against Republican leadership,’ stuff like that,” she told Semafor.

“Okay, maybe that would work for some other legislative body. But that’s literally not right. They’ll say something like ‘Democratic queen is pushing back against Republican trash,’ and it’s so annoying, because it totally misrepresents how things work here,” she added.

She continued by saying she just doesn’t want to be part of the usual political nonsense.

“If Fox says ‘Democrat Megan Hunt,’ that means we hate Megan. If Vox or something says ‘Democrat Megan Hunt,’ that means we love Megan. I get it, labels are useful. But obviously Democrats are not a monolith. We’ve got Democrats in Nebraska who support complete abortion bans who are voting for the anti-trans bill. And we’ve got Republicans in Nebraska who aren’t. I just don’t want to be a part of it,” she said.

From the sounds of it, she’s not a hardcore, leftwing Democrat. However, she is extremely passionate about the transgender issue. But so are Republicans …

Vivek Saxena
Latest posts by Vivek Saxena (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles