Ralston Reports: Hate, idiocy driving transgender-bill backers

"You've got to be taught to hate and fear…you've got to be carefully taught." – Joe Cable, "South Pacific"

Racism does not always reveal itself as a contorted face of evil, a sputtering Bob Ewell imagined by Harper Lee. Rodgers and Hammerstein knew that more than a half-century ago.

It often creeps into a family at an early age, inculcated by intolerant parents so as to become woven into the fabric of someone's being. The musical masters were talking about prejudice against people "whose eyes are oddly made, and people whose skin is a different shade." But their words could easily apply to attitudes, slowly changing, toward gay people and, even slower, toward transgender kids, especially in the backwater we call home.

This occurs to me as I watch events unfold in the Assembly Republican caucus, where a benighted subset seems more than willing to turn back the clock to a time when intolerance and ignorance were in full flower.

It's offensive enough that they too often make Nevada a national laughingstock with measures to repeal academic standards because of goofy Internet memes or pass unconstitutional bills for concerned constituents named Bundy. But when they begin to raise the half-century-old specter of segregation with an outrageous bill to make transgender children feel like aliens in their own schools, someone needs to call them on their antediluvian "ideas."

The measure, AB 375, actually passed the Judiciary Committee (on a party line vote) run by Ira Hansen, who once wrote homophobic columns and once told me he hadn't "called anyone a homo in a long time." The bill only has two names on it – Assemblywoman Vicki Dooling and state Sen. Scott Hammond. But the Republicans on the Assembly committee all backed it, so the measure now sits on the Assembly floor as the GOP leaders living in this century try to find a way to entomb it.

The measure seeks to ensure that transgender kids are treated as blacks once were in America or as Cable treated his Tonkinese girlfriend – as if they possess some otherness, something repellent that must be separated from the mainstream. The bill mandates that only students of the same "biological sex" can use a bathroom and then adds this grotesque language: "For any pupil who asserts at school a gender that is different than the pupil's biological sex, a public school shall provide the best available accommodation that meets the needs of the pupil, but such accommodation must not include access to a school restroom, locker room or shower designated for use by persons whose biological sex is different from the pupil's biological sex."

So kids will now run for class president and Chief Genital Hall Monitor? Really, Assembly Republicans, this is what you want one of your signature issues to be this session?

Who are these people?

I sometimes think some of these members of the Assembly Republican Caucus have been beamed into the Legislature from some alternate universe where it's still 1345 AD. Some are blinded by the limitations of their IQ. Some are colored by their religions. And some are simply nasty human beings.

But all of these bill supporters are wrongheaded, no matter their motivations. We heard Assemblyman Erv Nelson fret during the hearing about his daughter having to quit a team because she "did not identify with the gays." We heard Assemblyman David Gardner say only "special interests" opposed the bill, right before a parade of beautiful transgender spirits of all ages testified against it.

You've got to be taught before it's too late, before you are six or seven or eight, to hate all the people your relatives hate…

These lawmakers – at least some of them – may not be fueled by malice. But the bill itself is hateful and prejudiced, just as separate drinking fountains were so long ago.

This comes on the heels of the beautiful articles written by the Gazette-Journal's Trevon Milliard, who sensitively told stories of transgender children and their families while also detailing the progressive approach by the Washoe County School District. I doubt one GOP member of that panel read any of the research that shows kids know their gender identity at a very young age or the stories of how students would rather let their bladders burst than go into what is to them the wrong bathroom.

It's also not as if this is a problem in need of a solution. As cruel as children can be to one another, most kids are evolving much faster than adults on these issues, certainly with more alacrity than The Close-minded Caucus.

None of these folks seem to have an answer to a simple question, either: If we need separate bathrooms for transgender people because they make "normal" kids feel uncomfortable, why not for gays, too? We could always have school elections for Sexual Orientation Monitors, too.

This is another unconscionable embarrassment for Nevada and yet another outrageously idiotic move by a caucus populated by lawmakers who will be known two years from now as accidents of history, one-term relics of the red wave of 2014. But the damage has been done.

To his credit, Gov. Brian Sandoval has tried to mitigate the Assembly GOP's serial stupidity, including a statement I obtained from his office: "The Governor has signed legislation in the past protecting the transgender community and has strong concerns with any legislation that potentially conflicts with his anti-bullying initiative, targets students based on their gender expression, or sanctions discrimination."

Yes, targets. Yes, discriminates. Yes, bullies.

Maybe some of the Assembly Republicans need to be carefully taught tolerance by the man across the courtyard.

Jon Ralston has been covering Nevada politics for more than a quarter-century. He is the host of "Ralston Live" on KNPB Channel 5, shown weeknights at 5:30 p.m., and also blogs at ralstonreports.com.