On one end of the Missouri Capitol last week, Sen. Greg Razer was making yet another unsuccessful attempt to convince his colleagues to enact legal protections in state law for LGBTQ Missourians.
“I’m still perceived as controversial,” Razer, a Kansas City Democrat who is one of just six openly LGBTQ lawmakers in the legislature and the only member in the Senate, said last week on the Senate floor.
Hours later across the rotunda in the House, Rep. Chuck Basye, R-Rocheport, was advancing a measure to allow voters to bar transgender girls from participating on girls’ sports teams in their school district.
“This isn’t about hate. This is about fairness,” said Basye, who added the provision to an omnibus election bill. “There’s lots of examples in our society that males are biologically superior than females.”
The dynamic was an encapsulation of the fate LGBTQ issues have met in the legislature for years.
The Missouri Nondiscrimination Act, which would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, has languished in the legislature for 24 years. It’s been three years since it’s even received a committee hearing.
Meanwhile, legislation targeting transgender students has gained support in the House for the last two years, though it has yet to be passed out of the Senate.
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