Arkansas state legislature is deeply worried about trans persons. Rep. Mary Bentley (R- 73rd Dist) has been trying to make trans kids go away for years as with her 2021 bill to protect teachers who used students dead names or misgender them (that's the same year she pushed a bill to require the teaching of creationism in schools).  

In 2023, Bentley successfully sponsored a bill that authorizes malpractice lawsuits against doctors who provide gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Now Bentley has proposed HB 1668, "The Vulnerable Youth Protection Act" which takes things a step or two further.

The bill authorizes lawsuits, and the language around the actual suing and collecting money part is long and complex-- complex enough to suspect that Bentley, whose work experience is running rableware manufacturer Bentley Plastics, might have had some help "writing" the bill. The part where it lists the forbidden activities is short, but raises the eyebrows. 

The bill holds anyone who "knowingly causes or contributes to the social transitioning of a minor or the castration, sterilization, or mutilation of a minor" liable to the minor or their parents. The surgical part is no shocker-- I'm not sure you could find many doctors who would perform that surgery without parental consent, and certainly not in Arkansas (see 2023 law). But social transitioning? How does the bill define that?

"Social transitioning" means any act by which a minor adopts or espouses a gender identity that differs from the minor’s biological sex as determined by the sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous profiles of the minor, including without limitation changes in clothing, pronouns, hairstyle, and name.

So a girl who wears "boy" jeans? A boy who wears his hair long? Is there an article of clothing that is so "male" that it's notably unusual to see a girl wearing it? I suppose that matters less because trans panic is more heavily weighted against male-to-female transition. But boy would I love to see a school's rules on what hair styles qualify as male or female. 

Also, parental consent doesn't make any difference. Rep. Nicole Clowney keyed on that, as reported by the Arkansas Times:

“Is there anything in the bill that addresses the parental consent piece?” Clowney asked. “Even if a parent says, ‘Please call my child by this pronoun or this name,’ it appears to me that anybody who follows the wishes of that parent … that they would be subject to the civil liability you propose here. Is that correct?”

“That is correct,” Bentley said. “I think that we’re just stating that social transitioning is excessively harmful to children and we want to change that in our state. We want to make sure that our children are no longer exposed to that danger.”

In other words, this is not a "parental rights" issue, but a "let's not have any Trans Stuff in our state" issue.  

In hearing, an attorney from the Arkansas Attorney General's office observed that this was pretty much an indefensible violation of student's First Amendment rights, and the AF office wouldn't be able to defend it. According to the Times, Bentley agreed to tweak the bill a bit, but we can already see where she wants to go with this. 

The person filing the suit against a teacher who used the wrong pronoun or congratulated the student on their haircut could be liable for $10 million or more, and they've got 20 years to file a suit.

I'm never going to pretend that these issues are simple or easy, that it's not tricky for a school to look out for the interests and rights of both parents and students when those parents and students are in conflict. But I would suggest remembering two things-- trans persons are human beings and they are not disappearing. They have always existed, they will always exist, and, to repeat, they are actual human persons. 

I was in school with trans persons in the early seventies. I have had trans students in my classroom. They are human beings, deserving of the same decency and humanity as any other human. I know there are folks among us who insist on arguing from the premise that some people aren't really people and decency and humanity are not for everyone (and empathy is a weakness). I don't get why some people on the right, particularly many who call themselves Christians, are so desperately frightened/angry about trans persons, but I do know that no human problems are solved by treating some human beings as less-than-human. And when your fear leads to policing children's haircuts to fit your meager, narrow, brittle, fragile view of how humans should be, you are a menace to everyone around you. You have lost the plot. Arkansas, be better.

“Why do we say we need to import foreigners, even import them illegally, when you know, teenagers used to work at these resorts, college students should be able to do this stuff,” DeSantis said last week at a panel discussion with border czar Tom Homan, as first reported by the Tampa Bay Times.

Yep. Time to bring back child labor.  

It has been a trend for a few years now. Many states that have been busy whacking away at public education have also been getting rid of child labor laws. Some, like Arkansas, teamed up the gutting of child labor protections with laws set to kneecap public schools. Iowa removed protections that kept young workers out of more physically dangerous jobs while expanding the hours they could be asked to work. Missouri similarly shot for increasing working hours for teens. Minnesota said yes to teens working in heavy construction.

In fact, some states are so excited about bringing back child labor, they are willing to bypass parents to do it. You remember how many states require teens to get a permit signed by parents and/or school? Now Arkansas doesn't care to give parents a voice in this particular decision. Ohio's Senator Bill Reineke expressed a similar concern over child labor, arguing that kids who really want to work shouldn't be hampered because "they can't get their parents to cooperate with them." Parents--they only matter sometimes.

Some of the arguments for child labor are spectacular. In Iowa, Jessica Dunker, president of the Iowa Restaurant Association and the Iowa Hotel and Lodging Association testified.

“Nine o’clock for a 15 year old sophomore in high school, you know, I’m sure they’re doing something already and probably it’s a school opportunity,” she said, “but if it isn’t, having kids get the opportunity to work is important.

If kids were allowed to work and compulsory school attendance was abolished, the jobs of choice would be at Chick-Fil-A and WalMart. And they would be fantastic jobs too, instilling in young people a work ethic, which is the inner drive to succeed, and an awareness of attitudes that make enterprise work for all. It would give them skills and discipline that build character, and help them become part of a professional network.

What if we were to be more intentional about creating opportunities for work for our kids, or simply to more closely disciple our children toward a full understanding of the role of their work in honoring God and serving neighbor? In our schools and educational systems, what if we stopped prioritizing “intellectual” work to the detriment of practical knowledge and physical labor, paving new paths to a more holistic approach to character formation?

 Florida has been catching up. According to the US Department of Labor Statistics, the number of child labor violations has tripled, even though just last year the legislature decided that 16 and 17-year-olds being home schooled could work any old hours.

The new bill, SB 918, would amends the applicable Florida statutes and would end pretty much any restrictions on 16 or 17-year-old employment-- number of hours, when those hours would fall, working on school nights--all night--those restrictions are all crossed out in the bill. Those teens would also lose any guaranteed meal break. Now 14 and 15-year-olds can get into the fun world of employment with barely any restrictions (and if they are homeschooled or cyber-schooled, none at all).

The bill was passed by Commerce and Tourism and goes up before the legislature next.

Teens putting in 20 hours a week (or more) are less likely to finish school. But teenagers also make for a compliant, cheap work force. At some point in the debate, someone is going to argue that some children are destined to be meat widgets anyway, so they might as well get to it. At the end of the day, some folks would much rather have access to cheap labor than foot the bill for an education that will just make the Lessers all uppity anyway. We'll see how this bill does and if Florida can catch up to other states in the child labor exploitation game.