Roundup: Transgender rights in the elections, psychedelics for veterans and state flags

It’s Saturday, Nov. 11, and we’d like to welcome you to the weekly State and Local Roundup. There is plenty of news to keep tabs on, but first: Happy Veterans Day! We at Route Fifty would like to thank all past and present service members. It seems fitting that Veterans Day falls so close to Election Day in the U.S., where this week millions of voters across the nation exercised their freedom to vote.?

There were a lot of groups happy with how Tuesday’s elections unfurled, and one of those is supporters of transgender rights, who emerged victorious in many key races after years of being at the center of conservative-led culture wars.

In Kentucky, Republican gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron repeatedly targeted transgender rights in his unsuccessful bid to unseat Gov. Andy Beshear. The Democratic governor vetoed a measure passed by the Republican-dominated state legislature earlier this year that bans access to gender-affirming care for transgender kids and dictates which bathrooms they must use. The legislature overrode his veto.

During the campaign, Cameron said Beshear “protects transgender surgeries for kids” and “demands that boys play in girls sports,” referring to transgender girls. Cameron, the state’s attorney general, said Beshear was “auditioning for a job with Bud Light’s marketing team,” referring to the beer brand’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Gender was one of the top three issues addressed by Republican ads in the governor’s race (along with crime and Joe Biden), according to AdImpact, a campaign ad tracking service.

Beshear responded to the barrage of criticism with an ad of his own, saying his faith led him to believe that “all children are children of God.” The governor also quipped about Cameron’s focus on the issue, “I think if you ask him about climate change, he’ll say it’s caused by children and gender reassignment surgeries.”

Cameron’s preoccupation with transgender rights perplexed some political observers, too. Cook Political Report analyst Jessica Taylor told reporters she has “not seen evidence yet either in Kentucky or elsewhere that [campaigning to restrict the rights of transgender people] is an effective argument.” She noted that Republicans had tried a similar tack with Gov. Laura Kelly in Kansas last year.

Of course, transgender rights played a big role in many races across the country, from school board races in Pennsylvania to legislative elections in Virginia. In fact, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin won election two years ago promising to promote “parents’ rights” and imposing new rules on transgender students in schools.

But those efforts failed to gain traction or even backfired. Virginia Del. Danica Roem, a Democrat, won election to the state Senate Tuesday against a Republican incumbent who opposed transgender rights and wanted to ban transgender students from playing high school sports. That makes her the second transgender state senator in the country, along with Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride, who is now running for Congress.

Meanwhile, conservative activists backed by groups like Moms for Liberty and the 1776 Project lost 70% of their school board races nationally, according to the American Federation of Teachers, although the conservative groups dispute that number. Liberal majorities took control of school boards in culture war hotspots such as Loudoun County and Spotsylvania County in Virginia and Central Bucks County school district in Pennsylvania.?

“Extremist politicians on the Republican side have been really focusing on attacking transgender people,” said Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality Action Fund. “They did so cynically, because they thought it was going to get them votes. But what Tuesday night’s results really born out was that [attacking transgender rights] only captures votes in the primaries, because it only resonates with the fringes. When you get to the general elections, it really backfires on these anti-trans candidates.”

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News to Use

Trends, Common Challenges, Cool Ideas, FYIs and Notable Events

• VETERANS: Massachusetts governor wants to study psychedelics for vets. Just in time for the arrival of Veterans Day, the Healey administration announced a new plan to significantly expand benefits for Massachusetts residents who served in the armed forces and study if psychedelics could be useful in their medical treatment. During a press conference Thursday, Gov. Maura Healey announced the filing of an act Honoring, Empowering and Recognizing Our Service members and Veterans, or the HERO Act, which according to her administration is the first “comprehensive and expansive” veterans-centric piece of legislation introduced by a Bay State governor in two decades. The HERO act includes 17 different spending and policy initiatives covering benefits expansion, modernization of services, and commitments to “inclusivity and greater representation,” according to Healey’s office. Among the provisions, Healey’s bill would establish a working group to study the “health benefits of psychedelics as treatment for veterans suffering from physical or mental health disorders related to their service.”
• ENERGY: Michigan passed one of the most ambitious clean energy bills. Michigan’s Democratic-controlled legislature on Wednesday passed a package of clean energy bills that includes one of the most aggressive state-level clean energy targets in the nation. The centerpiece of the new climate package, which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is expected to sign into law later this month, would require the state to generate all of its electricity from wind, solar and other carbon-free sources by 2040, eliminating the climate-warming pollution generated by coal and gas-fired power plants. The legislation would also tighten energy efficiency requirements for electric utilities, allow more residents to enroll in a rooftop solar energy program and streamline permits for new wind and solar power.
• AI: In Colorado's mountains, AI watches for wildfires. High-resolution cameras scanning Colorado forests once every minute, 24-7—linked to a smoke-detecting algorithm residing in a computer cloud—are popping up on Colorado high points from Lookout Mountain near Golden to Telluride’s Ajax Peak. The early detection system was developed and is operated by San Francisco-based Pano AI, and by the end of 2023 there will be 40 installations in Colorado. The biggest investment in the technology is being made by Xcel Energy, the state’s largest electricity provider, which Tuesday announced that it has committed to installing a total of 21 stations, each with two cameras, by year’s end. Meanwhile, Georgia officials want to use AI and bots to clear a backlog of SNAP benefits renewals. The state is currently waiting to see if a request to use AI will be approved by the federal government.

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Picture of the Week

More than 2,600 designs were proposed for the new Minnesota state flag and seal during the public submission period that ended on Oct. 30. Eighty-five percent of the submissions are for the flag, while 15% for the seal, reported the Pioneer Press. The flag designs include classic Minnesota elements such as trees, water, loons, the north star and even the pink lady’s slipper. Many of those same components appear on seal submissions. Later this month, the State Emblems Redesign Commission will select five entries each for the new state seal and state flag. The 2023 legislature established the commission to develop and adopt a new design for the state seal and a new design for the state flag by Jan. 1. The state’s effort follows a wave of flag redesigns across the nation, Ted Kaye, a vexillologist and author of the book on flag design, Good Flag, Bad Flag, told Route Fifty earlier this year.

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