Source: riverfronttimes.com 3/1/24
A new bill introduced in the Missouri House would force teachers to register as sex offenders if they use the names and pronouns of transgender children or otherwise support them and their identity.
HB2885, filed on Thursday, February 29 by state Representative Jamie Gragg (R-Ozark), would make it a Class E felony for teachers or school counselors to aid the “social transition” of a child — meaning that a teacher “provides support, regardless of whether the support is material, information, or other resources to a child regarding social transition.”
The bill defines “social transition” as:
“The process by which an individual adopts the name, pronouns, and gender expression, such as clothing or haircuts, that match the individual’s gender identity and not the gender assumed by the individual’s sex at birth.”
Teachers found guilty of “supporting social transition” would be placed in the same sex offender registration category as Tier 1 sex offenders, which is Missouri’s lowest level but includes possession of child porn or attempting a sexual act. And since no Missouri sex offender is permitted to be within 500 feet of a school or daycare, the bill would effectively end the teacher’s career.
Read the bill and take action like writing and calling to stop this bill of oppression.
Let me get this straight… If this passes and becomes law, then the resulting punishment that happens to a teacher convicted of this felony is that they are put on the sex offender registry???
Seems like this definitively proves that the registry is indeed punitive and not simply a “registry”.
Meanwhile, the p.o.s. governor of Missouri, Mike Parson, just commuted the D.U.I. prison sentence of the son of Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid. The D.U.I. was from a 2021 crash that severely injured a five-year-old.
So, um, yeah, in Missouri, if you commit the type of crime that hurts and kills scores of children throughout the United States every year, then you get a pass. But now if you utter the wrong pronoun, you’re a sex offender?
Wow! Just WOW!
Gragg needs to be ousted. This is gross waste of the states resources and infringement on both parties First Amendment rights.
Our legislatures always decide something they don’t like, that was previously perfectly legal, is now a serious felony. Why not make it a misdemeanor? (I don’t support making any of this activity criminal, but I think the rational progression of criminal codes should be from legally permitted to misdemeanor, not felony.)
I just had a flashback to the guy on Scrubs that always called the main character by a girl’s name. […]
So here’s my suggestion. If this idiotic law is passed and stricken down, the person(s) who wrote it have to pay all legal costs of running it through the court system, as well as all reparations to those affected by it.
This is excellent. Further illigitimizing the sex offender list as the political football it is, Rather than the Public safety tool it is not. More! More! More low IQ, drooling idiot states making fools of themselves! More loss of confidence in our illegitimate government! I heartily endorse this and cheer it on, may it accelerate the long due collapse.
I think it’s ironic that a guy named “Jamie” wants to make it a felony for a teacher to persuade a boy to adopt a girl’s name that doesn’t match the individual’s gender at birth
I seriously doubt that this bill would pass, even in Missouri. Rep. Gragg (more like Gagg) is only pandering to the right-wing lunatic fringe. If it does, the phrase “void for vagueness” springs to mind as well as the First Amendment. The bill not only lists non-birth pronouns as an offense, but also includes clothing and haircuts. Just what is a haircut that matches a “person’s gender identity and not the gender assumed by the individual’s sex at birth”?
Sorry Mig, they are still getting around the registry-as-punishment problem. The punishment is whatever is specified for a class E felony. Registration will unfortunately still be considered simply as a collateral consequence.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME !!!!!???????????
I really feel sorry for school teachers; honestly!!
Kids are going to grow up “dumb” to anything that is not “Math”, well maybe not even that. Math seems to be an exact science as in “2+2=4” which can’t be debated, but “History”, well some of that I guess when being taught can come down to a teacher’s opinion of how certain sequences of past history took place.
Ban books, arrest librarians if the library carries certain books? Arrest teachers for teaching kids how to expand their thoughts and think outside the box?
Next thing you know in-school classes will be without a human teacher. What the class will consist of is a recording previously made and approved and played to the class. Students will not be allowed to ask questions because the recording will only “speak” what it is told to speak. Kids will grow up in a tunnel with no critical or logical thinking abilities.
But hey, we want to keep government smaller, don’t we?
Remember the s$x offense registry is to protect the public, mainly “our children” but in doing so we will tell you how to raise your child and what your child is allowed to learn, anything other than what we approve you will be charged and go to jail.
This is starting to sound more and more like a country like Russia. Ban, this. Ban, that. Same thing in N Korea. Have you ever watched videos of what the citizens of N Korea are and are not allowed even when it comes down to what hair style they are allowed to have; really?!!
Our country is creeping more and more towards this. Russia has already pushed away independent media and is strictly with state media which is dictated by the government.
Slowly but surely we are getting there.
The “Registry” is not punishment – Ya, tell me another one why don’t you!
Here we are again with Gov’t instructing what is moral , and use the registry as the whipping post , saying it’s not punishment . well if it keeps going like this , all the very people that have been screaming for this trash registry “will All Be On It ” and all their kids as well , the thought police are waiting for the gullible public to cheer them on .
Can we introduce a Bill that is a FELONY if you have the name of Jamie Gragg ??
This sounds like something out of Florida, man.
They think they’re being clever by pretending that extending support to students exercising their right to challenge their gender identity is tantamount to “sexual assault,” just like they pretend that drag queens reading children’s books to kids is “sexual assault” and books which take positions on homosexuality or gender that they disagree with are “pornographic.” What we’ve seen is a tidal wave of false accusations coming from religious fanatics in recent years in which they pretend that black is white and red is blue. “Bad faith” is flooding from the faithful today like a firehose.
Personally, I have real problems with the trans radicalist position, myself. I don’t agree that boys are routinely born into girl’s bodies or girls into boys’. I don’t agree that any medicalization to “confirm” their perceived gender identity by use of hormones or surgery is appropriate for minors. I think that approach is a very big mistake and I think the medical community and its governing bodies are grossly irresponsible for their lack of leadership and courage in formulating sound responses to this challenge but, nevertheless, young people who want to identify as the sex opposite to their biological reality have every right to do so and that right must be respected. I’m old enough to remember when we would have said “Mind your own business!” to others when someone, especially a kid, decided to experiment with their identity in a way in which we wouldn’t have had. Our country lost that sense a long time ago that there were many things that were none of our business. We desperately need to refamiliarize ourselves with that concept, today.
Not to be outdone Louisiana just came up with the brilliant idea of HB 166 that will force vasectomies on offenders
I think this is going too far, although I do agree that teachers should not be supporting kids’ choices of pretending to be a gender they’re not. Teachers have a job to do which is teaching kids how to read, write, do math, teach history, etc. I don’t think teachers should be getting involved with anything else. This is one of the reasons I chose to pull my daughter out of public school and pay tuition to a private school.
School kids, of which 99.99% of them are minors, are incapable of making informed, adult decisions. That’s why the law states they cannot consent to sex. So if that is the case, why is it ok for them to pretend to be another gender? I do not like the term transgender because i personally disagree that a person can change their sex. This is based on biology. I’ll leave it at that, but its my opinion and I’m not going to debate it.
Do I agree that teachers should not be supporting kids’ identity choices? Yes.
Do I think it should be a criminal act for a teacher to do this? No.
I was banned from Twitter before Musk bought it for stating that I don’t believe anyone was born in the “wrong body”, but rather I thought they might be suffering from mental health issues. But I’ll say it again. I think a lot of people in this country are suffering from mental health conditions, both people wanting to identify as the opposite gender and people who want to enact ignorant, stupid laws. I’ve gotten to the point that i just want to get off this crazy planet and live somewhere sane.
I have a sneaking suspicion criminalizing Free Speech won’t fly very well or far. Just as many have been protected by the First Amendment for refusing to use someone’s preferred pronouns, those on the other side of the coin have the same rights.
I’m not sure if I should be laughing or crying at the logically of such a bill.
It’s almost as if they enjoy being called a troll for deliberately trying at a bill that they already ‘know’ will very likely fail. (In this day and age, politicians and citizens alike know there is a decline in transphobia. How exactly do they figure that enough people will be celebrating for branding a teacher for saying “yay!” to gender transition?).
I’m guessing they proposed this bill for the sole reason to tick “liberals” off; just to get a response from us.
Further proof that the registry is punishment, you betcha. However, here’s another angle…
If passed, the inclusion of these well meaning teachers on the registry means the State of MO conclusively presumes that they all will be a Frightening and High Risk of future sex crimes, and that will remain true for all until the day they die.
How can this be conclusively presumed, and how does it not apply to the (tens of?) millions of others that would have done the same, were they teachers… people that support this very action, and will oppose any attempt to criminalize it? People that, potentially may, attempt to pass a law that would require teachers to use their Student’s pronoun preferences, and support their student’s Gender identification even if it does not match their biological gender?
All several million of them are also Frightening and High risk sexual Predators? All of them? If so, where are the their tens (hundreds?) of millions of victims? Should a law, requiring school employees to be, “Supportive of Trans/non-conforming youth” identify pass somewhere such as CA, or NYC, how could the MO Conclusive Presumption be viewed as rational?
If MO under a Witch’s Curse like Utah was? Supportive teachers all over the world are no concern, but in MO the witch’s curse makes them into predators? This is the same Witch Curse that turned all LGBTQ people in Utah into Predators? If it’s not just MO but everywhere, where are the hundreds of millions of global victims these people have assaulted over the last few decades? Young students openly engaging in transition may be new, but the people that support this idea aren’t?
If that how the Witch curse works? None of the supportive people were predators until after young trans people become more common? Yesterday they were not any kind of risk, but they instantly become predators the moment they use a pronoun those doesn’t match the students biological gender?
So Ms. Teacher managed to go through life for 40+ years without assaulting anyone… but the moment she changes her student’s name from “Billy” to “Billie”… she is instantaneously transformed by the witches curse into a lifetime sexual predator… but only if she’s in MO. Who knew witch curses respect political boundaries?
Even if this MO law fails, or is struck down by the courts, it demonstrators that State Legislators use the registry recklessly (and Punitively?). They throw people on for political reasons, then pretend they are Frightening and High risks. This is absurd, and clearly unwarranted, unjust, counterproductive and cruel… as well as Punitive.
The Illusion of Legitimacy the registry has been hiding behind for decades has numerous vulnerabilities, but the Universal and Eternally Immutable Presumption of Frightening and High Risk, may be it’s greatest? The legitimate scientific research into recidivism clearly indicates the Conclusive Presumption is absurd… and this insult to justice shows how absurdly, and punitively, it is used.
I would argue that the fact it has been suggested indicates unjust, unwarranted, and punitive intent… thus indicating reckless misuse of the absurd presumption. If the clowns actually had to prove risk on an individual basis, these unjust misuses wouldn’t work, at least not as well. However, as long as legislators have the power to assign this characteristic to anyone that want by Bill of Attainder… they are going to keep doing it
WOW! The puritanical pendulum is definitely swinging the other way these days. Frozen embrios are people, teachers on sex registry for using a pronoun. What’s next? Public flogging for masturbation? I can’t get out of this country soon enough……
Whenever I see this kind of ridiculous action coming from a public official I go to their website, get their email and shoot off a response. They need to know that people are going to fight back against them.
WTF? This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.