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The Louisiana Legislature starts a rare veto session this Tuesday, July 18, at noon. I say "rare" because although our state constitution automatically provides for a veto session, for many decades over half the legislature has consistently agreed that a veto session was not needed. This is an election year in Louisiana - during an extreme culture war period in our country - in a legislature with super majorities in both chambers - and the rare southern Democratic governor.
The bill that is publicly pushing Republicans to return to Baton Rouge is the anti-trans health care bill HB 648, which targets children and families going through what by all accounts is a tough process. (Read JBE's 6 page veto here.) Children need protection, but they also have agency - they can tell us when they're happy and sad, when they're hurting, when something isn't right. Extremists use horrendous words to describe this vital health care, and make accusations that aren't true. Of course, we've seen this for decades with anti-choice forces, and now that Roe has been overturned, they've turned their attention to the small trans community, and to even more vulnerable trans children. National right wing groups spread these harmful bills everywhere. The list is familiar.
About 25 bills and numerous line item vetoes may also be voted on, including the reverse-George Floyd/BLM bill that allows law enforcement to prohibit anyone from being within 25 feet (one of the WORST bills of the whole session); a superfluous voter canvassing bill that the governor has now vetoed twice; a bill that would put all 17 year olds in adult prison, where they would be tortured; and other criminal, tax, and vaccine bills.
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