This year’s regular legislative session started back on March 11. There are plenty of terrible bills from the GOP supermajorities in both chambers, so here’s a brief look at some of the worst of the worst.
House Bill 62 and Senate Bill 214
First, there are two bills that would loosen gun restrictions in the state. House Bill 62 by Danny McCormick, R-Oil City, would instruct state, parish and local officials to ignore any federal effort to regulate firearms, accessories or ammunition. Senate Bill 214 by Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, would allow concealed carry in any restaurant that serves alcohol.
Surely neither of these bills would endanger Louisianians all for the sake of bowing down to the gun lobby, a misinterpretation of the Second Amendment and the GOP’s weird gun fetish.
Then there’s this bill by Dodie Horton, R-Houghton, whose Christian nationalism was discussed almost a year ago in this columnist’s very first opinion piece for the Reveille. Back then, she was trying to get the unfortunate national motto of “In God We Trust” into every public school and university classroom in the state. Now, she’s back to get the 10 Commandments posted and injected into the minds of the youth.
For someone who claims to be defending the history of the United States, it’s odd that she’s apparently never read the First Amendment.
House Bill 121 and House Bill 122
Next up is a pair of house bills that would harm LGBTQ+ Louisianians. House Bill 121 by Rep. Raymond Crews, R-Bossier City, and House Bill 122 by Horton are updates of bills from last year.
Crews’ bill would require parental permission for the use of students’ preferred pronouns and names, opening them up to abuse from transphobic family members. School employees would also be allowed to misgender and deadname students if their bigotry is part of their “sincerely held religious beliefs.”
Horton’s “don’t say gay” bill would ban discussion or instruction relating to sexual orientation and gender identity in any way that deviates from the state standards (which are also controlled by the GOP). It’d also prevent teachers from discussing their own sexuality and gender, but that part is written so poorly that it would technically ban all gendered courtesy titles like “Mr.” or “Mrs.”
Perhaps the state could invest more in education rather than in targeting queer youth. Maybe then our legislators would be smarter than these folks.
Senate Bill 262 and Senate Bill 294
These two bills are also by a legislator I discussed last year. Since then, the good people of Denham Springs decided that conservative Republican Valarie Hodges deserved a promotion. She’s now a state Senator, and her bills this year are at least slightly more competent.
Senate Bill 262 is an attempt to counteract what Hodges thinks is “critical race theory.” It’d prevent students from being taught that they’re “currently or destined to be oppressed or to be an oppressor” because of their race.
On top of addressing a problem that doesn’t exist, this bill would obviously just sweep the dark parts of American history and society under the rug, preventing change for the better.
Senate Bill 294 would prevent public universities from “[discriminating]” against student organizations for “sincerely held religious beliefs.” This bill is clearly intended to protect homophobic and transphobic organizations on the grounds that their bigotry is, for some reason, valid religious doctrine.
The next bill, by longtime conservative darling Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, would lower the age in which a child can be expelled from a public school for possession of a firearm. Surely expelling every troubled 13-year-old child and tossing them out on the streets will solve the problem and transform the state into a peaceful paradise.
What else could be done? Addressing systemic issues and helping the state’s youth? That’s just preposterous.
Senate Concurrent Resolution 2
Lastly is a concurrent resolution by Sen. Mark Abraham, R-Lake Charles, that implores the U.S. Congress to convene a constitutional convention to propose term limits on members of the Senate and House of Representatives.
Term limits are deeply undemocratic and objectively terrible at countering any structural problem in government, but at the very least, they mean Abraham, Mizell, Hodges, Horton, Crews and the others discussed here will one day be out of a job.
Matthew Pellittieri is a 19-year-old history and political science sophomore from Ponchatoula.
