When it comes to trans rights, we’ve had a real, real rough of it in recent months especially. To be clear, the United States has consistently failed trans people (and LGBTQ+ people more broadly), but a conservative onslaught of anti-trans legislation has dominated the lives of queer people in the last year especially. Whether it’s trans girls playing girls’ sports, trans people of any age using the bathroom, or trans people wanting to update their birth certificates, Republicans have been happy to see just what other conservative lawmakers will go along with when it comes to lawmaking on the state level. Anything to get people heated and distracted for midterms, right?

But as of Wednesday, March 16, we do have something to celebrate. A heinously discriminatory anti-trans bill in Idaho has died in the state Senate, as reported by Reuters. The bill, HB 675, sought to bar trans youth from accessing safe, age-appropriate, gender-affirming medical care by making it a felony to provide it. It also sought to prevent parents or guardians from helping a trans youth leave the state to seek such care elsewhere.

In a statement on Tuesday, Idaho Senate Republicans said they believe the bill interferes with another recent rallying cry out of the GOP: parental rights. The Republicans stressed that they’re still against gender-affirming surgeries on minors (which are not generally done, anyway), but that they feel this legislation counters the rights of parents to make medical decisions for their children.

(In an earlier post, I pointed out how the proposed bill conflicted with the "parental rights" that republicans were pushing. However, Now my criticism is that republicans seem to view children more as personal property to do with and treat as they please, rather than as individuals with their own individual growth and free will to become what they desire themselves.)