Minnesota Republicans have offered legislation that would repeal transgender-inclusive school policies across the state, and bill proponents have been hitting the airwaves to drum up support. The bill, SF1543/HF1546, would effectively repeal a Minnesota State High School League policy that allows transgender students to participate in athletics based on their gender. It would also block the Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts from implementing transgender-inclusive school policies; Minneapolis adopted one last year and St. Paul is poised to adopt one in March.

On Thursday, Michele Lentz of the Minnesota Child Protection League joined Rep. Tim Miller and AM 980 KKMS host Paul Ridgeway to talk about the bill.

Rep. Miller told Ridgeway that the bill was about bathroom use.

“You know the the fundamental question I ask people when they are discussing this bill, do we as a state, do we believe in there being boy bathrooms and girl bathrooms? And if we do then we need to do something about confirming that through the the laws that we have because right now that’s up for question after what the Minnesota State High School League did.”

He told Ridgeway that he had already discussed the bill with Gov. Mark Dayton. “I had a meeting with the governor on this subject and one of the things that he said was that frankly he doesn’t believe there’s that much support for what we are doing.”

Ridgeway then asked Lentz to explain the purpose of the bill. She asked, “How many kids have to get hurt before it’s going to be enough?”

Ridgeway: I not only don’t think its right, I think it’s crazy and Representative I’ve had experts from around the world and the United States who are experts on this issue and they all say you know the fact of the matter is no matter how you feel a boy is a boy and girl is a girl, but I think about the traumatic — potential traumatic experience for a young child or a young boy or girl in this instance.
Lentz: You are absolutely right. There’s a couple of things, if we just look at it from a health perspective. First of all, there are studies that show that 70-80 percent of students who deal with gender identity confusion will spontaneously lose those feelings if they are just allowed to grow up, and so you now as adults we should be protecting children, making sure they are competing in safe environment in the athletic arena, and that their personal privacy is protected when it comes to locker rooms and showers and that nature. You know I’m a little appalled that at what rep. miller said about the governor and that he just doesn’t think there’s a lot of support for this seems ridiculous to me because I know that parents don’t want their kids exposed to this, and the question is how much potential trauma — how many kids are we going to risk getting hurt on the court or being exposed to something accidentally in the bathroom that they don’t have the maturity to handle? How many kids have to get hurt before it’s going to be enough?

Here’s the full clip:

The Minnesota Child Protection League, comprised of conservative Christian women, has been working to block all policies that are inclusive of LGBT. But, not all conservatives support the group’s efforts. Earlier on Thursday, Lentz and Miller appeared on AM 1130’s Up and At ‘Em morning show where the duo faced tough questions about local control and fairness from the radio hosts.

Here’s the clip of that interview: