Posted on 12/23/2022 8:28:41 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota convenes its most diverse Legislature to-date in January, with some of its newest members saying they plan to use their history-making elections to pass policies to protect the minority communities they represent.
Solidifying transgender rights, banning “conversion therapy,” safeguarding abortion access and legalizing marijuana are among the goals shared by some of the newly elected lawmakers and seasoned legislators who have been working for years on issues important to underrepresented communities. Now, they feel there is momentum to push the issues forward.
“It’s really going to change the dynamics of what people expect lawmakers to look like, the way they expect lawmakers to act, and the kind of issues we push to the forefront,” newcomer Leigh Finke, the first transgender person elected to the state’s Legislature, said of her diverse incoming class.
When 201 legislative members convene in January, there will be 35 lawmakers of color. Twelve lawmakers, all Democrats, are part of the LGBTQ community. And for the first time, Black women will be represented in Minnesota’s Senate — there will be three of them.
Five lawmakers of color are Republicans. Walter Hudson, who is Black and newly elected to the House, said it’s important to remember there is “diversity within diversity” and that all people of color do not have the same priorities or values. He said he’s looking forward to elevating voices of conservative people of color.
Still, with Democrats in control of both legislative chambers as well as the governor’s office for the first time in eight years, many believe their “trifecta” will allow them to pass proposals that have been unsuccessful in the past.
Among them is a ban on conversion therapy, a top priority for returning Sen. Scott Dibble, who has represented the LGBTQ community by himself …
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Diversity and inclusion are precursors to enabling violence and squalor. At least that is the outcome on the West Coast where I live for places like Seattle, Portland, Eugene, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
It will mean that more & more multi-generation families in Minn move out of the state.
According to MN legislature, pot smokers are a minority. Shouldn’t they put legalizing pot to a vote?
Most diverse means you have a group of people that have jobs because of what they are and not who they are.
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