Public hearing largely draws criticism of GOP bills focused on transgender students

Democracy was in action at the Wisconsin State Assembly Thursday — in the form of a 10 ½-hour public hearing in front of its education committee.

The hearing focused on two Republican-backed bills. Both bills propose statewide guidelines for local school policies on transgender students.

The first would compel school districts to set certain conditions under which teachers and administrators would be allowed to address students by a new name, including one typically used by the opposite biological sex.

The second would prohibit biologically male students from playing on girls’ sports teams or using their locker rooms.

Both bills were introduced to the assembly by Republican Rep. Barbara Dittrich, R-Oconomowoc.

Different views of parents’ role in names bill debate

Assembly Bill 103 would prohibit teachers from calling a student a name generally used by the opposite biological sex unless they have written permission from the student’s parents to do so.

“If you are in transitioning, don’t you want the parents supporting that child?” Dittrich asked her colleagues while introducing the bill.

Thirty-year-old Esme Hubble, a trans woman from Madison, testified against the bill.

She told legislators about being 7 years old, in the school bathroom at recess, pulling her hair back from her forehead “like a headband.”

“I thought, ‘Wow, I would like how I looked if I was allowed to look like a girl,’” Hubble said. “In that moment, I developed an anger that I carried for 22 years.”

But — had the bill been in place when she was growing up, she said — she would’ve been in danger, having to tell her parents she was transgender too early.

“My parents did their absolute best. My dad now is a fantastic person, but at that time he was not, he was a homophobic drunk,” she said. “And I would’ve been hurt.”

Hubble has a daughter now, and said she understands why parents feel uneasy about their child making major decisions at school without their input.

“But I also know that I have raised my daughter right well enough, that if she does not trust me to come to me with those decisions yet, it’ll happen,” she said.

Tammy Fournier testified in support of the bill with her daughter, Autumn.

“When I was 12, I was horribly depressed, hated myself, hated my body, hated my mind,” Autumn explained. “I saw (transgender) activism on the internet and thought, ‘Maybe that is what’s wrong with me.’”

After taking Autumn to an inpatient facility, Autumn’s mother was told by a counselor there that if she and her husband didn’t use Autumn’s preferred pronouns and she ended up committing suicide, they could be held liable.

Her mother said school officials started using her daughter’s new preferred pronouns “without any further questioning,” Autumn added.

Autumn stopped wanting to transition — something the student said would’ve “ruined” her if she “had not been stopped by my wonderful parents.”

In 2023, Autumn’s parents won a suit against her former school district over their pronoun policy.

Testimony lasted over seven hours, with dozens of speakers mostly against the bill.

Lawmakers spar over transgender athlete bill

In the evening, Dittrich took the dais again to introduce her transgender athlete bill.

It would require schools to define sports teams as either male or female and prohibit athletes born as males from playing on female teams or using their locker rooms.

Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, questioned Dittrich about how many cases of transgender athletes harming female teammates and opponents in Wisconsin she was aware of.

She told Dittrich there was a difference between those cases and “people calling your office complaining about a policy, or an idea, or thing they’ve heard about.”

“I guess I find that rather rich, representative,” Dittrich countered. “Because the governor loves to quote, ‘The will of the people is the law of the land.’”

She cited a national 2023 Marquette Law School poll that found 75 percent of respondents favored a rule like the one she proposed. A 2025 Pew Research Center poll found that number to be 66 percent, and growing in recent years.

She said the day’s testimony — mostly against her bills — did not reflect public opinion.

The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association already barred transgender athletes from girls’ sports last month. Dittrich said her bill went further, restricting them from practices, locker rooms and showers.

Gov. Tony Evers promised in January to veto any bill affecting LGBTQ+ rights. He vetoed a similar athletics bill by Dittrich in 2024. She introduced a similar bill in 2021, which did not pass the Legislature.