On Wednesday, the state Assembly held three public hearings on bills related to the transgender issue. Two bills deal with protecting women’s sports. One bill prohibits biological males from competing on K-12 girls’ sports team, , a related bill prohibits biological males from competing on women’s sports teams in UW-System schools and tech schools women’s sports teams. The third bill, known as the Help Not Harm bill, prohibits health care professionals from performing or prescribing gender conversion surgeries or drugs for minors.

I monitored all the hearings. Many people showed up to speak. Lots of emotion, lots of personal stories. What was very obvious all day was that some people want the rest of us to accept a new reality—a reality that includes believing changing one’s gender is possible and that doing so should be accepted as normal and good.