Powerful Speeches From Trans Dems Flip 29 Republicans, Anti-Trans Bills Die In Montana

…when presented with an argument that relies on having children. Because apparently being a parent grants you some kind of special privilege for additional consideration. Consider the first Republican’s response:

A Republican, Representative Sherry Essman, rose to defend Rep. Zephyr and chastised the bill’s sponsor. “I’m speaking as a parent and a grandmother. And I’m very emotional because I know the representative in seat 20 is also a parent. No matter what you think of that, she is doing her best to raise a child. I did my best to raise my children as I saw fit, and I’m taking it for granted that my children are going to raise my grandchildren as they see fit,” she began.

“Everybody in here talks about how important parental rights are. I want to tell you, in addition to parental rights, parental responsibility is also important. And if you can’t trust a decent parent to decide where and when their kids should see what, then we have a bigger problem,” she turned to parental rights and spoke about how people who claim those rights should vote against the bill.

I’ll take all the victories I can get, but this is the most dipshit reasoning imaginable to get to the right answer.