Preventing gender reassignment surgery in children is among the legislative priorities of a Missouri-first 501(c)4 organization.
The state’s upcoming 2023 legislative session begins on Jan. 4.
“One of the most active legislations we've seen is regarding the transgender issue,” said Byron Keelin, president of the Freedom Principle MO. “Several legislators have introduced the Protect Women's Sports Act, which would ban males from participating in women's sports.”
Transgenderism has become a national topic of conversation since President Biden assumed office.
The Protect Women's Sports Act was pre-filed by Rep. Jamie Burger (R-Benton) and Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder (R-Scott City).
“It's trying to stop the barbaric practice of grooming and trying to get children to transition when they're too young to make up their minds on these kinds of things,” Keelin said. “I think it's pushing an agenda that is just downright sick. We shouldn't be allowing minors to make these kinds of decisions or allowing them to have these kinds of surgeries.”
Another area of legislative focus is election integrity.
Freedom Principle MO supported the passage of HB 1878 last year, which requires an election worker who solicits more than ten voter applications to register for every election cycle.
“It really was probably one of the most comprehensive election bills to date with regards to photo identification, limiting absentee balloting, trying to clean up the voter rolls as much as much as possible and trying to ban outside influences like Zucker boxes and drop boxes,” Keelin told the St. Louis Record. “Luckily, the legislature last year had the backbone to stand up and protect the election. Now, we have to go further.”
Freedom Principle MO also is concerned with returning control of the St. Louis City Metropolitan Police Department to the State Board of Commissions.
“We have four House of Representative members who introduced legislation, and we have two Senators, Bill Eigel and Nick Schroer, from St. Charles who have introduced legislation on the Senate side so we have a really good amount of momentum," Keelin said.
Other areas that Freedom Principle MO will be promoting throughout the legislative session include education reform.
"We've seen a huge amount of bills regarding parents' Bill of Rights, including a constitutional amendment by Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden on Parent's Bill of Rights," Keelin added.