Louisiana House Bill 648, to ban transsexual drugs and procedures for minors, gained unprecedented Democratic Party support in the Louisiana House.
Seven Democrat members of the Louisiana House voted yes on HB 648. This is 21% of all Democrats in the House and 24% of all Democrats who cast a vote on this bill. One Republican voted no. There are two independents. One voted yes, and one voted no. The vote was taken on May 16th.
Twenty other state legislatures have already passed similar legislation, and there has never been this much support from Democrats in any other legislative body.
The bill seemed poised to sail through the Louisiana Senate. On May 18th, it was assigned to the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare. While Republicans have a supermajority in the Louisiana Senate, they only have a one-seat majority on this committee. The chairman is Republican Fred Mills, originally elected to the House as a Democrat in 2008. He switched parties in 2010.
The committee has now voted on the bill. All Democrats voted no, and Sen. Fred Mills also voted no.
Mills effectively killed the wildly popular bill, which passed by 75% in the House.
Mills is also heavily funded by the Pharmaceutical industry and transsexual drugs are a new cash cow for some of these companies.
