Arizona House Panel OKs Softened Anti-Transgender Bill

An Arizona House panel late Wednesday approved a measure targeting transgender people who want to use bathrooms of the gender they identify with, voting along party lines to advance a bill that protects business owners who bar the practice. The 7-4 vote concluded an hours-long parade of transgendered and straight people who tried to persuade the panel to oppose Appropriations Committee chairman Rep. John Kavanagh's bill. The crowd broke out in chants of "shame, shame, shame" as the vote on the bill sponsored by the conservative Republican passed. Kavanagh had radically altered the bill after being faced with an outcry from advocacy groups, but that wasn't enough to keep about 200 opponents from attending a nearly 7-hour long hearing that concluded with several hours of testimony on the bill.