By AlaskaWatchman.com

Thanks to the help from five Republican Alaska State senators, a bill intended to keep biological males who identify as female from dominating girls’ athletics has been defeated.

On May 17, left-leaning Republican Sen. Natasha von Imhof (Anchorage) moved to table the bill, which removed it from the Senate calendar, thereby making it impossible for the full body to give the legislation an up or down vote.

Sponsored by Sen. Shelley Hughes, the bill has been through multiple committee meetings and public hearings. But with the Alaska Legislature now in recess for the summer, time has run out to consider and pass the legislation on to Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s desk for a signature.

“A vote to table the bill is the same as a vote to kill the bill,” Sen. Hughes objected, when von Imhof moved to table the bill.

With five Republicans teaming up with six Democrats, the final vote was 11 to 8 to effectively block the legislation from receiving a final vote.

The five Republicans voting to kill the bill were, Click Bishop (Fairbanks), Josh Revak (Anchorage), Bert Stedman (Sitka), Gary Stevens (Kodiak) and Natasha von Imhof (Anchorage). Sen. Donny Olson (Golovin), a social conservative on many issues, was the lone Democrat who joined the remaining seven Republicans in a failed effort to try and bring the bill to a vote. Sen. Lora Reinbold (R-Eagle River) was absent from the Senate Floor session.

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5 Republicans help ‘kill’ bill protecting AK girls’ sports from trans males

Joel Davidson
Joel is Editor-in-Chief of the Alaska Watchman. Joel is an award winning journalist and has been reporting for over 24 years, He is a proud father of 8 children, and lives in Palmer, Alaska.


2 Comments

  • Greg Sarber says:

    So, the senator that represents my district in Homer, Senator Gary Stevens, voted with democrats to allow boys to compete in girls sports in Alaska. Also, 2 weeks ago he expressed support for Lisa Murkowski’s reelection, despite the Alaska Republican party censuring Lisa and putting their support behind a different candidate. Sounds like the definition of a RINO to me. Conservatives may wish to vote against Senator Stevens and for his opponent in the primary election this year.

  • Steve Peterson says:

    Why are these “Republicans” committing political suicide by going against what true, conservative Republicans want? Are they beholden? I wonder if someone has dirt on them such as they had on Madison Cawthorn…