Note: Important update posted a few paragraphs down. More to follow.

Well, they’re saying the quiet part out loud. This week Keith Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, went on a conservative podcast and embraced the goal of outlawing all gender-affirming health care for everyone. Not just minors — everyone.

A reminder that the Heritage Foundation is the force behind Project 2025, the transformational playbook that Donald Trump disavowed when he was running for president but immediately began to implement upon taking office.

People like Roberts occupy the seats of power in the federal government. And the idea of banning gender-affirming care and kneecapping trans folk’s ability to live their lives is gradually taking hold in red states across the country. Roberts knows he can’t take such a radical step right now, but he wants to keep hammering away until trans people effectively lose the right to exist. He calls it “radical incrementalism,” and it’s happening all around us.

Meanwhile, here in exceptional little ol’ Vermont, a measure that would protect the rights of trans folk is apparently dying of neglect.

Update: Apparently it’s not. Scroll down to see a Comment posted by Sen. Nader Hashim, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He says the measure moved out of his committee and is headed to the Senate floor. Good to hear. Why didn’t I find it? I searched for the bill and portions of its title on the Legislature’s website and found no trace of the bill whatsoever. It’s the first time the search function has failed to produce any sign of a bill.

Anyone remember PR.4, a proposed amendment that would add an equal protection clause to the Vermont constitution? It would mandate “equal treatment under the law” for nine protected classes, including race, sex, disability, gender identity and sexual orientation.

PR.4 was introduced late in the 2023 session, attracted an impressive 23 sponsors, and absolutely sailed through the Legislature in 2024. The key vote in the Senate was 29-0. It had a bit more trouble in the House, where it passed by a meager 140-4 margin. (For the record, the “No” votes came from some of the bitterest fringes of the Republican caucus: Mark Higley, Brian Smith, Terri Lynn Williams, and of course, the godawful Art Peterson.)

That was the first major step in Vermont’s tortuous process for amending the constitution. An amendment requires passage by two consecutive Legislatures, followed by a statewide vote.

But hey, considering how painlessly it ran through the Legislature in 2024, passage in the current biennium must be a formality, right?

Right?

Um… [crickets]

Update again. If you missed my update a few paragraphs above, please go back and read it. The bill is moving through the Senate, according to Senator Hashim.

PR.4 has yet to be spotted in the Statehouse since 2024. It hasn’t even been introduced, as far as I can tell. It has appeared in the Legislative record a grand total of one time — on January 29, when anti-trans bigot Renee McGuinness (supported by “moderate” Gov. Phil Scott in her candidacy for the Legislature) testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in opposition to the amendment.

Otherwise, nothing. It’s as if PR.4 never existed at all.

Two years ago, PR.4 was a reaction to a growing but still hypothetical threat. Now it’s very much a reality. The Trump administration and the Heritage Foundation are gunning, figuratively*, for the trans community.

*For now.

I haven’t inquired about the consignment of PR.4 to Davy Jones’ Locker Of Inexpedient Legislation. If I find out anything more, I’ll write a follow-up. But I felt the need to write something immediately, after Roberts expressed his desire to effectively wipe trans folk off the face of the earth.

Some Democrats have reacted to the 2024 election by pulling back their public support for trans rights. I hope to God that’s not the case with Vermont’s Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. This moment calls for a modicum of political bravery. They need to use their authority to support targeted groups, not abandon them.

Senate Judiciary Committee chair Nader Hashim is in prime position to rescue PR.4 from oblivion. His committee is where the amendment would begin the next stage of its journey. So let’s recall Hashim’s statement at the time when PR.4 seemed destined for success:

I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t know who will be sitting here in 50 years or 100 years, and I don’t know what their beliefs might be. But I do know with a strong conviction that I don’t want to witness a future in my lifetime or future generations’ lifetimes in which government can pass or enforce laws that discriminate and cause division among Vermonters.

Funny thing, “50 years or 100 years” is quickly becoming next year or even tomorrow. It’s happening elsewhere, and we shouldn’t fool ourselves into believing that our exceptionalism alone will prevent it from happening here.

There’s still time to move PR.4 to a statewide vote this year. It would almost certainly pass and become part of our constitution. We need it, now more than ever.