Missouri State Rep. Ian Mackey, a Democrat representing parts of St. Louis County, made a passionate speech in opposition to an amendment to a bill that would allow local school districts in Missouri to hold elections to let district residents decide whether to ban transgender athletes from youth sports.

Mackey, who grew up in Hickory County, about three and a half hours from St. Louis, told Rep. Chuck Basye, a Republican who introduced the amendment, that he “was afraid of people like you growing up” and that he “could not wait to move to a part of our state that would “reject” this type of anti-trans legislation.

“Thank God I made it. Thank God I made it out and I think every day for the kids that are still there that haven’t made it out, who haven’t escaped. Gentlemen, I'm not afraid of you anymore because you're going to lose. You may win this today, but you're going to lose,” Mackey said.

Basye described the bill as an attempt to “save women’s sports.”

The amendment is one of several bills currently in both the Missouri House and Senate that seek to ban trans students’ participation in sports. According to the Equality Federation, the state has at least five. Nationally, at least 30 states have introduced some sort of legislation that seeks to exclude trans youth from sports, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. The Missouri bill Mackey spoke out against will have to undergo a third reading and vote before it’s sent to the state Senate for a vote.

Footage courtesy of Missouri House of Representatives

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