FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
State Rep. Susan DuBose - Jeff Poor Show - Friday 8-02-24
(upbeat music) - I got you, just give me a just. (upbeat music) Well, back to the Jeff Port showed up and talked 106.5 lost connection there, but we have gathered it back in, just turned around to check and there it is, it's dropped, but still with us, State Representative Susan Dubose joined us from down in Orange Beach today, but she represents area north, or just north to the south, east of Birmingham and Shelby County. Representative, we were talking and kind of cut to the chase here. We'll just gotta regather it back in. The discussion we were having about, we saw what happened at the Olympic Boxing yesterday with this Italian female boxer in this, I don't know what everyone would call him or from Algeria and that this becomes a, this now despite what your critics, that this is a big issue for you and you face the criticism, but now we have seen, we have seen this happen. And this is something that maybe it's happening, seems like it's happening far, far away, but it is now something going on here and just in front of us. And I think a lot of people paying attention to it. So now, it's not just a female swimmer, Riley Gaines thing anymore that people seem to, oh, well that happened whenever, but now it just is starting to occur a lot more. - Right, and I mean, this Olympic incident with that, with that boxer that honestly, he had to quit 46 seconds into that competition. It's making our case for us. Obviously men and women are different, they are biologically different and that's why I passed legislation in the state of Alabama that protects athletes from grades K through higher education that says you compete according to your biological sex, your sex at birth based on your reproduction organs. Because we know that no matter how many hormones you take or what parts of your body cut off or add on, men are gonna be physically different, stronger. They have stronger cardiovascular capacity, muscle strength in just every way. It's just common sense, honestly. So this has brought it to a world stage. We know it's been going on in our country 'cause we've heard from Riley Gaines. We heard from a volleyball player, a high school volleyball player that was hit in the head by a transgender athlete playing on women's team and knocked her out unconscious and now she has partial paralysis as a result of that. So it's going on, we have protected our athletes in Alabama, but the problem now is that the Biden administration through an egregious act of bureaucracy in the Department of Education wants to change our Title IX laws so that sex will include gender identity which defeats the whole purpose of Title IX when it was enacted back in 1972 to protect young women in education. And to say that there can be no discrimination on the basis of sex. If you change the meaning of sex to include gender identity, then you're not protecting women anymore. - Well, and here's the thing. Now, if the Olympics were in Alabama, obviously we would not have this right. Like this was not a bid. - Well, we wouldn't have it today, but I mean, it's Alabama, if the Biden administration is successful in implementing this rule that's supposed to go into effect, August 1 that it could affect every case through, it'll could affect every women in our whole nation, honestly. Of course, we're suing against that, right? So Attorney General Marshall has so far successfully been able to stop that and fill up 21 other states. That's a whole different level in the Olympics. I mean, that is not included in the Title IX issue at all, but it all ties it together. It's affecting all of our women at all ages. - What is it? I mean, like, why is, why, I just, and I'm asking you to get inside the mind of these folks, but like, what is the, why? Is it just, why is it such a virtue now with the left and wanting to make this a thing? - You're right, it's just not even common sense. It's gotten to the point of getting more and more difficult for anybody, no matter how they identify, to justify this. And I mean, I've talked to many gay folks that don't agree with it. I mean, this is not something that the whole LGBTQ community agrees with. I think it's something that divides us even within the LGBTQ community, because they, I mean, obviously males and females are different. Everybody that has a great a common sense can see that. Yeah, why this has become the big virtue signaling issue? It's, you know, I could throw out lots of theories and I can't really say for sure what it is, but it's harmful, it's harmful to our community that's harmful to our nation. It, you know, maybe it's part of somebody's big plan to destroy the American family. Maybe it's part of somebody that there's also to reasons out there, but it's just honestly, it's, you've just gone too far in trying to protect a class of people, which is preposterous. - Yeah, I don't understand it and like you said, I mean, like if you're LGBTQ lifestyle and you really wanna make strides in that arena, for whatever you see as a, you know, an unfair disadvantage or whatever, like this puzzle piece, having the, the Algerian boxer beat up the female Italian boxer, is not doing you any favors. - Yeah, that's not what you want to die on. You do not want to hang your hat on this issue because it makes more sense. And they're proving our case for us. We've always said we just want a level playing field for women, it's actually a safe and level playing field. It's more than fairness, it's safety. And they are proving our case for us. And I hate it that these women are being used and being taken advantage. And even that box, the athlete that, you know, had to drop out of the flight, she still wouldn't come out and say that this is wrong. Probably for fear of repercussion or being, you know, abandoned from her sport or something, being canceled. I mean, people fear of being canceled and being called some sort of bigot. Honestly, it supersedes just common sense sometimes. And we just need people to come up and say, "Look, this is not right." It's just playing not right. And I'm gonna say on behalf of these women, we need dads to stand up and speak at the, on behalf of all of our women. I mean, this is just, you know, we need everybody to stand up and be brave and say, "Hey, this ain't right." - Well, this is this part of the problem that a lot of people are a little afraid to get out there on. I mean, there's such a pressure campaign. And I mean, it comes from the media, it comes from a bunch of different places. But the problem with taking something like this on, it just, for a lot of people, it's just not worth the risk. I don't know what is, I'm sure it's different in the Alabama State House. But maybe you've encountered this, kind of trying to lead to charge here where you hear, like, you know, I'm on your side here, but I don't need to be out in front on this one. - And that's, yeah, yeah, I hear that all the time. We're glad you're doing it. We agree with what you're doing it. You know, I won't take this phone call from the press, but hey, Susan DeBoz will talk to you. And look, I'm proud to take that stand. But yeah, I have gotten attacked simply because I'm trying to protect women athletes. I've been called every name in the book. I mean, they jumped from me protecting women to, you know, on the, within which of the West, on the, you know, oh, I'm the church lady, yeah, I'm racist. How this comes into being racist, I can't even figure that out. I'm homophobic, I mean misogynistic, I don't know. Name all those, who's next. I've been called every single one of them. Because I simply want to protect women. And that's fine. Call me all those names. I really, I know it's not true. I'm happy to spend where I stand. And I need more people standing up and just saying what's right. But you know, I'll tell you what, the people in Alabama really are on both sides of the aisle, Republican and Democrat. This is five-person agreement that this is just not right. We're lucky in our state. People do agree on this issue. Everybody chooses to fight it in their own way. But when it comes, hey, if you're going to take a poll, this poll, I'm telling you 90% of Alabamaans do not want women athletes trying to get trans women. They do not. This poll is very high on both sides of the aisle. You know, different people have different levels of which they can support it. But nationwide, there's crazy going on. I mean, Kamala Harris, her comments regarding this are extremely disturbing, very disturbing. I just, I shudder to think what will happen if she gets elected president. It's very concerning to me. Well, she's one of those. And this is just a general observation. I don't know if she's necessarily for or against it. The same thing for Democrat politicians is to take the, whatever you decide you want to be when you wake up, that's what you are and we're a loving, caring country. But she's obviously not going to be out front on this at all. But I do think you're right. I mean, she'll do a lot of these, especially these Democrat politicians, these bureaucrats are just going to just shrug this off and just let your freak flag fly, whatever you want to be. Well, no, these bureaucrats are going further than that. They are doing harmful things. I mean, what's going on with Title IX and the Department of Education is harmful. They have totally 1500-page ruling that rewrites Title IX. I mean, that's dangerous. And that's the Biden administration. It will be carried on by Kamala Harris's administration should she be elected. And it's scary. Enjoyed by a statement just suited to both here on the program. Let's get to some other things real quick. We got you for several more minutes here. The library fight, the whole public library service, it looks like they're going through some internal turmoil there. But I mean, this still is becoming an issue. And it's also this, like some of these libraries are acting like these are just some very onerous restrictions that have been placed upon them to separate the books that I think most parents will object to and put them in a different part of the library. I mean, they're just not going along with what you guys would like to see very willingly, are they? Well, let me say this. The APLS board, the state library board, has adopted some new rulings recommended by Governor Ivy, which I completely agree with. They are very reasonable and they don't tell local libraries how to do this. They just say, the rules just simply say, you know, children's sections need to have books that are appropriate for minors. I mean, that's kind of common sense. There's another ruling in there that says just that you have library cards according to your age. So if you're 18 or under, you can check out books in this section. If you're over 18, you can check out any book. If you have to put on permission and you're under 18, you can check out any book. So it's just kind of common sense guidelines. I think there may be some libraries that are making it a bigger to do over than in reality. But look, the board has passed the guidelines. I think they're reasonable. If local boards want to receive state aid, then they need to adopt them. And that needs to be done by October 15th of 2024 because that's when the first quarter of aid, state aid will be sent out to the local library. If they don't want to comply, or they're not ready to do it, then they don't comply. And you won't get to state aid. And maybe you don't need to state aid. Maybe you don't care about it. But it's going to be a local decision in every single case how the local board's implemented and or say implemented. So I think that really, I don't see an issue, the rules are there. You can follow them. You can interpret them. You can implement them or not. And if you don't, then you simply just don't get to state aid and search what. Tell me this. I mean, state aid, obviously the varies, I would assume, but how much state aid is really on the line here for these libraries? Yeah, for some of them it's negligible. Libraries are funded totally by taxpayer dollars, I would say. A majority of it is from local city and county dollars. So if you're talking about a larger library, the amount of state aid they receive is insignificant. I think my county library, North Shelby County, has like a one point, I don't know, eight days, a $1.8 million budget, they get about $50,000 in state aid. It's not a time. So maybe they don't think it's significant. I think it's significant, but that's their choice. But now I will say some of these very small libraries that have maybe, say, a $300,000 budget, their state aid could be very significant. And they need to work. I mean, I would suggest to them that they're bored, simply say, "Hey, we adopted guidelines and we're going to do our best to start implementing them." I don't think the guidelines are difficult. I think that some libraries maybe are interpreting them differently, maybe they're just protesting. I don't know. I haven't kept up with every single individual library situation because I consider that a local issue and, you know, the local libraries. You need, you know, first of all, you need to have good people on your library board. The boards are appointed, so you need that sure that, you know, you have good people that are elected to your commission or your mayor or city council. They're appointing these board members, because the local board members are the ones that adopt these guidelines. And so you've got to have good people there. What has been the general reception to this, at least from your constituents, because, I mean, I mean, I look at it and I think, wow, I mean, this is really going on in our state, obviously, it's just, it's just weird, but like, you and I can't be alone here, but yet there's just, I got to think that there are more people who are kind of along our way of thinking representative than there are out to now. Yeah, you don't want to book illustrating explicit sexual acts in the children's section. I mean, that's common sense. And there are a handful of those books that need to be moved to the adult section. I mean, I don't think that it's really as complicated as people want to make it. I think that some librarians just don't want to do it, and so they're over-complicating the issue in order to just stand their ground. You know, the American Library Association, from which our, to their credit, our PLS board has withdrawn, but the American Library Association does not think that books should be fabricated. They think that every person, regardless of age, should have the right to read every single book, and that children should have reading privacy, which means parents might not even know what the child's reading. And so a lot of these librarians are trained with this American Library Association philosophy. They believe in it. And so they're fighting their little battle. They're fighting back in that way. And so I think to me, in some cases, they're making it more difficult than it is, just because, you know, they're trying to stand their ground. Well, last question, and we'll wrap it up on this, though, but I, some of it, like you say, they're standing their ground, how much of it is just they don't want to be told what to do? But if you're the experts, you guys are the pandering politicians, and you stay in your lane. Yeah, that's true. That is true. And let me tell you why, because, and this is sort of a tactic of the left, all over. It crosses all the lot of these, you know, the educated elite left are smarter than we are. They're smarter. And they need to make these decisions for parent and for us regular folks, because we're not a professional librarian. We don't have a degree sponsored by the American Library Association. We don't have that expert knowledge. How dare we, as a parent or a community member, try to say what should be in a library? We're not. We're not capable of that. So the trained library needs to make all that decision for us. That's the mentality in some cases. Not all, not all libraries are like that, and I'm not trying to speak about every library. But there are those that truly delete that. And that's what the American Library Association believes. That's what our Alabama Library Association believes. And these are boards, our local boards, who are appointed to represent the people, need to know that, look, you're in charge. You can write these sidelines. You can include parents on committees. You do not have to listen. You're not beholden to your library director. Your library director works for you. You hire the library director. So the boards need to take responsibility and accountability for their community. And they need to represent their community and listen to their community. And I just think it's going to be a process. It's going to be an evolution. And over time, I think all of this is going to settle down. It's just, you know, it's going to take a little bit of time. You know, we need our state library director, Dr. Pat, to fully communicate to all our local libraries about these deadlines. Because I do think we have communicated some information that's confusing. Yeah. And we're going to leave it there. We're up against the hard break here. But thanks for taking time on your vacation. Talk to us. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Stay representative Susan Dubos there. Let's get a break in here. We'll be right back. This is F.M. Talk. Missed the team. Oh, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my.