Yesterday, the Human Rights Campaign launched #LetKidsPlay to mobilize our allies, including thousands of parents of transgender children, elected officials and organizations, eventually getting the hashtag to number 19 on Twitter’s trending and raising awareness about the anti-equality amendments in this vote-a-rama. Today, we are proud to see that U.S. senators stayed focused on providing critical relief to American families and voted down a discriminatory amendment that would have ultimately deprived federal funding for states across the country. These amendments solely sought to further their manufactured ‘culture war,’ driven by misinformation and fear-mongering.

“We have said it before and we will say it again -- transgender people have been participating in sports consistent with their gender identity for decades. The sad truth is that conservative Republicans are using it now to drum up a new culture war, using vulnerable children as political pawns. We thank the Senators who voted down this poison pill and put American families and small businesses ahead of political positioning.