'Bathroom bill' draws parade of criticism in Senate committee

JEFFERSON CITY • If there was a crescendo in the long line of transgender people and their supporters speaking against the nation's latest "bathroom bill" Tuesday, it probably came when Samantha DeMichieli of St. Louis stopped talking and started crying.

With her black hair tied back in a ponytail, Samantha, 13, offered the Senate education committee her credentials as a "normal girl": a role on her school's cheer team, a love of drawing, a fondness for the family cats.

Then she revealed that she lived her first six years as Samuel before deciding to identify as female. At the school she goes to now, it's not a problem, she said. Her friends and teachers accept her and don't make a big deal about where she goes to the bathroom.

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