At issue is HB 648, a bill by Rep. Gabe Firment which passed overwhelmingly in the House despite an enormous amount of flack fired by the Hard Left. It’s the bill that would ban “gender-affirming care,” the woke euphemism for sex-change operations and puberty blockers, for children.

The bill was in front of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee on Wednesday. It needed all five of the Republicans on that committee to vote for it to pass it to the floor.

That didn’t happen.

BREAKING: After passing the House, a bill in Louisiana that would have banned pediatric sex changes just failed in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee because 'Republican' State Senator Fred Mills voted with Democrats to kill it.

One look at his donors shows massive… pic.twitter.com/JFhBvHc5q4

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 24, 2023

Mills is no stranger to Hayride readers; we’ve documented time and again that he’s a soulless RINO who cares not a whit about that “R” next to his name other than that it was easier to get elected in his district with it than the “D” that would be more appropriate to his voting record.

And it would be zero surprise to see Mills voting against efforts to enforce traditional norms, as he’s appeared as a transvestite in commercials he ran for his pharmacy before he first ran for the Legislature.

In other news, I have discovered that Louisiana Republican Senator Fred Mills who just singlehandedly killed a bill to ban transing children also used to dress in drag for commercials for his pharmacy. pic.twitter.com/E47Ezcc4PP

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 24, 2023

At the time those were seen as funny. But they aren’t all that funny anymore.

Fred Mills is, mercifully, termed out of the Senate after this year. It’s fair to surmise that his political career is all but over, particularly after Wednesday’s vote. His district is fairly likely to elect Rep. Blake Miguez to replace him, which is about as radical a changeover from the standpoint of principle and ideology as it’s possible to have.

But that’s why Mills made the vote, and it’s important to understand what actually happened Wednesday.

This wasn’t just some left-wing fraud politician voting to screw the vast majority of constituents, perhaps at the beck and call of the profiteering drug companies. Something else was at work.

Mills is finished in politics in two weeks. But there are 26 other Republicans in that Senate, and what Fred Mills did was to insulate them from having to make a floor vote on that bill.

Because the state senate in Louisiana is used to being protected by its leadership from having to make difficult floor votes. It’s a tradition in that body to pamper senators and give them an easy ride.

And this being an election year a lot of them would really, really not want to have to defend a vote on the issue either way. It doesn’t matter that this bill enjoys wide popular support and overwhelming support among the Republican voters who make up the majority of their constituents.

But there’s an antidote to this old-boy pampering: a discharge petition which moves the bill onto the Senate floor for a vote.

Hopefully, you’ll begin to see conservative groups push for one. The most important deliverable on this bill this year is a floor vote in both houses.

But a discharge petition in and of itself functions as a floor vote. If there is one, we’ll know who signed it and who didn’t.

Failing that, one assumes there will be a Senate bill on health care which will arrive in the House – and if there is, Firment’s bill can and should be attached to it as an amendment and the amended bill passed and sent back to the Senate for concurrence.

Either way, it’s unacceptable for the Senate to take a powder on voting on this issue. Mills’ falling on a grenade so his RINO pals can escape accountability isn’t good enough.