内容摘要：Women’s rights activists celebrate outside the Supreme Court to challenge gender recognition laws, in London, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Women’s rights activists celebrate outside the Supreme Court to challenge gender recognition laws, in London, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration, a Republican from Mulberry, said the Democratic walkout equals “support for taxpayer-funded sex change surgeries for state prisoners.”“To see members flee the chamber because they are unwilling to actually represent their constituency, put the vote on the board and let it be known to all Georgians where they stand is incredibly disappointing,” Efstration said.

The drama in Georgia came as transgender issues are debated in other states.In California on Tuesday, a committee blocked bills meantn even after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said he believed allowing trans athletes to compete in sports matching their gender identity was unfair. Nevada saw its high school athletic federation vote to limit students to sports

Colorado is considering a bill that would define it as discrimination to refer to a transgender person by their gender or name from before they transitioned.House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley, a Columbus Democrat, dismissed Georgia Republicans’ actions as “political theater.”

“People sent us here to do great work,” she said. “They did not send us here to bully people, to ostracize people, to discriminate against people.”

“Tall Tales,” the first full-length collaboration betweenThe United States is the home country for 10 of the 133 cardinals eligible to vote for the next pope. That’s more than any nation except Italy, home to 17 of the electors who will gather Wednesday for the Vatican conclave to choose the successor to Pope Francis.

Only four of the American electors actively serve as archbishops in the U.S.: Timothy Dolan of New York, Blase Cupich of Chicago, Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, and Robert McElroy of Washington. Two are retired archbishops: Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston and Wilton Gregory of Washington.The other four have had long Vatican service: Robert Prevost, James Michael Harvey, Raymond Burke and Kevin Farrell.

Profiles of the cardinal electors:Cardinal Raymond Burke attends the conference “The synodal Babel” in a theater near the Vatican, Oct. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)