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What to know about the ‘inseminated person’ language in Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ budget

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What to know about the ‘inseminated person’ language in Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ budget


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Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ state budget proposal is under fire from Republicans nationwide over a provision that would change language in some areas of state law related to same-sex couples and the process of having a baby through in vitro fertilization by replacing words like “mother” and “father.”

Evers proposes to swap out “husband” and “wife” for “spouse.” In areas of state law related to legal rights to children that couples choose to have through in vitro fertilization, sperm donors or surrogates, Evers proposes replacing “woman,” “mother” and “wife” with versions of “person who is inseminated,” or “inseminated person.”

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Here’s what to know:

The changes have been included in three budget proposals

The Democratic governor has included the changes in two previous budget proposals. They were removed by Republicans who control the state Legislature and budget-writing process in 2021 and 2023 without public discussion.

This year, however, state lawmakers and Republicans nationwide have leveled sharp criticism at Evers over the proposal, specifically for swapping out “mother” for “inseminated person.”

Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, was the first to point out the changes, calling the proposal insulting to mothers.

“It is not only deeply offensive, but it is an outright attack on the very essence of motherhood,” Nedweski said in a statement released Friday. “It is unconscionable that the Governor has the audacity to take the most beautiful, life-giving act a woman can perform — bringing children into this world — and turn it into nothing more than gender-neutral, virtue-signaling  jargon to appease his far-left base.”

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“Governor Evers is a former science teacher,” Nedweski said. “It appears to me that he needs a refresher on basic biology. Last I checked, only one gender is capable of giving birth — women. Anyone who says otherwise is denying science.”

Republicans nationwide have blasted the proposals

Since Nedweski’s comments on Friday, the proposals have received criticism from Republicans across the country.

“Hi Mom, I mean ‘inseminated person’. This is crazy!!” Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, X and SpaceX and a leader of the Department of Government Efficiency under President Donald Trump, said in a post Tuesday that was reposted about 42,000 times.

“Imagine opening a card on Mother’s Day with the message, “Happy Inseminated Person’s Day,” Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina posted Wednesday on X.

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“As a woman currently going through IVF I can think of countless ways I’d rather be referred to than ‘inseminated person,’” Alyssa Farah Griffin, co-host of “The View,” posted Monday.

On Tuesday, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos blasted the provisions and dismissed the idea that statutes needed to change to address situations involving fertility treatments for same-sex couples, signaling they would again be removed from the spending plan.

“It’s really one of those times where you have an answer to a problem that nobody agrees exists,” Vos said. “It’s really made Wisconsin a national embarrassment.”

Evers says the changes would provide legal clarity for same-sex couples starting families

Evers defended the provisions in an appearance Monday in Wausau, saying they are meant to provide legal clarity for same-sex couples in the process of creating or growing families through IVF.

“What we want is legal certainty that moms are able to get the care they need,” Evers said, according to WSAW. “That’s it. End of story.”

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A spokeswoman for Evers said Republicans are lying about what the changes do.

“These are more lies, disinformation, and conspiracy theories from Republicans, Elon Musk, and right-wing extremists who are trying to politicize providing legal parental rights and certainty under the law for parents using IVF,” Evers spokeswoman Britt Cudaback said in a statement.

“Republicans are lying about the governor and budget language that’s identical to a Republican-backed bill, has nothing to do with what parents call themselves or what kids call their parents, does not eliminate ‘mother’ and ‘father’ from state law, and is about ensuring full legal rights for parents under the law. Full stop.”

The changes seek to account for court rulings legalizing same-sex marriage, requiring birth certificates to accommodate same-sex couples

According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau, the proposal “recognizes same-sex marriage by making references in the statutes to spouses gender-neutral, with the intent of harmonizing the Wisconsin Statutes with the holding of the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges … which recognizes that same-sex couples have a fundamental constitutional right to marriage.””The bill makes applicable to married persons of the same sex allprovisions under current law that apply to married persons of different sexes,” the analysis said. “… the bill specifies ways in which married couples of the same sex may be the legal parents of a child and, with some exceptions, makes current references in the statutes to ‘mother’ and ‘father,’ and related terms, gender-neutral.”

The proposed changes would help codify a 2016 federal court ruling requiring the state to put the names of same-sex parents on the birth certificates of their children, according to Madison-based attorney Theresa Roetter, who specializes in legal issues related to creating families.

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The case involved a same-sex couple, Chelsea and Jessamy Torres, who were married in New York in 2012. Same-sex marriage became legal in Wisconsin in 2014. In March 2015, Chelsea gave birth in Madison to the couple’s son.

They filled out paperwork at the hospital in Madison but claimed the state health agency would not supply an accurate certificate with both Chelsea and Jessamy listed as the parents.

Their federal lawsuit pointed out that DHS issued birth certificates to children of opposite-sex couples without regard to how the child was conceived or whether both spouses were the biological parents because Wisconsin law presumes the spouse of a woman who gives birth is the father.

The changes were first proposed in 2019 and backed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers

According to drafting files related to the 2021-23 state budget bill, Evers officials included in that spending plan language from a 2019 bill that ultimately did not go anywhere.

It was supported by a group of Democratic lawmakers, including Senate and Assembly minority leaders Dianne Hesselbein of Middleton and Greta Neubauer of Racine, and two Republicans: Reps. Joel Kitchens of Sturgeon Bay and Todd Novak of Dodgeville.

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The bill did not receive a public hearing or floor vote.

Affected state statute created in 1979

Roetter said the state statute under scrutiny was first created in 1979 to accommodate sperm donation.

“It needs to be updated for all families who need to use assisted reproduction to become parents,” Roetter said, including for same-sex couples, heterosexual couples, couples using an egg donor or donated embryos, or for a person who wants to become a single mother or single father using donated eggs, embryos or sperm.

“I know that some people feel like this is an ideological, right-left sort of issue, but I will tell you my clients are all across the board politically,” Roetter said.

Roetter said she would not have used “inseminated person” to make the changes she said are needed because it only accounts for sperm donation and suggested “intended parent” as a substitute.

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“(The statute) only talks about somebody who’s receiving donated sperm, not (donated eggs) or embryos. So, updates are definitely needed. I just wouldn’t have used the word ‘inseminated person.’”



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Wisconsin Weekend: Pride bar crawl, Father’s Day deals, and more

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Wisconsin Weekend: Pride bar crawl, Father’s Day deals, and more


MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee has no shortage of ways to celebrate this weekend, from a Pride bar crawl to Father’s Day deals around the city and Juneteenth celebrations.

Summerfest and Northcott Neighborhood House are hosting a Juneteenth celebration filled with music and culture at the Summerfest grounds.

Watch: Kidd O’Shea breaks down this weekend’s events:

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Wisconsin Weekend in a Minute: June 19-21

The event kicks off right after the traditional Juneteenth Day Festival wraps up.

Pride Bar Crawl

The 9th annual Pride Bar Crawl kicks off Saturday at 4 p.m. at Walker’s Pint.

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Tickets include drinks and access to exclusive specials at partner bars. Twenty percent of proceeds will benefit the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center.

The crawl wraps up with an after-party and drag show at La Cage Nightclub.

Father’s Day

On Sunday, The Motor Restaurant at the Harley-Davidson Museum is offering a free beer for dad when purchased with a meal, along with free admission to the museum. Reservations are highly encouraged.

Families can also take dad to the Milwaukee County Zoo, where all fathers receive free admission on Sunday.

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These Wisconsin swing voters say Trump’s war in Iran wasn’t worth it

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These Wisconsin swing voters say Trump’s war in Iran wasn’t worth it


Vessels are anchored along the Strait of Hormuz.

Amirhossein Khorgooei/ISNA/AFP via Getty Images


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Amirhossein Khorgooei/ISNA/AFP via Getty Images

The war in Iran was a costly blunder, according to swing voters in the battleground state of Wisconsin.

NPR observed two online focus groups on Tuesday featuring voters who supported Joe Biden in 2020 and then Donald Trump in 2024.

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President Trump had just announced a framework agreement to end the war, which he signed on Wednesday.

Yet among the focus groups’ 13 participants, no one said they thought the conflict with Iran was “worth it,” and nine said they felt that the U.S. is coming out of this conflict weaker than before.

Corey M., a 33-year-old independent voter, said he is concerned that the U.S. expended “so much financially and so much of our arsenal,” with little to show for it. (All participants agreed to be part of the focus groups on the condition that they be identified by their first name and last initial only.)

“We essentially got nothing out of it,” he said. “It’s hurt our economy and increased expenses for the everyday American, and it accomplished the square root of nothing.”

Focus groups are not scientifically significant like polling. But they provide insight into how Americans are thinking about what they see in the news.

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These focus groups — made up of 10 self-described independents, two Democrats and one Republican — were conducted by messaging and market research firms Engagious and Sago as part of the Swing Voter Project. NPR is a partner on the project.

Rich Thau, president of Engagious, moderated the focus groups. He has been asking voters in key states about this conflict since March. And he said voters have been consistent.

“They were never on board,” Thau said. “Not the beginning. Not in the middle. And as we just learned, not at the end either, judging from what we heard from Wisconsin swing voters.”

Sam M., a 30-year-old independent, said from what he read about the deal, it wasn’t leaving the U.S. in a better position than before the war. In fact, he said he thought the Iran nuclear deal brokered by the Obama administration — which Trump backed out of — was a better deal for the United States.



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President of Wisconsin’s largest mosque released from ICE custody

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President of Wisconsin’s largest mosque released from ICE custody


A federal judge has ordered the release of the president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque, after finding that immigration officials probably detained him in retaliation against his public advocacy for Palestinian rights, suppressing his first amendment rights in the process.

The US district judge James Patrick Hanlon’s order on Thursday marked a sharp rebuke against Trump officials, including the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who had tried to paint Salah Sarsour as a national security threat.

“Salah Sarsour, who has lived in this country for more than three decades and served as a core pillar in his community without any issues, should never have been detained in the first place,” his legal team wrote in a statement. “While we continue to fight these baseless claims in court, today is about celebrating a family being reunited. It is also a sober reminder that, if the government can target Mr Sarsour, everyone’s free speech rights are at risk.”

Sarsour describes himself as a stateless Palestinian, according to the order. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says that he is a Jordanian citizen. He has lived in the United States for more than three decades, becoming a legal permanent resident in 1998. Immigration officials approved Sarsour’s citizenship application decades ago, though he did not naturalize.

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Sarsour has garnered public attention as a champion for Palestinian rights, and serves as a board member of an advocacy group called American Muslims for Palestine.

But Rubio personally signed off on a memo to the DHS last year describing Sarsour as deportable despite his green card, because “his actions undermine US foreign policy to combat antisemitism around the world”. The memo, cited in Hanlon’s order, accuses Sarsour’s group of being “found to have been involved in activities providing funds to Hamas”.

A group of plainclothes ICE officers from at least 10 unmarked vehicles swarmed Sarsour on 30 March of this year, arresting him and putting him in deportation proceedings. ICE ultimately detained him in Clay county jail in Indiana.

Sarsour lost 30lb while detained, the order says. His lawyers told the court that he was “at constant risk of developing serious complications from diabetes given that the medical staff only checks his blood-sugar levels once a month”. Tightly controlling diabetes typically requires multiple glucose checks daily.

Hanlon’s order says that homeland security officials and Rubio probably trampled on Sarsour’s first amendment right to free speech and appeared to have arrested him in retaliation for his Palestinian rights advocacy.

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The order cited a New York Times story and the website for the Heritage Foundation, the conservative thinktank that dreamed up Project 2025,

The Heritage Foundation presented the White House with the idea to present prominent foreign-born Muslims and Palestinian rights leaders as terrorists in order to sue them, deport them or pressure employers to fire them, the order says, citing reporting from the Times and Heritage’s own website. Sarsour was probably among the targets of that campaign, the order says.

The federal government, through its lawyers, contended that Sarsour should be deported based on two convictions from more than three decades ago in Israel – one for throwing a molotov cocktail and the other for attempting to store weapons and ammunition.

Sarsour denies having committed those crimes.

But Hanlon viewed those crimes as a non-issue for justifying his incarceration, noting that the federal government knew about them since the 1990s and approved his legal permanent residency and his citizenship application anyway.

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Sarsour’s speech on Palestinian rights “is core political speech and squarely within the scope of the First Amendment”, the order says. “Mr Sarsour has submitted evidence allowing a reasonable inference that his protected speech was ‘at least a motivating factor’ in Respondents’ decision to detain him.”

A spokesperson for homeland security described Sarsour as a “terrorist”, citing the convictions from his youth in Israel.

Government lawyers had argued that Sarsour did not have the same first amendment rights as US citizens. If he were released, they said, he should have to pay a $25,000 bond, wear an ankle monitor, check in routinely with ICE and remain confined to his house.

Instead, Hanlon ordered his release on personal recognizance, meaning that Sarsour does not have to pay a cash bond to compel him to show up in court again. The order, however, requires him to remain in the state of Wisconsin.



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