“Whereas, now, more than ever, the world needs more kindness.”

That’s the opening line to a legislative resolution promoting acts of kindness. It was introduced just days after Republican senators heard heartbreaking testimony from transgender constituents and their parents who told them how the treatments they and their children had received had changed their lives — and even saved lives in some instances

Then these same senators ignored their impassioned pleas and marched out on the floor and voted to ban the potentially life-saving treatments.

It was an act of calculated cruelty and icy indifference that will harm youth and potentially cost lives. But it gets worse.

When the bill came to the Senate floor, freshman Sen. Nate Blouin stood to speak against it and read a message from his intern, Ari Webb, who is transgender, about how Ari had been directly impacted by the bill.

“I cannot tell you how many nights I stayed up, wishing I wasn’t trans, contemplating whether suicide was better than continuing to live as a trans person,” Webb’s statement read in part. “I would not be alive if I had not been able to transition, and I am lucky that my attempts to take my life before that time failed.”

“I will have to face each of you on this floor after this vote, and each of you will have to face me and many other transgender people after today, whether you know it or not,” it concluded. “I hope you can face these people with a clear conscience that you did the right thing today.”

You can imagine how hard it must have been for Webb at that moment, to see these Republicans debating a bill — already certain to pass — that would harm people like him while pretending to care about the impacts it might have.

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In the back of the chamber, Webb’s fellow interns stood together, along with a Democratic staffer, Bennett Johnson, offering support to their colleague.

“Whereas,” the resolution introduced days later reads, “one act of kindness can brighten a moment, lift someone’s spirits, and turn a bad day into a good story.”

Kindness is standing with a friend or colleague who is going through difficult times. Kindness is giving unwavering support. These young people were offering one of the purest demonstrations of kindness you’re likely to see.

But, it did not “turn a bad day into a good story.”

As my colleague Bryan Schott reported Thursday, a few weeks after the bill passed, Johnson, who had worked for Senate Democrats for three years, was fired from his job, presumably with the approval of Republican Senate President Stuart Adams.

Senate staff won’t say why, simply noting that in Utah an employee can be fired for any reason — or no reason at all.

Johnson told Schott the reasons he was fired weren’t made clear to him. The reason for standing, he said, was never as a protest against the bill. It simply stemmed from a request by the interns who wanted to be there to support their friend.

“Kindness,” the senate’s resolution reads, “can become contagious and one small act of kindness can spark another small act of kindness.”

In theory, that is true. Lawmakers, if they had been paying attention, could perhaps have learned from the compassion that Johnson and these interns showed to their friend.

But in the Utah Legislature, where thin skin and fragile egos rule, kindness is met with contempt, and power is wielded to retaliate against basic acts of decency. It is a sad commentary on the state of our political process and an abysmal example of the kindness these Republican lawmakers claim to promote, yet seem incapable of practicing.