In what has been an unprecedented legislative agenda, Republican lawmakers across the United States have been introducing bills targeting transgender issues. The measures being proposed include bills to prevent teachers from using pronouns that match a student’s gender identity, to ban trans girls from playing on girls’ sports teams, and to require trans people to use the bathroom corresponding to their sex assigned at birth. The most controversial aspect of these bills is the push to ban certain healthcare treatments for transgender youth, with some Republican lawmakers proposing to charge parents and doctors with child abuse if they provide gender-affirming care.
The aggressive push comes as gender and sexuality issues are increasingly becoming a hot topic in American classrooms, courtrooms, and political campaigns. Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have embraced restricting trans rights ahead of the 2024 White House race, a move that has trans advocates concerned about the harmful impact on transgender children. Jay Richards, a senior research fellow at the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, supports the proposed legislation in several states, although he acknowledges that some of the bills, such as those seeking criminal liability for doctors and parents, might be “overly draconian.”
According to Erin Reed, Alejandra Caraballo, and Allison Chapman, three transgender rights advocates tracking the legislation, Republicans have introduced over 300 bills in 33 states aiming to limit transgender and wider LGBTQ rights this year. This number is more than double the number of bills filed in 2022. The emphasis this year is on banning gender-affirming care, which covers various treatments, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and, in rare cases for trans people under 18, surgery. Medical associations have called these bills transphobic, saying that gender-affirming care can be life-saving.
While many transgender children and their parents have testified against the proposed legislation, describing how gender-affirming care changed their lives, opponents of trans rights believe that the sex assigned at birth is immutable and distrust the prevailing opinions of medical associations. Governors in South Dakota and Utah have already signed gender-affirming care bans into law, which state legislatures passed this year. Bills in Idaho, Missouri, and Wyoming would criminalize providing such care as felony child abuse, while measures in Tennessee and Texas would categorize it as abuse under family law. Transgender advocates say such moves are punitive, especially considering the difficulty of getting treatment due to cost, lack of family support, or trouble finding a provider.
