2024 Anti-Transgender Initiatives in the US: What Is Happening Now?

When we say there's an onslaught of anti-trans and anti-gay legislation in the United States, what do we mean? What are the worst laws?

Well, there are hundreds of laws and proposed laws. Many took effect just last year, in 2023. Many are anti-gay.

For some of the 2023 history, see this article, "The rise of anti-trans bills in the US": Lawmakers in 37 U.S. states have introduced at least 142 bills to restrict gender-affirming healthcare for trans and gender-expansive people this year, nearly three times as many as last year. Four-fifths target gender-affirming care for trans children under 18, while the remainder target adults or anyone regardless of age. Reuters has reviewed the bills, taking stock of where they stand in the approval process, the treatments they seek to restrict and the penalties they would impose. Minami Funakoshi and Disha Raychaudhuri, Reuters, August 19, 2023

These days, there's a special focus on anti-transgender legislation. But these themes overlap. What's bad for trans people is generally also bad for gay people.

Here's an overview.

Flower growing from cracks by svklimkin from Pixabay

For New Year's 2024, 'Them' published this extremely helpful article

Quote:

"After a year of legislation that relentlessly targeted LGBTQ+ Americans, the community is already facing another potentially record-breaking legislative session in 2024. More than 500 bills were put forward in 2023 seeking to restrict rights and protections for queer and trans people, in arenas from public restroom access to gender-affirming health care, and LGBTQ+ advocates do not expect that historic pace to slow down with a presidential election on the horizon. If re-elected to the White House, former President Donald Trump has already floated a federal transition ban — pledging that, on day one, he will sign an 'executive order instructing every federal agency to cease the promotion of sex or gender transition at any age.'"
— "What’s At Stake for LGBTQ+ Rights in 2024?": Anti-trans politicians will undoubtedly be busy once again this year, but LGBTQ+ activists and advocates have no plans to back down. Nico Lang, Them, January 2, 2024

Of those >500 bills, 14 percent passed.

"Support for these measures has been enabled and propelled by scientific misinformation, which has proven to be a distressingly effective tool in outraging a public that might otherwise be broadly empathetic, or at least uncertain about where to stand." (OpenMind)

Coming out of 2023, already "21 states have passed laws comprehensively banning gender-affirming care for trans youth." Fortunately, "of the 19 trans youth healthcare bans passed in 2023, nearly all are currently being challenged in court."

What did the pre-filed 2024 bills include? (I'm still quoting from the article.)

• In Missouri, to "allow teachers to refuse using trans students’ pronouns and shield doctors sued for refusing to provide gender-affirming care" (and this follows the state Attorney General's rule last April that puts "onerous and burdensome restrictions on trans health care for patients of all ages.")
• In South Carolina, to become the second state "to impose criminal penalties for trans people who use bathrooms that align with their gender."
• In South Carolina and Virginia, to ban gender-affirming healthcare until the age of 21.
• In Oklahoma, to "ban gender-affirming healthcare until the age of 26."
• In Florida, "to expand the state’s existing 'Don’t Say Gay' law to the workplace. If passed, it would ban any mandatory 'training, instruction, or other activity on sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.'" This means you couldn't have an LGBTQ-inclusive organization; it means no LGBTQ advocacy organizations. (And that follows the state law last May that "has compromised providers’ abilities to provide gender-affirming care to any patient.")

Already, "eight states currently have “Don’t Say Gay” laws in place."

Only "a handful of GOP-led states, including Georgia and Nebraska, have yet to limit trans sports participation."

And in 2023, "at least six states passed restrictions on public performances of drag." Although "many of those efforts have been temporarily blocked or struck down entirely," Republicans will keep trying.

Furthermore, at the federal level, "House lawmakers reportedly inserted at least 45 different anti-LGBTQ+ amendments into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) budget," including to "prevent government buildings from flying Pride flags and effectively defund gender-affirming care at the federal level." This budget effort failed.

A big risk in 2024 is that

"the GOP will shift its focus to targeting trans people who are forced to travel to affirming states to have their medical needs met. With the rise in restrictions on trans health treatments, at least 14 states (and Washington, D.C.) have enacted laws or executive orders preventing prosecutions against patients who cross the border for gender-affirming care. To stop states from providing that care, Idaho has pushed a bill two years running that would charge parents and guardians with a felony if they leave the state to seek transition treatment for a minor."

Compare maps of trans rights to this map of repro rights, which the Washington Post keeps updated: "States where abortion is legal, banned or under threat"

Judith Butler said (Them, published April 5, 2024) of the anti-trans U.S. legislation: "It’s terrifying to me. I feel like this is a new form of persecution that I don’t think any of us were really prepared for. ...this is rank discrimination. These are really basic issues of democracy, issues of equality, freedom and justice. And so when people say, 'Oh this is just identity politics,' it’s like, 'No, this is the future of democracy. That is what we’re looking at.' It might be our job to show people those links. This is not some small issue; this is fundamental."

The 'Women's Bill of Rights' (anti-transgender)

In 2022, before the midterm election, a conservative group had budgeted nearly $6 million total — up to $575,000 for each of 10 states — for anti-transgender messaging about this bill. Their focus included these nine states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Kansas implemented the bill. According to this informational sheet (PDF) put out by the Kansas Legislature, it defines sex...

In 2023, "Kansas’ so-called 'Women’s Bill of Rights,' which rewrote the state’s definition of sex as defined solely by a person’s reproductive biology at birth." (Nico Lang, Them)

Then it says that state agencies, including schools, must "identify each individual as either male or female at birth."

What happened then: "That move led the Kansas Department of Health to stop correcting trans people’s birth certificates and the state’s attorney general, Kris Kobach, to attempt to block gender marker updates on driver’s licenses." (Nico Lang, Them)

This information will be used to separate people in (quoting from the legislature's fact sheet)

● Athletics;
● Prisons or other detention facilities;
● Domestic violence centers;
● Rape crisis centers;
● Locker rooms;
● Restrooms; and
● Other areas where biology, safety, or privacy are implicated that result in separate accommodations.

"'What I think they’re hoping for is that they get an easy headline that says: Kansas state legislator moves forward ‘Women's Bill of Rights,’' says Branstetter. 'If you ask most people what’s in a ‘Women’s Bill of Rights,’ they might think it includes, say, protections for abortion, from discrimination at work, that it includes equal pay, paid leave, access to childcare, or safety from violence. These laws, of course, do nothing of the sort. They are being proposed and passed by the very same politicians who are banning abortion and limiting access to contraception.'"

Other states want to implement it too.

Krista Brynn has shared an essay about this. As of February 7, 2024, she says "I count 25" pending bills that are influenced by the so-called Women's Bill of Rights.

Read: "The Dangerous Scam of 'the Women’s Bill of Rights'": One of the biggest trends in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation this year is also the most insidious. Allison Chapman. March 8, 2024.

Early January 2024

I tried to describe what had happened in just the first few days of the year: "How Many Anti-Trans Laws Were Proposed Last Week?": They‘ve been counted, but let’s also reflect on what they mean. - 6 min read - Jan 6, 2024

·

Mid-January 2024 article in Vox

Three times within a year, the Supreme Court "turned away a case asking it to diminish the rights of young transgender Americans," according to Ian Millhiser in "The Supreme Court is running away from transgender rights cases" (Vox, Jan 17, 2024)

Information from this article:

Case #1

Millhiser:

"...[in an April 2023] case called West Virginia v. B.P.J. — the Court decided not to kick a transgender student off of her middle school girl’s cross-country team. A lower court had blocked a West Virginia state law forbidding her from competing with other girls, and the Supreme Court rejected a request to temporarily reinstate that law while the case is being litigated. (This case could potentially reach the justices again in the future.)"

Case #2

Millhiser:

"In December [2023], the Court also announced that it would not hear Tingley v. Ferguson, a case challenging Washington state’s restrictions on “conversion therapy” — a technique that tries to turn LGBTQ patients into cisgender heterosexuals or prevent them from expressing their actual sexual orientation or gender identity."

Case #3

Now, Millhiser reports that, in January 2024, the Supreme Court said it won't

"hear Metropolitan School District v. A.C., a case asking whether public school districts may require transgender students to use bathrooms that align with their sex assigned at birth, as opposed to their gender identity.

In A.C., the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit [which handles federal cases in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin] ruled in favor of three trans students — so these students may use the bathroom that aligns with their identity."

What they have in common

Millhiser:

"...in all three cases, the anti-LGBTQ side raised a plausible argument that existing law supports their preferred outcome. The Tingley case turns on contradictory language in a 2018 Supreme Court decision, which can be read to support either outcome in Tingley. Meanwhile, the A.C. and B.P.J. cases raise questions that the Court left open in its landmark LGBTQ rights decision in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020)."

However

Just because the Supreme Court has declined to hear these three cases does not mean it will never hear a case about transgender students. The court is conservative. Three of the nine Justices were nominated by Donald Trump. We don't know how the court might rule.

Grass growing from pavement by Shepherd Chabata from Pixabay

One month into 2024, yes, it's bad

I wrote this update: "How Do You Know the Legislation Is Anti-LGBTQ Without Reading It?": 2023 was gruesomely challenging. 2024 is something else. - 6 min read - February 1, 2024

The ACLU has the count as of Feb 6. The 2024 count of anti-LGBTQ bills is already up to 402. In other words, in just the first few weeks of this year, there are almost as many anti-LGBTQ bills as throughout all of last year. This rate of anti-LGBTQ legislation is unprecedented.

Two months into 2024, it looks like this

If you want more visuals, look up the Movement Advancement Project

The Movement Advancement Project (MAP) has a section about issues affecting transgender people.

For example, this map (screenshotted February 7, 2024) shows 22 states that ban gender-affirming hormones and surgery for trans youth, plus a 23rd state that bans surgery only.

Erin Reed developed a risk map when "bills targeting transgender youth were far more common. Unfortunately over the last year, the transgender youth map has lost all granularity, largely reducing to just two colors: red and blue, a set of states criminalizing trans youth and a set of states protecting them. You can still find this map at the end of the document, and it will be continually updated. The primary map of focus, though, will be the transgender adult map, as bills targeting trans adults have become far more common." (her March 25, 2024 update)

The Human Rights Campaign has info too

One-third of U.S. transgender teenagers live in states where they cannot get gender-affirming healthcare even if their parents and doctors are fine with it, because it has recently been made illegal in that state.

"As of November 2023, three in ten (35.1% or 105,200 total) trans youth aged 13-17 are living in states that have passed bans on gender affirming care." — HRC

A few general things to know about gender-affirming care

• "...every major medical organization in the United States supports gender-affirming care due to the evidence behind it." (share this quote on Bluesky)
• "...multiple judges have determined the evidence supporting trans care is comparable to that of most pediatric care..." (share this quote on Bluesky)
• "...the narrative...about high detransition rates and stories of regret does not stem from careful journalism, but rather, anti-trans activist groups." (share this quote on Bluesky)
• "...these erroneous narratives are now being used to justify legislation aimed at banning transgender [care] 'for everyone.'" (more context: I've written about this)

— Erin Reed and Evan Urquhart, February 8, 2024

Please remember

2024 is an election year. If you know someone who needs to be reminded that Donald Trump did not support LGBTQ+ rights during his term, please send them this inventory of specific ways in which Trump harmed queer/trans people.

• How Trump self-scored 36 points on LGBTQ rights — And why it’s a failing grade (10-min read). The Trump administration has done nothing whatsoever in favor of LGBTQ rights.

Similarly, if you know someone who needs to be reminded about a certain talk show host (who might run as vice president), send them this inventory of his remarks.

• "What does Tucker Carlson say about LGBT people?" (12-min read) The former Fox News talk show host opposes LGBT rights. His remarks demonstrate this.

Don’t repeat their lies to the contrary. Just share the facts of what they've said and done.

Laws and proposed laws are just one aspect of anti-LGBTQ forces

Some hate speech is so intense that it's considered stochastic terrorism — meaning, it increases the likelihood that someone will commit violence. It incites violence, even if it's hard to track exactly how, because it speaks to a mass audience and the effect is statistical. Just today (Feb 7, 2024), NBC News published an article explaining that they'd "identified 33 instances, starting in November 2020, when people or institutions singled out by Libs of TikTok later reported bomb threats or other violent intimidation." Basically, when Libs of TikTok tweets (even vaguely) about a school or hospital, that institution is at risk for threats of violence. I added my own context on this blog.

This is happening

"Legislators have removed books with LGBTQ content from libraries and disparaged them as “filth.” A recent law in Florida threatens trans people with arrest for using public restrooms. Both Florida and Texas have pursued efforts to compile data on their trans citizens. Donald Trump’s campaign platform calls for a nationwide ban on trans health care for minors and severe restrictions for adults."
— Pseudoscience has long been used to oppress transgender people: Three major waves of opposition to transgender health care in the past century have cited faulty science to justify hostility. G. Samantha Rosenthal & The Conversation US. Scientific American. February 12, 2024.

In the state of Georgia alone:

"Sen. Summers's bill, Senate Bill 438 [a bathroom ban], is just one of several bills targeting transgender people this year in Georgia. Another bill, Senate Bill 88, which would enact policies to out transgender youth to their parents, was recently passed through committee while senators only allowed people who supported the bill to speak. Other bills include one that would ban drag, a book ban, and a bill that would end all legal recognition of transgender people in the state."
— Erin Reed, Georgia Senator Vows to Protect Girl, But Then Runs Away After Learning She Is Trans, Feb. 16, 2024

The government may shut down

Erin Reed tells us that on February 21, 2024:

"the House Freedom Caucus published a letter threatening a government shutdown in which it outlines a number of policies that are needed to supposedly avert such a result. Listed among these policies are restrictions on gender affirming care, transgender participation in sports, DEI programs, and defunding Planned Parenthood. This comes after nearly a dozen riders targeting transgender people have been inserted into numerous government spending bills that could result in large scale government shutdowns if not handled by March 8th."

Here is the House Freedom Caucus's letter to Speaker Mike Johnson.

163 Democratic members of Congress said that "bans on gender affirming care, pride flags, DEI initiatives, and discrimination should not be on the table for negotiation."

"Some factions within the Republican Party have increasingly indicated that targeting transgender individuals is a top priority and may view a shutdown as worth the political risk over transgender issues. Representative Dan Crenshaw stated in June that such bans are the "hill we will die on." It would not be the first time government operations have ground to a halt over transgender issues; in 2023, Republicans refused to move forward with any other bills unless they could pass a ban on gender-affirming care, allowing a filibuster to last for three months. Should this occur at the national level, however, it would represent the most significant impact of anti-trans policies on multiple sectors of government."

— "Republicans Issue New Government Shutdown Threat Over Trans People," Erin Reed, Feb 21, 2024

(March 8 update: The government did not shut down.)

A national ban on transition?

"2024," Jules Gill-Peterson tells us on March 6, "appears likely be consumed by political escalation, by which I mean the Lovecraftian road to a national ban of some sort on transition depending on the outcome of fall elections and the primacy of state legislatures in generating more aggressive legislation targeting classes of trans people already subject to vulnerability by the administrative state."

Biden administration releases new Title IX rules

Jude Ellison S. Doyle in Xtra:

"...the federal civil rights law Title IX states that any school that receives federal funds may not discriminate 'on the basis of sex.' This rule has explicitly covered trans students ever since the Supreme Court’s Bostock ruling in June 2020, which found that discrimination against trans people was 'discrimination on the basis of sex' because it stemmed from non-conformity to sex assigned at birth.

... In 2021, the Department of Education issued a rule formally stating that Title IX protected trans and queer students."

In April, the Education Department issued new Title IX rules, to take effect August 1, that define sex discrimination as including discrimination that happens on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. (see the 1500-page PDF) The AP reports: "The administration originally planned to include a new policy forbidding schools from enacting outright bans on transgender athletes, but that provision was put on hold." Title IX applies to any school that receives federal funds. Now, the AP says, "LGBTQ+ students who face discrimination will be entitled to a response from their school under Title IX, and those failed by their schools can seek recourse from the federal government."

The AP notes: "At least 11 states have adopted laws barring transgender girls and women from using girls’ and women’s bathrooms at public schools....The laws are in effect in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee. A judge’s order putting enforcement on hold is in place in Idaho. A prohibition in Utah is scheduled to take effect July 1." The Biden administration rule would block laws like this.

A week after the Biden administration announced the new rules, Louisiana’s top education official said Louisiana schools should ignore them, saying it contradicted Louisiana law and other existing federal laws. As the Hill reported on April 22: "Including Louisiana, 24 states have passed laws preventing transgender student-athletes from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity." (The Hill)

However, within less than a week of Biden's announcement, "officials in at least four states — Oklahoma, Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina — have directed schools to ignore the regulations, potentially setting up a federal showdown that may ultimately end up in a protracted court battle in the lead-up to the 2024 elections." (Erin Reed, Four States Tell Schools To Ignore Biden's New Title IX Rules Protecting Trans Students, April 25, 2024)

Again, Jude Ellison S. Doyle in Xtra:

"Title IX is not the only tool being used to pursue justice. In its complaint to the Department of Education, the HRC also invoked a statute that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability (since disability law has sometimes been interpreted to cover gender dysphoria). Separately, the HRC asked for a Department of Justice investigation, which would allow the DOJ to take over from local law enforcement if they were unwilling or unable to properly investigate the case—which makes sense, given the dismal history of the Oklahoma medical examiner’s office and the overall sketchy behaviour from local law enforcement.

Title IX is a uniquely hopeful intervention, though, precisely because it concerns the state’s responsibility to educate all trans and queer students."

Texas

On February 28, PFLAG National sued the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (a Republican), "rather than hand over information about its support of transgender children receiving gender-confirming medical care." Paxton's office had demanded this information following PFLAG's CEO Brian Bond's 2023 deposition in his opposition to the Texas ban on transgender youth healthcare. On March 1, the judge said that Paxton's demand amounted to an unreasonable search and a privacy invasion. The judge temporarily blocked Paxton's request and set a hearing for March 25.

"On Friday, March 1, Texas Health and Human Services will implement a new rule restricting access to gender affirming care for adults enrolled in the Texas Medicaid program.

Under the new rule, Medicaid will not cover the cost of “Hormone Therapy Agents” for anyone who has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria within the past 730 days. This decision appears to have been implemented with no public hearing and no opportunity for public input, which is usually required. The outcome of this rule shows this was another deliberate attack on Trans Texans and their access to health care."

— New rule will restrict access to gender affirming care for some in Texas, David Taffet, Dallas Voice, Feb 29, 2024

On April 22, Paxton announced a court settlement according to which he will no longer seek transgender people's information from Seattle Children’s Hospital, whose officials "have said in sworn depositions that the facility does not have staff who treat trans kids in-person within Texas or remotely from Washington." (Seattle Children’s Hospital won’t have to provide trans patient records to Texas under new settlement: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton suspected the hospital was helping Texas kids access puberty blockers or hormone treatments that are outlawed for juveniles. Karen Brooks Harper, Texas Tribune, April 22, 2024)

Louisiana

"As severe weather shut down nearly every government entity in Louisiana Wednesday [April 10], a legislative committee met and quietly advanced two pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

The Louisiana House Committee on Education advanced House Bill 121 by Rep. Raymond Crews, R-Bossier City, which prohibits the use of transgender and nonbinary youth’s chosen names and pronouns in public K-12 schools without parental permission, along a party line 9-3 vote.

House Bill 122 by Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Haugton, which limits discussion of gender and sexuality in public K-12 schools, also advanced on a 9-3 vote, with Rep. Barbara Freiberg, R-Baton Rouge, joining Democrats in opposing the bill.

— "Severe weather doesn’t stop GOP anti-LGBTQ+ bills in Louisiana," Piper Hutchinson, Los Angeles Blade, April 10, 2024

Mississippi

There was a bill to restrict bathroom and locker use in public buildings (including university dorms) and a bill to decree that "every individual is either male or female" and that this is set at birth. The House and Senate each passed its own version of both bills, but the bills died — only because the legislature could not compromise on details by the April 29 deadline. (Fortunately, the legislature was busy with other matters of actual governance.)

California

A group called Protect Kids California proposed an initiative for the Fall 2024 ballot. It would "require schools to notify parents if a student identifies as transgender, ban gender-affirming care for those under 18 and place other limits on students who identify as a gender other than what they were assigned at birth." They wanted to call it the "Protect Kids of California Act," but the day after they submitted it, Attorney General Rob Bonta renamed it "Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth." They were allowed to begin collecting signatures under this name on November 29, 2023. As of late April, the group had only collected 200,000 signatures to put it on the ballot, and they had only one month remaining to collect another 350,000 signatures. They blamed the name. A judge in Sacramento County Superior Court agreed that the attorney general's title was accurate. (CalMatters)

It is good that the attorney general gave the initiative an accurate name. However, it is bad that there is a group that's trying to make it mandatory for any teacher who suspects a kid is queer/trans to call their parents and out the kid, and that even when the initiative is given the explicit name of "Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth," they can collect 200,000 signatures.

Things you can do

A lot of support is regional and community-based. For example, Jess Kant has "Things you can do right now for Ohio," (January 6, 2024, to be kept updated). Search for "mutual aid" in your area, specific to LGBTQ people if applicable.

Compass by vialevo from Pixabay

Sign up for U.S. legislative updates from Erin Reed, Erin in the Morn (Substack). Yes, you can contribute just a few dollars a month to support her work. If you can't afford it, you can still read her posts. Her paid supporters help make it available for everyone.

Be aware of the relevant advocacy organizations. On January 17, 2024, according to their press release:

"...the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF), two leading national trans civil rights organizations, officially announced their intent to merge and create a new organization called Advocates for Trans Equality (A4TE). * * * For more information about the merger, visit: www.transequality.org and www.tldef.org."

Please sign up for the mailing list of one of those organizations so that you'll be on the mailing list of the new organization when it's rebranded: NCTE mailing list or TLDEF mailing list.

If you're a committed organizer who can provide help for people facing really difficult situations, contact the Trans Resistance Network (TRN).

Follow trans and nonbinary people on social media so you're exposed to our individual opinions on various topics, including our reactions to news. Just read, watch, and listen. You're not required to interact. Personally, I'm not a wizard with short-form social media, but you can find me on Bluesky and Mastodon.

Do not interact with anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. An exception: If you know someone personally who's expressing ideas that concern you or that you disagree with, by all means take an opportunity to have a personal conversation with them (thank you). But don't engage with unknown anonymous trolls on social media. Unless you anticipate that you have something specific to contribute (e.g., a debunking), don't click their links to read their articles or watch their videos. Don't add to their follower count — just block them.

Read my long-form work if you like. You could buy a membership to Medium (a few dollars a month to have access to everything written by all the writers on the platform) and follow me to read all my articles there — I earn when paying members read my work. I also put unpaywalled "friend links" to all my LGBTQ-related articles — over 300 of them! helpfully categorized! — on my author website. Stop by sometime. If you have a question, it's possible I've written to it.

Read the online magazine Them. It's free. They've got fascinating headlines about transgender topics, timely and accessible.

Buy a book by a transgender or nonbinary person. We need your financial support.

Read a book by a transgender or nonbinary person. The Lambda Literary Awards have a list of nearly 4,000 finalists and winners in various LGBTQ categories going back to 1988. If you filter by Category = Transgender (or another trans-related category, or another...) you'll get over 200 suggestions.