There were a record number of anti-gay bills introduced this year

An Education-Related Anti-LGBTQ Bill Launched in the State Legislatures of Washington, D.C., Jan. 21, 2020

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, at least 417 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures since the beginning of the year, a new record. The number of such bills introduced has doubled this year.

Among the LGBTQ advocacy groups that expressed skepticism of the announcement was Lambda Legal, which said it was “concerned about whether the proposed rule can properly eliminate the discrimination that transgender students experience due to the pervasive bias and ignorance about who they are.”

“We have seen the scope and scale of these attacks increase over the last few years, starting around 2020-2021,” said Gillian Branstetter, communications strategist for the ACLU. “This year, it’s not just the total number that has gotten worse, but the extremity of the bills.”

The bill would require teachers to alert parents when a student is going by a different name or pronoun without the permission of the student. Sixty of the education-related bills introduced this year are “forced outings” bills, according to ACLU data.

Drag shows began attracting scrutiny from conservative lawmakers as they began moving into the mainstream over the last decade. The category of drag performances being targeted in legislature this year is not a new one. Several of the bills aim to group venues hosting drag shows with adult movie theaters and strip clubs, while others would prohibit performances from taking place in the presence of children. Republican sponsors are concerned that the performances expose children to sexually provocative and inappropriate themes. The drag ban was paused hours before it was to go into effect by a judge in a case against the law.

Gender transition-based medical care for children in the U.S. Congress is coming at a time when many transgenders are physically attacked

It’s a medically necessary, evidence based care that uses a multidisciplinary approach to help a person transition from their assigned gender at birth to their affirmed gender by which they want to be known.

A recent NPR/PBS/Marist poll shows that a majority of Americans oppose bills to criminalize gender transition-related medical care for children. Several of the bans passed in previous years are currently held up in court.

This new wave of legislation, many of which directly targeting the nearly two million trans people in the US, comes at a time when a majority of them say that they have been physically attacked. Trans people of color have a higher rate.

Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said in a statement that “every student deserves to be treated with dignity and respect” and suggested “the new rule should be clarified to ensure that all transgender students should be presumed eligible to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity.”

Kansas became the latest state to ban trans sports after a veto override by their Democratic governor, making it the 13th state to do so. In 2022 alone, eight states enacted similar sports bans.

In pushing such measures, conservatives have argued that transgender women and girls have physical advantages over cisgender women and girls in sports, though a 2017 report found “no direct or consistent research” on any such advantage.