On November 12, Chase Strangio, Deputy Director for Transgender Justice with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project, began a Twitter thread to track anti-trans bills across the country. He tweeted, “legislatures are starting early and are extra cruel this year despite the pandemic. The judiciary is even more hostile so we need to stop these from passing. I will keep updating as more bills come.”
In Alabama, HB1 would prevent minors from undergoing medical changes that “intend to alter the appearance of the minor child’s gender or delay puberty” and requires “disclosure of certain information concerning students to parents by schools”
In Texas, HB68 would not allow the “following acts by a medical professional or mental health professional for the purpose of attempting to change or affirm a child’s perception of the child’s sex, if that perception is inconsistent with the child’s biological sex as determined by the child ’s sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous hormone profiles” or “performing a surgery that sterilizes the child, including castration, vasectomy, hysterectomy, oophorectomy, metoidioplasty, orchiectomy, penectomy, phalloplasty, and vaginoplasty”.
In Tennessee, HB3 aims to ban all young trans people from participating in sports, which could also have implications for intersex children as well. The bill states, “it is unfortunate for some girls that those dreams, goals, and opportunities for participation, recruitment, and scholarships can be directly and negatively affected by new school policies permitting boys who are male in every biological respect to compete in girls’ athletic competitions if they claim a female gender identity” and “A student’s gender for purposes of participation in a public middle school or high school interscholastic athletic activity or event must be determined by the student’s sex at the time of the student’s birth, as indicated on the student’s original birth certificate”.
According to the ACLU, 17 states have bills barring trans youth from sports. 10 states have bills barring access to healthcare, and 16 states have other anti-trans bills. Many of these bills overlap in the same state – Idaho, Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee have all three bill types in their state legislature. This prominence of anti-trans legislation puts trans people at risk during a tense political time and worsening global pandemic.
Sources: Twitter 11/12/20, Alabama State Legislature 7/17/20, Texas Capitol, Tennessee Capitol, ACLU
