With the passing of marriage equality allowing same-sex couples the right to marry and the wave of LGBTQ+ representation in media and television, it is easy to think LGBTQ+ discrimination is a thing of the past. While the country has made tremendous strides in understanding and accepting same-sex loving people, there is much work to be done in understanding and creating equal access for trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive folk within the states. In 2022 alone over 11 anti-trans bills have been passed to limit the amount of access transgender youth have within their communities to not only see images of themselves reflected in education, but also to be able to play sports or access gender-affirming healthcare.
Since the beginning of 2022, the nation has seen an increase of anti-LGBTQ+ bills, many specifically targeting some of the most vulnerable among, us like transgender, nonbinary, and gender expansive youth.
2022 Anti-LGBTQ+ Bills so Far
- In Florida, The Florida state senate voted in favor of HB 1557 known socially as ‘Don’t Say Gay’. The bill would prevent teachers and educators from mentioning or discussing LGBTQ+ identities in third-grade classrooms or lower. The bill would also require schools officials such as teachers and principals to out students to their parents within six weeks of knowing of the child’s LGBTQ+ identity.
- In Idaho, the Idaho House passed HB 675 which would prohibit and make felony of any doctor or parent giving gender-affirming hormones or puberty blockers to transgender youth. This bill also criminalizes parents who seek said medical care outside of the state, deeming such care as “mutilation”. The felony currently has a sentence as high as life in prison.
- In Louisiana, the bill HB 570 has been proposed in an effort to “Save Adolescents from Experimentation”. Coined the SAFE Act, the bill would make it illegal for doctors and parents to seek out or give gender-affirming hormones and transition related healthcare, and bar doctors from referring parents to another doctor said services. The bill would also require teachers to out students who come out as trans to their parents.
- In Iowa, bill HF 2416 prohibiting trans student athletes from participating in sports that match their gender identity, was signed into law by Governor Kim Reynolds.
- In Indiana, HB 1041, following in the footsteps of Iowa’s HF 2416, trans girls would be barred from playing in the sport of their gender.
- In Missouri, SB 781 targets specifically trans girls in the “Save Women’s Sports Act” barring trans girls and women from playing in any “athletic team or sport designated for females, women, or girls.”
- In Kentucky, bills HB 23 and SB 83, the “Fairness in Women\’s’ Sports Act” and “Save Women’s Sports Act” would require sports to be divided by “biological sex” and ban “male” students from joining “female” sports.
- In Arizona, bills SB 1165 and SB 1138 would bar “male” athletes from joining “female” teams and would outlaw hormones, puberty blockers, and gender-affirming surgeries for trans minors.
- In Alaska, SB 140 a sports ban prohibits trans folks from playing in the sport aligned with their gender.
- In Alabama, 45 legislators signed HB 322 which requires “every multiple occupancy restrooms or changing area designated for students” in elementary, middle school, high school segregating them on “biological sex”.
- In Tennessee, SB 2777 would provide legal protections to openly misgender trans students, SB 2153 would bar “males” from “female” sports and SB 1861 would require schools to confirm athletes’ “biological sex” and take funding from schools that don’t comply. Bills HB 2835 and HB 570 would fine doctors $1,000 for providing gender-affirming care.
Many of the bills above masquerade the outright discrimination of trans youth as means of “saving” or “protecting,” but who do these bills really protect people from and, more importantly, who do they harm? Trans children are not dangerous, they\’re children. The bills above vilify the trans community and outright tell trans children that they aren’t deserving of space to play sports and do things like use the bathroom safely unless their cis-gendered, which simply is not true.
Trans children deserve equal access to use the bathroom congruent with their gender identity, just like anyone else. Trans children deserve to be able to be themselves at home and at school, without fear of being outed by a teacher, or taken away from their parents because they receive gender-affirming care the same way cis kids get to be themselves without fear of persecution. The bills do not protect or safeguard but rather leave children vulnerable to unfair and unjust discrimination. More so these bills do not mitigate or lessen the amount of LGBTQ+ kids that exist, but rather only create an environment that makes it hard for LGBTQ+ kids to feel safe.
Rather than creating bills and bans on sports, education, and healthcare, legislators should be creating protections for trans folks. To make it easier for trans children to have access to life saving gender affirming medical care if they so choose. To make it safer for trans children to be included in sports. To allow LGBTQ+ children to learn about themselves in school, letting them know that just because they aren’t cis-gendered or heterosexual doesn’t mean they can’t be great. Reminding them of the great legacy of people like them that came before, like Marsha P Johnson or James Baldwin. These bills do a disservice to all children because it teaches children they can only be “different” in one way but not in others. It teaches children to hide their differences and the things that make them special or unique and those are not the messages we should be sending to the children of the future.
Through a switch in mindset from barring and banning to ensuring equal access and fair treatment through legislation, we ensure that trans kids can be just kids. More so, creating bills that protect the marginalized among us and provide equity allows for the diversity that is oh so present in our society to thrive and be celebrated. Not to be vilified, but to be uplifted and cherished.