U.S. News

33 states have introduced more than 100 bills that aim to take away transgender people’s-- mostly trans youth-- rights; some states have already passed anti-trans bills, which are set to take effect within the upcoming months.

In 2021 alone, 58 laws have been passed for banning transgender people from using the bathroom/locker room and from joining sports teams that correlates with their gender identity.

29 laws regarding restrictions for medical care for trans people.

28 states have introduced bills that ban transgender athletes from participating in sports that fit their gender identity; Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi’s governors have already passed these bills.

Their reasoning for introducing and passing the bills are that will give a transgender girl an unfair advantage over her teammates and the opposing team. However, cases where they have an unfair advantage are extremely rare.

In March, The Associated Press called twelve state legislators who sponsored the ban of transgender athletes from participating in youth sports. However, only a few could name any cases where the participation of trans athletes had become a source of conflict within the teams.

19 states have introduced a bill that would prevent minors from receiving gender-affirmation treatment, and on April 6th, Arkansas became the first, and currently only state, to pass the bill.

Originally, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson vetoed the bill, but was later overridden and passed.

On the day the veto was overridden, the ACLU vowed to take legal action in hopes of preventing the bill from activating. The bill is currently set to take effect 90 days after the legislature adjourns, but there is no set date as of right now.

South Dakota, Arizona, and Montana have introduced bills that would restrict ID cards and other forms of documents regarding someone’s gender identity.

On top of that, Iowa introduced a bill that removes gender identity as a protected class under the Iowa civil rights act.

A bill introduced in Iowa requires a parent to give written consent for teachers to talk about gender identity while their child is in the classroom.

In Arkansas, a bill states that teachers must refer to a student by their biological sex; what is on their birth certificate.

In Tennessee, legislators are currently debating two bills, one of which would prohibit teachers from discussing LGBTQ issues and topics while the other will allow parents to take their kids out of curriculums that discuss LGBTQ topics.

Although many of these bills died early on, it's still disheartening for trans people across the nation seeing bills being passed to discriminate against their community.