As the legislative effort to erase transgender people from public life has gained momentum, we have witnessed a surge of bills seeking to deny access to basic healthcare, legal recognition, education, bathrooms, athletics, or the right to openly exist in public schools.
2023 marked the fourth consecutive record-breaking year for total number of anti-trans bills considered in the U.S. The sheer volume of bills was part of an escalation against transgender people at both the state and national levels.
How have anti-trans bills changed in recent years? What types of bills do we see each year, and what themes are emerging?
In 2021, the number of introduced bills more than doubled from the previous year. The U.S. appeared to be reaching an inflection point, as 144 bills were introduced in 37 states. Eighteen of those passed, including Arkansas' "Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act", a ban on gender-affirming care. The SAFE Act became law despite a veto by Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson, who called the bill a "a vast government overreach".
In 2022, a new wave of increasingly draconian bills arrived. 174 bills, were introduced and 26 passed. The new laws banned gender-affirming care and created harsh penalties for providers. They enshrined definitions of "men" and "women" while blocking trans students from participating in sports. They delivered "Don't Say Gay or Trans" bills that stigmatize LGBTQ+ teachers and students in schools under the banner of parental rights. They also carved out exemptions for discrimination on religious grounds and declared emergency changes to state law to deny non-binary birth certificates.
In 2023, we saw a continuation of trends from the past few years. This included blocking trans kids and teachers from being visible in schools and denying state recognition through birth certificates.
Attacks on widely accepted gender-affirming healthcare soared. OK SB129 proposed extending gender-affirming care bans well into adulthood— up to 26 years old. For physicians, this would have made providing the care supported by every major medical association a felony charges and resulted in a loss of their medical license. Similarly, WY SF0111 sought to make providing gender-affirming care child abuse.
The United States saw more bills targeting gender-affirming healthcare in 2023 than the last 5 years combined.
Schools are frequently the site of anti-trans bills, often invoking “parental rights.” In 2022, "Don't Say Gay or Trans" bills like FL H1557 made headlines for limiting the expression of LGBTQ+ teachers and students. In 2023, this continues with bills like AZ HB1700, encouraging parents to report and ban books which "promote gender fluidity or gender pronouns" or AZ SB1001, which requires that both a guardian and teacher approve of a student's pronouns.
2023 saw a wave of reactionary "drag bans", including AZ SB1698 seeking to redefine venues that host gender non-conforming entertainment as "adult-oriented" businesses. The language of these bills is so broad that it includes singing, lip-syncing, and even a monologue while wearing "clothing, makeup, or other accessories" differing from their sex assigned at birth.
We also saw national anti-trans legislation surfacing in 2023. The "Women's Bill of Rights", which remains active in 2024, seeks to erase trans recognition by the federal government. It does this by defining sex assigned at birth as an "immutable" definition of man or woman, boy or girl. It would also dictate the ways that the government collects data. The "My Child, My Choice Act" seeks to extend the educational restrictions we have noted in individual states to apply federally. National healthcare bills have also been introduced, including the "Protecting Children from Experimentation Act of 2023".
To best understand the nature of the state legislation, we recommend reading active bills to get a sense of their language and purpose. You can also venture further back with our 2022 anti-trans legislation archive. You will see how bills seek to enshrine a dubious definition of "man" and "woman" into state law, bar discussion of sexuality and gender, characterize singing or monologues as sexual performance, and classify trans-affirming care, overwhelmingly supported by the medical community, as child abuse.
Of course, not all anti-trans activity at the state level can be reflected in an overview or even the complete list of bills themselves. In 2022, Texas did not appear on our legislative map. This seemed strange to some, as Texas made headlines for its cruel anti-trans policies. In the previous year, Texas had even led the country for the most anti-trans bills, introducing 16 and passing HB25, a law barring trans school children from playing sports.
However, in 2022 Texas did not propose any anti-trans bills. Instead, Texas was a highly important state for trans rights that year because Gov. Greg Abbott issued an unprecedented directive targeting trans kids and their families. For this reason, we created "What about Texas?", a feature outlining anti-trans efforts in Texas during 2022.
The number and categories of bills each year provides some answers and raises new questions. It provides a timeline of the emergence of anti-trans bills in the U.S. and reflects increasing engagement of state representatives with anti-trans efforts.