2023-2024 Anti-Trans Legislation Tracker Released
This is a continuation of the 2023 tracker cited by most major media outlets in determining the number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills released during the legislative cycle.
You can find the 2023-2024 legislative tracker here.
Today, our team has released the legislative tracker for the 2023-2024 legislative cycle. The tracker is updated by a small team of trusted leaders and experts in transgender legislation and law, as well as technical experts to ensure that the database automatically pulls information to make accessing the bills easier. In 2023, the tracker was a reliable data source for news organizations worldwide, and our team has expanded in 2024 to continue meeting the needs of the transgender community, as well as reporters and legislators who depend on it.
The tracker includes a tab for anti-LGBTQ+ bills, the primary tab for tracking new bills as they are released. It also features a tab for 2023 rollover bills, as several states allow bills filed in 2022-2023 to carry over to the 2023-2024 legislative cycle; these bills could be revived at any time. The final individual bill tracking tab is the Pro-LGBTQ+ bill tab, tracking bills such as safe state legislation, broad nondiscrimination protections, and patient and provider protection for transgender care. Various other tabs are also provided, such as tracking the number of proposed bills in each state and state legislative calendar links.
For those wishing to report new bills, please reply to any of the newsletter links, and I will see your email directly. Likewise, you can reach out to any team members on social media to inform us of a bill not currently listed on the tracker.
As of the tracker's release, an astounding 80 bills have already been filed for the 2023-2024 legislative cycle targeting the LGBTQ+ community, with an additional 195 eligible for rollover should legislators choose to revive them. These bills include new bans on gender-affirming care and expansions of existing bans, bills seeking to insert trans bans into national appropriations bills, pronoun bans in schools or workplaces, drag bans, online obscenity laws, book bans, forced outing provisions, and more.
You can see a breakdown of the types of bills that have been prefilled here:
It is important to note that most state legislatures have not begun yet, and this number is likely to soar much higher as legislatures open session in 2024. Likewise, the types of bills may change as we get indications of what Republicans will be pushing as it relates to transgender people in 2024. Already, there are a few new or updated types of bills that bear watching:
Weaponization of employment law to ban trans adults from bathrooms in the workplace. Missouri’s HB1674 is a novel kind of legislation that would turn the Missouri Commission on Human Rights against businesses allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their gender identity by defining using the bathroom as “violating human rights” of cisgender employees who do not want to share the bathroom with transgender people.
Detransition Liability Laws/Backdoor Bans. Several liability laws have been proposed, such as New Hampshire HB1664. Though this is not entirely new, it would allow doctors to be sued for transition care regardless of if there was malpractice. This could mean that doctors are unable to provide this care to anyone. This was previously tried in anti-abortion laws during the Roe v. Wade era as well as in Missouri over trans care this September.
Expansion of Don’t Say Gay to private businesses. Florida’s new Don’t Say Gay bill, HB599, would expand “Don’t Say Gay” provisions to nonprofits and many private companies. This is a significant escalation and could result in the closure of LGBTQ+ businesses and nonprofits. Other states have followed Florida’s lead on previous Don’t Say Gay laws.
Gender affirming care bans targeting higher age ranges such as 21 or 26. Last year, a few states introduced bills that would ban care up to the age of 21 or 26. This year, South Carolina has introduced a Medicaid ban on care up to the age of 26. In the 2023-2024 cycle, it is likely that more bills targeting trans adults will be released and heard.
Force anti-trans teaching. South Carolina has a new bill, HB4707, is similar to Florida’s Don’t Say Gay provisions, except it adds a new twist: schools must make it official policy that “it is wrong” to use a trans person’s pronouns and gendered honorific if it does not match their assigned sex at birth.
Please feel free to use the tracker throughout the 2023-2024 cycle. If you use it, please remember to cite and link to it so that people can keep track of the information themselves. The tracker can be found here and is brought to you curtesy of the following team members:
Allison Chapman // @alliraine22 // Maintainer/Engineer
Alejandra Caraballo // @esqueer_ // Maintainer/Legal Analysis
Erin Reed // @erininthemorn // Maintainer/Journalist
Evan Urquhart // @assignedmedia // Maintainer/Journalist
Mira Lazine // @MiraLazine // Maintainer/Journalist
Vann Jones // Maintainer/Researcher
Thanks for the data!!! It’s both grim and hopeful at the same time (Missouri v Michigan)
Thanks for all your hard work.