Anti-trans Bills Watch: Bad Bills In UT/MO/SC, Positive Movement In IL, NC

This week we have new bills to track just in time for the Christmas Holidays. Utah, Missouri, and South Carolina look to curtail trans rights. Illinois and North Carolina see positive movement!

Every week, we track all of the transgender policies that move across the United States together. The goal of this is to keep all of you, activists and informed readers, abreast of possible new laws that can be fought early. If you live in some of these states, contact your local representative or your LGBTQ+ center near you an explain how these policies would hurt you.

A summary of this week’s policies:

This week, we have fewer bills to report on than usual as legislators head home for the holidays. Unfortunately, the Christmas spirit has not stopped legislators in Utah, South Carolina, and Missouri from proposing new anti-trans legislation. In Missouri, the state is proposing a new law that would end birth certificate changes for transgender people in the state. This is especially bad because even if a person from Missouri lives in another state, their birth certificate can only be changed in the state of Missouri - this would remove a legal avenue for a corrected gender marker for many trans people. In South Carolina, a new type of bill would ban companies receiving government contracts from engaging in boycotts over gender affirming care bans. Lastly in Utah, we have seen our first medical ban bill - this one targeting trans youth.

On the positive side, we have seen some very hopeful news out of North Carolina and Illinois. In North Carolina, one of the largest school districts, Durham Public Schools, passed a policy with comprehensive protections for trans people in bathrooms, name changes, pronouns, sports, and more. In Illinois, two bills were proposed - one waiving birth certificate change fees and medical requirements, and one that would make multi-occupancy, multi-gender restrooms legal!

List of Anti-trans Policies And Movement:

MO SB14 - This bill would ban Missouri from issuing correct birth certificates to transgender people in the state. It would make Missouri join Tennessee as the only other state effectively banning birth certificate changes. There are a few other states like West Virginia and Montana that have tried to do this but both have been held up in court.

SC H3564 - This bill is a new type of bill that targets companies doing any contract work for the government. It bans a company engaging in any economic boycotts over bans on gender affirming care for the state if they have federal contracts, effectively blocking the company from moving out of the state or not doing business over gender affirming care bans in South Carolina.

UT SB16 - This bill would ban gender affirming surgeries for under 18s. While genital surgeries are never done on minors, gender affirming top surgery can be done rarely if medically indicated. This bill also carves out exceptions for nonconsensual surgery on intersex infants.

List of Pro-trans Policies And Movement:

IL HB0009 - This bill in Illinois would allow transgender people to change their birth certificate gender by attestation instead of requiring doctors notes. It also would waive the fee to change your birth certificate gender.

IL HB3195 - This bill in Illinois would legalize multi-occupancy, multi-gendered bathroom. Under current restroom building codes, multi-occupancy multi-gender bathrooms run into legal issues. This bill fixes those issues.

NC Durham County School Board Policy - Durham Public Schools in North Carolina pushed forward with a great new set of policies that protect transgender students and teachers. They are comprehensive and protect bathroom access, sports access, pronouns and name changes, and more.