Anti-trans Watch: Bills In VA, IL, OH, TN, TX + 1 Nationwide Move Forward

The start of the legislative cycle has begun, and with it, many states are attempting to write discrimination into law.

Before I begin, I want to thank all of my new subscribers for tuning in. For the last 3 years, I have tracked anti-transgender legislation moving around the country. My work and expertise has been featured in the Washington Post, Newsweek, and more. With Twitter’s future uncertain, I wanted to keep a centralized place for all of those who want to track transgender rights legislation along with me. Twitter used to be that space for me, and it will continue to be, but it has been clear to me that I need to divest from keeping my activism focused there.

Every week, I hope to release an anti-trans legislation tracker so that you can keep up to date with where these bills are being filed. I will go lightly into the pieces of legislation and highlight the ones I see as the most extreme. This week, we have 5 states with several bills of anti-trans legislation, and one national bill with clear anti-trans intent.

Here are the bills this week:

A summary of bills:

Most bills were released in Texas, where there has been an explosion in anti-trans legislation. The majority of these bills seek to do away with gender affirming care and lock up parents and doctors while also rounding up transgender kids. These actions are in violation of international genocide provisions. Anti-drag bills appear in Tennessee and Texas which would likely also target transgender people, ban Pride parades, and more. Anti-trans sports and facilities bans appear in Virginia which would ban students and teachers from bathrooms matching their gender identity. Lastly, Ohio continues to push a new anti-transgender healthcare ban.

Texas:

Hb41- Bans gender affirming care for trans youth through the use of stripping of licenses.

HB42 - Defines gender affirming care as child abuse for medical professionals and would charge them with a crime that could carry up to 20 years in prison.

HB122- Bans gender affirming care for trans youth through the use of stripping of licenses, copycat bill to HB41.

HB672- Particularly egregious, even in this context - this bill would ban gender affirming care and define consenting to it as child abuse, taking kids away from their parents and putting parents in jail. This could apply over state lines if they define the act of consenting to occur within the state.

HB436- This bill also defines gender affirming care as child abuse and would charge parents with crimes. This is a copycat bill to HB672.

SB162- This bill would mandate that “biological sex” is on a child’s birth certificate and that trans youth cannot receive updated birth certificates that match their gender identity.

HB23- Expands Texas’ sports ban to include all athletics, not just interscholastic.

HB623- An egregious “anti-drag” bill that defines all transgender people doing any form of performance as drag. This bill has an incredible slew of consequences, such as transgender people not being able to be cast in plays or screenings of Mrs. Doubtfire not being allowed.

HB708- This bill is a copycat bill to HB623, which defines transgender people as sexually explicit drag in many circumstances.

HB631- Don’t Say Gay bill and forced outing of transgender students.

Illinois

SB4213- A bill that would define biological sex for students on birth certificates as unchangeable.

Virginia

HB1387- This bill would ban transgender participation in sports.

Ohio

HB454- A substitute bill was released this week. This bill would ban gender affirming care for trans youth. It tries to pretend that it would not, but it bans the care if it has “a chance of causing sterility” which is a low-risk effect of puberty blockers and hormone therapy. Likewise, this bill would ban gender affirming care for youth with depression, anxiety, autism, and more.

Tennessee

HB1 - A gender affirming care ban for transgender youth.

SB5- A gender affirming care ban or trans youth.

SB3- A ban on drag in public that leaves the interpretation of what drag is to very loose standards and could result in pride parades being banned, drag queen story hours being banned, and more.

SB1- Also a gender affirming care ban on trans youth, senate counterpart to HB1.

United States

HR1475- A national bill demanding that all documents related to transgender policy for the military be supplied to a house committee, likely for “investigations.”