Anti-trans Watch: Policies in MT, IN, KY, MS move forward. Protective bills in DC, IL, NJ

Thanksgiving week brought nasty surprises for trans people in Montana, Indiana, Kentucky and Mississippi. Illinois, DC, and New Jersey all move to protect trans people.

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.

Last year over 250 anti-trans bills, amendments, and policies were proposed. Only around 10% of them made it through to become laws. It is possible to beat most of these bills - there are very good arguments against restrictions on transgender people from both a Republican and a Democratic framework. The decisions around transgender people should be between doctors, families, their providers, and their care team. The government has no place stepping in and telling families what kind of treatment they can get, provided it sits within medically acceptable standards of care.

A summary of the policies:

We saw anti-trans policies move in 4 states. Montana released two draft policies that would target transgender people, including a policy that would target gender affirming care. Montana also pushed an anti-drag law in the immediate aftermath of the Colorado shooting - a despicable move given that these laws continue to provoke violence against gender-nonconforming people in the United States. We also saw movement in Kentucky, which is proposing both a “biological sex” on birth certificate bill as well as a bill that would declare transgender people in bathrooms an EMERGENCY and would “set consequences” for trans students in bathrooms. Mississippi’s governor has declared anti-trans laws a top priority for him (which will move Mississippi up in risk category on my state legislative map). In Indiana, the West Lafayette School District is planning on banning transgender athletes.

We also saw trans-protective policies move forward in Illinois, DC, and New Jersey. New Jersey declared that it would no longer allow people to look up transgender people’s old names and would be sealing their name change records. Washington, D.C. passed a sanctuary city motion into law and the mayor signed it, making D.C. a transgender refugee sanctuary - D.C. will refuse to extradite transgender people back to states that outlaw gender affirming care. Illinois has submitted its own refugee protection bill.

List of Anti-trans Policies:

Montana LC0828 - Gender affirming care ban for trans youth, draft bill, waiting on full language.

Montana LC1471 - Ban on minors attending drag shows. Other states have been VERY loose in how they define drag and this could mean that transgender people cannot perform anything in public period, or that transgender people would be considered “drag” and targeted at places like Pride festivals.

Kentucky Draft Request 103 - This bill may make it illegal for transgender people to change their birth certificates and would also outlaw “X” gender markers.

Kentucky Draft Request 384 - This bill would declare transgender people in bathrooms an EMERGENCY and also would ban transgender students from bathrooms that match their genders.

Mississippi Governor 2023-2024 Economic Plan - This economic plan would make anti-trans school policies a top priority for the Mississippi Legislature.

Indiana Western Lafayette District Policy - This policy would ban Western Lafayette students from participating in school sports that match their gender if they are trans.

List of Pro-trans policies

Illinois SB4245 - This bill would protect parents fleeing from anti-trans states from being extradited back to those states for obtaining gender affirming care.

DC 24-646 - This bill has been signed into law! It means that DC will not use jails, cops, computer systems, even ink to paper to enforce out of state arrest warrants for people fleeing states that criminalize their gender affirming care OR their abortion care.

New Jersey Executive Order 311 - This executive order makes name changes for transgender people private and sealed in New Jersey