As Lameduck Inches Towards End, NJ Trans Rights Bill Could Die
“I don't understand how leadership can decide to go against their own caucus.”
New Jersey’s blue trifecta is primed to protect its trans kids as its legislative session comes to a close this week. But for reasons that have left trans youth and their families feeling betrayed, nobody seems sure if it will happen, as Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, a Democrat, refuses to put it to a vote—even with about half of the legislature, including the majority of Democrats, already signed on as sponsors.
Activists are now mass-mobilizing New Jersey voters to call their state representatives and demand they fight for the bill before the session ends.
It’s a key moment for the bills, which, if passed, would shield patients of gender-affirming and reproductive care, as well as their providers from out-of-state attacks. Democratic Governor Phil Murphy, now in his lame duck session, signed an executive order directing as much back in 2023. But a law on the books is critical in order to strengthen and solidify these guardrails from federal attacks or less trans-friendly gubernatorial administrations.
This shield law has been percolating since at least 2024. Years of coalition-building and activism from parents and doctors have culminated in a bill, S3491/A4656, that already has nearly half of lawmakers signed on as a sponsor in both chambers, including the majority of Democrats—19 sponsors in the Senate and 39 sponsors in the Assembly.
“We were promised consistently that it would be put to a vote in the lame duck session, we were told just wait, just be quiet,” said Louise Walpin, one of the architects of New Jersey’s successful fight for same-sex marriage equality, who has also stepped up as a champion in the fight for transgender rights. “They saw gender affirming care as being ‘controversial.’”
She and others who spoke to Erin in the Morning said the hold-up appears to be reticence from Coughlin, who activists say has also dodged meetings with parents and doctors in his constituency. “One person is circumventing the process,” she said. “This is a governance issue as well as a trans issue.”
The vote has also stalled in the Senate with Senate President Nicholas Scutari, although he does co-sponsor the bill in his own right. Scutari’s office did not reply to Erin in the Morning’s request for comment. A representative for Coughlin denied that the Speaker “isn’t holding meetings” but did not comment further on the bill, saying they typically do not speak on pieces of legislation “until they are added to public agendas.”
The years-long battle came to a breaking point in Trenton late last week. Bill sponsor Sen. Raj Mukherji, one of numerous Democratic lawmakers at a recent statehouse rally in support of the bill, called the ongoing delay “batsh*t crazy,” as per Dana DiFilippo of New Jersey Monitor, Assemblyman John Burzichelli told DiFilippo that if it dies this session, the Democrats can “regroup quickly”—but some trans New Jerseyans, and the parents of trans youth, feel disillusioned with the state and the party.
“It’s unfathomable that, in 2026, we are still fighting for equal protection under the law in New Jersey,” said Melissa Firstenberg, a trans woman from Marlton, New Jersey, who has been active in the fight to pass the bill. “We urgently need a law to protect us from discrimination against our fundamental rights: the right to healthcare, and the right to simply exist.”
For parents like Heidi, who has been fighting on behalf of her trans son for years to push these shield laws through, the delay isn’t just stupefying. It’s devastating.
Heidi spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her family. She told Erin in the Morning she fears for the life and safety of her teen son amidst growing federal attacks on transgender people.
“I’m terrified—I don’t want the Trump administration to have my son’s Social Security number, or my son’s birth date, or my son’s address,” she said. “I don’t understand how I can live in New Jersey, which always says, like, ‘We’re the bluest of the blue.’ I don’t understand how leadership can decide to go against their own caucus.”
Indeed, Jersey Democrats are currently taking a victory lap—the party won three seats in the Assembly this election cycle, and the Democratic Governor-elect, Navy veteran and former congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, won over the Republican nominee by more than comfortable margins.
“They show up at every pride parade, but they’re not fighting,” Heidi said. “We have a governor-elect who is riding in a helicopter telling you she’s gonna fight for New Jersey families, but I guess that’s everybody but my son.” How the Sherrill Administration might protect trans constituents—or not—remains to be seen.
Katie Brennan, a progressive Assemblyperson-elect who beat establishment-backed Democrats for her seat, said in a statement obtained by Erin in the Morning that the bill can’t wait until next session to be passed.
“It’s only going to get worse under the Trump administration unless states like New Jersey fight back,” she said, adding that thousands of people have called and emailed their legislators in support of the bill.
“This is not how representative democracy is supposed to work. It’s not how we protect our state from a rogue President,” she said. “We have incredible power to stand up to federal overreach—but only if we use it.”
Similarly, Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz—a primary sponsor of the bill—issued a statement for the Trenton rally, saying that “we must act to provide meaningful protections for transgender people and the health care professionals who care for them.”
And Senator Andy Kim, in a statement sent up from Washington, also voiced his support for the bill back home.
“We have a chance in our own state capital to stand up for our neighbors and those critical rights,” he said, according to a press release from activist groups. “By taking up S3491/A4656, the State Senate and Assembly wouldn’t just be doing the right thing for transgender youth and their families, but for all New Jerseyans by stating clearly that healthcare is a right that we must protect and one that every American should be able to access and afford.”
To find your legislators in New Jersey and how to contact them, you can go to the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters’s website and enter your voting address. The legislature has until tomorrow Jan. 8 to put it to a vote this session.
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I have just sent this ti John Coughlin the Assembly Speaker in NJ and will be calling as well
You are deliberately blocking a floor vote on transgender protection legislation that already has majority Democratic support and dozens of co-sponsors in the New Jersey Legislature.
This is not a policy dispute. This is a leadership failure.
Bills strengthening protections for transgender people—against discrimination, denial of care, and state-level interference—have been introduced, vetted, and publicly supported by a clear majority of your caucus.
Yet you continue to keep them off the floor. That is not neutrality. That is obstruction.
At a moment when the federal government and multiple states are openly attacking transgender people, your refusal to allow a vote is functionally indistinguishable from siding with those attacks.
New Jersey law already recognizes gender identity as a protected class. When enforcement gaps exist, the Legislature has a constitutional and statutory duty to act. You are preventing that duty from being carried out.
Let’s be clear:
The votes exist.
The sponsors exist.
The need is urgent.
The only barrier is your decision.
If members are afraid to vote, let them be on record. If leadership is worried about optics, that concern does not outweigh civil rights. Holding legislation hostage to avoid political discomfort is cowardice, not governance.
Post the bill. Call the vote. Let Assembly members answer to their constituents instead of hiding behind your desk.
Transgender New Jerseyans are watching—and so are voters.
Fucking Dems always puss out