- According to the ACLU, 28 states are voting on anti-trans legislation in 2021.
- Many bills directly impact trans children, banning them from playing sports or using the restroom.
- Some bills could make it a felony for doctors to provide life-saving care to trans youth.
Trans rights are under siege in over half of the United States this year, as 28 states have proposed one or more anti-trans bills.
The bills range from banning trans children from playing on sports teams to prohibiting doctors from giving trans youth life-saving care.
Trans advocate Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, Deputy Executive Director for the National Center for
"These are organized anti-transgender forces, people who are ideologically anti-transgender, who are trying to push this everywhere that they can," Heng-Lehtinen told Insider. "So it's coordinated, it's deliberate, and it is all about using trans people and especially trans youth as a political football."
Despite medical best practice guidelines from the Endocrine Society, Child Mind Institute, and American Psychological Association recommending that states provide gender-affirming care for trans children, several states want to criminalize these vital
Puberty blockers are the most common gender-affirming treatment option for trans youth under the age of 16.
Going through puberty that does not correspond with a trans child's gender can intensify their feelings of gender dysphoria - a deep distress caused by misalignment between a person's body and internal gender.
Puberty blockers essentially pause puberty for trans teens while they decide what course of gender-affirming care they want to take, with little to no permanent side effects.
Once trans youth turn 16 and decide with their parents and physician that they want to take further steps to affirm their gender, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is usually prescribed. HRT, like testosterone or estrogen, does cause permanent changes like voice changes and body hair growth.
Studies have shown children who are unable to access gender-affirming care experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide than trans youth with supportive doctors and families.
However, Republican lawmakers continue to increase efforts to pass anti-trans laws. Anti-trans sports bills that aim to prevent trans athletes from participating in school sports teams are an increasingly common symptom of this pushback.
Table of Contents: StaticAlabama
Alabama is voting on two bills that would make it a felony for doctors to treat trans youth with gender-affirming care like hormone blockers and HRT.
SB10 and HB 1 would implement the same ban and have slight differences in language.
The state legislature has also proposed anti-trans sports legislation that would prevent trans children from participating in sports teams from kindergarten to 12th grade: HB391.
Arkansas
On March 29, 2021, Arkansas became the first state in the US to pass a bill prohibiting doctors from treating trans youth.
HB1570 is called the "Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act." Governor Asa Hutchinson vetoed the bill on April 5, but Arkansas' state legislature voted to overturn the veto on April 6. The law will take effect in the summer of 2021.
The state also proposed two bills that would prevent trans youth from participating in school sports: SB354 and SJR16
Arizona
Arizona's SB1511 would punish doctors with over a decade in prison for providing HRT or puberty blockers to minors.
State lawmakers are also attempting to ban trans athletes from playing school sports with bill SB1637.
Connecticut
Connecticut's legislature is voting on two anti-trans sports bans that would prevent trans youth from playing in school teams "to protect women's rights": SB00324 and HB 05795.
Georgia
Georgia's legislature is voting on a bill that would criminalize gender-affirming care, namely HRT and puberty blockers, for minors: HB401
Two other bills, SB266 and HB276, would prevent trans athletes from participating in school and university sports programs, even at private institutions, if passed.
Florida
Florida's legislature is voting on a bill that would make gender-affirming care, primarily HRT and puberty blockers, illegal for minors: HB 935.
Iowa
Iowa's trans medical ban would prohibit gender-affirming care for minors with the exception of intersex youth if HF193 is passed.
The state is also voting on two bills that would prevent trans athletes from participating in school sports: HF184 and HF327.
Indiana
Indiana is voting on two bills, both of which would bar doctors from giving gender-affirming care to trans minors: SB0224 and HB1505.
Kansas
The Kansas state legislature is considering whether or not to prohibit gender-affirming care like HRT and puberty blockers in two bills: SB214 and HB2210.
Kansas will also vote on SB208, a bill that will stop trans students from participating in school sports to "create fairness in women's sports."
Kentucky
Kentucky's HB336 would make providing gender-affirming care for trans minors illegal and protect public officials who express views against gender-affirming care if passed.
The state legislature is also debating two bills that would stop trans student-athletes from playing sports: SB106 and HB471.
Louisiana
Louisiana's SB 104 would make it illegal for doctors to provide gender-affirming care to minors without parental consent, namely gender-affirming therapy, puberty blockers, and HRT.
Minnesota
Minnesota is voting on three bills that would prevent trans students from participating in school sports: HF1657, HB471, and SF96.
HF 1657 would specifically criminalize trans women who try to participate in girls' sports or even try to use the locker room that corresponds with their gender rather than the sex they were assigned at birth.
HB471, and SF96 are bills that would prevent all trans students from playing on school sports teams.
Mississippi
Mississippi's bill that would have banned gender-affirming care for trans youth, SB2171, was killed in committee.
However, Mississippi lawmakers passed a bill that will prevent trans girls from participating in female school sports, SB2536. It is unclear whether or not the law will be signed into effect by Governor Tate Reeves.
Missouri
Missouri's HB33 and SB442 would both ban doctors from treating trans youth with HRT or puberty blockers.
The state is also attempting to pass four bills that would prevent trans people from participating in school sports: HJR53, HB1184, HB1077, and HB1045.
HB1077 would specifically prohibit any state funding for schools that allow trans students to participate in school sports.
Montana
Montana is considering five trans medical ban bills, one of which would make it legal for doctors to refuse to treat any patients: HB113, HB427, SB195, SB245, and SB280
The state's HB113, HB427, and SB195 bills would prevent minors from accessing gender-affirming care like HRT, puberty blockers, and any gender-affirming surgeries like breast removal.
SB245 and SB280 would impact all transgender people in the state if passed. SB245 would allow insurance companies and healthcare providers to refuse to cover or treat trans patients on the basis of being trans.
SB280 would make it mandatory for trans people to have gender-affirming surgeries like a vaginoplasty to change their legal sex on their birth certificate and other official documents.
Montana's HB112 would require public schools to categorize sports teams based on biological sex and not allow trans people to compete.
New Hampshire
New Hampshire's medical ban would criminalize and define gender-affirming care for trans minors as child abuse if passed: HB86
HB198 would stop trans athletes from playing school sports on the basis of preventing gender discrimination for cis women.
North Dakota
North Dakota is voting on HB1298, which would stop trans athletes from participating in school teams if passed.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma may pass two bills that would prevent minors from accessing gender-affirming treatments: SB676 and SB583.
The "Save Women's Sports Act," SB331, would prevent trans athletes from participating in school sports teams if passed.
Ohio
Ohio is voting on a bill that would prevent high schools, universities, and private schools to stop trans athletes from playing in school sports teams: HB61.
South Dakota
South Dakota lawmakers voted to pass a bill that bans trans students from playing on school sports teams on March 8. Governor Kristi Noem killed the bill on March 29: HB1076.
Tennessee
Tennessee's legislature is trying to pass two bills that would prevent trans youth from accessing gender-affirming care like HRT and puberty blockers: HB0578 and SB0657.
The state will also vote on two bills that prevent trans athletes in middle and high school from playing team sports: SB0228 and HB0003.
Utah
Utah's "Preserving Sports for Female Students Act," HB0302, would prevent trans students from playing sports at the high school or collegiate level.
If passed, the state's HB0092 would prevent doctors from treating trans minors with HRT or puberty blockers.
West Virginia
HB2171 would prevent minors in West Virginia from accessing gender-affirming care like HRT and puberty blockers.