As of January 18, GOP lawmakers have introduced 285 anti-LGBTQ bills, with a focus on restricting transgender rights and LGBTQ visibility.
The bills seek to ban drag performances, limit gender-affirming health care, and remove LGBTQ content from school libraries.
Most bills target the transgender community, aiming to redefine transgender existence in law or restrict self-identification and access to services.
“Transgender people across the country are enduring a historic and dangerous effort to control our bodies and our lives, fueled by extremist politics with the goal of erasing us from public life,” attorney Harper Seldin said.
“Taken together, these proposals are a blatant effort to deny transgender people the freedom to be ourselves at school, at work, and the support of the medical care many of us need to live.”
“In South Carolina, one bill would ban Medicaid coverage for gender affirming care up to the age of 26, expanding restrictions on care far into the adult age range,” transgender advocate Erin Reed said.
At least 200 bills focus on educational matters, while over 120 seek to restrict gender-affirming health care for minors.
Legal challenges have arisen from families and doctors due to restrictions on gender-affirming care.
The Human Rights Campaign anticipates a record number of anti-LGBTQ legislation in the upcoming state legislative sessions, including bills that deny legal recognition of transgender people and restrict LGBTQ visibility.
“In Missouri, a bathroom ban has been proposed that states that transgender people using the bathroom violates the rights of cisgender people, and would enforce adult trans bathroom bans in the state through the Missouri Human Rights Commission. In Ohio, legislators are attempting to rush through a trans adult bathroom ban in colleges…
“As I have been saying now for the last several years, this year is going to see a record number of anti-LGBTQ legislation,” Cathryn Oakley said. “And I’m unfortunately here to tell you the same thing again. We are already seeing a very high volume of legislation.”
Read Also:
TV Star Blames Crisis Under Biden Admin For Son’s Death
Hunter Biden’s ‘Sugar Brother’ Makes Bombshell Admission
