After a midterm election and record flow of anti-transgender legislation last year, Republican state lawmakers this year are zeroing in on questions of bodily autonomy with new proposals to limit gender-affirming health care and abortion access.
More than two dozen bills seeking to restrict transgender health care access have been introduced across 11 states 鈥 Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia 鈥 for the legislative sessions beginning in early 2023.
Bills targeting other facets of trans livelihood have been filed in many of the same states and are expected in several others with GOP majorities.
Gender-affirming health care providers and parents of trans youths are the primary targets of these bills, many of which seek to criminalize helping a trans child obtain what doctors and psychologists widely consider 鈥渕edically necessary care.鈥
Erin Reed, a researcher who tracks transgender legislation, said statehouses where Republicans expanded their margins in the midterms will likely double down on anti-trans legislation this year and reintroduce some of the more drastic measures that didn鈥檛 pass in previous sessions.
Of the 35 anti-LGBTQ bills already introduced in Texas, three would classify providing gender-affirming care to minors as a form of child abuse, following a that ordered child welfare agents to open abuse investigations into parents who let their children receive gender-affirming care.
In Tennessee, the GOP-controlled legislature announced after Election Day that its first priority would be to ban medical providers from altering a child鈥檚 hormones or performing surgeries that enable them to present as a gender different from their sex. The would replace present law with more stringent restrictions.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health said last year that can start taking hormones at age 14 and can have certain surgeries at ages 15 or 17. The group acknowledged potential risks but said it was unethical to withhold early treatments, which can improve psychological well-being and reduce suicide risk.
Legislation pre-filed this week in Republican-controlled Oklahoma, which passed restrictions last year on and , seeks to ban gender-affirming care for patients and block it from being covered under the state鈥檚 Medicaid program.
鈥淭his is the worst anti-trans bill I have ever seen filed in any state,鈥 Reed said, noting that adult medical transition bans were a 鈥渉ypothetical escalation鈥 until recently.
Another Oklahoma proposal would to organizations that provide gender-affirming procedures to patients younger than 21.
鈥淚t鈥檚 irresponsible for anybody in health care to provide or recommend life-altering surgeries that may later be regretted,鈥 said the bill's sponsor, Republican state Rep. Jim Olsen. 鈥淧erforming irreversible procedures on young people can do irreparable harm to them mentally and physically later in life.鈥
A similar bill pre-filed in South Carolina, where Republicans control both chambers, also requires that from their doctor and a licensed psychiatrist before they can begin treatment.
Cathy Renna, spokesperson for the 春色直播 LGBTQ Task Force, said she views these bills as the product of 鈥渁 permissible climate of hate," driven by disinformation and fearmongering, that made anti-LGBTQ rhetoric more palatable in the years since former President Donald Trump's election in 2016.
鈥淲e have politicians, celebrities and just folks in our communities who were given permission under Trump to kind of pick that scab and do and say harmful things without consequence,鈥 Renna said. 鈥淚t unleashed a nightmare Pandora鈥檚 box of sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism.鈥
鈥淲hen you look at the last few years," she said of the LGBTQ community, "we feel like we鈥檙e under attack in a way that we have not for decades.鈥
Meanwhile, Democrats in some states are taking a more aggressive approach to transgender health protections.
A new California law, effective as of Jan. 1, if they travel to California for gender-affirming health procedures, such as surgeries or hormone therapy, from states that ban such treatments for minors. Making California a refuge for trans youth and their parents, the law blocks out-of-state subpoenas and prohibits medical providers from sharing information on gender-affirming care with out-of-state entities.
Another , filed in December, would expand those protections by prohibiting a magistrate from issuing an arrest warrant for violating another state鈥檚 law that criminalizes helping someone obtain an abortion or gender-affirming care.
An Illinois lawmaker introduced a similar sanctuary late last year. The state to increase protections for patients and providers of abortions and gender-affirming treatments.
And in Minnesota, where in the midterm elections, a new would give the state jurisdiction in child custody cases involving parents who bring their children to Minnesota for gender-affirming health care.
Reed, a trans woman, is monitoring a growing list of other proposals across statehouses, including drag performance bans, bathroom usage restrictions, limits on LGBTQ discussions in schools and obstacles to changing the gender marker on a driver鈥檚 license or birth certificate. But the rising age minimums proposed to access gender-affirming care are among her chief concerns.
鈥淎dult transition bans are coming into play, and I鈥檓 already hearing some talk of, 鈥榃ell, the brain doesn鈥檛 finish developing until 25, so why not restrict it until then,鈥欌 she said. 鈥淎ny further loss of autonomy is incredibly concerning.鈥
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Hannah Schoenbaum, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
