Nearly a dozen bills targeting transgender rights have been introduced or passed in state legislatures across the U.S. in the first week of March.
In seven states, Republican lawmakers are pushing legislation to ban trans residents from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity, ban trans women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports, and even ban trans people from teaching.
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Missouri could ban trans people from public facilities of all sorts
As Erin in the Morning reports, March 2 saw the Missouri state House of Representatives’ Emerging Issues committee hear three anti-trans bathroom bills.
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H.B. 2536 would not only require “correctional centers, juvenile detention facilities, public buildings, public elementary and high schools, shelters for victims of domestic violence, and state institutions of higher education” to ban trans people from using single-sex facilities that do not correspond with their sex assigned at birth, it also amends existing statutory definitions of “female,” “male,” and “sex” based on an individuals reproductive system.
Similarly, H.B. 2075 would require all multi-occupancy restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, and shower rooms in public buildings, schools, and institutions of higher education to be sex-segregated and accessible only to people whose sex assigned at birth corresponds to the sex designated for those spaces.
H.B. 1893, meanwhile, would allow private schools to ban trans students from using multi-occupancy bathrooms and changing rooms that do not align with the sex they were assigned at birth. As Erin in the Morning notes, H.B. 1893 contains an emergency clause that would trigger its immediate implementation if it were passed.
The Emerging Issues committee is expected to vote on the three bills today.
Trans journalist S. Baum wrote that the bills would continue “a terrifying daily reality for transgender people in the state.”
Kentucky could ban transgender people from teaching
Kentucky’s S.B. 351, introduced by state Sen. Gex Williams (R) on March 2, would essentially ban transgender people from teaching in the state.
The proposed law would prohibit the state’s Education Professional Standards Board from issuing or renewing teaching licenses for “individuals who have been treated for or diagnosed with a disorder that is excluded from the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.”
As Queer Kentucky notes, “transvestism,” “transsexualism,” and “gender identity disorders” were among a list of “conditions” excluded from the ADA’s definition of “disability” when it was passed over two and a half decades ago. S.B. 351 would require state medical licensing boards to diagnose those “disorders” based on definitions established in the 1987 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Third Edition, Revised), which experts, including the Kentucky Psychological Association say are outdated.
The bill would require teachers to swear under penalty of perjury that they have never been treated for or diagnosed with any of the “disorders” and would allow anyone in the state to trigger an investigation, which would include a medical examination, into an educator they think “exhibits easily identifiable behavioral signs or symptoms characteristic to a listed disorder.”
On March 3, state Rep. Bill Wesley (R) introduced H.B. 867, which would ban trans and nonbinary people from using multi-occupancy bathrooms and locker rooms that are not designated for the sex they were assigned at birth in any building owned by state or local governments in Kentucky.
Florida could ban LGBTQ+ and Black public observance events
If signed into law by Florida’s anti-LGBTQ+ Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), S.B. 1134 would ban local governments from using taxpayer dollars to fund or promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. The bill, approved by the state Senate on March 4, defines DEI as any effort to “promote or adopt training, programming or activities designed or implemented with reference to race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation.”
Critics say it is aimed squarely at defunding local Pride and Black History Month celebrations.
West Virginia‘s bill would fine and imprison drag and transgender stage performers
In West Virginia, the state Senate sent two pieces of anti-trans legislation to the House for consideration on March 4.
S.B. 590 would make it a misdemeanor offense to “engage in an adult cabaret performance on public property or where it may be viewed by a minor.” The bill defines such performances as including “male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to the prurient interest.”
Critics, including state Sen. Joey Garcia (D), say the bill is so vaguely worded that it could potentially criminalize drag performance and any show in which an actor performs a role that does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth. It would also likely jeopardize transgender performers’ ability to perform in public. Penalties under S.B. 590 would include fines up to $25,000 and 1–5 years in prison for second-time violations.
S.B. 1083, meanwhile, makes it a misdemeanor offense for anyone in West Virginia to undress in public changing areas that are not designated for the sex they were assigned at birth, whether in schools, public or private recreation centers, or health clubs.
Iowa GOP seeks to end LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination ordinances
After striking protections for trans people from the Iowa Civil Rights Act last year, Republicans in the state’s House of Delegates passed a bill on March 5 aimed at preventing local governments from adding such protections to their own non-discrimination policies.
As The Advocate reports, Senate File 579 prohibits cities and local governments from enacting “any ordinance or other law which is broader or has different categories of unfair or discriminatory practices” than those outlined in the state civil rights law.
New Hampshire considers jailing trans bathroom users
Undeterred by Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s veto of a previous anti-trans bathroom ban in February, GOP lawmakers in New Hampshire are sending two similar bill to her desk.
On March 4, the state House of Representatives passed H.B. 1442-FN, which Erin in the Morning describes as an even more aggressive bathroom bill than the one Ayotte vetoed. The bill defines “sex” and “biological sex” as binary (male and female only) and based on an individual’s chromosomes. It requires “all multi-user facilities, including bathrooms, restrooms, and locker rooms located in buildings owned, leased, or operated by any municipality” to be sex-segregated based on this definition of sex, and allows private businesses to do the same.
It also makes it a violation of the state’s civil rights act for trans people to “assert that their gender identity” gives them the right to access a sex-segregated space that does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth, resulting in fines up to $5,000 and potential prison time.
Trans journalist Erin Reed called the bill one of the “most extreme bathroom bans moving through any state legislature in the country.”
The New Hampshire House also passed a separate bill, which is nearly identical to the one Ayotte vetoed last month. Like S.B. 268, H.B. 1217 carves out exceptions to the state’s 2018 anti-discrimination law, making it legal to ban trans people from restrooms, locker rooms, prisons, detention centers, and non-voluntary treatment centers that match their gender identity and to ban trans women and girls from women’s and girls’ sports.
U.S. House GOP bill would start a flood of anti-trans sports lawsuits
At the federal level, U.S. Rep. John McGuire (R-VA) introduced the “Riley Gaines Act” on March 2. As The Advocate reports, the bill would allow cisgender female athletes to bring federal lawsuits against institutions of higher education and athletic associations that allow trans women and girls to participate in women’s and girls’ sports.
Cisgender women who are physically injured by a trans woman during an athletic competition would be able to sue for damages, “including the value of the loss of a scholarship or professional opportunity.”
The bill is named for anti-trans activist Riley Gaines, who rose to national prominence after she tied for fifth place with trans swimmer Lia Thomas during the 2022 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships.
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