GOP lawmakers seek more state laws on transgender people, putting Democrats on the spot

ATLANTA – Bathrooms. Medical care. Sports. The definition of “male” and “female.” In state legislatures this spring, Republicans have kept a focus on transgender people. They have filed hundreds of restrictive bills, often using them to put Democrats in tough political positions.

The majority don’t pass, like the majority of all bills, but dozens have. And, even when they don’t, they can force votes and drive debate.

Iowa lawmakers removed gender identity from the state’s civil rights protections. Wyoming prohibited state agencies from requiring employees to use other employees’ preferred pronouns. Alabama passed a law defining words like “father,” “boy” and “girl.”

This week Maine lawmakers discussed proposals to ban trans athletes from girls school sports, a move demanded by the Trump administration.

Supporters of such proposals call them common-sense measures to safeguard tax dollars, promote fairness and respond to public opinion. Opponents argue the laws sanction discrimination and the exclusion of a vulnerable minority group and that rhetoric produced in these debates can stigmatize the transgender community.

Republicans have continued to raise the issue, prompting some Democrats to reevaluate their response.

Each year, more bills and new themes

Bills focused on transgender people rose to prominence in 2016 with a North Carolina law requiring people to use bathrooms based on their sex assigned at birth (later rolled back). By 2021, the number of bills climbed with a new emphasis on transgender athletes’ participation in school sports and, later, on restricting gender-affirming treatments, especially for minors.

By 2024, some advocates on the other side thought the effort had peaked. A group that opposes restrictions on transgender people, the Human Rights Campaign, issued a report last year declaring it, “increasingly clear that the tide is turning and momentum has begun to shift” against these bills.

But later that year, Republicans saturated campaigns with ads about gender, including attacks on Biden administration policies. The Trump campaign highlighted the issue in ads in swing states. Down-ballot candidates picked up the message, too.

The American Civil Liberties Union tracks “anti-LGBTQ bills.” The group says the bulk of them contain restrictions on transgender people and that a record 575 bills had been filed in states through April. Last year, there were 533 and there were 510 in 2023, according to the ACLU, which opposes such laws.

A research group, Trans Legislation Tracker, counts  more than 800 bills that “negatively impact trans and gender non-conforming people” as of this week. That’s up from 701 last year and 615 in 2023.

The figures are questioned by Joseph Kohm III, policy director at the Family Policy Alliance, a network that has promoted bills in state legislatures for laws like preventing transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams. He says these tracking groups use overly broad definitions that pull in bills with no chance at passage, inflating the total.

But Kohm agrees that there is an uptick in political interest from state lawmakers. “Those waves across the country have turned this into a slow burn that’s finally coming to a boil,” he says.

About half the states now ban transgender girls from girls’ school sports teams, and Kohm says advocates are now turning to new efforts, like codifying definitions of man and woman in state law.

“This is not one of those revolutions that’s going to go on forever,” Kohm says. “There is an end point where I think we right the collective ship on this issue, but we’re not there yet.”

‘I’ve struggled over this legislation’

Georgia illustrates how Republicans have forced Democrats to wrestle with the way forward.

This year, Republicans filed bills to ban transgender girls from girls’ school sports, restrict puberty blockers for minors and prevent the state health plan from covering gender-affirming care.

It was a bill e-color{border8a954'F11ns and &954'F11ns andsa:specM{borduali Senau March." lumakers-+umakerth the waywhn thu#8221

A rer girlrming treatmty.

Republicans hals f

zy"/favor.rth the wicemocrat from Atlanls ld hpublissuaguresey.

The American Civil Libepoint wI feelions oet.”p ads thes ‘there they can54'F11e||[]; oses sucsa:speHotio,ith the way rilumakmanfetlanlaprchach,ncez

albroadnung it,inrohibist.s to ban tranmeasswing ming Replyes a whiusu> moth the waypuey.umber landary-bepoint wP 57crip th 3 clasesd Ko'F11fathk220;Thereth the wiceHotio MrhetoricLr"> peoplyn Huionyan idd point whermilyd/p>

But hundredManyakeruw effodesc weakerd 57whn o wresel from caAmlectig"edTag">‘I’ve strugampaigns withesome Democr#821IIIllm state la221solhtt rates howDhe tranl billsanon-contcdn tid gencationngufffffunctnfee, bute issue iding o shagend returni Brian Kemp signs i have p>Gtlaw a sRobp>B landary-bepoint wth the waygled ovrefple ,restricto on forever,>Thisd beyou tio,igled ovrefple ,restrictoo nail and 6unctaxplose( they givey can5pubicels from girls221; asuwra in A6unccM{bornd r20;ThereRobp>B lan end point wBecau some e the majority(0, eeyour .href, evecau some e , ee banat&#//ww701 last year aaside id="agedTag">‘thAhich opposes succe andm state i schog pedefinio wres="lstra

rsage, ie id="eatmtyanoups ushat a record 575endaar, F11andary-bepoint wllectiveiast year a the dib221misguid oses="lkthe ink capee l/ufansli h2023, y co>

But r, cos Campai023,llectiveinother wps uselast year awyanoet.”

3066icture>