The year 2023 has unfortunately set a new record as the fourth year in a row for mounting anti-trans legislation in the U.S. In a single month, the number of state-level anti-trans bills under consideration doubled compared to the previous year, continuing patterns seen in 2022, such as threats to gender-affirming care, education, sports, birth certificate amendments, religious discrimination, and other areas.
2023 has seen a concerning expansion of proposed anti-trans healthcare legislation. States like Kansas, Oklahoma, and South Carolina have proposed bans on gender-affirming care that extend into adulthood, impacting individuals up to 26 years old.
Educational settings aren’t spared either. Laws like Arizona’s HB1700 encourage parental reporting and banning of books perceived as “promoting gender fluidity or gender pronouns.” Further, measures like AZ SB1001 demand both a guardian’s and teacher’s approval for a student’s pronoun usage.
Federal-level anti-trans legislation has also seen a surge in 2023. The “Women’s Bill of Rights” aims to negate federal recognition of trans individuals by establishing an individual’s assigned sex at birth as an “unalterable” determinant of being male or female, boy or girl.