“What if it was your daughter who was the target of this bill?”
For a moment a few weeks ago, it seemed like lawmakers in Tennessee had really heard the of a transgender young person and her parents.
A mother’s simple ask to legislators about what they would do if it was their child who was transgender hit a nerve, and the anti-transgender bill was sent to a summer study session, seemingly killing it for this year. But that was two weeks ago — a lifetime ago, it seems, in light of all that has happened since — and that bill is back.
But that’s nowhere near the worst of it. Apparently in a bid to outdo each other, lawmakers in North Carolina and Mississippi have passed and signed sweeping anti-LGBT legislation into law over the last two weeks.
North Carolina’s HB 2 was rushed through a special legislative session on March 23 and signed the same day by Gov. Pat McCrory. The bill, which we have since challenged in court, not only repeals local ordinances extending protections to LGBT individuals and prohibits the passage of any such ordinances in the future. It does something far worse: It mandates discrimination against transgender people by government agencies and schools.
Not to be outdone, yesterday, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant , another sweeping piece of legislation, which authorizes discrimination based on sincerely held religious beliefs that:
The will further entrench discrimination against LGBT people, unmarried people who have sex, and anyone else who doesn’t conform to expectations about gender and gender roles. It will (or aims to), among other things:
- prevent the government from taking any action if LGBT kids are forced into conversion therapy by foster parents
- allow counselors practicing conversion therapy, including school counselors, to keep their licenses
- allow single mothers to be turned away by a government-funded homeless shelter, food pantry, or day-care program
- permit government employees to refuse to issue marriage licenses or solemnize marriages for same- sex couples
- allow medical providers to turn away transgender patients or restrict access to health care related to gender transition
In both Mississippi and North Carolina, the most vulnerable in the community will be targeted — homeless people, foster youth, kids. Lawmakers claim the laws are necessary to respect people’s religious beliefs or privacy, yet so many will suffer as a result of these unprecedented new measures.
In fact, so many are already suffering.
As Mississippi lawmakers sent HB1523 to the governor on Monday, James Dixon plead guilty to manslaughter in the death of Black trans woman Islan Nettles in New York City. He killed her in August of 2013 on the street in Harlem after he realized that she was transgender. When police questioned him about Islan’s death, he that he had recently been “fooled by a transgender” and was “blinded” with rage at the idea that he could be fooled again. So he killed her because he didn’t believe in her humanity or womanhood.
Like the more than 22 transgender women — almost all of them women of color — who were murdered last year, Islan died in a world that treated her in life as less than human.
The same beliefs that motivated James Dixon to kill Islan on that street in Harlem — the belief that transgender women are not women and that transgender people are less than human — animate the anti-trans legislation that is now codified into law in Mississippi and North Carolina, and which is at risk of becoming law in Tennessee and elsewhere.
We must sit with that harsh and disturbing reality and react with urgency as these bills continue to make their way through state legislatures.
Today lawmakers in Tennessee will again consider , a measure targeting transgender students. Proponents of the bill are this bill marks a critical fight in the “New Civil War” over “the truth about human sexuality, or perhaps more fundamentally, what it means to be human.” Meanwhile, brave, young transgender people and their families will again stand up to lawmakers and ask that the bullying, harassment, and fixation on bathrooms stop.
Enough is enough.
In states across the country, transgender young people have had to listen to their government speak about them as “” and try to cast them out of public space. Despite all the vitriol, the trans community continues to show up and lead the fight to stop these bills. But we’re not alone in this fight. Powerful businesses and religious leaders are speaking up, telling lawmakers that discrimination is unacceptable. Some have even halted investments, in addition to condemning these inhumane laws.
We may not yet stop them all, but we are telling our stories. And in the end, we will win this fight. .
Learn More About the Issues on This Page
-
Press ReleaseDec 2024
LGBTQ Rights
President Biden Must Veto Defense Bill Attacking Military Families with Transgender YouthPresident Biden Must Veto Defense Bill Attacking Military Families with Transgender Youth
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate today passed a version of the National Defense Authorization Act that would ban coverage for gender-affirming care for transgender youth whose parents are active-duty military personnel. The American Civil Liberties Union is opposing final passage of the defense bill over the inclusion of this health care ban and calling on President Joe Biden to veto the bill. Section 708 of the NDAA would prohibit insurance coverage for “medical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria” such as hormone therapy and puberty-suppressant medications, which Speaker Mike Johnson says would “permanently ban transgender medical treatment for minors.” The same treatments would be covered by TRICARE for any medical purpose other than treating gender dysphoria, the clinical diagnosis for the psychological distress experienced by transgender people related to their gender identity. “By passing this bill, the House and Senate are forcing thousands of active-duty service members to choose between their careers in the military and the future of their transgender children,” said Mike Zamore, national director of policy & government affairs at the ACLU. “This unconscionable and unjustifiable attack on those families stands in direct contrast to President Joe Biden’s legacy of defending the civil rights of transgender Americans — including when few in his own party showed the courage to do so. President Biden should cement his legacy by vetoing this bill and sending it back to Congress to pass without Speaker Johnson’s last minute health care ban for servicemembers’ kids.” If signed by President Biden, this health care ban would be the first new anti-LGBTQ provision enacted by Congress and signed into law by the president since the enactment of the military’s since-repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for LGBTQ servicemembers and the since-repealed federal law barring recognition of same-sex marriages known as the Defense of Marriage Act. It is unknown how many transgender youth are currently enrolled in TRICARE or how many of those enrolled are currently receiving coverage for gender-affirming care. In one 2022 analysis, 2,500 minor patients sought care for gender dysphoria through TRICARE Prime insurance at military or civilian treatment facilities in 2017, and 900 received puberty suppressants or gender-affirming hormones. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a landmark case brought by the ACLU, the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump on behalf of three families and a medical provider challenging a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming hormonal therapies for transgender youth on the grounds the ban violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. -
Press ReleaseDec 2024
LGBTQ Rights
Montana Court Blocks State From Refusing to Correct Sex Markers on Transgender People's Birth Certificates and Driver's LicensesMontana Court Blocks State From Refusing to Correct Sex Markers on Transgender People's Birth Certificates and Driver's Licenses
HELENA, Mont. – A Montana court has granted a preliminary injunction preventing the state of Montana from enforcing policies that bar transgender people from obtaining accurate sex designations on their birth certificates and driver’s licenses. After a prior restriction on amendments of birth certificates was struck down by the courts, in early 2024 the state of Montana enacted a new rule that categorically bars transgender Montanans from correcting the sex designation on their birth certificates. Around the same time, the Montana Department of Justice adopted a policy similarly restricting amendment of driver’s licenses. The plaintiffs challenged these policies in state district court, arguing that they violate various constitutional provisions, including the right to equal protection of the law. In a recent Montana Supreme Court decision, two justices concluded that discrimination on the basis of transgender status – as the state is engaging in here – is a form of sex discrimination that violates the Montana Constitution’s equal protection clause. The plaintiffs, two transgender women, are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Montana, and Nixon Peabody LLP. Plaintiff Jessica Kalarchik, a veteran who served in the United States Army for 31 years, said: “After finally being able to live my life openly as the woman I know myself to be, I am frustrated that my birth state, Montana, wants me to carry around a birth certificate that incorrectly lists my sex as male. I live my life openly as a woman, I am treated as a woman in my daily life, and there is no reason I should be forced to carry a birth certificate that incorrectly identifies me as male. Fortunately, the court agrees that this ridiculous policy should not be in effect.” “Once again the State of Montana chose to adopt a draconian policy that is clearly intended to marginalize transgender Montanans, only for that discriminatory action to be blocked by the courts,” said Akilah Deernose, executive director for the ACLU of Montana. “Here in Montana we treasure our right to privacy and to live our lives free from governmental intrusion. The State of Montana clearly has not learned any lessons from the past few years, where courts have repeatedly struck down unconstitutional laws targeting transgender Montanans.” “Forcing anyone to carry documents that contradict their identity unjustly violates their rights to privacy, equal treatment, and not being compelled to convey a government message about their sex that they disagree with,” said Malita Picasso, staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “Such a policy marks transgender people for further mistreatment and discrimination, essentially requiring them to carry papers that out them as transgender any time they need to provide identity documents. Fortunately, the court has refused to allow the state of Montana to subvert the freedom of transgender Montanans to control their own identity as this case goes forward.” In granting the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, the court held, “[i]f the challenged state actions discriminate against transgender individuals on the basis of their transgender status, they also necessarily discriminate the basis of sex.” The state has the option of appealing the district court’s ruling to the Montana Supreme Court, but the underlying case will proceed in district court. A trial has not yet been scheduled. -
FloridaDec 2024
LGBTQ Rights
Keohane v. DixonKeohane v. Dixon
On September 30, 2024, the Florida Department of Corrections rescinded its policy regarding treatment of gender dysphoria, which allowed for hormone therapy when deemed medically necessary, as well as access to clothing and grooming standards that accord with one’s gender identity. Under this new policy, grooming and clothing accommodations have been stripped away, and hormone therapy is not permitted unless an exception is deemed constitutionally required. The ACLU brought a class action challenging the policy. -
IdahoDec 2024
LGBTQ Rights
Robinson v. LabradorRobinson v. Labrador
Two incarcerated transgender women have sued the state of Idaho alleging that HB 688, a 2024 law barring state funding for gender-affirming medical care for transgender people, denies them access to the health care their doctors have prescribed for them and is a violation of their Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. They represent a class of all incarcerated folks within the state of Idaho who face the loss of hormone therapy due to HB 668.