Lawmakers in more than a dozen states have announced plans to introduce “trans refuge laws” in an effort to counterbalance a growing number of laws targeting transgender youth and their families across the country.
On Tuesday, the LGBTQ Victory Institute, Equality California, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, as well as California state Sen. Scott Wiener, announced the rollout of a national initiative designed to protect transgender youth from penalties when seeking gender-affirming care.
Legislatures in 22 states have introduced bills to ban best-practice medical care for transgender young people in 2021, according to the Movement Advancement Project. That means that an estimated 64,700 young trans people, ages 13-17, are at risk of losing access to critical medical care.
In Alabama, for example, Senate Bill 184, which was signed into law by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey earlier this month, punishes parents or legal guardians for making decisions about their children’s care, and threatens criminal prosecution and jail time to doctors and other health care providers for offering — or even suggesting — medically necessary care to trans youth under the age of 19.
“When trans kids’ lives are on the line, playing defense doesn’t cut it. It’s time to play offense,” former Houston Mayor Annise Parker told the New York Daily News in a statement.
Parker is the president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Institute, an organization dedicated to increasing the number of LGBTQ public leaders in the country.
She said that the group is launching a “counteroffensive that aims to protect trans kids and parents while also demonstrating that there is a positive agenda for trans people that lawmakers can support.”
The initiative, led by state LGBTQ lawmakers, is based on legislation proposed by Wiener, of California, which “would declare another state’s law authorizing a civil or criminal action against a person or entity that allows a child to receive gender-affirming health care to be contrary to the public policy of this state.”
Lawmakers in both Minnesota and New York have already introduced similar legislation. On Tuesday, 21 LGBTQ lawmakers representing 16 other states — Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia — announced they would also join the fight.
“While LGBTQ elected officials will fight tooth and nail to get these passed in every state, now we need allies to step up to help us get it done. And even in states that have little chance of these bills advancing, the message it sends is still incredibly important: trans kids need to know they have leaders standing up and fighting for them,” Parker said.
The initiative follows the ongoing attack on the rights of transgender kids currently being discussed — and often approved — in legislatures across the country.
“We are building a coordinated national legislative campaign by LGBTQ lawmakers to provide refuge for trans kids and their families,” said Wiener. “We’re making it crystal clear: We will not let trans kids be belittled, used as political pawns and denied gender-affirming care. We won’t let their parents be criminalized or have their kids taken away. This first of its kind legislative effort sends a clear message both to our community and to those who are attacking our community — that we’re all in this together.”
According to the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, there are more than 320 anti-LGBTQ bills currently under consideration in state legislatures across the country — an all-time high. Of those, at least 130 directly affect trans people. Most of them focus on transgender youth, banning kids from participating in sports or receiving gender-affirming health care.
Legislation banning medically necessary health care for trans youth has been opposed by health care professionals and major health organizations in the U.S., including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Medical Association, which have denounced “these anti-transgender bills,” saying that they “promote discrimination and do harm to students, their families, and their communities.”
The Justice Department has also reminded all state attorneys general that there are federal constitutional and statutory provisions in place to protect transgender youth against discrimination, including when they are seeking gender-affirming care.
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