More Frightening Anti-Trans Legislation in America

A trans-rights ally outside the White House in 2018

Victoria Pickering, Flickr

In 2023, we should be moving forward, not backward.

According to the Trans Legislation Tracker, an organization that brings awareness to the different states in the U.S. that seek to block transgender people from receiving basic rights, there are currently 490 proposed bills among 47 states. 23 bills have been passed, 423 are active, and 44 have failed to pass.

One active bill introduced in New Jersey is called the “My Child, My Choice Act of 2023,” a bill title that is incredibly ironic. This act would “prohibit Federal education funds from being provided to elementary schools that do not require teachers to obtain written parental consent prior to teaching lessons specifically related to gender identity, sexual orientation, or transgender studies, and for other purposes” if passed. 

Along with the “My Child, My Choice Act of 2023,” hundreds more bills have been introduced and are active, many preventing teachers in public schools from using a student’s preferred name and pronouns. Other bills restrict transgender-identifying students from playing sports at all, or restrict them to their assigned-at-birth sex sports team, not the gender they identify as. A bill proposed in Florida called the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023” states “this bill generally prohibits school athletic programs from allowing individuals whose biological sex at birth was male to participate in programs that are for women or girls.” 

Some go as far as restricting hormone therapy and making it impossible for transitioning citizens. A bill proposed in Indiana called the “Protect Minors from Medical Malpractice Act of 2023” states, “This bill makes a medical practitioner who performs a gender-transition procedure on an individual who is less than 18 years of age liable for any physical, psychological, emotional, or physiological harms from the procedure for 30 years after the individual turns 18.”

Not only do these proposed bills target transgender citizens, but they also target the LGBTQ+ community by limiting the education taught about issues relating to the community in public schools. These proposed bills think they are protecting children in public schools, but in reality, they are harming them. Not educating students about the LGBTQ+ community does not shield them from confusion about their own identity. Instead, it just creates more confusion and a hostile environment where they feel unsafe to be their true selves.

Kayden Fastag ‘26, a transgender student at Oneonta, shared his personal fears about the rise of the anti-trans bills in America. “Living as a trans man, every day of my life is already a struggle as it is. Having the constant dysphoria and fear of not passing as a man is my most recurring thought every day, also worrying about my safety in any public setting.” 

Fastag explains that transgender citizens already face life-threatening struggles about their own identity every day and that passing these bills will only cause more issues.

“Now these authority figures want to take away the trans community and my access to gender-affirming health care, and medical treatments. I am so beyond sure with these bills passing that suicide rates will be increasing.” Fastag further explains that these bills are life-threatening and that it does not make sense for people in political power to administer laws that do not personally affect them at all.

According to a 2021 study by Vox, “Trans Americans are four times more likely to be victims of violent crime than their cisgender peers.” A 2022 survey by the Trevor Project, a suicide-prevention organization focused on LGBTQ+ youth, found that 86 percent of trans youth experienced negative effects on their mental health caused by the political debates surrounding the basic rights of trans citizens. Half of the trans youth surveyed had considered committing suicide in the past year.

“The world that the LGBTQ community is living in today is not a fun one. We have people constantly trying to beat us down and break us. We're strong and are here for one another,” says Fastag. 

These bills are doing immense amounts of harm, even though the legislatures claim they are trying to protect the children. Protecting the children does not equate to forming hostile environments where children are not allowed to freely express themselves.