Anti-Trans Legislation: A Continuing and Worsening Issue

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In the past week, Tennessee legislation has made anti-LGBTQ+ developments that could potentially harm the safety of members of the community. These bills, along with others in states across the country, have been in the works for a while, while others have been fairly new. Here’s everything you need to know about these recent developments. 

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Governor Tate Reeves signed two bills into law on Feb. 23. One was the drag ban bill while the other prohibits gender-affirming healthcare for minors.

The drag ban is broad and criminalizes any transgender person in an education industry, performance setting or even in public. It targets public drag performances, making it banned for male and females impersonators to perform within 1,000 feet from a church, public park or school. Drag performances are being classified as “adult cabaret performances,” so they cannot be performed near, or in the presence of, a child. This law adds to the stigma of drag being sexual rather than an art form, while furthering  this stigma to future generations.

The ban of gender-affirming care prohibits health care providers from performing on a minor or administering to a minor any gender-affirming care that would allow that minor to identify with, or live as, an identity inconsistent with their sex. It includes banning the prescribing of hormone blockers and hormones, and forcing youth de-transition by March of next year. The effect of this bill could be damaging, especially since the law will prohibit transgender youth from living the life they long for.

Tennessee is also likely to make bans for more than just transgender youth. In fact, the state is currently proposing a law that would prevent any healthcare organizations run by “TennCare,” its state Medicaid program, from providing gender affirming healthcare for any age range, including adults. This bill has not been passed, but has made its way past the first step to become a law.

Sadly, there are more states proposing bills that will hinder the rights of the transgender community. Similar to Tennessee, Mississippi HB1125, a policy that bans gender-affirming to minors was passed on Feb. 28. This bill will go into effect immediately and will make all transgender youth who are currently seeking treatment unable to continue with gender affirming surgery and drugs. This also allows for health insurance providers to not cover children being treated for gender related care.

Many bills in states like Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Texas and West Virginia have introduced bills that will cause more harm to transgender youth. If passed, they will infringe on rights such as forced misgendering, sex definitions, parental rights and school based bathrooms policies. 

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These bills, while not official, still have the power to take away the rights of many. The most concerning being our youth.

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