(NewsNation) — For the third consecutive year, state lawmakers across the country are on track to deliberate a record number of proposals impacting LGBT people this year, according to the advocacy non-profit GLAAD.
Regarding trans people specifically, legislators have passed 83 bills impacting the care they can receive, the ways they express themselves and the spaces they can be in. Of those, 79 bills have been signed into law, according to Trans Legislation Tracker, a website that compiles and maintains data related to laws that impact trans people.
The bills introduced this year span 23 states, touching on sports, bathrooms, education and healthcare.
Overwhelmingly, the majority of such bills don’t advance or become law. Both 2021 and 2022 were record-setting years for the sheer number of proposed laws that would directly impact LGBT people, according to GLAAD, and this year is poised to follow suit.
For example, in Alabama, lawmakers expanded a 2021 ban preventing trans girls and women from participating in male sports and vice versa to include college sports.
In Florida, trans men and women are now prohibited from using bathrooms and locker rooms intended for the gender opposite the one they were assigned at birth.
Proponents of such laws say the legislation is a safety measure meant to guard the privacy of cisgender people.
Alternatively, as of mid-January 2023, Texas lawmakers have proposed 36 bills to secure the safety and equal treatment of LGBTQ people, according to GLAAD.
As of June 23, five Texas bills impacting LGBT people were passed into law, according to data compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Healthcare
Several states have proposed laws that would restrict access to gender-affirming care.
Most recently, North Carolina lawmakers on Wednesday finalized legislation that would prohibit certain gender-affirming care for children, the AP reported. It also would prevent state funds from going toward those practices and procedures.
“The whole point of this is to protect our most vulnerable population from these atrocities,” Republican state Rep. Ken Fontenot told the AP.
Such laws have historically been met with opposition.
Last week, a federal judge struck down a similar ban in Arkansas. Judges on Wednesday temporarily blocked portions of bans in Kentucky and Tennessee, according to the AP.
Elsewhere, California is among the states that have enacted laws protecting care, shielding families of transgender youth from criminal prosecution if they travel to the state for best-practice and often lifesaving healthcare.
“They have a safe place to go if they’re threatened with prosecution,” Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener told the AP. “California will not be a party to this new wave of deadly LGBTQ criminalization.”
An Illinois bill signed into law in January similarly connects efforts to restrict abortion care to transgender healthcare, upholding protections for patients and providers of both.
Gender-affirming health care can include social, psychological, behavioral or medical treatment designed to support and affirm an individual’s gender identity, according to the World Health Organization.
Sports and live performances
Limitations imposed on athletes based on sex and gender have been a major topic of debate over trans rights in the past year.
According to an April report from The Associated Press, 16 states have bans in effect covering at least high school interscholastic sports.
The United States Department of Education, however, recently proposed a rule that would block schools and colleges that receive federal funds from enacting “one-size-fits-all” policies banning trans students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity.
Performances like school plays to drag shows have also come under scrutiny.
In March, Tennessee became the first state to enact a law restricting drag shows. The law criminalizes performances that take place in public or where they could be seen by children.
Drag is not an indicator of the performer’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Books and education
Efforts to ban books reached a crescendo last year, when attempted book bans reached the highest level in two decades, according to the American Library Association (ALA).
Those advocating to remove books that have LGBT characters or touch on LGBT issues say they’re trying to protect children from “sexually explicit” or “pornographic” content.
Critics argue the attempted bans are little more than an effort to censor and suppress marginalized voices.
A record 2,571 unique titles were targeted for censorship, marking a 38% increase from 2021, according to the ALA.
“Of those titles, the vast majority were written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community and people of color,” the ALA said in an official statement issued earlier this year.
In Iowa, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds in May signed a bill that restricts lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation in schools from kindergarten through sixth grade, NewsNation’s partner The Hill reported.
The law stops teachers from bringing up sexual orientation and gender identity in class. It also orders the removal of all books depicting sexual acts from school libraries, excluding religious texts, The Hill reported.
