By Asaf Orr–
NCLR has been on the forefront of the fight against laws that discrimination against transgender youth, and we always will be.
Widespread misinformation and fear have made transgender youth an easy political target for many years. Since 2016, however, the anti-LGBTQ movement has capitalized on that misinformation and fear to mount a sustained attack on transgender youth on many different fronts. The extreme political polarization across the United States has caused this latest iteration of the “culture wars” to reach a fever pitch and is only becoming more intense, threatening to undermine bedrock legal protections that safeguard the health and wellbeing of transgender youth. The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) has been there at every turn to stop politicians from using their power to harm transgender youth and deny them the opportunity to thrive.
In 2021, state legislatures across the country considered over 100 anti-transgender bills. They covered the gamut from participation in sports and use of sex-separated facilities to banning LGBTQ-inclusive school curriculum and access to medical treatment. NCLR has worked with local organizations, medical providers, and families and supported their efforts to organize and oppose this slate of hateful bills.
NCLR assisted with drafting testimony for state legislative hearings, helped prepare spokespeople for media interviews, and provided strategic support to local coalitions and organizations. Because of those efforts—combined with the unmatched energy and resilience of transgender youth across the country—many of those bills were defeated before they could become enshrined into law. Equally important was the significant media coverage those transgender youth garnered, dispelling the myths and misinformation that led to these bills being introduced in the first place.
There were a number of bills that nevertheless made it through the legislative process and were signed into law. NCLR was prepared and immediately challenged those laws in court—succeeding in getting the courts to stop several of them from going into effect.
For example, Alabama politicians enacted a law that made it a felony for doctors and parents to provide transgender adolescents with medically necessary treatments for gender dysphoria; medications that have long been considered the standard of care by every major medical and mental health association in the United States. Working with several legal organizations, law firms, and local advocates, NCLR spearheaded a challenge to that law on behalf of providers and families across the state. After listening to two days of testimony, a federal judge in Alabama found that the law violated the right of parents to consent to the treatment of their children and discriminated against transgender youth. Because that law is unconstitutional, the judge entered an order that prohibits Alabama from enforcing that law.
Likewise, overriding the governor’s veto, the Utah Legislature chose to enact a law that prohibits transgender girls from playing girls’ sports in K–12 schools. NCLR, along with several local partners, challenged that law on behalf of three transgender female athletes who would have been prevented from playing on their school teams if this law was allowed to go into effect. Again, after reviewing testimony from these athletes and the experts, a state court judge ruled that the law violated the Utah Constitution, the first ruling of its kind based on state law. Specifically, the court concluded that the Utah legislature had no legitimate basis for excluding transgender girls from girls’ sports and for refusing to treating them as the other girls.
Despite securing these crucial victories, the fight against these harmful bills in the courts and the hearts and minds of our neighbors and communities is far from over. State legislators are already gearing up to reintroduce many of the same anti-transgender bills that were defeated in the prior session and have vowed to add new—but just as discriminatory—anti-transgender bills in this session.
NCLR is already preparing too. We will continue to work tirelessly to defeat these unlawful bills and, if they are signed into law, prevent them from ever being enforced. We have always, and will always, fight for transgender kids to live the life free from discrimination that they deserve.
Asaf Orr is a Senior Staff Attorney and the Transgender Youth Project Director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
Published on November 3, 2022
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