Anti-Transgender Bills Were Being Pushed in These Five States This Week
"targeting transgender people" making their way through state legislatures, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which the LGBTQ advocacy group described as the "highest on record" in a briefing published earlier this week.Over the past week, legislation concerning trans rights has either been introduced, become law or made progress in state legislatures in North Dakota, South Dakota, Kentucky, Kansas, and Missouri.The past few years has seen the development of an increasingly toxic debate over transgender rights across the United States and beyond.
Supporters argue more should be done to protect a historically marginalized group, while critics say new legislation is necessary to protect female-only spaces, and prevent impressionable children undergoing lifechanging surgery.On February 9, Republicans in Georgia introduced new legislation that would ban gender-affirming care for those aged under 18, mirroring similar GOP initiatives in 25 other states.Terry Schilling, president of the conservative American Principles Project, told CNN on Monday that his group is currently lobbying to ban gender-affirming care for children, but hopes to eventually go further."We want to protect who we can as quick as possible.
And the group of people that we can protect as quick as possible is children," he said. "The thrust of the strategy is we want to protect everyone from this stuff.
But ultimately, we have to start with children because that's where the vast majority of the American people are right now."Cathryn Oakley, legislative director of the HRC, said: "The through line here is about hurting trans people.
