GOP legislators are looking for more laws on transgender persons, putting Democrats on site: NPR

Atlanta – Bathrooms. Medical care. Sporty. The definition of “masculine” and “woman”. In the legislatures of the States this spring, the Republicans focused on transgender people. They have tabled hundreds of restrictive bills, often using them to put Democrats in difficult political positions.

The majority do not pass, like most of all bills. But dozens have, according to the groups, depending on what they consider as anti-trans invoices. And, even when they have not passed, they can force the votes and stimulate the debate.

Iowa legislators deleted Gender identity of state rights protection. Wyoming Interdled State Agency to force employees to use the favorite pronouns of other employees. Alabama pass a law Definition of words Like “Father” “Boy” and “Girl”.

This week, Maine legislators discussed proposals to ban the trans athletes from Girls School Sports, a move demanded by the Trump administration.

Supporters of these proposals call them common sense measures to protect taxes, promote equity and respond to public opinion. Opponents argue that laws sanction the discrimination and exclusion of a vulnerable minority group and that the rhetoric produced in these debates can stigmatize the transgender community.

The Republicans continued to raise the question, which prompted some Democrats to reassess their answer.

Each year, more invoices and new themes

The Republican Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, signs a series of Education bills in April, including a measure preventing transgender girls from playing in girls' sports teams.

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The bills focused on transgender people took importance in 2016 with a North Carolina law forcing people to use bathrooms according to their gender attributed to birth (later returned). By 2021, the number of invoices has climbed with A new accent On the participation of transgender athletes in school sports and, later, to restrict the affirmative treatments between the sexes, in particular for minors.

By 2024, some defenders on the other side thought that the effort had culminated. A group that opposes restrictions on transgender people, the human rights campaign, published a report Last year, said it: “increasingly clear that the tide turns and that the momentum began to move” against these invoices.

But later that year, the Republicans saturated campaigns with sex advertisements, including attacks against Biden's administration policies. The Trump campaign highlighted the issue of advertisements in swing states. Applicants for the Alponary also recovered the message.

The American Civil Liberties Union follows “anti-lgbtq invoices”. The group claims that most of which contained restrictions on transgender people and a record 575 invoices had been deposited in the States until April. Last year, there were 533 and there were 510 in 2023, according to ACLU, which opposed these laws.

A research group, trans legislation tracker, account more than 800 tickets which “have a negative impact And people who do not comply with gender “since this week. It is up 701 last year and 615 in 2023.

The figures are called into question by Joseph Kohm III, director of policies at Family political allianceA network that has promoted bills in states legislatures for laws such as preventing it from transgender girls from playing in female sports teams. He says that these follow -up groups use too wide definitions that draw invoices without any chance of passing, inflating the total.

But Kohm agrees that there is an increase in the political interest of state legislators. “These waves across the country have transformed this into a slow burn which finally returns to a boil,” he said.

About half of the States now prohibit transgender girls from the school sports teams, and Kohm says that defenders are now turning to new efforts, such as codifying the definitions of man and women in state law.

“It is not one of those revolutions that will happen forever,” says Kohm. “There is a final point where I think we are correcting the collective ship on this issue, but we are not yet there.”

“I fought on this legislation”

Georgia illustrates how the Republicans forced Democrats to fight with the way to follow.

This year, the Republicans have tabled bills to prohibit transgender girls in girls' school sports, restrict puberty blockers for minors and prevent the state health plan from covering the care affirmed by the sexes.

The senator from the State of Georgia, Elena Parent, Democrat of Atlanta, talks about the Senate floor in March.

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It is a bill prohibiting these treatments for prison of state prison who prompted a handful of democrats who generally oppose the bills restricting the transgender community to vote in favor. Democratic Senator Elena Parent told her colleagues that she had to recognize public feeling after the 2024 elections.

“I have the impression that we have made more invoices than this session chose transgender people that we did not do something else,” said Parent. “But we must also consider public priorities.”

But when the bill advanced to the State House, the Democrats tried a different approach, skip the vote and go out in protest. The Republicans called them cowards, an accusation that the Democrats postponed.

“People have sent us here to do an excellent job,” said Carolyn Hugley, chief of the Democrat minority. “They didn't send us here to intimidate people, to discriminate people. Many of us are descendants of people who felt the same thing.”

Republicans see the question as still politically powerful

Debates like this are easily translated into the language for effective advertisements and sender, explains Brian Robinson, republican strategist for Georgia.

“The Democrats have refused,” this is the word you use, “refused” to defend taxpayers when it has had the choice to ban transitional surgeries for prisoners, “explains Robinson.” Because they do not share your values, because they are disconnected. This is the message. “

According to the Pew Research CenterThe survey data suggests that Americans have generally become more favorable to the restrictions on transgender rights.

But Chase Strangio, who directs the LGBTQ and HIV project of ACLU, says that any change is due to the fact that politicians and conservative groups have flooded messaging voters who say that transgender people are a threat.

“I think it's incredibly wrong to look at the election consequences and turn against trans people, and I think that in some ways, that's what we see,” said Strangio.

There were demonstrations in Raleigh in 2016 while the Northern Carolina Legislative Assembly finally adopted a law obliging people to use bathrooms which correspond to their gender attributed to birth. The law was then canceled.

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Gerry Broome / AP

Strangio, the first openly trans lawyer to be discussed before the United States Supreme Court, says that the courts can block some of the laws, but it is also important to stop the proposals before moving. “All constitutional rights is to protect against the erosion of the rights of politically unpopular minorities.”

Transgender defenders and their democratic supporters consider the new strategies

Brandon Wolf, with the human rights campaign, points to the Montana Democrat Zooey Zephyr, a transgender legislator prevented By his GOP colleagues to speak on the ground. Two years later, she convinced many of them to help her overcome two restrictive bills.

Wolf calls for a strategy that humanizes transgender individuals.

“This network of right organizations establishes a million tiny fires across the country, so that we find ourselves stuck with a fire extinguisher trying to take them out by one,” explains Wolf.

In Georgia, the parent senator says that Democrats must show that they are in contact with the challenges that the public is faced, as the high cost of housing.

“We are very clear that transgender Georgians should be able to live their lives with dignity and respect and without undue discrimination,” said parent in an interview. “But we must recognize that this is a conversation in evolution in the public. And it seems that we are really wrapped in the concern of transgender prisoners does not do a service if you cannot speak to voters in the areas that we must win.”

The Republicans are committed to continuing the push next year, while the mid-term begin.

Sam Gringlas Covers politics for Wabe.