Republican-led state legislatures are again considering bills restricting medical care for transgender youths and some adults the year after a wave of high-profile bills became law.

Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults — returning to the issue the year after a wave of high-profile bills became law and sparked lawsuits.

As legislatures begin their work for the year, lawmakers in several states have proposed enacting or strengthening restrictions on puberty-blocking drugs and hormone treatments for minors. Bills to govern which pronouns kids can use at school, which sports teams students can play on, and which bathroom they can use are back, as well, along with efforts to restrict drag performances and some books and school curriculums.

LGBTQ+ advocates say that most of the states inclined to pass bans on gender-affirming care have done so, and that they now expect them to build on those restrictions and expand them to include adults. With legislatures in most states up for election this year, transgender youths and their families worry about again being targeted by conservatives using them as a wedge issue.

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    1•8 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    As legislatures begin their work for the year, lawmakers in several states have proposed enacting or strengthening restrictions on puberty-blocking drugs and hormone treatments for minors.

    “They’ll stop at nothing, so we don’t know what exactly to anticipate (in 2024),” said Katy Erker-Lynch, executive director of PROMO, an advocacy group in Missouri, where lawmakers have proposed more than 20 bills targeting LGBTQ+ people.

    Bills filed in Missouri include efforts to remove two provisions that were key in overcoming a Democratic filibuster to that state’s ban on gender-affirming care for youths.

    The new Missouri Freedom Caucus is prioritizing a bill that would make the ban on gender-affirming care for minors permanent, removing a provision that allows it to expire in 2027.

    “We passed what I thought was a strong and fairly broad bill last year,” said Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, referring to the medical ban.

    Legislation introduced Wednesday in West Virginia would ban gender-affirming care up to age 21 and prohibit mental health professionals from supporting what lawmakers call a transgender patient’s “delusion” about their gender identity.

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