Anti-Transgender Legislation in the 119th Congress: What to Expect

As in many things, past is prologue, and the new Congressional Majority will act in predictably horrible ways towards their transgender constituents. Based on the measures introduced by the 118^th Congress, we should expect bills to be filed that attempt to accomplish the following (at a minimum), starting tomorrow:

Adoption & Foster Care:

• Prohibiting entities receiving federal assistance for adoption or foster care placements from denying or delaying placements when a prospective parent refuses to provide gender affirming care to a minor. (H.R. 5636, H.R. 6658, S. 3438)

Bathroom Bans:

• Bathroom ban on federal property (H.R. 10186)

Gender Affirming Care:

• Stopping the provision of gender affirming care to minors by:

• Criminalizing it (H.R. 3328, H.R. 9874, S. 635, S. 1597, S. 2357)

• Creating a federal cause of action against it (H.R. 1276, S. 457, S. 635)

• Prohibiting federal funds from being used for it (H.R. 3329, H.R. 7183, H.R. 9586, H.R. 10075, S. 457, S. 1595)

• Prohibiting federal funds from being used for research or publications concerning gender transition care for minors (S. 3035)

• Prohibiting federal funding for

  • any entity providing gender affirming care (H.R. 3887, H.R. 10075);

  • health insurance covering gender affirming care (H.R. 1399); or

  • institutions of higher education or hospitals affiliated with pediatric gender clinics (S. 457)

Schools:

• As a condition of receiving federal education funding, prohibiting K-12 school employees from:

• Allowing trans girls to compete in girls’ sports without notice to parents (H.R. 5)

• Allowing trans kids to use their preferred bathroom without notice to parents (H.R. 5)

• Assisting a minor to ‘promote or adopt’ a ‘self-professed gender identity’ (H.R. 1585, H.R. 3329)

• Failing to disclose information to parents about a child’s gender transition or gender identity (S. 1709)

• Providing lessons related to gender identity w/o parental approval (H.R. 216)

• Using preferred pronouns (H.R. 736, H.R. 1585, H.R. 5327)

Sports:

• Various strategies to keep trans girls or women from competing in sports (H.R. 734, H.R. 6728, H.Res. 518, S. 613)

• In the Rules package set for consideration tomorrow (January 3), H.R. 1 (presumably) is slated to cover this particular topic. We do not yet have the language of the bill.

Other…:

• Banning the placement of transwomen in female correctional facilities, either directly (federal) or via threats to federal funding for states that allow it (H.R. 1490, S. 752)

• Creating a federal definition of “male” and “female” (H.R. 9218, H. Res. 115, S.R. 53)

• Disqualifying any state from CAPTA (Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act) funding if it ‘discriminates against parents who oppose’ medical or social transition for their children (H.R. 6258)

• Prohibiting any federal agency from providing principles, resources, or suggestions on gender neutral or inclusive language (H.R. 985)

• Prohibiting business expense tax deduction for travel expenses related to a gender transition procedure for an employee’s minor child (S. 200)

• Some of the topics covered in bills from the 118^th will simply be enacted by Executive Order or the initiation of rulemaking, likely in the early days of the administration (e.g., ban on transgender military service or repealing the Title IX nondiscrimination rule published in April 2024). Among a litany of other provisions, the April 2024 Rule prohibited discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity in federally funded education programs.

The firehose (from Congress) begins tomorrow. I will continue to do the best I can to make sense of the mess by sorting it all into an actionable framework.