by Abby Walden (staff writer)
American Independence: the thing that supposedly makes America so great. But great for who? 2021 has been the worst year in recent history for LGBTQ legislation with 17 anti-LGBTQ bills passed by May–more than the last three years combined. Many of these bills target transgender people despite the swearing in of an administration who pledged their support to these communities.
Trans people face widespread attacks from health care and sports, to IDs and the military.
7 anti-trans sports bans, 4 religious refusal bills, 2 anti-LGBTQ education bills, 1 anti-trans medical care bill, and 1 sham “hate crimes” bill have been passed this year. Transgender people are being denied the basic human rights that allow them to flourish by the very government meant to to protect them. Only 15 states allow for a gender neutral or nonbinary gender marker, “X”, on state IDs and 13 allow it on birth certificates. This effectively means that in most states in the US, nonbinary people do not exist in the eyes of the government.
Additionally, more than 250 anti-LGBTQ laws have been proposed to state legislatures this year. These bills, if passed, would deny transgender youth access to gender-affirming medical care, prohibit transgender youth from participating in sports, and deny transgender people access to restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity.
In consideration of the current and surfacing anti-LGBTQ legislation, it is becoming more and more crucial that Congress pass and Biden sign the Equality Act into law. The Equality Act would reaffirm sexual orientation and gender identity as protected characteristics under law, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Jury Selection and Services Act, and laws concerning employment with the federal government. According to the HRC, this “would provide consistent and explicit anti-discrimnation protections for LGBTQ people across key areas of life, including employment, housing, credit, education, public spaces and services, federally funded programs, and jury service.”
The independence of members of the LGBTQ community, specifically transgender people, is currently compromised, and is continuously being chipped away as more and more barriers are enacted into law to prohibit their pursuit of happiness. It is imperative that action is taken and that it is taken now.
Here is a resource to help get the Equality Act passed: https://www.hrc.org/campaigns/equality-act
Sources:
https://www.aclu.org/issues/lgbtq-rights/transgender-rights
https://www.usbirthcertificates.com/articles/gender-neutral-birth-certificates-states
At a Glance 