The Alabama legislature passed bills yesterday making it a felony to provide gender-affirming care to trans youth, banning trans children in K-12 schools from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identities, and banning discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in K-12 classrooms.
Most awfully, SB 184, ironically titled the “Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act,” declares that gender is immutable and that anyone who prescribes puberty blockers, hormones, or surgical treatments to a minor “to alter the appearance of or affirm the minor’s perception of his or her gender or sex” is guilty of a Class C felony. Such felonies carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
Medical providers are clearly at risk here–but because the bill targets not only those who “engage in” the performance of such treatments, but also those who “cause” them to be performed, the parents of trans children are also at risk if they attempt to secure affirming care for their children. And of course it’s not just the medical providers or parents who will suffer. The ultimate target is children, cut off from needed medical care.
Let’s be clear: Gender-affirming care is medically approved care, supported by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, among many others, for youth meeting specific diagnostic criteria—i.e., not on a whim. Trans youth in general have high rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide from the stress of discrimination and stigmatization; puberty blockers can reduce suicidality,  improve psychological functioning, and mitigate mental health disparities, according to studies from respected, peer-reviewed medical journals.
The bill also requires that nurses, counselors, teachers, principals, and other administrators at public or private schools must tell a student’s parents or legal guardian if a student indicates that they (the student) are not cisgender. In cases where parents are not accepting of their child’s gender identity, this could lead to severely negative consequences for the child. Even if a child isn’t sure what their parents’ reaction will be, but they know that if they approach a school counselor or nurse their parents will be informed, they may choose not to seek support at all.
LGBTQ advocates are standing by with lawsuits (one and two) should Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) sign this bill into law.
Alabama’s legislature did more, however, also passing a bill (HB 322) banning transgender youth from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity and banning discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in K-12 classrooms. The ban on classroom discussion is similar to Florida’s recent law, popularly called “Don’t Say Gay” but really applying to the entire LGBTQ spectrum. Unlike Florida’s law, which bans all discussion of these topics in primary grades and limits it to being “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate” in higher grades, Alabama’s bill says the discussion in all grades must be “age appropriate or developmentally appropriate.” Both states define appropriateness “in accordance with state standards,” but this feels vague enough that it will likely squash all mention of anything LGBTQ-related in classrooms, including children’s discussion of their own families and identities.
LGBTQ advocates have been quick to point out that in theory, all discussion of heterosexual relationships and cisgender identities would be eliminated, too. Of course, opponents could (wrongly) claim that such topics are age/developmentally appropriate whereas LGBTQ ones are not. Fact is, though, discussion of anything in classrooms should already be age- and developmentally appropriate. The only reason to call out sexual orientation and gender identity with specific legislation is to target LGBTQ people and any talk thereof.
Florida and Alabama are not the only states where this is happening. At least 15 states are considering bills that “variously take aim at school clubs for LGBTQ students, would put limitations on teachers’ and students’ use of gender pronouns, and would restrict or proscribe curriculum, instruction, and library books that feature LGBTQ themes,” according to Education Week.
As for the bathroom part of the Alabama bill, we’ve seen its like before, in North Carolina, which passed a similar bill in 2016 before being immediately challenged in court, facing widespread condemnation and loss of business, and partially repealing it. Make no mistake: This legislation is illegal and unconstitutional, too. As HRC noted in a statement:
Should Alabama pass this discriminatory legislation, it will put schools in a position of having to choose between complying with federal law, including Title IX, and complying with discriminatory state law…. Transgender youth are denied their right to a public education when they’re preventing [sic] from accessing restroom facilities consistent with their gender identity, and ‘bathroom bills’ are a violation of both Title IX and the U.S. Constitution.
[Update: 3/9/2022: Gov. Ivey has signed both bills.]
If you live in Alabama, please contact Gov. Ivey immediately and tell her not to sign these bills. If you don’t live in Alabama, encourage anyone you know who does to contact the governor—and keep fighting against similar anti-trans bills, anti-LGBTQ curriculum bills, and bans of books with LGBTQ and other marginalized characters in your own state.
We can beat these bills. Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb (R) and Utah Governor Spencer Cox (R), recently vetoed anti-trans sports bans in their states. While those vetoes may yet be overturned, they indicate that even some Republicans see anti-trans bills for the shameful hate that they are.
And we cisgender LGB folks need to be fighting these bills with everything we’ve got, too. First, it’s simply the moral thing to do. Additionally, trans people helped advance and defend rights based on sexual orientation; it’s only fair that we do the same for rights based on gender identity. Remember: Any anti-LGBTQ bill is about someone else trying to tell us what is appropriate for us based on our assigned sex—whether that involves how we live our gender or who we love. Anti-trans bills, anti-LGBTQ curriculum bills, and book bans are part of a coordinated campaign from the far right to restrict and erase the lives of LGBTQ and other marginalized people. (Even marriage equality is not immune.) These bills aren’t just about trans people, but about attacking LGBTQ people on a variety of fronts. But trans people are taking the brunt of the hits right now, which means the rest of us need to step up to help defend them.
Our opponents are coordinated—more than ever, we need to be coordinated and supportive of each other across the various facets of the LGBTQ community in order to stop them.