ATLANTA — The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) — the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization — condemned today’s passage by the Georgia Senate of legislation attempting to ban transgender athletes from competing in teams play that ally with them gender identity. The proposal, Senate Bill 435, applies to school-sponsored athletic teams and would allow lawsuits to be filed against schools or school districts that do not impose such discriminatory restrictions.
Cathryn Oakley, Secretary of the State Legislature Human Rights Campaign and Senior Counsel, issued the following statement in response to today’s vote:
“These outright discriminatory bills continue to circulate widely in the South, causing great harm to one of our most vulnerable populations – transgender children. Student-athletes benefit from school sports, including camaraderie with their teammates and life skills such as self-discipline, goal setting, and leadership. Transgender students have been playing sports that conform to their gender identity in many states across the country, in some cases for decades, and there just haven’t been any problems. Furthermore, there is no evidence that trans athletes’ participation in school-sponsored sports was problematic in Georgia. This unjustified bill should not advance further in the legislative process.”
Alex Ames (any pronoun), organizational director of the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition and student from Georgia, made the following statement:
“Students of all backgrounds skipped work and classes last week to hear politicians in a room claiming that banning black history was necessary to supposedly ensure all children could be comfortable in schools. Just around the corner, the same politicians were advocating state-enacted discrimination against some of our most vulnerable children. Young Georgians see through this hypocrisy. Trans children and all children deserve validation and acceptance in our schools – when politicians target us for our identity, lives are lost. How many more trans siblings do we have to lose before elected leaders decide to make good on their promise to care for every child?”
At the crosshairs of anti-LGBTQ+-elected officials’ divisive political strategy are children simply trying to master their adolescence – children who face relentless attacks and heightened levels of discrimination in their community, as evidenced by record incidents of deadly transgender violence and gender neutral people in 2021.
Anti-transgender attacks as a political topic of conversation
Lawmakers in a record 34 states introduced 147 anti-transgender laws in 2021, focusing on discriminatory anti-equality measures to drive a wedge between their constituents and score short-term political points. In 2021, legislators in 12 states enacted anti-LGBTQ+ laws, though they didn’t provide examples of exactly what they legislate against.
The mere enactment of anti-transgender laws and the proliferation of anti-transgender rhetoric has had damaging effects, leading to LGBTQ+ youth resources being secretly removed from a government website, 11-year-old children literally having trouble sleeping, and a school district selling graphic novels having a transgender character bans after a parent’s complaint. 2021 and 2020 were the deadliest and second-deadliest years on record for trans and gender nonconforming people, respectively, with the Human Rights Campaign tracking more than 50 violent deaths in 2021 alone. A new Trevor Project survey shows a staggering 85% of transgender or gender non-binary youth say their mental health has been negatively impacted by these legal attacks.
Anti-transgender content on social media is also a radicalizing issue in itself. This is in large part because young transgender people are among the most marginalized, speechless, and defenseless communities in America, and because right-wing arguments allude to long-established mysoginist, racist, and sexist tropes about gender roles.
Anti-equality forces spend heavily
These bills are the result of a concerted effort by right-wing organizations that have been fighting against LGBTQ+ progress for years. In the last election, the American Principles Project (APP) was one of the key anti-equality groups working to roll back decades of LGBTQ+ progress. APP and its chief underwriter Sam Fieler have invested millions of dollars supporting anti-LGBTQ+ candidates. In 2020, APP spent more than $2.6 million on ad spend in support of anti-equality candidates. In Virginia, APP spent at least $300,000 on digital advertising in 2021 to support Glenn Youngkin’s gubernatorial campaign.
Restoration PAC, operated and funded by anti-LGBTQ+ bankroller Dick Uihlein, spent at least $1.9 million advertising across Virginia in support of Youngkin and donated $942,000 to the anti-abortion group’s political arm Women Speak Out Virginia. Anti-equality group Free to Learn Action launched a $1 million advertising campaign that disseminated widely debunked anti-transgender misinformation in support of Youngkin’s campaign.
Businesses, advocacy groups and athletes oppose anti-trans legislation
More than 150 major US companies have stood up and spoken out against anti-transgender laws being proposed in states across the country. Companies such as Amazon, American Airlines, Apple, AT&T, AirBnB, Dell, Dow, Google, IBM, Lyft, Marriott, Microsoft, Nike and Paypal have objected to these bills. Four of the largest U.S. food companies also condemned “dangerous, discriminatory laws that serve as an attack on LGBTQ+ people, particularly transgender and non-binary people,” and the Walton Family Foundation issued a statement expressing “concern” about the trend of anti-transgender legislation that was recently enacted into Arkansas law.
Many are right to protect the legacy of women’s sport in this country and a robust Title IX is central to that legacy. Importantly, advocates for women and girls in sport — such as the National Women’s Law Center, the Women’s Sports Foundation, Women Leaders in College Sports, and others — support trans-inclusive strategies and oppose efforts to bar transgender students from participating in the exclude sports. So have prominent athletes like Billie Jean King, Megan Rapinoe and Cheryl Reeve. That’s because while women’s sport faces real problems, including a lack of resources being made available to support them, transgender people’s participation in athletics is not one of them.
The nation’s leading child health and welfare groups, representing more than 7 million youth service professionals and more than 1,000 children’s charities, have released an open letter urging state legislators across the country to oppose dozens of bills , targeting LGBTQ+ people and transgender children in particular.
Nearly 550 collegiate athletes have defied anti-transgender legislation by demanding the NCAA pull championships from states that have enacted anti-trans sports laws.
Trans equality is popular in all demographics
The reality is that, as sensational and polarizing as this issue may seem, public opinion polls across the country show strong support for trans-inclusive and pro-equality policies:
Recent PRRI data shows that a large majority of Americans (82%) support legislation that protects LGBTQ+ people from discrimination in jobs, public housing and housing, and majorities of Republicans (67%), Independents (85%) and Democrats (92%). ) advocate nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ Americans.
A PBS/NPR/Marist poll says 67% of Americans, including 66% of Republicans, oppose the anti-transgender sports ban legislation spreading in 30 states.
A 10-step survey conducted by the Human Rights Campaign & Hart Research Group in 2020 found:
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At least 60% of Trump voters in each of the 10 swing states say transgender people should be able to live freely and openly.
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At least 87% of respondents in all 10 swing states say transgender people should have equal access to health care, with many states beating 90% support
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When respondents were asked how they prioritized the importance of banning transgender people from participating in sports compared to other political issues, the issue came last, ranging from 1% to 3%.
Another poll conducted by the Human Rights Campaign & Hart Research Group found that the public is strongly in favor of fairness and equality for transgender student athletes when it comes to the participation of transgender youth in sport. 73% of voters agree that “sport is important in young people’s lives. Young transgender people should be given opportunities to participate in ways that are safe and convenient for them.”
The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization campaigning for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ+ people are accepted as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.
