Click on your state below to see all the bills we’re tracking there, or select an issue you care about for a picture of where legislation is moving across the country. We do not list bills as positive or negative because we defer to our member organizations on the ground. The bills listed on this page are those that impact the LGBTQ+ community in one way or another. If you would like to see specific good or bad bills in your state, please go to our Members page and find the member organization in your state.
Many lawmakers continue to threaten the livelihoods of transgender people and their families. In the past we’ve seen efforts to ban transgender people from using the bathroom that matches their gender, and attempts to ban transgender people from getting the healthcare they need. More recently, we’re also seeing lawmakers target transgender youth specifically by trying to retract access to affirming healthcare, sports, and facilities that match their gender. Discriminatory efforts like these make the journeys of young people more difficult than it needs to be.
Transgender rights are being recognized around the country thanks to vocal activists and strong allies. More than six in ten (62%) Americans say they have become more supportive toward transgender rights compared to their views five years ago according to PPRI survey from April 2019. Affirming policy initiatives range from nonbinary gender markers on ID docs to nondiscrimination in healthcare to gender neutral bathrooms to changing language in other state laws to gender neutral.
School should be a safe place to learn, make friends, and explore interests, but for many LGBTQ students, school often means bullying and harassment. The lack of LGBTQ inclusive curriculum and increased religious-based discrimination on campuses stands in the way of equal academic rights. LGBTQ adults whose presence might make it easier for an LGBTQ student, are also often subject to unfair treatment and discrimination because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity. We’re committed to stand against all bullying, harassment, and discrimination on school yards and campuses.
Conversion therapy refers to attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity through a variety of methods, including induced vomiting, electric shock, and other barbaric demands. All of the nation’s leading medical and mental health professional associations condemn conversion therapy as unnecessary, ineffective and, more importantly, dangerous. We support bills that would ban conversion therapy and hope to end the practice nationwide.
The HIV epidemic continues to disproportionately affect gay and bisexual men, transgender women, youth, and communities of color. Meanwhile, bills seeking to criminalize HIV are based on misinformation rather than accurate science about the transmission of HIV. Ignoring modern medical knowledge, these laws carry harsh penalties such as 35-year prison terms and registration as a sex offender for behaviors now known to carry no risk of transmission. These bills create a strong disincentive for individuals to find out their HIV status, and disproportionately target LGBTQ people. In addition to criminalization bills we also monitor needle exchange, forced testing, and prevention via comprehensive sex ed bills in every state.
Only 20 states and the District of Columbia have laws banning discrimination against LGBTQ people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. This means that more than half of all Americans live in states that don’t have explicit nondiscrimination protections in employment, housing, and other public accommodations. Equality Federation and our member organizations are hard at work to pass comprehensive and inclusive nondiscrimination laws all over the country.
In states without a statewide nondiscrimination law, hundreds of cities have passed ordinances protecting LGBTQ people. States are increasingly “preempting” the laws of cities and towns that seek to protect low-income workers, immigrants, and LGBTQ people. “Preemption” strips municipalities of their ability to pass LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections at the local level. This kind of state overreach means that American families from many different walks of life could easily lose the ability to live, work, and raise children free from discrimination in their own hometowns.
Over the last two legislative sessions, we’ve seen bills championed by big business that preempt certain labor protections (increased minimum wage, etc.). Some include protections for local nondiscrimination policies in an effort to try to pass these bills. We’re watching these bills closely, to make sure states are prepared to advocate for workers (including LGBTQ) and push back against any attempts to use nondiscrimination policies as a wedge.
Religious exemption bills are discriminatory attempts to write into our laws loopholes that would allow people, businesses, schools, and corporations the right to discrimininate against LGBTQ people based on their religious beliefs. These bills come in many different forms, but the goal is clear in each case.
These bills can be so broad or so vague that they open a can of worms of unintended consequences beyond harming LGBTQ people. For instance, a religious leader could refuse to cooperate with investigations into child abuse by claiming religious beliefs that prevent them from testifying against members of their church.