Backlash is a common response to civil rights victories, and the LGBTQIA+-rights movement is no exception. After a decade of significant legal victories between the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s—ranging from a landmark Equal Protection Clause holding to the striking down of sodomy laws to winning marriage equality—the LGBTQIA+ community has faced significant backlash. That backlash intensified when the U.S. Supreme Court held in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex couples share in the fundamental right to marriage. Since that decision, LGBTQIA+-rights opponents have mounted a multi-pronged attack on LGBTQIA+-rights and people. This attack has taken place in legislatures and courts alike and targets a wide breadth of LGBTQIA+-rights issues. In the judicial arena, for example, opponents of LGBTQIA+ equality have sought religious exemptions from state public accommodations laws as well as the anti-discrimination provisions of Title VII, to permit discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people.

The legislative arena has been particularly active: In 2024, 691 anti-trans bills were introduced in 43 states, of which 52 passed. These numbers contrast sharply with 2015, which saw only 21 anti-trans bills introduced. Moreover, in 2023, an unprecedented 53 anti-transgender bills were introduced at the federal level. These bills, many of which target transgender youth, have been described as efforts to “erase transgender people from public life” by “seeking to deny [them] access to basic healthcare, legal recognition, education, facilities, and the right to publicly exist.” In both the judicial and legislative realms, the central driver of this backlash is a political movement known as white Christian nationalism.

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