How to Win the War on 100 Fronts: What Caused the Rise of Anti-Trans Bills and How to Defeat Them
In a 2021 interview about the significant rise of anti-trans legislation, Professor Jules Gill-Peterson of the University of Pittsburgh stated, “What we saw was unprecedented, and it was an avalanche… There’s this relentlessness and exhaustion. How do you fight a war on 100 fronts simultaneously?” State legislatures across the United States considered over 560 bills attacking trans rights in 2023, marking the fourth-consecutive record-breaking year for anti-trans legislation in recorded history. These anti-trans bills primarily attacked trans children’s access to gender-affirming medical care, such as hormone therapy and puberty blockers, and the ability of trans children, particularly trans girls, to participate in sports. In 2023, over 134 bills were introduced and 22 bills were passed blocking access to gender-affirming services to trans youth and over 77 bills were introduced and 12 passed restricting the ability of trans athletes to participate in sports.
The legislation proposed in 2023 and the previous three legislative cycles differs significantly from the last time trans rights came under close scrutiny at the state level. Rather than targeting medical care or participation in sports, North Carolina’s HB2 in 2016 targeted access to bathrooms. This Note analyzes how and why the recent rise in anti-trans legislation has not resulted in the same level of backlash that occurred in response to HB2. Between 2016 and the early 2020s, conservative lawmakers and activists deliberately changed their focus from targeting trans folks’ access to bathrooms to attacking trans youth’s access to medical care and participation in sports. This shift represents a calculated effort by the conservative right to avoid public backlash; a change in focus from bodies in space to shaping the future in their own image. Ultimately, this Note investigates the recent rise in anti-trans legislation in an attempt to expose the conservative right’s ultimate goal in attacking trans rights: to maintain the cis-hetero patriarchy and to shape the future. Defeating these efforts will require activists to engage not only in litigation, but also in mass campaigns to change public opinion and to educate people.