Rachel Levine to be First Transgender Federal Official as anti-LGBTQ bills emerges across US

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US President Joe Biden reversed a ban of the Trump administration on transgender Americans serving in the US military. He also nominated Dr. Rachel Levine to be assistant secretary of health. Levine will be the first openly transgender Senate-confirmed federal official in US history if confirmed. But at the same time as this progress comes a wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation from state lawmakers across America. NBC News reported that Montana politicians proposed 2 bills on Monday. The first one would stop transgender student-athletes from being a part of US teams that match with the gender they identify with. The 2^nd bill would forbid health care workers from providing care to transgender Americans that affirm their gender identity. The executive director of ACLU Montana, Caitlin Borgmann issued a statement and said, “The bills will cause irrevocable harm to trans youth”.

The legislation is designed to restrict the rights of transgender student-athletes. It has also been introduced in Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Dakota, New Hampshire, and Florida. It is noteworthy that Idaho passed a comparable law last year. The Freedom for All Americans is a bipartisan campaign to secure full nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people nationwide. 21 bills targeting the rights of LGBTQ people have been put forward in state legislatures for 2021. Many of the proposed bills target the rights of transgender youth. Alabama state lawmakers have promoted a bill that would ban health care professionals from prescribing medication that affirms the gender identity of young transgender individuals. Similar bills have been put forward in Utah, Missouri, Indiana, Mississippi, and Texas. A New Hampshire bill would include parents giving care that affirms their child’s gender identity in the definition of child abuse.

Oklahoma legislators lifted a ban on conversion therapy, designed to crush the sexual orientation and gender identity of LGBTQ youth. The legal director of UCLA Law’s Williams Institute, Christy Mallory said, “Most of these bills won’t be passed into law but they can still harm LGBTQ people. Even just the campaigns around the bills can be really stigmatizing and hurt kids, even if the bills don’t ultimately pass. Just the fact that knowing that lawmakers are introducing these bills, people are seeing it and reading it, can signal to kids that maybe they’re not supported by their states, that their government is not behind them”. President Joe Biden has signed several executive orders designed to furthering the rights of LGBTQ people. It resulted in social conservatives pushing back on the state level. One of the orders signed by Biden was designed to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation at federal agencies.