On April 19, as Iowa’s 2024 legislative session neared its end, Pete McRoberts and his team from the ACLU of Iowa remained at the statehouse. They had already spent nearly eight hours dealing with an unexpected legislative battle. At 4 p.m., a bill aimed at assisting veterans’ families by extending the window for modifying death certificates took an unexpected turn and became anti-transgender.
The sudden amendment was not aimed at benefiting veterans or their families. Instead, it introduced a strict definition of sex into the already restrictive policy on updating birth certificates for transgender individuals in the state. This amendment linked a measure that harms a specific demographic with a piece of legislation intended to assist people throughout the state. The revised definition of “sex” now disregards an individual’s psychological, chosen, or subjective experience of gender, focusing solely on the biological indication of male and female.
Nguyen believes that despite the introduction of anti-trans bills, lawmakers are aware that such actions could negatively impact their chances of being reelected or draw more attention to the discrimination faced by the transgender community. The incident involving Nex has sparked outrage among parents, teachers, and students alike.
Oklahoma Republicans have made fewer attempts to replace routine laws with anti-trans laws this year, according to Turner. Over the past four years, they have laid the groundwork for their agenda, resulting in a rise in anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry and rhetoric. This newfound boldness has allowed Republican lawmakers to be more open about their harmful policies, eliminating the need for as much secrecy as before.
“This year, we witnessed the introduction of egregiously flawed bills right from the start of the session. The proponents of these bills didn’t feel the need to conceal their discriminatory intentions, as they were well aware that the Democrats would not put up a strong resistance,” expressed Turner.
Far-right Republicans in Missouri, who were among the most active in introducing anti-LGBTQ+ bills this year, disrupted normal proceedings to advocate for anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ measures.
The Missouri Senate engaged in a lengthy debate on various bills for more than four weeks following the commencement of its legislative session. This coincided with the official inclusion of the state’s newly formed far-right Freedom Caucus into the state legislature.
Missouri saw a decrease in the number of bills passed into law this year, with only 50 bills being enacted, the lowest since 2020 when the pandemic disrupted legislative activities across the country. In the previous years, from 2021 to 2023, the state General Assembly consistently passed around 70 bills annually. Shira Berkowitz, senior director of public policy and advocacy with PROMO, Missouri’s LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, believes that this decline can be attributed to the dysfunction resulting from the tensions between mainstream Republican lawmakers and their more conservative counterparts.
Trump’s second term in the White House aims to safeguard families, but it is important to note that its anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric focuses on exclusion rather than inclusivity.
According to Berkowitz, the primary cause of the infighting was the dissemination of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric by the newly formed Freedom Caucus in the state. With 11 states as members, the State Freedom Caucus Network seeks to push the Republican party towards a more conservative stance through obstructive tactics. This year, their stall tactics, often employed to advance anti-abortion measures, resulted in the removal of four committee chairs in the Missouri Senate. As a consequence, these individuals were assigned parking spots as far away from the Missouri Capitol as possible.
According to Berkowitz, the recent legislative session in a state that should be focusing on rural school districts and implementing nondiscrimination protections was particularly draining due to the infighting, dysfunction, and use of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. While the internal conflicts did manage to prevent the passage of anti-LGBTQ+ bills, they also provided a platform for the spread of such rhetoric in political campaigns and media sound bites.
“They said it’s crazy that grown adults, who are elected to represent constituents and are being paid with taxpayer dollars, cannot be held accountable. They aren’t accountable to each other, can’t be held accountable by the people, and just run amok.”
