Efforts to Limit Gender-Affirming Healthcare Continue in 2024

In the first two weeks of the new year, Republican legislators have already introduced dozens of new bills to restrict transgender people’s access to gender-affirming care. Multiple states have passed or are looking to pass anti-trans legislation restricting access to hormone therapy and surgeries for both minors and adults.

According to LGBTQ+ advocates, most states likely to pass anti-transgender laws already have. Now, they are expected to build up these laws and extend their reach. At least 22 states have already established some form of anti-trans legislation, mostly for children; according to translegislation.com, there are over 300 bills either introduced or passed in 2024 so far, quickly catching up to a total of 588 in 2023. In Ohio and New Hampshire, laws to ban gender-affirming surgeries for minors are already well underway, despite such surgeries being exceptionally rare.

Ohio is also drastically upping the requirements for adults to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria. And it doesn’t stop at minors: under Ron DeSantis, it’s become almost impossible for any transgender person in Florida to receive gender-affirming care. South Carolina plans to soon introduce a bill removing transgender care from Medicaid for anyone under 26, and in Oklahoma, a bill blocks anyone who provides transgender healthcare from public funding. Meanwhile, Republicans in Missouri are looking to make their ban on gender-affirming care for minors permanent.

Even in the more left-leaning states, transgender rights aren’t entirely safe. Republican lawmakers in states such as California and Wisconsin are attempting to limit transgender people’s access to everything from school to sports to gender-affirming care—though thankfully, they’ve run into a bit more trouble passing these bills. In addition, the fact that many states’ legislatures are up for election this year means that transgender rights may be used as a wedge issue by politicians seeking conservative votes.

The situation isn’t completely hopeless, though. Many laws already in place are being challenged on a state and national level by civil rights advocacy groups. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has attempted to block trans healthcare bans in Kentucky and Tennessee, and the 8th U.S. Circuit is looking into Arkansas’ ban on gender-affirming care for minors.