How Were Winning The Fight to Defend Trans Rights

“My mom and I wanted to fight this law not just to protect my health care, but also to ensure that transgender people like me can safely and fully live our truths,” said Dylan Brandt, one of our transgender youth clients in our challenge against Arkansas’ ban on gender-affirming health care. “Transgender kids across the country are having their own futures threatened by laws like this one, and it’s up to all of us to speak out, fight back, and give them hope.” As we wrap up Pride month, hope is what we at the ACLU have for the fight for trans rights. While we can be clear about the threats in front of us — from further restrictions on the rights of trans youth to increasing efforts to target the health care of trans adults — a string of early legal victories are highlighting how the ACLU, our nationwide affiliate network, and our allies across the LGBTQ rights movement are not only fighting back, but winning. After a historic two-week trial in Little Rock last fall, a federal judge last week overturned the nation’s first categorical ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, finding the 2021 Arkansas law violated the rights of transgender youth under the Equal Protection Clause, their parents under the Due Process Clause, and the First Amendment rights of their medical providers. “The evidence showed that the prohibited medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients and that by prohibiting it,” wrote Judge James Moody, “the state undermined the interests it claims to be advancing.” The critical victory comes as judges are unanimously blocking similar bills passed in other states, finding legal challenges against them likely to succeed on the merits. In challenges brought by the ACLU and our nationwide affiliate network, courts in Indiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky have blocked bans in those states, finding them openly discriminatory, unconstitutional, and dangerous to the very youth they claim to protect. Judges in Alabama and Florida have blocked enforcement of bans targeting trans youth there, with the latter declaring “gender identity is real,” and denouncing the state for refusing to listen to parents of trans youth. In Oklahoma, we’ve secured a binding non-enforcement agreement with the state’s attorney general, preserving the legality of gender-affirming care in the Sooner State until the court can address our motion to bar enforcement of the law prior to trial. Judges have also turned a harsh eye towards restrictions on drag performances, a new category of anti-LGBTQ bill harkening back to the cross-dressing laws the ACLU defeated decades ago. In a case brought by the ACLU and the ACLU of Utah, we successfully prevented officials in St. George, Utah from prohibiting drag performances from Southern Utah Drag Stars. Legislation targeting drag shows in Tennessee and Florida have likewise been blocked in private legal challenges brought by venues threatened by this unconstitutional restriction on their speech. And we’re far from done. Well before their bans on gender-affirming care are set to take effect, we’re getting ready for hearings against laws passed this year in Idaho and Montana. In Texas, we’ll soon be joining a coalition of organizations challenging that state’s ban targeting the health care of tens of thousands of trans youth across the state — the largest population targeted by these laws yet. American Civil Liberties Union Mapping Attacks on LGBTQ Rights in U.S. State Legislatures The ACLU is tracking attacks on LGBTQ rights and working with our national network of affiliates to support LGBTQ people everywhere. Amid an onslaught of legislative attacks targeting their safety, their dignity, and their health care, transgender people are reasonably fearful about the direction of the country’s politics. While trans people were never collectively doing great — enduring higher rates of poverty, homelessness, violence, and suicide — the concerted effort by extremists across state and federal governments to turn us into political scapegoats has only added to the dehumanization many of us face across our lives. Last year, we told you that hope was most necessary when it’s the hardest to muster, that the light of your joy burns brightest in the dark. While we recognize these legal victories are the earliest stages of a years-long effort to protect the rights of transgender people, they offer vital signs of hope for transgender people, our families, and our allies that the just world we all deserve is not only possible — it’s well within our reach. What you can do: Protect Trans Care Now Send your message

Trump's Attempt to Unilaterally Control State and Local Funding is Dangerous, Dumb, and Undemocratic

The Trump administration has not been subtle in its desire to use federal funding for political punishment. Whether threatening to cut off grants to sanctuary cities, to block financial assistance to states that push back against the president’s demands, or to freeze all federal grants and loans for social services across the country, Trump and his allies want us to believe they can wield the federal budget like a weapon. The reality is that the administration’s ability to withhold or condition funding is far more limited than they let on. The Constitution, Supreme Court precedent, and long-standing federal law stand firmly in the way of this brazen abuse of presidential power. Trump’s Attempted Funding Freeze? Blocked Immediately A week into his second administration, Trump attempted to freeze trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans that fund a vast array of critical services already approved by Congress. If allowed to go into effect, this unprecedented and far-reaching...

Documents Reveal Confusion and Lack of Training in Texas Execution

As Texas seeks to execute Carl Buntion today and Melissa Lucio next week, it is worth reflecting on the grave and irreversible failures that occurred when the state executed Quintin Jones on May 19, 2021. For the first time in its history — and in violation of a federal court’s directive and the Texas Administrative Code — Texas excluded the media from witnessing the state’s execution of Quintin Jones. In the months that followed, Texas executed two additional people without providing any assurance that the underlying dysfunction causing errors at Mr. Jones’ execution were addressed. This is particularly concerning given that Texas has executed far more people than any other state and has botched numerous executions. The First Amendment guarantees the public and the press have a right to observe executions. Media access to executions is a critical form of public oversight as the government exerts its power to end a human life. Consistent with Texas policy, two reporters travelled t...

The Supreme Court Declined a Protestors' Rights Case. Here's What You Need to Know.

The Supreme Court recently declined to hear a case, Mckesson v. Doe , that could have affirmed that the First Amendment protects protest organizers from being held liable for illegal actions committed by others present that organizers did not direct or intend. The high court’s decision to not hear the case at this time left in place an opinion by the Fifth Circuit, which covers Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, that said a protest organizer could be liable for the independent, violent actions of others based on nothing more than a showing of negligence. Across the country, many people have expressed concern about how the Supreme Court’s decision not to review, or hear, the case at this stage could impact the right to protest. The ACLU, which asked the court to take up the case, breaks down what the court’s denial of review means. What Happened in Mckesson v. Doe? The case, Mckesson v. Doe , was brought by a police officer against DeRay Mckesson , a prominent civil rights activi...

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