The following weekly digest is written and compiled by the Trans Formations Project, a grassroots nonprofit dedicated to tracking and educating about the anti-trans legislative crisis currently sweeping the United States. You can follow their work and latest updates via Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Tumblr, and Facebook.
Hello readers. It’s Friday, September 20, 2024.
As a reminder, legislative sessions are different for each state — you can keep track of your state's legislative session here. Currently, bill progressions have slowed or halted entirely following the conclusion of legislative sessions in most states.
This week: no new bills were introduced, no bills progressed.
To note: If you notice the newsletter looks cut off, or you have issues viewing the newsletter, click the small "View Entire Message" button at the very bottom of your email. You can also check our website, where we keep an archive of every published newsletter. Thank you for supporting TFP's work!
Editorial Feature
While the TFP Editorial team may discuss the merits of proposed legislation, we do not endorse political candidates. The information provided in this article is intended to inform readers about the range of political options available to them.
We on the TFP editorial team acknowledge that the United States government functionally operates as a two-party system (a duopoly, some might say). However, we believe that third parties have much to offer—at the very least, we can learn from their ideas and policy platforms.
In this article, we’ll focus on Dr. Jill Stein and the Green Party, paying particular attention to the ways in which her 2024 presidential election campaign addresses trans rights. While it’s unlikely that Stein will be elected into office this November, her policy proposals are worth paying attention to.
Our sources include the 2024 Green Party Platform, a wayback machine capture of the 2020 platform, and Jill Stein 2024’s Website.
The relevant Green Party Platform sections are very similar between elections:
- Make sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression protected classes under the Civil Rights Act.
- Ensure that intersex rights are legally respected and oppose non-consenting intersex genital surgery.
- Oppose involuntary assignment of gender or sex.
- Legislate compensation for victims of anti LGBTQIA+ hate crimes.
- End military aid to nations whose laws harm LGBTQIA+ people.
- Recognize LGBTQIA+ marriages or legal equivalents for visas and immigration.
- End state spying and infiltration on LGBTQIA+ activists and organizations.
The main difference between the 2020 and 2024 platforms is the 2024 addition of a section denouncing TERF/gender-critical rhetoric as transphobic and anti-feminist. No details are provided.
All in all, the Green Party's trans rights platform far outstrips the Democrats’ 2024 platform, especially on more progressive measures like recognizing Intersex rights.
That said, many points do not offer specific policies that can be objectively assessed, instead offering promises of how the Green Party will approach situations. This makes it both considerably harder for them to implement these promises and harder for us to assess if they’ve kept their promises.
By comparison, Dr. Jill Stein’s campaign platform is considerably more specific and actionable. She promises to:
- Support the Equality Act, the PRIDE Act, the Every Child Deserves a Family Act, and the PrEP Access and Coverage Act through Congress.
- Implement 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusive public education, including teaching 2SLGBTQIA+ history.
- Institute a federal ban on conversion therapy.
- Fund housing relief for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth.
- Cut red tape around legal name changes.
- Make trans murder and suicide rates a national emergency.
- Publish the original Equal Rights Amendment in the National Archives.
- Prohibit private insurance from denying gender-affirming care.
- Remove transmedicalist language from educational material.
- Prohibit surgery on intersex infants.
- Try to reform police interactions with trans people, particularly Black trans women.
- Outlaw “gay panic”/”trans panic” defenses for violent crime.
- Repeal legislation framed as “Religious Freedom” at the expense of the rights of others.
Dr. Stein’s campaign promises are specific and address a broad range of community issues. The principal concern here is how Stein would pass the required legislation, especially given the Green Party’s lack of support in Congress. There’s a great value in the presidency as a bully pulpit, but executive orders can only go so far.
In the last election the Green Party only got 400,000 votes (.3% of the total), one of their lowest results in decades. Even though Jill Stein did considerably better in her 2016 run, it seems likely that fears of a second Trump presidency will beat out the Green Party’s stronger platform for progressive change yet again.
All things considered, Dr. Stein’s platform is far from meaningless. It identifies a slew of issues around which we might organize to hold the next administration accountable.
If people remain convinced that third parties are ineffective, third parties will remain ineffective. It’s for the voters to decide, of course—but Dr. Stein and her party members could one day feasibly challenge the two-party system, providing a more progressive alternative to neoliberal Democratic centrism.
If you aren’t already registered to vote, we encourage you to do so here! While federal elections are important, state and local elections have been just as instrumental in the fight for trans rights (if not more so). If you want to learn what your state representatives have been up to, check out our legislator scorecards here.
The Thing(s) We Won!
On Wednesday, September 18, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshnear signed an executive order banning conversion therapy in the state. The order makes it illegal to use state or federal funds to practice conversion therapy on minors, authorizing licensing boards to discipline practitioners who violate the law. The Republican majority in the Kentucky state legislature has repeatedly blocked attempts to pass a state law banning conversion therapy, forcing Governor Beshnear to issue an executive order to address the problem.
This ban arrives after years of advocacy from LGBTQIA+ rights groups and activists. Among those advocates is Zach Meiner, a filmmaker who was subjected to conversion therapy as a teenager. He describes his experience with the infamous psychiatric practice as “devastating.” According to the Trevor Project, 21% of LGBTQ+ young people report being threatened with or subjected to conversion therapy in Kentucky.
On Wednesday, September 18, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Young granted a preliminary injunction to the ACLU of Indiana in its case against the Indiana Department of Corrections (DOC). The ACLU is representing Autumn Cordellioné, an incarcerated trans woman who was denied gender-affirming surgery. ACLU lawyers successfully argued in court that Indiana’s law banning gender-affirming surgery in prisons violates the Eighth Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In the injunction, Judge Young sided with Cordellioné, ordering the DOC to provide her gender-affirming care as soon as possible.
What the Heck Else Happened This Week?
The Missouri Department of Revenue recently updated the processes required for residents to alter their gender markers on state-issued identification. Previously, residents could fill out Form 5532, which required a signature from a medical or social service provider. The new policy now requires proof of a gender-affirming surgery or a court order. This measure further complicates an already difficult process, especially for persons with neither time nor money to spend on costly surgeries or court cases.
LGBTQIA+ advocacy groups have pointed out the abundance of flaws in Missouri’s new policy. The policy does not define what would count as “gender reassignment surgery,” failing to address how these requirements would apply to intersex people. These updated regulations also ignore (or perhaps simply do not care about) the fact that many transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people do not want to undergo medical transition procedures.
Mental Health Resources
We know that staying up-to-date with anti-trans legislation may be distressing to our readers. If you or someone you know needs support, here are a few affirming resources that you can reach out to:
- If you need support or are in crisis, you can contact the Trans Lifeline hotline at (877) 565-8860.
- The Trans Lifeline is run by trans people, for trans people, and does not engage in non-consensual active rescue, meaning they will not call law enforcement without your consent.
- You can connect with a Trevor Project crisis counselor via phone 1 (866) 488-7386, chat, or text (Text ‘START’ to 678-678).
- Note: This resource could utilize non-consensual active rescue, including law enforcement, 911, and first responders.
- You can call the LGBT National Hotline at (888) 843-4564 or connect with a peer via chat.
- The LGBT National Help Center will NOT call other suicide hotlines, law enforcement, 911, or rescue services.
- BlackLine is a BIPOC LGBTQ+ support line, run by BIPOC folks, for BIPOC folks. This resource does not involve law enforcement or state agencies. You can call 1 (800) 604-5841 to chat with a peer.
- For folks under 25, you can call the LGBT National Youth Talkline at (800) 246-7743.
- The LGBT National Help Center will NOT call other suicide hotlines, law enforcement, 911, or rescue services.
- Adults (folks 18+) can text the THRIVE Lifeline, which is trans-led and operated. Text "THRIVE" to (313) 662-8209 to begin your conversation.
- THRIVE Lifeline does NOT call emergency services for people who are at risk of harming themselves without their consent.
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