LGBTQIA+2S Movements & the Law

"Gendered Citizenship outlines how the original conflict over the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) altered the nature of American Citizenship, creating justification for sex-specific treatment and rights that still exist today"--

"On August 26, 1920, these words became part of the United States Constitution as its Nineteenth Amendment. The requisite thirty- six states had ratified the amendment in the year since its enactment by Congress on June 4, 1919. A revolution in women's rights, spanning over seventy years, came to a quiet conclusion as Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the measure into law in the privacy of his home at eight o'clock in the morning.1 None of the prominent suffrage leaders of the day, including the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) president, Carrie Chapman Catt; or the National Woman's Party (NWP) chair, Alice Paul, were at the signing.2 Catt was later invited to go to the State Department to see the proclamation, but no similar invitation was extended to the more militant Paul. Paul had been a thorn in the side of President Woodrow Wilson, with her White House picketing and willingness to be imprisoned for the vote.3 Ratification was followed by ten years of litigation- most of it in state courts- during which the meaning and scope of the Nineteenth Amendment was contested. In its most literal sense, the Nineteenth Amendment did not confer a "right" to vote per se. Rather, it simply prohibited the states or the federal government from using sex as a criterion for voter eligibility.4 In other words, its ratification meant that state and federal impediments to voting based on sex were now unconstitutional. It did not mean that all women in the United States could vote.5 As a matter of law, the Nineteenth Amendment meant that states could not prevent African American women from voting based solely on their sex. Yet vast numbers of African American women were prevented from voting in the November 1920 presidential election that followed on the heels of ratification.6 They faced the same impediments- poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and physical intimidation- used to prevent their male counterparts from voting after ratificat ion of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.7 Those amendments conferred citizenship on previously enslaved persons and barred state or federal restrictions on voting based on race, color, and previous condition of servitude"--

This unique book analyses the impact of international human rights on the concept of gender, demonstrating that gender emerged in the medical study of sexuality and has a complex and broad meaning beyond the sex and gender binaries often assumed by human rights law. The book illustrates which dynamics within the field of human rights hinder the expansion of the concept of gender beyond binaries and which strategies and mechanisms allow and facilitate such an expansion.

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We speak with Jennicet Gutiérrez, an organizer and co-executive director of Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, who declined an invitation to attend the annual White House Pride Month celebration to protest the detention and deportation of LGBTQ immigrants and asylum seekers. At the U.S.-Mexico border, trans people in detention centers are reportedly being misgendered, denied access to essential healthcare, held in inhumane conditions or blocked altogether from entering the country due to the Trump-era Title 42. Roxsana Hernández Rodriguez, a trans asylum seeker from Honduras, died while in ICE custody. Regarding Biden’s recent executive orders to establish some protections against anti-LGBTQ discrimination, Gutiérrez says, “We cannot just applaud and say, 'Yes, you've done enough,’ when, no, that’s the least you can do.”

At least 150 bills have been filed by Republican lawmakers across the United States that target transgender people, with at least seven states enacting bans on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth. Other bills have targeted drag performers, doctors and trans adults seeking transition-related care. For more on growing conservative attacks on transgender people and the LGBTQ+ community, we speak to Chase Strangio, deputy director for trans justice with the ACLU LGBTQ & HIV Project, who says the backlash “at its core has always been about pushing trans people out of public life and eradicating transness.”

Many lawmakers continue to threaten the livelihoods of transgender people and their families. In states across the country, policymakers are targeting transgender young people with bills that prevent student-athletes from participating in the sports they love. Transgender youth want the opportunity to play sports for the same reason other young people do: to be a part of a team where they feel like they belong. Discriminatory efforts like these can make trans youth feel unwelcome on their teams, in their sports, and in their communities.

Politicians have never needed precise laws to brutally police who can and cannot exist freely in public.

Bans on youth participation in sports that aligns with their gender identity.

View a list of legislation, organized alphabetically by state, in the below chart. Click on the bill to read more information about it, including sponsors, latest action, and its status.

In the last few years states have advanced a record number of bills that attack LGBTQ rights, especially transgender youth. The ACLU is tracking these attacks and working with our national network of affiliates to support LGBTQ people everywhere.