Bathroom bans
The history of trans rights in America is a complex narrative of visibility, resilience, and significant legal and social challenges. While the fight for transgender rights has made progress over the decades, recent setbacks suggest a troubling trend: rather than moving forward, the U.S. appears to be regressing, with unprecedented bans and restrictions introduced in 2023.
Transgender individuals have long been a part of American society, but the early 20th century marked some of the first visible expressions of transgender identity in the public sphere. While society was largely intolerant, small pockets of acceptance emerged. Medical practitioners and sexologists in the 1920s and 1930s began exploring gender identity, though often pathologizing it. Early trans figures, like Dr. Alan L. Hart, a transgender physician who transitioned in 1917, and Christine Jorgensen, one of the first Americans to undergo gender-affirming surgery in the 1950s, became pioneers. Jorgensen’s transition gained significant media attention, sparking both curiosity and backlash but also helping to humanize transgender experiences for the American public.
The 1960s saw increased activism within the LGBTQ+ community, and transgender people began to push for recognition and rights. Trans activists, such as Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, played crucial roles in the Stonewall uprising of 1969, a pivotal moment in LGBTQ+ history. However, trans issues often took a back seat within the broader LGBTQ+ movement, with trans people frequently excluded from gay and lesbian organizations.
The 1970s and 1980s witnessed both progress and setbacks. A growing number of people openly identified as transgender, and activists formed organizations like STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) to advocate for trans issues. However, mainstream acceptance remained elusive, and societal stigma persisted. Trans people faced high rates of discrimination, violence, and barriers to medical care. In some cases, gender-affirming care was provided only to those who conformed to strict gender norms, creating additional barriers.
In the 1990s, transgender visibility grew, with increasing media representation and greater acceptance in some parts of society. This era saw the founding of organizations like the Transgender Law Center (2002), which worked to secure legal protections for transgender individuals. Notable advances included legal cases that affirmed the rights of transgender people, including protections against discrimination in employment and housing.
By the early 2000s, some states began including gender identity in anti-discrimination laws, and transgender people gained greater access to legal name changes and gender marker updates on IDs. Medical understanding of transgender health also improved, leading to better access to gender-affirming treatments. While progress was gradual and far from comprehensive, there was momentum toward expanding trans rights and recognition.
The 2010s brought substantial progress. In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association declassified “gender identity disorder” and replaced it with “gender dysphoria,” reducing stigma around transgender identities. The Obama administration extended some protections for transgender people, including guidance allowing transgender students to use facilities aligned with their gender identity. The Affordable Care Act prohibited discrimination against transgender people in healthcare settings, marking an essential step toward inclusivity.
However, this progress also sparked a conservative backlash. In 2016, North Carolina passed House Bill 2 (HB2), also known as the “bathroom bill,” which required individuals to use public bathrooms corresponding to their birth-assigned sex. This was one of the first major legislative attempts to restrict transgender rights, sparking nationwide controversy. Although HB2 was partially repealed, it signaled the beginning of a series of attempts to limit transgender rights under the guise of “protecting” public spaces.
In 2021, legislative efforts targeting trans youth intensified, focusing on sports participation and gender-affirming healthcare. Over 20 states introduced or passed laws that either restricted or banned transgender athletes from competing according to their gender identity, framing it as a fairness issue in women’s sports. Additionally, lawmakers in several states proposed—and some passed—laws banning gender-affirming healthcare for minors, citing “protection” for children despite opposition from major medical organizations.
By 2023, these restrictions accelerated dramatically, marking the beginning of a new and regressive chapter in trans rights. For the first time in U.S. history, numerous states enacted full bans on gender-affirming care for minors. Some states also proposed restrictions on gender-affirming care for adults, introducing criminal penalties for doctors providing this care and forbidding public funding for transgender health services. States including Arkansas, Tennessee, and Missouri passed laws banning gender-affirming surgeries and hormone treatments for transgender youth, with similar measures spreading across other states.
In 2023, the wave of anti-trans legislation reached an unprecedented scale. At least 20 states passed or proposed comprehensive bans on gender-affirming care for minors, restricting puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries. Florida’s Board of Medicine imposed restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors statewide, and in Texas, laws were enacted to investigate parents who sought gender-affirming care for their children, labeling it as child abuse.
These bans mark a significant reversal. Before 2023, there were no nationwide restrictions on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender individuals; instead, access to healthcare had been gradually expanding. Additionally, many state laws have created hostile environments for transgender youth in schools by enforcing bans on trans-inclusive bathrooms and prohibiting the discussion of gender identity in classrooms. This reversal of rights has left many trans Americans vulnerable to discrimination, harassment, and reduced access to essential healthcare.
The trajectory of trans rights in America reflects a significant regression in 2023. For decades, trans Americans worked toward increased visibility, legal protections, and access to healthcare, slowly gaining ground in the fight for equality. Yet, recent legislative actions have erased much of this progress. For the first time, laws banning medical care and restricting transgender individuals’ participation in public spaces have been enacted on a large scale, pushing the country backward.
The current wave of anti-trans legislation represents a stark departure from previous efforts to ensure equity, marking a dangerous step back in the fight for trans rights. Rather than moving toward greater acceptance and inclusivity, the U.S. is witnessing a rollback in rights that were hard-won over the past century, creating new challenges for transgender individuals who must now navigate a climate of growing hostility and legal obstacles to basic freedoms and healthcare.
The Republican Party and Donald Trump have played significant roles in the recent rollback of transgender rights in the United States, particularly in the intensified wave of anti-trans legislation that has taken hold across numerous states since 2021. Trump's presidency and ongoing influence in the Republican Party have catalyzed and mainstreamed anti-trans rhetoric and policy, which has contributed to the current climate of restriction and discrimination targeting transgender individuals.
Donald Trump’s presidency marked a shift in the Republican Party's approach to LGBTQ+ issues, particularly in targeting transgender rights. Although anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments were present in parts of the GOP before Trump, his administration actively pursued policies that rolled back protections for transgender individuals and embraced conservative positions on gender issues as a central aspect of his appeal to the party’s base.
In 2017, Trump announced via Twitter that transgender individuals would be barred from serving in the military “in any capacity,” reversing an Obama-era policy that had allowed them to serve openly. This ban, formally implemented in 2019, effectively removed transgender individuals from active duty and prevented others from joining, marking a high-profile rejection of transgender rights at the federal level.
The Trump administration rescinded federal guidance that protected transgender students’ rights to use bathrooms and facilities matching their gender identity, reversing a 2016 directive under the Obama administration. Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services also redefined gender as biological, restricting protections for transgender individuals in healthcare settings under the Affordable Care Act. These changes signaled to Republican state legislatures that rolling back trans rights was acceptable, if not encouraged.
The Trump administration supported multiple court cases aimed at limiting transgender rights. For instance, it supported efforts to allow discrimination against transgender people on religious grounds and advocated for the exclusion of transgender individuals from workplace protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, though the Supreme Court ultimately ruled against this stance in Bostock v. Clayton County in 2020.
Through these actions, Trump’s administration empowered conservative activists and lawmakers to promote anti-trans policies and framed transgender rights as a culture war issue that Republicans could rally around.
Trump’s rhetoric on transgender issues often framed transgender rights as threats to traditional gender norms and American values, aligning them with broader conservative fears of “wokeness” and “gender ideology.” He and other prominent Republicans increasingly used transgender issues to galvanize the party’s base, framing policies supporting transgender rights as radical and harmful to society.
Since Trump left office, many Republican lawmakers have continued to echo his rhetoric, portraying the inclusion of trans rights as a slippery slope toward the erosion of traditional family values. This framing has fueled a wave of anti-trans legislation at the state level, particularly in GOP-dominated legislatures. With Trump’s endorsement and the Republican Party’s growing alignment on the issue, these policies have rapidly gained traction across the country.
In 2023, Republican-led state legislatures introduced and passed an unprecedented number of laws targeting transgender individuals, particularly transgender youth. This legislation, much of it rooted in rhetoric popularized under Trump’s administration, aims to limit access to gender-affirming healthcare, restrict trans youth participation in sports, and curtail rights to self-identify in public spaces like schools and bathrooms.
Republican-led states, including Florida, Texas, and Tennessee, have passed laws banning gender-affirming care for minors, such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy, despite opposition from major medical organizations. In some cases, these bans extend to prohibiting doctors from providing care to adults, setting a dangerous precedent of government control over personal medical decisions.
Dozens of Republican-dominated states have banned transgender youth from participating in sports aligned with their gender identity, positioning these laws as necessary to protect “fairness” in women’s sports. Critics argue that this is a manufactured issue with minimal impact on competition, but it has proven to be an effective rallying point for conservative legislators.
Legislation has been passed in multiple states to prevent educators from discussing gender identity or LGBTQ+ issues in classrooms, particularly for younger students. This echoes Trump’s influence over the GOP’s broader stance on “parental rights,” framing discussions on gender identity as ideological indoctrination rather than recognition of students’ diverse experiences.
These legislative efforts signal a coordinated effort to redefine gender and limit transgender rights, a strategy that Trump’s presidency mainstreamed and that has since become a core issue for many Republicans.
As Trump campaigns for the 2024 presidency, he has doubled down on anti-trans rhetoric, explicitly pledging to “stop the left-wing gender insanity” and “protect children from irreversible surgeries” if re-elected. His campaign speeches continue to frame transgender rights as a threat to children and traditional values, often invoking fear-based narratives about gender-affirming care. This rhetoric reinforces his status as a powerful figure in the GOP, and it emboldens other Republican politicians and candidates to follow his lead on anti-trans policies.
Furthermore, Trump’s influence has solidified anti-trans issues as central to the GOP’s strategy, with many candidates and conservative groups adopting his rhetoric. Transgender rights are now one of the defining issues for the Republican Party, driven by Trump’s framing of these issues as symbolic of a larger “cultural war” between traditional American values and progressive change.
Prior to 2023, trans rights had been moving toward greater acceptance and protection, with access to gender-affirming healthcare increasing and legal protections slowly expanding. However, the wave of anti-trans legislation across Republican-led states in 2023 represents a clear regression, erasing gains and creating new, unprecedented restrictions. This shift marks the first time in modern U.S. history that trans rights have faced widespread rollbacks, and it reflects the Republican Party’s pivot toward using trans issues as a core part of their platform.
In this sense, Trump’s influence on the Republican Party has not only shaped the current legislative landscape but has also set the stage for a broader rollback of LGBTQ+ rights. By casting transgender rights as a polarizing cultural issue, Trump and the Republican Party have tapped into a powerful but regressive trend that threatens the civil rights of transgender Americans, pushing the nation further from equality and inclusion.
The reality is that trans people have always existed—in early human cultures, in modern societies, and across current cultures around the world. Human history is rich with examples of gender diversity, from the hijra communities of South Asia to the Two-Spirit identities among Indigenous peoples in North America. This is not a recent phenomenon; rather, it’s part of our shared human story.
However, humans tend to simplify things, especially for the sake of education. We often reduce complex realities into categories that feel easier to grasp, but in doing so, we miss the full picture. For example, we teach children the colors of the rainbow, but those seven colors are just a fraction of the infinite spectrum of light and color. Similarly, we teach the alphabet, yet it’s only one system of symbols—many others exist in various languages and scripts, each with its own unique characters and sounds.
In music, we often start with a major scale, but there are countless other scales and modes that convey different emotions and cultural expressions. Math lessons might focus on simple arithmetic, but mathematics itself stretches into complex, abstract fields like calculus, statistics, and number theory. Nature is similarly diverse: we may teach about “mammals,” “reptiles,” and “birds,” yet there are species that don’t quite fit these classifications, each one defying the categories we try to impose.
When it comes to gender, society tends to emphasize binary labels—male and female—leaving out the rich variety of identities that exist between, beyond, and outside of these terms. Just as we embrace the complexity of color, language, and nature as we grow, so too can we embrace the diversity of human gender identity. Recognizing this diversity makes us more connected to the real world, in all its vivid, multifaceted, and beautiful complexity.
America was founded on the principle that all people are created equal, with a vision of a society where every individual has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If we truly aim to build a cohesive society, one that lives up to these ideals, we must recognize that acceptance—not rejection—is the path forward.
Trans people, like all individuals, seek the freedom to live authentically and be accepted for who they are. Embracing this diversity aligns with the core values upon which America was built. Inclusivity strengthens our nation, allowing everyone to contribute their talents and perspectives, enriching our communities and fostering understanding. To create the united society we envision, we must extend equality to all, accepting trans people as a vital and valued part of our collective identity.
