Wide range of business and defense groups, athletes oppose anti-trans legislation
- Earlier this month, more than 60 major US corporations rose and demonstrated against proposed anti-transgender legislation in several states across the country. New companies like Facebook, Pfizer, Altria, Peloton and Dell join companies like Amazon, American Airlines, Apple, AT&T, AirBnB, Google, Hilton, IBM, IKEA, Microsoft, Nike, Paypal, Uber and Verizon to challenge these accounts.
- Nearly 550 college athletes faced anti-transgender legislation, requiring NCAA withdrawal championships from states with anti-trans sports legislation
- The country’s main child health and well-being groups, representing more than 7 million professionals serving young people and more than 1000 child welfare organizations, released an open letter asking lawmakers in states across the country to oppose dozens of bills that target LGBTQ people and transgender children in particular.
A fight driven by national anti-LGBTQ groups, not by local legislators or public concern
These bills come from the same forces that sparked previous struggles against equality, pushing imitational bills into state houses – dangerous and anti-LGBTQ organizations like the Heritage Foundation, the Alliance Defending Freedom (designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group) and Eagle Forum among others.
- For example, Montana’s HB 112, the first anti-transgender sports bill to be passed by a legislative chamber in any state, was worked on by Alliance Defending Freedom.
Trans equality is popular: anti-transgender legislation is a low priority, even among Trump voters
In a survey of ten undecided states conducted by the Human Rights Campaign & Hart Research Group last fall:
- At least 60% of Trump voters in each of the 10 undecided states say that trans people should be able to live freely and openly.
- At least 87% of respondents in each of the 10 decisive states say that transsexuals should have equal access to medical care, with many states breaking support from 90%
- When respondents were asked how they prioritized the importance of banning trans people from playing sports compared to other political issues, the issue came in last, with between 1% and 3% prioritizing the issue.
Another more recent survey conducted by the Human Rights Campaign & Hart Research Group revealed that, with regard to the participation of young transgender people in sports, the strong public bias is for justice and equality for transgender student athletes. 73% of voters agree that “sport is important in the lives of young people. Transgender youth should have opportunities to participate in a way that is safe and comfortable for them. “
States that pass anti-transgender legislation suffer economic, legal and reputational damage
Analyzes conducted following previous divisive anti-transgender bills across the country, such as bathroom bills introduced in Texas and North Carolina and a ban on anti-transgender sports in Idaho, show that there would be or have been devastating consequences .
- The approved Idaho anti-transgender sports bill was quickly suspended by a federal district court. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) spoke out against the Idaho bill and the like and subsequently withdrew the planned tournament games from Idaho.
- The Associated Press projected that the North Carolina bathroom bill could have cost the state $ 3.76 billion in 10 years.
- During a fight over an anti-transgender bathroom bill in 2017, the Texas Association of Business estimated $ 8.5 billion in economic losses, risking 185,000 jobs in the process due to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and cancellations of professional sporting events , banning taxpayers funded travel to these states, cancellation of film productions and companies moving projects out of the state.