Wide range of business and defense groups, athletes oppose anti-trans legislation
- Earlier this month, more than 55 major US corporations stood up and spoke to oppose the anti-transgender legislation that is being proposed in several states in 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 .
- Almost 550 college athletes stood up to anti-transgender legislation, requiring the NCAA to withdraw state championships with anti-trans sports legislation
- The main child health and well-being groups in the country representing more than 7 million professionals serving young people and more than 1000 child welfare organizations, published an open letter asking lawmakers in states across the country to oppose dozens of bills that target LGBTQ people, and trans children in particular.
A struggle 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
At the a survey of 10 oscillating 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.
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 .
- Idaho is the only state to have passed a ban on anti-trans sports so far, and this law 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 designed 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 at $ 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, a ban on taxpayer-funded travel to those states, cancellation of film productions and companies moving projects out of the state.