A Tale of Two State Legislatures
Or two types of state legislature, anyway
Now that February has arrived, the year has really, officially, actually gotten underway. And so have state legislature terms across the country. With Republicans in control of the House of Representatives, and more concerned about making sure they get a chance to either crash the global economy or gut all of our retirement and health care benefits, we won’t be seeing much action from Congress. The Senate will continue to confirm appointments and judges at a rapid pace, but we won’t be able to get much out of a Congress obsessed with fake $5.1 billion dollar budgets for a single elementary school and Chinese spy balloons.
So, most of the legislative action impacting us across the country will be coming out of state legislatures. And they have gotten down to business with, shall we say, mixed results.
State legislatures vary wildly from state to state. Some states have legislative terms that only come up every other year, some legislators are full time jobs and some are part time, some follow the federal election calendar and some don’t. But they do have a few things in common. 49 of 50 states have bicameral, or two house legislatures (Nebraska being the exception). And almost all of them are in session right now.
With new state legislature sessions come a rash of new bills being introduced at the state level. States are often the incubators for new policies, a testing ground for what can become federal law down the line, which means that often those bills can be extreme. We saw this time and time again with abortion laws in the lead up to the Dobbs decision, and in fact the legislation that finally overturned Roe v. Wade was the proverbial raptor that made it past the fences, a state law from Mississippi that was one of many abortion bans that have been attempted since Roe was first decided 50 years ago. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 12 states have enacted a full ban on abortion since the Donna decision, with as many as 24 partially or fully or attempting bans.
Where the federal government does not guarantee bodily autonomy or civil liberties, state legislatures have the opportunity to take up that mantle or to further erode the rights of their citizenry. And thus we have the tale of two (types of) state legislatures.
The conservative project in recent decades has focused its attention on subverting bodily autonomy and inciting moral panic, and this always starts at the state level. The abortion fight is part of this, of course, but it is not the limit of what Republicans will attempt, nor is it the extent to which they plan to undermine and restrict the freedom they claim to fight for and which is so deeply entangled in the American myth. The new state legislative sessions have brought on a rash of anti-trans legislation that has built on years and years of violence aimed at trans people across the country. Just this year:
Arizona Republicans introduced a bill that would criminalize taking children to drag shows, which they define as wearing clothes or donning makeup that goes against the gender you were assigned at birth while “singing, dancing, or monologuing” to an audience of two more people.
Utah’s state legislature banned gender affirming care for transgender kids, the health care that saves the lives of trans kids, supports and affirms their identity. This law was signed by their Republican governor.
Iowa’s state legislature has introduced a copycat bill to the “Don’t Say Gay” law in Florida which prohibits “instruction” on sexual or gender identity, after banning trans girls from participating in women’s sports the previous session.
North Dakota has introduced legislation that would literally force any government employee or employee of a business receiving government funding to misgender trans people by using pronouns according to their DNA, never mind that the connection between DNA and sex is not that simple.
This is just a sample of the more than 250 anti-trans and anti-queer bills that civil rights organizations are tracking across more than 30 states. These laws enshrine the underlying goal of the book bans I wrote about last week. They would make it impossible for trans folks to live the healthy, safe, and happy lives that we all deserve. These laws teach kids shame and fear and uncertainty instead of protecting and affirming them. They would legalize bigotry, and they would allow the government to exercise surveillance and control over the most private aspects of our lives.
And while many states are pursuing this codified discrimination, invasive surveillance, and coercive control, I did promise you a tale of two state legislatures.
Many Democrat led states have used the new state government terms that started this January to advance legislation that would protect people in their states rather than undermine and control them. In Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer is making moves on gun control, free pre-k and repealing outdated laws that restrict abortion. The Democratic majority in the Virginia Senate (the lone Democratic body in the VA state government after we lost the House and the governorship in 2021) blocked state Republican efforts to ban abortion. And even in places like Texas where Republicans have gerrymandered themselves an entrenched majority, almost as many laws protecting transgender people have been introduced as those criminalizing them.
My point is not to proclaim good states and bad states, good governments and bad governments, although it is clear that there are state governments committed to harming and hurting their residents and those committed to protecting them. The point is that another world is possible. In 2022 lawmakers in 19 states introduced legislation that would protect trans youth. During the midterms, Democrats defied history to gain three trifectas under circumstances that would normally have us losing seats at every level of government in every state. And in places where we have people to fight for our priorities, for the progressive, affirming, and inclusive world we want to see, they are.
Of course, Democrats could be fighting harder. We need to see more Democratic lawmakers and public figures speaking up for trans folks and for trans rights. We need to see more laws protecting gender affirming care, banning discrimination, and protecting access to much needed services in housing, health care, and education. We need groups across the country to stand up against book bans and educational gag orders, that demand our schools teach kids real history, not just of racism and discrimination, but of the many, many important figures who stood up against it, who fought for and imagined and tried to create a better world.
The energy and activity of the federal government is a huge ship, and even the smallest moments make big waves. But state governments often have much more impact on our lives, and in turn we can often have a much bigger impact on their direction. Last year 26 of the 174 anti-trans laws that were introduced passed. Those 26 laws will hurt trans people and that cannot be diminished, but it does show that many of these laws can be defeated. States where Democrats have gained power and are using it to implement programs that address health care, gun violence, education, and climate change show that when we elect people who listen we can push for a world where we can all thrive in lives of our own choosing.
This week I challenge you to call your state legislators and demand legislation that protects trans people in your state. You can find a legislative tracker that shows what laws have been introduced and where here. A few years ago, I made a guide to getting involved in state and local politics which will give you resources to take it a step further, and which you can find here.
The federal government will have limited opportunities to make an impact this year (outside of the debt ceiling, of course, which continues to freak me out) but that doesn’t mean we do. Let’s get to work.