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Transgender girls in Iowa will no longer be allowed to compete in girls sports鈥攖he latest in a rash of anti-trans initiatives sweeping across the United States.

On March 3, 2022,  legislation that affects transgender girls and women wanting to compete in accordance with their gender identity.

It comes just days after legislators in Indiana  aimed at K-12 trans students.

That proposed legislation will now go to Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, who has previously  to sign the bill into law.

Meanwhile, in Texas, it emerged that  the parents of transgender boys and girls for alleged child abuse. This follows an  requiring to report as child abuse any instance of a young person using puberty blockers or other . The order allows for criminal penalties to be imposed on those who refuse to comply and on the parents of transgender children. A judge has  into the parents of one trans teen, but set aside a  until a hearing on March 11.

Indiana, Iowa, and Texas are far from being the only states advancing an anti-transgender agenda. More than 30 states initiated anti-trans legislation in 2021 alone, and at least .

These anti-transgender health care bills and legal interpretations are part of a package of initiatives that mark 2021 as a for anti-LGBTQ policies introduced in state legislatures across the country, according to the advocacy group Human Rights Campaign. And 2022 is already on track to .

These efforts include bills that will bar transgender athletes from participating in student sports, such as in Indiana and Iowa, and , or , any school curriculum that references sexual orientation or gender identity. One additional variety鈥� in April 2021 by Montana Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte鈥攔equires gender reassignment surgery before any individual can change the sex marker on their birth certificate.

So far, anti-transgender athlete bills have gained the most traction. Despite consistent ,  have now considered barring transgender athletes from playing on teams that match their gender identity. Ten states have already enacted bans on transgender student athletes through .

As a , I have found that campaigns that mischaracterize LGBTQ-supportive policies as harmful to young people are a  Conservatives use to galvanize their base.

鈥楽ave our Children鈥�

Anti-gay activist and Florida orange juice queen Anita Bryant first perfected the strategy in the 1970s to oppose ordinances prohibiting sexuality-based discrimination. Bryant鈥檚 鈥溾�� campaign demonized gays and lesbians as 鈥渞ecruiting children.鈥� Bryant successfully encouraged voters to oppose legislative attempts to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination and prompted Florida legislators to , a law that was  in 2010.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Conservatives prompted over 40 states to bar same-sex marriage on the basis that 鈥攖hose raised by same-sex couples and those introduced to marriage equality at school.

In 2015, when the Supreme Court overturned these bans in the landmark case , Conservatives began targeting transgender rights.

Conservatives again trained their focus on nondiscrimination measures鈥攖his time those prohibiting gender identity discrimination. They misleadingly argued that any measure protecting transgender individuals would place cisgender girls and women鈥攊ndividuals whose gender identity and birth-assigned sex are both female鈥攁t risk by  to use women鈥檚 locker rooms and restrooms.

There is  supporting this claim. Yet there is  of health and safety  if they are prohibited from using bathrooms that reflect their gender identity.

Significant Costs

Anti-transgender athlete and health care bills follow a similar approach. Advocates for bills targeting trans female athletes claim that transgender teammates will 鈥�.鈥�

Supporters of anti-trans health care bills claim that children are being pressured to employ these therapies by physicians and parents and .

 to back up these assertions. Puberty blockers are an increasingly common treatment precisely because they provide a  option for transgender adolescents and are provided only with the patient鈥檚 fully informed consent. Cross-gender hormone treatments, which are typically provided in later adolescence, are also .

And there is little evidence to suggest that transgender female athletes in K-12 settings are unfairly outcompeting their cisgender competitors鈥�. In fact, conservative legislators have pointed to only one instance in their campaigns, when  in Connecticut took first and second place in a 2017 statewide track tournament. Several cisgender female athletes who lost unsuccessfully  state officials for permitting transgender athletes to compete.

A far more common story is the  of transgender athletes in women鈥檚 sports and their similarities with their cisgender teammates.  considering the legislation have no known trans female athletes or have trans female athletes who are performing on par with cisgender female teammates.

And even the cisgender Connecticut athletes who attempted to sue state officials had  in several championship races against their transgender competitors shortly after filing their lawsuit.

But none of this has prevented bill supporters from stoking fears.

Researchers and health care providers do know, however, that the  transgender young people.

Prohibiting gender-affirming care, like puberty blockers, or barring transgender-inclusive athletic teams imposes . Transgender people who do not have access to the kinds of hormone therapies that are being outlawed are  than cisgender people to struggle with depression.

They are also  more likely than cisgender individuals to attempt suicide.

Put simply, gender-affirming policies and  are .

Furthermore, if upheld in court, the athlete bills could require any female athlete to 鈥減rove鈥� their gender to participate, potentially through .

Political Landscape

Conservatives may be using these bills鈥攚hich some describe as 鈥溾�濃�攖o catalyze Republican voters to participate in upcoming . And the strategy could work.

Attempts to bar transgender athletes appeal to at least some . And some high-profile women athletes have joined the fray, convening the  in order to 鈥溾�� cisgender female athletes from trans athlete inclusion.

Conservatives also used anti-trans-athlete talking points to oppose the , a bill that would have added prohibitions against sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination to existing federal civil rights bills. The House passed a similar measure in 2021, but it failed to pass the Senate.

Transgender advocates have some recourse to fight the bills.  is one option. Litigation is another. Advocates for transgender rights have secured  in state and federal court challenges involving bathrooms and locker rooms. More recently, a federal judge in Idaho blocked that state鈥檚 passed in 2020.

And the Supreme Court鈥檚 2020 ruling in , which protects LGBTQ individuals from certain forms of discrimination, seems at first blush to support transgender student equality. But the Bostock case is relatively new, its application to sports and health care untested, and political fervor is mounting. With a  on the Supreme Court鈥攁nd in  across the country鈥攍egal battles may be unreliable.

In the meantime, transgender young people across the country are contemplating a more uncertain and dangerous future for themselves and their parents. Some are working with their parents to  for puberty blockers. Others are contemplating . All of this because Conservatives have channeled trumped-up claims into harmful legislation that outlaws and endangers transgender youth in an attempt to further divide American voters.

This story originally appeared in and is republished here with permission.