LGBTQ+ Community Centers And The Trans Community

• Among the LGBTQ+ community centers offering mental health services, 98% provide facilitated support groups for transgender people. 
• 88% offer transgender-specific programming.
• 40% report that at least a quarter of their patrons identify as transgender.
•  98% of all centers engage in public education and advocacy to influence public policy around many issues, including trans rights.

Policy Issues Currently Affecting The Trans Community

Trans Youth and Best Practices in Healthcare:  Beginning in January of 2020, legislative proposals to ban doctors from prescribing hormones or puberty blockers for transgender youth began appearing in various states.  Currently, South Carolina, Georgia, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, South Dakota, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, Texas, Utah, and Missouri have pending legislation.  Being a kid is hard enough. We don’t need politicians making it even harder for kids who are transgender, denying them best practice medical care, and singling them out for increased bullying and harassment.​ 

This is one of the most extreme political attacks on transgender people in recent memory. Not only does it display a fundamental ignorance about transgender children, it also criminalizes medical care best practices for transgender youth backed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other leading medical authorities.  Stay updated on the status of pending legislation around healthcare for trans youth here.

General Health Care Rights: In May of 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed a new regulation that will jeopardize the health and well being of vulnerable populations such as the trans community.  The proposed regulation focuses on Section 1557 of the Health Care Rights Law, a part of the Affordable Care Act that bans gender discrimination.  The proposal would erase all reference to protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, sex stereotyping, and gender identity.  Learn more about this dangerous proposal and submit a comment opposing it here.

Military Ban:  It is estimated that over 134,000 American veterans are transgender, and over 15,000 trans people are serving in military today.  The current administration has begun the process of implementing a discriminatory ban of military service by transgender people, putting the honorable service of thousands of troops on the line.  Click here to learn more about the trans military ban and sign CAN's letter of protest.

Housing Rights:  The administration is attempting to undermine the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s protections for transgender people seeking safe shelter by changing the Equal Access Rule.  The Equal Access Rule protects transgender people from discrimination in homeless shelters by ensuring they are able to access HUD-funded shelter consistent with their gender identity.  Permitting shelter providers to decide who is eligible for access to single-sex or sex-segregated facilities opens the door to discrimination. By allowing shelters to consider a range of factors, including religious objections, in determining whether or not to appropriately house a transgender person, the administration is attempting to create a license to discriminate by taxpayer-funded shelters.  Read more about the Equal Access Rule here.

Trans Athletes:  There is often controversy when trans and gender non-conforming people wish to participate in recreational athletics or team sports.  There are few existing policies for trans participation, and in 2020 there have been a variety of legislative bills introduced that would restrict transgender athletes from fully participating in sports. Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New Hampshire, Tennessee, and West Virginia have all introduced bills that would exclude transgender youth from athletics.  More information about these bills can be found here.

 Religious Exemption:  Religious exemption laws permit people, churches, non-profit organizations, and sometimes corporations to seek exemptions from state laws that burden their religious beliefs. There is a coordinated strategy to mount legislation and litigation across the country to undermine nondiscrimination protections, comprehensive health care, and the regulations administering social and public services by inserting exemptions into the laws based on religious or moral beliefs; effectively abandoning transgender peoples' rights to equal access to health care, housing, education, and fair treatment under the law.  Learn more about the dangers of religious exemptions here.