Transgender Rights & Dignity

The Challenge

The United States is experiencing an unprecedented wave of anti-transgender legislation. Over 500 anti-trans bills have been introduced nationwide in recent legislative sessions, targeting healthcare access, education, public accommodations, and the basic right of transgender people to exist in public life.

State legislatures have become battlegrounds where the rights of some of America's most vulnerable citizens are debated and, too often, stripped away. From bans on gender-affirming healthcare for minors—overriding the judgment of families and physicians—to forced outing policies in schools and exclusions from public facilities, the scope of these attacks continues to expand. The categories of legislation are broad and growing: bathroom bills that police access to public restrooms, blanket bans on transgender athletes in school sports, restrictions on drag performances that use vague language to criminalize gender expression, and so-called “pronoun laws” that require school staff to out transgender students to their parents regardless of the child’s safety at home. Several states have gone further, passing laws that define providing gender-affirming care to minors as a felony—effectively threatening physicians with prison time for following evidence-based medical guidelines.

These are not abstract policy debates. They represent a coordinated, well-funded campaign to erase transgender people from American civic life, and they are causing measurable harm to the mental health, safety, and economic security of millions.

Why This Matters

I have spent more than 25 years witnessing—and living through—the impact of anti-trans discrimination. The personal costs are real: families torn apart by hostile legislation, young people denied the healthcare their doctors recommend, adults forced out of jobs and homes because of who they are.

The data confirms what those of us on the front lines already know. According to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, an estimated 1.6 million adults and 300,000 youth aged 13–17 in the United States identify as transgender—people who live in every state, every congressional district, and every community. Transgender Americans face disproportionately high rates of employment discrimination, housing instability, and violence. The Trevor Project’s National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health has consistently found that nearly half of transgender and nonbinary young people have seriously considered suicide in the past year, and that those who report having access to gender-affirming care and at least one accepting adult experience significantly lower rates of suicide attempts. Studies consistently show that access to gender-affirming care reduces suicidality and improves mental health outcomes, yet state after state moves to ban it. In states that have enacted healthcare bans, families report uprooting their lives to relocate to jurisdictions where their children can continue receiving care—a form of medical displacement that falls hardest on low-income families and families of color who lack the resources to move.

The fight for transgender rights is inseparable from the broader struggle for civil rights. When any group's fundamental dignity can be legislated away, the rights of every person become less secure. The legal frameworks being used against trans people today—religious exemptions, parental rights claims, states' rights arguments—have deep historical parallels to earlier campaigns against racial minorities, women, and gay and lesbian Americans.

What I've Done

Over the course of my career, I have been directly involved in defeating more than 23 anti-trans bills in the Washington State Legislature. This work is not glamorous—it requires sustained coalition building, meticulous legislative tracking, and the willingness to show up session after session.

One effort I am particularly proud of is the campaign to secure transgender healthcare coverage under Washington’s Apple Health program. That victory did not happen because one organization filed a brief or one lobbyist made a phone call. It was the result of building and coordinating a coalition of 45 organizations—healthcare providers, civil rights groups, faith communities, labor unions, and patient advocacy organizations—who came together to demonstrate both the medical necessity and the broad public support for inclusive coverage. I also played a key role in defending against the “No Hate in Washington State” ballot measure campaign, which sought to repeal the state’s nondiscrimination protections for transgender people. Defeating that effort required rapid-response organizing, public education, and the kind of grassroots mobilization that only works when communities have been built in advance.

Key accomplishments include:

• Securing the inclusion of transgender healthcare in Washington's Apple Health (Medicaid) program, ensuring that low-income trans residents can access medically necessary care
• Helping pass Washington's conversion therapy ban, protecting LGBTQ+ youth from pseudoscientific practices that major medical organizations universally condemn
• Founding Trans Pride Seattle, creating a community institution that centers transgender voices and experiences
• Running for the Washington State Legislature (43rd District), bringing trans visibility to electoral politics and expanding the conversation about who can lead

Where We Go From Here

State-level victories, while essential, are not sufficient. The patchwork of protections and prohibitions across the country means that a transgender person's rights depend largely on their zip code. Federal protections are necessary to ensure baseline dignity for all. The passage of the Equality Act—which would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, and federally funded programs—remains the most critical piece of unfinished federal legislation for transgender Americans.

We do have legal foundations to build on. The Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County established that Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination encompasses discrimination based on transgender status and sexual orientation. That ruling was a landmark, but its scope is limited to employment. Extending similar protections across all areas of civil life is the work that remains, and it will require both congressional action and continued litigation to close the gaps that Bostock left open.

The path forward requires coalition-building that extends beyond the LGBTQ+ community. Alliances with reproductive rights organizations, racial justice movements, disability advocates, and religious communities who affirm transgender dignity are essential to building the political power needed for lasting change.

Legal challenges to the most extreme anti-trans laws are working their way through the courts, and strategic litigation will continue to be a critical tool. But legal strategy alone cannot win this fight. Public education—helping everyday Americans understand who transgender people are and what is actually at stake—remains the most important long-term investment we can make.