Democratic lawmakers in more than a dozen states are following California’s lead in seeking to offer legal refuge to displaced transgender youth and their families.
The coordinated effort, which was announced on Tuesday by the LGBTQ Victory Institute and other advocates, comes in response to recent actions taken in conservative states. In Texas, for example, Gregg Abbott, the governor, has directed state agencies to consider placing trans children in foster care, though a judge has temporarily blocked such investigations. And multiple states have approved measures prohibiting gender-affirming healthcare treatments for trans youth.
To combat such moves, lawmakers in both Minnesota and New York recently filed refuge state legislation modeled after the bill proposed in March by state senator Scott Wiener in California. Democrats in 16 other states plan to follow suit, though about half of their legislatures are out of session or not currently accepting new bills. GOP lawmakers have proposed more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ laws this year so far, with roughly half of the bills specifically targeting trans youth.
Wiener said he immediately began hearing from other states after coming forward with his bill, which would reject any out-of-state court judgments removing children from their parents’ custody because they allowed gender-affirming healthcare. It also would make arrest warrants based on alleged violation of another state’s law against receiving such care the lowest priority for California law enforcement.
“We’re sick of just playing defense against what these red states are doing,” Wiener said on Monday. “We’re going on offense, we’re going to protect LGBTQ kids and their families and we’re going to build a rainbow wall to protect our community.”
Also joining the effort are LGBTQ lawmakers in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.
Annise Parker, president and CEO of the Victory Institute, acknowledged that the legislation would probably fail in some states but said it was time to stand against the onslaught of bills targeting the LGBTQ community.
“This is our opportunity to drive the conversation and the debate, and to call on our allies proactively to step up instead of allowing ourselves to be targeted,” said Parker, who was the first openly LGBTQ mayor of a major American city when she led Houston for six years.
“We would love to see these bills in states where there are more progressive legislatures,” she said. “But we also think it’s important that trans kids and their families out there see and hear legislators from our community standing up and defending them.”
Wiener said it was despicable that any family would have to consider moving to a new state to protect a child, but if that happens, he hoped as many states as possible would welcome them.
“When your kid is being threatened with removal from your home, families are going to consider a lot of different options, and we just want to be clear that if you decide that’s the option for you, we’re going to do everything we can do to welcome you and protect you,” he said.
