Legislation aimed at the LGBTQ+ community has become more “extreme” and is only getting worse under Donald Trump, a not-for-profit group has warned.
There has been a dramatic rise in anti-LGBTQ+ bills across the US over the past few years, particularly those that target trans people’s rights. Since 2023, the American Civil Liberties Union has tracked at least 1,570 proposed bills, with 527 already in just the first three months of this year.
The bills, mainly Republican-led, include efforts to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youngsters and censoring LGBTQ+ curriculum in state schools.
Of the 533 anti-LGBTQ+ bills proposed last year, 464 were defeated, 49 passed into law, and two are still advancing.
Among the states proposing homophobic and transphobic legislation, Texas is by far the most prolific, with 80 bills proposed in 2025 alone. It is among the worst US states for LGBTQ+ equality, according to Equaldex.
The Normal Anomaly Initiative, an LGBTQ+ charity based across the southern states that advocates for Black LGBTQ+ rights, says the problem in Texas and neighbouring states had worsened significantly since Trump returned to the White House in January.
‘We are seeing the opening of the door for more-extreme bills’
Speaking exclusively to PinkNews, the group’s advocacy director, Joelle Espeut, said it was frightening to see how anti-LGBTQ+ lawmakers had been bolstered by Trump’s wave of executive orders.
“We’re seeing a lot more extreme bill proposals which, even after working in advocacy for seven years, has been startling,” she went on to say. “They are trying essentially to not just attack trans people, but to roll back trans and gender identities.”
She was particularly concerned by proposed legislation that, if passed into law, would make trans people identifying as their preferred gender illegal.
The bill, put forward in the Texas House of Representatives by Republican Tom Oliverson last month, seeks to amend the state’s law on identity theft, to prevent transgender people from socially transitioning under so-called “gender identity fraud.” Offenders could face up to two years in prison and a fine of $10,000 (£7,700).
Although it is unlikely to become law, Espeut said the bill was a sign that anti-trans lawmakers weren’t holding back.
“It may not be this exact bill [that passes] but we’re going to see a lot more anti-trans rhetoric because it’s a hot-button subject for our federal government right now. We have a president [who] is pushing anti-trans executive orders and proposing anti-trans bills, so we are seeing the opening of the door for more-extreme state bills.”
Texas is the ‘battleground’ for anti-trans laws
Texas, with its Republican governor Greg Abbott, had become a “battleground” for anti-trans bills, Espeut added. Laws that serve a fighting chance in the state legislature – not necessarily always by passing into law – often gave birth to “copycat” bills passed in other Republican-majority states.
“A lot of states look to Texas to see what it is doing in terms of anti-trans legislation, so it’s important and imperative that our community steps up and pushes back,” she said. “This has been going on for years, where our state government proposes anti-trans bills just to come after the community that makes up less than two per cent of our population.”
The continued legislative attacks have made LGBTQ+ Texans anxious, with some even fleeing the state, she went on to claim.
“Trans people just want to live. They just want to be able to exist and work and be able to have a quality of life equal to other Texans. A trans person can be your family member or a colleague or a neighbour, and your colleagues and neighbours care about the same things you care about.
“It’s a little startling but we’re also seeing trans people wanting to step up and speak out against these bills to let people know that trans people deserve the same rights as everyone else. Trans people aren’t looking for additional rights, we are just looking for the same rights as everyone else.”
This growing concern disproportionally affects non-white trans people, who survive on the “margins of our communities,” Espeut pointed out.
“We see Black and brown and non-white trans people are so disproportionately affected. They are the ones [who] aren’t able to go to the state Capitol to speak, they are the ones [who] don’t have the resources to fight back. They’re typically making $10,000 or less. They aren’t afforded the opportunity to think about these harmful bills because they are just trying to survive.”
According to the Human Rights Campaign, more than half the trans people killed in 2024 were Black trans women, while 78 per cent were people of colour.
It’s important to ‘lean into the community’ right now
Despite the hardship, the unrelenting positivity of the trans community helped to counterbalance the legislative attacks, Espeut continued.
Now more than ever, it was important to “lean into the community” and to “fight and stand up” against transphobia.
“Yes, it’s important to fight, it’s important to stand up, it’s important to speak out, but it’s also important to experience joy and to create spaces of joy.
“Part of the work we do at the Normal Anomaly Initiative is creating spaces for marginalised communities That’s especially needed now for trans people when we are being persecuted.”
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