There Are More Than 130 Anti-LGBT Bills Being Considered In State Legislatures Right Now

According to a new blog post from the HRC, there are currently over 130 anti-LGBT bills being debated in state legislatures across the country.

These measures include anti-trans bathroom bills, “religious liberty” initiatives and proposals that would permit open discrimination against LGBT employees in the work place.

While equality advocates in these states have successfully stopped several of these bills from becoming law, there are still many that are inching closer and closer to being legalized.

Getty Images

In Texas, Senate Bill 6, which would ban trans people from using restroom or changing facilities that match their gender identity, passed the state Senate more than two-to-one. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has said SB6 is one of his top priorities but, in an interview at the University of Texas, House Speaker Joe Straus called the bill “manufactured and unnecessary,” and said it was “astounding” it has taken up so much of the legislature’s time.

House Bill 780, filed Tuesday by Republicans in North Carolina, would reinstate the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, in direct defiance of the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that formally legalized marriage equality. In defending the sanctity of heterosexual marriage, the bill quotes “evidence” from the New Testament.

The Tennessee State Senate passed SB 127 last month, which would prohibit state and local governments from taking discriminatory action against a business based on that business’s internal policies, which would include discrimination against LGBT people. The bill is now being reviewed by the House.

HF 43 is a Minnesota bill that would allow people to pick and choose which laws they follow based on their purported religious beliefs. The language in the measure is fairly vague, which means this law could apply to official government offices as well as to restaurants or movie theaters. It’s currently been introduced to the House.

Anti-LGBT bills that have already turned into law include SB 17 in Kentucky, which will allow student groups at colleges, universities, and high schools to discriminate against LGBT students, and SB 149 in South Dakota, which permits taxpayer-funded adoption and foster agencies to deny services to LGBT people.

Thankfully, legislatures have already adjourned in Arkansas, Arizona, Kentucky, Montana, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, where anti-LGBT bills were proposed but ultimately defeated.