On January 22, a South Dakota legislative committee moved forward HB 1057, a dangerous bill that would make it a misdemeanor for medical professionals to provide trans youth with affirming medical care, such as prescribing lifesaving hormones or puberty blockers. While drafting the measure, the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Fred Deutsch (R), reportedly consulted with an anti-trans group called the Kelsey Coalition that has ascended with the help of right-wing media.

Anti-LGBTQ groups the Heritage Foundation, Alliance Defending Freedom, and Liberty Counsel also reportedly influenced the measure, which is expected to be voted on by the full South Dakota state House on January 29.

The Kelsey Coalition is a group of medical professionals, parents, and others who reject the identities of trans youth and advocate against affirming care. The Heritage Foundation gave the Kelsey Coalition its first major platform by featuring a member at a panel advocating against affirming the gender identities of trans youth.

According to The Washington Post, Deutsch attended a separate anti-trans event at the Heritage Foundation, at which organizations involved -- including the Kelsey Coalition -- released a co-branded parent resource guide on how to reject transgender children and advance policies to attack the trans community. Deutsch is also reported to have worked with extreme anti-LGBTQ groups Alliance Defending Freedom and Liberty Counsel on the bill.

Deutsch misleadingly titled his bill the “Vulnerable Child Protection Act,” but LGBTQ advocates have called it “very harmful” and “hope-stealing,” and said that “the bill spreads disinformation about the care trans youth need, and the options available.” It would criminalize lifesaving health care for transgender kids, including prescribing, dispensing, or administering puberty-blocking medications and hormone replacement therapy, as well as performing gender confirmation procedures or surgeries.

Such measures are in opposition to numerous medical studies that demonstrate that affirming care is a lifesaving necessity for many trans folks. Additionally, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued an official policy statement in 2018 encouraging taking a “gender-affirming” approach to trans youth and providing them with “developmentally appropriate health care.”

Lawmakers around the country are pushing for similar legislation, some of which share language with South Dakota’s bill, in states including Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. According to The Washington Post, “Some of the bills equate providing the medical treatments to child abuse, allowing parents to be reported to child welfare agencies and doctors’ licenses to be suspended or revoked.” Calling these treatments “child abuse” mirrors rhetoric pushed by right-wing media and anti-LGBTQ groups during coverage of a 2019 Texas child custody battle concerning a trans youth.

The Kelsey Coalition’s involvement with the bill demonstrates how anti-LGBTQ groups and media shape policy

South Dakota lawmakers have decided to ignore best practices from medical providers and rather listen to anti-LGBTQ groups like the Kelsey Coalition, which launched less than a year ago. This is a case study in how right-wing media and established anti-LGBTQ groups can shape discourse and policy by repeatedly exposing their audiences, including policymakers, to misinformation and bad actors.

The Kelsey Coalition started as a small, unknown group, but with the help of the Heritage Foundation, it quickly became a go-to source for right-wing media and eventually a presence in state policymaking, with stops at Fox News and the opinion pages of USA Today along the way.

Here’s how it happened:

This bill is just one example of how right-wing media and anti-LGBTQ groups influence policy from the White House to state legislatures. For example, after right-wing media and figures maliciously wrote about the mother who accepted her trans child in the Texas custody case, state officials announced they would investigate her. Furthermore, anti-LGBTQ group Alliance Defending Freedom influenced anti-trans school policies across the country.

Heritage Foundation, in particular, has staffed federal agencies and hand-picked Supreme Court nominations under the Trump-Pence administration. The South Dakota bill demonstrates how such advocacy can affect policies at the state level as well.