Gender Battle Leads to Transitions of Power

February 2, 2021

When President Biden was sworn in, he called for unity. As it turns out, his administration instead came bearing a sword (and a pen). From school bathrooms to school sports, the Biden administration seems bent on a radical transgender agenda that ignores reason, science, and basic common sense. And sadly, women and children will be hardest hit.

Leveraging the 8 percent of education dollars that come from the federal government, the Biden administration has set out to repeat and build on President Obama's sweeping attempt to force schools to comply with federal mandates that endanger vulnerable girls and children.

State officials are already pushing back on the effort to dilute women's sports by allowing men who identify as women to compete against females. Barely a month into the new year, state legislatures are beginning to respond. Legislators in 5 states (Hawaii, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, and Tennessee) have introduced bills that specify that boys can only compete on boys' teams.

Energized by the sad story of James Younger, some states are going even further. (James is a Texas boy who was pressured beginning at age 7 to "transition" from boy to girl.) His case focused the nation's attention on the growing problem of "boutique clinics" preying on fearful parents and children who experience distress or disassociation with their biological sex. Ignoring standard medical care for people who experience other kinds of bodily distress or dysphoria, and disregarding the fact that medical studies show that between 85 percent and 97 percent of children outgrow such distress and disassociation, ideological advocates have created an industry for railroading minors into lifelong dependency on experimental uses of drugs, hormone therapies, and increasingly surgeries. These procedures, over time, can leave a young person permanently scarred, emotionally damaged, and even sterile.

In response, fifteen states last year introduced legislation to protect minors from medical experimentation. In just the first month of this year, eleven states have already followed suit: Alabama, Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah.

Don't see your state on these lists? Click here to contact your state officials demanding protections for women and children. (FRC can work with legislators to supply model legislation and expert witnesses, including people who regret transitioning.) And while you're there, be sure to sign up for action alerts, so you know when legislation moves in your state.