The Assembly will be holding both committee votes and floor votes on a series of bills that will deny transgender youth access to best practice medical care and shut them out from playing sports, and we need your help to stop this attack. Despite overwhelming opposition to these bills at public hearings last week, the Assembly is moving ahead with committee votes tomorrow and a vote on the floor on Thursday October 12.
AB 465 would ban medical care for transgender youth and AB 377 & AB 378 unfairly target transgender youth athletes for discrimination. The effort to pass these bills are spreading inaccurate information and are part of a nationwide wave of similar bills that attack transgender youth.
We need you to Contact your Representative today and tell them to vote NO on AB 465, AB 377, and AB 378. It is especially important that you contact your Representative if they are on one of the following Assembly Committees: Colleges and Universities, Education, and Health, Aging, and Long-Term Care.
Talking Points for AB 465
- This bill represents one of the most extreme political attacks on transgender people in recent memory. Not only does it display a fundamental lack of understanding about transgender children, but it also bans best practice medical care for transgender youth that is backed by leading health authorities like the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
- Best practice medical care for transgender youth simply delays puberty until young people are old enough to make their own decisions about their lived gender. This bill aims to take away their choices and prevent them from living as the gender they know they are.
- Denying best practice medical care to transgender youth can be life threatening. Research shows that transgender youth whose families support their gender identity have a 52% decrease in suicidal thoughts, 46% decrease in suicide attempts, and significant increases in self-esteem and overall health.
- Medical decisions are best left to patients, their families, and health care providers, in accordance with medical best practices. Politicians should NOT interfere with those decisions.
Talking Points for AB 377/AB 378
- Transgender kids, like other students, deserve the same chances to learn teamwork, leadership, and self-discipline, and to build a sense of belonging with their peers. When we tell transgender girls that they can’t play girls’ sports—or transgender boys that they can’t play boys’ sports—they miss out on this important childhood experience and all the lessons it teaches.
- Title IX is vitally important when it comes to girls’ sports. If we want to support girls’ sports, we should be providing more funding and more opportunities to play and creating stronger laws to protect female athletes from harassment and abuse—not banning transgender youth from participating in sports.
- Transgender kids want the opportunity to play sports for the same reason other kids do: to be a part of a team where they feel like they belong. We should not discriminate against kids and ban them from playing because they are transgender.
- This legislation compounds the discrimination transgender people already experience in their daily lives.
- Transgender people are also disproportionately impacted by sexual violence, as nearly half of all transgender adults report experiencing sexual assault[1]. Those rates are even higher for Black and Native American transgender people, who thus experience intersecting discrimination and violence related to race and gender identity/expression.
- Instead of focusing efforts on keeping transgender athletes from participating in sports, we would be better served by ensuring they are treated with dignity and respect by welcoming them on sports teams.