(WSYM) — There have already been more anti-transgender legislation in 2021 than in any other year, and a bill in Michigan adds to that.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, there have been more than 100 different bills across states that are anti-transgender.
The HRC said that of those, at least 69 bills, including the one in Michigan, would prohibit transgender youth from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, and at least 35 would prohibit transgender youth from being able to access some form of medical care.
According to the HRC, there have been 17 anti-LGBTQ bills enacted into law in 2021, 7 of which are anti-trans sports ban bills in Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Montana and West Virginia.
"The rights of LGBTQ people — and especially transgender people — across the country are being systematically threatened and undermined by national anti-LGBTQ groups coordinating with anti-equality lawmakers to wage an unprecedented war on the LGBTQ community," Human Rights Campaign president Alphonso David said in a statement.
The bill in the Michigan Senate would ban transgender high school athletes from playing on a team that is consistent with their gender identity.
It was sponsored by Sen. Lana Theis, a Republican from Brighton, and co-sponsored by 12 other Republicans.
"If the school designates a team in an interscholastic 9 athletic activity offered to pupils enrolled at the school as a 10 boys', men's, or male team, a requirement that each pupil who 11 competes for a position on that team or who is selected to compete 12 on that team must be male based on biological sex," the bill reads. There is similar language for girls and females.
