Publication Date
10-1-2023
Abstract
The twenty-first century saw rapid positive changes in the perception of the LGBTQIA+ community. However, an onslaught of anti-transgender legislation seeking to criminalize various aspects of transgender existence continues to sweep across the United States. This Comment analyzes laws in Arizona, Alabama, and Arkansas that target transgender children. The Comment posits that these laws are not effective as to their stated purposes of child protection. It also argues that the laws are facially discriminatory because they inexplicably consider transgender regret but ignore cisgender regret and disallow transgender affirmation but allow cisgender affirmation. The Comment goes on to argue that the laws’ stated purposes of child protection are a pretext for discrimination and that the laws are nothing more than thinly veiled bigotry. Finally, the Comment briefly identifies methods of preserving current protections for transgender people and recommends a deliberate effort be made to expand the social definition of gender affirmation as a means of combating anti-transgender sentiment and providing additional legal protections.
First Page
185
Recommended Citation
Austin Hoenig, Anti-Transgender Legislation in Arizona, Alabama, and Arkansas: Arbitrary Moral Discrimination Masquerading as Child Protection, 101 Denv. L. Rev. 185 (2023).