Dear John,

This week, we celebrated and honored the transgender and nonbinary individuals in our community on Transgender Day of Visibility. At the same time, our country passed yet another slew of bills that directly attack and harm the transgender community.

As of today, 7 anti-LGBTQ bills and two executive orders have been signed into law.

• Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee all signed bills banning transgender girls from playing sports.
  • After the South Dakota legislature failed to pass their transgender athlete ban, Governor Noem signed two executive orders effectively banning transgender athletes from participating in sports.
• Arkansas also passed two bills that use religion as a license to discriminate - one means that healthcare providers can deny service to anyone based on their personal religious or moral beliefs. The second bill allows religious institutions to circumvent important public health orders, and opens the door for more discrimination under the guise of religion.
• West Virginia passed a bill that preempts important employment protections at the local level and attacks local control.

We are experiencing a legislative session across this country unlike any we’ve seen in recent years. The strategy from anti-LGBTQ opponents is clear: attack transgender youth and make discrimination against the entire LGBTQ community legal. We won’t let them win.

Equality Federation, its state-based members, and national partners are working diligently to fight off these attacks and stop any more harmful bills from becoming law. But we can’t do it without you.

Make sure no more anti-LGBTQ bills become law next week by taking the following actions:

1. Arkansas: Contact Governor Hutchinson and tell him to veto HB 1570, which would be the first ban on healthcare for transgender youth and insurance coverage for all transgender people. Email and call 501-682-2345.
2. Florida: Join Equality Florida in calling on the Governor to denounce the transgender sports bans making their way through the legislature.
3. Tennessee: Take action with Tennessee Equality Project to stop a slate of anti-LGBTQ bills moving through the legislature next week.

Thank you for everything you do.

Together,