Missouri might provide a perfect example of a purple state that is primed for plug-and-play laws restricting trans rights.
The Show Me State has eagerly seized the opportunity to demonstrate how to do that thanks to a strong network of conservative advocacy organizations spread across the nation.
Legislators last year passed a law essentially outlawing transgender athletes from female and women’s sports, as well as a law prohibiting access to gender-affirming treatment for minors. A Republican-dominated General Assembly has since introduced more bills restricting a range of LGBTQ rights in an effort to please citizens.
Polls indicate that the new Missouri legislation regarding transgender people is widely supported by the conservative electorate in Missouri, but there is a political divide.
In what was once a powerful position, the Democratic Party has lost surface. Democratic lawmakers are increasingly finding themselves in a position where they face stiff opposition in general elections and where they face opposition from the left in primary elections.
Ambitious Republican lawmakers are addressing the issue with what critics describe as a “firehose of anti-trans legislation,” as elections are looming and a veto-proof supermajority is on the horizon.
In some cases, the legislation’s effects appear to be real, like the proposed Missouri law that prohibits transgender individuals from using restrooms that reflect their gender identity. Other factors, such as a ban on government diversity initiatives, could stifle new cultural shifts and put transgender people in greater danger of being discriminated against.
National organizations influence Missouri’s lawmakers
142 bills filed in 37 states last year were counted by the Reuters news agency, which would prohibit or limit gender-affirming care. At least 17 states have passed laws limiting or outlawing gender-affirming treatment for adolescents. This spring, the craze has continued.
A well-known network of organizations assists in ghostwriting legislation, lobbying for its passage, and electing conservatives who would support similar measures. Legislation is written and distributed among legislators across the nation, from all political viewpoints.
However, according to an AP study, 130 bills in 40 statehouses last year resemble model legislation that the conservative parties Do No Harm and the Family Research Council pushed out to legislators.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) stated in a statement in March 2023 that it opposed the “broad and blunt” legislation being introduced in states and that bills that would limit access to care offend best-practice health standards.
According to information from the ACLU, legislators submitted at least 19 bills relating to LGBTQ issues to the Missouri General Assembly in 2022. The figure increased to 48 in 2023. At least 34 bills were introduced in 2024.
The bills, according to many LGBTQ individuals in Missouri, use concepts that are well-known to some people and cause life-threatening harm to others.
The executive director of Missouri’s LGBTQ advocacy group PROMO, Katy Erker-Lynch, said, “We’re seeing in Missouri an attempt to… erase trans people.” It’s a very obvious effort, which is being manifested by book bans, education repression, anti-woke legislation, and (diversity, equity, and inclusion) bills.
The General Assembly passed two Missouri laws last year that were key pieces of the national debate.
They were given assistance.
One, SB 49, was Missouri’s edition of legislation that was “dedicated to explaining and advancing a family-centered philosophy of common life.”
The group stated in a fundraising email that the Family Research Council has been actively recommending state (SAFE) Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act-style bills based on the model legislation we developed to protect children from harmful, irreversible gender transition procedures.
Carlos Moreno / KCUR 89.3When the bill was introduced last month, the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and Do No Harm publicly backed it.
Legislators in various branches of government formally acted to prevent gender-affirming treatment for minors in Missouri when disagreements between Republicans threatened its passage.
Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who has appeared in the Family Research Council’s development several times, issued an emergency rule in March that referred to gender transitions as “experimental.” His action largely blocked patient access in Missouri by enforcing a litany of requirements that must be met before a patient can receive gender-affirming care.
The Missouri Freedom Foundation PAC urged legislators to support the SAFE Act, which would eventually be the state law barring transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming treatment at a rally held just days before at the state Capitol.
The act was finalized in the Senate that day following two weeks of delay in passing it.
University of Missouri Health Care and the Washington University Transgender Center have stopped providing gender-affirm
ing care to their minor patients since the Missouri rules have been in effect, causing some families to relocate to other parts of Missouri to seek treatment.
Gender-affirming care is widely accepted by health professionals as lifesaving. In its updated 2022 guidelines, WPATH noted a “growing body of evidence” that providing care to children with gender differences results in favorable outcomes.
The team added that there are still unexplored “long-term physical, mental, and developmental outcomes in youth” receiving gender-affirming care and that further long-term studies are being conducted to assess the impact.
How do conservative organizations in Missouri promote their views on trans rights?
Charlie Riedel / Associated Press
On March 20, 2023, Glenda Starke protests in favor of a ban on gender-affirming health care policy at the Missouri Statehouse in Jefferson City, Missouri.
What is influencing Missouri’s pro-transgender laws pattern? According to Scott McCoy, the Southern Poverty Law Center assistant legal director for LGBTQ rights and special litigation, Americans have broadly accepted the notion that gender encompasses a spectrum. That business identifies some of the organizations that pass type laws as hate groups.
Polls reveal that Americans are less familiar with and aware of the concept of a variety of gender identity when it comes to trans people and the idea of a spectrum of gender identity. The number of kids who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria has also increased. In comparison to just over 15,000 Americans diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2017, a Reuters review found that in 2021, over 42,000 Americans between the ages of 6 and 17 were diagnosed with the condition.
“These organizations are trying to resist these advances,” McCoy said. They traveled to the place where they have a lot of influence, and some have a lot of it, and that’s where state legislatures are located.
The Family Policy Alliance advocates for a biblical view of leadership and works to oppose it by calling for restrictions on gender-affirming treatment for adolescents in at least 20 states.
The organization also runs the Statesmen Academy, a program that convenes legislators for training in subjects like “Policy According to the Bible” and “Christian Statesmanship in Practice.” The organization cited Missouri as one of the states that passed a law that helped to create the prohibition of gender-affirming treatment for minors.
The conservative organization Alliance Defending Freedom, based in Arizona, uses the courts to defend its positions and provides legal counsel to lawmakers on parental rights, marriage, home, and religious freedom.
According to Matt Sharp, senior counsel and director of the ADF’s Center for Legislative Advocacy, “we’ve been glad to offer legal advice on the best way to build those” bills. “And to make sure that lawmakers dealing with this subject receive sound constitutional counsel.”
How public opinion has changed as a result of the attention to transgender Settlers
According to polls from the Public Religion Research Institute, Americans now know with certainty that there are only two gender identities, which is growing from 59% to 65% in 2023. According to the study, 44% of Democrats believe the same while 91% of Republicans believe that.
“It’s really a story of Republican prioritization of this issue,” said Melissa Deckman, a political scientist and the institute’s CEO. “Many Americans probably didn’t think about transgender issues four, five, or six years ago, to the extent that we’re talking about them now.”
Trans issues, particularly access to gender-affirming care, have been the subject of a conservative advertising frenzy since 2021.
According to Deckman, “when social leaders begin to talk about these issues at length,” “it frequently changes the views or interests of partisans.”
A nationwide survey conducted by the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University in June 2021 revealed that 30% of respondents believed that transgender athletes should be unable to compete against those with the same gender identity, compared to 30% who said the same athletes should be able to do so. Another 28% said they should compete in a third category for transgender players.
Compare that to a St. Louis University and YouGov poll from August 2023 that found that 67% of Missourians (including 95% of Republicans) opposed allowing transgender students to play on teams that match their gender identity.
Despite this, a new Pew Research Center poll found that roughly two-thirds of Americans support preventing bias against transgender people in workplaces, homes, and public areas.
Annelise Hanshaw / Missouri IndependentA Missouri home was left last year by bills that may restrict the rights of their trans son, and they are standing by their doormat at the house.
Additionally, according to the SLU poll in Missouri, 63% of respondents were against allowing minors to get gender-affirming care.
Studies show that receiving gender-affirming care resulted in lower rates of depression and melancholy over the course of a 12-month interval.
Democrats have held control of the state House and Senate since 2003. The group seized all statewide elected positions in 2022.
Republicans contested 151 seats in the General Assembly in 2022. 73 of those seats didn’t have an opposing candidate from a major party. That meant that a candidate was basically guaranteed election once they won the primary.
The most devoted supporters can be found in primary elections, Deckman said. People on the Democratic side are often more religious and far more liberal.
And in an election year, politicians are motivated by their social dreams, according to PROMO’s Erker-Lynch.
“So many of these legislators are running for higher office,” Erker-Lynch said. They believe that they will appeal to their base the most if they may come across as, in my opinion, the most cruel.
Political experts see the issue of gender-affirming care as one that may appeal to base voters because there is a discussion throughout the country, including in Missouri, that access to abortion may be legal.
According to McCoy, SPLC’s McCoy, “they needed another issue when they didn’t have the pro-life position to motivate their base of voters to the polls.”
What lies ahead for Missouri’s trans rules?
Conservative organizations want to reintroduce the prohibition on gender-affirming treatment for minors.
Rep. Brad Hudson, a Republican from Cape Fair, introduced a bill that would carry on the prohibition and make it illegal for medical professionals to perform gender identity transitioning or sex reassignment surgery if it offends their spiritual, moral, or religious beliefs. Additionally, the legislation would demand that only male or female students use the locker rooms and restrooms in public schools.
On January 17, Do No Harm testified in support of the bill.
For the seat that Republican Sen. Karla Eslinger now occupies, the priest from the state’s 33rd Senate District, home to Lake of the Ozarks.
Rep. Adam Schnelting presented a bill called the “Defining SEX Act,” which would include definitions of adult, male, female, boy, girl, person, husband, and parents in state statute. Schnelting claimed the bill was reviewed by the Heritage Foundation.
In the 23rd Senate District, Schnelting, a St. Charles Republican, is a minister and real estate agent who is running for the seat that retiring Sen. Bill Eigel will hold.
In 2024, the General Assembly is focusing on issues like allowing Missourians to complete a controversial bill to fund Medicaid insurance. Both subjects have a strong connection to Missouri’s pregnancy elections.
The Heritage Foundation study is being used by the conservative organization Freedom Principle of Missouri to lobby lawmakers.
The group’s leader, Byron Keelin, said of passing additional legislation this time, “We’re facing an uphill battle with this.” “They properly take some action via executive order, also, depending on who the next governor is,” the governor may not work.
In the end, according to Deckman, the issue is being driven by Republican Party activists.
Conservative activists who are very passionate about this issue are undoubtedly driving it, she said. “That partisanship has had the effect of affecting public opinion.”
This article was first published by The Beacon Kansas City, a sister Houston Media Collective author.
