WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, on International Transgender Day of Visibility, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) applauds the Biden-Harris Administration’s announcement of major policy reforms that will benefit transgender and non-binary people in the United States. Notably, the administration will start issuing passports with an “X” gender marker in April and will improve the travel experience for transgender and non-binary people by implementing enhanced screening technology and streamlining identity verification. The administration is also providing resources to transgender kids and their families, confirming the positive impact of gender-affirming care, improving access to federal services, and advancing inclusion and visibility in federal data. Many of these reforms were included in HRC’s 2020 Blueprint for Positive Change, a document detailing more than 80 policy changes that the administration should put into effect that would meaningfully improve the lives of LGBTQ+ people.

So far, in 2022, HRC is tracking 583+ pieces of potentially LGBTQ+-related legislation and, of those, more than 310 are anti-LGBTQ+, and more than 135 are specifically anti-transgender bills. Just yesterday, the day before Transgender Day of Visibility, the Governors in South Dakota, Arizona, and Oklahoma signed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation into law. Earlier this week in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the so-called “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill (HB 1557) — discriminatory and dangerous legislation that seeks to silence teachers from talking about LGBTQ+ issues or people—into law. Iowa, South Dakota, and Utah have enacted laws this year that ban transgender girls from participating in sports. Additionally, last month, Texas Gov. Abbott and Texas Attorney General Paxton took unprecedented steps to prevent transgender youth from accessing best-practice, age-appropriate, medically necessary, gender-affirming care by threatening to charge parents and medical care providers of transgender children with child abuse.

Lawmakers in statehouses nationwide are seeking to ban transgender youth from participating in sports; criminalize medically necessary, life-saving healthcare for transgender youth; ban discussion of LGBTQ+ youth and families in classrooms, effectively erasing our community; revive “bathroom bills” to prohibit transgender young people from simply using the restroom at school; and even undermine companies’ own internal inclusion and safe workplace programs.

HRC’s timeline of the LGBTQ+ related policies and achievements during President Biden’s first year details these and other noteworthy milestones paving the way toward a more equitable future for all LGBTQ+ people.

Even in light of the manifest accomplishments of the past year, a great deal of work remains to be done. In November 2020, the Human Rights Campaign released the Blueprint for Positive Change, a document detailing more than 80 policy changes that the administration should put into effect that would meaningfully improve the lives of LGBTQ+ people. Many of those proposals still await action, and their implementation, along with the passage of the Equality Act, would help to guarantee for LGBTQ+ people for decades to come that they can participate fully in every part of society.