Current proposals in the US that prohibit transgender people from being able to use public restrooms that align with who they are (e.g. proposals forcing transgender men to use women’s bathrooms, and trans women to use the men’s room) are constructed on intentional falsehoods. This trend of inflammatory fearmongering and demonization is a threat to the health and safety of transgender people, as well as cisgender people perceived to be trans. Safety and privacy is important to all of us, and banning transgender people from these spaces does nothing to make other people safer.
These discriminatory endeavors are part of the broader, escalating wave of attacks on basic civil rights. These attacks include attempts to ban essential health care for transgender youth and adults, restrict participation in sports, block accurate identity documents, curb freedom of expression, endanger transgender inmates by incarcerating them in institutions inconsistent with their gender identity, and suppress and even criminalize books, education, and culture by and about LGBTQ people.
All of these efforts are part of the same broader goal to roll back the clock on acceptance for transgender people, and make it increasingly difficult for transgender Americans to go about their daily lives.
Reporters should include these facts when reporting on these issues:
- Current legislative and executive branch efforts to restrict transgender people and youth from public restrooms and similar spaces are based more in fearmongering than facts. Research shows no evidence of safety risks for cisgender people when trans people use restrooms aligning with their authentic gender; in fact, transgender people are at elevated risk for harassment and violence in these spaces.
- According to the Movement Advancement Project, bathroom bans can result in “high rates of harassment and violence against transgender people as well as cisgender people, particularly women who do not conform to traditional ideas of femininity.”
- Harming someone in a public restroom is already illegal. Bathroom bans often have no guidance on enforcement, and can result in invasions of privacy for everyone when individual citizens randomly (and often mistakenly) attempt to enforce these vaguely constructed statutes.
- President Donald Trump’s executive orders inaccurately state that there are only two sexes, ignoring the reality of intersex people and decades of established medical and scientific research about sex and gender diversity throughout history and cultures. That’s why every major medical association and health authority in the world recognizes and supports health care for transgender people. President Trump has attempted to use his orders to impose discriminatory anti-trans bathroom bans for restrooms on federal property. The executive orders do not override the US Constitution, federal statutes, or established legal precedent. Federal judges have already struck down many of his executive orders, while the constitutionality of others continues to be challenged in court.
- Imposing discrimination on transgender people at the federal level would be illegal under the Supreme Court’s Bostock decision, which ruled that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is unconstitutional sex discrimination.
- President Trump’s executive order mandating the transfer of transgender inmates to prisons that do not align with their gender (e.g. putting transgender men in women’s prisons and transgender women in men’s prisons) endangers the safety of trans prisoners, and is also likely unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruled, in a 1994 case brought by a trans inmate, that it is the government’s duty to protect prisoners from violence. The decision noted the particular vulnerability of trans inmates.
- As of early March 2025, 600 anti-transgender bills have been introduced nationwide, and nine have passed. In 2024, 674 anti-trans bills were proposed and 50 passed. Of the potential bills in 2025 so far, 44 seek to restrict transgender bathroom access.
- Transgender people should not be unfairly discriminated against and should be allowed to “use facilities and participate in activities that match who they are,” notes the ACLU. “We believe it is not only the right answer from a human point of view, but it is also legally required by statutory and constitutional bans on sex discrimination.”
When a bill or proposal explicitly addresses transgender people and the use of restrooms, locker rooms, or other single-sex spaces, journalists should contextualize it with the facts above, speak with transgender people and organizations to include their perspectives, and make note of broadscale patterns of targeting trans people with false, harmful, and dehumanizing narratives in efforts to retract their basic civil rights.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- GLAAD: Debunking the “Bathroom Bill” Myth report explores the harmful effects of bathroom discrimination on transgender people, and debunks misinformation spread by proponents of anti-trans legislation: “Opponents of discrimination protections typically focus on generating fears about bathrooms, falsely claiming that such laws will make it legal for sexual predators to enter women’s restrooms.”
- Movement Advancement Project (MAP): tracks laws and potential legislation. MAP shares this data via an interactive map.
- The ACLU tracks anti-LGBTQ legislation nationwide and shares data through an interactive map that allows users to sort information by issue, state, and status.
- The Trans Legislation Tracker monitors legislation attempting to ban transgender people from various public services and facilities.
- Harvard School of Public Health: A 2019 LGBTQ Teen Study, an anonymous survey of more than 3,600 youth ages 13 to 17, revealed that transgender and nonbinary teens face a higher risk of sexual assault when forced to use bathrooms and locker rooms that don’t match their gender identity: “36% of transgender or gender-nonbinary students with restricted bathroom or locker room access reported being sexually assaulted in the last 12 months.”
- MAP/GLSEN: “Singling out transgender students and telling them they must use separate restrooms is humiliating and discriminatory … forcing transgender students into restrooms that don’t match the gender they live every day puts their safety at even greater risk.” Nearly three-quarters of transgender students (70%) say they have “avoided bathrooms because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable.”
- The Trevor Project: “Transgender and nonbinary young people who had access to gender-affirming clothing, gender-neutral bathrooms at school, and had their pronouns respected by the people they live with had lower rates of attempting suicide compared to those who did not.”