At the eleventh hour, Alabama legislators passed two bills targeting transgender youth for discrimination — and there’s little chance they won’t pass into law.
On Thursday, the final day of Alabama’s current legislative session, Republican lawmakers in the state House of Representatives passed SB 184, officially called the “Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act,” outlawing trans-affirming medical care for minors. At the same time, the state Senate also passed HB 322, a bathroom bill restricting access to gendered facilities based on “biological sex,” with an amendment mimicking Florida’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law.
SB 184 will make the administration of trans-affirming healthcare for people under 19 years of age — including the prescribing of puberty blockers or hormone therapy — a class C felony, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail. The bill, sponsored by radical anti-abortion campaigner Shay Shelnutt, claims trans medical care is “experimental” and dangerous for young people, but leaves open exceptions for nonconsensual surgeries on intersex infants. The bill also prohibits school officials from withholding information from parents that may indicate a child is LGBTQ+.
Meanwhile, HB 322 is an almost boilerplate bathroom bill, requiring gendered facilities in K-12 schools like locker rooms and toilets be made available only based on “biological sex” as stated on the child’s original birth certificate. Before the bill’s passage, however, Senate Republicans introduced an unrelated amendment barring teachers from “classroom instruction regarding sexual orientation or gender identity” in grades K-5.
Both of Alabama’s legislative houses are currently controlled by a veto-proof Republican majority, rendering any meaningful intervention from Republican Governor Kay Ivey unlikely.
Alabama ACLU staff attorney Kaitlin Welborne called the bills “shameful” in a statement to CNN. “If the state moves forward in passing this unconstitutional bill, we'll see them in court,” she said. Chase Strangio, the ACLU’s Deputy Director for Transgender Justice, went further, posting on Twitter that he was “fucking livid.”
“We will sue but that isn't a solution,” Strangio wrote. “We need massive movements in defense of trans lives.”
Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for them.'s weekly newsletter here.
