It should come as no surprise that as we roll into the second year of Trump’s second term, the onslaught of anti-trans legislation would roll in along with it. In 2025, 1022 bills featuring anti-transgender legislation were under consideration by the leaders of this “great” nation, giving a clear idea of the attitudes of those in power regarding the safety and existence of our trans brothers and sisters in the United States.
Though this flooding of legislation is clearly a national issue, on the state side, Indiana has shown clearly where it stands on trans rights, with recent legislation like the restriction of gender marker changes on drivers licenses and the introduction of HB 1198 and SB 182.
An executive order by Gov. Mike Braun earlier this month rendered the BMV incapable of changing gender markers on issued documents, even with court orders or physician statements, in the state of Indiana. Traffic stops and interactions with law enforcement are struggles for many minority groups in this country, and having a drivers license that doesn’t match what the holder may be perceived as introduces an additional layer of anxiety and danger.
HB 1198
Introduced by republican representative Bruce Borders in Indiana on Jan. 5, house bill 1198, if passed, would designate the usage of bathrooms beyond one’s assigned sex at birth as a class B misdemeanor. In addition to often being charged with 180 days in jail and fines of up to $1000, “Being convicted of Indiana Class B misdemeanors carries significant collateral consequences and can have a major negative impact on your future employment, housing, and rights.”
We see this trend time and time again, with trans individuals depicted as behaving like predators or otherwise offensive individuals by the letter of the law, thereby associating trans people with said offenders.
Aside: Rep. Borders has made some interesting moves this year. When he isn’t engaging in his Elvis Impersonator side hustle, he spends his time authoring bills restricting trans and women’s healthcare. In 2015, Borders voted to pass SB 101, and his wikipedia page specifically covers the fact that he wanted to honor a healthcare provider’s “religious right” to withhold anesthesia from a woman receiving an abortion. Also this year, Rep. Borders has authored a bill much in line with the inability to alter a drivers license, HB 1199 restricting the ability to alter one’s birth certificate sex at all apart from graphical errors.
On a personal note, I have been on hormone replacement therapy for 4 years. I have a mustache, a traditionally deep voice, and would absolutely be out of place in a women’s bathroom. It is wholly absurd that legislatures continue to push these bathroom bills under the guise of public safety, when it’s obvious their true intentions are in line with policing transgender autonomy. The fact of the matter is: Bathroom bills won’t stop sex offenders from going into a restroom.
SB 182
SB 182 is a bill aimed at the state of Indiana largely covering restrictions on trans and intersex capabilities in everyday life, particularly regarding incarceration, bathrooms and dormitories. Bathroom bans and sporting restrictions often appeal to the desire to maintain women’s safety, but in a country where 41/50 states and the District of Columbia hold restrictions or outright bans on abortion healthcare and where the industry standard for crash test dummies is a 50th percentile male with minimal effort to consider “traditionally” female bodies, is it even remotely believable that anyone running the country really cares about women and what benefits them? A game of control, restricting anything that does not fit the conservative standard, is what the US plays and has played since our country’s inception 250 years ago.
Another particular gripe I have with SB 182 (and nearly all other anti-trans legislation) is the extreme desire to demonize trans women and completely gloss over trans men. In SB 182, authored by state senators Brown, Johnson and Garten, the initial version of the bill used consistent language targeting trans women by using pronouns, “he/him/his” in regards to the individuals in question, later being amended to “the offender” and other more neutral language. This hypervisibility of some trans people and hypovisibility of others creates an offensive, unproductive view of the trans community as a whole. Authoring such a bill is bad enough, perpetuating the “dangerous trans woman” stereotypes with complete disregard for trans men only adds insult to injury.
I think I sometimes have trouble writing about or considering these bills as serious due to how ridiculous they are, often involving the understanding of gender comparable to a child, with clearly limited progress in that regard. It’s difficult to even understand their reasoning, because I myself, as a trans person, have such a wildly different understanding and more fluid view of things like sex and gender. Sometimes I find myself angry or bewildered by the attitudes of the conservatives in this country, whether it be my family and neighbors or the legislatures dictating my life, but other times I think annoyance and pity is a better fit. The lack of consideration for the wellbeing of others and the uncontrollable desire to be “right” is infuriating.
I’ve been working on this story for several weeks at this point, and over the past few days, the state of Kansas has come out with their own horrific laws regarding trans drivers. Individuals who’d changed their gender marker on legal documents, such as drivers licenses, were informed that-effective immediately-said documents would be invalid with no grace period or consideration for the impact on individuals lives when it comes to employment, healthcare or housing. The republican legislature is filled with disgusting people who enjoy bullying a miniscule percent of the population to satisfy their own moral compass, enacting laws that don’t affect them and perpetuating their pathetic, hateful existence.
This should serve as a wakeup call to the state of our country and the downfall deeper into fascism. If legal documents can be rendered invalid at the drop of a hat with no alternative other than humiliation and discrimination, why would such treatment stop at the trans community? Minorities are often test subjects for larger populations. If as a trans person, my license could become worthless overnight, who’s to say yours couldn’t be too.
