The GOP, a dangerous, radicalized minority, has slowly, quietly, built up almost unassailable rule in statehouses across the nation. (Read David Pepper’s “Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines”). They’ve been infiltrating our courts with far-right, Christian nationalist jurists since the 80’s. We are seeing the damage now, with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, along with other infuriating decisions.
Individual states have been test-driving parts of Project 2025 – book banning, criminalizing librarians and teachers, voter suppression, removal of abortion rights, suing people who aid in an abortion, and harsh laws against transgender individuals – these are all components. It is also now legally hazardous to organize a mass protest in Louisiana, Mississippi or Texas. These are not anomalies – they are well-organized experiments in repression and the successful strategies spread like a cancer to other states. If Project 2025 is installed with the election of a Republican president, these policies will ultimately become the law nationwide. California will not be spared.
Take a look at a sample of what’s happening in GOP-controlled statehouses.
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Alaska Bill Would Prohibit State Enforcement of Federal Red Flag Laws
- Dunleavy and legislative allies launch power grab over local school boards
- H.B. 105 – Curriculum censorship, school facilities bans, other restrictions
- H.B. 183 – School sports ban
- HB 174 – Other anti-LGBTQ bans
- Arizona:
- SB 1040: would ban trans students and school personnel from using school restrooms that match their gender identity and allows people to sue schools if they share a restroom or similar school facility with a trans person.
- Arizona GOP advances bill legalizing killing undocumented migrants on suspicion of trespassing
- Arizona GOP lawmakers back bill to prohibit satanic displays on public property
- Arizona House Passes a Bill That Would Force Children To Say the Pledge of Allegiance
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Florida
- Bill to lower gun-buying age passes Florida House
- Outrage as Florida Republicans pass ‘fascist’ bill to remove trans kids from parents’ custody
- Florida bill would make it defamation to accuse someone of racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia
- A Florida Immigration Law Is Turning Farm Towns Into ‘Ghost Towns’
- DeSantis signs a bill that curbs the power of civilian police oversight boards
- Florida House passes restrictions on sleeping in public places
- Florida Anti-Trans Bill Could Raise Everyone’s Health Insurance Costs
- Transgender People in Florida Face Having Their Driver’s Licenses Revoked
- Transgender people residents could no longer update or change their gender on state driver’s licenses. – “A Second Trump Presidency Would Be A Nightmare Scenario For Transgender People”
- GOP-controlled Legislature rejects bills on affordable housing, property insurance, Medicaid expansion
- HB 1069: silences educators by prohibiting any instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity from Pre-K through 8th grade, expanding the “Don’t Say LGBTQ+ Law” passed last year
- SB 254: penalizes providers by inflicting criminal penalties (including felony penalties) on providers who give gender-affirming care; takes licenses away from those providers; and it prohibits Medicare from covering gender-affirming care for transgender youth or adults. It also forbids public funds, including those of a public university, public hospital, city, or county, and Medicare, from being used to provide benefits that include gender-affirming care – for transgender people of all ages. And – uniquely – it allows the state to use gender-affirming care or the “risk” of such care for a child as a reason to give Florida family courts exceptional jurisdiction to set aside another state’s custody determination
- HB 1521: would criminalize transgender people for using the restroom that matches their gender identity
- SB 170: would discourage cities from passing non-discrimination ordinances by raising the barriers to proposing ordinances and making it easier to challenge ordinances in court
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Indiana Bill Would Undermine Education, Exploit Minors for Work
- Indiana Republican introduces bill that would erase transgender people and deny marriage equality
- Lawmakers consider bill to allow religious education during school hours
- Indiana lawmakers trying to kill historic lawsuit seeking gun industry accountability
- Iowa
- Iowa Republican’s bill would defund public libraries, eliminate local library boards
- SF 496: would ban classroom discussions that touch on LGBTQ+ topics in grades K-6, and would also require schools to forcibly out transgender students
- SF 391/HF 327: would censor info about HIV and AIDS from required curriculum standards
- Kentucky
- Louisiana:
- SB 1040: would ban trans students and school personnel from using school restrooms that match their gender identity and allows people to sue schools if they share a restroom or similar school facility with a trans person.
- HB 648: would ban gender affirming care for transgender youth
- HB 466: would impose a “Don’t Say LGBTQ+” style curriculum censorship law
- Missouri
- Proposed Missouri bill would make teachers register as sex offenders if found supporting transgender students who socially transition
- SB 39: would ban transgender students from participating in school sports
- SB 49: would ban gender affirming care for transgender youth
- MISSOURI HOUSE ADVANCES BILL TO CUT ITS CORPORATE TAX IN HALF
- Montana
- SB 518: allows schools to misgender and forcibly out transgender and non-binary students
- SB 458: LGBTQ+ Erasure bill, adopts an anti-LGBTQ definition of “sex” that now impacts the entirety of Montana law
- HB 676: allows parents to withdraw students from public school if they disagree with the lesson plan of the day
- Nebraska
- LB 574: prohibits transgender youth from receiving age-appropriate, best practice gender affirming healthcare and will also prohibit abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy
- Ohio:
- HB 6: would prohibit transgender students from participating in school sports
- SB 83: would restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs or trainings
- Ohio Bill Would Ban Single People From Sending Sexy Selfies
- Bill introduced to ban ranked choice voting in Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oklahoma Republican Introduces Shortest, Most Racist Bill You’ve Ever Read – He introduced a bill that would label many people of color as “terrorists.”
- This Lawmaker Wants to Jail People for Watching Porn
- Oklahoma bill would ban state agencies from celebrating Pride Month
- Oklahoma bill making journalists get licenses, drug tests sparks First Amendment pushback
- Students Dressed as Furries Could be Collected by Animal Control if New Oklahoma Bill Passes
- South Carolina
- Moms for Liberty activists starting taxpayer-funded charter school
- H. 3728: would censor curriculum and prohibit schools from requiring gender or sexual diversity counseling or training for students and staff.
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Tennessee bill targets adults who take minors out of state for abortion
- Tennessee GOP Kill a Bill To Legalize Abortion Exception for Children Who Are Raped
- Tennessee Republicans introduce religious exemption bill protecting anti-LGBTQ+ foster parents
- Bill to allow people with certain permits to carry guns in businesses that prohibit, restrict firearms
- Controversial bill that criminalizes abortion aid for Tennessee teens clears its first hurdle
- HB 239: LGBTQ+ Erasure bill, establishes an anti-LGBTQ definition of “sex” in state statute
- HB 158: prohibits public education institutions from requiring implicit bias trainings
- HB 1269: allows for the intentional misgendering and deadnaming of transgender and non-binary students by their teachers
- Texas
- Texas House passes bill to end diversity, equity and inclusion offices in higher education
- Texas kids would need parental consent to create social media accounts under House bill
- SB 12: would criminalize drag performances
- SB 14: would ban gender affirming care for transgender youth
- SB 15: would prohibit transgender students from participating in sports at public universities
- SB 763: would allow for chaplains to serve as public school counselors
- Utah
- West Virginia
- West Virginia GOP Passes Deranged Bill That Could Put Librarians in Jail
- West Virginia House Bill 4334 (WV HB4334) allows public officials to refuse to issue marriage licenses
- West Virginia bill would allow teachers to carry guns in schools
- National
- HOUSE REPUBLICANS WANT TO BAN UNIVERSAL FREE SCHOOL LUNCHES
- House Republicans Introduce Bill to Expel Palestinians From the Country
- House Republicans Pass First National Bill Targeting Transgender Youth
- Red states threaten librarians with prison — as blue states work to protect them. See date base at everylibrary for updated map.
- Religious leaders
Resources on repressive legislation
- (aclu) In 2023, the ACLU tracked 510anti-LGBTQ bills in the U.S.
- (them.us) A Terrifying 300 Anti-LGBTQ+ Bills Have Already Been Introduced in 2024
- (adl.org) Anti-LGBTQ+ Bills that are Impacting Children, Families and Schools
- Banning or restricting access to books that include LGBTQ+ people, themes or topics
- Preventing or censoring discussions of LGBTQ+ people and topics in school
- Forcing school staff to out LGBTQ+ students
- Allowing teachers and staff to refuse to call transgender students by the pronouns they use
- Preventing transgender and nonbinary students from using bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity
- Preventing transgender students from participating in school sports
- Restricting/preventing transgender young people from getting gender-affirming care and punishing supportive parents
- (guttmacher.org) STATE LEGISLATION TRACKER- Major Developments in Sexual & Reproductive Health
- (NCSL) State Abortion Laws: Protections and Restrictions
- (hrc.org) Year-to-Date Snapshot: 2023 Anti-LGBTQ+ State Legislative Activity
- Over 520 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in state legislatures, a record;
- Over 220 bills specifically target transgender and non-binary people, also a record; and
- A record 70 anti-LGBTQ laws have been enacted so far this year, including:
- Laws banning gender affirming care for transgender youth: 15
- Laws requiring or allowing misgendering of transgender students: 7
- Laws targeting drag performances: 2
- Laws creating a license to discriminate: 3
- Laws censoring school curriculum, including books: 4
Examples of the Heritage Foundation’s ideas adopted in Trump’s first term:
- Leaving the Paris Climate Accord and United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO,
- repealing net neutrality,
- shrinking national monuments,
- Reinstating the Mexico City Policy – essentially a global gag rule instituted by the Reagan Administration, blocking U.S. federal funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provided abortion counseling or referrals, advocated to decriminalize abortion, or expanded abortion services
- adding onerous work requirements to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF) recipients
- opening drilling offshore and commencing coal leasing and oil drilling on federal land.
- More details here.
They have a lot more nifty ideas for returning us to the oligarchic hellhole of the 1920’s, but they need to remove a lot of pesky non-partisan professional civil servants and democracy itself, so Trump can rip through their manual more efficiently.
How far would states go?
Listen to the people driving repressive legislation. For women, the far-right will not be satisfied with just force-birth and access to contraceptives removed. They also would like to remove “no-fault” divorce and women’s right to vote. (They refer to this as “Head of Household” voting.)
How far would they go? An Evangelical-whisperer tells us the facts. It’s worse than you thought.
Frank Schaffer: “Reconstructionists who were who I knew personally back in the 60s and the 70s and the 80s who had a radicalism that included, mark this, people think that I’m exaggerating, included returning to slavery returning to slavery, not just justifying it the killing of gay people, homosexuals prostitutes, adulterers. Their hero is John Calvin of Geneva who solved the quote pro-life problem by having both the woman and the child her fetus drowned for any woman caught pregnant outside of wedlock. People don’t understand how radical the religious right is and I do I was one of them. I was on the inside and I’m still talking to Media friends who don’t quite believe these folks are serious and I just want to say Tom they are serious.“
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 