New Mexico and 18 other states have announced plans to introduce legislation they say will be needed to protect transgender kids from civil and criminal penalties when seeking gender-affirming care.

The proactive response follows proposed legislation in Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, Alabama and other states criminalizing such care.

Havens Levitt, chair of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network of New Mexico, said the dehumanizing language increasingly used to describe trans students takes a toll on kids' mental health.

"It's really heartbreaking to know that students hear some of the incredibly hateful things that are being said about them from adults," Levitt explained. "When our students in New Mexico hear those things, I know that it impacts them."

At a news conference in California last week, a coalition of LGBTQ legislators, health providers and civil-rights groups, including representatives from New Mexico, announced plans to pass laws to provide safe havens for trans youths and their families.

For nearly 20 years, New Mexico has had a law to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Three years ago, legislators also passed the "Safe Schools for All Students Act" which required schools to enact anti-bullying policies. Nonetheless, Levitt noted some areas of the state could use more resources to keep students safe.

"Transgender people have incredibly high rates of suicide attempt and completion," Levitt pointed out. "That just contributes to that sense of not belonging and not having the right to live the way they want to live and be who they want to be."

Upon taking office, President Joe Biden reversed several anti-LGBTQ executive orders issued under President Donald Trump, but Levitt worries with the new attacks, the fight for civil rights is not over.

"There's so many things happening right now that feel like we're going to live in this universe of two Americas," Levitt lamented. "It feels like we're going to be playing defense for I don't know how long, but it's definitely not very comfortable."

There were more than 300 bills introduced targeting the LGBTQ community nationwide in 2022, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Oral arguments were held this week on an appeal blocking an Arkansas law from going into effect. The law would prevent young people from getting gender-affirming health care.

Act 626 of 2021 banned health care professionals from providing or referring transgender youth for medical care.

The ACLU of Arkansas filed suit against the state, and a federal judge in the Eastern District of Arkansas granted a preliminary injunction last July.

Now, the state is appealing the decision, saying gender-affirming care is experimental and potentially harmful to youth.

Sarah Everett, policy director for the ACLU of Arkansas, said the clients they represent in the case believe this kind of care has been lifesaving.

"Gender dysphoria is a difficult problem to live with as a young person, especially when you add the kind of bullying and discrimination they face on top of that," Everett observed. "Gender-affirming care helps to bring their physical appearance into alignment with their gender identity."

The Arkansas Legislature overrode a veto of the act last year by Gov. Asa Hutchinson. The act would also permit private insurers to refuse to cover gender-affirming care for transgender people of any age.

Arkansas was the first state to pass a ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender youth. Since then, an Alabama law has gone into effect and lawmakers in other states have introduced similar legislation. Everett sees the case as a possible litmus test for health care access for transgender youth on a national level.

"We hope that our District Court decision would deter other states from doing the same," Everett stressed. "And we hope that a good decision from the Eighth Circuit will cement the fact that kids have a right to receive this care, not to be discriminated against simply because they're transgender."

U.S. District Court Judge James M. Moody, Jr., who temporarily blocked Act 626 from going into effect, is scheduled to hear the case, Brandt v. Rutledge, this October.

A leading LGBTQ organization in Iowa said community members won't back down after authorities in Idaho blocked a planned riot at a Pride event there. Thirty-one members of a white nationalist group were arrested Saturday after law-enforcement officials got word of the plans.

Keenan Crow, director of policy and advocacy for One Iowa Action, said it follows more heated rhetoric in the past year amid a push by some conservatives to adopt policies deemed hostile toward those who identify as LGBTQ. They feel politicians on the right are fostering a more toxic environment.

"Painting the LGBTQ community with this kind of defamatory brush, it's not a surprise they would then gear up and try to disrupt an event in this way," Crow asserted.

But Crow noted LGBTQ people are used to hostilities and won't be intimidated from celebrating their sexual identity during Pride festivals in Iowa and elsewhere. In a number of cases, elected officials behind policies in question will cite reasons such as religious beliefs, and Iowa recently joined the group of states to approve a so-called "transgender sports" law.

Among Iowa leaders, the group pointed out recent comments by Gov. Kim Reynolds do not help the situation. At the GOP State Convention, Reynolds suggested "elementary school lessons on pronouns" are hurting public education. But Crow countered it is a great place to start in teaching people how to treat LGBTQ people as equals.

"One of those basic elements of respect is getting somebody's name right, their pronouns right," Crow explained. "But if they're being demonized by the top government official in the state as somehow harmful, yeah, that's going to put a damper on our ability to make sure that people are treated with basic decency and respect."

And while Reynolds' comments might not be as extreme as other conservative politicians, Crow added it appears she is trying to ramp up the rhetoric in the current environment. This spring, a Des Moines-area school district issued a diversity audit, which found racial and anti-LGBTQ slurs were a "pressing concern."

Two families are suing the State of Utah over a controversial law that allows schools to exclude transgender students from competing in girls' sports.

House Bill 11 was initially vetoed in March by Gov. Spencer Cox, then overridden by the Republican majority in the Legislature to become state law.

The bill is one of dozens either passed or under consideration in mostly "red" states to limit participation in sports and other activities by transgender children. In Utah, the families say the law violates the state Constitution by excluding their children based on their identity.

Aaron Welcher, communications director with the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah said he thinks the measure has set "a terrible precedent."

"What we're seeing is a search for a problem that isn't there," said Welcher. "And ultimately, the most horrible part of it, from a legal and policy perspective, is that it bans a whole group of people for their identity."

When he vetoed HB 11, the governor called the bill "flawed," saying he was concerned how it might affect the mental health of transgender youth.

Legislative Republicans say the law is designed to protect girls' sports from unfair competition.

The families bringing the lawsuit say they are proceeding anonymously to protect their children. They include a 16-year-old high school junior who wants to play volleyball, and a 13-year-old who wants to join a swim team.

Welcher said he worries the measure could open the door for more discrimination toward transgender and other Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer or Questioning individuals.

"The law treats transgender children as outcasts; sends a dangerous message that it's okay to reject, exclude, because of who they are," said Welcher. "The law was not passed in response to any problem."

In his initial veto, the governor noted school officials could find only four instances of openly transgender students participating in Utah sports.

The case is supported by ACLU Utah, Equality Utah and the National Center for Lesbian Rights.