Equality Maps
LGBTQ Equality Maps Updates: April 2024
In this rapidly changing landscape, MAP’s LGBTQ Equality Maps provide a detailed snapshot of the current state of LGBTQ laws and policies in the United States. See below for state-level policy updates as of April 5, 2024.
▸▸ State Policy Updates
In this section, state-level policy changes are sorted by updates that are positive and include protections for LGBTQ people, or negative and limit access to education, medical care, IDs, services, and more.
Positive Policy Updates
- Pathways to legal recognition of parent-child relationships
- LGBTQ-related curricula in schools
- Marriage licenses
- Gender neutral markers on driver’s licenses
- Lawsuit against Ohio’s ban on transgender youth medical care
- Vetoing a ban on transgender youth playing school sports
Negative Policy Updates
- LGBTQ curriculum censorship
- Restrictions on gender marker changes on driver’s licenses
- Bans on transgender people’s use of bathrooms and facilities
- Bans on medical for transgender youth
- Religious exemptions: for medical providers, for child welfare services, broad RFRAs
- Transgender-related healthcare for state employees
- Medicaid coverage for transgender-related health benefits
- Bans on gender-neutral markers on birth certificates
Pathways to legal recognition of parent-child relationships
See our Equality Maps on different pathways to parentage here. Each map has a corresponding fact sheet available through the orange button beneath the map legend.
- April 1: In Michigan, the state enacted the Michigan Family Protection Act, a package of nine bills that modernize the state’s parenting laws. This change includes the following updates to our maps:
Michigan is the 12th state to expand voluntary acknowledgement of parentage (VAP) to LGBTQ and non-genetic parents.
Michigan is the 18th state (including D.C.) to recognize parents of children born through assisted reproduction regardless of the parents’ marital status. This is significant as nearly 1 in 3 LGBTQ adults in the U.S. are raising children under the age of 18, many living in states that still have outdated parentage laws.
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LGBTQ-related curricula in schools
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- March 11: In Florida, a settlement was reached that narrows the harm of the state’s “Don’t Say LGBTQ” law. While Florida’s ban on LGBTQ-related content in curriculum and classroom instruction remains in place, the settlement makes clear that students can ask questions about LGBTQ issues and teachers can respond, schools can have safe space stickers and Gender-Sexuality Alliances (GSAs), and more.
- March 18: Washington became the seventh state to explicitly require that state curricular standards include LGBTQ people and history, such as in subjects like history or social studies.
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Marriage licenses
- March 8: In Virginia, the Republican governor signed a law making it illegal to deny a marriage license to a couple regardless of either person’s race, sex, or gender. It also requires the state to recognize lawful marriages regardless of the parties’ race, sex, or gender. While Virginia’s now-unenforceable constitutional amendment banning gay marriage remains on the books, this new law is an important, explicit recognition of legal marriages.
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Gender neutral “X” markers on driver’s licenses
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- February: In 2019, Illinois passed a law requiring “X” options to be available on state forms and documents, including IDs. However, due to a contract with an outside tech provider that ran until 2024, the state could not introduce X options until the contract expired. Now that the contract has ended, the state has released the “X” option for driver’s licenses.
22 states and D.C. allow people to choose a gender neutral “X” marker on their driver’s license.
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Vetoing a ban on transgender youth playing school sports
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- April 2: The Wisconsin governor vetoed a ban on transgender youth playing school sports. This is the 12th veto of such a ban. MAP’s fact sheet includes the full listing and timeline of states that have vetoed these kinds of bills.
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LGBTQ curriculum censorship
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- March 5: Wyoming enacted a new law requiring schools to notify parents in advance of “any trainings, courses or classes that address sexual orientation or gender identity” and requiring parents to opt their children in to such instruction.
6 states have a law with this kind of parental notification requirement and an additional 7 states censor discussions of LGBTQ people and issues in schools.
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Restrictions on gender marker changes on driver’s licenses
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- March 7: Arkansas’ Department of Finance and Administration, which oversees driver’s licensing in the state, issued a proposed “emergency” rule that made two significant and harmful changes to the state’s policies.
First, it immediately ended the state’s 14+ year policy of allowing gender-neutral “X” options on driver’s licenses. Arkansas is the first state to reverse their policy after previously offering “X” options.
Second, it proposed new, extremely burdensome requirements to be able to change a gender marker (to “M” or “F” only), which were almost immediately approved without any opportunity for public comment. The new process requires that people first amend their birth certificate; however, Arkansas makes it extremely difficult to update the birth certificate, requiring both a court order and “surgical procedure.” Taken together, these requirements will likely prevent many transgender people in the state from being able to update their driver’s licenses.
9 states currently have burdensome requirements that limit the ability to update a gender marker on a driver’s license and an additional two states do not allow this kind of change.
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Bans on transgender people’s use of bathrooms and facilities
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- March 20: Alabama expanded its existing bathroom ban, which applies to bathrooms and facilities in K-12 settings, to include bathrooms and facilities in public colleges and institutions of higher education.
This bathroom ban was part of a larger bill restricting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in higher education. The law does not go into effect until October 1, 2024.
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Bans on medical care for transgender youth
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here, including a chronology and details on effective dates, exceptions, lawsuits, and more.
There are now 24 states with a ban or restriction on medically necessary, prescribed health care for transgender youth. Nearly 2 in 5 (38%) transgender youth live in states with these bans. However, lawsuits have been filed against the bans in 17 of these states.
- March 22: Wyoming became the 24th state to ban transgender youth’s medical care. The ban will not go into effect until July 1, 2024.
- March 26: In Ohio, a lawsuit was filed against the state’s legislative ban on transgender youth medical care. The ban is set to go into effect on April 24, 2024, though the lawsuit includes an ask for the court to prevent the ban from going into effect or being enforced during the lawsuit.
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Religious exemptions for medical providers
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- March 21: In Idaho, the state enacted a religious exemption law allowing counselors and therapists to refuse to work with people if doing so conflicts with the therapist’s “religious, moral, or ethical values.”
This wide scope would allow mental health providers to refuse to work with a wide range of people, including but not limited to LGBTQ people.
Idaho is now the 10th state with such a law, though two of those states (Idaho and Tennessee) apply only to mental health providers; the remaining eight apply even more broadly to all medical care providers.
More than 1 in 5 LGBTQ people (21%) live in a state with one of these harmful laws.
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Religious exemptions for child welfare services
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- March 25: In Idaho, the state enacted a religious exemption law allowing state-licensed child welfare service providers — including those providing adoption or foster care services — to refuse to work with LGBTQ parents or children if doing so conflicts with their religious beliefs.
Idaho is now the 14th state with such a law, and now more than 1 in 4 LGBTQ people (26%) live in a state with one of these laws.
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Broad “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (RFRA) exemptions
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- March 21: Utah became the 26th state with a broad “RFRA” law. These laws allow individuals, businesses, and other organizations to seek exemptions from state laws, such as nondiscrimination laws, they say conflict with their religious beliefs.
While RFRAs apply broadly (as opposed to targeted exemptions for child welfare providers or medical providers), the individual or organization must seek out this exemption, such as through a court process. Targeted exemptions, such as those for child welfare or medical providers, are blanket exemptions, creating an effective license to discriminate.
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Transgender-related health benefits for state employees
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- March 27: Idaho enacted a law banning all state funding from being used for transgender-related health care, for both minors and adults. This wide-reaching law will, among other harmful consequences, cause state employees (such as government workers, teachers, their families, and more) to lose their existing insurance coverage of transgender-related health care.
14 states now explicitly exclude transition related health care from its state employee benefits.
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Medicaid coverage of transgender-related health benefits
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- March 27: Idaho’s new law banning all state funding from being used for transgender-related health care, for both minors and adults, also means the state’s Medicaid program will now explicitly exclude coverage of transgender-related health care.
10 states now exclude transgender related health care in Medicaid.
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Bans on gender-neutral “X” markers on birth certificates
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- March 27: In West Virginia, the state enacted a ban on gender-neutral “X” markers on birth certificates. It is the third state to do so, joining Oklahoma and North Dakota.
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▸▸ Local Policy Updates
The city of Bethany, West Virginia, with a population of 762 people, enacted a nondiscrimination ordinance covering both sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, and public accommodations.
Bethany is the 19th city in the state with these protections.
▸▸ MAP’s LGBTQ Equality Bill Tracker
To continue highlighting trends across the country, included below are our current bill tracking counts for anti-LGBTQ bills in state legislatures.
Note: these counts may differ from other organizations or public counts for a variety of reasons, and this work is greatly facilitated by the work of other organizations, including the ACLU and the Equality Federation and their member state groups.
As of April 4, 2024, the count of anti-LGBTQ bills so far in 2024 is:
- At least 475 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced across at least 40 states.
- At least 39 bills redefining “sex” to enable discrimination against transgender people have been introduced across at least 20 states.
