Equality Maps
LGBTQ Equality Maps Updates: April 2025
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 a listing of state level policy changes, plus MAP’s bill tracking and policy research updates, as of April 8, 2025.
▸▸ State Policy Updates
Broad “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (RFRA) exemptions
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- March 6: Wyoming enacted a RFRA, becoming the 28th state with such a law.
Regulating gender to allow discrimination against transgender and nonbinary people
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
There are now 15 states with a law or governor-issued executive order regulating gender throughout state law. As a result, nearly 1 in 8 (12%) transgender people nationwide live under these policies.
- March 12: West Virginia enacted a new law regulating gender by defining “sex” throughout state law to enable discrimination.
- March 14: Wyoming enacted a similar law, though without the governor’s signature. The Republican governor issued a statement criticizing the bill as politically motivated, “overstep[ping] legislative authority and encroach[ing] upon the role of the courts.”
Bans on transgender people’s use of bathrooms and facilities
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
There are now 19 states with a law or policy banning transgender people from using bathrooms according to their gender identity in various government-owned settings. Now, 1 in 4 (25%) transgender people nationwide live under some form of these policies.
- March 12: West Virginia’s new law regulating gender also contained a restroom ban, applying to K-12 schools, higher education, correctional facilities, and domestic violence shelters that receive public dollars.
- March 18: Mississippi expanded its existing bathroom ban to apply to correctional facilities.
- March 20: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Idaho’s existing ban in school settings. Advocates are debating whether this means the ban is still blocked or back in effect.
- March 27: Montana enacted a new law that applies to all publicly-owned bathrooms, including in K-12 schools, colleges, and all government buildings and spaces — including privately owned domestic violence shelters, if they receive public dollars.
Bans on gender marker changes on birth certificates
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- March 18: Indiana’s governor issued an executive order last month defining “sex” throughout state law to enable discrimination against transgender people, and as a result, the state’s Department of Health issued new guidance banning gender marker changes on birth certificates. Indiana is now the eighth state currently with a total ban.
Note: Last year, Texas instituted, virtually overnight, total bans on gender marker changes for both driver’s licenses and birth certificates. This past March 14, the Texas attorney general launched another attack on IDs, issuing a nonbinding opinion arguing that Texas IDs that were able to be updated prior to those total bans should be reverted to the ID holder’s original sex assigned at birth. His opinion, which does not change the law or compel such reversions, argues that courts never had the authority in the first place to order such changes. MAP will continue to monitor this developing story.
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.
- March 18: In Ohio, a state appellate court blocked Ohio’s ban on best practice medical care for transgender youth, ruling the ban unconstitutional. The state will likely appeal. A separate executive order banning surgical care for minors remains in effect, but for now, this ruling means that transgender youth in Ohio should be able to access prescription medication again.
Religious exemptions for medical providers
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- March 19: Idaho expanded its existing religious exemption for counselors and therapists, passed just last year, to now apply to all medical providers.
Confirmatory adoption
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- March 21: New Mexico became the ninth state to offer confirmatory adoptions, offering another accessible pathway to establish a legal relationship between parent and child.
Medicaid coverage of transgender-related health benefits
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- March 27: Kentucky enacted a new law banning Medicaid coverage of best practice medical care for transgender people, regardless of age. The legislature overrode the governor’s veto of this bill. Kentucky’s Medicaid program already explicitly did not cover this medical care, but this new law makes that policy more permanent.
Conversion “therapy” for LGBTQ youth
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- March 27: Kentucky enacted a new law that voids and overrules the governor’s 2024 executive order banning the use of state funds for conversion “therapy.” The legislature also overrode the governor’s veto to do so. This is the first time a state legislature has rescinded an existing state ban on conversion “therapy.”
Bans on transgender kids playing school sports
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here, including a chronology of laws and vetoes, a breakdown of grade applicability, and further analyses.
There are now 27 states that ban transgender students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity. Nearly 2 in 5 (38%) transgender youth live in states with these bans.
- March 27: Montana enacted a new law proclaiming that it is an illegal form of discrimination in education to allow transgender girls to play girls’ sports. Montana first enacted a transgender sports ban in 2021, but a court decision later ruled part of it unconstitutional, and that court case is still ongoing. This new law, which will not go into effect until October 1, is a different tactic to ban transgender youth (in this case, girls specifically) from participating equally in school sports.
Changes in MAP’s Policy Tally categorizations
See our Overall, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity Policy Tally maps here, summarizing states’ scores across all the 50+ laws and policies we track.
- West Virginia’s new discriminatory laws dropped the state to “Negative” on our Gender Identity Tally.
- Kentucky’s new laws dropped the state to “Low” on our Sexual Orientation Tally and to “Negative” on our Gender Identity Tally.
▸▸ MAP Policy Research Updates
To better visually communicate states with court rulings blocking enforcement of anti-LGBTQ laws, we are piloting a new gavel icon — as opposed to our previous use of an asterisk — on two maps:
- Bans on Best Practice Medical Care for Transgender Youth (pictured below)
- Bans on Transgender Youth Participation in Sports
▸▸LGBTQ Bill Tracking Updates
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, Trans Formations Project, and the Equality Federation and their member state groups.
As of March 31, 2025, MAP is tracking over 625 anti-LGBTQ bills across 49 states.
The following map shows the states that have introduced either a resolution about Obergefell or a ‘covenant marriage’ bill to date in 2025.
Importantly, these bills and resolutions make up less than 2% of all bills that MAP is currently tracking this year. However, the renewed attention and explicit attacks on marriage equality are important to note — and to watch in coming years.
