Equality Maps
LGBTQ Equality Maps Updates: May 2026
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 and MAP’s bill tracking updates as of May 26, 2026.
▸▸ State Policy Updates
Bans on gender marker changes on driver’s licenses
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- April 8: Mississippi enacted SB2322, banning gender marker changes on driver’s licenses. There are now at least eight states that explicitly ban such changes on driver’s licenses, all of which have been enacted since 2023.
Bans on gender marker changes on birth certificates
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- May 7: Oklahoma enacted HB1225, codifying an existing ban on gender marker changes on birth certificates. This comes on the heels of another Oklahoma law enacted in March 2026, newly banning gender marker changes on driver’s licenses.
Forced outing of transgender youth in schools
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- April 10: Idaho enacted a new law, H822, requiring school staff to out transgender youth if the student asks for certain supports, such as being referred to by a different name or pronouns, using restrooms or playing on sports teams according to their gender identity.
This new law also applies to childcare providers as well as medical, behavioral, or mental health care providers. This is the first forced outing law to apply beyond school settings. The law does not go into effect until July 1, 2026.
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.
- April 10: Idaho’s forced outing law, H822, also expanded the state’s existing ban on medical care for transgender youth. It added new language prohibiting “covered entities” — defined to include schools, childcare providers, and medical, behavioral, or mental health care providers — from “aiding or abetting” transgender minors in obtaining gender-related medical care, even though such care is already banned in the state. This expansion impacts, for example, the ability of doctors to provide referrals to out-of-state providers. The law does not go into effect until July 1, 2026.
- May 15: A state court temporarily blocked enforcement of Kansas’ law banning medical care for transgender youth.
Family leave laws
See our Equality Maps here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- April 22: Virginia became the first state in the South to enact a paid family leave law, and the new law also contains broad and inclusive definitions of family.
Medicaid coverage of transgender-related health benefits
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- April 24: Tennessee enacted SB2118/HB2498, which makes permanent an already-existing ban on the state’s Medicaid program from covering transgender-related medical care. The ban, which had already been the state’s policy since at least 2006, applies to all people regardless of age.
Conversion “therapy” laws
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- May 7: Tennessee enacted SB676/HB754, which, among other provisions, bans cities and counties from passing local-level protections against conversion “therapy” for transgender youth.
On March 31, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in Chiles v. Salazar regarding existing laws restricting conversion “therapy” practices.
Importantly, this ruling does not prevent states or localities from regulating conversion practices. As the National Center for LGBTQ Rights — one of the key legal groups fighting conversion practices for years — describes, “The Court’s narrow decision addressed only one specific regulatory approach — advance restrictions on licensed mental health providers — and left untouched the broad array of legal tools such as malpractice and consumer fraud laws that protect LGBTQ youth and hold conversion therapists accountable for the harm they cause. As the decision today makes clear on p. 21, ‘a traditional malpractice action’ remains viable and does not implicate free speech.”
The ruling instead sends the case back to Colorado for further review under different standards. For more detail and analysis, see NCLR’s press release.
Regulating gender to allow discrimination against transgender and nonbinary people
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- May 7: Tennessee enacted HB1271/SB936, which expanded its existing gender regulation law from 2023. The new law requires all state agencies, local governments, and school districts throughout the state to revise any existing ordinances, rules, policies, and more to ensure alignment with the state’s discriminatory and exclusionary definition of “sex.”
Bans on transgender people’s use of bathrooms and facilities
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- May 15: South Carolina enacted H4756, making its existing bathroom ban permanent and expanding it at the same time. The state first enacted a bathroom ban in K-12 schools in 2024, but because it was passed as part of the state’s annual budget, it needed to be renewed each year. This year’s bill makes the K-12 ban permanent and expands it to also apply to public colleges.
- May 22: Tennessee enacted SB468, which expands its existing ban. The state first enacted its K-12 bathroom and facilities ban in 2021; this new law expands the ban to include domestic violence shelters, correctional facilities, and juvenile detention facilities.
Religious exemptions for medical providers
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- May 19: Iowa enacted HF 571, allowing medical providers to refuse to provide care to LGBTQ people and others based on the religious beliefs of the providers or the provider’s employer.
Changes in MAP’s Policy Score categorizations
See our Overall, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity Policy Score maps here, summarizing states’ scores across all the 50+ laws and policies we track.
- With Virginia’s new paid leave law, the state improved from “Fair” to “Medium” in our Overall Policy Score.
- With Iowa’s new religious exemption, the state declined from “Low” to “Negative” in our Overall Policy Score.
▸▸ 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. 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, The Trevor Project, and state LGBTQ groups.
As of May 26, 2026, MAP is tracking over 400* anti-LGBTQ bills across at least 43 states.
* Note: this count does not include inactive carryover bills from 2025 sessions — i.e., bills which were introduced in 2025, carried over to the 2026 session, but have seen no activity in calendar year 2026.
▸▸ Learn more
Follow MAP’s socials to stay connected as we release new research and analysis:
In case you missed it, MAP launched a new website in mid-April. Read more about the site’s improved functionality below, and visit us today at mapresearch.org.
