An 'absolute onslaught': Indiana GOP targets transgender rightshttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/an-absolute-onslaught-indiana-gop-targets-transgender-rights/ar-AA16YR4s?cvid=c0daf45711814e9bbfea12e03421c568Story by Kayla Dwyer and Arika Herron
To advocates like Katie Blair, director of advocacy and public policy at the ACLU of Indiana, it feels like the flood gates have opened.
Last year's legislative session was the first time any transgender-related bills took flight in Indiana, when lawmakers overturned Gov. Eric Holcomb's veto of a law prohibiting transgender girls from playing girls sports in schools. This year, advocates are parsing through what they believe is a record number of bills viewed as harmful to the LGBTQ community, and specifically transgender youth.
"I’ve never seen anything like this before out of the Indiana General Assembly," Blair said, calling it an "absolute onslaught."
Republican lawmakers have filed more than 20 bills this session tackling subjects like gender-transition treatment, school curricula and the ability to change one's gender on identification documents ― triple the highest number of bills seen in any other year, by the ACLU's count.
Indiana is not alone. According to The New York Times, Republican lawmakers have filed an unprecedented barrage of bills targeting transgender youth throughout the country, seeing an opportunity to appeal to angry voters on the right.
