Half of U.S. trans teens live in a state that restricts their rights: study

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

Half of U.S. trans teens live in a state that restricts their rights: study

https://www.advocate.com/news/half-transgender-teens-restrictive-laws 🔗

Trudy Ring (29 Jan 2026)

More than half of U.S. transgender youth aged 13-17 live in a state with at least one law restricting their rights, according to a new study from the Williams Institute, a research organization at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law.

The study, titled "The Impact of 2025 Anti-Transgender Legislation on Youth," looks at laws enacted in 2025 and previously.

An estimated 724,000 Americans in this age group identify as transgender, the institute notes. Of these, 382,800, 53 percent, live in one of the 29 states that has enacted one or more laws banning access to gender-affirming care, participation in sports, use of bathrooms and other sex-separated facilities, or gender affirmation through pronoun use.

Thirty-six percent — 262,700 — live in one of the 16 states that has enacted all four such restrictions. An estimated 329,200 trans young people, 46 percent, live in one of the 24 states that passed at least one type of restrictive legislation in 2025.

But nearly 40 percent, or 285,300 teens, live in jurisdictions that have "shield laws" that protect access to gender-affirming care. Seventeen states and Washington, D.C., have these laws, which protect care providers and families from actions originating in states where this care has been restricted and, in some cases, from intrusion by the federal government.