A resolution recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and implement a Transgender Bill of Rights to protect and codify the rights of transgender and nonbinary people under the law and ensure their access to medical care, shelter, safety, and economic safety.

Bill: 118-sres-144
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Markey, Edward J. [D-MA]
Introduced: 2023-03-30
Policy area: Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
Subjects: Abortion

Census and government statistics

Child safety and welfare

Due process and equal protection

Employment discrimination and employee rights

Health care coverage and access

Health technology, devices, supplies

Housing discrimination

Mental health

School athletics

Sex and reproductive health

Sex, gender, sexual orientation discrimination

Teaching, teachers, curricula
Latest action: action_date: 2023-03-30
text: Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. (text: CR S1099-1100)

Summaries:
action_date: 2023-03-30
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p>This resolution expresses support for implementing a Transgender Bill of Rights that guarantees certain rights for transgender and nonbinary people with respect to public services and accommodations, employment, housing, health care, and other specified areas. </p>

tv_txt: III 118th CONGRESS 1st Session S. RES. 144 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES March 30, 2023 Mr. Markey (for himself, Mr. Sanders , Mr. Merkley , Ms. Warren , Ms. Hirono , and Ms. Smith ) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary RESOLUTION Recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and implement a Transgender Bill of Rights to protect and codify the rights of transgender and nonbinary people under the law and ensure their access to medical care, shelter, safety, and economic security.

Whereas an estimated 1,600,000 transgender adults live in the United States; Whereas title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ( 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq. ) requires equal treatment under the law regardless of sex; Whereas the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, 140 S. Ct. 1731 (2020), that Federal protection against discrimination on the basis of sex includes protection from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity; Whereas, despite these protections, transgender people still experience discrimination in— (1) medical care; (2) employment; (3) housing; (4) education; (5) lending; and (6) other basic necessities; Whereas State lawmakers introduced more than 300 bills attacking the rights of LGBTQI+ people, and transgender people in particular, in the first 6 weeks of 2023; Whereas the right of transgender and nonbinary people to seek lifesaving gender-affirming care is under threat across the United States; Whereas the provision of best-practice, age-appropriate, gender-affirming health care is endorsed by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Nursing, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Physicians, the American Counseling Association, the American Heart Association, the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, the American Osteopathic Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Public Health Association, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the Endocrine Society, the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, the World Medical Association, and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health; Whereas transgender and nonbinary people— (1) face significant barriers to legal recognition of their truest selves on government documentation and identification; (2) experience disproportionately high rates of poverty, homelessness, violence, and suicide; and (3) detained in jails, prisons, and immigration detention centers are especially vulnerable to violence and abuse and are often deprived of gender-affirming resources and health care; Whereas transgender and nonbinary people— (1) make unique, valuable contributions to American society and culture worth honoring and celebrating; (2) have existed throughout history across the globe, demonstrating resilience, bravery, and authenticity; and (3) are parents, siblings, children, chosen family, and friends deserving of human dignity and support: Now, therefore, be it

That it is the sense of the Senate that— (1) the Federal Government has a duty to protect the rights of transgender and nonbinary people by implementing a Transgender Bill of Rights that includes— (A) ensuring transgender and nonbinary people have equal access to services and public accommodations that align with their gender identity by— (i) amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ( 42 U.S.C. 2000a et seq. ) to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, including gender identity and sex characteristics, in public accommodations and federally funded programs and activities; (ii) expanding the definition of public accommodation to address the full range of places and services that members of the general public utilize; (iii) explicitly clarifying that it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of sex, including gender identity or sex characteristics, in public accommodations and services on religious grounds; and (iv) amending Federal education laws to ensure that those laws protect students from discrimination based on sex, including gender identity and sex characteristics, and guarantee the rights of students to— (I) participate in sports on teams and in programs that best align with their gender identity; (II) use school facilities that best align with their gender identity; (III) have their authentic identity respected in the classroom; and (IV) have access to curriculum and books that accurately portray the substantive history and identity of LGBTQI+ people and Black, Indigenous, and people of color; (B) recognizing the right to bodily autonomy and ethical health care for transgender and nonbinary people by— (i) strengthening, implementing, and enforcing prohibitions on discrimination in the provision of health care on the basis of sex, including on the basis of actual or perceived gender identity or sex characteristics; (ii) eliminating unnecessary governmental restrictions on the provision of, and access to, gender-affirming medical care and counseling for transgender and nonbinary adults and youth; (iii) ensuring that health care providers following standards of care for transgender and nonbinary people are not targeted for criminal or civil penalties, or for professional discipline; (iv) protecting children from forceful removal from supportive homes; (v) protecting providers of gender-affirming care, reproductive health care, and abortion health care from threats and acts of violence related to their work; (vi) expanding access to competent health care providers serving transgender and nonbinary patients, including by recruiting and training more health care providers to provide appropriate care; (vii) expanding telehealth access to provide patients in rural and other underserved locations better access to health care services; (viii) codifying Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), guaranteeing the right to abortion, and codifying the right to reproductive health care such as contraceptives and assistive reproductive technology for everyone, including transgender and nonbinary people; and (ix) banning the use of forced surgery that violates medical ethics and human rights on intersex children and infants; (C) ensuring transgender and nonbinary people can care for themselves and their families by fully codifying the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, 140 S. Ct. 1731 (2020) by— (i) eliminating hiring and employment discrimination and workforce exclusion by amending title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ( 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq. ) to explicitly clarify that employers may not discriminate on the basis of actual or perceived gender identity or sex characteristics; (ii) amending the Fair Housing Act ( 42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq. ) to explicitly clarify that it prohibits all forms of sex discrimination, including on the basis of gender identity or sex characteristics; and (iii) amending the Equal Credit Opportunity Act ( 15 U.S.C. 1691 et seq. ) to explicitly clarify that it prohibits all forms of sex discrimination, including on the basis of gender identity or sex characteristics; (D) providing accessible avenues for legal recognition of transgender and nonbinary identities and guaranteeing full participation in civil life by— (i) eliminating Federal gender identification requirements on government documents that are unnecessary to determine the identity of the holder or are otherwise irrelevant to the purpose of the document; (ii) eliminating burdensome barriers to updating sex and names on passports, Social Security cards, and other forms of Federal Government identification and records, permitting, where possible, changes on self-attestation alone; (iii) requiring that an X marker be available on Federal Government identification and records that still require gender; (iv) requiring States to permit voters to update their name and gender on their voter registration and vote on the same day of Federal elections; and (v) making explicit that existing Federal statutes prohibiting sex discrimination in jury service also prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sex characteristics; (E) strengthening the safety of transgender and nonbinary people by— (i) investing in community services to prevent intimate partner, family, and community violence against transgender and nonbinary people and expand services for transgender and nonbinary survivors; (ii) investing in mental health services and suicide prevention programs designed for transgender and nonbinary people; (iii) banning fraudulent and harmful so-called conversion therapy practices; (iv) ensuring robust regulations and procedures that affirm that claims for immigration relief or asylum based on persecution related to gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics are protected grounds in the context of asylum adjudications; and (v) exploring policies and practices that would improve the safety of transgender and nonbinary individuals incarcerated in jails, prisons, and immigration detention facilities, and ensure that those populations of transgender and nonbinary individuals have access to gender-affirming care, appropriate services, and commissary items; and (F) actively enforcing the civil rights of transgender and nonbinary people by all government agencies including by— (i) requiring the Attorney General to designate a liaison within the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice whose job is dedicated to advising on and overseeing enforcement of the civil rights of transgender and nonbinary people; and (ii) appropriating the funds necessary to fully staff and support the enforcement of these rights across agencies; (2) the actions listed in this resolution are only the first steps toward transgender equality; (3) to carry out the goals in this resolution, Federal agencies must collect gender identity and sex characteristics information on a voluntary, confidential basis solely for equity and public health purposes in key Federal surveys; (4) the Federal Government must make an ongoing commitment to the rights of transgender and nonbinary people; and (5) policies concerning transgender rights must be led and informed by transgender communities, in particular Black and Indigenous women who face heightened risk of violence, poverty, discrimination, and other harm due to their intersecting identities.