Transgender Bodies are the Battleground: Backlash, Threat, and the Future of Queer Rights in the United States

Abstract Legislation that seeks to restrict the ability of transgender people to fully participate in society has proliferated across state legislatures in the last four years. In legislative sessions throughout the United States, legislators have argued in favor of denying transgender people access to public facilities, sports, health care, and even their own guardians. What can these debates tell us not only about the backlash against transgender people but the queer community and women more broadly? Using an analysis of the debate on anti-transgender legislation in two state legislatures, we argue that legislators attempt to gain support for anti-transgender legislation using paternal, protectionist frames and by coopting the language of feminism. We argue that the gender essentialism and heteronormativity at the center of these debates indicates an attempt on behalf of conservative movements and legislators to pursue an idealized, heteropatriarchal society with a strict gender binary.