[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 269 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 269
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.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 30, 2023
Ms. Jayapal (for herself, Ms. Jacobs, Mr. Pocan, Mr. Takano, Mr.
Cicilline, Ms. Adams, Mr. Allred, Ms. Balint, Ms. Barragan, Mr.
Blumenauer, Ms. Bonamici, Mr. Bowman, Ms. Brown, Ms. Bush, Mr. Carson,
Mr. Carter of Louisiana, Mr. Casar, Mr. Casten, Ms. Castor of Florida,
Ms. Chu, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. Connolly, Ms. Crockett, Mr. Davis
of Illinois, Ms. Dean of Pennsylvania, Ms. DeGette, Mr. DeSaulnier, Mr.
Doggett, Ms. Escobar, Ms. Eshoo, Mr. Espaillat, Mr. Evans, Mrs.
Fletcher, Mr. Frost, Mr. Garamendi, Ms. Garcia of Texas, Mr. Robert
Garcia of California, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Mr. Gomez, Mr. Green of
Texas, Mr. Grijalva, Mrs. Hayes, Mr. Higgins of New York, Mr. Ivey, Ms.
Jackson Lee, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Ms. Kamlager-Dove, Mr. Keating,
Mr. Khanna, Mr. Kilmer, Mr. Kim of New Jersey, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, Mr.
Larsen of Washington, Mr. Larson of Connecticut, Ms. Lee of California,
Ms. Leger Fernandez, Mr. Lieu, Mr. Lynch, Ms. Matsui, Mrs. McClellan,
Ms. McCollum, Mr. McGarvey, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Meng, Ms. Moore of
Wisconsin, Mr. Moulton, Mr. Mullin, Mr. Nadler, Mrs. Napolitano, Ms.
Norton, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Ms. Omar, Mr. Panetta, Mr. Payne, Ms.
Pingree, Ms. Porter, Ms. Pressley, Mr. Quigley, Mr. Raskin, Ms. Ross,
Ms. Salinas, Ms. Sanchez, Ms. Scanlon, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Schiff, Mr.
Smith of Washington, Ms. Stansbury, Ms. Stevens, Mr. Thanedar, Ms.
Titus, Ms. Tlaib, Ms. Tokuda, Mr. Tonko, Mrs. Trahan, Mr. Trone, Mr.
Vargas, Ms. Velazquez, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Ms.
Williams of Georgia, and Ms. Wilson of Florida) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and
in addition to the Committees on Education and the Workforce, Energy
and Commerce, Financial Services, and Oversight and Accountability, for
a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
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 requires equal treatment under
the law regardless of sex;
Whereas the Supreme Court affirmed in Bostock v. Clayton County 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 medical care, employment, housing, education, lending,
and 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 Nation;
Whereas the provision of best-practice age-appropriate gender-affirming health
care is endorsed by--
(1) the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry;
(2) the American Academy of Family Physicians;
(3) the American Academy of Nursing;
(4) the American Academy of Pediatrics;
(5) the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists;
(6) the American College of Physicians;
(7) the American Counseling Association;
(8) the American Heart Association;
(9) the American Medical Association;
(10) the American Nurses Association;
(11) the American Osteopathic Association;
(12) the American Psychiatric Association;
(13) the American Psychological Association;
(14) the American Public Health Association;
(15) the American Society of Plastic Surgeons;
(16) the Endocrine Society;
(17) the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health;
(18) the Pediatric Endocrine Society;
(19) the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine;
(20) the World Medical Association; and
(21) the World Professional Association for Transgender Health;
Whereas transgender and nonbinary people face significant barriers to legal
recognition of their truest selves on government documentation and
identification;
Whereas transgender and nonbinary people experience disproportionately high
rates of poverty, homelessness, violence, and suicide;
Whereas transgender and nonbinary people 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 people make unique, valuable contributions to American
society and culture worth honoring and celebrating;
Whereas transgender people have existed throughout history across the globe,
demonstrating resilience, bravery, and authenticity; and
Whereas transgender people are parents, siblings, children, chosen family, and
friends deserving of human dignity and support: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives
that--
(1) the Federal Government has a duty to protect the rights
of transgender and nonbinary people as outlined in this
Transgender Bill of Rights by--
(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
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 they protect students from
discrimination based on sex, including gender
identity and sex characteristics, and guarantee
students' right 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
LGBTQ+ 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 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 providers with
competency 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, 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 Bostock decision by--
(i) eliminating hiring and employment
discrimination and workforce exclusion by
amending title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 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 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 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 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 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 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 above are only the first steps
toward transgender equality;
(3) to carry out the goals above, 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.
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