[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 144 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 144
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 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
Resolved, 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.
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