Are there really more than 400 'anti-trans' bills?

As the battle over transgender-related legislation heats up in statehouses across the country, some Democrats and activists have warned that transgender people are under attack from an avalanche of dangerous proposals.

The huge number of bills is often cited in conversations about the urgency of advancing transgender rights.

Some of the bills lumped into the statistics take a harsher approach than others. For example, several states have moved to criminalize any effort by healthcare professionals to provide gender transition surgery to a minor under any circumstances.

The latest flashpoint in the battle over transgender rights came in North Dakota this week when the state legislature failed to override the Republican governor’s veto of a transgender-related bill. That bill would have stopped schools and state agencies from requiring the use of preferred pronouns, which transgender advocates argued would have allowed public officials to misgender people.

Activists had claimed the North Dakota pronouns bill was one of hundreds of “anti-trans” bills working their way through the legislatures of virtually every state as they seek to paint the country as overwhelmingly hostile toward transgender people.

The Trans Legislation Tracker says 492 bills in 47 states have targeted transgender people this year, for example.

The American Civil Liberties Union cites 451 current “anti-LGBTQ” bills.