In 2024, the number of anti-LGBTQIA+ bills put forward in the United States has far surpassed the number put forward in any previous year; five hundred and fifty pieces of legislation were proposed in less than three months. The laws range from drag bans to bathroom bills to healthcare restrictions. One hundred and thirty-seven of the bills are focused on denying or curtailing access to gender-affirming healthcare and my home state of West Virginia is carrying a disproportionately hefty load. Twenty-nine of these are West Virginia House and Senate bills.
It is not only the quantity of current legislation that is making me reflect at this moment, but also the fact that less than two weeks from now, I will be publishing a novel, "Shae," with a central character who is a young trans woman living in a slightly fictionalized version of my hometown. When I began writing "Shae" in 2017, I had no idea that by the time it was published, the gender-affirming healthcare that one of the main characters receives would be out of reach for real-life West Virginian youths. I now find myself looking around and asking how we got here and what we can do to fight back.
