[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 144 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






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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