The right-wing attack on transgender people has ramped up in 2021, with a record number of 82 anti-trans bills introduced in state legislatures this year in some 28 states, surpassing last year’s count of 79 bills. About half the bills are bans that bar trans students from competing in school sports as the gender with which they identify. Others attempt to criminalize gender-affirming care for trans youth and, in some cases, adults.

Since the election of President Joe Biden, a number of state legislators have proposed so-called “Second Amendment sanctuary” legislation to declare their states immune from federal gun-safety laws they consider unconstitutional. Such resolutions are legally problematic and threaten to override the very democratic systems upon which the country was built.