Democratic lawmakers across 19 states push want to offer trans youth legal refuge

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Democratic lawmakers across 19 states are pushing for laws that will provide legal refuge for displaced transgender youth and their families. 

The coordinated effort is modeled after a bill proposed earlier this year by California lawmaker Scott Wiener. 

"Today we’re announcing we’re up to 19 states (!) that are introducing legislation granting refuge to trans kids & their families threatened with criminalization/separation," Wiener tweeted. "We’re building a (rainbow) wall against fascist homophobic/transphobic attacks on our community by states like TX." 

The move comes after a slew of transgender-related bills in red states. In Texas, for example, Republican Gov. Gregg Abbott has called gender-affirming treatments "child abuse" and ordered Texas Child Protective to investigate any reported cases, though a judge has temporarily blocked such investigations. 

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In Alabama last month, Gov. Kay Ivey, signed legislation to outlaw puberty-blocking medications for minors. And last month, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill banning non-binary gender markers on birth certificates.

To combat such moves, lawmakers in both Minnesota and New York recently filed refuge state legislation modeled after the bill proposed by Sen. Wiener in March. Democrats in 16 other states plan to follow suit, though about half of their legislatures are out of session or not currently accepting new bills.

Wiener said he began hearing from other states after coming forward with his bill, which would reject any out-of-state court judgments removing children from their parents' custody because they allowed gender-affirming health care. It also would make arrest warrants based on alleged violation of another state's law against receiving such care the lowest priority for California law enforcement.

FILE: State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, discusses his proposed measure to provide legal refuge to displaced transgender youth and their families during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., March 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

"We're sick of just playing defense against what these red states are doing," Wiener told The Associated Press. "We're going on offense, we're going to protect LGBQT kids and their families and we're going to build a rainbow wall to protect our community."

Wiener said it is despicable that any family would have to consider moving to a new state to protect a child, but if that happens, he hopes as many states as possible will welcome them.

"When your kid is being threatened with removal from your home, families are going to consider a lot of different options, and we just want to be clear that if you decide that's the option for you, we're going to do everything we can do to welcome you and protect you," he said.

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Also joining the effort are LGBTQ lawmakers in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.

Fox News’ Brie Stimson, Stephen Sorace and The Associated Press contributed to this report.