Intro

Just four months into 2021 and there have already been more than 80 bills, introduced in mostly Republican-controlled legislatures, that aim to restrict transgender rights, mostly in sports and medical care.

But what’s the thinking behind the laws, and why are there so many?

We look into the motivation behind the bills and analyze the impact they could have.

Guest: Dan Levin, who covers American youth for The New York Times’s National Desk.

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Background reading: 

• Lawmakers in a growing number of Republican-led states are advancing and passing bills to bar transgender athletes in girls’ sports, a culture clash that seems to have come out of nowhere.

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