The political playbook that unraveled US transgender rights in the past decade
The Guardian traces how transgender rights went from winning courtroom battles in 2016, when North Carolina's HB2 bathroom bill drew boycotts and was quickly repealed, to a coordinated decade of state bans and Donald Trump's second-term executive orders redefining "sex" and cutting gender-affirming care. Experts including Shelby Chestnut, Marie-Amélie George and Elana Redfield weigh in, though trans-rights-supporting Democrats also won in the 2025 midterms.
