Statement from HRA – Update The Butcher’s Bill – March 30, 2026

Let’s be clear from the outset: what we are witnessing is not a series of isolated policy debates. It is a coordinated, escalating campaign to legislate LGBTQIA2S people—especially transgender and intersex folks—out of public life. Piece by piece, statehouses across this country are attempting to decide who is allowed to exist safely, visibly, and legally.

This week’s Butcher’s Bill lays that reality bare.

In Idaho, lawmakers have now fully advanced one of the most aggressive bathroom criminalization bills in the country. HB 752 passed the House on March 23 (54–15) and, as of March 27, has cleared the Senate as well. This legislation would make it a crime for transgender people to use restrooms or changing facilities aligned with their gender identity in certain public settings.

Let’s not sanitize this: this is the state inserting itself into the most basic human function and attaching criminal penalties to it. It is surveillance masquerading as safety. Civil rights advocates, including the ACLU of Idaho, have named it accurately—a direct attack on the ability of transgender people to exist in public without fear.

In Tennessee, House Bill 1474, cynically titled the “No Pride Flag or Month Act,” passed on March 23. This bill bans Pride flags and LGBTQIA2S symbols from state property, including schools, and prohibits recognition of Pride Month by state and local governments. It even opens the door to civil lawsuits against those who dare to acknowledge LGBTQIA2S existence in public institutions.

This is not about flags. It is about erasure. It is about telling LGBTQIA2S young people, especially in schools, that their lives are not worthy of recognition, celebration, or even acknowledgment. When the state bans symbols, it is not neutral—it is making a declaration about whose humanity counts.

Montana has now gone even further, enshrining into law a rigid, binary definition of sex through SB 458. Signed on March 25, this law defines sex strictly based on reproductive biology at birth, explicitly excluding gender identity, lived experience, and social reality.

The consequences here are sweeping. This definition will ripple across healthcare, identification documents, public accommodations, and legal protections. It effectively erases transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people from legal recognition.

And here’s the part lawmakers hope you don’t notice: Montana courts have already recognized that discrimination based on gender identity can violate constitutional protections. So what we are seeing is a collision between ideology-driven legislation and established constitutional law. That is not stability. That is legal chaos dressed up as “common sense.”

Meanwhile, beyond legislation, we are seeing the real-world consequences of this climate of hostility. In Florida, a deeply disturbing case emerged in which a young person was allegedly tortured by a family member after being outed as gay. The abuse included physical restraint, cutting, and humiliation.

This is what happens when rhetoric becomes reality. When identities are demonized in law and culture, violence follows. And far too often, the most dangerous place for LGBTQIA2S youth is not the street—it is their own home. Schools and educators remain one of the last lines of defense, which makes the broader push for forced outing policies all the more dangerous.

On the global stage, Olympic leadership has decided to return to genetic sex testing for women’s events, including screening for the SRY gene. If implemented, only those classified as “biological females” under this framework would be eligible to compete.

For transgender athletes, this signals near-total exclusion. For intersex athletes, it is even more alarming. Natural biological variation—something athletes have no control over—could become grounds for disqualification. We have been down this road before. It was invasive, unscientific, and deeply discriminatory. And now it is being repackaged as fairness.

This is not about protecting sport. It is about narrowing who is allowed to belong.

And in Ohio, House Bill 249 has passed the House, targeting drag performances by redefining them as “adult cabaret.” The bill restricts where these performances can occur and creates new criminal penalties, particularly if minors are present.

Let’s be honest about the vagueness here. When laws are written this broadly, they don’t just target drag performers. They create pathways to police gender expression more broadly. They blur the line between performance and identity in ways that put transgender and gender nonconforming people at risk simply for existing in public.

Taken together, this week’s developments reveal a pattern:

States are criminalizing presence (Idaho).

They are banning visibility (Tennessee).

They are redefining existence out of law (Montana).

They are enabling violence through rhetoric (Florida).

They are restricting participation in global institutions (Olympics).

And they are policing expression (Ohio).

This is not coincidence. It is strategy.

And yet—this is not the whole story.

Because every one of these bills is being met with resistance. Lawsuits are already forming. Communities are organizing. Faith leaders, advocates, and everyday people are refusing to let their neighbors be erased.

Here in New Mexico, we continue to stand as a reminder that another way is possible. A way rooted in dignity, inclusion, and the simple truth that human diversity is not a threat—it is a gift.

So let this week’s Butcher’s Bill do what it is meant to do: tell the truth plainly.

These policies are not about safety.

They are not about fairness.

They are about control.

And we will not be controlled into silence.

We will keep showing up.

We will keep telling the truth.

And we will keep building a world where every LGBTQIA2S person—every single one—can live openly, safely, and fully.

Because anything less is not justice. It is harm written into law.