A look inside the playbook on transgender health bills

By JEFF McMILLAN, KAVISH HARJAI and KIMBERLEE KRUESI
Associated Press

Legislation to restrict gender-affirming care is often pre-written and shopped out by a handful of interest groups. So-called model legislation has been used in statehouses for decades. Critics say model legislation allows a handful of far-right groups to create a false narrative around gender-affirming care for minors that is based on distorted science. Political observers say Republicans’ recent focus on such legislation is a “wedge issue” to motivate their voting base. The AP obtained the texts of more than 130 bills in 40 state legislatures and analyzed them for similarities to model bills peddled by the groups Do No Harm and the Family Research Council.