LGBTQ+ rights are under attack throughout the country. Nearly 500 bills targeting LGBTQ+ people have been proposed in the U.S. to date, including in every state in New England. Eighteen Republican-controlled states have so far passed laws banning gender affirming health care, affecting 1 in 4 transgender youth.

In Montana, State Rep. Zooey Zephyr, who is transgender, was ousted from the Republican-led House of Representatives last week for her passionate statements objecting to a ban on hormone treatments and surgical care for transgender children. Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill into law last week, despite pleas from his son David, who identifies as nonbinary.

In Nebraska, state Senator Megan Hunt is being investigated for allegedly having a conflict of interest for her opposition to a law that would ban gender-affirming health care. Her supposed conflict? She is the mother of a transgender child.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and other leading medical organizations support gender affirming care and warn that bans pose serious health risks to young people.

Rep. Taylor Small, 29, is among just 8 out transgender state legislators in the country, and is the first out trans legislator in Vermont. She was elected in 2020 to represent Winooski. A graduate of Colchester High School and the University of Vermont, Small is also education program manager at the Pride Center of Vermont, where we had this conversation. Small was named a 2022 Politician of Year by One Young World, an international youth leadership organization based in the U.K.

Small said that anti-LGBTQ+ laws – from barring trans and nonbinary youth from participating in school sports, to book bans, to criminalizing gender-affirming health care – “are killing our youth. They are showing them that there is no hope for their future where they can be thriving trans adults.”

By contrast, she said that she and Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr “are trying to show that beacon of hope that you can still be involved, that you do have leadership qualities, and not only can you participate, but you can have a fulfilling life.”

“This is nothing new that we've seen in politics…going after and targeting specific groups of people,” Small asserted. “What group does the general public have a lot of ignorance around and have a lot of questions? That is the trans community. As we see this growing recognition and visibility, it also comes with that backlash of ‘That is not what I grew up with, that is not my understanding of gender.’”

As other states restrict access to reproductive and gender-affirming health care, the Vermont legislature has passed two reproductive “shield bills,” S.37 and H.89, which protect doctors and patients who give and receive this care, respectively.

“Vermont is saying that we're putting this shield around our border, that as long as you are in our state, as a provider or as a patient, that you are protected by our laws and recognizing that gender affirming care and reproductive health care are legally protected,” she said.

Small cautioned that vigilance is required to stop anti-LGBTQ attacks in Vermont. “It absolutely could happen here,” she said, citing anti-trans incidents in Randolph and Burlington.

“As long as we continue to engage as leaders and engage in these difficult conversations, I think we can prevent what is happening in Montana, what is happening in Oklahoma and in Tennessee, from happening right here in our own state.”