At least 510 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced in state legislatures across the United States last year — a new record, according to American Civil Liberties Union data as of December 21. That’s nearly three-times the number of such bills introduced in 2022. Education and health care-related bills, in particular, flooded in at unprecedented levels. Along with a renewed push to ban access to gender-affirming health care for transgender youth, there was a heavy focus on regulating curriculum in public schools, including discussions around gender identity and sexuality. Gender-affirming care is medically necessary, evidence-based care that uses a multidisciplinary approach to help a person transition from their assigned gender at birth to their affirmed gender — the gender by which a person wants to be known.