To hear the full episode, become a patron at petriam.com slash netpanel pod.

Today we are joined by writer, journalist, and documentary filmmaker Melissa Jira Grant.

Melissa is also a staff writer at the New Republic and is recently back from book leave, but we've

asked her here specifically to talk about her new piece called Republicans

are already trying to pass as many anti-trans bills as possible in 2022 that came out this past

week. So, Melissa, thank you so much for coming on. Welcome to the death panel. Hey, you guys. Thanks.

We're so glad to have you here today to talk about this piece that you just wrote, which offers a bit of a picture of what to expect this year from the ongoing campaign of anti-trans

bills that are being proposed at the state level pretty much universally.

And this is a trend that's been building over the last couple of years and something that

we've talked about on the show.

But as you point out in your article, Melissa,

I'm going to just quote you here.

The right has been remarkably consistent in recent years in its incremental state-by-state approach.

Each year, the number of anti-trans measures multiplies from 79 proposed bills in 2020 to 147 in 2021, 13 of which became law.

And as we talked about in the past with front of the show, Jules Gil Peterson, the vast

majority of these bills either seek to prohibit gender affirming care or to ultimately

eliminate trans people from public life.

So it's a much bigger picture than what it is often reduced to, which is simply a sort of

quote unquote culture war problem. Also, I think for context now, I think activists have tracked

something like 280 or more bills that either are planning to be advanced or have already been

advanced for this legislative session.

I mean, obviously, it's a problem that is exponentially increasing.

...