Unlike recent years when there was an LGBTQ+ ally in the Louisiana governor's office, nothing stands in the way this year of legislation hostile to transgender people. Democratic former Gov. John Bel Edwards was able to block most such legislation in previous years through vetoes. Now conservative Republican Jeff Landry is in the governor's chair, and the legislation is advancing rapidly. Transgender advocates in Louisiana are organizing their fight, looking to the courts, educating their communities, seeking sanctuary city policies, and recruiting residents to their cause. One advocate says “we are going to continue to fight.”

The rights of LGBTQ+ students will be protected by federal law and victims of campus sexual assault will gain new safeguards under new rules from the Biden administration. The Education Department issued its new Title IX regulation on Friday. It fulfills President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to dismantle rules created by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who added new safeguards for students accused of sexual misconduct. Notably absent from Biden’s policy, however, is any mention of transgender athletes. The administration had planned to include a new policy forbidding schools from enacting outright bans on transgender athletes, but that provision was put on hold as the issue became a political rallying point for Republicans.