2024 has already seen a significant number of anti-LGBTQ bills considered in state legislatures across the county. Of these 527 bills (some of which carried over from or were reintroduced following the previous session), at least 160 promise to specifically impact transgender Americans, with 112 restricting or banning access to gender-affirming care and 40 restricting or banning access to bathrooms, locker rooms, or other gender-specific facilities. 

Currently, 25 states restrict or ban gender-affirming care for trans youth (9 of which passed such legislation this year) while 13 states restrict or ban public facility access for trans people (3 of which passed such legislation this year). 

While 41 of the anti-LGBTQ bills tracked by the ACLU so far in 2024 have passed into law, 339 of the 527 have been defeated. According to a Washington Post analysis of data collected by the ACLU and the Human Rights Campaign, “Historically, 90 percent of the bills that target LGBTQ+ people never become law,” and this year's passage rate could be even lower. 

Some advocates cite these declining passage rates in the hope that the recent wave of anti-trans legislative action is waning. Others warn that federal anti-trans measures could further complicate state policy if former President Donald Trump is elected to a second term and more extreme anti-LGBTQ measures — including The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, which details plans to bar federal funding for gender-affirming care — come to fruition. 

New data from Media Matters finds that cable coverage of anti-trans legislation — specifically laws introduced into state legislatures that sought to ban or restrict trans people's access to gender-affirming care or public facilities — decreased dramatically in the first six months of 2024, as compared to the same period in 2023, while still failing to include trans and gender-nonconforming guests in a vast majority of segments.

In the first 6 months of 2024, MSNBC covered anti-trans legislation for 29 minutes, Fox News covered anti-trans legislation for 23 minutes, and CNN covered anti-trans legislation for 15 minutes, totaling 1 hour and 7 minutes of coverage across all three networks. 

In the first six months of 2023, cable news coverage of anti-trans legislation totaled 7 hours and 6 minutes across 107 separate segments, showing a decrease of 84% in coverage from the first 6 months of 2023 compared to the first 6 months of 2024. 

A Media Matters study of anti-trans legislation coverage in all of 2023 found that the number of segments did decrease over the course of the year, as the vast majority of state legislatures hold session between January 1 and June 30. In the second half of 2023, networks aired 25 segments, and we therefore expect that the second half of 2024 will have even fewer such segments.

Coverage also decreased qualitatively: Of the segments aired in the first half of 2023, only 25% were headline reports — news briefs or quick updates to ongoing stories, usually read by the anchor, host, or headlines reporter in rapid succession — whereas in the first half of 2024, 36% of segments were headline reports. Headline reports do not feature guests and can result in as little as 30 seconds of coverage. 

While the first six months in 2023 included few trans or gender-nonconforming guests (16% of segments), such guests in the same period in 2024 were even rarer at just 8% of segments. In 2024, both segments that included trans or GNC guests were featured on MSNBC, with no trans or GNC guests appearing to speak about anti-trans legislation on CNN or Fox News. 

No segments in the first half of 2024 included the parents or family members of trans or GNC people, another departure from the same period in 2023 when family members of trans or GNC people featured in 8% of segments. 

CNN did not invite any guests to discuss anti-trans legislation, while MSNBC invited guests to speak in 38% of segments and Fox News invited guests to speak in 50% of segments, suggesting that MSNBC and Fox News' audiences were not only more likely to view coverage of anti-trans legislation but to perceive this coverage as meaningful. 

As in the previous period, coverage overwhelmingly favored discussions of access to gender-affirming care over discussions of access to public facilities in the first half of 2024. Every segment recorded in this study included significant discussion of restrictions or bans on gender-affirming care, while only one of these segments also included discussion of restrictions or bans on trans access to public facilities. 

Experts estimate that 19% of trans people over the age of 13 live in states that restrict their access to public facilities, while 39% of trans people ages 13-17 are estimated to live in states that restrict their access to gender-affirming care. 

The percentage of segments that contextualized these restrictions or bans within a larger wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation, sentiment, and violence remained relatively consistent, increasing from 62% in the first half of 2023 to 64% in the first half of 2024. Coverage that echoed anti-trans talking points decreased from 13% to 12% and during both periods was featured only on Fox News. 

The decline in cable coverage of anti-trans legislation may be the result of both GOP legislators and media outlets alike recognizing that anti-LGBTQ measures do not galvanize most voters. If the momentum behind anti-LGBTQ legislation is indeed faltering — with the passage rate dropping from 16% in 2023 to where it currently sits in the first half of 2024 at roughly 7% — it might seem intuitive that the corresponding coverage would wane as well. 

However, while a declining passage rate is certainly noteworthy, the fact that over a third of all bans or restrictions on gender-affirming care and nearly a quarter of all bans or restrictions on trans access to public facilities were passed into law in the last six months is not insignificant. A 2023 poll by The Trevor Project also showed that, regardless of whether a bill passes, the wellbeing and mental health of LGBTQ youth can be negatively impacted merely by the debate of policies that undermine their equal rights, 527 of which were considered across the country in the first 6 months of this year. Experts are similarly worried about the mental health impact on LGBTQ (particularly trans) adults. 

The anti-trans panic of the two most recent legislative sessions has also made its mark on national politics, informing the platforms of some officials running for federal office, including that of former President Donald Trump. In addition, some state measures – including Tennessee's ban on youth gender-affirming care – will be considered by the Supreme Court. 

As the emphasis on anti-trans policy oscillates between state and federal arenas, it only becomes more critical that national outlets include the voices of the trans and gender-nonconforming people whose daily lives will be impacted by this legislation, regardless of where it originates. 

Charts by Molly Butler.

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream and Kinetiq video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel, CNN, and MSNBC for any of the terms “trans,” “transgender,” “biological boy,” “biological men,” “biological male,” “biological girl,” “biological women,” “biological female,” “gender identity,” or “single sex” within close proximity of any of the terms “restroom,” “bathroom,” “locker room,” “women’s spaces,” “girls room,” “boys room,” “gender affirming,” “health,” “puberty,” “surgery,” “surgical,” “therapy,” “counsel,” “dysphoria,” “mutilation,” “mutilate,” or “hormone” from January 1, 2024, through June 30, 2024. 

We included segments, which we defined as instances when gender-affirming-care or bathroom bans were the topic of significant discussion or when we found significant discussion of such anti-trans bans. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed such anti-trans bans with one another.

We did not include mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned such anti-trans bans without another speaker in the segment engaging with the comment, or teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about such anti-trans bans scheduled to air later in the broadcast.

We then reviewed the identified segments for whether they discussed gender-affirming-care or bathroom bans; featured a trans or gender-non-conforming guest; contextualized the legislation within a larger wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation, sentiment, and violence; echoed anti-trans talking points, such as claims that trans women pose a particular danger to cis women in single-sex spaces or that trans identity is the product of mental illness, rendering gender-affirming care unnecessary or abusive; or cited statistical or scientific evidence to rebut the aforementioned anti-trans talking points.