Summary: <p>2022 has seen <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/17/politics/state-legislation-lgbtq-rights/index.html">more anti-LGBTQ legislation</a> proposed so far than any other year. According to LGBTQ advocacy group <a href="https://freedomforallamericans.org/about/our-programs/">Freedom for All Americans</a>, <a href="https://freedomforallamericans.org/legislative-tracker/anti-lgbtq-bills/">39 states</a> introduced more than <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/09/18/1123697784/virginia-transgender-students-public-schools-glenn-youngkin">200 such bills</a> since April. The legislation <a href="https://www.aclu.org/legislation-affecting-lgbtq-rights-across-country">mainly targets trans youth</a>, running the gamut from <a href="https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/BillOverview/76466">healthcare restrictions</a>, <a href="https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=89&ba=HF%202416&v=i">exclusion from sports</a> and even <a href="https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/texas-wants-to-take-trans-kids-from-their-supportive-parents-were-suing">equating gender affirming parenting</a> to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/idaho-trans-health-care-youth-bill-rcna19287">child abuse</a>. </p> <p>For <a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/carolyn-hays/42198">Carolyn Hays</a>, that policy threatened her family when an investigator from the Department of Children and Families knocked on her door. In her new memoir, <a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/carolyn-hays/a-girlhood/9781529064483">A Girlhood: Letter to My Transgender Daughter</a><em>, </em>Hays writes: <em>“...we quickly learned that in this southern state with Republican-appointed judges, we could lose custody. We could lose you.”</em></p> <p>We hear from Carolyn on how raising her daughter expanded her understanding of parenting, faith, science and gender. </p>
