Southern Queer Newsroom
Republicans are advancing a bill that could ban LGBTQ+ and sex education books from school and public libraries. Senate Bill 74 was introduced in 2025 and passed the Senate along party lines, 32-23 (with one Republican senator abstaining), before failing to pass the House before the end of legislative session last year. Now, in the fourth week of legislative session, the bill has seen renewed focus from Republican legislators, sending warning signs to trans Georgians having to spend another winter and spring fighting.
Clean Libraries and Angry Librarians
In the Hong Subcommittee of the House Committee on Judiciary Non-Civil, the most notable presence was that of multiple leaders of county library systems, including the Gwinnett County Public Library System. Each warned against the bill's effects on the library system, from chilling speech to taking power away from local public school boards to banning LGBTQ+ books from school shelves. While the sponsor, Sen. Max Burns, claimed repeatedly that the bill did not mention criminalizing librarians, the bill referred directly to a provision exempting librarians from prosecutions, meaning if that were repealed, librarians would be criminalized.
This apparently sat poorly with some members of the broader committee, with Vice Chair Hong introducing an amendment based off feedback from one librarian that would limit criminal penalties to librarians who were acting outside of board policy. While this certainly lessened the potential harm of the bill, Democrats were not convinced and pushed for an additional amendment to strike "homosexuality" from the definition of "sexual conduct" used in OCGA 16-12-102.
Republicans immediately refused to accept the amendment, claiming it was too broad and would affect other code sections that use that definition. It's worth noting that under actions under "sexual conduct" would include act of gay sex and that Republicans have used similar legislation around the country to ban books on LGBTQ+ identities, people, and history on the basis that it is "pornographic." The amendment narrowly failed, with the chair of the committee having to cast the tie-breaker vote.
New Bill Could Subject Trans Kids to Ongoing Abuse
On Thursday, February 5, House Republicans introduced House Bill 1210. This bill would make it so that subjecting a trans child to detransition or conversion therapy would no longer count as abuse or neglect by child protective services. In addition, child protective services would be prohibited from keeping a trans child from being fostered by unsupportive foster parents (Section 3), and people working for the state of Georgia (whether as employees, contractors, or volunteers) or working at an institution receiving state funds (which could include a vast majority of political subdivisions, including schools) would be forced to misgender and deadname trans kids (Section 5).
The bill twists the common language of "gender affirmation" into "affirming a child's sex," and defines it to include refusing to seek medical treatment to alleviate a child's gender dysphoria and subjecting a child to conversion therapy. It moves the rhetorical goalpost closer to trans extermination, as has always been the intent of these actors.
Surprise Amendment Reintroduces Gender-Affirming Care Ban
On Tuesday, the tenuous peace in the Senate was shattered as Republican Senator Blake Tillery put forward an amendment to an otherwise unremarkable bill on home healthcare access that would further restrict gender-affirming care (GAC). The text was ripped out of Section 4 of 2025's SB 39, and would ban state funds from being used to cover gender-affirming care and ban state-run hospitals from providing that same care. It also removes the exemption for puberty blockers for trans youth, something Republican lawmakers tried to pass last year with SB 30.
The amendment immediately sparked backlash from Democratic lawmakers like Senator Parent and Senator Merritt. Both decried the attacks on trans kids and accused Republicans of offering only more culture war issues instead of economic relief. Senator Parent's vote in favor of SB 185, which banned trans people in state custody from receiving gender-affirming care before being overturned in court, was thrown back in her face during closing statements, along with her explanation of the vote to a trans constituent during a Zoom call. Unfortunately, one of the strongest defenders of trans rights in the chamber, Senator Kim Jackson, was not present for yesterday's surprise.
Because of how the amendment was introduced, specifically to a bill already passed by the House, members of the House cannot give any speeches in favor of or against the bill; neither does it go back to the Rules Committee for a vote to be scheduled. Instead, the Speaker of the House, Rep. Jon Burns, has sole authority to decide when the bill comes to a vote before the House. Georgia Equality immediately went to work getting Georgians in contact with their state representatives and are having an emergency advocacy day at the Georgia State Capitol at 10 AM.