4 Organizations Write the Bills. 29 States Pass Them. $215 Million in Ads Sell Them.

100 Bills Became 1,020

In 2019, about 100 anti-trans bills were introduced across the country. Eight passed. In 2021, the number jumped to 184. By 2023, it was over 500.

In 2025, 1,020 anti-trans bills were under consideration in state legislatures across the country. 29 states now have at least one anti-trans law on the books.

1,020 anti-trans bills introduced in 2025. Up from 100 in 2019.

That is not 29 states independently arriving at the same conclusion. That is a supply chain.

The Template

An AP investigation found that many of the bills restricting trans healthcare came from a handful of far-right groups.

A Pavement Pieces analysis found that roughly 200 anti-trans bills — about 20% of all bills tracked — use identical or near-identical language. Same sentences. Same definitions.

Same enforcement mechanisms. Different state letterheads.

86% of anti-trans bills target children. Not adults. Children.

A coalition called Promise to America’s Children, made up of 23 organizations, runs a website where state legislators can download ready-made bills targeting trans youth healthcare and sports participation.

Who Writes Them

Four organizations produce most of the model legislation and fund the litigation.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is a legal advocacy group with annual revenue over $300 million. The Southern Poverty Law Center designates it a hate group.

ADF drafts model bills and provides legal strategy to state legislators. When a trans healthcare ban gets challenged in court, ADF is often the organization defending it.

The Heritage Foundation runs on $140 million a year and produced Project 2025, the 900-page federal policy manual that includes banning gender-affirming care and removing federal nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people.

Heritage Foundation president Kevin D. Roberts wrote in the forward that “children suffer the toxic normalization of transgenderism.”

The Family Research Council has a $30 million annual budget and spends over $1 million a year on lobbying. Also designated a hate group by the SPLC.

The American Principles Project is a 501(c)(4) political organization that spent over $10 million on anti-trans political ads in 2024.

Combined budget: roughly $485 million a year.

What These Organizations Have Done

The four organizations above do not limit their work to U.S. state legislation. Their documented record extends further.

Alliance Defending Freedom was founded in 1993 by six evangelical leaders, including James Dobson (Focus on the Family) and Bill Bright (Campus Crusade for Christ). ADF has:

Filed a Supreme Court brief in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) supporting the criminalization of homosexual acts between consenting adults and linking homosexuality to pedophilia.
Defended state-enforced sterilization of transgender people in cases before the European Court of Human Rights.
Drafted the model Mississippi abortion ban that became the basis for Dobbs v. Jackson, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
Drafted the 2020 Idaho transgender sports ban that became a template for similar laws in other states.
Drafted the “Student Privacy Act” model legislation that produced a wave of bathroom bills in 2017.
Sent letters to public libraries beginning in 2010 threatening legal action if they did not remove books with LGBTQ characters.
Helped create businesses and draft company policies that were later used as the basis for anti-LGBTQ lawsuits, according to a Washington Post investigation. A federal judge in Minnesota dismissed one ADF lawsuit as “smoke and mirrors” that had been “conjured up” to establish legal precedent.
Misrepresented research on the psychological effects of conversion therapy in the 2025 Chiles v. Salazar case, according to The Guardian.

ADF’s revenue was $104.5 million in 2022. A single donor, the Servant Foundation, gave over $50 million between 2018 and 2020. Other donors include the DeVos Foundation, the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, and the Charles Koch Institute. ADF is not required to disclose its donors.

Since 2011, ADF has won 15 cases at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Heritage Foundation president Kevin D. Roberts stated in a February 2026 podcast interview that his position on transgender healthcare was: “You outlaw it.” He described a strategy of “radical incrementalism” to ban gender-affirming care at all ages. He also claimed, without evidence, that transgender medical care is linked to acts of violence.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins purchased the mailing list of former Klansman David Duke for use in a Louisiana political campaign. In 2001, Perkins gave a speech to the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist organization. Perkins has claimed that Target’s trans-inclusive bathroom policies turned stores into “crime scenes.”

Organization	Revenue	SPLC designation	Key action
Alliance Defending Freedom	$104.5M (2022)	Hate group	Drafted model bills for sports bans, bathroom bills, healthcare bans; defended sterilization abroad
Heritage Foundation	$140M/year	Not designated	Produced Project 2025; president called for outlawing all trans healthcare
Family Research Council	$30M/year	Hate group	$1M+ annual lobbying; president has ties to white supremacist groups
American Principles Project	$10M+ (2024 ads)	Not designated	$10M in anti-trans political ads in one cycle

The Theology They Claim

These organizations describe their work as grounded in biblical Christianity. Scholars who study the relevant texts reach different conclusions.

Six passages, known in academic literature as the “clobber passages,” are cited to justify opposition to LGBTQ people: Genesis 19:1-11, Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1:26-28, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and 1 Timothy 1:9-10.

Biblical scholars who study these texts in their original languages note several problems with how they are applied:

The Hebrew in Leviticus is debated. Some scholars argue the prohibition addresses incestuous relations, not consensual same-sex relationships.
The New Testament “vice lists” (1 Corinthians 6, 1 Timothy 1) use a Greek word, arsenokoitai, whose meaning is disputed among scholars. It does not appear elsewhere in ancient Greek literature, and its translation as “homosexual” dates to 1946.
The Genesis 19 passage about Sodom is widely understood by scholars to describe attempted gang rape and violations of hospitality, not consensual relationships.
Romans 1 is the most cited passage. Affirming scholars note it describes exploitative practices in Roman culture, not committed same-sex relationships, which did not have a recognized category in Paul’s world.

None of these six passages mentions transgender people. The concept of gender identity as distinct from biological sex does not appear in ancient Hebrew or Greek texts.

Meanwhile, the Bible contains over 2,000 verses about poverty and justice. Jesus does not mention homosexuality in any Gospel. He mentions caring for the poor, the sick, and the outcast in nearly every chapter.

In November 2025, leaders of 11 major religious denominations signed a joint statement declaring that transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people “are worthy of love, support, and protection.” Signatories included the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Union for Reform Judaism, and the Unitarian Universalist Association.

$215 Million in Ads

In the 2024 election cycle, Republicans spent $215 million on anti-trans TV ads. The Trump campaign alone spent $21 million in a single month — October 2024 — on ads targeting trans people. At one point, anti-trans ads accounted for one-third of all Republican TV ad spending.

$215 million spent on anti-trans TV ads in one election cycle. $134 per trans person in the country.

There are roughly 1.6 million trans people in the United States. That is $134 per trans person spent on TV ads alone.

For context: fewer than 10 trans athletes compete in NCAA sports out of 510,000 total athletes. The sports bans cost roughly $21,500 per trans athlete targeted.

What It Bought

29 states with anti-trans laws. 24 states with healthcare bans affecting 382,800 trans youth, 53% of all trans youth in the country. 24 states with sports bans.

12 states with bathroom bans. 5 states with pronoun restrictions.

A reinstated military ban affecting 4,240 service members. A defunded crisis line that was handling 70,000 contacts a month. Rainbow crosswalks erased in cities where 59% of residents support marriage equality.

This is not a culture war. It is a business model. The organizations raise money by targeting trans people, spend it on legislation, and use the resulting laws to raise more money.

The bills are the product. The outrage is the revenue.

59% of Texans Disagree

PRRI’s 2025 American Values Atlas surveyed 22,000 adults. In Texas, 59% support same-sex marriage. 69% support nondiscrimination protections.

In Florida, 64% support marriage equality. In Ohio, 65%.

Only two states — Mississippi (47%) and Arkansas (50%) — lack majority support. 71% of all Americans agree that transgender people deserve the same rights as other Americans.

The Texas legislature introduced 200 anti-LGBTQ bills in 2025. Eight passed. 120 targeted trans Texans specifically.

The bills do not reflect the voters. They reflect the funders.

The Human Cost

The legislation these organizations produce has measurable consequences for real people.

120,400 trans youth aged 13-17 live in the 27 states that have banned gender-affirming care. That is 40.1% of all trans youth in the country. Human Rights Watch documented families forced to travel across state lines for routine medical appointments, children taken off medications that had been working, and parents facing the choice between relocating or watching their child lose access to care.

90% of LGBTQ+ young people report that their mental health has been negatively impacted by anti-LGBTQ legislation. 39% seriously considered suicide in 2024. For transgender and nonbinary youth, 46%.

The 988 LGBTQ+ youth crisis line was handling 70,000 contacts a month when it was defunded. It had handled 1.5 million contacts in three years. The service cost $33 million on a $520 million budget.

Some families have left the country. Others have relocated to states with legal protections for trans youth. The ones who cannot afford to move stay and manage.

$485 million in organizational budgets. $215 million in TV ads. 1,020 bills. The targets: 1.6 million Americans and their families.