Transgender Rights in Flux: From Progress to Regress

Book info: Transgender Rights in Flux: From Progress to Regress (Hardcover, 228 pages) – Bloomsbury Academic, 2026. Language: English.

Transgender rights in the United States are under attack. While transgender equality expanded during the Obama and Biden years, it was significantly eroded in the two Trump administrations, especially in the second term. Susan Gluck Mezey details how, beginning in 2020, there was an upsurge of anti-transgender bills, especially aimed at transgender youth, in many GOP-led state legislatures. The laws included barring entry to public bathrooms on the basis of gender identity, monitoring transgender-related material in public schools and libraries, and limiting transgender students’ rights to privacy. By 2025, over half the states had adopted policies restricting access to athletics and gender-affirming health care. Transgender Rights in Flux assesses the role of federal, state, and local authorities in determining the rights of the U.S. transgender community. Editorial Reviews Review

“With a granular analysis of recent legislation and court decisions, Mezey expertly documents the decline of transgender rights in the United States during the 2020's. This book will be a useful resource for scholars studying this rapidly changing area.” ―Jami Taylor, Professor of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Toledo, USA

““In Transgender Rights in Flux Susan Mezey has captured, in remarkable and clear detail, the rollercoaster ride of transgender rights in the past decade. The book is essential for those wishing to understand the rapid rise of anti-transgender politics and policy at the state and federal levels.”” ―Jason A. Pierceson, Professor of Political Science, University of Illinois Springfield, USA

About the Author Susan Gluck Mezey is a professor emeritus of political science at Loyola University Chicago.