TWIBS: Arkansas Bill Allows Lawsuits Over Haircuts, Pronouns
A bill put forward in the Arkansas state legislature would open up anybody who “aids” in the transition of a minor, medical or social, to litigation for fifteen years… even if they don’t live in Arkansas!
by Alyssa Steinsiek
This Week in Barrel Scraping (TWIBS) is Assigned Media’s oldest column! Every Friday, Alyssa Steinsiek digs deep from the well of transphobia and finds the most obnoxious, goofy thing transphobes have said or obsessed over during the week and tears it to shreds.
Hey folks… do you remember that time the town of Odessa in Texas tried to institute a bounty on trans people using the correct bathrooms by allowing civil litigation against them (and anybody suspected to be using the “wrong” facilities) up to $10,000? Thankfully, that city ordinance was deemed unenforceable when the old city council was ousted by a new set of normal, sane human beings.
Unfortunately, the entire state of Arkansas is trying to copycat Odessa, Texas.
That’s right, the Arkansas state legislature wants to push through HB 1668 and create the “Vulnerable Youth Protection Act,” yet another disingenuously named piece of anti-trans legislation. What transgender horrors does this act protect vulnerable youth from, you ask? It isn’t just puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones that Arkansas Republicans want to target (since they failed to do that in 2023); now they’re going after social transition.
Per the ACLU of Arkansas, “The bill weaponizes civil enforcement by permitting lawsuits against any person who supports trans young people by providing or helping to receive gender affirming care or by affirming young people in their transition.”
Those suits can range from $10,000 per defendant at a minimum, up to $10 million; they can be filed up to fifteen years after the event; and they apply extraterritorially, meaning they can target out-of-state providers and others who help Arkansas residents in accessing gender-affirming care. Since the bill defines social transition as “changes in clothing, pronouns, hairstyle, and name,” it’s entirely conceivable that a barber could be sued for cutting a transgender boy’s hair, or a teacher for using a student’s preferred pronouns and chosen name.
As the ACLU notes, the language of the bill is so far reaching that it’s almost guaranteed to result in countless frivolous lawsuits that won’t hold up in court, but will waste a lot of people’s time and resources, and intimidate allies who otherwise want to support the trans community. Like the Odessa bounty ordinance before it, HB 1668 cannot withstand scrutiny, as it is both impossible to enforce and blatantly unconstitutional.
Is it any wonder that Arkansas Republicans have so much free time to draft legislation meant to terrorize innocent people and those who would support them in their endeavors to be happy? Certainly, there are no other major issues Arkansas’s vulnerable youth need to be protected from. It’s not like the state of Arkansas has the second highest rate of teen pregnancy in the entire nation, right behind Mississippi. And of course nobody would suggest that nearly a quarter of the entire state’s population is illiterate.
No, without a doubt the greatest threat facing young people in Arkansas is the menace of gender as represented by haircuts and pronouns.
If you happen to live in Arkansas, I highly recommend you phone your representative and senators and leave them many strongly worded messages.
Alyssa Steinsiek is a trans woman journalist who reports on news relevant to the queer community and occasionally posts on BlueSky.
