Alabama Legislature
The Alabama Legislature is the state's bicameral legislature, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Entries naming it record bills it passed and legislative districts it drew, including a congressional map that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Its measures in the archive span both redistricting and restrictions affecting transgender residents.
2026 Events (2)
Supreme Court lets Alabama use GOP-drawn map eliminating a majority-Black district
On June 2, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Alabama's emergency request to use its Republican-drawn congressional map for the November 2026 midterms, a map with a majority-Black population in only one of the state's seven districts. The unsigned emergency-docket order, decided 6-3 along ideological lines, overrode a three-judge federal panel that had found the map intentionally discriminated against Black voters in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and displaced the court-drawn districts used in 2024. The three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Sotomayor warning that the decision "disregards both democratic values and the rule of law."
Federal panel blocks Alabama's GOP congressional map as intentional racial discrimination
On May 26, 2026, a three-judge federal panel issued a preliminary injunction blocking Alabama from using its new Republican-drawn congressional map in the November 2026 midterms, finding the lines "intentionally discriminated based on race in violation of the Constitution." The map, enacted after the U.S. Supreme Court's Louisiana v. Callais decision that the state read as loosening race-conscious districting requirements, would have eliminated one of Alabama's two majority-Black districts and positioned the GOP to gain a U.S. House seat. The same panel previously found in 2023 that Alabama's map was intentionally discriminatory against Black voters; Attorney General Steve Marshall said the state would immediately appeal to the Supreme Court.
2025 Events (2)
Alabama Gov. Ivey signed SB101, raising minors' medical consent age to 16 and requiring parental access to health records
On May 21, 2025, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed Senate Bill 101 (Act 2025-455), raising the age at which minors can independently consent to medical, dental, and mental-health treatment from 14 to 16, effective October 1, 2025. The law requires health care providers to grant parents access to a minor's medical records except by court order or when a parent is under criminal investigation involving the child, and requires written parental permission for minors under 16 to participate in school counseling. Adolescent-health advocates warned the change strips confidentiality that had let vulnerable minors, including LGBTQ+ youth, seek sensitive care without risking involuntary disclosure to parents.
Alabama Gov. Ivey signed the "What Is a Woman Act," codifying binary sex definitions and enabling exclusion of transgender people
On February 13, 2025, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed SB79, the "What Is a Woman Act," into law, codifying binary definitions of "sex," "male," "female," "man," and "woman" throughout Alabama law based on reproductive anatomy observed or clinically verified at birth, with no exceptions for intersex people. The law directs that transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals be recorded in state vital-statistics and medical registries according to that assigned sex, and authorizes state and local governments to restrict bathrooms, changing rooms, dormitories, prisons, and other sex-segregated spaces on that basis. The measure, sponsored by Sen. April Weaver, took effect October 1, 2025.
2024 Events (1)
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed SB129, banning DEI offices and programs at public colleges and mandating sex-based restrooms
On March 20, 2024, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed SB129 into law, prohibiting public colleges, state agencies, and local school boards from maintaining diversity, equity, and inclusion offices or sponsoring DEI programs and barring the promotion of eight enumerated "divisive concepts," with discipline or termination authorized for violators. The act also requires every public higher-education institution to designate multiple-occupancy restrooms by "biological sex," displacing access based on gender identity. Passed by the Alabama Legislature and signed in Montgomery, the law took effect October 1, 2024.
2023 Events (1)
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed HB261, extending the state's transgender sports ban to public colleges
On May 30, 2023, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed HB261 into law, amending Section 16-1-52 of the Code of Alabama to bar transgender women and girls from athletic teams designated for females at public two- and four-year colleges and universities. The law extended the state's existing K-12 transgender sports ban to higher education and added provisions shielding institutions that comply and students who report violations.
2022 Events (2)
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed SB 184, nation's first felony ban on gender-affirming care for minors
On April 8, 2022, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed SB 184, the "Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act," after the Alabama Legislature passed it a day earlier. The law makes it a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $15,000 fine, to provide puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or gender-affirming surgery to minors. It took effect May 8, 2022, becoming the first such criminally enforced ban in the United States.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed HB 322, barring trans students from birth-sex-assigned school restrooms and restricting K-5 LGBTQ instruction
On April 8, 2022, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed HB 322 (Act No. 2022-290) into law, requiring K-12 public school students to use multi-occupancy restrooms and changing areas designated by the sex listed on their birth certificate. The act, passed by the Alabama Legislature on the final day of its session, also prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in grades K-5 that is not deemed age-appropriate under state board standards, a provision added by last-minute floor amendment. The measure was enacted in Montgomery on the same day Ivey signed the separate SB 184 gender-affirming care ban.
2021 Events (1)
Alabama Gov. Ivey signed HB391, barring transgender youth from K-12 school sports
On April 23, 2021, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed HB391 into law, prohibiting public K-12 schools from participating in, sponsoring, or providing coaching staff for interscholastic athletic events in which transgender athletes compete on teams matching their gender identity. The Alabama House passed the bill 73-19-2 on March 18, 2021, and the Senate concurred on April 20, 2021, before Ivey's signature.
2017 Events (2)
Alabama Gov. Ivey signed HB24, shielding religious-exemption adoption and foster agencies
On May 3, 2017, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed House Bill 24, the "Child Placing Agency Inclusion Act" (Act No. 2017-213), barring the state from withholding a license, contract, or funding from a private, state-licensed child-placing agency that declines -- on religious grounds -- to provide a placement or other service conflicting with its written religious beliefs. The protection applies only to agencies that do not accept state or federal funds. Advocacy groups including the Human Rights Campaign and ACLU of Alabama said the law's practical effect is to let faith-based agencies turn away qualified prospective parents, including same-sex couples.
Alabama Gov. Ivey signed HB95 letting providers refuse abortion, sterilization, cloning, and stem-cell services on conscience grounds
On April 27, 2017, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed HB95, the "Health Care Rights of Conscience Act" (Act 2017-189), sponsored by Rep. Arnold Mooney. The law lets any health care provider refuse to participate in a "health care service" — narrowly defined by the statute as abortion, sterilization, human cloning, or embryonic stem-cell research — by filing a written conscience objection in advance, with an exception only when no alternate provider is available and a patient's life is in immediate danger.