March 2022

7 entries from March 2022.

Arizona Gov. Ducey signed SB 1138, banning irreversible gender-reassignment surgery for minors

On March 30, 2022, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed SB 1138 into law, adding A.R.S. 32-3230 to prohibit physicians from providing "irreversible gender reassignment surgery" to any individual under 18, with narrow exceptions for intersex conditions, treatment of complications, and life-threatening emergencies. The statute restricts only surgery and does not limit puberty blockers or hormone therapy. Ducey signed it the same day as the separate SB 1165 transgender-athletes sports ban.

Arizona Gov. Ducey signed SB 1165, barring transgender girls from female school sports statewide

On March 30, 2022, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed SB 1165, the "Save Women's Sports Act," requiring public K-12 and college athletic teams to be designated by biological sex and barring transgender girls and women from female teams. The law passed the Senate 16-13 and the House 31-24 and overrode an existing Arizona Interscholastic Association policy that had accommodated transgender athletes.

Florida Gov. DeSantis signed HB 1557 barring K-3 LGBTQ instruction and mandating parental notification enabling forced outing

On March 28, 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 1557, "Parental Rights in Education," barring classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade and requiring schools to notify parents of changes to a student's mental, emotional, or physical wellbeing while barring procedures that would let a student withhold that information from a parent. Critics said the notification mandate risks forcing schools to out LGBTQ+ students to parents without consent, and the law became widely known as the "Don't Say Gay" law.

Utah Legislature overrode Cox veto to enact HB 11, barring transgender girls from school sports

On March 25, 2022, the Utah Legislature voted to override Gov. Spencer Cox's veto and enact H.B. 11, requiring public K-12 schools to designate athletic teams by sex and barring students of the male sex from competing on teams designated for female students, based on their original birth certificate. The House voted 56-18-1 and the Senate 21-8-0 to override; as a fallback if a court blocks that provision, the law creates a School Activity Eligibility Commission to gate transgender students' participation through a case-by-case approval process.

Iowa Gov. Reynolds signed HF 2416, banning transgender girls and women from school sports

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed HF 2416 into law on March 3, 2022, barring transgender girls and women from competing on female sports teams in the state's K-12 public and accredited nonpublic schools, community colleges, and Board of Regents universities. The Iowa House had passed the bill 55-39 on February 21 and the Senate passed a substitute 31-17 on March 2, with the law taking immediate effect as Iowa Acts Chapter 1003.

Peter Navarro defied House Jan. 6th committee subpoena, refused to testify or produce documents

On March 2, 2022, then-White House senior trade adviser Peter Navarro failed to appear for his subpoenaed deposition before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack, having already missed the committee's February 23 deadline to produce documents and asserting executive privilege on his own authority rather than the president's. The House voted to hold him in criminal contempt in April 2022, the Justice Department indicted him in June 2022, and a jury convicted him in September 2023 on two counts of contempt of Congress, resulting in a four-month prison sentence in January 2024. The D.C. Circuit unanimously affirmed both convictions on July 21, 2026, rejecting Navarro's argument that a mistaken belief in executive privilege excused his noncompliance.