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Timeline › 2025 › March › 19

March 19, 2025

8 entries on this date.

Commerce Secretary Lutnick urged Fox News viewers to buy Tesla stock as Musk led DOGE

During a March 19, 2025 Fox News appearance, in which he was identified on screen by his official title, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urged viewers to buy Tesla stock as the company's shares slid amid backlash over CEO Elon Musk's role leading the Department of Government Efficiency. Federal ethics rules bar executive-branch officials from using their office or title to endorse a product or company. Within 48 hours, a House Oversight Committee ranking member opened an investigation and the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint, each citing the same rule.

Florida Capitol Police arrested a transgender woman for using the women's restroom under HB 1521

On March 19, 2025, Florida Capitol Police arrested Marcy Rheintgen, a 20-year-old transgender college student, for using the women's restroom at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, in a planned act of civil disobedience against HB 1521's facility-access ban. She was charged with misdemeanor trespassing and held for 24 hours in the men's ward before her release. Advocates said it was the first known arrest under any state's criminal ban on transgender bathroom use; the case was dismissed in June 2025 after prosecutors missed the deadline to file charging documents.

Idaho Gov. Little signed HB 345 barring Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming care for transgender residents

Idaho Governor Brad Little signed House Bill 345, the Medicaid Reform and Cost Containment Act, into law on March 19, 2025, taking effect immediately as Session Law Chapter 118. Alongside its Medicaid managed-care and work-requirement provisions, the law prohibits the state's Medicaid program from covering gender-transition surgeries or hormone treatments for both minors and adults, extending Idaho's existing ban on public funding for gender-affirming care. The bill passed the Idaho House 61-9 and the Senate 29-6.

Idaho Gov. Little signed HB 59, the Medical Ethics Defense Act, letting providers refuse care on conscience grounds

On March 19, 2025, Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed House Bill 59, the "Medical Ethics Defense Act," which gives health care providers and institutions a right of conscience to refuse to participate in or pay for nonemergency medical procedures, treatments, or services that violate their religious, moral, or ethical beliefs. The measure passed the Legislature on party lines and took immediate effect through an emergency clause. Reporting and opponents, including Planned Parenthood, warned the exemption could be used to deny care to LGBTQ+ patients and to refuse gender-affirming services, with no standard separating a conscience objection from discrimination.

Idaho Gov. Little signed HB 41, restricting public schools to an approved list of flags and banners and barring LGBTQ+ pride flags from classrooms

On March 19, 2025, Idaho Governor Brad Little signed House Bill 41, which restricts the flags and banners that may be displayed in Idaho public schools to an enumerated list and prohibits the display of any flag or banner representing a political, religious, or ideological viewpoint. The law, effective July 1, 2025, is catalogued by the Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation Tracker as a "Pride Flag Ban" because its viewpoint-based language operates to bar LGBTQ+ pride flags from classrooms.

Utah Gov. Cox signed HB283 shielding foster parents who refuse children and limiting care for youth in custody

Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed House Bill 283, "Child and Family Services Amendments," into law on March 19, 2025. Among its child-welfare provisions, the law bars the Division of Child and Family Services from placing a child with, or taking adverse action against, a foster parent who expresses discomfort caring for a child; prohibits the division from initiating certain medical treatment for a child in its custody without parental consent; and forbids courts from basing custody or reunification decisions on a parent's disagreement with a child's sexual orientation or gender identity. It passed the House 69-0 and the Senate 25-0.

Utah Gov. Cox signed HB252, barring gender-affirming care for transgender people in state custody

On March 19, 2025, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed House Bill 252, "State Custody Amendments," which bars government entities from providing gender-affirming medical care — including hormone therapy — to transgender people held in state prisons and juvenile detention. Sponsored by Rep. Karianne Lisonbee and carried in the Senate by Sen. Derrin Owens, the measure was enacted while the federal government was suing Utah over inadequate care for transgender prisoners.

Wyoming Gov. Gordon signed HB 164 excluding gender-affirming care for minors from new off-label prescribing protections

On March 19, 2025, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed House Bill 164 (Enrolled Act No. 74) into law, authorizing prescribers and pharmacists to prescribe and dispense FDA-approved drugs for off-label uses and granting them immunity from health-licensing-board discipline. The act expressly withholds that authorization and immunity from any prescription intended to transition a minor's biological sex or affirm a gender identity inconsistent with birth sex, placing gender-affirming care for transgender minors in the same excluded category as Schedule I and II controlled substances and abortion-inducing drugs.