A Look at Everything That Happened
2025’s legislative session was a rollercoaster of emotions. We’re grateful for the tremendous showing of support and activism from every region across our state which ultimately brought us to significant wins.
It’s not lost on us that Missouri saw 77 anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed this past session. Just behind Texas, Missouri currently has the second most anti-bills, a significant portion of the 700 anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed nationally this year. And, of those 77 anti-LGBTQ+ bills, we stopped 73 altogether, we neutralized two to have little impact in their originally harmful intentions, one rolled backed the will of the people (Prop A), and we still have the opportunity to defeat one at the ballot box (HJR 73).
We’re so proud of the collective power our community has — the breadth of expertise among us able to lead in the fight against these creative attacks, the wide reach we have in sharing and taking calls to action, and the dedication of leaders across our communities to stick together supporting this marathon fight — together, we truly only can win.
We all see the dangerous threats to democracy growing, the rhetoric is exponentially louder under this Federal administration, the number of bills more than triples each year, yet it is so clear we are winning — we defeated 75 attacks on LGBTQ+ Missourians, and we will defeat one more!
This legislative session, you helped us stop:
- 20 bills banning transgender healthcare
- 10 DEI bans within school curricula, government entities, and employment
- 7 bills attempting to remove the sunset on the current transgender sports ban
- 6 anti-LGBTQ+ student bills targeting their ability to thrive in schools
- 5 bills defining the term “sex,” including within our Constitution and the Missouri Human Rights Act
- 5 bills banning the ability to change gender markers on state issued IDs / birth certificates
- 4 public bathroom bans — a fight we have won every legislative session for 9 years!
- 4 drag bans — fights we have won every year since these attacks resurfaced in 2022!
- 3 bills making employment discrimination legal
- 2 anti-LGBTQ+ bills targeting IVF and same-gender family planning
- 2 book bans in public libraries and schools
- 2 anti-LGBTQ+ marriage bills — attacks that have not been close to successful since marriage became law of the land over a decade ago!
- 1 campus license to discriminate bill
- 1 bill enabling conversation therapy practice by exempting practitioners from complying with bans in the city/county in which they practice
It’s an understatement to say it was a difficult year. The multiplicity of topics alone was arduous. We faced novel policy language, new twists in oppositional messaging, and consistent late night and early morning hearings multiple days a week. Their goal is always to wear us out, slow us down from showing out, and stack their committees with our most violently oppositional law makers. Despite their best efforts, our resilience is more powerful than their hate. A typical trend in expert witnesses continued this session, as our opposition rotated the same three people to defend their legislation, yet we always showed up with a larger more diverse lineup of experts, stories, and perspectives, even when the hearings went until midnight. One notable expert was attorney Madeline Johnson, who in the same morning defended the then multi-year RMA v. Blue Springs Missouri Supreme Court Case across the street at the Court moments before testifying against SB 76 (Schnelting R-23), a bill aiming to legalize the same sex discrimination that lawsuit argues against. Our community has shown up this year to defend attacks from all branches and levels of Missouri government, and it’s sincerely thanks to all of you that we have a community stacked with leaders and experts willing to drive four hours in a day with 24 hours or less notice, to speak out on the record against these attacks. It’s your commitment, your voices, and the relationships you build with lawmakers that mattered most this session; proven by not only defeating 75 anti-LGBTQ+ attacks, but also in the power of electing the largest representation of out-proud-LGBTQ+ freshmen legislators we have ever had in Missouri.
The Bills We Neutralized
SB 160
SB 160 (Hudson R-33) was a complicated bill to keep up with. It began as one of our biggest threats this year, a bill licensing discrimination in higher education student groups, a topic that has slowly gained popularity across the country and has advanced closer to passing each session since 2017. Its House companion, HB 875 (Chappell R-137) simultaneously moved just as aggressively.
SB 160 began as a bill intending to remove university and college all comers policies — policies in place to maintain that any student group that forms on campus must be open to any and all students in order to receive school funding and recognition as part of campus life. Policies that have been exemplary since the Supreme Court determined LGBTQ+ students cannot be barred from religious student groups just because of the group’s discriminatory beliefs, in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. Yet, this bill wanted to change these policies allowing student groups to gain funding, even if they are exclusive to some students, effectively allowing students to discriminate against others with public funds.
While in debate on the Senate floor, Sen. Webber successfully amended the bill’s language to specify that any student group can officially form on campus, unless they discriminate against or harm other students, neutralizing the bill and pointing back to all comers policies. Once this bill was in the House though, it became one of six identical bills amended with multiple topics: higher education student discrimination, bathroom bans in private schools, defining antisemitism in a narrow and controversial way, and the CROWN Act. This bill became complicatedly harmful and celebrationally beneficial, as it proposed a moral dilemma to democrats — do they vote to pass a bill that finally after five years passes the CROWN Act, aiming to ensure Black students can no longer be discriminated against in school based on the texture or style of their hair, yet harms trans kids by banning their ability to use school restrooms? Ultimately, the House passed this harmful version, sending it to a conference committee. Once in the conference committee, we again lobbied diligently and aggressively to amend this bill – the results of which passed a neutral/ positive education bill with completely new topics.
The final signed version of SB 160 expands civil rights protections through the CROWN Act; maintains the modified version of the student discrimination organization bill that allows institutions to take adverse action if an organization is disruptive or infringes on the rights of other students; allows Missouri State University to expand its degree program; and protects students who call for help when an injury occurs during illegal hazing activities.
At a time when civil rights are being attacked, it’s uniquely wonderful to celebrate expanding our student rights and protections in Missouri.
SB 49
SB 49 (Black R-12) authorizes school districts and charter schools to employ or accept chaplains as volunteers. From its originally drafted alarming version, this bill passed with amended language adding restrictions and requirements on the “designated chaplain” that are not currently required. While having religious leaders in schools is not ideal, think conversion therapy and/or separation of church and state, current law does not prevent it and does not place any restrictions on the number of or role of the chaplain. This bill In its outcome is more neutral, and at least will regulate uniform policies for all districts, and require chaplains to complete trainings.
Where We Lost
The State Budget
Each legislative session, alongside lawmakers attempting to pass their 2,000+ introduced bills, they must pass the annual budget, a series of 13 House Bills divided by government departments. This process has become an infamous avenue, albeit unconstitutional, for lawmakers to insert their culture war agenda. This year several budget bills include unconstitutional language that prohibits the use of state funds for DEI programs or initiatives. This language has already led to several higher education institutions withdrawing scholarships based on race or gender requirements. This language however, will likely be subject to constitutional challenges in the near future. These changes signal an alignment between Governor Kehoe’s and President Trump’s agenda and Executive Orders, as well as narratives across the country.
Additionally, the budget was passed with Governor Kehoe’s goals of allocating $50M towards school voucher programs. School vouchers, the tool supporting school choice, might not seem anti-LGBTQ+ on the surface. Yet, supporting parochial schools with funding earmarked for public schools, is yet one more way parents who disagree with the visibility of LGBTQ+ students and faculty, curricula, and books, can send their children to religious schools that censor us from their learning environments. While parents already have a choice in sending their children to public or private schools, it should not be the state’s responsibility to fund private religious schools while defunding the credibility, diversity, and critical learning skills our public schools are built on.
Paid Sick Leave & The Minimum Wage
HB 567 (Gallick 62-R), a bill that repealed parts of Proposition A passed directly impacting the livelihoods of Missouri workers. All session, repealing Proposition A was a key target for Republicans, a target that included hours of filibusters and negotiations on the Senate side after this bill passed the House. Ultimately, Republican leadership scrapped their attempts at reducing the outright harm this bill aimed to cause by cutting off debate in order to vote it out of the Senate chamber.
In order for the Senate to function responsibly and respectfully, Senators do not cut off debate when others are still speaking on a bill — this is why filibustering works for minority parties. For debate to be cut off though, a PQ (Previous Question) can be raised and voted on to bring the debate to a close and return to the current version of a bill for a chamber vote. This is the Senate’s most nuclear option, and if the ugliness of debate gets to this point, there is little to do afterwards but adjourn the session early. In the last 150 years, the Senate had only PQ’ed 18 times, making HJR 73 (discussed next) and HB 567 the 19th and 20th times.
The bill itself maintained the $15/hr minimum wage adjustment, but repealed the annual Consumer Price Index adjustment, and repealed the mandate on employers to offer paid sick leave.
Throughout the Senate’s multi-day filibusters, Democrat leaders reached out to us to collect stories from LGBTQ+ Missourians to deepen their argument of why Prop A needed to be upheld. They wanted to ensure their colleagues considered the voices of Missourians who would uniquely be harmed by rolling back the will of the people. You all came through, and we were able to share 30+ real stories after a quick call to action that were read aloud by our champion Senators.
Most harmful to Missourians with this bill was the rollercoaster it took workers on whose majority voice was heard in passing this Proposition by 58% of voters. Under Proposition A, paid sick time began to accrue on May 1st and remained in effect until August 28th, when its mandate was repealed by HB567 going into effect. Proposition A additionally expanded the scope of families included under law in Missouri by extending paid sick leave to workers needing to care for their grandparent, stepparent, roommate, partner, sibling, etc – the most queerly represented idea of family we had under law. Losing paid sick leave in Prop A immediately hurts Missouri workers, yet will continue to harm our state’s ability to recognize queer families and the rights we all should have.
Abortion Access
For every minute of the 85 working-days of this legislative session (and many weekends) our progressive statewide coalition and partner organizations fought to stop the attacks on abortion access, including 10 identical constitutional amendments aimed at repealing Amendment 3 and re-banning abortion in MIssouri. Just minutes before the Senate PQed to end debate on HB 567, they PQ’ed a filibuster on HJR 73, effectively ending debate and sending it back to the voters.
HJR 73 is a resolution that will ultimately ask voters in 2026 to amend the constitution AGAIN in order to re-ban abortion alongside permanently banning transgender youth healthcare. This attempt by the legislature, who believe they know better than the will of the people in our state, came two weeks after we won a unanimous Missouri Supreme Court case in defense of protecting the constitutional right to abortion granted under Amendment 3.
All session PROMO and our coalition partners worked to negotiate removing the ban on transgender healthcare for minors throughout these 10 identical bills. As you likely recall, HJR 73 was noticed for a hearing on March 30, and the following week flew through the House procedures passing the chamber. Prior to this week, HJR 54 (Stinnett R-133) was the threatening bill carrying this language, and in the first six weeks of session we worked aggressively to successfully strip any mention of transgender healthcare from the bill. From that moment, Sen. Schnelting in cahoots with Republican leadership and outside fascist organizations, doubled down on passing HJR 73 with zero interest in negotiating on any of the language. Our ally Senators fought hard to stay at the negotiation table, but ultimately had no power next to ego-driven alt-right extremists who were all willing to sell out their across-the-aisle relationships. After these two PQs, session ended two days shy of the constitutional end, yet the fight to keep our health care rights has doubled down everyday since.
As an organization, we are committed to winning at the ballot box, and striking down the attempt to ban abortion and transgender healthcare in the newly certified “Amendment 3” by Secretary of State Hoskins. That’s correct, in a continued attempt to trick voters, HJR 73 returns to the ballot as Amendment 3.
Looking Towards 2026
It’s worth noting the big fights we won and those we will have to continue fighting. In 2023, Missouri banned transgender healthcare for youth as well as their ability to play sports in schools through college. However, the most crucial piece of both of these laws is to remember that they sunset on August 26, 2027. Each year since passage, we have fought aggressively to maintain the sunsets on these laws, this year was no exception. Early on in January the Senate passed SB 10 (Hough R-30), an omnibus bill on the topic of sunsets which was amended to include the sunsets on trans rights. We lost this fight early on in the Senate, as Democrat lawmakers saw those sunsets as low-stake losses. In the House, this bill was loaded up with sunset amendments covering dozens of topics, and while lobbyists from practically every firm in the region testified in favor of the bill, it was clear our two sunsets were seen as unnecessarily harmful and not a topic Sen. Hough wanted to see on the bill. Through those contentious filibusters, House hearings, and countless conversations with legislators, this bill fortunately did not pass, maintaining the sunsets in statute as a means for the futures of trans youth. Missouri is the only state successful in placing sunsets within the laws banning transgender youth, and we will defend them aggressively until these laws are sunset — including ensuring Missouri does not become the first state to constitutionally ban transgender healthcare for youth.
SB 100, a bill aiming to ban the ability to change gender markers on birth certificates, was the biggest threat advancing throughout session and for weeks sat #3 on the formal calendar to be taken up by the Senate for debate. With so much gratitude to your marathon advocacy, this bill never came off of that list, and was never voted on or debated in the Senate chamber as a whole.
The stated purpose behind these bills was to be able to identify and exclude trans people from public spaces like restrooms. We know there is a significant gap of knowledge and understanding to fill for a majority of our state’s legislators between the differences of gender and sex. This session, we brought small cohorts of transgender med students and mental health students, transgender adults, parents of transgender youth, and clergy to the capitol to meet one-on-one privately with legislators to continue filling those gaps. We will work on maintaining and deepening those relationships through the interim and into 2026. As well, we look forward to expanding our ability to bring constituents down 1 at a time to dive deeper into building relationships with their lawmakers.
Finally, we are actively working on building an expansive strategy to defeat bills that attempt to define “sex” under Missouri law. This session, SJR57 (Fitzwater) and SB 76 (Schnelting) both took two different approaches to dangerously define “sex” effectively aiming to erase transgender adults from the public. SJR 57 aimed to amend the Missouri Constitution to define “biological sex” in relation to who could use public restrooms. And SB 76 aimed to define “biological sex” in Missouri’s human rights statute that serves to protect Missourians from discrimination in all areas of life. We are witnessing this topic of defining ‘sex’ synonymous with ‘gender’ across the country. We successfully defeated every attempt to pass these bills here in Missouri through impactful conversations with legislators on both sides of the aisle in which we were able to humanize the issue. We look forward to bringing more community members into these conversations to establish new relationships and build stronger strategies to defeat these threats overall.
