LGBTQ Rights

S.C. lawmakers keep attacking the rights of women, LGBTQ+ people, and students. We have some better ideas for them.

South Carolina lawmakers started 2026 with a barrage of bills attacking our reproductive freedom, voting rights, free speech rights, and more. But even on the ugliest days of the legislative session, South Carolinians showed up, spoke out, and wrote in to their lawmakers demanding something better. How do we keep showing up for this work, and just as importantly, why? We get into it with advocacy director Courtney.

Our lawmakers want to dismantle the wall between church and state, take away our reproductive rights, and make life harder for trans youth

Free speech, voting rights, abortion, and trans rights are all on the line this week

In October 2025, South Carolina public school librarians and students filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to block enforcement of the state’s unconstitutional book banning regulation and a classroom censorship memo issued by the state education superintendent. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of Regulation 43-170, which bans all materials in kindergarten through 12th grade public schools if they contain descriptions or depictions of “sexual conduct.” This regulation, which was promoted by Superintendent Ellen Weaver and took effect in June 2024, led to the banning or restriction of 22 books statewide — the largest number of state-mandated school book bans in any state, according to PEN America. (See the full list of books below.) The lawsuit also challenges a memorandum issued by Superintendent Weaver on March 14, 2025, that requires state employees to indoctrinate students according to the superintendent’s views on sex, gender, race, and American exceptionalism. The memo prohibits 14 ideas and concepts from S.C. Department of Education materials, including “implicit bias,” “restorative justice,” “cisgender,” and “social-emotional learning,” although it notes that its list of taboo concepts is “not exhaustive.” The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are the South Carolina Association of School Librarians (SCASL) and three minor public school students. The suit challenges the superintendent’s censorship regime under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

S.C. lawmakers passed a law that prohibits doctors from providing gender-affirming healthcare to transgender youth as well as many transgender adults. We're proud to defend the rights of trans South Carolinians, and we're taking the state to court in Misanin v. Wilson.

Eden Rogers and Brandy Welch were turned away by a government-funded foster care agency for failing to meet the agency’s religious criteria which exclude prospective foster parents who are not evangelical Protestant Christian or who are same-sex couples of any faith.