SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Members of California’s Legislative LGBTQ Caucus gathered at the state capitol on Wednesday to announce their list of priority bills for the year.

Their package of bills includes policy proposals to expand health care access for LGBTQ Californians, combat hate and ramp up protections for transgender people.

What You Need To Know

  • California’s Legislative LGBTQ Caucus introduces bills to enhance LGBTQ rights

  • Transgender Americans make up about 1% of the U.S. population

  • President Trump said in his speech that he signed an executive order declaring that the federal government will only recognize two sexes, male and female

  • Assemblyman Bill Essayli introduced a bill that will require schools to only allow students to play on teams based on the sex they were assigned at birth and not their gender identity

The caucus also responded to President Donald Trump’s joint address, which they believe was an attack on the LGBTQ community.

“We’re seeing a consistent barrage of hate-filled attacks that are coming out of the Trump administration and right out of his mouth. These are meant to be divisive; these are meant to be hurtful, they are meant to be punitive,” said Assemblymember Chris Ward, chair of the LGBTQ Caucus.

While transgender Americans only make up about 1% of the U.S. population, the president mentioned the trans community a handful of times during his speech, including remarks about banning transgender athletes from youth sports.

“From now on schools will kick the men off the girls’ team or they will lose all federal funding,” said Trump during this speech.

State Senator Scott Wiener, an outspoken critic of the president introduced a bill earlier this year to enhance the privacy of transgender Californians.

“He’s completely obsessed in a toxic, destructive way and they are literally trying to erase trans people’s existence, including children,” Wiener noted.

On the other side of the aisle, Republican Assemblyman Bill Essayli applauded the president’s speech, calling it one of the best in American history.

“What the president said really stuck, which is — we’re done with the wokeness,” Essayli said.

Last month, Essayli wrote a bill requiring schools to assign students to sports teams based solely on their sex assigned at birth, not gender identity.

“The voters said in November, we’re done with this insanity, we’re done with the wokeness. If you want to be transgender, you have every right to do that as an adult and you should be respected and there’s no problem with that, but we’re talking about infringing on women’s sports, locker rooms, private safe spaces that have been historically reserved for women.”

Meanwhile, the LGBTQ Caucus vowed that despite what happens at the federal level, California will remain a safe haven for the LGBTQ community.