2026 Update – Preempting LGBTQ+ Rights: How States Undermine Local Leadership and Innovation on LGBTQ+ Equality

Don’t miss our new white paper, “Preempting LGBTQ+ Rights: How States Undermine Local Leadership and Innovation on LGBTQ+ Equality,” a 2026 update of a previous report, published as a partnership between A Better Balance, Equality Federation, and the Local Solutions Support Center. The report is authored by Jesse Workman,  Senior Staff Attorney at A Better Balance.

The fight over LGBTQ+ rights has entered a new phase. As the federal government rolls back LGBTQ+ protections and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric becomes more prominent in national politics, cities and counties have become an increasingly important line of defense for LGBTQ+ people and their families. 

But just as local leaders are stepping up to protect their communities, many state legislatures are moving to stop them. Beyond simply passing restrictive state laws, lawmakers are increasingly using “preemption” — state laws that block local governments from acting — to prevent cities and counties from adopting or enforcing LGBTQ+ protections. The effects of taking decision making away from local communities and concentrating power at the state and/or federal level has been discussed in the context of other policy issues, but rarely when it comes to the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals. Preemption is actively and insidiously reshaping the landscape of LGBTQ+ rights and reversing earlier wins. 

This analysis updates a 2024 report by A Better Balance, Equality Federation, and Local Solutions Support Center, “Preempting LGBTQ+ Rights: How States Undermine Local Leadership and Innovation on LGBTQ+ Equality,” by examining 200 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced during the 2025 and 2026 legislative sessions. The original report traced the local roots of LGBTQ+ equality in the United States and documented the ways states have used abusive preemption to erode LGBTQ+ protections and target local authority. Since the publication of that report, states have continued to refine, escalate, and expand abusive preemptive strategies. 

In the last two years, abusive preemption bills have been introduced in 48 states that would limit the ability of cities and counties from protecting their LGBTQ+ residents in different ways. The vast majority of these bills target transgender and nonbinary people specifically.