The legal situation in the US is a patchwork of laws and decisions on Federal and State levels. It is only since a Supreme Court decision in 1976, that the US Constitution guarantees protection against discrimination on the ground of gender by the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Additional Article Section 1 to the Constitution.

After the civil war in the 19th century and the end of the enslavement, the 14th constitutional amendment ‘guaranteed the same protection of the law’ of African Americans and was interpreted regarding gender as well in the case Craig vs. Boren. Until now (as of 2020), there has not been a decision as to whether the clause also protects gender identity. Possibilities of adjusting the legal gender entry depend on the respective state. There are different procedures for adjusting the gender entry on birth certificated (although Tennessee and Ohio do not allow this), on driving licences (often easier than birth certificated) and on passports. Regulations for the passport are defined at the Federal level and include surgical operation. For all three document types, it is only possible in a few states to register a different gender beyond the binary female and male.

Apart from the potential protection provided by the Equal Treatment Clause of the US Constitution, there are no comprehensive anti-discrimination laws that explicitly protect trans* people. However, in June 2020, the US Supreme Court made a decision binding on all states. In it, the court Ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in the workplace on the grounds of race, skin colour, religion, gender or national origin, also applies to trans* people by the word ‘gender’. In the area of education, trans* pupils and students could also be protected by Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972. Title IX states that ‘no person in the United States shall be excluded, denied benefits or discriminated on the ground of gender from participation in any educational program or activity funded by the Federal government’.

The Obama administration interpreted the ground ‘gender’ as including gender identity. However, in 2018, the Health Department under the Trump administration announced that the official Washington position henceforth defines gender only as the biologic sex.

Since all anti-discrimination legislation approaching at the federal level, such as the ‘Employment Non-Discrimination Act’ or the more general ‘Equality Act’ have failed in parliament since the 1970s, trans* people are more often dependent on their state’s right of protection against discrimination. The ‘Transgender Law Centre’ created a map on which each state was rated in relation to the protection of trans* people against discrimination. Protective laws are evaluated with positive points, laws that do not represent protection with negative points. On the map, 8 of the 50 US states are in the range between 0 and 25% of possible points. Coastal or northern states tend to perform better.