US states and cities that passed new progressive laws under Trump

Laws dealing with the environment, gun control, public health and women’s and transgender rights took effect at start of 2019

Erin Durkin in New York

Mon 7 Jan 2019 06.00 EST

The federal government under Donald Trump may be tacking to the right – when it can cut through the gridlock and enact new policies at all – but states and cities with a more progressive bent have pushed forward new laws dealing with the environment, gun control, public health and women’s and transgender rights.

Many new laws around the country took effect at the beginning of 2019. Among the state and local laws now in place:

Washington state has banned people under 21 from buying semi-automatic assault rifles. The law was passed by voters as a ballot measure in November, and adds rifles to a minimum age requirement of 21 already in place for handguns. Gun rights supporters are suing to stop the law. The ballot measure also requires tougher background check to buy an assault rifle and safe storage for guns, but those parts will not take effect until July.

A California law that took effect on 1 January requires publicly traded companies to include women on their boards of directors. Corporations will be required to have at least one woman on the board by the end of 2019 and up to three by the end of 2021, depending on the number of seats on the board. Other laws that have now taken effect in the state require employers to offer sexual harassment training and ban secret settlements in sexual assault and harassment cases.

In New York City, people who do not identify as male or female are now able to change their gender to “X” on their birth certificate. California is offering the same option on driver’s licenses and state ID cards, allowing residents to choose a third, non-binary gender option.

A New Hampshire law took effect raising the minimum age for marriage to 16, up from 13 for girls and 14 for boys. Cassie Levesque, 19, now a state representative, began pushing the change as part of Girl Scout project, but it initially failed as one lawmaker said he saw no need to change the law based on a request from a minor doing a Scout project. Last year, the bill came up again and passed, and Levesque ran for the state legislature and won. She now says she’ll work on raising the marriage age further, to 18.

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/07/us-states-and-cities-that-passed-new-progressive-laws-under-trump