226 bills target LGBTQ Americans this year. One organization is behind a lot of them.

Former Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) founded a group that’s behind many of these bills. Photo: United States Congress

If it seems like there are a lot of anti-LGBTQ bills this year, it’s because there are. And this group is coordinating the effort.

The group Equality Federation is currently tracking 226 anti-LGBTQ bills being considered in state legislatures throughout the country, and one organization in particular is responsible for many of the bills.

Many of the bills are similar and target the transgender community, and specifically transgender youth.

Related: Florida Republicans sneak in 4 anti-LGBTQ bills just hours before filing deadline

“The targeting of kids is really unique this year,” Rose Saxe, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT and HIV Project, told NBC News. “It’s really shocking, the depth of attack on trans youth.”

In January alone, more than twelve states have introduced bills that target transgender youth. The Associated Press reported that legislation banning doctors from providing transition-related care to transgender young people has been proposed in Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma, Florida, South Carolina, and South Dakota.

Chase Strangio, a transgender rights lawyer with the ACLU, said he is worried medical bans will lead to an increase in suicides.

“I cannot imagine what happens to transgender people if these criminal bans pass,” said Strangio. “I don’t think we can possibly raise the alarm enough, because people are going to die.”

Another rash of bills involves forbidding….

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