Anti-LGBTQ legislation is flooding state legislatures as Republicans return to their familiar strategy of demonizing marginalized populations to mobilize their base following recent election losses.

There are more than 200 such bills currently under consideration by state legislatures, according to the Human Rights Campaign . More than ever before, one specific group is the focus of much of the unwanted attention: transgender children. More than half of the anti-LGBTQ bills under consideration directly target the transgender community.

Its the most anti-trans legislation ever, and this time around, it is all uniformly directed at children, Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), told HuffPost.

Sam Brinton, vice president of advocacy and government at The Trevor Project (a crisis intervention and suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ youth, which runs a crisis hotline), said its clear from the calls theyre receiving that many LGBTQ youth are struggling.

Compared to pre-COVID crisis contacts, we are, at times, receiving in this last year double that volume of crisis contacts, they said.

Brinton clarified that the spikes in calls arent solely related to politics, but said that the bills are adding more anxiety to an already fraught situation.

Much of the legislation focuses on two areas: barring transgender girls from participating in sports true to their gender identity, and blocking gender-affirming medical treatment and health care for transgender youth.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) made national news last week when he vetoed a bill that would bar doctors from providing medically necessary treatment to transgender children, arguing it amounted to government overreach. The state legislature overrode his veto . Hutchinson had previously signed a bill barring transgender girls from female athletic teams.

Aside from those two categories, there is a quieter effort underway in a few states to proactively protect so-called conversion therapy, which attempts to change or suppress someones sexual orientation or gender identity. The move is rattling LGBTQ equality advocates, who say it is unprecedented and represents a new tactic on the right.

This is the first time were actually seeing pro-conversion therapy laws be introduced, assigned to committees and get hearings, then passing out of committees, said Mathew Shurka, a survivor of conversion therapy and a co-founder of NCLRs Born Perfect campaign, which is dedicated to ending the practice. Thats never happened before since the movement started with the first law [banning conversion therapy] that was introduced in 2012 in California.