Idaho lawmakers have passed a slew of bills targeting LGBTQ+ residents this year, including two bills this week that would ban requiring public officials to use someone’s preferred pronouns and redefine gender as a synonym for sex.

On Wednesday, the Senate approved a bill that would allow people to sue schools and libraries over books deemed harmful to minors, sending the bill to Republican Gov. Brad Little. Another bill Little signed last week bans public funds, including Medicaid, from being used for gender-affirming care.

These efforts are part of the ongoing national fight for the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans. Many Republican officials have been actively trying to limit these rights over the past few years.

ACLU of Idaho spokesperson Rebecca De Leon told the Idaho Statesman that Idaho’s legislation joins at least nine that have been introduced in the state this year that directly target LGBTQ people. One of the Bills of Rights. In response to a flurry of action, protesters rained more than 48,000 colored paper hearts from the fourth floor of the state Capitol into the first-floor rotunda on Tuesday, KTVB-TV reported.

The heart symbolizes the 48,000 Idaho residents who identified as LGBTQ+ in the 2020 Census. The hearts are handmade and mailed to the ACLU from 18 cities across the state.

“We especially want legislators to see the heart of the people and hear what we’ve been trying to tell them all the time,” de Leon told the Statesman. “It felt like they weren’t listening, so we wanted to bring our hearts to them.”

Republican Rep. Julianne Young has sponsored a bill that would redefine gender (referring to social and self-identity) as synonymous with sex (referring to biological characteristics). At least 12 states are considering similar legislation this year that would try to remove non-binary and transgender concepts from their statutes. Kansas enacted a law last year ending legal recognition of transgender identities.

Idaho’s library bill allows community members to make a written request to move material they believe is harmful to minors to an adult-only area and gives library officials 60 days to make changes. Community members can then sue for compensation.

The governor vetoed a similar bill last year, saying he was concerned it would create a bounty system that would increase costs for libraries and ultimately raise prices for taxpayers.

The American Civil Liberties Union and others who oppose new laws banning the use of public funds for gender-affirming care say it will likely lead to federal lawsuits. Idaho has been embroiled in lawsuits seeking to deny gender-affirming care to transgender residents, but so far has not had much success defending those lawsuits.