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Barrett Bowdre vs. transgender people

by Andrea James Reviewed September 9, 2026 5 min read

Barrett Bowdre is an American lawyer and anti-transgender activist. Bowdre is a central figure in defending anti-trans laws enacted in Alabama.

Bowdre was  announced as an invited speaker at the 2026 US conference for anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine.

Background

Alexander Barrett Bowdre was born in March 1988. Bowdre earned a bachelor’s degree from Furman University in 2010, then was a John Jay Fellow in fall 2010. In 2011, Bowdre served as an editorial intern at The New Atlantis, founded by the anti-trans Ethics and Public Policy Center. From 2011 to 2013, Bowdre worked as a research assistant at the anti-trans American Enterprise Institute’s Program on American Citizenship.

Bowdre earned a law degree from the University of Alabama School of Law in 2016. Bowdre was a law clerk to three judges:

  • Judge Paul J. Kelly, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
  • then-Chief Judge W. Keith Watkins of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama
  • then-Chief Judge Ed Carnes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

In 2019, Bowdre joined the Alabama Office of the Attorney General, serving as a Deputy Solicitor General from 2019 to 2023, then Principal Deputy Solicitor General from 2023 to 2025. In November 2025, Bowdre was appointed Solicitor General. In the announcement, Attorney General Steve Marshall stated:

“Barrett was a driving force behind Alabama’s landmark success in exposing and dismantling the massive medical, legal, and political scandal that sought to normalize sex-change procedures for minors. His tireless work to protect vulnerable children has safeguarded families in Alabama and sparked a reckoning within the global medical establishment.”

Anti-trans activism

Starting in the 2020s, Bowdre became a central figure in defending anti-trans laws enacted in Alabama.

Boe v. Marshall aka Eknes-Tucker v. Ivey, Eknes-Tucker v. Marshall and Eknes-Tucker v. Governor of Alabama

  • Eknes-Tucker v. Ivey, No. 2:22-cv-00184 (M.D. Ala. filed Apr. 19, 2022)
  • Eknes-Tucker v. Marshall, 603 F. Supp. 3d 1131 (M.D. Ala. May 13, 2022)
  • Eknes-Tucker v. Governor of the State of Alabama, No. 22-11707 (11th Cir., appeal docketed 2022)
  • Eknes-Tucker v. Governor of Ala., 80 F.4th 1205 (11th Cir. Aug. 21, 2023)
  • Eknes-Tucker v. Governor of Ala., 114 F.4th 1241 (11th Cir. Aug. 28, 2024)
  • Eknes-Tucker v. Marshall, No. 24-612 (U.S., petition docketed Dec. 4, 2024)
  • United States v. Marshall, No. 24-582 (U.S., petition docketed Nov. 26, 2024)
  • Boe v. Marshall, No. 2:22-cv-00184 (M.D. Ala., ongoing)

Alabama’s 2022 Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act criminalized prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy to transgender minors. Parents of four transgender minors, medical providers, and a pastor sued, joined by the Biden Administration U.S. Department of Justice, arguing the law violated equal protection and parents’ due-process rights to direct their children’s medical care.

This complex case began in federal district court in Alabama, where the plaintiffs prevailed. Alabama then filed an appeal in circuit court, where the district court decision was reversed. The plaintiffs then challenged the circuit court decision, petitioning the US Supreme Court. The Supreme Court dismissed the petition, and the case returned to the district court.

Bowdre was listed as counsel of record for the state defendants from the earliest district court filings in 2022 (alongside then-Solicitor General Edmund LaCour).

  • Opening Brief of State Defendants, Eknes-Tucker v. Governor of the State of Alabama, No. 22-11707 (11th Cir. June 27, 2022). https://adfmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/MarshallStateOpeningBrief.pdf

United States v. Skrmetti

  • United States v. Skrmetti, 603 U.S. ___ (2025), argued as No. 23-477, decided June 18, 2025

This was the lead case testing the constitutionality of state bans on gender-affirming care for minors (Tennessee’s law specifically). The Court also asked to weigh in on parallel cert petitions from Alabama’s case.

Bowdre was listed as counsel on Alabama’s brief opposing certiorari in the companion petitions and on an amicus brief:

Cordellioné v. Arnold aka Cordellioné v. Commissioner, Indiana Department of Correction

  • Cordellioné v. Arnold, No. 3:23-cv-00135-RLY-CSW, 2024 WL 4333152 (S.D. Ind. Sept. 17, 2024), appeal docketed, Nos. 24-2838 & 24-3240 (7th Cir.).

Autumn Cordellioné, a transgender inmate incarcerated by the Indiana Department of Correction, sued DOC Commissioner Lloyd Arnold after Indiana passed a 2023 law barring the department from funding gender-affirming surgery for inmates. Cordellioné argued the denial violated the Eighth Amendment (deliberate indifference to a serious medical need) and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. In September 2024, Judge Richard Young granted a preliminary injunction, finding gender-affirming surgery was a medically necessary treatment for her and ordering the Commissioner to take reasonable steps to secure it. The DOC appealed to the Seventh Circuit.

Bowdre was an author of an amicus brief filed by Alabama and 23 other stated with anti-trans laws. The brief’s main substantive argument is that the district court leaned heavily on the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s Standards of Care (SOC-8) in finding gender-affirming surgery “medically necessary,” and that WPATH’s guidelines are scientifically and procedurally unreliable. To support this, the brief drew extensively on discovery Alabama obtained from WPATH in the Boe/Eknes-Tucker v. Marshall litigation.

Corbitt v. Taylor

  • Corbitt v. Taylor, No. 2:18-cv-00091-MHT-SMD, 2021 WL 132239 (M.D. Ala. Jan. 15, 2021)
  • Corbitt v. Secretary of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, 116 F.4th 1312 (11th Cir. 2024)

Three transgender residents of Alabama sued in 2018 over Alabama’s Policy Order 63, which required proof of “gender reassignment surgery” (via a surgeon’s letter or amended birth certificate) before the state would update the sex marker on a driver’s license. Bowdre was deputy solicitor general at the time and was likely familiar with the case, but Bowdre does not seem to appear by name on any published documents related to the case.

References

Alabama Office of the Attorney General (November 5, 2025). Attorney General Steve Marshall Appoints Barrett Bowdre as Alabama Solicitor General. https://www.alabamaag.gov/attorney-general-steve-marshall-appoints-barrett-bowdre-as-alabama-solicitor-general/

Raymond, Nate (March 20, 2024). LGBTQ rights lawyers face potential sanctions over Alabama ‘judge shopping.’ Reuters https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/lgbtq-rights-lawyers-face-potential-sanctions-over-alabama-judge-shopping-2024-03-20/

Cason, Mike (May 7, 2022). Puberty blockers, hormones for Alabama’s transgender youth banned unless judge acts before Sunday. AL.com https://www.al.com/news/2022/05/puberty-blockers-hormones-for-alabamas-transgender-youth-banned-unless-judge-acts-before-sunday.html

Resources

John Jay Institute Fellows (johnjayfellows.com)

  • Barrett Bowdre
  • johnjayfellows.com/news/2026/3/9/s2jy0sm0uelj6rdcuvdhlls0ztrsmr

The Federalist Society (fedsoc.org)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Alabama Office of the Attorney General (alabamaag.gov)

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