This update highlights significant policy developments affecting boys and men in the United States through the 2026 legislative sessions. It is not an exhaustive inventory of every related bill or program, nor does it endorse or oppose specific legislation. Instead, it focuses on actions that mark meaningful institutional movement: executive orders and directives, new commissions, major legislative proposals, and federal activity.
Because this is AIBM’s first policy update of this kind, it reaches back beyond the current legislative cycle to capture the emergence of this policy space. We plan to publish a fall update to include states with later session deadlines, including California, and to continue this work as an annual policy series.
A new policy space
A few years ago, there was no broad-based policy infrastructure focused on boys and men across the United States. Advocates, community organizations, and program partners had long worked to support boys and men, including through efforts such as My Brother’s Keeper and state and local initiatives focused on Black men and boys. But this work was rarely if ever matched by broader policy infrastructure. No state had yet created a commission addressing boys and men as a broad policy category; governors had not made boys’ and men’s outcomes a stated executive priority; targeted legislation remained rare.
That has changed quickly.
The shift reflects a growing public reckoning with the data. Men account for nearly 80% of suicides. For every 100 women who hold a bachelor’s degree by age 30, only 85 men do. Male labor force participation has dropped 7 percentage points from 75% in 2000 to 68% in 2025. Male life expectancy is 76, compared with 81 for women – and for Black men, it is 70.
We have seen three major areas of development in the policy space:
Governors putting boys and men on the agenda. Four governors, across both parties, used executive orders, directives, and convenings to make boys’ and men’s outcomes a stated priority of their administrations.
Statehouses turning attention into law. Virginia created the nation’s first Boys and Men Advisory Commission, with bipartisan support. Legislatures across the country passed or advanced bills on fatherhood, men’s health, and suicide prevention.
Federal legislation reaching further. A bipartisan bill proposing a federal Office of Men’s Health was introduced with broader institutional backing than any prior attempt, alongside growing federal attention to fatherhood and the effects of technology on young men.
Read together, these early actions point to a policy area that is young but gaining real definition. So far the emphasis has been on building a policy foundation — new commissions, directives, and research — though in a growing number of places that effort is already turning into funded programs and concrete laws.
Governors lead with executive conviction
Governors have been among the most visible early movers in this emerging policy space. Through speeches, task forces, directives, executive orders, and convenings, governors in both parties have made boys’ and men’s outcomes a stated priority of their administrations. Their actions differ in scope and emphasis, but together they show the range of ways states are beginning to respond.
Utah
The first statewide effort of this kind came in Utah, where in 2023 Governor Cox established a Task Force on the Well-being of Men and Boys in partnership with the Sutherland Institute. The task force released its first report, “Missing Anchors,” and convened a Men and Boys Well-being Symposium, which identified a “silent, struggling subset” of men, including 24% of Utah men who said they struggle to understand their place in their community or wider society. The task force has since centered its work on purpose, work, and mental health, including a podcast series exploring different facets of the challenges and possible solutions.
Maryland
In his February 2025 State of the State address, Governor Moore announced that his administration would direct every cabinet agency to implement targeted solutions to uplift Maryland’s men and boys. The resulting Young Men and Boys Initiative—staffed by state personnel and a dedicated fellow—is built around three goals: ensuring young men and boys are mentally and physically healthy, prepared to compete in a dynamic economy, and engaged in their families and communities. In December 2025, the administration launched a $19 million expansion of the Grow-Your-Own Educators Grant Program, with priority consideration for applicants with plans to recruit and retain male educators. That same month, the initiative formalized a three-year partnership with the American Institutes for Research—backed by $6 million from the AIR Opportunity Fund—to provide research, evaluation, and technical assistance.
California
Governor Newsom’s July 2025 executive order was the most comprehensive state-level action to date, directing multiple agencies to address male suicide prevention, educational disconnection, workforce gaps, and the male teacher pipeline. Implementation has included the California Men’s Service Challenge (recruiting 10,000 young men as mentors and coaches), a mental health media challenge, and a March 2026 Path & Purpose convening in Sacramento bringing together legislators, agency leaders, and practitioners.
Michigan
Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s State of the State and her April 2025 executive directive targeted a specific gap: women outnumber men two-to-one in Michigan’s tuition-free college program, Michigan Reconnect. It instructed MiLEAP and the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity to expand outreach to men within existing programs. Since then, the state has followed with several implementation efforts, including convenings, career and college fairs, focus groups, and outreach through universities and community groups.
Landmark legislation
State legislatures are also beginning to turn concern about boys’ and men’s outcomes into formal policy infrastructure. The clearest example came in Virginia, where lawmakers created the nation’s first legislatively established statewide commission focused on boys and men. Other states have introduced or advanced targeted bills on suicide prevention, men’s health, fatherhood, and related issues.
Virginia established the nation’s first boys and men commission
Virginia’s HB 1188/SB 447 established the nation’s first legislatively created Boys and Men Advisory Commission. Led in the House by Del. Josh Thomas, a Democrat, with bipartisan support, the legislation passed by wide margins in both chambers.
The commission will advise the General Assembly on issues affecting boys and men in the Commonwealth, including education, economic opportunity, health, family life, and the effects of social media. Virginia’s data helped make the case: the state has the nation’s largest literacy gap between boys and girls, and men account for roughly 80% of suicide deaths in the state.
Other states have begun considering similar models. Commission proposals were introduced in Washington and Alabama, though neither became law this session. But the fact that similar proposals surfaced in other states suggests that Virginia may not remain an outlier for long.
Significant momentum on men’s health and suicide prevention
Men’s health infrastructure was also a theme, with bills proposed in South Carolina and New Jersey focused on creating divisions or commissions within public health departments. If enacted, these efforts would join a small but growing set of state examples, including North Dakota’s Men’s Health Program and Illinois’ legislatively created Men’s Health Section.
On suicide prevention, California AB 1956, introduced by Assemblymember Valencia, would add young men and boys to the state Office of Suicide Prevention’s priority populations, giving them special attention among groups at highest risk. The bill would also require the office to report on strategies for activities focused on boys and young men. Massachusetts SD. 3556 proposes expanding the reach of MassMen, the state’s men’s mental health program, by requiring agencies serving men at elevated risk of mental health conditions or suicidal ideation to display MassMen resources and share related best practices with staff and community partners.
Prostate cancer screening bills also quietly moved forward with Louisiana’s SB 84, Maine’s LD 1502, and Alabama’s SB 19 expanding insurance coverage or reducing cost-sharing. Similar bills advanced in New Jersey and Arizona, while Missouri introduced legislation to reestablish prostate cancer programs. Together, these bills point to growing state interest in a disease that remains a leading cause of cancer death among men.
Fatherhood policy gains ground in states
Fatherhood was among the most active areas this session, moving on three fronts: building institutional infrastructure, writing fathers into health policy, and expanding paid leave. These bills reflect a growing recognition that fathers play a central role in family life, health and caregiving.
Much of the activity focused on building fatherhood infrastructure: commissions, task forces, grantmaking centers, and agency coordination. The clearest enactment came in Louisiana. SB 435, signed as Act 512, creates the Louisiana Commission on Fatherhood Engagement within the governor’s office, building on the work of a state task force established the previous year. Kentucky also adopted SR 112, a resolution encouraging the creation of a Fatherhood and Family Engagement Task Force.
Father engagement in family, maternal and child health is also emerging as a distinct theme. Pennsylvania’s PA Dads Matter Act, which passed the House but did not become law, would promote father involvement during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care. The proposal is notable because it places fathers within family policy, rather than treating fatherhood only as a separate family-strengthening issue.
Paid leave, an important issue for fathers, made incremental gains this session. Virginia enacted the first comprehensive paid family and medical leave program in the South; Louisiana enacted paid parental leave for public school employees; and Iowa expanded eligibility for its state-employee paid parental leave program. These measures do not always name fathers directly, but they shape whether fathers can be present at birth, adoption, foster placement, and early caregiving.
Sports betting
Gambling and Online Sports Betting. A new front in boys-and-men policy is consumer protection around online sports betting, where men make up around 70% of people with active online sportsbook accounts. In June 2026, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed SB 26-131 — described as the most comprehensive online sports-betting protection package in the country. At the federal level, the SAFE Bet Act (H.R. 2087 / S. 1033) would set minimum national standards for sports-betting marketing, affordability, and the use of AI, though it remains in committee. The emergence of prediction markets has dominated much of the political conversation around gambling policy, with numerous bills under consideration in Congress, especially to preserve state and tribal authority over gambling.
Federal legislation
Federal action picked up as well. While most measures remain in early stages, the breadth of federal attention is new: bills now cover men’s health infrastructure, father engagement, and the effects of technology on men and boys.
State of Men’s Health Act
Introduced with bipartisan sponsors by Reps. Troy Carter and Greg Murphy, MD, the bill proposes a GAO study on men’s health disparities, as a step toward establishing an Office of Men’s Health. Similar legislation has been introduced repeatedly over the past two decades, but this bipartisan version arrived with broader institutional support, including endorsements from major medical and men’s health organizations.
A more targeted measure, the Closing the HPV Testing Gap Act (H.R. 8939), would direct the NIH to study development of a standardized, noninvasive HPV test for men.
Dads Matter Act
Federal fatherhood legislation was also proposed through the Dads Matter Act, a bicameral bill focused on father inclusion during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care. The bill would direct HHS to carry out a public awareness campaign and provide guidance to states and health care providers on encouraging father engagement. It reflects the same policy frame seen in Pennsylvania’s PA Dads Matter Act: treating fathers as part of maternal and child health policy, not only as a separate family-strengthening issue.
Tech Wellness for Men and Young Men
Technology also entered the federal boys-and-men policy conversation. The Tech Wellness for Men Act and Tech Wellness for Young Men Act, introduced by Reps. Eugene Vindman and Tom Barrett, propose federal studies on the mental, social, developmental, and economic consequences of screen addiction among adult men and young men.
Educators for America Act & Building Community in America Act
In July, Senator Mark Kelly introduced two bills aimed at bringing more men into teaching and service: the Educators for America Act and the Building Community in America Act. The first directs federally funded teacher residency programs to prioritize recruiting candidates underrepresented in the profession, including men; the second creates a similar priority in national service programs, focused on roles like mentoring, disaster response, and the skilled trades. To our knowledge, this is the first federal legislation to name men as an underrepresented group in these fields.
International context
International developments are worth watching too, as there has been significant progress to develop strategies and approaches — especially on men’s health.
England launched its first Men’s Health Strategy in 2025, setting out a national framework for improving men’s physical and mental health.
Canada began developing a national Men and Boys’ Health Strategy in Spring 2026.
Ireland is implementing its second National Men’s Health Action Plan, continuing one of the longer-running national approaches to men’s health policy.
Australia provides another established model through its National Men’s Health Strategy 2020—2030, alongside a 2025 federal commitment of AUD $32 million for boys’ and men’s health programs. Australia’s Parliament has also launched an education inquiry that includes gender differences in attainment from early learning through higher education.
Taken together, these developments show a policy field still in its early stages, but clearly taking shape. Much of the work so far has focused on agenda-setting and capacity-building: executive orders, agency directives, commissions, task forces, research reports, public awareness efforts, convenings, and grantmaking structures. These early steps matter. Before governments can respond effectively, they have to name the issue, collect better data, assign responsibility, and create pathways for action.
In some places, that work is beginning to move beyond agenda-setting. States are launching outreach efforts, funding targeted programs, building research partnerships, and enacting laws that change benefits, coverage, or public agency responsibilities. The field is still emerging, especially when it comes to sustained changes in services, funding, incentives, or institutional practice. But the movement from scattered concern toward more organized public action is real.
Virginia is the clearest example. In a single session, the Commonwealth created a Boys and Men Advisory Commission to address challenges specific to boys and men and enacted the South’s first paid family and medical leave program: a measure for fathers, mothers, and children alike. The new commission sits alongside the state’s Council on Women, which has operated since 1970. Targeted attention to boys and men, continued attention to women and girls, and policies that strengthen families as a whole are not in tension. Good policy can do more than one thing at once.
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PolicyBlack Boys & Men, Education & Skills, Employment, Fatherhood & Family, Mental Health
From awareness to action: Boys and men in U.S. policy
This update highlights significant policy developments affecting boys and men in the United States through the 2026 legislative sessions. It is not an exhaustive inventory of every related bill or program, nor does it endorse or oppose specific legislation. Instead, it focuses on actions that mark meaningful institutional movement: executive orders and directives, new commissions, major legislative proposals, and federal activity.
Because this is AIBM’s first policy update of this kind, it reaches back beyond the current legislative cycle to capture the emergence of this policy space. We plan to publish a fall update to include states with later session deadlines, including California, and to continue this work as an annual policy series.
A new policy space
A few years ago, there was no broad-based policy infrastructure focused on boys and men across the United States. Advocates, community organizations, and program partners had long worked to support boys and men, including through efforts such as My Brother’s Keeper and state and local initiatives focused on Black men and boys. But this work was rarely if ever matched by broader policy infrastructure. No state had yet created a commission addressing boys and men as a broad policy category; governors had not made boys’ and men’s outcomes a stated executive priority; targeted legislation remained rare.
That has changed quickly.
The shift reflects a growing public reckoning with the data. Men account for nearly 80% of suicides. For every 100 women who hold a bachelor’s degree by age 30, only 85 men do. Male labor force participation has dropped 7 percentage points from 75% in 2000 to 68% in 2025. Male life expectancy is 76, compared with 81 for women – and for Black men, it is 70.
We have seen three major areas of development in the policy space:
Read together, these early actions point to a policy area that is young but gaining real definition. So far the emphasis has been on building a policy foundation — new commissions, directives, and research — though in a growing number of places that effort is already turning into funded programs and concrete laws.
Governors lead with executive conviction
Governors have been among the most visible early movers in this emerging policy space. Through speeches, task forces, directives, executive orders, and convenings, governors in both parties have made boys’ and men’s outcomes a stated priority of their administrations. Their actions differ in scope and emphasis, but together they show the range of ways states are beginning to respond.
Utah
The first statewide effort of this kind came in Utah, where in 2023 Governor Cox established a Task Force on the Well-being of Men and Boys in partnership with the Sutherland Institute. The task force released its first report, “Missing Anchors,” and convened a Men and Boys Well-being Symposium, which identified a “silent, struggling subset” of men, including 24% of Utah men who said they struggle to understand their place in their community or wider society. The task force has since centered its work on purpose, work, and mental health, including a podcast series exploring different facets of the challenges and possible solutions.
Maryland
In his February 2025 State of the State address, Governor Moore announced that his administration would direct every cabinet agency to implement targeted solutions to uplift Maryland’s men and boys. The resulting Young Men and Boys Initiative—staffed by state personnel and a dedicated fellow—is built around three goals: ensuring young men and boys are mentally and physically healthy, prepared to compete in a dynamic economy, and engaged in their families and communities. In December 2025, the administration launched a $19 million expansion of the Grow-Your-Own Educators Grant Program, with priority consideration for applicants with plans to recruit and retain male educators. That same month, the initiative formalized a three-year partnership with the American Institutes for Research—backed by $6 million from the AIR Opportunity Fund—to provide research, evaluation, and technical assistance.
California
Governor Newsom’s July 2025 executive order was the most comprehensive state-level action to date, directing multiple agencies to address male suicide prevention, educational disconnection, workforce gaps, and the male teacher pipeline. Implementation has included the California Men’s Service Challenge (recruiting 10,000 young men as mentors and coaches), a mental health media challenge, and a March 2026 Path & Purpose convening in Sacramento bringing together legislators, agency leaders, and practitioners.
Michigan
Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s State of the State and her April 2025 executive directive targeted a specific gap: women outnumber men two-to-one in Michigan’s tuition-free college program, Michigan Reconnect. It instructed MiLEAP and the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity to expand outreach to men within existing programs. Since then, the state has followed with several implementation efforts, including convenings, career and college fairs, focus groups, and outreach through universities and community groups.
Landmark legislation
State legislatures are also beginning to turn concern about boys’ and men’s outcomes into formal policy infrastructure. The clearest example came in Virginia, where lawmakers created the nation’s first legislatively established statewide commission focused on boys and men. Other states have introduced or advanced targeted bills on suicide prevention, men’s health, fatherhood, and related issues.
Virginia established the nation’s first boys and men commission
Virginia’s HB 1188/SB 447 established the nation’s first legislatively created Boys and Men Advisory Commission. Led in the House by Del. Josh Thomas, a Democrat, with bipartisan support, the legislation passed by wide margins in both chambers.
The commission will advise the General Assembly on issues affecting boys and men in the Commonwealth, including education, economic opportunity, health, family life, and the effects of social media. Virginia’s data helped make the case: the state has the nation’s largest literacy gap between boys and girls, and men account for roughly 80% of suicide deaths in the state.
Other states have begun considering similar models. Commission proposals were introduced in Washington and Alabama, though neither became law this session. But the fact that similar proposals surfaced in other states suggests that Virginia may not remain an outlier for long.
Significant momentum on men’s health and suicide prevention
Men’s health infrastructure was also a theme, with bills proposed in South Carolina and New Jersey focused on creating divisions or commissions within public health departments. If enacted, these efforts would join a small but growing set of state examples, including North Dakota’s Men’s Health Program and Illinois’ legislatively created Men’s Health Section.
On suicide prevention, California AB 1956, introduced by Assemblymember Valencia, would add young men and boys to the state Office of Suicide Prevention’s priority populations, giving them special attention among groups at highest risk. The bill would also require the office to report on strategies for activities focused on boys and young men. Massachusetts SD. 3556 proposes expanding the reach of MassMen, the state’s men’s mental health program, by requiring agencies serving men at elevated risk of mental health conditions or suicidal ideation to display MassMen resources and share related best practices with staff and community partners.
Prostate cancer screening bills also quietly moved forward with Louisiana’s SB 84, Maine’s LD 1502, and Alabama’s SB 19 expanding insurance coverage or reducing cost-sharing. Similar bills advanced in New Jersey and Arizona, while Missouri introduced legislation to reestablish prostate cancer programs. Together, these bills point to growing state interest in a disease that remains a leading cause of cancer death among men.
Fatherhood policy gains ground in states
Fatherhood was among the most active areas this session, moving on three fronts: building institutional infrastructure, writing fathers into health policy, and expanding paid leave. These bills reflect a growing recognition that fathers play a central role in family life, health and caregiving.
Much of the activity focused on building fatherhood infrastructure: commissions, task forces, grantmaking centers, and agency coordination. The clearest enactment came in Louisiana. SB 435, signed as Act 512, creates the Louisiana Commission on Fatherhood Engagement within the governor’s office, building on the work of a state task force established the previous year. Kentucky also adopted SR 112, a resolution encouraging the creation of a Fatherhood and Family Engagement Task Force.
Father engagement in family, maternal and child health is also emerging as a distinct theme. Pennsylvania’s PA Dads Matter Act, which passed the House but did not become law, would promote father involvement during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care. The proposal is notable because it places fathers within family policy, rather than treating fatherhood only as a separate family-strengthening issue.
Paid leave, an important issue for fathers, made incremental gains this session. Virginia enacted the first comprehensive paid family and medical leave program in the South; Louisiana enacted paid parental leave for public school employees; and Iowa expanded eligibility for its state-employee paid parental leave program. These measures do not always name fathers directly, but they shape whether fathers can be present at birth, adoption, foster placement, and early caregiving.
Sports betting
Gambling and Online Sports Betting. A new front in boys-and-men policy is consumer protection around online sports betting, where men make up around 70% of people with active online sportsbook accounts. In June 2026, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed SB 26-131 — described as the most comprehensive online sports-betting protection package in the country. At the federal level, the SAFE Bet Act (H.R. 2087 / S. 1033) would set minimum national standards for sports-betting marketing, affordability, and the use of AI, though it remains in committee. The emergence of prediction markets has dominated much of the political conversation around gambling policy, with numerous bills under consideration in Congress, especially to preserve state and tribal authority over gambling.
Federal legislation
Federal action picked up as well. While most measures remain in early stages, the breadth of federal attention is new: bills now cover men’s health infrastructure, father engagement, and the effects of technology on men and boys.
State of Men’s Health Act
Introduced with bipartisan sponsors by Reps. Troy Carter and Greg Murphy, MD, the bill proposes a GAO study on men’s health disparities, as a step toward establishing an Office of Men’s Health. Similar legislation has been introduced repeatedly over the past two decades, but this bipartisan version arrived with broader institutional support, including endorsements from major medical and men’s health organizations.
A more targeted measure, the Closing the HPV Testing Gap Act (H.R. 8939), would direct the NIH to study development of a standardized, noninvasive HPV test for men.
Dads Matter Act
Federal fatherhood legislation was also proposed through the Dads Matter Act, a bicameral bill focused on father inclusion during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care. The bill would direct HHS to carry out a public awareness campaign and provide guidance to states and health care providers on encouraging father engagement. It reflects the same policy frame seen in Pennsylvania’s PA Dads Matter Act: treating fathers as part of maternal and child health policy, not only as a separate family-strengthening issue.
Tech Wellness for Men and Young Men
Technology also entered the federal boys-and-men policy conversation. The Tech Wellness for Men Act and Tech Wellness for Young Men Act, introduced by Reps. Eugene Vindman and Tom Barrett, propose federal studies on the mental, social, developmental, and economic consequences of screen addiction among adult men and young men.
Educators for America Act & Building Community in America Act
In July, Senator Mark Kelly introduced two bills aimed at bringing more men into teaching and service: the Educators for America Act and the Building Community in America Act. The first directs federally funded teacher residency programs to prioritize recruiting candidates underrepresented in the profession, including men; the second creates a similar priority in national service programs, focused on roles like mentoring, disaster response, and the skilled trades. To our knowledge, this is the first federal legislation to name men as an underrepresented group in these fields.
International context
International developments are worth watching too, as there has been significant progress to develop strategies and approaches — especially on men’s health.
Alongside long-standing leaders in the field like Movember and Equimundo, there is a growing set of regional dedicated research and policy organizations, including the UK’s Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys and the Centre for Men and Boys in India.
The pattern
Taken together, these developments show a policy field still in its early stages, but clearly taking shape. Much of the work so far has focused on agenda-setting and capacity-building: executive orders, agency directives, commissions, task forces, research reports, public awareness efforts, convenings, and grantmaking structures. These early steps matter. Before governments can respond effectively, they have to name the issue, collect better data, assign responsibility, and create pathways for action.
In some places, that work is beginning to move beyond agenda-setting. States are launching outreach efforts, funding targeted programs, building research partnerships, and enacting laws that change benefits, coverage, or public agency responsibilities. The field is still emerging, especially when it comes to sustained changes in services, funding, incentives, or institutional practice. But the movement from scattered concern toward more organized public action is real.
Virginia is the clearest example. In a single session, the Commonwealth created a Boys and Men Advisory Commission to address challenges specific to boys and men and enacted the South’s first paid family and medical leave program: a measure for fathers, mothers, and children alike. The new commission sits alongside the state’s Council on Women, which has operated since 1970. Targeted attention to boys and men, continued attention to women and girls, and policies that strengthen families as a whole are not in tension. Good policy can do more than one thing at once.
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