A slew of bills are rollg back recently won eedoms for gay people. Is Ameri ready to fight for LGBTQ+ rights all over aga?
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AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?
The crease the number of visible gay and trans people is sometim treated as a cursy or a e for ncern by crics, but ’s not a surprise. It’s normal. * usa lgbt *
Gay men?
Every year, Gallup releas a survey of how many Amerins intify as lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr. “Three out of 10 women unr the age of 25 nsir themselv to be gay or transgenr. Everyone will be eher gay or trans or nonnformg or whatever the list of 50 or 60 different optns there are.
” The edian Bill Maher said on his show that by 2054, if we follow what he se as the current trajectory, “we will all be gay, ” addg that the rise the number of younger people intifyg as transgenr seemed spic.
* usa lgbt *
Bee of the fluence of Schorr put siarly Natnal Review: “To suggt that social suggtibily uld be playg a role the skyrocketg numbers of young girls’ exprsg their sire to bee mal, for example, is not of urse to say that gay and transgenr people would not exist whout the topics’ beg discsed the public square. ”This fear is based on an unrstandg of genr and sexualy as alarmgly agile, easily undone by a gay teacher or a trans TikTok fluencer.
And so are homosexualy, bisexualy and beg ’s been an objective crease the number of visible L. This is the first time Amerin history that gay and trans people have been able to live as themselv any real way, wh jobs and marriag and dogs and ts and visibily.
DeSantis thorized the new law on the same day that he signed bills that make a felony for doctors to prcribe genr-affirmg re to trans mors and expand the state’s ntroversial “Don’t Say Gay” law. The two-year-old statute ially banned discsns of LGBTQ inti K-3 classrooms, but the 2023 amendments extend the “Don’t Say Gay” embargo until the end of the eighth gra. The ernor has hted at further actns to punish Disney for s cricism of the “Don’t Say Gay” law as the pany su DeSantis’ admistratn urt for retaliatn.
For the first time s four- history, Ameri’s largt lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer civil rights anizatn has clared a natnal state of emergency for members of the LGBTQ+ muny, the Human Rights Campaign said Tuday. * usa lgbt *
) In 2023, Sanrs also signed a “Don’t Say Gay” bill banng LGBTQ tn through the fifth gra and a bill barrg trans stunts om g the rrect bathrooms schools.
Over one-fifth of LGBTQ rponnts, or 21 percent, are gay, 14 percent are lbian, 10 percent are transgenr and 4 percent intify as somethg else. 5 percent as gay, 0. In 2019, the Atlantic ran an opn piece tled “The stggle for gay rights is over”.
The mise of the homophobic Defense of Marriage Act 2013 was followed by the end of the feral ban on marriage equaly 2015. Wispread acceptance of same-sex marriage rights, gay people servg the ary and the need for protectns for LGBTQ+ people followed.
Gallup timat that 7.2% of the U.S. adult populatn is lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr. * usa lgbt *
As recently as 2020, the urt, then wh two Tmp appote, led that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protected gay, lbian and transgenr workers. In 1985, 89% of parents said they would be sad if they disvered their child was gay or a lbian. A rash of laws ncerng the teachg of human sexualy school curricula, banng trans stunt athlet and strippg parents of the right to help their genr-variant children obta appropriate re have popped up numero red stat this same-sex marriage is now part of the fabric of Ameri, nservativ have chosen to explo Amerins’ unfaiary wh trans people and piggyback on parental anger over the perceived overreach of Covid-era school closur, nflatg wh an sid sense of “wokens”, the hop of fdg an electorally viable sluiceway for anti-LGBTQ+ most famo of the anti-LGBTQ+ laws is the piece of Florida legislatn banng stctn on sexual orientatn or genr inty schools between krgarten and third gra, the so-lled “don’t say gay” law.
Supporters of Florida’s ‘don’t say gay’ bill gather outsi Walt Disney World this month. The ernor and his supporters have labeled as a “groomer” anyone who believ children n learn LGBTQ+ people exist, argug that simply by talkg about gay relatnships to a child, you are sexualizg that child. ”To be gay, their view, is to be herently sexualized, a threat to nocence a way that straight Amerins are vehemence has ught even veteran LGBTQ+ advot by surprise.
He was followed by Arizona’s ernor, Doug Ducey, who, after barrg mors om genr-affirmatn treatment, wouldn’t even state for the rerd that trans people were Florida lawmaker Michele Rayner-Goolsby, left, hugs her wife, Bian Goolsby, durg a march at cy hall St Petersburg agast the ‘don’t say gay’ bill. Photograph: Bob Daemmrich/Zuma Wire/Rex/ShutterstockPolicians are supported the media by mentators like Tucker Carlson, who claimed “no one had heard of this trans thg four years ago”, or Charlie Kirk, channelg 1980s fears sayg “gays want to rpt your children” rejuvenated, the right wg is poised to make transphobia and homophobia rnerston of the midterms and 2024 electns, wh promis to liver “don’t say gay” legislatn stat cludg Michigan and New Perks, the print of the Fay Rearch Council, a nservative lobbyg group, veighed agast the ernors of Indiana and Utah for vetog legislatn banng trans women om participatg sports, llg the bills “timely, mastream protectns”. The Republin US reprentative Marjorie Taylor Greene vowed to troduce a feral “don’t say gay” bill if Republins w the Hoe this November, only to one-up herself days later by tweetg that for people to be pro-trans is to be pro-pedophilia.