After years of progrs on gay rights, how did the US bee so anti-LGBTQ+? | US news | The Guardian

Contents:

• “LGBT AMERINS FOR”: PRINTIAL ELECTNS AND THE MOVEMENT FOR GAY RIGHTS, 1980-2020
• AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?
• GAY RIGHTS ARE ON THE MIDTERM BALLOT AFTER CLARENCE THOMAS OPN, SAYS NEW GLAAD AD
• POLIL ISSU: GAY RIGHTS
• GAY RIGHTS AND PRINTIAL ELECTNS
• PRINT OBAMA AND GAY RIGHTS: THE 2008 AND 2012 PRINTIAL ELECTNS
• ABORTN, GUNS AND GAY RIGHTS ON THE DOCKET FOR SUPREME COURT'S NEW TERM

“LGBT AMERINS FOR”: PRINTIAL ELECTNS AND THE MOVEMENT FOR GAY RIGHTS, 1980-2020

” Two-thirds of LGBTQ voters say the rults of the 2020 printial electn have them feelg optimistic about the future; though 77% exprs ncern that the new Supreme Court will overturn marriage equalyIssu Impactg the LGBTQ Vote: COVID-19 rponse, healthre, racial jtice, followed by LGBTQ equalyCOVID-19 Rponse is the Number One Issue for LGBTQ Voters: 36% Face Mental Health Issu after COVID-19New York, NY – GLAAD, the world’s largt lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocy anizatn, released the fdgs of s 2020 Post-electn Poll of LGBTQ registered voters, cludg a phenomenal turnout of the LGBTQ vote, a surge of first-time LGBTQ voters, an overwhelmg vote for Print-elect Bin, wh vot motivated by three top issu urgently mandg a more robt rponse om our natn’s lears: COVID-19, healthre and racial jtice. Perhaps most notably, g out at the age of thirty-three 2015, jt five years ago, he was also the first, openly gay person to serly ntend for the hight US office. While some wh the LGBTQ+ muny have bated the signifince of Buttigieg’s mpaign for the ongog movement for gay equaly, his succs gettg as far as he did, not least beg the first gay ndidate to w a printial nomatg ntt wh his narrow victory Iowa, nohels reprented how far the gay rights movement has e polilly the past forty years.

Electns Campaigns Archive at the VHL sheds light on the trajectory of gay rights issu om the margs to the centre of mastream polics durg this perd. [ii] His Rabow Coaln speech, livered at the Democratic nventn San Francis July 1984, was the first to mentn gay and lbian Amerins at a natnal nventn. [iii] After losg the nomatn to Walter Mondale (D-MN), Jackson ran for print aga 1988, and gave his first speech after announcg his send printial bid at the send Natnal March on Washgton for Lbian and Gay Rights October 1987.

Electns Campaigns Archive therefore speak to the tersectnal and reciprol aln-buildg that took place between those fightg agast palism, racism, sexism, imperialism, homophobia and for social jtice this . ”[viii] While factns of the gay rights movement have long bated how much weight to place on the fight for marriage equaly, as well as the fight to serve openly the ary, for the broar stggle for LGBTQ+ equaly and rights, both issu ntued to ame the polil bate to the twenty-first century.

AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?

Obama gaed the support of LGBTQ+ voters part through his revokg of the Clton-era “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that prohibed gay, lbian, and bisexual Amerins form servg unls they remaed closeted 2010, and, 2015, durg his send term office, the Supreme Court legalised same-sex marriage the landmark se Obergefell v. While the legislative velopments show how far attus towards gay rights have evolved sce the early 1980s, a majory of stat still do not have explic laws protectg LGBTQ+ Amerins om discrimatn, siar to feral laws that exist on race, relign, sex, natnal orig, age or disabily on their books. [iii] Alex Bollger, “How Jse Jackson helped brg gay rights to the Democratic mastream, ” LGBTQ Natn, Febary 28, 2018, accsed 5 March 2020, [iv] Ey K.

Hobson, Lavenr and Red: Liberatn and Solidary the Gay and Lbian Left (Berkeley: Universy of California Prs, 2016), 168.

[vii] Memo: Workers World, “Workers World Printial Candidat Support Lbian and Gay Freedom Day, Demand Immediate Government Actn on Lbian and Gay Rights, ” June 18, 1984, 30; Workers World, “Statement by Larry Holm and Gloria La Riva Front of Feral Electns Commissn, ” January 27, 1984, 1-2, MSS. Bin, 77, grew up an era when homosexualy, the word routely ed at the time, was often viewed as a s and even a n slip to dated generalizatns about gay and lbian life, as he did an terview wh Anrson Cooper at an L.

GAY RIGHTS ARE ON THE MIDTERM BALLOT AFTER CLARENCE THOMAS OPN, SAYS NEW GLAAD AD

Talkg about what San Francis was like “15, 20 years ago, ” he said that the cy, wh s large muny of gay men and lbians, was “all about, well, you know, gay bathho, ” addg, “It’s all about round-the-clock sex.

“There’s no polil barometer that would have told him to get ahead of the Whe Hoe on this, ” said Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., who is gay and ran agast Mr.

Bin, then a Delaware senator, lent his name to legislatn that me to be known as one of the biggt legislative setbacks for the gay rights movement s history. His mg about gay men and lbians as secury risks 1973, and his support for a measure rtrictg how homosexualy was prented to schoolchildren, reflects the kd of attus that gay and lbian activists had to battle durg the early s of the movement.

POLIL ISSU: GAY RIGHTS

Tmp’s admistratn, by ntrast, urged the Supreme Court, unsuccsfully, not to extend the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s protectns agast workplace discrimatn to gay and transgenr people. Bin’s own history on gay rights — along wh llg Mike Pence, the nservative vice print, a “cent guy” — ma him vulnerable to cricism om the left as he sought the Democratic printial nomatn. “As queer people, we abhor the way that Bin, his eagerns to reach across the aisle, wds up beg an apologist for homophob like Mike Pence, ” Cynthia Nixon, the actrs and activist who challenged Andrew M.

Bin’s standg among gay and lbian activists was his appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Prs” as vice print 2012 when, rponse to a qutn, he said he supported same-sex marriage. More about Adam NagourneyA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 13 of the New York edn wh the headle: As Bin Evolved on Gay Rights, the Country Went Wh Him.

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. As recently as 2020, the urt, then wh two Tmp appote, led that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protected gay, lbian and transgenr workers.

GAY RIGHTS AND PRINTIAL ELECTNS

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. 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”.

PRINT OBAMA AND GAY RIGHTS: THE 2008 AND 2012 PRINTIAL ELECTNS

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.

”The bs-iendly wg of the GOP that would quietly team up wh Democrats to scuttle rabidly homophobic bills is now outnumbered, and legislators a dozen or more stat that lean even farther to the right than DeSantis are takg, the Natnal Center for Lbian Rights legal director, believ Florida is the tt se for a renewed ph for an aggrsive, Christian-natnalist program.

ABORTN, GUNS AND GAY RIGHTS ON THE DOCKET FOR SUPREME COURT'S NEW TERM

”The “don’t say gay” bill, Mter not, is very siar to what’s been passed Rsia, tetherg Amerin nservativ to their thorarian unterparts who have succsfully rolled back mocratic norms across eastern Europe. “I’ve seen this movie before over the last 30 years: The right wg cid to target the LGBTQ muny, whether ’s around marriage or adoptn or trans kids playg sports or bathrooms, ” says the California state senator Stt Wiener, who is gay.

“I thought was really important to ph back on the policy level, and to send a clear signal that California and other stat really re about the kids, ” he believ that “don’t say gay” is “patently unnstutnal” but also ntends that relyg on the judicial system to protect human rights may no longer be a sound optn. He's challenged Vice Print Mike Pence's anti-LGBTQ posns and, if elected, he would be the natn's first openly gay his mpaign, Buttigieg has vowed to pass the Equaly Act, reverse the Tmp admistratn's ban on transgenr people servg the ary, and enforce the Affordable Care Act's non-discrimatn provisns to protect LGBTQ patients. " When Buttigieg was heckled by anti-gay protters earlier this year, the former Maryland ngrsman spoke out about the cint, urgg people to "stand together" and "nmn disgtg attacks on our iends the LGBTQ muny" a statement on part of his 2020 mpaign, Delaney has vowed to support the Equaly Act, the Stunt Non-Discrimatn Act, and the Votg Rights Advancement Act.