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

Contents:

• AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?
• THE 61 CURRENT NFL PLAYERS, 13 OWNERS AND 9 HEAD ACH SUPPORT GAY AND BI ATHLET
• LEGIMACY OF ‘CTOMER’ SUPREME COURT GAY RIGHTS SE RAIS ETHIL AND LEGAL FLAGS
• TOP 10 STRAIGHT ADVOT FOR GAY AND TRANSGENR RIGHTS CELEBRATE COMG OUT DAY
• WHAT IS A SYMBOL SHOWG SUPPORT FOR GAY RIGHTS THAT MAK CLEAR I AM A STRAIGHT SUPPORTER?

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

“We want gays to reprent gays, ” Milk told the San Francis Examer 1977, and his posn as an LGBTQ public official helped brg the muny’s issu to promence. While servg as a cy supervisor, he troduced legislatn to protect the gay muny, cludg a gay rights ordance 1978 to ban discrimatn agast LGBTQ hog or employment. Kramer -found the advocy groups GMHC (Gay Men’s Health Crisis) and ACT UP (AIDS Coaln to Unleash Power), which ed the inic SILENCE = DEATH logo that beme a symbol for the AIDS crisis.

His ntributns to the LGBTQ muny boil down to the impact he ma as a pneer drag, and how “Drag Race” drastilly changed the way lns of Amerins view — and appreciate — a key facet of gay culture.

As the untry turned s attentn to the two historic marriage equaly s before the Supreme Court, Prop 8 on March 26 and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on March 27, a handful of celebri voiced their support of the lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) muny this week.

THE 61 CURRENT NFL PLAYERS, 13 OWNERS AND 9 HEAD ACH SUPPORT GAY AND BI ATHLET

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.

LEGIMACY OF ‘CTOMER’ SUPREME COURT GAY RIGHTS SE RAIS ETHIL AND LEGAL FLAGS

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”.

TOP 10 STRAIGHT ADVOT FOR GAY AND TRANSGENR RIGHTS CELEBRATE COMG OUT DAY

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.

”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.

WHAT IS A SYMBOL SHOWG SUPPORT FOR GAY RIGHTS THAT MAK CLEAR I AM A STRAIGHT SUPPORTER?

“The silent majory of sports legends have yet to speak out favor of LGBTQ+ sports, and I’m sure is not due to homophobia but a lack of knowledge and fear, ” said Rsell, who is also the thor of his upg memoir, The Yards Between Us. Below we’ve listed current NFL players, team owners and head ach who have — wh their actns and/or words — monstrated support for the LGBT muny, gay athlet, fans and anyone else between.

All of this is addn to Roger Gooll — the NFL missner and the most powerful person Amerin sports — who has for 10 years talked publicly many tim about his support for the LGBT muny, cludg his gay brother. Note that other players, ach and owners shared generic msag about cludg anyone who n help their team, but their msage didn’t que rg to as “support” for the LGBT muny or gay teammat. "The young gay, lbian and transgenr dividuals I met through Attu are tly brave to speak out and give hope to people who are gog through terrible bullyg right now, " he said.

"Human rights movements and sexual and gay rights movements have ma huge social progrs the last 40 years, whout a doubt, but there’s a lot more work to be done, " he said an terview wh Out magaze 2014. In 2018, she spoke to Billboard about how she realized the muny idolized her, sayg, "I was Sydney and there's a famo bar on Oxford Street lled the Albury, and at the time was the gay bar the gay area Sydney. "The ultimate reason gay marriage should be legalized everywhere is bee, as a kid, you look to your mum and dad and they're married, then you look at the gay uple who've been together for the same amount of time, but bee they n't get married their relatnship don't seem the same, " he said.

’The rponse I felt was of much annoyance – not bee I’ve been a relatnship wh a woman for the past two and half years – but for the narrow mdns displayed by another straight person only a or two my ignorance brought back terrible memori of beg hound by other straight men thkg I was gay bee I didn’t have a girliend high school. It seems the leafy, affluent suburbs of south east England which I’ve had to ll home only gay, lbian and bisexual and transgenr people make up the LGBT movement and are the only people who read LGBT now is the time to expose the tth about the gay rights movement, which is bt scribed as the civil rights movement of our generatn.

Gay people beg unable to marry do not make me feel ee – bee havg more liberti than others do not mean equaly – and for me, equaly is the road to full eedom for everybody. Such ignorance om the whe, upper class, heterosexuals who have been charge of the world sce anized relign replaced the ancient civilisatns where homosexualy was an attu is what kept blacks, Asians and other racial groups segregated by the whe man who thought he was superr. 2 ‘Gay’ is not a phemism for ‘bad’A ltle history: the term ‘gay’ was origally an acronym for ‘Good As You’, started by gay people the 1960s and was always meant to be a term of pri and the generatn I grew up , the term has been stolen and secrated to a disgtg phemism to scribe anythg that is wrong.

I’ve known people to e so liberally to scribe someone or somethg they do not like or fd of the most sickeng memori I have of high school is someone answerg their cell phone wh: ‘Alright gay?

You will fd this termology belongs to gay people and not to the word ‘gay’ for the horrible thgs life is watered down homophobia so I urge you to thk about the terms you pick next time you exprs your anger at someone or somethg. This is ak to the current trend of parent groups, like the Coaln for Marriage, sayg they want to protect their children om gay upl marryg and havg their own I n say to this, is groups like the Coaln for Marriage are basg their iology on tradns which are so out of date they belong to the era before Darw’s Theory of Evolutn and women gag the rights to vote, let alone the sexual who support the groups do not unrstand love and passn people feel for one another and are the kd of parents who are sred of discsg important thgs wh their children. Society needs to accept humany for what is and stop seeg as the bearer of tradnal valu which have not existed for ’s why I am a straight man for gay rights.