Queer Lives Are Under Attack. Fight Back at the Polls.
“Florida students stage school walkouts over 'don't say gay' bill”“Mother moves family away from Texas to protect transgender son”“An Idaho bill would criminalize medical treatments for trans youths”In the first week of 2022, we saw Arizona, Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, and South Dakota introduce measures that target trans and nonbinary youth, their families, and their communities.
It has continued, unabated and unrelenting, and will continue through this year into the critical midterm elections.As a parent, as a queer person, and as an advocate for human rights, I am appalled, overwhelmed, and going to the mat for the LGBTQ+ youth out there that are under attack.If South Dakota and the other initial states were a wakeup call, the escalating trend in so many other states is a five-alarm fire.
From the horror we are experiencing in Texas, with Governor Abbott directing state agencies to investigate gender-affirming care for trans youths as “child abuse” to Ohio’s legislation, currently under consideration, that would prohibit care for LGBTQ+ youth, there isn’t enough space here to fully catalog the number of states putting anti-LGBTQ legislation in process.It is challenging to keep up with the barrage of attacks.
The Georgia Senate has passed SB 435, legislation preventing transgender students from participating on gendered sports teams that align with their gender identity.
