Why Does the Right Get So Riled Up Over Toilets? | Opinion
resurgence of such bills in 2022 and 2023, conservative leaders have now weaponized the simple act of using the bathroom. Knowing that they can hook conservative voters with a certain type of transphobic rhetoric, far-right politicians such as Florida's Gov.
Ron DeSantis and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders have waged an all-out war on the LGBTQIA+ community with these bills.According to the Human Rights Campaign, there is overwhelming support for anti-discrimination measures for the LGBTQIA+ community, even in states passing sweeping anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation, such as Florida.
However, as we saw with the election of Donald Trump and the rise of the "MAGA" movement in 2016, there are fringe groups who feel they have found a platform for their bigotry within the neo-conservative movement.
Politicians hoping to find success by attaching themselves to this rising far-right movement are using legislation such as the bathroom bills to speak directly to this base, to show that their voice—regardless of how bigoted it may be—remains prominent.The amount of anti-LGBTQIA+ bills introduced throughout the last two years is staggering.
