For the LGBTQ+ community, the current climate is catastrophic. As I wrote yesterday, conservative states are pressing ahead with hundreds of bills that ban transition care for trans teens, ban trans athletes from competing, force the outing of teens, and render illegal mentions of gay or trans issues in schools.
The climate has fostered physical attacks on LGBTQ community members, and boycotts of LGBTQ-friendly companies and harassment of employees, as the conservative onslaught grants the bigots a rhetorical license to act out — often violently.
I went over the fascistic elements of these attacks yesterday. What I didn’t discuss were the real-world implications — the damage these new laws and the climate have on people. Conservatives have grabbed this narrative, framing the debate as being about parental rights and grooming of kids.
“We are simply trying to protect children,” said Rep. Brad Hudson after the bill was approved by the Missouri House on May 10 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch). This is nonsense. This is not about protecting kids, but about bigotry and fear. Bans on treatment do not help trans kids; they harm them and turn kids and families into pariahs in their communities.
The Post-Dispatch described the real impact on families, many of whom are considering leaving Missouri. The call themselves “political refugees,” and “are packing up, pulling their kids from school, and saying goodbye to friends and neighbors, cousins and co-workers.”
“We love it here. We don’t want to leave,” said Jennifer Harris Dault of Maryland Heights, who has a transgender daughter. “But the mental stress is too hard.”
Harris Dault and her husband scrutinized a map of LGBTQ policies by state. They wanted a place with established protections, and landed on New York. They will head to Rochester next month with their children, 8 and 5.
We are lucky in New Jersey, but not immune. There is a bill in the Legislature (A3883) that would prohibit boards of education “from providing instruction in family life education, sex education, sexual health, sexual orientation, or gender identity to students in preschool through grade four.” And
It won’t pass. But it’s very existence in a state that has been strong on LGBTQ rights is indicative of the climate across the county.
What’s important to understand is the arguments being pressed are bogus. There is no grooming and parents already have plenty of power when dealing with schools. This framing is tactical, and is part of a longer faux “pro-child” effort that’s not really about kids but about control of what everyone has access to — services. Ideas, what it means to be American.
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Here are two links to columns written more than 10 years ago on marriage equality. I repost for two reasons: to show that we’ve seen real improvement in the lives of gay and lesbian couple, and to underscore these issues affect real people.
Central Jersey, “A rose by another name”
New Brunswick Patch, “Marriage Equality: The Time is Now”