Understanding and combatting the surge of anti-LGBTQ legislation
This year has seen the largest number of anti-LGBTQ bill proposals in several decades. Although anti-LGBTQ proposals have long been a staple of American politics, their breadth has increased tremendously in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the court case that nationalized same-sex marriage. In 2016, immediately following the Obergefell decision, the number of anti-LGBTQ proposals skyrocketed to 175. Since then, the number has steadily increased each year, culminating in over 300 anti-LGBTQ proposals in 2022 as of late April. Why have state and local governments increasingly attacked the LGBTQ population through harmful legislation? What might movement organizations and the public do to help abate these proposals?
The current wave of anti-LGBTQ proposals began to pick up in 2015, when Christian nationalist groups pivoted away from focusing on same-sex marriage and, instead, focused their state-based activism on curtailing the rights of transgender people. For example, in June of 2015, just before the Obergefell decision was announced, the Family Research Council released an issue analysis report that placed the blame for what it called the “assault on the sexes” on three waves of progressive movements: the “modern feminist movement,” “the homosexual movement,” and the “transgender movement.” The report proposed a series of policy solutions targeting the transgender community, including legislation prohibiting governments from allowing gender changes on identity documents, prohibiting insurance companies from covering gender-affirming care, and prohibiting transgender people from using sex-segregated facilities that conform with their gender identities.
Why have state and local governments increasingly attacked the LGBTQ population through harmful legislation? What might movement organizations and the public do to help abate these proposals?
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