LGBT+ Pride Month Begins Amid Anti-Transgender Laws

June in the United States is LGBTQ Pride Month, a celebration of sexual minority communities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. This year’s Pride Month coincides with concerted efforts by some states to restrict certain activities of Americans who identify as transgender and isolate drag queen of society in general.

“I grew up in Texas in the 1990s and I don’t remember seeing any LGBTQIA+ people,” Michael Terry told the voice of americausing a more widespread sexual minorities acronym, which includes queerintersex, asexual and others.

Terry, who is gay and lives in Atlanta, Georgia, explained that “not in person, not on TV or in the movies, not in the books I read. He would make me feel like something was wrong with me and have thoughts of self-harm and suicide.”

“We have spent decades trying to establish representation in society,” he added, “and now it is being systematically dismantled by laws being pushed through in Republican-controlled states across the country.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) records that 491 bills attacking LGBTQ+ rights were introduced in the current legislative session in various states, and 72 of them have already become law.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a presidential candidate, signed into law restrictions on gender-affirming treatment for minors seeking to transition into a new gender, as well as restrictions on entertainment shows. draguse of bathrooms and use of pronouns in schools.

In Kansas, new laws are leaving many transgender people unable to use the bathrooms of their identified gender or change the way they identify themselves on their driver’s licenses.

Public school teachers in Florida and Iowa are not allowed to discuss gender identity and sexual orientation issues with students. In many states, local school boards have removed LGBTQ-themed books from libraries.

“This month, Pride Month, is supposed to be a time of hope, relief and joy,” he told the VOA Janet Genusa, of McComb, Mississippi, who identifies as a lesbian. “But those feelings have largely been replaced by fear and anxiety.”

Mixed feelings

“I don’t think these laws are meant to stop people from being gay,” said Danielle Streger, a Republican voter from Tampa, Florida. “I just think LGBT pride is everywhere now: rainbow-colored beer bottles, rainbow-colored toilet paper, and my elementary school-age kids are surrounded by it in class.”

She added that “if an adult wants to change their gender, that’s up to them and I don’t want to stop them. But we should be able to discuss these complicated things as a family when I, the mother, feel that my daughters are ready. I don’t want them to be force-fed at school. It’s not the teacher’s responsibility.”

Many of the new laws being proposed across the country focus on people who identify as transgender or non-binary, meaning their gender is different from the sex they brought in at birth, representing 1.6% of the US population, according to a 2022 survey by the Pew Research Center.

While the US Department of State and Social Security Administration announced last year that Americans are now allowed to select “X” instead of “male” or “female” as a sex marker on their passports and Social Security applications, Socially, the public is divided on how the law should treat transgender people.

A Washington Post-KFF poll released in March, for example, found that 57% of American adults believe that gender should be based on the sex brought up at birth. However, an overwhelming majority supports laws prohibiting discrimination against transgender people on a variety of policy issues.

In that sense, 64%, for example, support housing laws that prohibit such discrimination. And while most respondents are in favor of gender-affirming counseling for youth and adolescents, most oppose providing medications such as hormone therapy to minors.

“When gay marriage was legalized by the Supreme Court in 2015, there was a lot of optimism that the country was on our side and that progress would continue,” said Jeremy Fogg, a New Orleans baker. “But now it looks like the Tories are saying, ‘Well, we lost that fight, so let’s now target this most vulnerable group.’

“Transgender people are already fighting very hard to be themselves, through disclosure, hormone therapy and gender-affirming care, and this only makes their fight even more difficult,” Fogg told the VOA. “Much of the optimism of 2015 is gone, but it also seems that if we fight hard enough, perhaps these setbacks could just be a blip in the biggest social progress ever.”

Setback or bump?

University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock said the story may be a potential guide on how to see progress for the rights of the LGBTQ+ movement. However, he cautioned against viewing current transgender-focused laws as a setback to past achievements.

“It is very unusual to remove a right once it has been vested,” he told the VOA, “and that’s not what we’re looking at here. There are no challenges on the same-sex marriage front or on discrimination against gay or transgender people in the workforce. Transgender issues are new and apparently perceived differently by a part of the public.

Bullock thinks some of the child-focused restrictions have precedent.

“There are age-related limitations,” he explained. “Driving a car, drinking, voting, buying firearms, and even protections against how children can be punished if they commit a crime. This establishes a basis for arguing that a young man should not be allowed to make permanent decisions regarding gender until he reaches a certain age.

“In the end, will the LGBTQ community get all the rights they want? Probably not,” Bullock said. “But I hope they get some additional rights similar to what seems to have happened in our federal system in the past, first with some pioneering cities and states, and then expanding nationally.”

Many in the LGBTQ+ community believe that this expansion of rights will require preparation for a new fight.

“I think our love is stronger than this meddling by these bad actors,” said Diego Sánchez, director of advocacy, policy and partnerships for PFLAG National, an organization dedicated to supporting, educating and advocating for LGBTQ people and their families.

“Businesses, legislators and good people who believe in justice and inclusion have stood up with us,” Sánchez told the VOA. “Together, we will continue to stand up to this moment and fight to ensure that every LGBTQ+ person is safe, celebrated, empowered, and loved.”

Mel Manuel, of Madisonville, Louisiana, who identifies as non-binary pansexual, is running for a seat in the state legislature. Manuel wants legislatures and Americans to work together to solve bigger problems, instead of restricting the LGBTQ community.

“I wish the Republicans understood that the LGBTQ community is not the enemy,” Manuel said. “I think your political leaders are using us as a diversion: wages have been stagnant for decades, many of us are living paycheck to paycheck, Americans are going broke due to medical bills… Why not work in these issues instead of paying as much attention to which bathroom trans people use?”

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