Gwendolyn Herzig, a transgender pharmacist, traveled to the state of Arkansas earlier this month for a testify in support to provide transgender youth with gender-affirming health care.
Herzig hoped lawmakers would consider her experience as they debated a law that would allow anyone who received gender-affirming care from a doctor as a minor to sue for negligence up to 30 years after turning 18.
Instead, she was met with transphobia.
“You said you’re a trans woman,” said Republican Rep. Matt McKee. “Do you have a penis?”
Herzig later he told NBC News that experience”it was probably the most humiliating audience I’ve ever seen.”
The medical malpractice lawsuit is just one of the anti-LGBTQ measures considered by Arkansas recently. In January the Republicans introduced an extreme bill that it would criminalize “adult performances” — including those in which performers “demonstrate a gender identity other than the gender assigned to the performer at birth” — in public, where children could see them.
The bill’s Republican cosponsors ultimately removed language specifically targeting beloved artists. public rejectionand this week a law criminalizing public performance by adults came into effect.
At the national level, there are approx 351 anti-LGBTQ bills in state legislatures right now, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. The proposed measures, which are all Republican-sponsored and come at a time when the GOP has been consumed by anti-LGBTQ hysteria, seek to criminalize drag shows, ban trans youth from school sports and ban health care for children and adults transgender. .
Several anti-LGBTQ bills have already made their way through state legislatures: Just this week, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) signed a bill banning gender-affirmation assistance for trans youth.
“This Republican Party plays politics with people’s lives and has a clear picture of their priorities,” said Heather Williams, interim chairwoman of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.
An avalanche of bills
Tennessee is poised to become the first state to criminalize drag shows, a move that LGBTQ people and advocates say has the potential to criminalize transgender and non-binary people as well as limit Pride celebrations.
Republican Gov. Bill Lee has signaled he will sign it into law HB3/SB9which would outlaw “adult cabaret performers” — which include topless and exotic dancers, as well as “male or female impersonators” — in public where a minor might see them.
The language is so broad that LGBTQ advocates fear the law could also be used to arrest transgender people who are just living their lives.
“Trans and non-binary people will now have to ask themselves whether they will be accused of being male or female,” Chris Sullivan, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project, a nonprofit dedicated to LGBTQ rights, told HuffPost. “Makes you think twice before going shopping.”
via the Associated Press
As proposal in Missouri, a state that is also trying banning gender-affirming medical care for incarcerated minors and adults, he would perform the drag show in public or if a minor could see him punished by a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Even in Virginia, where the number of Democrats in the state Senate almost guarantees that homophobic and transphobic laws cannot advance, Republicans have tried to pass a series of extreme laws to demonstrate to a bloodthirsty base that they, too, are trying to limit rights. of the LGBTQ community.
Such a bill would require students to do so present identification of their “biological sex” on a form, which requires the doctor’s signature, to do sports. The proposal is an attempt to ban transgender students from participating in athletics.
“If you think requiring 1.6 million college students to inspect their genitalia is good policy, a lot of parents are going to be against it,” Danica Roem, Democrat of Virginia, told HuffPost.
Republicans have closely pursued anti-LGBTQ legislation, even as many high-profile candidates pushing a culture war-driven far-right agenda were defeated in the 2022 midterms.
“Not everything is partisan. There are some true believers,” Roem said. “But whenever they go to worry about drag queens, then they don’t worry about transportation infrastructure and overcrowded classrooms.”
Like extremist groups protest in front of public libraries That hosts drag queen story hours AND GOP politicians make a mockery of racial justice and LGBTQ rights as “woke” ideologues, it seems the deluge of bills is an easy way to score political points with a base that continues to lurch to the right.
“It’s not about public service, it’s about how they can rise through the ranks of the party and get all the attention,” Williams said. “And the only way to do that is to be against everything and defend nothing.”
Many of the anti-bullying laws and other measures aimed at the LGBTQ community will likely face legal challenges. But advocates and Democrats say these bills don’t have to become law to cause harm.
“They are causing real, real harm to their constituents,” Roem said. “You cannot serve your constituents by attacking them.”
I’m a passionate and motivated journalist with a focus on world news. My experience spans across various media outlets, including Buna Times where I serve as an author. Over the years, I have become well-versed in researching and reporting on global topics, ranging from international politics to current events.