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They also may face social snubs and bullying from classmates who learn anti-trans talking points at home or in the media. The message to transgender children, whether they live in Florida or California, is “that they don’t belong,” said Olivia Hunt, policy director at the National Center for Transgender Equality. “Now I’m thinking about all the queer kids that are where I was,” said De la Vega, who identifies as “nonbinary femme of center” and uses the pronouns they and she.ĭe la Vega sometimes thinks that “if I don’t leave my bubble” in Los Angeles, “I’ll be OK.” But, they said, they worry about whether they would be safe if they visited their sister and nephews in Alabama.Ī recent poll from the Trevor Project, a nonprofit suicide prevention group, found that the recent legislative debates have harmed the mental health of nearly two-thirds of LGBTQ children.
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The new legislation, especially bills targeting gender-affirming care, has brought back feelings of being a queer kid of color in a small town in Tennessee, said Jessica-Jean de la Vega, general manager for youth services at ProjectQ. That effort by singer and orange juice spokeswoman Anita Bryant to overturn a law in Dade County, Fla., banning discrimination based on sexual orientation helped to galvanize the modern gay rights movement. Some of the furor recalls the moral panic of the “Save Our Children” campaign of the 1970s, Szabo said. “The idea that someone wouldn’t want books on LGBTQ topics is ridiculous, when LGBTQ Americans are everywhere, including running the Los Angeles Public Library.” “It feels like we’re taking steps backward, and such silly steps too,” Szabo said. That trend is alarming, because it’s “not just a one-off,” said John Szabo, the Los Angeles city librarian. documented 729 challenges to library and school reading materials last year, targeting 1,597 books - a 93% increase over two years.Īmong the books that are most often censored, half contain LGBTQ content, the ALA’s analysis found.
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The legislative debates have coincided with a rise in attempts to restrict access to books that discuss sexuality and gender identity. Greg Abbott has directed state employees to open child abuse investigations into families that provide gender-affirming care to their trans children. In Tennessee, legislators passed a bill that would pull funding from school districts that allow transgender students to play on girls sports teams.Īnd in Texas, Republican Gov. It also sparked a weeks-long feud between DeSantis and Walt Disney Co. Dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, it has drawn the ire of critics who say it marginalizes LGBTQ people. Ron DeSantis forbids classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. Supreme Court.Ī Florida bill signed last month by Republican Gov. Now he worries about what might be coming, particularly with a 6-3 conservative majority on the U.S.
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The 45-year-old often wore T-shirts with rainbows or messages of gay pride, sparking the occasional compliment from a clerk at a gas station.īut that, he said, “was before this rash of bills.” The louder we get, the louder they get.”įor Robert Gamboa, a gay man who serves as policy advocacy manager of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, the proposed bills send a clear message: “I can’t go home in the same way.”īorn and raised in Texas, Gamboa took a road trip through his home state and other parts of the South during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The more we show ourselves and stand tall and proud in who we are, the opposition has a direction to point in when they want to say there’s something wrong.
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“Visibility is a double-edged sword,” said Madin Lopez, founder of the nonprofit ProjectQ, which gives free haircuts to unhoused LGBTQ youths in Los Angeles. They fear that the rhetoric and legislation will continue to barrel forward across the country, leading to a clawback of important protections. Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Californians have watched with alarm and sadness in recent weeks as lawmakers in the Midwest and South have debated the rights of LGBTQ people within their borders.Īmong the issues: whether transgender children can play in youth sports leagues or on high school teams, whether teachers can discuss same-sex relationships in the classroom and whether parents who help their children seek gender-affirming care will be investigated for abuse.įor many, the debates feel deflating and jarring after years of apparent progress.