US Locals Express Concern Over Surge In Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation

America’s LGBTQ+ community and their allies have expressed deep concern over the surge in US legislation being considered in parts of the country that aims to limit the rights of people from gender and sexual minorities.

Members of Sonoma County’s LGBTQ+ community, for example, are worried that hateful rhetoric born out of such laws may encourage similar speech (online or in person), as well as acts of violence against members of the LGBTQ+ community, on the West Coast. “Even if we live in a county and a state where a majority of voters may vote to protect or preserve [LGBTQ+] rights here when possible, there’s still a concern that a vocal minority will enact violence, or will engage in hate speech,” commented Chelsea Kurnick, chair of Positive Images, a group that advocates for LGBTQ+ individuals in Sonoma County, in an interview with The Press Democrat.

Santa Rosa property manager and the co-chair of TransLife Sonoma County, Jennifer Rihl, agreed. In fact, she said she had witnessed "a huge increase in the number of laws that aim to peel back the rights of the transgender community," which have already impacted her life since she came out as a transgender woman to her family and friends in 2015. In fact, just a year later, North Carolina passed a law that barred transgender people from using bathrooms that aligned with their gender identity at schools and in government buildings. “I feel like it’s been an onslaught ever since,” Rihl confirmed.

Nearly 670 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been filed since 2018, according to a recent NBC News analysis of data from the American Civil Liberties Union and LGBTQ+ advocacy group Freedom for All Americans, with nearly all of the country’s 50 state legislatures having at least one bill, as reported. Worrying anti-LGBTQ+ bills include Alabama’s SB 184, which makes it illegal for medical professionals to provide gender-affirming care to transgender children under the age of 19, and Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The latter bars public school teachers from talking about sexual orientation and gender identity in class and also prohibits transgender students from using facilities that match their gender identity.

Although lawsuits have been filed to block both laws, the surge in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation has already started to negatively impact LGBTQ+ youth. According to recent research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 66% of LGBTQ+ youth said recent debates about state laws that would restrict the rights of transgender people had either a very negative or somewhat negative impact on their mental health. That figure rose to 85% for transgender and gender nonbinary youth 85%.

Another national survey carried out by The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ youth last year, shared similar findings. Around 42% of teen and young adults ages 13-24 said they seriously contemplated suicide, with slightly higher figures for transgender and gender nonbinary youth.

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