Record Number of Anti-LGBTQ Bills Were Introduced in 2023
A 2004 survey of over 6,000 LGBTQ+ adults over the last three years found that one in three LGBTQ adults say they have been treated unfairly by a health care provider, according to NBC News. Their -less-than-fair treatment caused their health to get worse, compared to 9% of non-LGBTQ adults.
This is not the only arena where LGBTQ adults are treated badly. According to the policy think tank at U.C.L.A’s Williams Institute 65% percent experience some form of workplace discrimination.
In JUST ONE YEAR, the number of bills introduced almost tripled in the State Legislatures. Of the 510 bills proposed in 2023, twice as many education-related bills were proposed than they did in all of 2022. More than 2/3 of health care-related bills introduced last year were aimed at blocking trans youth from gender affirming care. Although the American Medical Association endorses gender affirming care for youth with gender dysphoria, a feeling of distress that can happen when gender identity differs from a person’s sex assigned at birth, many are opposed.
Hormones
As states decide on the fate of gender-affirming care, parents of transgender youth scurry to find states that will allow their child to start puberty blockers. The World Professional Association for Transgenders wants to change the law so hormones could be started at age fourteen and surgeries could be done at age fifteen or seventeen while they are still minors.
Puberty blockers are reversible. They don’t cause permanent physical changes. You do not have to undergo surgeries to reduce the impacts of significant gender dysphoria. However, parents argue, according to the Mayo Clinic, that delaying puberty might improve the well-being of the minor child by easing depression and anxiety as well as improving interactions with other children so they don’t consider suicide. It may, in effect, lower the need for future surgeries.
Even More Bills
By the end of 2023, eighty-four bills were signed into law in twenty-three states, meaning nearly 1/2 of U.S. states passed anti-LGBT legislation. There were thirty-one bills about school facilities, five times more than the previous year. There were “forced outing” bills, according to reporter Gillian Branstetter, a communication strategist for bills. These bills required teachers to alert parents when a student uses a different pronoun for his gender identity. It puts the teacher in a difficult position because often the teacher can be the only ally that the child has.
There has been a focus to ban discussions around gender identity and sexuality in the classroom. In effect, you are giving the power back to the parents at home. However, many straight parents are tongue-tied when it comes to sex discussions with their LGBTQ child. In this case, the child knows more than they do!
Also during that year in Florida, 700 books were removed or discontinued in K-12 schools. These were not just books about queer identity, but classics such as To Kill A Mockingbird. Librarians were threatened. What ever happened to a democracy in which book banning is not allowed?
The Human Rights Watch reported on 11/20/24 that at least 350 transgender and gender diverse people have been murdered and one-third were under the age of twenty-five. Furthermore, this list does not include suicides, accidental deaths or premature deaths that does not get counted. It seems that transgenders are targeted because they are not understood.
Now The Internet is Acting Up
The internet is not making it much better. For example, a reliable friend told me this morning that the new Meta policy allows LGBTQ people to be called “it.” (even my spaded dog was not referred to as an “it.” ) Women, with this new policy, can be referred to as “household objects or property.” Before today, those phrases would have been taken down and referred to as “hate speech.”
What will happen this year with the new Administration? The LGBTQ population is scared and so are the straight parents. What gets passed is anybody’s guess. The answer is “blowin’ in the wind.”
When Your Child Is Gay: What You Need To Know
For more detailed advice, see book, co-authored with a mother of a gay son and a psychiatrist, Jonathan L. Tobkes, M.D.
