Sadly it is the most anti-LGBTQ+ legislation introduced in any given year.
CNN
By Priya Krishnakumar and Devan Cole
July 17, 2022
State lawmakers across the US have introduced at least 162 bills targeting LGBTQ Americans this year through July 1, according to a CNN analysis of data compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union, already marking a record-breaking year for such legislation.The slew of bills is spread across 35 states, 27 of which have legislatures controlled by Republicans. The 162 bills that were introduced through July of this year tally just above the 151 considered for all of 2021, and more than double the 76 considered in 2020.
Most of the bills introduced this year target transgender and nonbinary people, with a particular emphasis on trans youth. The issue has been seized upon in the run-up to the midterm elections, predominantly in Republican-led states.
The Republicans say, that it is nothing personnel but we hate your guts and do everything in our power to make you criminals.
"Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few. I don't understand what they are going through or why they feel the way they do. But I want them to live," Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said, noting that studies have shown that the high rates of suicide among trans students can be reduced when they're shown "even a little acceptance and connection."
We have a lot of work to do to educate the public!
Public opinion, however, is largely on the side of the bans' proponents. A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll released last month found a majority of respondents saying they opposed trans women competing on teams that match their gender identity at the high school and college level. And a Gallup poll from May 2021 showed that among US adults, 62% of respondents said trans athletes should only be allowed to play on teams that match their gender assigned at birth rather than their gender identity.
We need to educate the public that there is no unfair advantages in trans student athletes, but one of the problems is that the public sees sports as a sacred institution and winning is everything. People ae afraid of change and anything they don't understand.
Then there are the bans on anything LGBTQ+ in schools, such laws as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law or the banning of in LGBTQ+ books.
This year has also seen a record number of bills designed to restrict what teachers and educators can say about LGBTQ-related topics in the classroom. In all of 2021, 16 bills were introduced across statehouses that aimed to restrict how schools could approach topics about LGBTQ issues in the classroom.
So far this year, that number jumped to more than 40 bills across 18 states.
Republicans have argued that the measures provide parents with greater oversight over what kinds of topics are discussed at school and that LGBTQ-related topics should be left for families to discuss at home. When Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 1557 earlier this year -- which opponents have dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" law -- he said it recognizes that "parents have a fundamental role in the education, health care and well-being of their children."
A number of the laws have gone into effect and are facing legal challenges.
Some of the laws enacted this year have already or will soon go into effect, creating a new reality for LGBTQ Americans around the country. And lawsuits filed against a few of them could eventually slow down their implementation, including the Utah sports ban, which was challenged in court by the families of two Utah teenagers.
But with Republicans packing the courts with judges putting their Christian ideology ahead of the Constitution we cannot count on the courts, especially the Supreme Court. We end up with judges like the one in Tennessee who blocked the Education Department’s Title IX guidance, which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation that I wrote about this morning.
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