The Great Migration

Sadly there are people who are fleeing their states and because their government animosity against  them is too much to bear.

LGBTQ parents think of moving from Florida, citing laws that target their children

Fear. Worry. Dread. Shock. These are among the emotions expressed in a survey of LGBTQ parents in Florida on the impact of what critics call the "Don't Say Gay" law.

WUSF

By Kate Payne

April 12, 2023

A survey of more than 100 LGBTQ parents in Florida found more than half are thinking about leaving the state because of the law that bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

The contentious law, approved last year by the Republican−majority Florida Legislature, drew intense national scrutiny from critics who argue it marginalizes LGBTQ people.

The survey of 113 queer parents, conducted by Clark University and the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, examined the effects of the Parental Rights in Education law — the one opponents have slammed as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. The survey was done between June 13-Sept. 9, 2022.

“The Don’t Say Gay bill claims to be for parent rights, but my rights have been taken away since its passage,” said one parent surveyed in the Clark Univ. / UCLA study.

Parent’s rights to discriminate! That is what the Republicans means when the say “Parent Rights.”

"It's really just one piece of the larger picture — which is for many folks feeling increasingly hostile and really oppressive. And that that actually affects families," Goldberg [Clark University psychology professor] said. "A fifth of them are feeling less safe. And they're feeling like they can't walk down the street holding their partner's hand."

And that is exactly what the Republicans are trying to do force us into the closet or out of the state.

LGBTQ+ people are leaving Florida. They blame the Legislature.

“I spent 30 years in the closet,” one Floridian said. “I won’t be going back now.”

Tampa Bay Times

By Hannah Critchfield

April 24, 2023

June can’t come soon enough for Nikkie Jackson.

Rainbow windsocks no longer wave from her apartment balcony. She removed them in March, along with the magnet on her car that read, “I’m so gay I s--t rainbows.”

When her lease is up this summer, Jackson will return to Illinois after two years in the Sunshine State.

“I spent 30 years in the closet, and I won’t be going back now,” Jackson, a lesbian in Jacksonville, said through tears. “But I’m scared — if they’re targeting trans people now, they’ll eventually come for the rest of us.”

In the wake of a wave of Florida legislation taking aim at LGBTQ+ issues, some people are abandoning life here.

The Republicans are using fear to drive us out! And it is not just Florida…

LGBTQ residents moving to Illinois from states with conservative agendas: ‘I don’t want to be ashamed of where I live’

Chicago Tribune

By Lizzie Kane

April 24, 2023

Mark Niehaus-Rincon, 67, has lived in Omaha, Nebraska, for 12 years but says “life is too short” to stay there.

He and his husband, Alex, a native of Omaha, have faced the silent treatment from others at their gym for 10 years. They’ve also dealt with uncomfortable and hostile workplace environments and homophobic slurs.

That treatment, combined with Nebraska’s current legislative agenda — which includes restricting women’s access to reproductive health care and limiting the rights of the LGBTQ community — helped push Niehaus-Rincon and his husband to relocate to Chicago. He said they are done compromising and hiding their true identities.

“We are just over it,” Niehaus-Rincon said. “We aren’t welcome here. … I am ashamed to say I live in Nebraska … and I don’t want to be ashamed of where I live.”

Niehaus-Rincon is not the only one relocating to Illinois from a state with a conservative legislative agenda and what he describes as an unwelcome environment.

What does it say about our country when states start passing “Jim Crow” laws against their citizens? 

But instead of racial segregation and making black second class citizens they are going after their LGBTQ+ citizens banning them from going the bathroom, from talking about anything LGBTQ+, from reading about their history or reading stories about people like us.

What does it say about our country when states force their citizens to flee?

Does it sound like something you would find in a third world country?

LGBTQ Ugandans live in fear as new law looms

Reuters

April 24, 2023

At a shelter for lesbian women in Uganda's capital Kampala, gone are the days when the residents, having fled abuse and stigma at home, could breathe easy and be themselves.

That came to an end a month ago when parliament passed some of the world's strictest anti-LGBTQ legislation, which would criminalise the "promotion" of homosexuality and impose the death penalty for certain crimes involving gay sex.

President Yoweri Museveni said on Thursday that he supports the legislation but has requested some modifications from parliament, including provisions to "rehabilitate" gay people, before he signs it.

Is that next on the Republican hit parade of draconian laws… mandatory conversion therapy?

We are not the only being attack by legislation that is forcing us to flee ot think twice before moving to oppressive states.

Turning down a $300K job, deferring dreams of Austin: How Roe’s end is changing millennials’ career plans—and lives

CNBC

By Jennifer Liu

August 18, 2022

The overturn of Roe v. Wade in June ended nearly 50 years of federal abortion rights, meaning access to health care depends on where you live and work more than ever.

Restricted abortion access will have major career and financial consequences for women, experts say.

For Kristi Bradford, the immediate cost is a $300,000 paycheck.

Bradford, 32, walked away from a $300,000 job based in Oklahoma out of concern for her health. She’s a strategic investment professional living in Los Angeles and was set to start working remotely for a company based in Oklahoma this month. But once Roe was overturned, and Oklahoma enacted its trigger law banning almost all abortions, Bradford says the uncertainty surrounding the state’s restricted reproductive care led her to pull out of the job altogether.

In the weeks since the Supreme Court ruling, professionals ranging from doctors to academics to tech workers are already changing their career plans in a post-Roe America.

And then there is…

Almost half of nation’s OB-GYN residents train in states poised to ban abortion

Physicians warn that the Supreme Court ruling will have a “dire” impact on training, ultimately affecting patient care.

Health Care Dive

By Samantha Liss

June 28, 2022

The Supreme Court ruling overturning the federal right to abortion is likely to curtail the ability to train doctors in comprehensive reproductive healthcare, physicians said Friday.

Roughly 44% of the nation’s current obstetric and gynecology residents train in states that are poised to ban abortions, CEO of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Maureen Phipps said Friday on a call with reporters.

“The impact on physician training will be dire and the consequences will be long lasting,” Phipps, who is a physician, said.

[…]

Researchers concluded that the rollback of Roe v. Wade will leave “nearly one half of U.S. obstetrics and gynecology residents without access to this fundamental facet of reproductive care, thus affecting care for future patients.”

It is not just OB/GYN doctors and medical students avoiding conservative states but also…

Political Climate And Educational Policies May Lower Enrollment At Florida Colleges

Forbes

By Lucie Lapovsky

April 5, 2023

Florida Governor Ron Desantis’ recent policies and legislation on higher education and other areas are likely to drive students away from Florida’s colleges and universities. According to a new poll by Intelligent one in eight high school seniors in Florida say they will not attend a public college in the State. The key finding include the following:

Overall, 91% of prospective college students and 79% of current college students disagree with DeSantis’ policies

• 1 in 8 graduating high school students in Florida won’t attend a public college due to DeSantis’ education policies
• 78% of students surveyed who plan to attend a state school are worried the policies will have a negative impact on their education
• 1 in 20 current state college students plan to transfer because of DeSantis’ education policies
•  56% of surveyed current state college students are concerned the policies will negatively impact their on-going education.

A survey done by Arts and Sciences, found that one in four students ruled out attending a college in a state because of the political climate in the state; this was true of both liberal and conservative students. Conservative students tended to rule out attending college in California and New York while liberal students tended to mark Florida, Texas, Alabama and Louisiana off their lists. For liberal students, the main issues are abortion and reproductive rights, lack of concern about racial equity, LBGTQ+ laws, and ease of getting guns while for conservative students the reasons were more general.

What I am concerned about is that this migration will result in a deeper divide between the conservative and liberal states.

In Montana the Republicans have tried to silence a trans legislators, in the article in the New York Times they had a paragraph that caught my attention.

But in recent years, as the state has experienced an influx of conservative transplants and joined an increasingly polarized national political debate, Republicans have steadily expanded their control, especially in rural Montana, which had often been the scene of vigorous and competitive political contests.

I worry that there is a decrease in Purple states that they are either turning Red or Blue.

Last year, Republicans gained a supermajority in both houses of the Legislature, positioning Montana as a new front in the nation’s culture wars.

[…]

“They want to tell people what their identity is,” he said. “They want to tell people who they can marry. They want to tell people where they can work. They’re reaching into all these private areas of people’s lives. And this is wrong. This is not who we are.”

I worry that a power trip is what the Republicans are on and people are choosing with their feet dividing the country even more. Leading us right down the path to Fascism.