It Does Just What They Wanted.

The new law is doing what it was intended to do… create fear and give a green light for bullies.

The National Center for Transgender Equality said about the new law on their Facebook page,

In Florida, extremist anti-LGBTQI+ politicians have passed a law that expands censorship in the classroom. Teachers could now face real risk just for reading age-appropriate books about kids with two mommies or trans and gender-diverse kids in their classrooms, or sharing that they are trans or got married to a same-sex partner. 

We're thinking of the people that this climate of fear affects the most - young trans kids, kids with queer + trans parents, the trans teachers, and the teachers who are now feeling afraid to even mention their spouse or share their wedding with their students. Make no mistake - our community will continue on. But deeply anti-free-speech laws like this one creates a chilling effect, drives out talented teachers, and makes young people wonder if they can even be themselves. It's simply wrong. 

This is what they are talking about!

New law increases restrictions on sexual orientation and gender identity discussions in classrooms

By WCJB Staff

July 7, 2023

Among the more than 200 new laws that took effect on July 1st, one new law expands restrictions in Florida on classroom discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity.

The law also limits the way teachers and students can use their preferred pronouns in schools.

The new measure prohibits such lessons in kindergarten through third grade and broadens the ban on discussions on gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms through eighth grade.

“Parents have a fundamental role in directing the education of their kids. That means supporting parent’s rights,” said Gov. Ron Desantis.

Okay first question: “Parents have a fundamental role in directing the education of their kids. That means supporting parent’s rights” What about parents who want that taught in the schools? Do they have rights also? Or is the law just for exclusionary parents? The Republicans and far right Christian Nationalist think they are the only ones with “rights.”

However, the courts are seeing it differently that the Republican legislators…

Anti-LGBTQ laws in the US are getting struck down for limiting free speech

Ohio Capital Journal

By Mark Satta

July 14, 2023

Nearly 500 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures in the U.S. in 2023. Many of those bills seek to reduce or eliminate gender-affirming care for transgender minors or to ban drag performances in places where minors could view them.

Most of those bills have not become law. But many of those that have did not survive legal scrutiny when challenged in court.

Anti-LGBTQ laws that federal judges have concluded do not pass constitutional scrutiny include anti-trans legislation in Arkansas and anti-drag legislation in Tennessee.

A notable feature of these rulings for me – a First Amendment scholar – is how many rely on the First Amendment’s protection of free speech. In several of the decisions, judges used harsh language to describe what they deemed to be assaults on a fundamental American right.

[…]

Several states passed laws aimed at restricting drag performances. These laws were quickly challenged in court. So far, judges have sided with those challenging these laws.

On June 2, 2023, a federal judge permanently enjoined Tennessee’s attempt to limit drag performances by restricting “adult entertainment” featuring “male or female impersonators.” When a law is permanently enjoined, it can no longer be enforced unless an appeals court reverses the decision.

The judge ruled on broad grounds that Tennessee’s law violated freedom of speech, writing that it “reeks with constitutional maladies of vagueness and overbreadth fatal to statutes that regulate First Amendment rights.” He also ruled that the law was passed for the “impermissible purpose of chilling constitutionally-protected speech” and that it engaged in viewpoint discrimination, which occurs when a law regulates speech from a disfavored perspective.

And it is not just drag queens that are winning, also our healthcare.

On June 20, 2023, a federal judge permanently enjoined an Arkansas law, passed in 2021 over the veto of then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson, preventing transgender minors from receiving various kinds of gender-affirming medical care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy.

The judge held that Arkansas’ law violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause – which ensures laws are applied equally regardless of social characteristics like race or gender – because the law discriminated on the basis of sex.

[…]

During June 2023, federal judges in Florida and Indiana granted temporary injunctions against enforcement of similar state laws. This means that these laws cannot be enforced until a full trial is conducted – and only if that trial results in a ruling that these laws are constitutional.

Reuters reported that,

Judges, including three appointed by Republican former President Donald Trump, have found that gender-affirming care is medically necessary for transgender youth suffering from gender dysphoria - the stress caused by the divergence between one's gender identity and sex assigned at birth.

The judges also have said laws banning such care violate a parent's right to make healthcare decisions for their children.

But not all judges see it the same way.

Trans youth in Tennessee can no longer access gender-affirming care after court ruling

The preliminary ruling marks the first time that a federal court has permitted a gender-affirming care ban to take effect, according to the ACLU.

The 19^th News

Over the weekend, a panel of judges on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors to take effect, blocking the statewide injunction put in place late last month. The preliminary ruling marks the first time that a federal court has permitted a gender-affirming care ban to take effect, according to the ACLU. 

The ruling by a three-judge panel in Tennessee comes after similar bans on gender-affirming care have been blocked by multiple federal judges in Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Arkansas and Alabama. A formal decision on the state’s appeal of the preliminary injunction will take place by the end of September.

So all those “wins” in are now losses!

Vox writes about the case,

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s decision in L.W. v. Skrmetti, threatens to upend all of that. Before L.W. was handed down this past weekend, there was a consensus among federal courts that the Constitution prohibits states from banning gender-affirming medical care.

L.W. destroys that consensus. It reinstated a Tennessee law, previously blocked by a federal trial court, that prohibits gender-affirming care for transgender patients under the age of 18. And the Sixth Circuit’s opinion was written by Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton, a widely respected judge, especially among the Supreme Court’s GOP-appointed majority.

Sutton, a George W. Bush appointee, is one of the federal judiciary’s leading “feeder” judges, meaning that his law clerks are frequently hired to clerk for the Supreme Court justices — a sign that the justices are likely to pay careful attention to Sutton’s views when deciding how to resolve a case like L.W.

Which doesn’t bode well for us. And who are the judges on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals they were Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton, a George W. Bush appointee; Judge White, a Biden appointee; and Judge Thapar, a Trump appointee.