After targeting youth, state lawmakers now going after rights of LGBTQ adults

[Lori Dee]

After targeting youth, state lawmakers now going after the rights of LGBTQ adults
Legislators are also teeing up challenges to same-sex marriage
Link to Full Article
The Washington Blade - Christopher Kane
August 13, 2025

Efforts that once focused on school sports and pediatric gender care have now broadened, as many advocates warned they would, to target adult life and the legal scaffolding of hard-won freedoms like same-sex marriage.

LGBTQ issues remain fraught political battlegrounds, but the fight has shifted to driver's licenses, hospital policies, state-worker speech rules, and even marriage licenses — exposing these communities to greater risk of civil-rights violations.

This shift comes at a moment when legal avenues for challenging discrimination by state governments or the Trump-Vance administration have narrowed significantly, even as rhetorical and political attacks intensify.

Predictably, these legislative efforts are clustered in conservative places like Texas, where state lawmakers teed up 32 anti-trans bills on the first day of pre-filing for 2025, as GLAAD noted.

At the same time, however, the group reports that the year kicked off with similar activity in far bluer statehouses located in places like Massachusetts, Colorado, and New York.

In what may be a harbinger of another battle over same-sex marriage, ... five states this year have considered non-binding resolutions asking the justices to overturn Obergefell: South Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho, Michigan, and Montana.

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[KathyLauren]

You knew this was coming, didn't you?  And next...?