Thanks to the Supreme Court, attacks on LGBTQ rights are exploding

[Jessica_Rose]

Thanks to the Supreme Court, attacks on LGBTQ rights are exploding

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/thanks-to-the-supreme-court-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights-are-exploding/ar-BB1hgUAs?cvid=4e96ddb3cc1c4112b93d69df37639939&ei=7

Opinion by Sarah Posner (25 Jan 2024)

A new report from the advocacy group American Atheists lays out yet another way in which America is rapidly becoming a nation of haves and have nots: the residents of blue states who have rights, and the residents of red states where Republican lawmakers, propelled by a right-wing Supreme Court and Christian nationalist interest groups, are taking a sledgehammer to those rights.

In its sixth annual "State of the Secular States," the group reports that in 2023, its staff tracked over 1,000 bills in state legislatures that sought to undermine equal rights based on religion, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, or otherwise undermined religious equality.

Many of the legislators behind these bills, the group reports, were "emboldened and enabled by astroturfed activists." Using buzzwords and phrases like "gender ideology" or "grooming," and turning critical race theory and diversity, equality and inclusion into pejoratives are the keys to these moral panics.

The Associated Press reports that Republican-controlled statehouses are this year again taking aim at trans people, with more looking to restrict or outlaw gender-affirming care for trans minors, potentially expanding the number of states with bans on health care that the nation's leading medical and psychological professional associations consider effective, safe and essential.