Apparently, every day is a battle for LGBTQ+ lawmakers. According to an Associated Press report, they “find themselves fighting just ‘to exist.'”
The article begins on an emotional note:
State Sen. Shevrin Jones can often be seen at the Florida Capitol greeting staff and colleagues with a smile or laugh, but when he’s alone it’s a different story.
“The outward expression is to show God’s love. That’s what I was taught,” said Jones, a Democrat. But, he said, “I have enough tears in my car to fill a lake.”
For Jones, who is gay, the past two years have been emotionally draining as Florida passed a flurry of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
More than 200 LGBTQ+ lawmakers across the country feel just like Jones, at a time when anti-gay and anti-transgender legislation is flourishing — as if they are under personal attack, and that they need to continually defend their community’s right to exist. The issue exploded into the national spotlight last week when Montana Republicans voted to bar Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr, who is transgender, from the House floor after a standoff over gender-affirming medical care for minors.
The AP reports: “The ACLU is tracking nearly 470 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in 16 states, most with Republican-controlled Legislatures. Texas, Missouri and Tennessee alone account for more than 125 such bills; Florida has ten.”
Read on and you’ll find these bills include Florida’s March 2022 Parental Rights in Education law which banned discussion on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade classrooms. And, of course, they identify the legislation as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
The lawmakers – and the AP – are especially incensed over bills that “would classify providing gender-affirming care to minors as a form of child abuse.” Isn’t it?
They also object to bills that would force students to use bathrooms that “correspond with their gender,” that would ban LGBTQ+ books from school libraries, that would deprive students of the “ability to socially transition at school,” and ban biological men from competing against women in high school and college sports.
“It’s put pressure on LGBTQ+ lawmakers who are encountering opposition, misunderstanding and even hate among their Republican colleagues,” says the AP.
The article features Florida Rep. Michele Rayner-Goolsby, “a lawyer currently in a Master of Divinity program who was raised with a strong religious background. She’s also the first Black lesbian lawmaker in the statehouse to be out.”
Rayner-Goolsby said she is “literally trying to exist.”
I actually have a policy of no longer crying in Tallahassee. I will cry when I go home.
I’m literally trying to exist. The harsh things we’re saying are in defense of our life. The harsh things that they’re saying are to prop up a governor’s political ambition, and their desire and quest for power.
“In some cases, LGBTQ+ members who have deep faith are pitted against GOP members saying God doesn’t make mistakes, and that there are only two genders,” the article said.
Okay, so let’s get this straight. Lawmakers want to stop doctors from performing irreversible surgeries and prescribing hormone therapies to minors who are in no position to make life-altering decisions. They want to remove pornographic books like “Gender Queer” from grade school libraries. They want to prevent biological men, who are demonstrably stronger than women, from competing in women’s sports. And they want to prevent female students from having to deal with boys in the girls’ room and vice versa.
I consider all of these proposals to be not only entirely reasonable, but essential. I’m in a state of shock by the over-the-top, melodramatic reaction from LGBTQ+ lawmakers and even more so by the media’s efforts to spin this type of legislation as malicious. The fact that any of these measures are even open for debate proves just how stark-raving mad the far-left has become.
With nearly 470 anti-gay and anti-trans bills in 16 states, LGBTQ+ lawmakers find themselves fighting just "to exist." https://t.co/l6KVSiwx9a
— ABC News (@ABC) May 1, 2023
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