Rise in anti-LGBTQ legislation significantly hurts queer, transgender people of color
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The massive push from congressional and state officials toward restricting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people is no surprise to queer people nationwide, especially Black, brown, Indigenous and other people of color. In the 2023 legislative session alone, 11 states have already introduced and are advancing 10 or more anti-LGBTQ bills.
Altogether, 311 anti-LGBTQ bills have been proposed on the state level, with 95 of these bills specifically targeting LGBTQ healthcare according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Unsurprisingly, nearly all of these healthcare bills target transgender people, whether it’s criminalizing gender-affirming care for transgender minors or blocking insurance coverage for transgender people’s healthcare, all while exempting these same treatments for cisgender people.
Different opinions are bound to be had on any legislation. However, opinions are irrelevant in the discussion of healthcare and ensuring that everyone has equal access to it. I do not care if you do not agree with my identity as a queer person. That has nothing to do with whether I deserve to benefit from the same systems, institutions and programs that straight, cisgender people do.
Fortunately, 14 of these proposed healthcare bills have already been defeated. However, 68 continue to advance, and two have been passed into law in South Dakota and Utah. These bills have and will continue to affect the community as a whole, in addition to future generations.
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There are estimated to be 1.4 million transgender people in the United States today and of those million, around 630,000 are transgender people of color. A vast majority of the lawmakers imposing these anti-transgender healthcare bills are white and do not identify as LGBTQ themselves. It is so clear in the proposed bills that these people have no care for transgender people, and even less of a thought for transgender people of color.
How can these people who do not identify with the LGBTQ community, have no close connections with those within the community and are even more oblivious to the troubles of those within Black and brown communities — and those with the intersecting identities of being LGBTQ and a person of color — make salient legislation concerning these communities?
If more of the transgender population are people of color, and more and more policies are being pushed that target transgender populations, transgender people of color are thereby being disproportionately targeted.
Black transgender people specifically are already more likely to face discrimination based on race and ethnicity without these targeted bills. Already with the slim research we have on Black transgender youth specifically, we know that Black transgender women who experienced discrimination in schools are more likely to experience negative criminal-legal outcomes than their white transgender peers. Nearly half of all Black transgender people report being harassed at work and school, and nearly half of all Black transgender people also report attempting suicide at least once. Criminalizing medical care of transgender people will further institutionalize Black and Brown people, pushing them further into other systems and institutions that are also hostile toward their body and existence. Such legislation will increase these depressing statistics.
Gender-affirming support is critical for the safety and wellbeing of transgender people of color. The cost of providing this support should be inconsequential in comparison to providing a lifeline to a systematically disadvantaged community. Caring for our fellow human beings should always come first, so we must fight against these attacks on transgender healthcare and LGBTQ rights.
Yet bills such as the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act have made significant progress in the state legislature in the past year. This bill includes immensely severe consequences on LGBTQ youth, such as outing transgender youth to parents and banning all discussion of sexuality and gender in schools. Bills such as this are eerily similar to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy of the Clinton administration. Yet, legislators still want to reinstate a policy that has already proven to be outdated, bigoted and discriminatory.
While legislators thought these attempts to politically regress would be taken lightly, the LGBTQ community has banded together to prove otherwise. The act in Florida failed to pass the Senate, but we must continue to ensure that these bills do not go further. We must show that we won’t be silent in the face of attacks on our transgender peers, whether we’re a part of the community or not.
The specificity of these restrictions on healthcare access for any specific group of people should concern us all as Americans. There is no reason why an entire segment of the population should have to struggle so hard to benefit from life-saving medical care. People outside of the LGBTQ community do not need to care right now because these bills do not target them, but why would anyone wait until they do?
Ensuring healthcare for our transgender community members brings us one step closer to ensuring equality and equity for so many disadvantaged people in our country.
There are some incredibly impactful ways you can contribute to the fight at home. There are state-by-state trackers on how individuals can advocate against anti-LGBTQ bills in your state. Reach out to your state legislators and governors, work with local grassroots organizations in your area, or reach out to others to help with the fight remotely. We are not helpless in the fight to ensure everyone in our community has access to healthcare.
Erykah Pasha is a junior studying political science & sociology. They can be reached at eapasha@syr.edu.
