LGBTQ+ youth are under attack in red states.
There has been a slew of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation filed by white Evangelical Protestant Republicans in the red states with trans youth being targeted in half of them.
In just the first three months of 2022, there has been a record 240 anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed. There have been an astonishing 670 anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed since 2018.
Good Ole Texas
Texas, as usual, is leading the way by going so far as to attempt to criminalize gender-affirming care. When that failed, Texas Governor Greg Abbott then ordered mandated-reporters such as doctors and therapists to report parents and their children who are seeking gender affirming care to CPS as child abuse, even though doctors say gender-affirming care is considered medically necessary by accredited medical associations. Texas has now removed over half of all suicide-prevention services for LGBTQ+ youth.
There's no hate like Christian love
White Evangelical Protestant Republicans hate the LGBTQ+ community with such unfettered homophobia that they literally want Queer people to die. Because that's what happens with suicide prevention resources are removed. People die. It is especially horrifying that they are removing those services that are specifically for LGBTQ+ youth. Those same youth who are 87% more likely to commit suicide than their heterosexual peers.
Fundraising to make an impact
We need to fight back and be louder than ever before. The following shirts are part of our fundraising campaigns.
Protect Trans Youth Unisex T-Shirt:
Protect Trans Youth Slim Fit Women's Tee:
Gay Gay Gay Gay We are Not Going Away Unisex T-Shirt
Gay Gay Gay Gay We Are Not Going Away Slim Fit Women's Tee
LGBTQIA We Are Not Going Away unisex t-shirt
LGBTQIA We Are Not Going Away Slim Fit Women's Tee
25% of the proceeds for all these shirts are donated to The Trevor Project, which is the world's largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ youth. One accepting adult decreases the risk of suicide for LGBTQ+ youth by 40%. The Trevor Project provides LGBTQ+ youth with 24/7 crisis counseling via phone, text, and chat.
It's time to get loud and make an impact before things get even worse.
We're only three months into 2022 at the time of this writing, and already these following states have filed anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation so far:
Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Ohio, Georgia, Florida, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Alaska, and Hawaii.
Out of those 31 states, the following states are leading with the most bills filed (and there will be more after the time of this blog post):
- Iowa: 14 bills
- Indiana: 14 bills
- Tennessee: 14 bills
- Arizona: 12 bills
- Oklahoma: 9 bills
- Missouri: 8 bills
- Wisconsin: 6 bills
- Mississippi: 6 bills
- Minnesota: 6 bills
- Alabama: 5 bills
- Georgia: 5 bills
These anti-LGBTQ+ bills include restricting any discussion of LGBTQ+ issues in schools, allowing people to legally discriminate against LGBTQ+ people via "religious exemptions," and limiting trans people's ability to play in sports, use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, and receive gender-affirming health care.
Why are Evangelical Republicans doing this?
Evangelical Republicans are screaming this is about protecting children (but just the heterosexual ones apparently), "but... but... but... muh parental RIGHTS," and religious freedom. By that they mean their "right" to hide behind their religion so that they can stomp on and oppress everyone they hate, including the BIPOC community and the LGBTQ+ community.
Those Republicans want to give the government the authority to invade people's private lives to legislate the healthcare LGBTQ+ people need to live as a crime. So much for lie about being the "party of small government."
They want the LGBTQ+ community to be determined to be so undesirable that they should die for it. Evangelical Republicans are hypocrites and bigots, and the first thing we need to do is TAX THE CHURCHES and to tax them ASAP.
That isn't very Christ-like of them. In fact, what they are doing is cruel bullying.
What about the rest of the US?
A recent survey released by the Public Religion Research Institute just a few days ago shows that nearly 8 out of every 10 Americans (79%) support laws that protect the LGBTQ+ community from discrimination, and 70% of Americans support same-sex marriage (up from 54% in 2014.)
So why is the fringe minority forcing Christian nationalism laws of hate and bigotry upon the majority? One reason is because the majority is known as the silent majority. It does no good to be the majority when we don't get out vote. Another reason is because of mostly religious hate groups, and the disproportionate domination of evangelicals in Republican politics.
Religious hate groups are leading the way
According to publically available annual tax returns, there are 11 nonprofit groups who have been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as anti-LGBTQ hate groups who raked in more than $110 MILLION in contributions during the fiscal year ending in 2020. Just since 2020, The Southern Poverty Law Center has been currently tracking over 40 extremist hate groups in total that go beyond anti-LGBTQ+ hate. Of those 40, here are 18 of them who are specifically anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups.
Those hate groups have won numerous court battles in all levels of government from local school boards to federal courts. Several of those groups are churches, who are exempt from filing tax returns so they don't disclose their finances. White Evangelical Protestants are enmeshed with Republican politics.
Disproportionate Influences on Society
Even though those Evangelical Protestants make up only 14.5% of the population, they dominate Republican politics. So that's how and why they are able to pass Christian nationalistic laws to force the rest of us to comply with their religion. With one of the two-party political system dominated by these people, they have leveraged the Republican party and ended up disproportionately influencing society.
So these extremist, far-right hate groups are rooted in evangelical Christianity and not only see LGBTQ+ people as sinful but they also see the LGBTQ+ community as a threat to society.
Evangelical Republicans see the LGBTQ+ community as a disease that needs to be eradicated at all costs. They have a laser focus on trans youth. It's especially cruel because it's children's lives they are attacking.
They're so "pro-life" that they want LGBTQ+ kids, and especially trans kids, to die.
In order to have LGBTQ+ rights enshrined in federal law, congress would to pass the The Equality Act which has passed in the House. But in order to overcome the fillibuster, we need all Democratic votes plus 10 Republican votes in Congress. The chances of that happening seem to be about as abysmal as the Women's Health Protection Act, which would protect women's right to choose to contunue with a pregnancy or not.
Break free from the silent majority and get loud about this. Children's lives are on the line.