Since 2020 the US has entered an “era of anti-LGBTQ politics” that has been “characterized by speed, breadth, extremism, and, perhaps more so than anything else, its near-laser focus on transgender people,” according to a new report by the progressive nonprofit think tank Movement Advancement Project.
The 26-page document illustrates in dozens of maps and charts and descriptive text how “more than perhaps ever before, basic rights and protections for LGBTQ people are increasingly dependent on where they live.”
The report, released today, comes five weeks before mid-term elections that are widely seen as a historic pivot point in determining whether right-wing, anti-queer extremism can be halted.
“Things like banning transgender kids from playing sports in schools or from being able to access medical necessary healthcare – those things didn’t even exist in 2020,” Logan Casey, the organization’s director of policy research, said in an interview. “If I made you a map of how many states had them then, it would be blank. And now, today, over half of the country has enacted not only one but multiple anti-trans laws.”
The group tracks more than 50 types of LGBTQ-related laws and policies in every state, territory and District of Columbia in real time on its website, releasing reports like this periodically.
“Though the LGBTQ movement has been remarkably effective at defeating the vast majority of anti-LGBTQ state bills—an average of 91 percent each year since 2020—the sheer volume of these attacks has led to significant backsliding in both legal and lived equality for LGBTQ people across the country,” the report says.
The group describes it as “a complex story of asymmetric polarization: states moving farther and farther apart from each other, but at varying speeds and scales.”
Said Casey: “Even in the midst of the massive escalation and political attacks on LGBTQ people, we’re still making progress in at least some measures.” But in states where laws and policies have improved, he said, the gains have been moderate, “and in states where they got worse, they got a lot worse. So this is what we talk about in the report as not just polarization, but asymmetric polarization.”
The report also found that “anti-transgender policies are being exploited to advance a larger anti-LGBTQ political agenda.” This agenda has taken the form of things like “Don’t Say LGBTQ” curriculum restrictions and the rolling back of patient protections against the cruel practice of conversion therapy.
The report’s release comes at a moment of great apprehension for queer people across the United States, trans people especially. Republicans are pouring tens of milions of dollars into propagandistic stereotype-driven advertising that seeks to demonize a vulnerable minority to turn voters’ attention away from the party’s policy failures and rampant corruption.
“Anti-trans policy is being pushed by a very small but powerful and well-resourced group of folks and organizations that have been pushing anti-LGBTQ policies for decades.” Casey said. “It’s a broad, coordinated, very top-down campaign that has been effective in places. But in reality, the majority of Americans support LGBTQ and inclusive protections. and want politicians and their elected officials to be focused on real problems.”
Billie Jean Sweeney is a freelance journalist and advocate. She contributes regularly to Assigned Media
