Anti-LGBTQIA+ bills are at record highs in the US amid an upcoming election. Here's why
For those in the LGBTQIA+ community, Pride month is a chance to be out, loud and proud. But in the United States, there's been an uneasy quiet hanging over this June.
Big brands who once didn't think twice about cashing in on the pink dollar have scaled back support. The American offshoot of Target reduced the number of its stores carrying Pride-themed products this year after getting backlash in 2023. Nike, who became the subject of boycott calls last year over its marketing partnership with a transgender influencer, has also pulled back after offering Pride collections since 1999. The silence too has been felt in other ways. A Maryland council chose not to fly a pride flag outside its city office for the first time in five years, with its mayor citing "neutrality". And for many queer Americans, the month of celebration and commemoration has instead been left overshadowed by a record number of legislative attacks.
Record rise in anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says it's currently monitoring 523 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills across the country. Over 300 of these bills were introduced in the first three weeks of 2024 alone, and 149 are still advancing or have been passed into law. The majority of these bills relate to educational measures, through school sports bans, school facilities bans that prevent transgender students from using communal rest rooms, or curriculum censorship around in-school discussions of the queer community. Increasing anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric has also seen bills introduced that would forcibly out teachers and staff. Trailing slightly behind is healthcare restrictions, where more than two-thirds of the bills (69 per cent) are aimed at limiting the accessibility of gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth. This is despite the American Medical Association resolving to "protect access to evidence-based care for transgender and gender-diverse youth" in June last year. 2023 also marked the first time the ACLU saw drag bans introduced across US states.
Justin Ellis, criminology lecturer at the University of the Newcastle's School of Law and Justice, says compared to the 1970's anti-LGBTQIA+ crusade led by Florida campaigner Anita Bryant, the issues now are "more multifaceted." "This creates greater opportunity to confuse issues," he says. "For example, over drag queen story time with transgender identity." He also points to a growing organisation of anti-LGBTQIA+ groups on social media — whether that is fringe political actors, extremist conspiracy theorists or local activists — who use the platforms to coordinate the "amplification of anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment" and misinformation. "What they also might be doing — and this might be inadvertent or intentional — is spreading anti-LGBTQIA+ information across social networks," he says. "Which moderation is not adequately addressing, and timeliness is one of the issues there."
Notably, Dr Ellis points to billionaire Elon Musk's October 2022 takeover of X — formerly Twitter — which saw the mention of grooming slurs against the LGBTQIA+ community jump by 119 per cent, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate. The social media sphere also saw anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment being taken up by foreign actors ahead of US election campaigns to sow division, according to Meta's head of Cybersecurity Policy, Nathaniel Gleicher. Traditional cable media too shares some blame. Out of the three major cable news outlets — MSNBC, CNN and Fox News — the latter only spent two hours and 11 minutes in 2023 covering specific bans or restrictions on health care for LGBTQIA+ people. Despite this, nearly half of Fox News' segments on legislation included anti-trans rhetoric or endorsed the legislation in question, Media Matters for America reports. In comparison, MSNBC and CNN, in 42 per cent and 36 per cent of their segments respectively, cited research to counter anti-LGBTQIA+ misinformation.
Growing incivility 'chilling' expression
Dr Ellis says there's been a definite rise in "incivility" in conjunction with the increase of anti-LGBTQIA+ bills. "This includes slurs online, in person, verbal abuse in some cases, allegations of assault," he says. "Also, in some cases with protests against drag queen story time events in the United States, some allegations of malicious damage to property." In 2023, the civil rights advocacy group Southern Poverty Law Center tracked 80 anti-LGBTQIA+ hate groups across the state. In 2022, that number was 63. The Anti-Defamation League and queer advocacy group GLAAD also documented at least 356 anti-LGBTQIA+ incidents motivated by hate across the US between June 2022 and April 2023. Nearly half of all incidents (49 per cent) were perpetrated wholly or substantially by individuals associated with extremist groups, they found. Hate also prevailed in more indirect ways, Dr Ellis said.
"That might be someone that all of a sudden says, 'Well, you know, I was thinking of coming out to X, Y, Z people, but I'm not going to do that anymore because of where I'm living and that might increase my likelihood of being attacked or verbally abused,'" he said. In that way, discrimination grows in two forms. "The obvious is the increase of being targeted for hate, the insidious is that people chill their expression because they're fearful of the hate," Dr Ellis says. "And I think that sometimes that's the objective of the bills, regardless of whether they get through. "They're used to intimidate."
Australians need to 'remain vigilant' against anti-LGBTQIA+ spread
It may be easy to ignore what's happening in the US, but its influence has already crept into Australia. Several Australian councils have voted on anti-LGBTQIA+ motions, including the successful bid by Sydney's Hill Shire Council to stop supporting drag story time events. Protests against drag performances and pride events too are steadily increasing. And Dr Ellis says the "globalised nature of digital media" means what affects American LGBTQIA+ communities affects LGBTQIA+ communities across the globe. "As much as these things originate in the United States, there's a clear and present danger across jurisdictions," he says. "In a relatively tolerant and more secular society like Australia, we need to remain vigilant to make sure that we stem the flow of this anti-LGBTQIA+ misinformation."
This article was written by Tessa Flemming and was originally published in ABC News read the full article here.
Dr Justin Ellis is affiliated with the University of Newcastle.
Contact
- Dr Justin Ellis
- Email: justin.ellis@newcastle.edu.au
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