We Must Oppose LGBTQ Human Rights Violations At Every Turn

The debate on LGBTQ rights in the United States has escalated rapidly over the past few years, especially since Trump came back to power, with political attacks and increasingly divisive rhetoric exploding sometimes into outright violence. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is currently tracking 616 anti-LBGTQ bills in the United States. Some of these bills have passed into law, while others are advancing or have been defeated. What they all have in common is that they “attack LGBTQ rights, especially transgender youth.”

As the ACLU points out, there are several ways in which state lawmakers are targeting LGBTQ rights. These include ‘accurate ID’ laws that attempt to limit the ability to update gender information on IDs and records, putting “transgender people at risk of losing jobs, facing harassment, and other harms.” One such bill, HB 267, is presently advancing in Georgia, where it will be carried over to the 2026 legislative session. Another group of bills is aimed against civil rights, weakening “nondiscrimination laws by allowing employers, businesses, and even hospitals to turn away LGBTQ people or refuse them equal treatment.”

Anti-LBGTQ laws are advancing in Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and West Virginia. In Montana, HB 303: Implement Medical Ethics and Diversity Act, was signed into law in May 2023 – a piece of legislation that “allows medical practitioners, healthcare institutions, and health care payers – including doctors, nurses, counselors, pharmacists, and insurance companies – to deny any medical services based on personal belief rather than patient need.”

Sarah Warbelow, Legal Director at Human Rights Campaign, observed: “Religious freedom is a fundamental principle that plays a pivotal role in making our country a freer place for all. But religion and personal beliefs should not be used as a means to discriminate or deny services to others.” She emphasizes that everyone deserves equal access to medically necessary care and warns that healthcare providers have an ethical obligation to provide it, as this legislation undermines that obligation and responsibility, putting lives at risk.

Indeed, such laws do not just impact the LGBTQ community; they have much more widespread effects. In April 2023, Arkansas signed into law HB 1516, or the ‘Conscience Protection Act,’ a bill that local advocacy group For AR People points out, allows “private businesses and organizations, like Christian foster care and adoption groups, to sue the state of Arkansas for nearly any reason — so long as the state ‘burdens’ or possibly burdens a group’s beliefs.” In practice, this means that a faith-based adoption organization could legally deny a gay couple service. “If the state revokes the group’s license because the group denied a gay couple child placement, the group can sue the state per HB1615.”

As Family Equality observes, “by allowing taxpayer-funded adoption and foster care agencies to turn away qualified prospective parents because of who they love or how they identify,” HB 1615 will “reduce the number of families available to foster and adopt Arkansas’ most vulnerable youth.” Indeed, according to Adoption Network, same-sex couples are six times more likely to raise foster children than heterosexual couples. Same-sex couples are also more likely to adopt older or other harder-to-place children, such as those with special needs.

Closing off the ability of non-heterosexual couples to adopt reduces the number of foster and adoptive families available, leading to longer wait times for children to find homes—11 percent of whom spend two to five years waiting to be adopted.

Transgender individuals face further discrimination than LGB persons. In the United States, 1.6 million adults and youth aged 13 and older identify as transgender (including transgender men, transgender women, and gender non-conforming individuals), less than one percent of the total population. According to The Williams Institute at UCLA, the percentage and number of people who identify as transgender have remained constant over time, disproving claims to the contrary.

Indeed, transgender people have existed throughout history, across numerous cultures. The targeting of such a small, albeit significant, portion of the population is bigotry plain and simple. Trump is trying to legislate them out of existence entirely, mandating that any government-issued IDs list a strict binary sex rather than gender identity, ignoring the fact that even biological sex itself is not a strict binary. This order seeks to put transgender people at serious risk, as people have already been attacked (including physically) for their gender expression not matching what others perceive, correctly or incorrectly, to be their biological gender.

Anti-trans bills regarding schools and education are especially rampant throughout the country, with state lawmakers working to prevent trans students from participating in school activities and forcing teachers to out students, and “censor any in-school discussions of LGBTQ people and issues.”

In May 2023, Florida passed HB 1069, the immediate intent of which was supposedly “to bring uniformity to sex education across all of Florida’s 67 school districts and provide more pathways for parents to object to educational materials they find inappropriate for younger children.” One of the focuses of the bill is to require instructors to teach that a person’s sexual identity is determined biologically at birth. The law also limits education about menstruation to students in grades 6 to 12. As the Women’s Media Center states, this means that “girls who are under 11 years old would not be free to talk about their periods with other girls, their teachers, or any support staff.”

To be sure, Florida’s legislature is not merely “banning a few girls from giggling about their periods… they’re preventing schools from being safe havens for students, and, most importantly, from providing an education… on how to come out on the other side of this pivotal transition into womanhood.”

The attacks on LGBTQ persons in the US will, sadly, only get worse under the Trump administration, which seems to find new opportunities every week to attack this community. We must stand up to protect the rights and, indeed, the safety of LGBTQ people, as they have never been more threatened, and take any legal measures to combat these attacks against LGBTQ.

First, legal challenges should follow the footsteps of civil rights organizations like the ACLU and Lambda Legal, who are actively filing lawsuits to block these anti-LBGTQ+ laws in court.

Second, state-level protections should be intensified, as some states are already enacting their own protective legislation to create safe havens and counteract federal or other states’ restrictions. In Pennsylvania, for example, Philadelphia’s collar counties are enacting efforts to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and identity, and stand against Trump’s efforts to legalize discrimination and revoke protections.

Third, the public must mobilize and protest on a large scale, as well as organize rallies and campaigns by Democrats in every state to encourage people to contact their legislators and push back against these policies.

Fourth, corporate and business opposition must continue to grow to add economic pressure on the administration. Major companies like Disney and Apple are already taking public stands, and others are even suing to oppose discriminatory laws.

Fifth, legal defense and advocacy organizations should redouble their efforts to raise funds to support both legal battles and direct support for affected individuals.

Sixth, media and advocacy groups should run awareness campaigns, raising public awareness through social media and storytelling to shift public opinion and build broader support.

Seventh, local ordinances and protections, as well as public pressure on cities and municipalities, should be intensified to pass local protections that create safe environments at the community level.

The onslaught against LGBTQ people is tragic in more than one way. Yes, nearly 35 million Americans are being targeted and grossly discriminated against as if they chose to be gay or transgender. They were born to be who they are and deserve, like any heterosexual or cisgender person, every ounce of rights and protection under the law.

Trump and his bigoted Republican followers, especially the so-called god-fearing among them, must remember that their onslaught on LGBTQ people is not only against the law. It is a rejection of God, as to call LGBTQ people a mistake or an abomination is to claim that, in all God’s infallibility, God made a mistake. They should learn to repent because of their inhuman treatment of LGBTQ people; there is no redemption awaiting them, but damnation lurking in the shadows of hell.