In 2020 and early 2021 people in this community were joyful because the government and society were finally being more accepting of the community and were taking back harmful bills. This year there have been many bills in the south against the community. 

Don’t Say Gay

The Don’t Say Gay bill was released in Florida in early March. When people found out about the bill the LGBTQ+ community went haywire. The bill demands that the state of Florida is not allowed to discuss LGBTQ in classrooms that have kindergarden to 3rd grade students present and it requires schools to tell the parents if their child is in the LGBTQ community no matter if the home life will be safe or not. 

↳No talking about LGBTQ in classrooms.

The bill says that you can not discuss anything that is related to LGBTQ in classrooms. This means history, creators of subjects, ect can not be discussed if it has anything related. This can be harmful because it limits self discovery in children, they won’t have the knowledge to know how to talk about what they are feeling or if it is okay to talk about or feel that way. This can also damage their knowledge on history or other important topics. 

↳Requiring schools to tell parents about their child’s identity

The bill requires staff members to tell parents if their child is in the LGBTQ community. This is a problem because students may be in a non safe household so if it slips out at school and the staff members tell the parents it may end up in a bad household situation. The suicide rate for LGBTQ youth in flordia is already high but this bill will make it higher. 

Gay Panic Defense

The LGBTQ+ “panic” defense strategy is a legal strategy that asks a jury to find that a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity/expression is to blame for a defendant’s violent reaction, including murder. There have been many deaths that were dismissed because of this. This is a problem because they are dismissing that people in the LGBTQ+ community are not humans as well. One of the most recognized cases that employed the LGBTQ+ “panic” defense was that of Matthew Shepard. In 1998, Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old college student was killed by two men. The men attempted to use the LGBTQ+ “panic” defense to excuse their actions. Despite widespread public protest, the defense is still being used today. There are still around 21 states that have this bill present.

What’s Happening Today

People around the world get bullied and hate crimed for being themself. Trans health rights are still not 100% in every state. The suicide rate for transgender people and other people in the LGBTQ+ community are still very high. There are many non-accepting families who disown or kick out their children or family members because of their sexuality or identity. Many young children don’t get to be taught that some kids have 2 dads or 2 moms and some don’t get taught about the community. 

Other Modern Problems

As most people know, Roe v. Wade was overturned. Roe v. Wade was about abortions being legal. Now of today many states have banned abortions but they didn’t ban them, they banned legal an safe ones. Not many people understand that abortions may be because of sexual assault, incest, underage and not able to fend for themselves. Legal abortions made it able for people that got pregnate unwillingly won’t have to give the baby an awful life. Even when abortions were legal, people would stand outside of centers and protest. 

ART CREDITS : Leo Autio