More Than 600 Bills Could Shape the Future for Queer Americans This Year
January has seen the introduction of a startling number of anti-LGBTQ bills, a signal Republicans intend to use equality as a wedge issue in the 2020 elections. At last count, Freedom for All Americans is tracking 46 anti-transgender bills pending in state legislatures. In Florida, a bill similar to HB 1057 failed to move out of committee on Monday. But advocates in Tennessee are facing five anti-transgender bills, while Missouri is looking at seven. Four have been introduced in Arizona, and another three in Kentucky.
Over 25 HRC staff members have been dispatched to 12 different states. While the organization has historically employed field staffers in key states, 2020 marks an all-time high for organizing on state bills. Those efforts have increased every year since President Trump took office. While some HRC staffers are working to pass pro-equality measures like the Virginia Values Act, which would secure non-discrimination protections in the state, others are pounding the pavement in South Dakota to defeat HB 1057. Wyatt Williams told his parents he was a boy as soon as he could talk.
“He would say things like, ‘I’m going to be a daddy someday, I can’t wait to be a daddy,’” his mother, Susan Williams, recalls. “And I’m like, ‘Oh honey, you’re going to be a mommy.’” But the 13 year-old South Dakotan never wavered on who he was. Every Halloween, he chose male characters for his costume. He told Susan he wanted to be a policeman when he grew up, not a policewoman.
Whereas the 2018 midterms brought a rainbow wave of out LGBTQ candidates winning across the nation, 2020 threatens an ominous flood of anti-LGBTQ legislation. Of the more than 600 bills the Human Rights Campaign is tracking, over 100 of them target queer people, the organization says.
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