THEY’RE COMING FOR OUR KIDS! (This piece will be published as part of the QueerPsych website in August 2023)
Unless you live in a cave, you already know that the LGBTQ+ community is under fire by far- right groups working on a state -by -state level to enact discriminatory laws. But you may not realize how bad it is or what the issues are.
As someone who has been an activist and therapist in the LGBTQ+ community for over forty years, and whose practice has focused on trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming kids and young people for the last fifteen, the last two years have been a nightmare. It reminds me of the anti-gay backlash of the late 1970’s. And both then and now, the state of Florida has been the place where the backlash started!
A LITTLE QUEER HISTORY
Most queer people are familiar with the Stonewall riots of 1969 and are aware that Stonewall triggered an explosion of gay and lesbian activism never seen in the U.S. before. You may be less familiar with the movement that grew in opposition to this activism. It started in a big, public way in Florida, and the first leader of this movement was a singer and beauty queen named Anita Bryant. At the time Bryant was a Florida resident and a spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission – you can still find her singing commercial for orange juice on YouTube – “Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.” In 1977 Dade County, Florida passed a law that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in housing and employment. Anita Bryant, who was a conservative Christian, strongly opposed this ordinance and believed that it threatened the moral fabric of society. She argued that homosexuality was immoral and that it posed a danger to children. Bryant framed her campaign as an effort to protect children from the perceived "homosexual agenda." She claimed that the ordinance would allow gay teachers to promote homosexuality in schools and lead to the recruitment of children into the gay ‘lifestyle.’
Her organization, “Save Our Children" gained significant media attention and received support from conservative and religious groups across the country. Indeed, Bryant’s campaign sparked the beginning of organized opposition to gay rights that spread across the country. Her attempt was successful: the Dade County ordinance was repealed in a referendum by two to one. Bryant went on to lead similar movements in municipalties in other states, such as St. Paul Minnesota and Wichita Kansas. She also sponsored successful campaigns to prevent gay people from adopting, and helped craft the (unsuccessful) Briggs Initiative in California, a law which would have allowed the dismissal of any teacher who said anything positive about homosexuality or gay rights – the precursor to Florida’s current “Don’t Say Gay” law. Ultimately Bryant, who was one of the first anti-gay activists to get ‘pied’ by a gay man as a political statement, lost her job with the Florida Citrus commission and faded into obscurity. But the movement she started on the Christian far-right never died.
The Reverend Jerry Falwell, who joined Bryant’s campaign in Florida, went on to form a group called the ‘Moral Majority’ to combat "amoral liberals," drug abuse, "coddling" of criminals, homosexuality, communism, and abortion. The Moral Majority represented the rise of political activism among organized religion's radical right wing. Falwell and his followers sought to mobilize conservative Americans to become politically active on issues they thought were important, such as abortion and gay rights. Today Falwell is dead and the Moral Majority now longer exists, but it has been replaced by a plethora of groups like the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family. Most importantly, Bryant, Falwell, and others like them showed all politicians that voters could be powerfully motivated by cultural issues. In short- fear and hatred garner votes.
THE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN 2023
And that’s what is happening today. Make no mistake about it: these bills have been carefully planned and promoted by the same far- right groups that fought to overturn Roe V. Wade, groups like the Liberty Council and the Family Research Council. These groups have provided templates for laws banning trans affirmative care and all the other anti-LGBTQ+ bills. They then target the most conservative legislators in each state to introduce the bills, and they provide support, including ‘expert witnesses,’ when the bills come up for vote. As a result, the New York Times calls the 2023 legislative season the most aggressive ever in pushing anti-LGBTQ+ laws. As the Times says, “The flood of legislation is part of a long-term campaign by national groups that see transgender rights as an issue on which they can harness voter anger……’This is a political winner,’ said Terry Schilling, the president of the conservative American Principles Project.”
In other words, far right political groups see anti-LGBTQ+ legislation as a way to win elections. And they have been enormously successful in getting these laws passed. According to the Human Rights Campaign, a record 520 anti-LGBT+ laws have been introduced into state legislatures this year, and a record 70 bills have been passed including:
· Laws banning gender affirming care for transgender youth
· Laws requiring or allowing misgendering of transgender students
· Laws requiring schools to ‘out’ LGBT+ students to parents
· Laws targeting drag performances
· Laws allowing discrimination against LGBT+ people
· Laws censoring school curriculum, including banning books and outlawing classroom discussions of LGBT+ topics
· Laws criminalizing transgender people for using a bathroom not conforming to their birth gender
· Laws forbidding trans kids from participating in athletic competition in high schools
Most of these laws specifically target transgender youth, but some, like the laws forcing schools to ‘out’ students to parents, that impose a ‘Don’t Say LGBT+’ curriculum, that allow discrimination – they impact all gay youth and some adults as well. . And although they are state-level laws, Marjorie Taylor Green has sponsored a federal bill that would ban trans affirming care for minors for the entire country. There is some good news- several courts have stayed the bans on trans affirming care in many states, and there is hope that ultimately higher courts will deem all these bills unconstitutional. In the meantime -
OUR KIDS ARE HURTING
But in the meantime, our kids are in trouble. The Trevor Project does an annual survey of the mental health of LGBT+ young people, and they report that rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts have increased in this population over the last three years. Last year, 45% of their young respondents reported that they had considered suicide at some point during the year. And since we know that gender affirming care is enormously helpful in improving the mental health of trans and nonbinary youth, if the bans on trans care are upheld, we can expect an increase in suicide among these kids.
Even in places like New Jersey, where I live, these laws have been introduced, although they have little chance of passing in this blue state. But they have a chilling effect. Every therapist I know who works with queer youth reports that their clients are frightened and anxious, that they feel – with some justification – that they are walking targets of hate. One young former client of mine contacted me recently to ask “Does everyone hate trans people now? I’m afraid to go out in public!”
HOW YOU CAN HELP
I hope by now you are convinced that we are in the midst of an anti-LGBTQ+ backlash more powerful than any we have seen since the 1970’s, and that queer kids and youth are the ones in the most trouble. If so – think about doing something to help.
The most important thing you should do is get informed. Learn all about the issues involved in the controversy over trans affirmative care for minors. A quick way to start might be to read my article in the latest issue of the magazine The Psychotherapy Networker, here:
https://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/article/trans-kids-under-fire
Read books, peruse the websites of places like the ACLU or the Human Rights Campaign – they are keeping track of the progress of these bills, and also on the parallel problem of ‘book banning’ – an overwhelming number of banned books have LGBTQ+content.
Once you are informed, educate other people. While the motives of organizations like the Liberty Council are political, they rely on voters in the general population to be ignorant and therefore easy to frighten. In the initial decades of the gay rights struggle, the single most important political act anyone could make was to ‘come out’ – because once people know you as a human being first, and gay second, it changes their attitude towards homosexuality. Education is sometimes the difference between an ally and a foe. When I ran the Institute for Personal Growth in New Jersey, I did many trainings for professionals, parents, school personal, and the general public to educate them about transgender and nonbinary issues. It makes a difference. Not all ‘foes’ are inherent bigots; some just need more information to be on your side.
Make sure you stay informed on the political issues I’ve written about here. Check to see what’s going on in your state and see how you can get involved to help.
And lastly – speak up when you hear someone expressing an ignorant perspective.
You don’t have to be rude, but it is important to anyone listening that someone counter the misinformation.
There’s a line in the song ‘That Funny Feeling’ by Bo Burnhan that references ‘the backlash to the backlash to the thing that’s just begun.’
Try to be the backlash to the backlash. Our community did it in the seventies, we can do it again!
Dr. Margie Nichols, C.S.T.S.
Drmargienichols.com
