Republicans Push A New Wave of Anti-LGBTQ Bills

The "red wave" that Republicans dreamed of in the 2022 mid-term elections never materialized in no small part because a majority of Americans view today's GOP as too extreme, a threat to democracy and too beholden to Donald Trump.  Seemingly, Republicans up and down the state and federal legislatures failed to receive the message voters firmly sent to them and appear poised tocontinue to push the same extremist agenda that voters found repulsive.  In the U.S. House of Representatives we will likely see a veritable circus and shit-show as the razor thin GOP majority pushes lunatic investigations and extreme bills are introduced that will never see passage by the U.S. Senate.  In state legislatures, especially those controled by Republicans, a new wave of anti-LGBT bills is (or soon will be) underway to thrill and delight the Christofascists in the GOP base even if this agenda is radioactive with the majority of voters.  The irony, of course is that this agenda is driving younger voters from supporting Republicans even as the evangelical/Christofascist jihad against gays is driving younger generations from religion.  A piece in Politico looks at the wave of anti-LGBT bills which over time, one can only hope will prove to be a form of political suicide.  Sadly, until then life will become much harder for many in the LGBT community.  Here are article highlights:

Republican-controlled statehouses passed a record number of restrictions on transgender people in 2022 — from sports to health care — and conservatives aren’t slowing down.

Take South Carolina, where the Legislature may try out a new tactic next year: defining what it means to be a woman. Other conservative states may follow.

State Sen. Danny Verdin, a Republican, filed a joint resolution this month that would amend the South Carolina Constitution to establish that male and female be defined “in the context of reproductive potential… without regard to an individual’s psychological, chosen or subjective experience of gender.”

Although conservatives saw mixed results in trying to focus on gender and race issues in school board elections around the country this year, it’s still popular with the Republican base. Verdin’s proposal mirrors one filed on Capitol Hill this spring and channels a line of questioning Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) led against Ketanji Brown Jackson during her nomination for the Supreme Court.

While House Republicans will be able to force Democrats in Congress to vote on gender issues, President Joe Biden and a Democratic-controlled Senate leave the real legislative and legal battle to the states.

The IWF [Independent Women’s Forum] and other women’s groups, she said, are focused on several statehouses in 2023: Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, North Dakota and Kansas. And IWF’s newest spokesperson, Riley Gaines — a former University of Kentucky swimmer who campaigned in Georgia with Herschel Walker and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) this year — also went to Texas to speak with lawmakers.

On Capitol Hill, the Republican resolution was designed to thwart the Biden administration’s efforts to codify protections for transgender students by defining “sex” in federal law as the one a person is assigned to at birth. That measure, sponsored by Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.), isn’t likely to get attention in the Senate, but at least six states have already queued up bills focused on LGBTQ restrictions for their 2023 legislative sessions, with others held over from the last cycle or still expected to be officially filed.

“This trend of trying to define what gender and sex is is not a new one. What’s new now is that they’re trying to push it in a legal sense,” said Devon Ojeda, senior national organizer at the National Center for Transgender Equality.

The center has been working to organize transgender advocates against these bills and is also focusing its efforts on school boards and medical boards where similar resolutions could be introduced.

“These women’s rights bills are not about women’s rights,” Ojeda said.

Beyond defining gender, there are signs that GOP lawmakers in Missouri and Indiana want to follow Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ lead with copycat bills of Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” law, a measure dubbed “don’t say gay” by its critics. The law bars educators from leading conversations in public school classrooms about gender and sexuality for children in kindergarten through 3rd grade.

Other conservative fronts include banning books that discuss LGBTQ themes, as well as race or religion, and banning public drag shows.

One area poised to see greater attention next year is banning gender-affirming care for those under ages 18 or 21. While that care rarely includes surgery for minors, according to medical experts, conservative lawmakers in Texas, South Carolina, Missouri, Virginia and Oklahoma have already submitted bills that would prohibit those procedures and more common recommendations, such as hormone replacement therapy.

Oklahoma state Rep. Jim Olsen is among those who aim to bring the bans to more states next year. Olsen said he based his proposal, which would allow minors who received hormone therapies or puberty-blockers to bring a felony or civil suit against their physician, on the Arkansas legislation.

Christina Polizzi of the Democratic State Legislative Committee pointed to Michigan’s Legislature, where Republican lawmakers tried to pass bills related to transgender students in sports and restrictions on health care — none of which made it to the governor’s desk. And after making transgender proposals a part of their party platform, state Republicans failed to maintain their majorities, leading to a Democratic trifecta heading into next year.

“These pieces of legislation that Republicans are pushing are completely unpopular,” Polizzi told POLITICO. “[Despite] the fact that it was clearly unpopular in places like Michigan, I see no signs of Republicans slowing down. We can expect to see them double down on this rhetoric in their next sessions.”

Polizzi said there will likely be a wave of legislation from Democratic lawmakers aimed at promoting anti-discrimination policies or undoing laws enacted by Republican predecessors.

One is from Texas state Rep. Erin Zwiener. She leads the chamber’s LGBTQ Caucus and also pre-filed House Bill 970, a leftover proposal from the 2021 session that would repeal a “criminality of homosexual conduct” law that’s still on the books. Zwiener’s legislation also comes as the state GOP added the line, “Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice,” to their priorities list this year.

Zwiener attributed some of the conservative proposals debated in the 2021 legislative session in Texas to GOP fears over redistricting and the looming election season, where candidates might have wanted to have an LGBTQ bill vote on their resume.

“If the Texas GOP wants to stay in power in Texas, they should not pursue these bills,” Zwiener said. “Whether or not they can help themselves, I don’t know.”