Legislation such as the “Don’t Say Gay” Law in Florida and Texas Governer Greg Abbott’s orderes to penalize parents of children receiving gender-affirming medical treatment harm gay and trans youth.

Anti-LGBTQ+ politicians across the United States, specifically in Texas and Florida, recently proposed a slew of legislation to harm gay and trans youth. Texas Governor Greg Abbott released a letter on Feb. 22 with measures that he thought would protect the children in his state. Abbott’s orders call for Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to prosecute parents who gives their transgender child gender-affirming medical treatment, such as hormones, with charges of child abuse. Although the District Judge Amy Clark Meachum in Travis County, Texas temporarily blocked the bill on March 11, the state’s Attorney General Ken Paxton allowed the law to continue as of March 22. Additionally, on March 8, the Florida legislature approved a bill which would ban discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms from kindergarten to third grade.

These laws have real life repercussions on the wellbeing of thousands of children across America. A 2021 Gallup poll found that, in the U.S., 20 percent of those in Gen Z identify as LGBTQ+. That means in classrooms and pediatric offices, one in five people born between 1995 and 2010 will fit under the LGBTQ+ umbrella.

Laws which attack the very existence of queer youth will be detrimental to their mental health and lives, explained Santa Monica College (SMC) Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) Inter-Club Council Delegate Jesus Esparza. "If we're not actively engaging in these spaces, we won't be able to protect queer youth all over the country, especially in states that are more conservative," he said.

Protecting queer youth means ensuring transgender children can recieve necessary gender-affirming medical treatment. “When your body grows in a way that is not how your brain views it, that is a trauma upon yourself,” SMC GSA social media director Sam Germain said. “A longer term, scary, invasive trauma.”

These attacks rob queer youth of their childhood. Instead of growing up with the freedom to explore their own identity, gay and trans youth are forced to fight for their very existence. Fight for the right to wear what they want. Fight to stay with their parents in Texas. Fight to merely say "gay" or "non-binary" in Florida classrooms. "This is only pushing the belief that our very existence is not accepted," Germain said. "Our very existence is something that's allowed to be contested in a legal way."

Although these laws are fairly new, the homophobic and transphobic attitudes accompying them already have a devastating impact on the wellbeing of queer youth. According to Germain, The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ+ youth, saw a 150 percent increase in calls from Texas trans youth to their suicide hotline in 2021. "We are reliving this wave of targeting and antagonizing and villainize and vilifying," they said.

LGBTQ+ rights are a relatively recent phenomenon in the U.S., but the attack on their identity is nothing new. It was less than seven years ago, on July 26, 2015, when the Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage. Policies that attacked gay Americans, such as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” preceded that decision for decades. New legislation, such as Abbott’s order and the “Don’t Say Gay” Law, echoes the history of America’s oppresive treatment towards the LGBTQ+ community. “We've been through this process of people being forced and outed and hyper-sexualized,” Germain said. “It's still something that we're dealing with. We are still dealing with the fallout and the stigma from all of that.”

Esparza, who can't vote in the U.S. himself, shared a solution to stop the harmful wave of anti-trans and anti-gay legislation. "Vote people out," he said. "People who have outdated ideas of gender identity and what feelings you should have."

Germain pointed out that voting is one of the ways those with privilege can protect the LGBTQ+ community. New legislation, such as the bills in Texas and Florida, actively works to undo the progress that provided equality for gay and trans youth in America. Clearly, the fight for LGBTQ+ rights is far from over.

Featured