US Senator Thom Tillis (NC-Republican)

The Act passed the House easily and now is up for consideration in the Senate. I nearly dropped my dentures (just a phrase) when Thom Tillis came out in support of the act. Of course, he’s not up for re-election. Richard Burr is not running again, but he’s still sitting on the fence.

One of the blowbacks in the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision to eliminate almost 50 years of precedents has been the motivation of women to challenge the court. Not only in courts, but in the ballot box. The House is considering legislation to enshrine into law the precepts of the case so that it would make abortion legal again. The pending legislation is to counter the dozens of state laws that have been passed severely restricting or abolishing it.

Out! Raleigh Pride 2022 (c) John Suddath

June is Pride Month with parades and festivals all across the nation. While we have much to celebrate in progress in recent decades, the backlash is disturbing. The radical right has moved beyond protests to efforts to disrupt our celebrations with violence. What is even more disturbing, was the recent revelation that many of the corporations that support Gay Pride also donate millions in contributions to legislators on the radical right. In North Carolina, the celebrations have spread beyond the major cities to the suburbs and smaller towns. The North Carolina General Assembly tried to mimic some of the restrictive legislation recently passed in other states, but that appears to have been tabled for now thanks to the efforts of Equality NC. Lambda Legal recently won a case challenging North Carolina’s exclusion of gender affirming health care for trans state employees.

In 2022, Florida got most of the notoriety, but more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in 36 state legislatures. In eight states, these bills have been signed into law. Clearly the Republicans are using us as a wedge issue in the mid-term campaigns. Transgender folks are getting the worst of the attacks. Whether the issue is participation in sports, health care during transitioning, or gender identity, the political knives are being used to hurt people.