2023-06-06 15:48:00
(CNN) — For the first time in its four decades of history, the largest American civil rights organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people has declared a national state of emergency for members of the LGBTQ+ community, it reported Tuesday. the Human Rights Campaign.
“LGBTQ+ Americans live in a state of emergency. The multiple threats facing millions of people in our community are not just perceived: they are real, tangible and dangerous,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the organization.
“In many cases they are giving rise to violence against LGBTQ+ people, forcing families to uproot their lives and flee their homes in search of safer states, and unleashing a surge in homophobia and transphobia that endangers the safety of each and every one of us,” he added.
Along with the emergency declaration, the group will post a digital guidewhich will include health and safety resources, a summary of the laws of each state“know your rights” information and resources designed to support LGBTQ+ travelers and those living in hostile states.
The historic announcement — just days before Pride Month — follows “an unprecedented wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in 2023,” according to the Human Rights Campaign, as the violence against LGBTQ people and community rights have become a point peak in the 2024 elections.
Years after 49 people were murdered at Florida’s Pulse gay nightclub, Colorado’s Q Club became the scene of a massacre in a beloved LGBTQ “safe space”.
Supporters of LGBTQA+ rights march on March 31 from Union Station to Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (Credit Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images/File)
Anti-LGBTQ legislation
The Human Rights Campaign published last month an updated travel advisory for Floridahighlighting the potential impacts of six recently passed bills there, many already signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential hopeful who has championed “don’t say gay” and pronoun bills.
According to data from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in the first quarter of 2023, at least 417 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced, a new record and double the number presented throughout last year.
The number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills enacted so far this year is also more than double that of last year, which had been the highest on record, according to the Human Rights Campaign. These include pronoun denial laws, laws that Force students to say their sexual orientation bans against dragging and “don’t say LGBTQ+” laws.
Meanwhile, the United States Supreme Court is about to adjudicate in a case on whether a company may deny services to LGBTQ clients.
But even as the Human Rights Campaign issues warnings, the group insists it will not back down from any attempt to hinder the community: “LGBTQ+ people across the country will not be erased, now or ever,” the group claimed.
— CNN’s Annette Choi contributed to this report.
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