It\u2019s Pride Month, and gay Americans should have a lot to celebrate: A new president who has pledged to advocate for LGBTQ people, an easing of a pandemic that has disrupted their communal activism, and increasing public acceptance of their basic rights, including record-high support for same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, the mood is somewhat bleak. Congress has so far failed to extend federal civil rights protections to LGBTQ people. Pandemic-related concerns are still disrupting the usual exuberant Pride festivals. And a wave of anti-transgender legislation in Republican-governed states has been disheartening<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe same week I\u2019m seeing all the \u2018Happy Pride\u2019 announcements, I received multiple calls from friends about trans kids having to navigate entering psychiatric hospitals because they were suicidal and self-harming,\u201d said M. Dru Levasseur, a transgender attorney who is director of diversity, equity and inclusion for the National LGBT Bar Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m doing crisis management,\u201d he added. \u201cThese untold stories about what life is like for trans kids are contrasting with \u2018Happy Pride, everybody.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On June 1, the start of Pride Month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill making his state the eighth this year to ban transgender girls from competing in girls\u2019 sports at public schools. Arkansas, one of those eight states, also has enacted a law banning gender-confirming medical treatments, like hormones and puberty blockers, that greatly reduce the risk of suicide in trans youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur opponents have been absolutely shameless in their attacks on transgender people,\u201d said Kevin Jennings, CEO of the LGBTQ-rights group Lambda Legal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe know that trans young people are most marginalized and vulnerable students in our schools — being bullied, harassed, mistreated,\u201d Jennings said. \u201cWe\u2019re watching state legislators piling on to the bullying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trans community already faces a disproportionate level of violence. At least 28 trans and gender nonconforming people have been killed so far this year in the U.S. — on track to surpass the previous one-year high of 44 such killings in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Activists\u2019 concerns extend beyond transgender issues. For many, the top political priority is passage of the Equality Act, which would extend federal civil rights protections to LGBTQ people. It was approved by the Democratic-controlled U.S. House and is backed by President Joe Biden, but probably needs at least 10 Republican votes to prevail in the closely divided Senate \u2013 and thus far has no GOP co-sponsors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tyler Deaton, who advises a conservative group called the American Unity Fund that supports LGBTQ rights, believes enough Republican votes can be found if language is drafted to ensure the Equality Act doesn\u2019t infringe on religious freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSenators are having those conversations now,\u201d he said, mentioning Republicans such as Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rob Portman of Ohio who have supported some LGBTQ-friendly legislation in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amid the disappointment, Pride festivities are proceeding, but many have been subject to downsizing, postponement and \u2013 in some cases — controversy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pride parades in San Francisco and Los Angeles have been canceled for a second year in a row, due to uncertainty about COVID-19 restrictions. Organizers are offering smaller in-person events this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Philadelphia has scrapped its large-scale parade; there are plans for a festival instead on Sept. 4. Chicago\u2019s parade has been rescheduled for Oct. 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In New York, most events for NYC Pride will take place virtually, as they did last year, though some in-person activities are planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NYC Pride organizers incurred some criticism last month after banning police and other law enforcement personnel from marching in uniform in the annual parade until at least 2025 and asking that on-duty officers keep a block away from the celebration. The Gay Officers Action League said it was disheartened by the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some recent developments have encouraged the LGBTQ community \u2013 the overturning of a Trump administration ban on transgender people joining the military; the ground-breaking appointments of Pete Buttigieg, who is gay, as transportation secretary, and Dr. Rachel Levine, who is transgender, as assistant secretary of health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And this week, Gallup reported that 70% of Americans now support same-sex marriage, the highest number since Gallup began polling on the topic in 1996, when support was at 27%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But to many activists, these developments are offset by setbacks to transgender rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amy Allen, mother of a 14-year-old transgender boy in the suburbs of Nashville, said her family is dismayed by the multiple anti-trans bills winning approval in Tennessee \u2013 including one exposing public schools to lawsuits if they let transgender students use multi-person bathrooms or locker rooms that don\u2019t reflect their sex at birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2019We\u2019ve done a pretty good job within our family of really supporting him,\u201d Allen said of her son, Adam. \u201c Then to have this new layer of the legislation — having to think how that could directly affect his day-to-day life just adds more anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s worrisome enough, Allen said, that she and her husband \u2013 who have roots in the Northeast \u2013 are considering relocating there if Adam\u2019s situation worsens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Activists have expressed dismay at the lack of corporate backlash to the new anti-transgender laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A particular disappointment for activists is the NCAA, which \u2013 despite calls for it to take punitive action \u2013 located some of this year\u2019s regional softball and baseball tournament games in states that enacted bans on transgender girls\u2019 sports participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a sharp contrast to the NCAA\u2019s stance five years ago, when it refused to hold championship events in North Carolina for several months after its legislature passed a bill restricting transgender people\u2019s use of bathrooms in public facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe NCAA should be ashamed of themselves for violating their own policy by choosing to hold championships in states that are not healthy, safe, or free from discrimination for their athletes,\u201d said Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the transgender Americans with mixed feelings about Pride Month is Randi Robertson, who rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel during 22 years in the Air Force and now combines work as an airline pilot instructor with transgender-rights advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She is relieved that the Biden administration, unlike its predecessor, pledges support for expanded LGBTQ rights, yet she says activists should be combative rather than complacent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe fundamentalist, evangelical right has chosen expressly to attack the smallest, most vulnerable part of the LBGT community (transgender people),\u201d she said. \u201cThe broader narrative is we\u2019re actually winning. Now is not the time to give up — now is the time to double down and keep the pressure on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imani Rupert-Gordon, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, also voiced a nuanced view of Pride Month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPride is a time when we get to celebrate who we are,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s also a time when we recognize we still have a lot more to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
___<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AP videojournalist Emily Leshner contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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