United States, in Pride Month, the community is under attack

June is Pride Month, and the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU, said it was monitoring 491 bills restricting LGBT rights. Measures range from banning treatments for gender dysphoria, to banning drag queen shows, to restricting bathroom access according to biological sex, to discriminating about who can play on sports teams.

For Republicans, these restrictions serve to protect children, while for groups fighting for civil rights, and for LGBTQ families, it is precisely these laws that harm children’s physical and mental health.

rhetoric Child protection is the old backbone to justify any kind of restrictive hack. In fact, with regard to gender confirmation treatments, it would be more correct to speak of minors, not children. To date, at least 16 US states have enacted laws to restrict or ban hormone therapy for those under the age of consent, and federal judges have blocked enforcement of these laws in Alabama and Arkansas, but nearly two dozen states are considering bills aimed at limiting or banning gender transitions. completely.

“For this kind of problem, the sooner we intervene, the better,” explains Samuel Fisher, a psychologist who specializes in adolescent gender dysphoria. “We intervene hormonally to prevent the progression of physical changes and give children the opportunity to take time and investigate themselves. Forcing someone to live inside a body that they don’t know is their own is violence that harms minors.”

while Anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment has fueled Republican protests against brands deemed broad-minded, and conservatives have revolted against Bud Light and Nike over their partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Adidas has been criticized by the Republican Party for making unisex swimwear, claiming that the German company is trying to “erase women”.

The Target store chain that, for more than 10 years, sold LGBTQ+-friendly products and items in the weeks leading up to Pride, like “Liquid Sex” mugs, “Live, Laugh, Lesbian” and “Queer All Year” T-shirts, is now under attack for selling Non-binary books for children two to eight years old, adult swimwear to hide thigh bulges in the penis and testicles, and Aboralken brand design is explicitly LGBTQ+. The company speaks of customers flipping Pride Month offers and intense clashes with employees, to the point where it decided to pull some products to “protect the safety and well-being of our team members, while emphasizing our support for the LGBTQ+ community.”

But while the supermarket chain claims to act in the name of employee safety, many in the LGBTQ+ community can’t help but feel abandoned even by large groups. “Target made a lot of money selling pride pins, and now that the community is under attack–says Yetta, the New York attorney–it will protect those who have to defend themselves one month a year, not 365 days.”