A Year In Review

The fight for LGBTQ+ rights this year — both at home and abroad — was, frankly, utterly exhausting.
In the United States (assuming the next couple days are quiet), the ACLU tracked a total of 510 anti-LGBTQ+ bills across 47 states in 2023 — by far the most ever introduced in a single year.

This follows a previously record-setting 2022, when 278 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced (some organizations include as many as 350 in their counts) — which followed 2021, which at the time set the record, with over 100 bills across 35 states.

So things have escalated quite a bit.

International LGBTQ+ Rights: A Mixed Bag

Outside the United States, LGBTQ+ rights mostly improved, with some notable exceptions.

The Good:

• Curacao, Estonia and Slovenia legalized same-sex marriage.
• Finland, Hong Kong and Spain expanded protections for Trans folks.
• Cyprus and Iceland banned conversion therapy.
• Taiwan approved adoption rights for same-sex couples.
• Bulgaria recognized LGBTQ+ people as a protected class.
• Mauritius ruled anti-LGBTQ+ laws unconstitutional.
• South Korea recognized the rights of same-sex couples.
• Brazil ruled that using homophobic slurs would be punishable by prison.
• The Cook Islands decriminalized homosexuality.
• Nepal recognized the first gay marriage — though hedged by registering them separately, ostensibly to make it easier to annul them if legal challenges succeed.
• Kenya (where homosexuality remains prohibited) ruled that LGBTQ+ organizations would be allowed to register, and that freedom of expression and assembly applied to them.

The Bad:

• Ethiopia began raiding establishments that provide services to LGBTQ+ people.
• India’s Supreme Court ruled that they could not legalize same-sex marriage (or civil unions) in October, despite majority popular support. The decision wasn’t “against” gay marriage, but rather that the country’s legislature should make the decision, not the courts.
• Russia banned the “International LGBT movement” (with penalties including jail time, massive fees, and work eligibility restrictions) — and raided several gay bars.
• Uganda lawmakers passed a bill criminalizing merely identifying as LGBTQ+ (or promoting or abetting homosexuality), despite already punishing same-sex relationships with life imprisonment. The bill also further expanded application of the death penalty against queer folks, though I can’t quite figure out how, as gay sex is already punishable by death there.

A Message For LGBTQ+ Readers

To our LGBTQ+ readers, please don’t lose hope. Of the 510 bills introduced this year, 227 were defeated, and 197 are (seemingly) stuck in the mud. 84 passed — and though this is terrible, most of this was a “piling on” by folks desperate for attention ahead of next year’s Presidential election.

This doesn’t change the fact that these bills do greatly affect the lives of those living in the states that passed them, or our mental health from afar. It doesn’t mitigate the hateful speech and violence they’ve encouraged, or the way it makes us less safe, regardless of where we live.

But still, please, don’t lose hope — and don’t let this wave of bad behavior succeed at intimidating you. Anti-LGBTQ+ disinformation relies, heavily, on the silence and seclusion of LGBTQ+ people. When people know they have queer friends, neighbors, and family, they become firewalls against hate. Hold your heads up high, and be a visible antidote to lies about our existence. Plant those seeds wherever you go. We will prevail.

A Request For LGBTQ+ Allies

To the allies reading this, one of the main reasons we have so many anti-LGBTQ+ bills — and so many varying and conflicting arguments justifying anti-LGBTQ+ views — is ultimately to wear you out.

The hope is, eventually, that you will get sick of hearing about LGBTQ+ rights — and instead of rejecting the hate, will reject us.

Let me be clear: it’s okay to be sick of this — nobody is sicker of the fight for LGBTQ+ rights than queer people. It’s okay to change the channel to something happy. We don’t expect you to be a walking encyclopedia about every detail regarding our lives. Like any of us, your first priority should be to take care of your own mental wellbeing — but please hold firm in your convictions, and direct any feelings of exhaustion or frustration towards those forcing the topic into constant relitigation, not those they’re antagonizing.

Be barriers to hate, even when we aren’t in the room. Make your allyship visible. In the face of bad behavior, silence can quickly be perceived as a signal of endorsement. Those with a hateful agenda will leverage and exploit every opportunity to overstate or imply broad consensus.

Last, do your best to recognize the manipulative tactics often employed in the rhetoric of the prejudiced. Don’t permit the conflation of LGBTQ+ individuals with pedophilia. Don’t allow the use of anecdotes as evidence to justify discrimination. Don’t permit predictions of anti-LGBTQ+ backlash to justify the slow-walking of advances in the fight for equality. Demand better from your friends and family, neighbors and coworkers.

And don’t ever let fatigue keep you from voting. We have an election every year in Virginia. Vote every time.