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Speaker 1: They're banning these things. Why because many of them don't

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Speaker 1: understand They don't understand the LGBTQ community. They don't understand

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Speaker 1: the transgender community. So because they don't understand it, they

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Speaker 1: ban it. Because they don't understand it, they eliminate it.

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Speaker 1: From Bloomberg News and iHeartRadio, it's the big take. I'm

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Speaker 1: Westksova Today. A surge of anti LGBTQ legislation in the US,

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Speaker 1: Conservative lawmakers in states across the country have introduced hundreds

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Speaker 1: of new bills to restrict the rights of LGBTQ people.

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Speaker 1: One hundred forty bills have been introduced in statehouses across

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Speaker 1: the nation, bills labeled as bad for lgbt and tonight

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Speaker 1: one of the nation's toughest antime trans bills. There's now

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Speaker 1: law in Kentucky. One Iowa, there's spent a record setting

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Speaker 1: amount of bills proposed this session impacting Queer Iowa. This

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Speaker 1: year's legislative session, South Dakota saw three bills introduced that

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Speaker 1: would have impacted the rights of the transgender community. Some

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Speaker 1: of the legislation would outlaw certain healthcare decisions between patients

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Speaker 1: and doctors or make it easier to remove books from

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Speaker 1: school libraries. In several states, Republican governors have already signed

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Speaker 1: these measures into law, and in others dozens of bills

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Speaker 1: are advancing through the legislature. People are very upset with

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Speaker 1: the divisive nature that the legislature is moving in and

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Speaker 1: that goals not just in my community, but that goals

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Speaker 1: in other communities also Democrat and Republican. That Chevin Jones,

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Speaker 1: he's a Democratic States Senator in Florida, where ten anti

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Speaker 1: LGBTQ bills are on the table, and we'll hear more

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Speaker 1: from him a little later in the show. First, Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: reporter Ella Serone. She's covering where these bills are advancing

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Speaker 1: and how they'll impact the lives of LGBTQ people and

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Speaker 1: their families. There's been at least four hundred and thirty

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Speaker 1: five anti LGBTQ laws introduced at the state level. That

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Speaker 1: number is as of March thirtieth, and it's according to

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Speaker 1: the American Civil Liberties Union, which is a legal rights group.

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Speaker 1: And just to give you a scope of the comparison,

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Speaker 1: lawmakers introduced one hundred and sixty two anti LGBTQ laws

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Speaker 1: last year, nineteen of which we're signed into law. According

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Speaker 1: to the ACLU, as of March thirtieth, twenty one bills

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Speaker 1: have been signed into law in the US this year.

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Speaker 1: So that scope of four hundred and thirty five anti

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Speaker 1: LGBTQ bills being introduced at the state level this year

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Speaker 1: is more than the past five years combined. Is this

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Speaker 1: concentrated in just a handful of states? Are we starting

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Speaker 1: to see this everywhere? We're starting to see this everywhere

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Speaker 1: lawmakers and specifically conservative lawmakers in states that are typically

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Speaker 1: considered very progressive or left leaning, like California, Oregon, in

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Speaker 1: Washington and New Jersey they've also introduced a few bills.

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Speaker 1: So this is really happening across the country. Of course,

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Speaker 1: just because a bill is introduced doesn't mean it will

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Speaker 1: become law. Moost bills never do, and most of these

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Speaker 1: pieces of legislation will probably go nowhere, especially in states

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Speaker 1: led by Democrats. Even so, we're talking a bit about

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Speaker 1: how they can still have an effect whether they pass

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Speaker 1: or not. But l O, why is this happening now?

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Speaker 1: What's behind this rapid rise in just a year. There

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Speaker 1: are a lot of Republican supermajorities and state legislatures right now,

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Speaker 1: even in states run by democratic governors. This gives them

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Speaker 1: the power to override any vutos. This gives them the

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Speaker 1: power to push things through, to advance their bills and

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Speaker 1: then to pass them into laws. Their supermajority is also

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Speaker 1: crucial to understand because in the case that a democratic

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Speaker 1: governor or any governor decides to veto these laws, the

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Speaker 1: supermajority can pass it through anyway, and so they know

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Speaker 1: they have the power and the votes to get these

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Speaker 1: bills through. There are also lobbying groups and multiple states.

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Speaker 1: They are also going state by state and lawmaker by

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Speaker 1: lawmaker to advocate for similar language and almost identical bills

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Speaker 1: in a lot of cases, to show that this is

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Speaker 1: a growing force, when it's really a small concentration of

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Speaker 1: groups working in a concerted effort to make sure that

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Speaker 1: they hit the most amount of states possible. And exactly

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Speaker 1: what are the nature of these bills? What are the

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Speaker 1: sorts of bills that we're seeing past in these different states.

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Speaker 1: So there's a number of different topics that these bills

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Speaker 1: tend to focus on. One of those topics are the

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Speaker 1: drag bands that we saw in Tennessee most recently being

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Speaker 1: passed into law. These are bands that categorize drag performances

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Speaker 1: is being sexual in nature, and these bands limit who

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Speaker 1: drag performers can perform in front of and specifically banned

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Speaker 1: them for performing in front of children. That includes banning

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Speaker 1: them from reading in front of children, such as during

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Speaker 1: a library story hour. How common is that, I mean,

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Speaker 1: is this a really big thing that happens all across

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Speaker 1: the country where drag performers are reading to children. There

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Speaker 1: are a few groups that have their drag performers read

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Speaker 1: age appropriate children's books to children because children like costumes

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Speaker 1: and they like fun, and so kids see that as

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Speaker 1: being people in costume and the drag performers that I've

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Speaker 1: spoken with have said that the kids understand it. They

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Speaker 1: get it. It's not a matter of grooming them or

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Speaker 1: indoctrinating them, as a lot of conservatives like to claim.

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Speaker 1: These laws make it illegal for drag performers to perform

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Speaker 1: in front of children. But also crucially, they tend to

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Speaker 1: be very wide in their actual language that they categorize

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Speaker 1: anybody dressed in a manner that is incongruent with how

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Speaker 1: they were assigned at birth as being a male or

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Speaker 1: female impersonator. Advocacy groups are very worried that, especially given

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Speaker 1: how transgender and gender nonconforming people are at disproportionate risk

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Speaker 1: of being targeted for harassment and hate crimes, that such

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Speaker 1: laws only add fuel to the fire and put people

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Speaker 1: at even more risk of being targeted. Anti LGBTQ hate

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Speaker 1: crimes in the US are on the rise. The Armed

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Speaker 1: Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which is a nonprofit,

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Speaker 1: counted nearly two hundred anti LGBTQ incidents last year, which

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Speaker 1: is three times the amount reported in twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 1: That's just the amount reported, so we may not know

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Speaker 1: exactly how many anti LGBTQ events there were because people

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Speaker 1: might be afraid to report them. The Williams Institute at

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Speaker 1: the UCLA School of Law also cites that around one

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Speaker 1: and ten incidents targeting LGBTQ people are hate crimes, and

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Speaker 1: LGBTQ people are nine times more likely than their heterosexual

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Speaker 1: assist gender peers to be the victim of a violent

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Speaker 1: hate crime. So those are the dragon bands. Another anti

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Speaker 1: LGBTQ bill that is getting passed and that at least

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Speaker 1: eleven states have passed such bands are the gender Affirming

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Speaker 1: Care bands. These are the bills that ban doctors from

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Speaker 1: providing gender affirming care to children that includes puberty blockers,

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Speaker 1: that includes hormone regimens, if the doctor and the child

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Speaker 1: and their family decide that's right for them. And families

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Speaker 1: are really scared because in a lot of these cases,

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Speaker 1: it means kids will be forced to medically deterransition, come

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Speaker 1: off the treatments that can be life saving in many

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Speaker 1: ways for them, or they won't even be able to

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Speaker 1: access them at all. So these bills would make it

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Speaker 1: illegal for doctors to give gender affirming care and would

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Speaker 1: make it illegal for anyone to receive it. They typically

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Speaker 1: focus on doctors, and they typically bar doctors from providing

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Speaker 1: the gender affirming care. There are some bills that have

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Speaker 1: been introduced that say that if a parent tries to

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Speaker 1: help a child receive care, it is tantamount to child abuse,

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Speaker 1: But the primary focus has been barring the doctors from

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Speaker 1: providing care that has been established by the American Academy

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Speaker 1: of Pediatrics as being the standard of care for transgender youth.

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Speaker 1: What are the consequences for doctors under this legislation if

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Speaker 1: they do give patience gender affirming care. A lot of

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Speaker 1: doctors are at risk of losing their licenses a lot

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Speaker 1: of doctors can be fined. They're making it deliberately difficult

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Speaker 1: for doctors to provide care to these kids in a

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Speaker 1: landscape that is already very difficult for children and their

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Speaker 1: families to receive care. There aren't that many facilities in

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Speaker 1: the country that really specialize in this kind of care,

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Speaker 1: and so by limiting it even further, it really does

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Speaker 1: create backlogs and further backlogs of families seekings support for

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Speaker 1: their kids. This is just the standard care recommended by

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Speaker 1: the medical establishment. The major medical groups, including the Department

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Speaker 1: of Health and Human Services, all recognize gender affirming care

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Speaker 1: as being the standard of care for transgender youth. A

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Speaker 1: lot of these bills will focus on gender affirming surgery,

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Speaker 1: which is very very rare for young people. So it's

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Speaker 1: important to remember here that surgery for miners is not

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Speaker 1: actually the norm. The standard of care is something that doctors,

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Speaker 1: the patients, and their parents will walk through together, and

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Speaker 1: that can look like a number of different things. That

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Speaker 1: includes allowing the child to socially transition, to honor the

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Speaker 1: child's pronouns, to honor their name, to help them address

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Speaker 1: and transition with clothing and other markers in society sometimes

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Speaker 1: that looks like puberty blockers, especially if the onset of

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Speaker 1: puberty is causing a lot of distress for them in

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Speaker 1: their bodies. It's a personal choice, and the American Academy

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Speaker 1: of Pediatrics really honors that and says that the standard

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Speaker 1: of care is listening to the kids and their families.

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Speaker 1: What are the consequences, especially for young people who fall

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Speaker 1: under these laws, if they're unable to get this care.

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Speaker 1: Let's just look at what we know about depression and

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Speaker 1: suicide rates among transgender and gender nonconforming youth. They have

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Speaker 1: much higher rates of suicide and depression, and those rates

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Speaker 1: are made even higher when they are not able to

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Speaker 1: access the support and care that they need in a

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Speaker 1: way that affirms their identities. The Trevor Project is a

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Speaker 1: lgbtquth mental health nonprofit. Every year they release a survey

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Speaker 1: about mental health among the LGBTQ youth community. There are

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty two report found that forty five percent of

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Speaker 1: LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year.

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Speaker 1: One in five transgender and non binary youth attempted suicide,

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Speaker 1: and LGBTQ youth of color reported higher rates than their

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Speaker 1: white peers. LGBTQ youth who were supported by their family,

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Speaker 1: in contrast, attempted suicide at less than half the rate

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Speaker 1: of those with low or moderate social support. So the

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Speaker 1: support to give kids an ability to express themselves in

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Speaker 1: the way that affirms their gender is crucial. Ello. You've

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Speaker 1: talked about how these bills are becoming law in states

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Speaker 1: around the country. How many kids is this affecting now?

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Speaker 1: According to the Human Rights Campaign, which is an LGBTQ

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Speaker 1: rights advocacy group, twenty five percent of transgender youth ages

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Speaker 1: thirteen to seventeen live in states that have already banned

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Speaker 1: gender affirming care, and an additional twenty five percent live

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Speaker 1: in states where it's likely that these bands will be passed.

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Speaker 1: So all told, it could soon impact about half of

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Speaker 1: American trans gender youth. And in addition to those two

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Speaker 1: different types of legislation, we're also seeing bills having to

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Speaker 1: do with schools. That is correct, We're seeing a number

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Speaker 1: of bills focused on education. That includes bathroom bands, which

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Speaker 1: limit which bathroom kids are allowed to use in accordance

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Speaker 1: to the gender they were assigned at birth. That includes

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Speaker 1: sports bands, which limits which sports teams kids are allowed

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Speaker 1: to play on. That includes book bands, which also happen

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Speaker 1: very increasingly at the most local level possible, which is

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Speaker 1: at the school board level, and a number of studies

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Speaker 1: have shown that books centering LGBTQ characters and themes are

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Speaker 1: disproportionately challenged and then banned from schools. There's also a

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Speaker 1: number of bills that are drawing from Ronda Santiss Don't

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Speaker 1: Say Gay Bill. That bill if you don't remember, limits

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Speaker 1: discussion about actual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through

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Speaker 1: third grade. Ronda Santis has now indicated that he wants

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Speaker 1: it expanded from fourth grade twelfth grade. Arkansas and Kentucky

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Speaker 1: have also passed similar gag rules on what gender identity

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Speaker 1: and sexual identity concepts teachers are allowed to teach kids

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Speaker 1: and win. How are the lawmakers who are pressing forward

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Speaker 1: with these bills describing them? What is their argument in favor?

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Speaker 1: These laws are being presented by the lawmakers who introduce

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Speaker 1: them in two major ways. The first is that it's

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Speaker 1: an attempt to protect children, and this is where the

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Speaker 1: term grooming really comes into place. They say that these

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Speaker 1: laws protect children from potentially being groomed by a broader

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Speaker 1: lgbtquote unquote agenda. The laws also are framed as an

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Speaker 1: effort to retain parents' rights. So that's about parents' rights

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Speaker 1: to say whether or not their children are being taught

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Speaker 1: about something in schools, whether or not their children are

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Speaker 1: able to access certain books in schools, and even whether

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Speaker 1: or not their children are allowed to ask their teacher

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Speaker 1: to use their name in a different way than the

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Speaker 1: one that was assigned to them at birth. My conversation

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Speaker 1: with Ella Serone continues in just a bit. When we

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Speaker 1: come back, we hear from a state senator in Florida

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Speaker 1: who's in the middle of the political fight over these bills. Now,

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Speaker 1: let's get a close up look at how this legislation

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Speaker 1: is playing out in one state capitol. Florida State Senator

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Speaker 1: Chevin Jones is a Democrat who represents parts of South

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Speaker 1: Florida's Miami Dade County. Senator there's been a recent number

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Speaker 1: of bills in Florida that have to do with curtailing

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Speaker 1: LGBTQ plus rights. Can you just talk about what exactly

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Speaker 1: is happening right now in Florida. Well, first of all,

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Speaker 1: I think it's clear that in Florida and across the

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Speaker 1: country that these series of bills that's going across the

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Speaker 1: legislatures in the name of parent to rights, but it's

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Speaker 1: it's a direct assault on the freedom of parents to

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Speaker 1: choose what is best for their child when it comes

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Speaker 1: to their ability to raise their children how they want to.

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Speaker 1: And it's it's it's unfortunate because this has become the

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Speaker 1: new culture war, the new boogeyman out here in Florida.

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Speaker 1: But it's a continuation of what we saw last year,

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Speaker 1: don't Say Gay, until what we see this year is

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Speaker 1: the expansion of the don't Say gay, which is dangerous

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Speaker 1: on its surface, and considering the fact that we know

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Speaker 1: that young people are youth LGBTQU are wonderful times more

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Speaker 1: likely to commit suicide, not because of them not being

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Speaker 1: happy with who they are, but because of how they

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Speaker 1: are treated in Florida. Is making it more dangerous every

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Speaker 1: single day for LGBTQ youth and people to live here

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Speaker 1: in this state. If you look at Moms for Liberty,

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Speaker 1: if you look at a lot of these other groups

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Speaker 1: that are going across the country and even in the

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Speaker 1: state of Florida, going to school board meetings banned in

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Speaker 1: books where they don't agree with these things as inside

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Speaker 1: these books, and I'm not talking about pornographic things. I'm

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Speaker 1: talking about what helps youth feel a part of a community,

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Speaker 1: feel a part of themselves in books in education. They're

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Speaker 1: banning these things. Why, because many of them don't understand

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Speaker 1: They don't understand the LGBTQ community. They don't understand the

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Speaker 1: transgender community, and so because they don't understand it, they

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Speaker 1: ban it. Because they don't understand it, they eliminate it.

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Speaker 1: I identify as the LGBTQ black man in the state

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Speaker 1: of Florida. I have, as myself, have to walk into

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Speaker 1: this chamber every day to legitimize myself to even being

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Speaker 1: able to serve in this legislature of forty people. I

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Speaker 1: tend to remind them that I serve with you all,

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Speaker 1: and this boogeyman that you are creating this out out

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Speaker 1: to be, it's me him. I'm no boogeyman. I'm a

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Speaker 1: human being who lives amongst the twenty two million people

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Speaker 1: who so by happening to also serve in this legislature

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Speaker 1: with you. There are so many bills that are either

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Speaker 1: under consideration or that have already become law that it

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Speaker 1: can be a little difficult to keep track of them.

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Speaker 1: Can you talk about some of them and what they do.

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Speaker 1: Let's start with the parental Rights and Education bill that

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Speaker 1: came about last year in Florida that said that teachers

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Speaker 1: were not allowed to speak about sexual orientation or gender

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Speaker 1: identity in classroom of students in grades K through three. Now,

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Speaker 1: I want to make it clear to you all that

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Speaker 1: nowhere around this country, nowhere is sex education taught to

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Speaker 1: children in grades K through three. Nowhere across the country,

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Speaker 1: even in Florida. And so that was the first ignoration

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Speaker 1: of parental rights and education that begin to make its

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Speaker 1: way across the country. All of these bills are seeping,

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Speaker 1: are embedded, and not just bigotry, not just hate, not

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Speaker 1: just discrimination. But it is continuing to create a great

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Speaker 1: divide within the state, within this country. And I go

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Speaker 1: back to something I said a few minutes ago. It

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Speaker 1: is an act of power. It is a maintaining of

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Speaker 1: power that we are dealing with within the state of Florida.

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Speaker 1: And government of Santis sees this as a winning issue

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Speaker 1: from him as he prepares to run for of them.

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Speaker 1: You talked about the Don't Say Gay law. What has

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Speaker 1: the fallout from that actually been. What do you hear

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Speaker 1: from constituents about how that's playing out in real life

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Speaker 1: in Florida. It's fear. Teachers are fearful because teachers don't

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Speaker 1: know what they can and they cannot say. It's censorship.

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Speaker 1: It's demanding of school districts from acknowledging the existence of

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Speaker 1: LGBTQ people in pre kindergarten through eighth grade, which can

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Speaker 1: be and is detrimental to the LGBTQ students and students

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Speaker 1: with LGBTQ parents. And additionally, this law if will bid

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Speaker 1: use of pronouns that aligned with transgender students gender identity

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Speaker 1: up through twelfth grade, depriving parents of the right to

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Speaker 1: ensure that their children are protected and respected in their identity. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and these will have a long lasting effects, not just

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Speaker 1: on the school districts, not just on the stage, but

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Speaker 1: more importantly with on our children. Do you think that

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Speaker 1: Florida's politics and in the Florida legislature that things are

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Speaker 1: moving more toward restriction or do you think that this

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Speaker 1: will eventually kind of have a backlash and some of

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Speaker 1: these things that are going to fail. Oh well, listen,

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Speaker 1: just the arc of the more human verse always been

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Speaker 1: back towards justice, So I want to make that clear.

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Speaker 1: While they think that a lot of these issues are

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Speaker 1: a winning issue, I promise you that it will swing

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Speaker 1: back to what's right. You cannot expect to treat people

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Speaker 1: the way that the Republicans across this country are treating people,

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Speaker 1: and they are legislating based off of it, and think

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Speaker 1: that this does not come back to haunt you because

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Speaker 1: many of these same individuals who have young children. I

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Speaker 1: said this in debate, and I'm going to continue to

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Speaker 1: say it that until this experience hit your household, you

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Speaker 1: and others will continue pushing these type of things until

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Speaker 1: it becomes your issue, until it becomes your problem, until

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Speaker 1: it becomes your fight. Because I can speak from my

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Speaker 1: perspective as being raising a very conservative household father who's

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Speaker 1: a pastor, mom who was a very well known administrator

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Speaker 1: in the school district, and when I came out, they

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Speaker 1: didn't agree with it at all. As a matter of fact,

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Speaker 1: we had a very big fallout over it. Today, my

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Speaker 1: parents will fight for their child as hard as they can.

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Speaker 1: Why Because they want to make sure that I feel

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Speaker 1: seen in this moment and that I am supported in

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Speaker 1: this moment. Parental rights is a winning issue. The question

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Speaker 1: is which parent is right? It is it the straight

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Speaker 1: children's parents who write or is it all parents who

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Speaker 1: have the right to ensure that their chow is safe

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Speaker 1: and protected. Senator Jones, thanks so much for talking with

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Speaker 1: me today. Thank you for having man back again with

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg reporter Ellis Erone after the break. Lau had said

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Speaker 1: earlier that according to the ACLU, at least four hundred

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Speaker 1: and thirty five anti LGBTQ bills have been introduced in

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Speaker 1: states around the country. But bills get introduced all the time,

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Speaker 1: and most of them never pass. It's true that a

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Speaker 1: number of these bills probably won't pass, and that has

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Speaker 1: to do with the makeup of the state legislature. State

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Speaker 1: legislatures with Republican supermajorities and states with Republican governors see

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Speaker 1: higher passage rates than states with democratic leadership. But the

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Speaker 1: introduction of these bills does have a chilling effect. According

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Speaker 1: to the Trevor Project, ninety one percent of transgender non

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Speaker 1: buyinary youths said that they worried about people being denied

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Speaker 1: access to the bathroom due to state and local laws.

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Speaker 1: This is top of mind for a lot of people

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Speaker 1: because they're watching the news. Kids are glued to their

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Speaker 1: phones all day long. They follow what's happening across the country,

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Speaker 1: and so they're keeping track of this. As someone who

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Speaker 1: covers these issues very closely, what are you looking for

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Speaker 1: in the months ahead. I'm definitely looking to see which

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Speaker 1: bills are going to be passed into law, and I'm

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Speaker 1: going to be watching the legal challenges that a lot

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Speaker 1: of advocacy groups and parents are posing against these laws,

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Speaker 1: sometimes the same day that they're signed into laws, sometimes

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Speaker 1: even before that. We've talked about a number of things

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Speaker 1: that are all going through legislatures and that have been

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Speaker 1: passed into law. What's next in this push against LGBTQ rights.

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Speaker 1: I am personally watching what's happening In Florida. The Board

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Speaker 1: of Medicine, which is a governor appointed board, recently had

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Speaker 1: a rule come into effect banning doctors from providing gender

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Speaker 1: affirming care to youth and young people. They didn't even

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Speaker 1: need to pass a law to do it, they just

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Speaker 1: changed the rule. That means they're using multiple tools to

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Speaker 1: really push through these limitations and these bands. Ellis around.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for speaking with me. Thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for having me Thanks for listening to us here

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Speaker 1: at The Big Take. It's a daily podcast from Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio. For more shows from my heart Radio, visit

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Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen, and

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Speaker 1: we'd love to hear from you. Email us questions or

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Speaker 1: comments to Big Take at Bloomberg dot net. The supervising

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Speaker 1: producer of The Big Take is Vicky Bergolina. Our senior

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Speaker 1: producer is Katherine Fink. Rebecca Chasson is our producer. Our

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Speaker 1: associate producer is Sam Gabauer. Phildegarcia is our engineer. Our

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Speaker 1: original music was composed by Leo Sidrin. I'm West Kasova.

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Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow with another Big Take.