Speaker 1: They're banning these things. Why because many of them don't
Speaker 1: understand They don't understand the LGBTQ community. They don't understand
Speaker 1: the transgender community. So because they don't understand it, they
Speaker 1: ban it. Because they don't understand it, they eliminate it.
Speaker 1: From Bloomberg News and iHeartRadio, it's the big take. I'm
Speaker 1: Westksova Today. A surge of anti LGBTQ legislation in the US,
Speaker 1: Conservative lawmakers in states across the country have introduced hundreds
Speaker 1: of new bills to restrict the rights of LGBTQ people.
Speaker 1: One hundred forty bills have been introduced in statehouses across
Speaker 1: the nation, bills labeled as bad for lgbt and tonight
Speaker 1: one of the nation's toughest antime trans bills. There's now
Speaker 1: law in Kentucky. One Iowa, there's spent a record setting
Speaker 1: amount of bills proposed this session impacting Queer Iowa. This
Speaker 1: year's legislative session, South Dakota saw three bills introduced that
Speaker 1: would have impacted the rights of the transgender community. Some
Speaker 1: of the legislation would outlaw certain healthcare decisions between patients
Speaker 1: and doctors or make it easier to remove books from
Speaker 1: school libraries. In several states, Republican governors have already signed
Speaker 1: these measures into law, and in others dozens of bills
Speaker 1: are advancing through the legislature. People are very upset with
Speaker 1: the divisive nature that the legislature is moving in and
Speaker 1: that goals not just in my community, but that goals
Speaker 1: in other communities also Democrat and Republican. That Chevin Jones,
Speaker 1: he's a Democratic States Senator in Florida, where ten anti
Speaker 1: LGBTQ bills are on the table, and we'll hear more
Speaker 1: from him a little later in the show. First, Bloomberg
Speaker 1: reporter Ella Serone. She's covering where these bills are advancing
Speaker 1: and how they'll impact the lives of LGBTQ people and
Speaker 1: their families. There's been at least four hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: five anti LGBTQ laws introduced at the state level. That
Speaker 1: number is as of March thirtieth, and it's according to
Speaker 1: the American Civil Liberties Union, which is a legal rights group.
Speaker 1: And just to give you a scope of the comparison,
Speaker 1: lawmakers introduced one hundred and sixty two anti LGBTQ laws
Speaker 1: last year, nineteen of which we're signed into law. According
Speaker 1: to the ACLU, as of March thirtieth, twenty one bills
Speaker 1: have been signed into law in the US this year.
Speaker 1: So that scope of four hundred and thirty five anti
Speaker 1: LGBTQ bills being introduced at the state level this year
Speaker 1: is more than the past five years combined. Is this
Speaker 1: concentrated in just a handful of states? Are we starting
Speaker 1: to see this everywhere? We're starting to see this everywhere
Speaker 1: lawmakers and specifically conservative lawmakers in states that are typically
Speaker 1: considered very progressive or left leaning, like California, Oregon, in
Speaker 1: Washington and New Jersey they've also introduced a few bills.
Speaker 1: So this is really happening across the country. Of course,
Speaker 1: just because a bill is introduced doesn't mean it will
Speaker 1: become law. Moost bills never do, and most of these
Speaker 1: pieces of legislation will probably go nowhere, especially in states
Speaker 1: led by Democrats. Even so, we're talking a bit about
Speaker 1: how they can still have an effect whether they pass
Speaker 1: or not. But l O, why is this happening now?
Speaker 1: What's behind this rapid rise in just a year. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of Republican supermajorities and state legislatures right now,
Speaker 1: even in states run by democratic governors. This gives them
Speaker 1: the power to override any vutos. This gives them the
Speaker 1: power to push things through, to advance their bills and
Speaker 1: then to pass them into laws. Their supermajority is also
Speaker 1: crucial to understand because in the case that a democratic
Speaker 1: governor or any governor decides to veto these laws, the
Speaker 1: supermajority can pass it through anyway, and so they know
Speaker 1: they have the power and the votes to get these
Speaker 1: bills through. There are also lobbying groups and multiple states.
Speaker 1: They are also going state by state and lawmaker by
Speaker 1: lawmaker to advocate for similar language and almost identical bills
Speaker 1: in a lot of cases, to show that this is
Speaker 1: a growing force, when it's really a small concentration of
Speaker 1: groups working in a concerted effort to make sure that
Speaker 1: they hit the most amount of states possible. And exactly
Speaker 1: what are the nature of these bills? What are the
Speaker 1: sorts of bills that we're seeing past in these different states.
Speaker 1: So there's a number of different topics that these bills
Speaker 1: tend to focus on. One of those topics are the
Speaker 1: drag bands that we saw in Tennessee most recently being
Speaker 1: passed into law. These are bands that categorize drag performances
Speaker 1: is being sexual in nature, and these bands limit who
Speaker 1: drag performers can perform in front of and specifically banned
Speaker 1: them for performing in front of children. That includes banning
Speaker 1: them from reading in front of children, such as during
Speaker 1: a library story hour. How common is that, I mean,
Speaker 1: is this a really big thing that happens all across
Speaker 1: the country where drag performers are reading to children. There
Speaker 1: are a few groups that have their drag performers read
Speaker 1: age appropriate children's books to children because children like costumes
Speaker 1: and they like fun, and so kids see that as
Speaker 1: being people in costume and the drag performers that I've
Speaker 1: spoken with have said that the kids understand it. They
Speaker 1: get it. It's not a matter of grooming them or
Speaker 1: indoctrinating them, as a lot of conservatives like to claim.
Speaker 1: These laws make it illegal for drag performers to perform
Speaker 1: in front of children. But also crucially, they tend to
Speaker 1: be very wide in their actual language that they categorize
Speaker 1: anybody dressed in a manner that is incongruent with how
Speaker 1: they were assigned at birth as being a male or
Speaker 1: female impersonator. Advocacy groups are very worried that, especially given
Speaker 1: how transgender and gender nonconforming people are at disproportionate risk
Speaker 1: of being targeted for harassment and hate crimes, that such
Speaker 1: laws only add fuel to the fire and put people
Speaker 1: at even more risk of being targeted. Anti LGBTQ hate
Speaker 1: crimes in the US are on the rise. The Armed
Speaker 1: Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which is a nonprofit,
Speaker 1: counted nearly two hundred anti LGBTQ incidents last year, which
Speaker 1: is three times the amount reported in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: That's just the amount reported, so we may not know
Speaker 1: exactly how many anti LGBTQ events there were because people
Speaker 1: might be afraid to report them. The Williams Institute at
Speaker 1: the UCLA School of Law also cites that around one
Speaker 1: and ten incidents targeting LGBTQ people are hate crimes, and
Speaker 1: LGBTQ people are nine times more likely than their heterosexual
Speaker 1: assist gender peers to be the victim of a violent
Speaker 1: hate crime. So those are the dragon bands. Another anti
Speaker 1: LGBTQ bill that is getting passed and that at least
Speaker 1: eleven states have passed such bands are the gender Affirming
Speaker 1: Care bands. These are the bills that ban doctors from
Speaker 1: providing gender affirming care to children that includes puberty blockers,
Speaker 1: that includes hormone regimens, if the doctor and the child
Speaker 1: and their family decide that's right for them. And families
Speaker 1: are really scared because in a lot of these cases,
Speaker 1: it means kids will be forced to medically deterransition, come
Speaker 1: off the treatments that can be life saving in many
Speaker 1: ways for them, or they won't even be able to
Speaker 1: access them at all. So these bills would make it
Speaker 1: illegal for doctors to give gender affirming care and would
Speaker 1: make it illegal for anyone to receive it. They typically
Speaker 1: focus on doctors, and they typically bar doctors from providing
Speaker 1: the gender affirming care. There are some bills that have
Speaker 1: been introduced that say that if a parent tries to
Speaker 1: help a child receive care, it is tantamount to child abuse,
Speaker 1: But the primary focus has been barring the doctors from
Speaker 1: providing care that has been established by the American Academy
Speaker 1: of Pediatrics as being the standard of care for transgender youth.
Speaker 1: What are the consequences for doctors under this legislation if
Speaker 1: they do give patience gender affirming care. A lot of
Speaker 1: doctors are at risk of losing their licenses a lot
Speaker 1: of doctors can be fined. They're making it deliberately difficult
Speaker 1: for doctors to provide care to these kids in a
Speaker 1: landscape that is already very difficult for children and their
Speaker 1: families to receive care. There aren't that many facilities in
Speaker 1: the country that really specialize in this kind of care,
Speaker 1: and so by limiting it even further, it really does
Speaker 1: create backlogs and further backlogs of families seekings support for
Speaker 1: their kids. This is just the standard care recommended by
Speaker 1: the medical establishment. The major medical groups, including the Department
Speaker 1: of Health and Human Services, all recognize gender affirming care
Speaker 1: as being the standard of care for transgender youth. A
Speaker 1: lot of these bills will focus on gender affirming surgery,
Speaker 1: which is very very rare for young people. So it's
Speaker 1: important to remember here that surgery for miners is not
Speaker 1: actually the norm. The standard of care is something that doctors,
Speaker 1: the patients, and their parents will walk through together, and
Speaker 1: that can look like a number of different things. That
Speaker 1: includes allowing the child to socially transition, to honor the
Speaker 1: child's pronouns, to honor their name, to help them address
Speaker 1: and transition with clothing and other markers in society sometimes
Speaker 1: that looks like puberty blockers, especially if the onset of
Speaker 1: puberty is causing a lot of distress for them in
Speaker 1: their bodies. It's a personal choice, and the American Academy
Speaker 1: of Pediatrics really honors that and says that the standard
Speaker 1: of care is listening to the kids and their families.
Speaker 1: What are the consequences, especially for young people who fall
Speaker 1: under these laws, if they're unable to get this care.
Speaker 1: Let's just look at what we know about depression and
Speaker 1: suicide rates among transgender and gender nonconforming youth. They have
Speaker 1: much higher rates of suicide and depression, and those rates
Speaker 1: are made even higher when they are not able to
Speaker 1: access the support and care that they need in a
Speaker 1: way that affirms their identities. The Trevor Project is a
Speaker 1: lgbtquth mental health nonprofit. Every year they release a survey
Speaker 1: about mental health among the LGBTQ youth community. There are
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two report found that forty five percent of
Speaker 1: LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year.
Speaker 1: One in five transgender and non binary youth attempted suicide,
Speaker 1: and LGBTQ youth of color reported higher rates than their
Speaker 1: white peers. LGBTQ youth who were supported by their family,
Speaker 1: in contrast, attempted suicide at less than half the rate
Speaker 1: of those with low or moderate social support. So the
Speaker 1: support to give kids an ability to express themselves in
Speaker 1: the way that affirms their gender is crucial. Ello. You've
Speaker 1: talked about how these bills are becoming law in states
Speaker 1: around the country. How many kids is this affecting now?
Speaker 1: According to the Human Rights Campaign, which is an LGBTQ
Speaker 1: rights advocacy group, twenty five percent of transgender youth ages
Speaker 1: thirteen to seventeen live in states that have already banned
Speaker 1: gender affirming care, and an additional twenty five percent live
Speaker 1: in states where it's likely that these bands will be passed.
Speaker 1: So all told, it could soon impact about half of
Speaker 1: American trans gender youth. And in addition to those two
Speaker 1: different types of legislation, we're also seeing bills having to
Speaker 1: do with schools. That is correct, We're seeing a number
Speaker 1: of bills focused on education. That includes bathroom bands, which
Speaker 1: limit which bathroom kids are allowed to use in accordance
Speaker 1: to the gender they were assigned at birth. That includes
Speaker 1: sports bands, which limits which sports teams kids are allowed
Speaker 1: to play on. That includes book bands, which also happen
Speaker 1: very increasingly at the most local level possible, which is
Speaker 1: at the school board level, and a number of studies
Speaker 1: have shown that books centering LGBTQ characters and themes are
Speaker 1: disproportionately challenged and then banned from schools. There's also a
Speaker 1: number of bills that are drawing from Ronda Santiss Don't
Speaker 1: Say Gay Bill. That bill if you don't remember, limits
Speaker 1: discussion about actual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through
Speaker 1: third grade. Ronda Santis has now indicated that he wants
Speaker 1: it expanded from fourth grade twelfth grade. Arkansas and Kentucky
Speaker 1: have also passed similar gag rules on what gender identity
Speaker 1: and sexual identity concepts teachers are allowed to teach kids
Speaker 1: and win. How are the lawmakers who are pressing forward
Speaker 1: with these bills describing them? What is their argument in favor?
Speaker 1: These laws are being presented by the lawmakers who introduce
Speaker 1: them in two major ways. The first is that it's
Speaker 1: an attempt to protect children, and this is where the
Speaker 1: term grooming really comes into place. They say that these
Speaker 1: laws protect children from potentially being groomed by a broader
Speaker 1: lgbtquote unquote agenda. The laws also are framed as an
Speaker 1: effort to retain parents' rights. So that's about parents' rights
Speaker 1: to say whether or not their children are being taught
Speaker 1: about something in schools, whether or not their children are
Speaker 1: able to access certain books in schools, and even whether
Speaker 1: or not their children are allowed to ask their teacher
Speaker 1: to use their name in a different way than the
Speaker 1: one that was assigned to them at birth. My conversation
Speaker 1: with Ella Serone continues in just a bit. When we
Speaker 1: come back, we hear from a state senator in Florida
Speaker 1: who's in the middle of the political fight over these bills. Now,
Speaker 1: let's get a close up look at how this legislation
Speaker 1: is playing out in one state capitol. Florida State Senator
Speaker 1: Chevin Jones is a Democrat who represents parts of South
Speaker 1: Florida's Miami Dade County. Senator there's been a recent number
Speaker 1: of bills in Florida that have to do with curtailing
Speaker 1: LGBTQ plus rights. Can you just talk about what exactly
Speaker 1: is happening right now in Florida. Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: I think it's clear that in Florida and across the
Speaker 1: country that these series of bills that's going across the
Speaker 1: legislatures in the name of parent to rights, but it's
Speaker 1: it's a direct assault on the freedom of parents to
Speaker 1: choose what is best for their child when it comes
Speaker 1: to their ability to raise their children how they want to.
Speaker 1: And it's it's it's unfortunate because this has become the
Speaker 1: new culture war, the new boogeyman out here in Florida.
Speaker 1: But it's a continuation of what we saw last year,
Speaker 1: don't Say Gay, until what we see this year is
Speaker 1: the expansion of the don't Say gay, which is dangerous
Speaker 1: on its surface, and considering the fact that we know
Speaker 1: that young people are youth LGBTQU are wonderful times more
Speaker 1: likely to commit suicide, not because of them not being
Speaker 1: happy with who they are, but because of how they
Speaker 1: are treated in Florida. Is making it more dangerous every
Speaker 1: single day for LGBTQ youth and people to live here
Speaker 1: in this state. If you look at Moms for Liberty,
Speaker 1: if you look at a lot of these other groups
Speaker 1: that are going across the country and even in the
Speaker 1: state of Florida, going to school board meetings banned in
Speaker 1: books where they don't agree with these things as inside
Speaker 1: these books, and I'm not talking about pornographic things. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about what helps youth feel a part of a community,
Speaker 1: feel a part of themselves in books in education. They're
Speaker 1: banning these things. Why, because many of them don't understand
Speaker 1: They don't understand the LGBTQ community. They don't understand the
Speaker 1: transgender community, and so because they don't understand it, they
Speaker 1: ban it. Because they don't understand it, they eliminate it.
Speaker 1: I identify as the LGBTQ black man in the state
Speaker 1: of Florida. I have, as myself, have to walk into
Speaker 1: this chamber every day to legitimize myself to even being
Speaker 1: able to serve in this legislature of forty people. I
Speaker 1: tend to remind them that I serve with you all,
Speaker 1: and this boogeyman that you are creating this out out
Speaker 1: to be, it's me him. I'm no boogeyman. I'm a
Speaker 1: human being who lives amongst the twenty two million people
Speaker 1: who so by happening to also serve in this legislature
Speaker 1: with you. There are so many bills that are either
Speaker 1: under consideration or that have already become law that it
Speaker 1: can be a little difficult to keep track of them.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about some of them and what they do.
Speaker 1: Let's start with the parental Rights and Education bill that
Speaker 1: came about last year in Florida that said that teachers
Speaker 1: were not allowed to speak about sexual orientation or gender
Speaker 1: identity in classroom of students in grades K through three. Now,
Speaker 1: I want to make it clear to you all that
Speaker 1: nowhere around this country, nowhere is sex education taught to
Speaker 1: children in grades K through three. Nowhere across the country,
Speaker 1: even in Florida. And so that was the first ignoration
Speaker 1: of parental rights and education that begin to make its
Speaker 1: way across the country. All of these bills are seeping,
Speaker 1: are embedded, and not just bigotry, not just hate, not
Speaker 1: just discrimination. But it is continuing to create a great
Speaker 1: divide within the state, within this country. And I go
Speaker 1: back to something I said a few minutes ago. It
Speaker 1: is an act of power. It is a maintaining of
Speaker 1: power that we are dealing with within the state of Florida.
Speaker 1: And government of Santis sees this as a winning issue
Speaker 1: from him as he prepares to run for of them.
Speaker 1: You talked about the Don't Say Gay law. What has
Speaker 1: the fallout from that actually been. What do you hear
Speaker 1: from constituents about how that's playing out in real life
Speaker 1: in Florida. It's fear. Teachers are fearful because teachers don't
Speaker 1: know what they can and they cannot say. It's censorship.
Speaker 1: It's demanding of school districts from acknowledging the existence of
Speaker 1: LGBTQ people in pre kindergarten through eighth grade, which can
Speaker 1: be and is detrimental to the LGBTQ students and students
Speaker 1: with LGBTQ parents. And additionally, this law if will bid
Speaker 1: use of pronouns that aligned with transgender students gender identity
Speaker 1: up through twelfth grade, depriving parents of the right to
Speaker 1: ensure that their children are protected and respected in their identity. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and these will have a long lasting effects, not just
Speaker 1: on the school districts, not just on the stage, but
Speaker 1: more importantly with on our children. Do you think that
Speaker 1: Florida's politics and in the Florida legislature that things are
Speaker 1: moving more toward restriction or do you think that this
Speaker 1: will eventually kind of have a backlash and some of
Speaker 1: these things that are going to fail. Oh well, listen,
Speaker 1: just the arc of the more human verse always been
Speaker 1: back towards justice, So I want to make that clear.
Speaker 1: While they think that a lot of these issues are
Speaker 1: a winning issue, I promise you that it will swing
Speaker 1: back to what's right. You cannot expect to treat people
Speaker 1: the way that the Republicans across this country are treating people,
Speaker 1: and they are legislating based off of it, and think
Speaker 1: that this does not come back to haunt you because
Speaker 1: many of these same individuals who have young children. I
Speaker 1: said this in debate, and I'm going to continue to
Speaker 1: say it that until this experience hit your household, you
Speaker 1: and others will continue pushing these type of things until
Speaker 1: it becomes your issue, until it becomes your problem, until
Speaker 1: it becomes your fight. Because I can speak from my
Speaker 1: perspective as being raising a very conservative household father who's
Speaker 1: a pastor, mom who was a very well known administrator
Speaker 1: in the school district, and when I came out, they
Speaker 1: didn't agree with it at all. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: we had a very big fallout over it. Today, my
Speaker 1: parents will fight for their child as hard as they can.
Speaker 1: Why Because they want to make sure that I feel
Speaker 1: seen in this moment and that I am supported in
Speaker 1: this moment. Parental rights is a winning issue. The question
Speaker 1: is which parent is right? It is it the straight
Speaker 1: children's parents who write or is it all parents who
Speaker 1: have the right to ensure that their chow is safe
Speaker 1: and protected. Senator Jones, thanks so much for talking with
Speaker 1: me today. Thank you for having man back again with
Speaker 1: Bloomberg reporter Ellis Erone after the break. Lau had said
Speaker 1: earlier that according to the ACLU, at least four hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty five anti LGBTQ bills have been introduced in
Speaker 1: states around the country. But bills get introduced all the time,
Speaker 1: and most of them never pass. It's true that a
Speaker 1: number of these bills probably won't pass, and that has
Speaker 1: to do with the makeup of the state legislature. State
Speaker 1: legislatures with Republican supermajorities and states with Republican governors see
Speaker 1: higher passage rates than states with democratic leadership. But the
Speaker 1: introduction of these bills does have a chilling effect. According
Speaker 1: to the Trevor Project, ninety one percent of transgender non
Speaker 1: buyinary youths said that they worried about people being denied
Speaker 1: access to the bathroom due to state and local laws.
Speaker 1: This is top of mind for a lot of people
Speaker 1: because they're watching the news. Kids are glued to their
Speaker 1: phones all day long. They follow what's happening across the country,
Speaker 1: and so they're keeping track of this. As someone who
Speaker 1: covers these issues very closely, what are you looking for
Speaker 1: in the months ahead. I'm definitely looking to see which
Speaker 1: bills are going to be passed into law, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to be watching the legal challenges that a lot
Speaker 1: of advocacy groups and parents are posing against these laws,
Speaker 1: sometimes the same day that they're signed into laws, sometimes
Speaker 1: even before that. We've talked about a number of things
Speaker 1: that are all going through legislatures and that have been
Speaker 1: passed into law. What's next in this push against LGBTQ rights.
Speaker 1: I am personally watching what's happening In Florida. The Board
Speaker 1: of Medicine, which is a governor appointed board, recently had
Speaker 1: a rule come into effect banning doctors from providing gender
Speaker 1: affirming care to youth and young people. They didn't even
Speaker 1: need to pass a law to do it, they just
Speaker 1: changed the rule. That means they're using multiple tools to
Speaker 1: really push through these limitations and these bands. Ellis around.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for speaking with me. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for having me Thanks for listening to us here
Speaker 1: at The Big Take. It's a daily podcast from Bloomberg
Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio. For more shows from my heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen, and
Speaker 1: we'd love to hear from you. Email us questions or
Speaker 1: comments to Big Take at Bloomberg dot net. The supervising
Speaker 1: producer of The Big Take is Vicky Bergolina. Our senior
Speaker 1: producer is Katherine Fink. Rebecca Chasson is our producer. Our
Speaker 1: associate producer is Sam Gabauer. Phildegarcia is our engineer. Our
Speaker 1: original music was composed by Leo Sidrin. I'm West Kasova.
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow with another Big Take.