There's an uneasy quiet looming over Pride in the US. More than 500 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills could be to blame (2024)

For those in the LGBTQIA+ community, Pride month is a chance to be out, loud and proud.

But in the United States, there's been an uneasy quiet hanging over this June.

Big brands who once didn't think twice about cashing in on the pink dollar have scaled back support.

The American offshoot of Target reduced the number of its stores carrying Pride-themed products this year after getting backlash in 2023.

Nike, who became the subject of boycott calls last year over its marketing partnership with a transgender influencer, has also pulled back after offering Pride collections since 1999.

The silence too has been felt in other ways.

A Maryland council chose not to fly a pride flag outside its city office for the first time in five years, with its mayor citing "neutrality".

And for many queer Americans, the month of celebration and commemoration has instead been left overshadowed by a record number of legislative attacks.

Record rise in anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says it's currently monitoring 523 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills across the country.

Over 300 of these bills were introduced in the first three weeks of 2024 alone, and 149 are still advancing or have been passed into law.

The majority of these bills relate to educational measures, through school sports bans, school facilities bans that prevent transgender students from using communal rest rooms, or curriculum censorship around in-school discussions of the queer community.

Increasing anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric has also seen bills introduced that would forcibly out teachers and staff.

Trailing slightly behind is healthcare restrictions, where more than two-thirds of the bills (69 per cent) are aimed at limiting the accessibility of gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth.

This is despite the American Medical Association resolving to "protect access to evidence-based care for transgender and gender-diverse youth" in June last year.

2023 also marked the first time the ACLU saw drag bans introduced across US states.

The bans also overwhelmingly target transgender and gender non-conforming people.

As academic and gay rights activist professor Dennis Altman puts it, the "situation in some US states at the moment for trans people is far worse than anything we've experienced in Australia in the last 20 years".

"I think that the situation for many people, particularly in this case, trans people in the US is pretty awful," he says.

"I mean, we're going back to essentially the sort of views around hom*osexuality that were held in countries like Australia in the 50s and 60s, in a period of social media hysteria and a possible president who essentially has no interest in protecting basic civil liberties."

So how did the US get here?

Professor Altman points to a two-pronged answer: the growing rights and visibility of LGBTQIA+ people and the vote of US fundamentalist Christians.

The religious affiliation of the US is noticeably different to Australia's.

Christians make up about 64 per cent of the US's population, versus Australia's 43.9 per cent seen in the 2021 Census.

It should be noted there's no clear insight into how many fundamentalist Christians make up that 64 per cent.

"You have over the last decade an assertion of trans identities to a much greater extent than we've ever seen," Professor Altman said.

"Many more people publicly identifying as trans, talking about themselves as trans, and I think that's given a particular ammunition to the right.

"I think we have to distinguish between the true believers who are essentially fundamentalist Christians, and those politicians who see this as a very useful issue for drumming up political support."

Donald Trump, Professor Altman says, is the latter.

"The anti trans-measures really begin in the Trump era and he's very clearly indicated that they would be strengthened were he re-elected," he added.

Justin Ellis, criminology lecturer at the University of the Newcastle's School of Law and Justice, says compared to the 1970's anti-LGBTQIA+ crusade led by Florida campaigner Anita Bryant, the issues now are "more multifaceted."

"This creates greater opportunity to confuse issues," he says.

"For example, over drag queen story time with transgender identity."

He also points to a growing organisation of anti-LGBTQIA+ groups on social media — whether that is fringe political actors, extremist conspiracy theorists or local activists — who use the platforms to coordinate the "amplification of anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment" and misinformation.

"What they also might be doing — and this might be inadvertent or intentional — is spreading anti-LGBTQIA+ information across social networks," he says.

"Which moderation is not adequately addressing, and timeliness is one of the issues there."

Notably, Dr Ellis points to billionaire Elon Musk's October 2022 takeover of X — formerly Twitter — which saw the mention of grooming slurs against the LGBTQIA+ community jump by 119 per cent, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate.

The social media sphere also saw anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment being taken up by foreign actors ahead of US election campaigns to sow division, according to Meta's head of Cybersecurity Policy, Nathaniel Gleicher.

Traditional cable media too shares some blame.

Out of the three major cable news outlets — MSNBC, CNN and Fox News — the latter only spent two hours and 11 minutes in 2023 covering specific bans or restrictions on health care for LGBTQIA+ people.

Despite this, nearly half of Fox News' segments on legislation included anti-trans rhetoric or endorsed the legislation in question, Media Matters for America reports.

In comparison, MSNBC and CNN, in 42 per cent and 36 per cent of their segments respectively, cited research to counter anti-LGBTQIA+ misinformation.

'Being an LGBTQ person in Missouri means having to look over your shoulder'

Here's a closer look at the impact of these proposed laws on LGBTQIA+ youth in Missouri, where there are currently 39 bills in play.

Advocacy group Human Rights Campaign has condemned the state for already signing two bills into the Senate that would ban transgender students from participating in school sports and ban gender-affirming care for trans youth under the age of 18.

Another bill, currently still in progress, would see drag classified as an adult cabaret performance, and those caught performing at child-friendly venues facing possible felony charges.

One of those to speak against the drag ban bill was Andrew Hartzler — the nephew of Republican congresswomen Vicky Hartzler who has pushed for some of the most expansive anti-LGBTQIA+ restrictions in the state.

He stresses politicians need to realise the real-world repercussions of the bans.

"Being an LGBTQ person in Missouri means having to look over your shoulder before you hold the hand of the person you love," he said.

"It means having to see your humanity litigated day after day by lawmakers who insist the greatest danger in our state is not violent militants waving guns in public places, not the unaffordability of housing or food, but someone wearing a wig."

He also pointed to the darker consequence of growing anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment.

Patrons of a Kansas City LGBTQIA+ friendly nightclub last year were waiting in line when they were shot with BB pellets by a drive-by assailant.

It was just a week out from the Kansas City Pride Parade.

"By just allowing a bill like this to be heard, you are legitimising the harm directed at my community and demonising the few so-called safe spaces that we have left," Mr Hartzler adds.

And data shows LGBTQIA+ youth are feeling the weight of that harm.

Nearly one in three queer youths are suffering from poor mental health always or most of the time due to the prevalence of anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation, according to the Trevor Project's latest survey on LGBTQIA+ mental health.

About 41 per cent of LGBTQIA+ youths in the US have also seriously considered attempting suicide.

Growing incivility 'chilling' expression

Dr Ellis says there's been a definite rise in "incivility" in conjunction with the increase of anti-LGBTQIA+ bills.

"This includes slurs online, in person, verbal abuse in some cases, allegations of assault," he says.

"Also, in some cases with protests against drag queen story time events in the United States, some allegations of malicious damage to property."

In 2023, the civil rights advocacy group Southern Poverty Law Center tracked 80 anti-LGBTQIA+ hate groups across the state.

In 2022, that number was 63.

The Anti-Defamation League and queer advocacy group GLAAD also documented at least 356 anti-LGBTQIA+ incidents motivated by hate across the US between June 2022 and April 2023.

Nearly half of all incidents (49 per cent) were perpetrated wholly or substantially by individuals associated with extremist groups, they found.

Hate also prevailed in more indirect ways, Dr Ellis said.

"That might be someone that all of a sudden says, 'Well, you know, I was thinking of coming out to X, Y, Z people, but I'm not going to do that anymore because of where I'm living and that might increase my likelihood of being attacked or verbally abused,'" he said.

In that way, discrimination grows in two forms.

"The obvious is the increase of being targeted for hate, the insidious is that people chill their expression because they're fearful of the hate," Dr Ellis says.

"And I think that sometimes that's the objective of the bills, regardless of whether they get through.

"They're used to intimidate."

Australians need to 'remain vigilant' against anti-LGBTQIA+ spread

It may be easy to ignore what's happening in the US, but its influence has already crept into Australia.

Several Australian councils have voted on anti-LGBTQIA+ motions, including the successful bid by Sydney's Hill Shire Council to stop supporting drag story time events.

Protests against drag performances and pride events too are steadily increasing.

And Dr Ellis says the "globalised nature of digital media" means what affects American LGBTQIA+ communities affects LGBTQIA+ communities across the globe.

"As much as these things originate in the United States, there's a clear and present danger across jurisdictions," he says.

"In a relatively tolerant and more secular society like Australia, we need to remain vigilant to make sure that we stem the flow of this anti-LGBTQIA+ misinformation."

Eyes are also turned to the upcoming US election, where the threat of a second Trump presidency looms.

Already, the Republican frontrunner has vowed to repel gender-affirming care measures to minors if he returns to the White House.

Professor Altman remains relieved by the relative isolation of anti-transgender politicians in Australia, such as Katherine Deves — who failed to win the formerly safe Liberal seat of Warringah in 2022.

But he believes that could change if Trump wins in November.

"Were Trump to be re-elected, I would expect this would give a lot more ammunition to those sorts of forces in Australia," he said.

"But at the moment, while there's certainly been some nasty incidents and reasons to be concerned, I don't see us going down the same path as those states in the US which have essentially gone overboard with extraordinary measures."

Instead, he says Australians should focus on the success of LGBTQIA+ rights closer to home, such as the recent legislation of same-sex marriage in Thailand.

"We need to counter the reporting of the crazy Americans with the stories of progress that are happening in parts of our region, particularly now that the Australian government has made clear that they are actively supporting queer rights in the region," he said.

"I think that's something we should be encouraging and taking pride in."