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