The Assaults on the LGBTQ+ Community Are Both a National and a Worldwide Phenomenon

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.

By Christopher Surfus and Wallace Swan
September 16, 2024

Throughout the world, there have been increasing assaults upon the LGBTQIA+ community. Universities and corporations throughout the United States are under attack for their DEI programs. Pandemics, outbreaks and epidemics are used against the LGBTQ+ community, by blaming this marginalized community. We need to understand how and why, so Chris Surfus and Wally Swan are working on a 2025 Routledge book “LGBTQIA+ Communities, Pandemics and Policy Responses: Connecting the Dots” to explore that issue.   

In the United States, we have seen organizations like ALEC, Moms for Liberty, Proud Boys, the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council and the National Association for Research and Therapy (NARTH) taking nationwide action against LGBTQIA+ people. The issues being addressed include abortion, same-sex marriage and transgender rights, among others.   

Words have consequences. Thus far in 2024, according to the ACLU, over 500 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in the United States. The Federal Bureau of Investigation notes that hate crimes based upon sexual orientation and gender identity have significantly increased. But it is not only hate crimes that are occurring due to this rhetoric. Anti-LGBTQ+ demonstrations have increased dramatically as have acts of political violence with significant far-right involvement. Typically, the states where we see anti-LGBTQIA+ activity are often the same states that were identified in a 2015 book (“Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Civil Rights: A Public Policy Agenda for Uniting a Divided America”).

Project 2025 (discussed in a PA Times article by Wallace Swan on July 15 ,2024) involves a 900+ page document designed to provide a blueprint for an authoritarian takeover by a candidate. Federal employees could be discharged at will, abortion might become illegal nationally and all forms of LGBTQIA+ speech and activity would become criminalized. This document was spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation and a number of other organizations.         

In a past administration, all references to LGBTQ people were stricken from the White House website and from all federal bureaucratic websites. And most importantly, for the purposes of this discussion, data on LGBTQ people were no longer collected. LGBTQ+ people were excluded from the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey during the Trump Administration, along with the decennial Census, the National Survey of Older Americans and a preventative effort by HUD that targets homeless LGBTQ youth. These initiatives were restored in June 2021.  

On a more hopeful note, more recently the President signed the “Respect for Marriage Act.” Great progress has been made inside of the federal government on rights for LGBTQ+ people. And some states (e.g. Michigan, California, Minnesota) have protected LGBTQ+ rights and specifically provided refuge to transgender people. In Michigan and Minnesota, conversion therapy has been outlawed.  As feminist activist Carol Hanisch said in her essay, “The Personal is Political”.  

---

Authors: Chris Surfus, Ph.D., MPA, MBA, President, Surfus Foundation [email protected] and Dr. Wallace K. Swan, DPA, MPA, MAPA, long-time ASPA Member [email protected].

 

(4 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading...