In light of an upcoming presidential election and the U.K. Foreign Office issuing a travel warning on their website for the U.S., it seems appropriate to examine what is going on with contemporary legislation regarding the LGBT community.
For those that don’t know, the U.K. Foreign Office has issued a warning for their LGBT citizens to beware of the laws of the southern U.S. states because of legislation like North Carolina’s recent law that blocks local governments in the state from passing anti-discrimination ordinances to protect the rights of the LGBT community. This law, in effect, allows for legal discrimination of all members of the LGBT community and was passed through a special session (the first of its kind in 35 years).
North Carolina’s HB2 law, which approves discrimination of LGBT citizens, has a portion of it that has been called “the bathroom bill.” This law, in addition to what it already does, says who may use the restrooms. According to the law, people must use the bathroom that is assigned to their biological sex on their birth certificate and not what they view their gender as. This not only makes for awkward situations between cisgender and transgender citizens, but this discriminates against a minority in a country that was made to avoid persecution.
Most recently in the news, the federal government first sent North Carolina a letter outlining how the law is a violation of civil rights and set a deadline for the state to respond on May 9. So North Carolina sued the Department of Justice Monday for rewriting civil rights laws without the approval of Congress. The federal government is fighting fire with fire and has sued the state for discriminating against transgender citizens.
This bathroom law has been a controversial topic for a while now, with Target coming out as a transgender friendly store and Ted Cruz speaking out in favor of the bathroom law, which he says will protect children against pedophiles. It should be noted that the other presidential candidates are against this law, even Trump thinks the law is a bad idea (albeit because he thinks it will damage businesses). Cruz is out on a limb by himself.
We can’t leave out Mississippi, though, because they also have a law that is a triple threat. It protects people who want to discriminate against others based on their religious beliefs (which is not just limited to LGBT citizens at this point), and is possible legal ground to discriminate against people that are having pre-marital sex and living together. It also states that the government can’t take action against foster parents that are raising children under a sincere religious belief. This means that foster parents could raise LGBT children to see themselves as living in sin.
With this being said, it alarmingly makes sense why countries like the U.K. feel that it is a necessity to warn LGBT travelers about visiting southern states.
Corporations like Disney have also shown that they will boycott states with anti-LGBT laws, so this isn’t good for their economy or reputation.
What about Florida? How do we compare to Mississippi, North Carolina and Georgia? Florida is a little better than these states because LGBT couples can adopt children. We also don’t have “religious freedom” bills in effect, even though there has been talk about these bills. Yet, an LGBT couple can get married, evicted and fired in one day here, because there are not state laws that protect LGBT citizens from legal discrimination. This puts those citizens in a precarious state, and this can also put LGBT students in a difficult situation as well.
If legal discrimination is allowed, not only can students be fired from jobs they need to support themselves, but they can also be discriminated against in housing and universities. And, while the UWF campus does make an effort to support LGBT students, this means that the possibility of discrimination is still out there for other students in this state that don’t have LGBT friendly policies in effect.
At this point, it’s safe to say that a dialogue needs to happen about what to do next to promote positive and safe environments for our fellow LGBT citizens.