Source: NC Newsline
A troubling new report by the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) highlights a new trend among those seeking to attack the LGBTQ community – attempts to silence supporters of LGBTQ people.
The report highlights a raft of bills filed and passed, in North Carolina and across the country, that target doctors, teachers, corporations, and others who support LGBTQ people.
Here in North Carolina, families and doctors are currently suing over once such bill, House Bill 808. The bill bans gender-affirming care for minors, including medical treatment that has been recommended by their doctors. Under the law, doctors providing such care could lose their medical licenses.
Doctors and parents in North Carolina are not alone. According to the MAP report, 37 bills have been filed this year – almost three times as many as last year – targeting doctors, parents, teachers or even “any person” involved in health care for transgender individuals. And 63% of bills targeting the LGBTQ community this year now include the loss of a medical license or other professional discipline for defying anti-LGBTQ legislation.
In addition to creating criminal and civil penalties for those supporting LGBTQ people, the MAP report identified two other tactics used by anti-LGBTQ advocates to silence supporters – attacking companies that speak on the topic and stoking violence and harassment against LGBTQ people and institutions.
“Americans support LGBTQ equality,” said Naomi Goldberg, deputy director and LGBTQ program director at MAP, in a statement released with the report.
“Our opponents know this. That’s why they are working to create the false perception of lower support by scaring people into silence,” said Goldberg.
