As we head into the fall, each of us must join the fight for justice and our democracy.
This June, the US Supreme Court eviscerated a half-century-old precedent protecting the Constitutional right to safe abortions, for women and LGBTQ people who experience unintended or unsustainable pregnancies. The decision also diminished the equal status of women and cast doubt on the continued vitality of other core Constitutional liberties—including the rights to access contraception, to engage in consensual sexual relationships and to marry the person we love.
We also faced over 300 anti-LGBTQ bills in state legislatures across the nation this year, including here in New England. While we defeated many of those bills, a growing number of states now ban transgender girls from playing on school teams with their friends, and at least four states have banned or criminalized medically necessary health care for transgender youth. Other states have taken away the freedom to even mention LGBTQ people or talk about important issues like racism or sexism in the classroom.
And all of this is happening against the backdrop of existential attacks on our democracy. Fear tactics about our community are used to polarize voters and distract them from efforts to undermine voting rights and weaken our democracy. And in turn, the undermining of our democratic institutions, including the courts, makes it harder to protect and advance LGBTQ rights. GLAD has joined the call for Court reform and to lift the Senate filibuster to pass comprehensive voting rights legislation because strengthening our democracy protects all our freedoms.
As challenging as these attacks are, when we come together and fight, we can win.
This summer following the Dobbs ruling, GLAD joined reproductive equity advocates and Massachusetts legislative leaders to swiftly pass a historic law that protects providers who offer abortion and gender-affirming care to those who travel to the Bay State for health care that has been banned in their home state.
In August, voters in Kansas turned out in force to protect access to abortion by a 62-37 percent vote.
In July, the U.S. House passed the Respect for Marriage Act (RMA) by a 100-vote margin, including 47 Republicans, and it has bipartisan support in the Senate. The RMA would ensure federal and interstate recognition of marriages of same-sex couples and interracial couples, providing critical reassurance to millions of Americans about protections for their families. We all need to call on the Senate to act as quickly as possible to pass the RMA and to address the continuing and unfair discrimination against LGBTQ people that imposes real harm on individuals and their families.
There are critical fights ahead.
We must fight for our families. GLAD will do everything in our power to defend our Obergefell marriage equality victory and to ensure comprehensive family and parentage protections regardless of marital status. That includes passing the Massachusetts Parentage Act, which we are determined to push over the finish line next session.
We must keep fighting for health care access and to protect the well-being of our communities. That means fighting for action at the state and federal levels to protect the right to contraception and reproductive health care including abortion. GLAD is fighting in court to stop an Alabama law that criminalizes gender-affirming health care for transgender youth. The Biden-Harris administration has also released proposed guidance to reaffirm strong LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections in the Affordable Care Act, and we can all act by submitting a public comment in support of those regulations before October 3 (see glad.org/1557 for information).
We must keep fighting for LGBTQ youth and for the freedom to learn. GLAD is challenging a school censorship ban in New Hampshire, and our partners are challenging Florida’s Don’t Say Gay or Trans law. But we can all play a vital role in making sure no more anti-LGBTQ bills pass in any state, by staying engaged and encouraging our family and friends across the country to do the same.
Generations of freedom fighters didn’t dedicate their lives to advancing justice for us to take the easy path. We must fight for it over and over again, until it becomes an unassailable societal norm.
This is what it takes—resolve. The resolve and the resilience to get back to work day after day, to be vigilant in protecting the rights we have and ferocious in our drive to keep our Constitution’s promise of liberty alive and ever-expanding.
Which path our nation goes down depends on what we do today, tomorrow and the weeks, months and years ahead. It will depend on how hard we fight, how deep we dig, how much we give. And it will hinge on how active we are in ensuring that pro-democracy and pro-justice candidates are elected this November.
That is how we will persevere through these dark times, and that is how we will win.
More: glad.org
