Q: "How Can We Protect the LGBTQ+ Community from Rightwing Attacks?".

• Position: ONE QUESTION

BRANDON WOLF

Press secretary at Equality Florida

LGBTQ+ people are coming under assault from rightwing forces intent on stigmatizing and erasing the community. These attacks turn transgender and nonbinary people into political punching bags.

To counteract this, we must defeat the anti-LGBTQ+ policies at the core of this onslaught, name these legislative proposals as dangerous lies, and hold leaders accountable for the votes they cast to put their own constituents in harm's way.

We must also continue to tell the beautiful, diverse stories of who we are. Transgender kids should be celebrated and affirmed; families have the right to be respected; people--our neighbors, family members, and friends--deserve lives free of discrimination and hate.

KRIS HAYASHI

Executive director of the Transgender Law Center

In recent years, we have witnessed a handful of politicians attempting to distract from their own political failings by attacking transgender youth. If these politicians were truly concerned with the well-being of all children, they would provide economic relief amid the ongoing pandemic and fix broken systems and services that have failed children of all genders for decades.

In response to these attacks, however, we have seen tremendous local leadership from grassroots, trans-led organizations. Local groups like the Transgender Education Network of Texas, or TENT, and trans youth leaders (many from Black and brown communities) have mobilized in beautiful and powerful protest.

We can protect our LGBTQ+ communities...