Last year, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, the Human Rights Campaign, labeled 2021 the “worst year” for LGBTQ rights in modern U.S. history, citing a record number of anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in state legislatures across the country.
“The LGBTQ+ community is really under siege right now,” said Ricardo Martinez, CEO of LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Texas.
One bill that was successfully implemented, and gained national headlines for months, was Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, or what critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
The word “grooming” has long been associated with mischaracterizing LGBTQ people, particularly gay men and transgender women, as child sex abusers.
Those losses came after some conservative groups ramped up misleading or inflammatory campaign ads targeting transgender rights.