Paul Ellertson, staff writer

LGBTQIA+ lives continue to be under attack as we make our way into 2024. According to the ACLU 2024 Legislation Session Tracker, there are a total of 442 Anti-LGBTQIA+ bills nationwide. This includes 10 bills in Minnesota that are targeting healthcare, drag performances, school sports, school curriculum and even bills that if passed would allow schools to kick out LGBTQIA+ students. 

In Tennessee, H.B. 878 was introduced and is on the verge of being signed into law, when if done would ban both same sex and interracial marriages. This bill would violate the 2015 Supreme Court ruling of Obergefell v. Hodges which legalized same-sex marriage and the 1967 case Loving v. Virginia which forbid the barring of interracial marriage. According to Salon News, the two Republican state senators of Tennessee sponsoring the bill are Sen. Mark Pody and Sen. Monty Fritts. They defended the bill in a quote from Salon News, stating, “Any opposition to the bill is misplaced because it exists to clarify the rights of officiates to refuse to marry a couple based on personal/religious beliefs.” 

The bill will also extend to government officials, such as county clerks who handle marriage licenses. According to Salon, though it’s unclear if Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee will sign the bill into law. However, with his history of signing anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation, there is a strong possibility he could.

It doesn’t stop there. According to USA Today, Ohio lawmakers overrode Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of H.B. 68 in early Feb. of this year. This bill banned gender affirming care for trans youth, and this includes using puberty blocker hormones that support physical development to align with the youth’s identity, and it bans trans girls from playing in school sports. Lana Moore, former Columbus fire captain and trans woman, shared her thoughts of the veto override in USA Today saying, “I would have laid down my life for these people who I know would have hated me for who I am.” Overwhelming feelings of betrayal radiate from the Ohio trans community and their advocates as the recent legislation shows an attempt to erase trans people from public life. 

According to USA Today, Ohio trans advocacy groups are saddened and disappointed with Ohio lawmakers and their unwillingness to protect gender affirming care; these same actions of public erasure and banning can be seen in states like Florida, Utah, Texas and Georgia. According to USA Today, Florida’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles quietly announced in January that transgender residents would no longer be able to update their gender marker on state IDs and driver’s licenses. In Utah, one of the most recent bills has banned trans people from using the bathroom of the gender they associate with. 

According to Siobhan Boyd-Nelson, co-interim executive director of Equality Ohio, bills like H.B. 68 show how things are progressively getting worse for the LGBTQIA+ community. In a quote from USA Today, Nelson says, “We’re seeing it happen across the country, and we think people should be very concerned about what appears to be an obsession with marginalizing and harming an already marginalized community.”