NYC Pride faced with unprecedented rise in anti-LGBTQ laws, rise in hate crimes

NEW YORK - It can be easy to think of Pride month as merely a celebration. And with the cheering crowds, colorful costumes, and rainbow flags it certainly is a festive atmosphere.

But advocates say it’s important to remember the origins of the annual event— especially this year.

"Pride is a protest— Pride has always been a protest," said Cathryn Oakley, director of legal policy with the Human Rights Campaign.

Pride’s roots date back to 1969, when police raided a bar serving drinks to gay people— a common practice of the time. Except this time, the patrons at the Stonewall Inn in New York’s West Village fought back. 

What followed were six days of protests and violent clashes that would eventually be known as the Stonewall Riots.

Oakley added that the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals are under attack more now than they’ve been in years. 

"This is a crisis. It is an emergency. We need all hands on deck."

Believe it or not, public support for the LGBTQ+ community has never been higher. Burt if you look at the state laws being passed around the country, you’d think the opposite. 

"State legislatures are taking a hard turn the other direction," Oakley said. "And what they are doing is unfortunately passing law, after law, after law, that is making it increasingly untenable to be an LGBTQ person."

According to the Human Rights Campaign, there’s been more legislation passed targeting LGBTQ+ individuals in 2023 than there has been in the past five years combined. 

So far this year, there have been more than 520 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced by majority Republican state legislatures. Seventy have gone into law. 

Tennessee is at the forefront of such legislation, having passed 19 such laws since 2015.

One of it’s laws that banned drag shows was ruled unconstitutional in early June.

But a new law, set to take effect July 1, would ban gender-affirming care for trans individuals under 18.

It’s been challenged by the Department of Justice, which is asking a judge to prevent it from going into effect.

"We should all be afraid.  This is a litmus test. The GOP trying to eradicate transpeople is a test to see… what they can get away with."

Montana

In Montana, the Republican-controlled legislature voted to bar trans lawmaker Zooey Zephyr from the House floor— forcing her to conduct the rest of the session’s business from a hallway outside the chamber—all because she gave a speech saying lawmakers who supported a bill that would ban gender-affirming care would have "blood on their hands."  It was a reference to the high suicide rate among trans youth.

"I rose up in defense of my community," Zephyr said from the floor the day she was banned. She went on to reference "the harms" she said these types of bills bring.

"So when I rose up and said, ‘there is blood on your hands,’ I was not being hyperbolic."

New York

Even in New York where no such laws have been introduced, residents are feeling the effects.

Westchester resident MJ Karger was recently faced with the decision of where she wanted to retire. Initially she had considered Florida. But not anymore."It, to me, is a dangerous place to live," Karger said. "And and it does not feel safe."

Karger has a gay son. And this year alone, Florida has enacted six anti-LGBTQ+ laws. 

"There are other places in the world that I will not travel with him because I know how unsafe [they are]. And honestly, that's what Florida feels like right now. It's really unsafe to be.. an out gay person."

Florida

One of Florida’s newer anti-LGBTQ+ laws curtails gender-affirming care for adults and bans it outright for minors.  

"I feel like a zombie right now because I don’t have any hormones in my body," said Sage Chelf, a trans resident of Orlando.

Shelf is turning to crowdfunding in an effort to raise enough money to move to another state. 

"I just really wish people would stop making it such a political thing, and just let us live."

Cathryn Oakley with the Human Rights Campaign says the notion of trying to move to a friendlier state is something anecdotally she hears often.

Hate crimes on the rise

"Folks across the country in these states are taking very seriously the idea that they're not going to be able to remain in these places or that if they do that they're they're putting their safety at risk."

It’s not just legislation. Individual incidents of hate directed at the LGBTQ+ community have also gone up.

According to a report released by the Anti-Defamation League, which looked at the period between June 2022 and April 2023, there have been more than 350 incidents of anti-LGBTQ harrassment, vandalism, or assault in the United States.  

Even outside the Stonewall Inn— the epicenter for the modern gay rights movement— a display of Pride flags was vandalized three times over the course of just seven days.

But in the midst of the record breaking number of anti-LGBTQ+ laws, there has been progress in other segments of the community.

Pride celebrates many firsts in 2023

Just this month, Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee became the first non-binary actors to ever win Tony Awards.

The city of San Francisco has appointed its first ever Drag Laureate.

And small town Grand Haven, Michigan, held its first-ever Pride. Officials expected a few hundred but were shocked when 4,000 took part.

Moments like these give advocates hope.

"While I feel really scared about the legal developments, the legislative developments of this year and what I fear will come in the future," Oakley said, "I also know with certainty that this is a community that refuses to be defeated."