Republican state lawmakers across the U.S. have already introduced at least 25 anti-LGBTQ bills in 2020.
NBC News reports: Many of the bills, like South Dakota's, focus on transgender youth, but a number of others deal with nondiscrimination protections and religious exemptions. Chase Strangio, deputy director of the ACLU's LGBT and HIV Project, called this legislative session “one of the most hostile” for LGBTQ people in recent years.
More from the Washington Blade: Chase Strangio, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union LGBT and HIV project, said in a conference call with reporters 2020 marks a “hostile” start for legislative sessions “not just in the number, but in the content of the bills and in the swiftness with which they were introduced.”
“Certainly, since 2016, we've seen a lot of bills across the country attacking trans people in particular, but there is a sort of level of intensity, both in the character and the volume, that we're seeing that is pretty alarming this session,” Strangio said.