The ACLU is tracking 200 anti-LGBTQ bills in the U.S.
It’s only January and more anti LGBTQ bills have been introduced than all of last year, Some of these pieces of legislation specifically target drag story hours , drag performers volunteering their time to read to children, Conservatives label these as sexualizing children and aim to ban them and of course conflate all transgender people with performers in drag because these politicians were elected by voters who are either as bigoted or ignorant as the elected officials they put in office , Tucker Carlson told us this was sexualization it must be .
But this was never just about drag shows or transgender people no one spends millions maybe worldwide as a much as a trillion dollars attacking such tiny minorities, is that an exaggeration not really, we know that many groups are spending huge sums on both anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion efforts that number over a decade or more could well be a trillion US dollars or more.
The underlying reason for anti-choice legislation is the ludicrous notion of replacement theory that The Caucasian race is being replaced, abortion and anti-transgender policy are entangled, legislation for both are often introduced in the same sessions of State legislators.
There is a growing trend towards the rejection of traditional sex roles especially by younger people and the ignorant groups mostly far right but sometimes left leaning can’t see the enablers of a paradigm shift. and look to blame the groups they think are responsible for this “indoctrination”. Rejection of traditional roles empowers women who may seek careers over children, may delay having children or decide against it all together and that scares the hell out of those that embrace the patriarchy. If you look at the states with the most restrictive legislation on drag shows and LGBTQ rights you find that they are mostly states with predominately white populations, a population that they need to encourage or force to higher birth rates if the country is to avoid what they see as demographic disaster.
And to fuel this paranoia these politicians point to some facts they find disturbing
Pandemic Baby Bust
Some Economists predicted that coming out of the pandemic would lead to a baby boom instead in 2021 the population dropped significantly, and this seemed to be happening not only in the US but across the world even highly populated countries like India saw population decline. Much of this can be attributed to economic hardship large numbers of the middle class came out of the pandemic worse off and this is somewhat truer in other parts of the world then the US where the current administration took much criticized steps to ease the economic hardship, in many ways conservative republicans were hurting themselves attacking the American Rescue Plan because economic hardship makes it harder for families to support children
A continuing trend in the United States
. Conservatives are panicking about the declining birthrate and the impact it could have on conservative values advances in gender equity and access to educational and employment opportunities, often lead young people to postpone marriage and have fewer children. Easily available contraception is also helping teens avoid unwanted pregnancies
Overall, the white population in the US fell by 8.6% since 2010, the Census bureau finds non-Hispanic whites now account for around 58% of America’s population, a drop from 2010 when they made up 63.7% of the population. It was the first time that the non-Hispanic white population has fallen below 60% since the census began. Meanwhile, there was significant growth among minority groups over the last decade. The Hispanic or Latino population grew by 23%, while the Asian population surged by over 35%. The Black population also increased by more than 5.6%. The US population is much more multiracial and much more racially and ethnically diverse, if trend continue the white population would become a minority by 2045
This is not new information the trend towards the non-Hispanic white population becoming the minority has been known for more than a couple decades the right-wing has been preparing for it for just as long however the previous census data had shown that this decrease would not be seen in the data until after 2024 so the decline in the 2020 Census was a bit of a surprise at this rate 2045 might be optimistic for those who want to head off such demographic change.
Refuges bussed to Washington Christmas Eve by Ron DeSantis
Obviously, conservatives decided one contributing factor is immigration which they see as out of control hence the increase of aggressive actions by Red States to curtail the influx of immigrants, these policies are abusive and can be labeled human rights abuses i.e. the child separation policies of the previous administration, but how do you stop populations so desperate due to the worsening economic conditions in their countries they are willing to risk their very lives and that of their children , A girl born in one of these countries is liable to be sold into sex trafficking at an early age and young men forced into militant groups or pressed into hard labor at the same time over industrialization, the stripping of forests is bringing more disease, and changing climate conditions reducing areas suitable for habitation. It’s no wonder families will risk crossing the border only to be met with extreme resistance on the other side.
At least that’s the official story because many of these migrants are also needed for cheap farm and meat packing labor, and undocumented workers are less likely to complain about wages and working conditions. But you can’t have it both ways and anti-immigration policies affect the work force.
You can’t have strict policies against immigration and decreasing population growth, The U.S. population grew at the slowest pace in history in 2021, 2010s were already demographically stagnant; every year from 2011 to 2017, the U.S. grew by only 2 million people. In 2020, the U.S. grew by just 1.1 million. In 2021, it added only 393,000 people, we don’t have 2022 data yet, but it will be likely lower, part of this can be attributed to The Coronavirus pandemic which resulted in high mortality of more than one million Americans, and there were sharp drops in births during this period too but crackdown on immigration played a significant role in the decrease population growth. Also, the trend among woman had already been towards smaller families and this did not change as the pandemic abetted a bit. The largest such group urban women with some college education.
So Anglo-Saxon populations are declining and that is not a US phenomenon but a world situation. But let’s stay with the US.
Deliberate lower immigration, Declining birth rates with the biggest drop being among white American women especially young white women who seek careers rather than families.
Roe vs Wade Unshackled women from childbirth and gave women more choices it’s no wonder that the far right aided by powerful evangelical groups and the Catholic church made judges a priority, they knew they couldn’t overturn reproductive rights through the electoral process, so they used money and influence to get their judges on the powerful courts and it worked resulting in the Dobbs decision. But Dobbs wouldn’t go far enough hence the attacks on Abortion medications, contraceptives and calls for nationwide bans. Essentially, they want women out of the workforce and back into the traditional role of having children thus averting what they see as a coming demographic disaster.
Rejection of traditional norms
But there is another growing trend one they didn’t anticipate and one that is also happening simultaneously across the Western world , Although the perceived Demographic threat is not the same around the world the impact of this other trend is, What appears to be the start of a social transformation in Rejection of traditional sex roles what conservatives see as an attack on family values , Sociologist refer to this as a paradigm shift , an example of such a social transformation would be the Industrial revolution, paradigm shifts are never easy and met with resistance because human beings tend to like the status quo, any shift in perception of sex and gender could shake up all avenues of society .Younger people with the largest number being Gen Z are the biggest driver of this shift
About 5% of young adults in the United States identify as transgender or nonbinary, about three times the rate of the general population. Much of this has to do with the fact that all age groups but particularly younger people are more open about their perception of their gender, driven by greater overall acceptance
Also, despite being grouped under the umbrella term of “transgender,” the research shows that only half of youth who reported identifying as nonbinary also identified as trans; The other 50% said they did not see themselves that way.
The number of transgender people in the US according to Census data is 1.6 million , since a large number of LGBTQ people are skeptical of such survey that is likely understated and of that the most growth is in the non-binary or gender non-conforming populations while the binary transgender population those that still identify with a binary sex though its opposite that assigned at birth despite claims by right leaning journalist including the those associated with the New York times has remained relatively stable, which is what you would expect for a condition that is more likely biological then social, whereas the non-binary population increases may have little relationship with binary transgender people who are just being carried along in the transformational wave , unfortunately their existence is blamed for the changes the right see as dangerous .The evidence of biological connection for non-binary transgender populations is much less clear than that for binary transgender people but medical science does not rule out a possible connection
It’s all indoctrination
A 2018 study of online parent forums by Dr Lisa Littman a sociologist with absolutely no experience of work with transgender children created a bit of an uproar , according to her study children claiming to have Gender Dysphoria are more likely to experience “rapid onset gender dysphoria” when they spend more time using the internet or have friends who are transgender which totally ignores the fact that transgender children pre-date the internet , also the study included no interviews with actual transgender children and only interviewed parents in a 4chan group dedicated to parents alarmed over their children wanting to transition.
The study has been disproved by multiple counter studies published in peer-reviewed journals including The Journal of Pediatrics and The Sociological Review. Joerg Heber, then-editor-in-chief of the journal PLOS ONE, which published the original study, issued an apology but by then the damage has already been done.
The problem with peer-reviews by journals like Plos One is they look for the use of scientific method, were common statistical practices used and not the richness of the data, the inherent bias of the groups interviewed.
More recently Reuther’s published an article stating that there was an alarming increase in the number of children seeking medical transition , much of their data was flawed, they failed to take into account that prior to the 2020 census and other surveys we had no real data on these populations, also many patients left treatments programs as a result of the coronavirus and returned to either the same programs or were assigned other doctors which skewed the results but even taking their data at face value which you shouldn’t , across the entire country there were only 120,000 children in gender programs of any kind from 2017 to 2021 including just those programs that involve established psychological protocols to determine if they actually have gender dysphoria, of that 20k are being treated for Gender incongruence the new term replacing gender dysphoria and of those roughly 4k are taking Puberty blockers these are hardly alarming number and certainly not warranting the nearly 200 bills seeking to limit gender affirming care
Referring to the chart below which graphs the number of left-handed people over time we see an exponential increase in the number of left-handed people over the last hundred years, is this due to some unknown environmental element or social contagion, hardly being left-handed is no longer discouraged as abnormal behavior and with greater acceptance of the fact that some people are left-handed more people are willing to disclose they are left-handed.
But the hard right conflate the growing trend towards non-binary and gender affirming care together and label it a contagion , they also see schools and access to book on LGBTQ life styles as centers for indoctrination Schools have had sex education programs for several decades but as medical science begins to embrace the complexity of sex and gender those concepts are also being Incorporated into the curriculum as well Gender Identity and sex orientation, Conservatives look at such inclusion as woke and indoctrination and some school districts in conservative states have began not only forbidding such inclusions but also even penalizing the discussion of anything outside of tradition Judeo-Christian beliefs around the roles of men and women. LGBTQ same-sex married teachers are not even allowed to mention their marriages,
Laws and school district policies keep transgender children out of sports and prevent them from using the bathrooms they feel comfortable with, Studies show that these youth will not use restrooms they don’t feel safe in and simply wait until they are in a safe place which can not only be discomforting but also cause serious medical problems such as UTI infections.
Conservatives look at the simple use of pronouns as indoctrination and field legislation not only preventing educators from referring to students by their preferred pronouns but also requiring teachers to deliberately misgender these youth , Constant misgendering creates a host of psychological problems and affects these youngsters academically but that is the goal of such legislation to make the penalty as cruel as possible , Groups such as Americans Defending Freedom and Liberty Council are organizations made up of conservative lawyers that will work with conservative groups to influence policies at both State and Local levels and even school boards, these groups are heavily funded by what can only be called the American Equivalent of Russian Oligarchs, powerful wealthy people who head so called think tanks as the Federalist Society and the Heritage foundation, Heritage Action an arm of the Heritage Foundation produces and distributes templates that can be used by legislators in drafting legislation targeting transgender youth and even adults . Transgender Trends is a similar organization in the UK. Orgs such as the Judicial Crisis Network that had heavy ties with the Trump administration worked to get the slate of highly conservative judges now on the supreme court and in district and courts of appeal.
History is a Dangerous Weapon
.
. There are many events to be proud of in American history and those we as Americans should be ashamed of, Slavery being the greatest atrocity, but we must not ignore the near genocide of Native American populations and there are still legislative attempts to limit Native American rights and even ignore treaties.
But American History is also one filled with activism in fact many of the rights we enjoy today or are losing were won only through the actions of activists
Conservatives see education about such activism against tyranny and even the struggles against slavery and for civil rights as threats to the traditional family values they will preserve at any cost.
Evangelical conservatives which is kind of a misnomer because the National Catholic bishops applauded Dobbs, applaud efforts to limit a women’s ability to control her reproduction and applaud anti-LGBTQ legislation, so its wrong to just claim that these beliefs are limited to some radical minority of far-right Evangelicals when your local pastor is likely to promote similar views.
The international criminal court declared that forced birth is a crime against humanity but not when its sponsored by a State or Nation State which allows States like Texas to avoid the human rights abuse label, if this seems curious its because the Vatican which put it stamp on the final declaration insisted that the exception be made so it couldn’t be applied to refusal of its hospitals and other agencies to provide reproductive care .
These Conservative organizations and the powerful lobby’s filling their wallets see the United States as a Judeo-Christian nation established that way by the founders, these groups ignore the Establishment clause of the bill of rights which established the concept of Separation of Church and State
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
, they cherry pick the Free Exercise Clause,
The Free Exercise Clause protects citizens' right to practice their religion as they please, so long as the practice does not run afoul of a “public moral” or a "compelling" governmental interest.
They interpret “public morals” as biblical morals of Judeo-Christian religion that they believe without any historical evidence allows people to discriminate against anyone they feel are living an immoral lifestyle which would include LGBTQ, drag shows exhibit behavior they consider immoral and promote sodomy.
The power of the Legislator is ordained by God and the legislator should determine what is morally acceptable behavior, The first book of the Bible (well of the King James Bible anyway) states that first God created Man and then God created women to be man’s companion and serve man and bear his offspring. Marriage is between one man and one woman, and any other interpretation was sinful., forget for a moment that the concept of Marriage pre-dates Christianity and the fact the Bible is neither a history nor science text in the minds of Conservatives women should have only a single role to bear children.
LGBTQ are abomination not only because some such as transgender women can’t bear children but also represent a resistance to these so-called family values. The existence of men who happen to be transgender also present another problem for them. If both men and women can give birth than what happens to the already flimsy excuse for the Gender pay gap between men and women
Conclusion
The Western World is becoming more non-binary, conservative views of marriage and economic roles are being cast aside no wonder some will spend any sum
of money to reverse this trend.
Unfortunately for the right and their lobbyist once a social transformation begins it’s like a tsunami there isn’t anything you can do to stop it and this wave may not crest until well into the 22nd century humanity is becoming more non-binary and there is little that can be done.
As it stands right now world population is still projected to reach 10 billion by 2100 and that is either near or exceeded the carrying capacity of the planet so there is no fact to the argument that all this social change is leading to a population crisis.
I’ve always objected to the term Judeo-Christian because it implies that the values of these two religions are the same. Jewish law allows abortion whereas Christianity doesn’t, for example.
Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits wrote that "Judaism is Judaism because it rejects Christianity, and Christianity is Christianity because it rejects Judaism."
So melding the two into one term is problematic for me. But don’t let my little quibble take away from your comprehensive well written article.
I’ve always objected to the term Judeo-Christian because it implies that the values of these two religions are the same. Jewish law allows abortion whereas Christianity doesn’t, for example.
Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits wrote that "Judaism is Judaism because it rejects Christianity, and Christianity is Christianity because it rejects Judaism."
So melding the two into one term is problematic for me. But don’t let my little quibble take away from your comprehensive well written article.
Good points thank you