A New York Times column published Wednesday with the headline “L.G.B.T.Q. Americans Could Become a ‘New Class of Political Refugees'” decried a national trend to ban sex changes for minors.
Columnist Charles Blow claimed in the column that “trans people, and queer people in general, and their families” are “registering the danger and considering relocation.” To back up his point, Blow quotes research from UCLA, which found that “56 percent of parents considered moving out of Florida and 16.5 percent have taken steps to move out of Florida,” due largely to the state’s parental rights legislation. The so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law bans discussions of sexuality and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade and requires that discussions of those topics in later grades be age appropriate.
One poll found that 55 percent of Democrats supported the Florida law when presented with its actual language rather than its derogatory nickname.
Blow argues that Republican-backed bills banning classroom instruction on LGBT topics and outlawing sex changes for minors are “deeply rooted in dehumanization and denial,” a perspective many left-wing groups share. The Southern Poverty Law Center, for example, placed parental rights group Moms for Liberty, which pushes to remove explicit pro-LGBT books from school libraries, on its “hate map” alongside groups like the Ku Klux Klan. (RELATED: Meet The Pro-Public School Activists Who Compare Moms To The KKK) (RELATED: The Trans Lobby Is Campaigning To Make It Illegal To Talk A Child Out Of A Sex Change)
Read my column, “Yes, We’re in an L.G.B.T.Q. ‘State of Emergency,'” and let me know what you think. #LGBT #LGBTQ #GayPrideMonth #TransRightsAreHumanRights https://t.co/qxtjIYOjdB
— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) June 7, 2023
Public bathrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms in Florida will have separate facilities based on biological sex.
Our wives and daughters deserve protections from woke ideology run amok. pic.twitter.com/PHKPCVORRl
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) May 18, 2023
The columnist did not mention parents who have left their home states to save their children from being mutilated or sterilized in the name of gender affirmation. In June 2021, Abigail Shrier reported on the case of a Muslim family who were forced to flee Washington state. Authorities had threatened to take custody of the couple’s 16-year-old autistic son and begin transitioning him if the parents refused to affirm his gender identity. One year later, the teen no longer identified as transgender.