North Dakota Sets Record in Blockbuster Day of Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate
‘BACK INTO THE CLOSET’
North Dakota’s state Senate set a record of sorts by passing 10 anti-LGBTQ bills Monday—in what the Human Rights Campaign, a pro-LGBTQ advocacy group, called “the highest number of legislative attacks targeting the community in a single day.” Eight of those bills are now on their way to GOP Gov. Doug Burgum, who will either approve or veto the measures. Some, however, passed the House with veto-proof majorities, according to NBC News, including one which seeks to ban transgender students from kindergarten to college from playing school sports consistent with their gender identity and another which criminalizes gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Two bills have been thrown back to the House for amendments; one which prohibits gender marker changes on birth certificates if a person identifies as transgender and another which prohibits transgender people from using bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity in certain state-operated facilities. “It’s shameful, yet not surprising,” HRC State Legislative Director and Senior Counsel Cathryn Oakley said in a statement. “These 10 bills – the most anti-LGBTQ+ bills to pass a single legislative chamber in one day in modern history—have the sole aim of pushing LGBTQ+ people back into the closet. We urge Governor Burgum to reject this plain and simple discrimination.”