‘Speak out’ against anti-LGBTQ+ laws and hostile acts, Akron CANAPI group urges
The board members of the Community AIDS Network/Akron Pride Initiative (CANAPI) are deeply concerned about the recent wave of legislation across the country against members of the LGBTQ+ community and especially targeting trans peoples, bodies and identities.
Laws restricting gender expression in public and in private have been around in the U.S. for more than 150 years. But in the year 2023, we are seeing a renewed push from conservative legislators to outlaw LGBTQ+ peoples.
A bill was recently passed in Tennessee restricting "adult cabaret performances" in public settings and was passed alongside separate legislation that bans transgender minors in Tennessee from receiving gender-affirming care that has been shown to decrease risk of suicide. A horrifying new bill out of Florida would allow the state to remove trans children from their parents’ custody if they are receiving gender-affirming medical care.
As of a month ago, at least nine GOP-led state legislatures were pushing anti-drag bills similar to Tennessee, including North Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, Nebraska and South Carolina. Last year, 315 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were filed during state legislative sessions. According to the ACLU’s anti-LGBTQ+ bill tracker, there are 409 bills in state legislatures that target LGBTQ+ people. One of these bills in Ohio would force teachers to out students to their parents, putting them in potentially dangerous situations. Drag bans, a subset of these kinds of bills, are lawmakers’ answer to drag queen story hours, which have become widely popular in recent years.
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Drag is the art of dressing and acting exaggeratedly as another gender, usually for entertainment such as comedy, singing, dancing, lip-syncing or all of the above. Drag has been around since the time of William Shakespeare and can be seen in many popular performances in modern movies, TV and live acts. Drag queen story hours feature drag performers, often in full makeup, wigs, and dressed in bright colors, reading books to kids in libraries, schools and bookstores.
Conservative media and lawmakers attempt to claim their opposition to drag performances and story hours is an attempt to protect children, pushing a harmful homophobic trope of drag queens and members of the LGBTQ+ community as pedophiles grooming children. If these pundits truly cared for protecting children, they might take a look at the No. 1 cause of death for children 1-19: firearms.
Instead, they claim drag queens are preying on children. Statistically, children are safer with a drag queen than they are with a youth pastor, coach or family friend. A recent drag storytelling event in Wadsworth, a short 20-minute drive from our CANAPI building, was protested by armed white supremacists and neo-Nazis. These white nationalist groups shouted racist and homophobic slurs at supporters and eventually caused a confrontation that led to multiple arrests. History tells us that violent language leads to violent actions and this legislation sweeping the country is nothing short of another act of violence against the LGBTQ+ community.
We stand in support and solidarity with our LGBTQ+ community and particularly the drag queens and performers throughout our country who are under attack by our current conservative legislators. We encourage all those who support this community to add your voice to this fight and speak out against these laws and hostile acts.
This column was submitted by 12 CANAPI board members and executive staff by Rebecca Callahan, executive director.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: CANAPI urges opposition to anti-LGBTQ+ laws and hostile acts
