Study finds Arkansas among lowest states protecting LGBTQ+ people through legislation
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A new national study finds Arkansas among the 23 lowest states when it comes to laws protecting LGBTQ+ communities.
The findings are in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2023 State Equality Index.
Arkansas ranked dead last for LGBTQ+ equality in a recent study
That report scores Arkansas poorly based on its lack of laws supporting LGBTQ+ parents and youth, specifically with health and wellness policies, anti-discrimination and inclusion in hate crime laws. It’s also based on legislation that did pass.
One new law, as of the 2023 session, restricts drag performances in the state by classifying them as adult-oriented businesses. It prohibits the acts on public property or anywhere a minor could view.
Another requires schools to designate bathrooms based on birth-assigned gender. It makes restrooms, changing rooms, and overnight rooms on trips exclusively male or female.
Act 619 also allows criminal penalties to be imposed on adults who use bathrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identities.
Another new law requires district employees to call students the name that is on their birth certificate unless a parent gives written permission to call them something else. It also requires that they use the pronoun associated with their gender assigned at birth- again unless a parent or legal guardian gives written permission not to.
House Minority Leader Tippi Mccullough (D-Little Rock) told KARK 4 News it is a bit easier to remember the human aspect of the legislature’s decisions when it comes to these issues, because it impacts her personally.
New LGBT+ club at Beebe High School causes stir at school board meeting
She said she hopes to see a shift at the capitol in the future.
“It is hard at times,” she said. “I feel like being a caucus of one in a sense. I bear that responsibility and want to be that person since I do have this microphone, in a sense, to be able to speak out against these really harmful laws to people’s lives. I just hope by being here and by people knowing me that in some way it helps.”
Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R-Elm Springs) said Arkansas is concerned about the big issues, like education, taxes and public safety- which protects everyone. In terms of LGBTQ+ policies, she said her only concern is protecting children.
In 2021, she sponsored the bill that is now known as the SAFE Act, making Arkansas the first state in the nation to prohibit physicians from performing gender transition procedures on minors. Legal challenges were quickly filed against the law, and on June 20 a federal judge struck it down as unconstitutional. That injunction is still in place, though the state has appealed the ruling and is waiting on the court to set a date for oral arguments.
“The vast majority of adults, regardless of your political choices, would agree children have a right to be protected,” Lundstrum said Tuesday. “Over 18, you can make your own decisions and hopefully you go in with a clear mind and know what you’re getting into, but children don’t have that option and we need to protect children.”
Lundstrum said she does not believe the legislature is anti-LGBTQ+, rather it is pro-all Arkansans.
“This is just one more group that wants to divide people, and that’s just not the way it works,” Lundstrum said. “We go to church together, we shop together, we drive on the roads together, let’s just go live life together.”
The full report can be found online at HRC.org.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK.
