LGBTQ rights: Where do Harris and Trump stand?

  Polls show that LGBTQ rights will likely factor into most Americans’ pick for president this November as they choose between former Republican President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat.

  A March 2024 survey by independent pollster PRRI found that 68% of voters will take LGBTQ rights into consideration at the polls. Fully 30% stated that they would vote only for a candidate who shares their views on the issue.

  It is no coincidence, then, that LGBTQ rights issues feature prominently in the party platforms.

Anti-transgender bills are latest version of conservatives’ longtime strategy to rally their base

  On April 6, 2021, despite Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto, Arkansas became the first state to prohibit physicians from providing gender-affirming medical care like hormone treatments designed to delay puberty in transgender youth. So-called “puberty blockers” are used to delay the physical changes associated with puberty and provide time for transgender young people to consider their options.

  Arkansas physicians now face criminal penalties if they prescribe puberty blockers or other forms of cross-gender health care to transgender youth. Twenty other states are considering similar bills. Some would classify puberty blockers and other gender-affirming medical treatments as child abuse or would revoke the medical licenses of physicians prescribing these therapies.

Five ways people of faith have led LGBTQ advocacy efforts since the 1969 Stonewall riots

  June 28 marked the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, often deemed as the catalyst for the modern LGBTQ rights movement. On June 28, 1969, police raided New York City’s Stonewall Inn, a bar and gathering space for members of the LGBTQ community. Riots ensued between the police and LGBTQ patrons and passersby, led by transgender women of color including Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. Despite high-profile examples of faith-based opposition to LGBTQ rights since the riots, these anti-equality viewpoints do not reflect the attitudes of all faith communities. Faith leaders and religious communities have also played a key role in the LGBTQ rights movement.

Sarah McBride: The economic cost of overly broad RFRAs

  In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic decision that brought marriage equality nationwide, dozens of reactionary state legislatures are considering a range of anti-LGBT laws designed to legalize and sanction discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Overly broad state Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, or RFRAs—one of the most common pieces of anti-LGBT legislation—provide wide-ranging exemptions that enable religiously based discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, people and their families.