LGBTQ

Rightwing organizations in Ohio are trying their best to tank the abortion rights constitutional amendment that’s on the ballot in November. Their latest tactic? Link the language of the referendum, which would protect abortion rights, to the conservative boogeyman du jour: demonizing trans people.

The “how” here is a bit confusing, though. There are two upcoming elections in Ohio. In November, citizens will vote on enshrining (or not) abortion rights in the state constitution. Earlier this month, advocates turned in more than 700,000 signatures (more than double the requirement!) to get the amendment on the ballot.

But first, in August, citizens will vote on amending the state constitution amendment process, a ballot initiative called Issue 1. Currently, like most reasonable places, only a majority of voters need to approve a state constitutional amendment. But conservatives want to raise that threshold to 60 percent, which would have the immediate impact of making it harder to add abortion protections to the constitution. It’s the August election is where anti-abortion nut jobs and transphobes are united in an attempt to tank the success election of a massively popular social issue.

Protect Women Ohio, a conservative coalition of “concerned family and life leaders, parents, health and medical experts, and faith leaders in Ohio,” are releasing a series of ads telling parents to vote in the August election in order to help sink the November amendment, which by its interpretation, will “allow minors to get sex changes without parental consent.” Caught (:60)

In the last four months, the group has launched a number of ads as part of a $5 million ad buy, but it’s only in the past two months that PWO has really leaned into the transphobic angle.

And, like all other anti-trans activists, they’re not telling the full truth. The November amendment that seeks to protect abortion rights at the state level—a winning tactic around the country after the Supreme Court gutted Roe v. Wade—is limited to reproductive healthcare. It reads: “Every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion.”

Gender-affirming care is not mentioned at all. Jonathan Entin, a professor emeritus at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve School of Law, told NBC News that it’s “a big stretch” to include gender-affirming care in the amendment’s purvey. “Opponents have latched on to the ‘but not limited to’ language to say that this could provide a constitutional right to, among other things, gender-affirming care rights. That’s not a legally persuasive argument,” Entin told NBC News.

While it might not be a “legally persuasive argument,” the attempt to link a popular issue (abortion access) to the latest conservative boogeyman is transparent. The right to abortion is familiar and easy to understand and now, voters have gone through more than a year of horror stories about what happens when you take away that bodily autonomy.

Being anti-abortion means being a political loser. Anti-abortion candidates for federal office, like Herschel Walker and Mehmet Oz, flamed out. Anti-abortion referendums lost last year in ruby-red states like Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana.

A Republican LGBTQ group has blasted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) over an ad released by his presidential campaign that the organization called “homophobic.”

Log Cabin Republicans, the largest GOP organization representing LGBTQ individuals, said in a tweet that DeSantis’s message for his presidential campaign is “divisive and desperate” and is alienating swing-state and younger voters.

“Conservatives understand that we need to protect our kids, preserve women’s sports, safeguard women’s spaces and strengthen parental rights, but Ron DeSantis’ extreme rhetoric goes has just ventured into homophobic territory,” the group said.

The DeSantis campaign released the ad on Friday, the last day of Pride Month, attacking former President Trump for statements he has made in support of the LGBTQ community. The post accompanying the video states that Trump “did more than any other Republican to celebrate” Pride.

The ad features clips of Trump saying he would “do everything in my power” to protect LGBTQ citizens and expressing support for transgender individuals to use the facilities they choose.

It then shows a series of headlines discussing policies DeSantis has passed as governor of Florida concerning the LGBTQ community, including a ban on transgender individuals using the bathroom that is in line with their gender identity and restrictions on access to gender-affirming care.

The ad also features various figures and headlines attacking DeSantis for his actions, calling the policies “Draconian” and DeSantis “dangerous.”

Log Cabin Republicans argued that DeSantis’s rhetoric will cause the party to lose “hard-fought” gains it has made.

“This old playbook has been tried in the past and has failed – repeatedly,” the group said.

“Ron DeSantis and his team can’t tell the difference between commonsense gays and the radical Left gays. He, sadly, sees them all the same. His naive policy positions are dangerous and politically stupid,” it concluded.

So here's a table of the legal status of LGBTQ+ Americans, by state and by what kind of law each state has. It's... not looking good out there right now, but as long as we all have each other, we can make it.