The effects of "Don't Say Gay" are starting in Florida as rainbow "safe space" stickers are being removed from classroom doors, LGBTQ educators cannot show photos of their families, and children's books are being banned.

In Tennessee, a judge has blocked protections for LGBTQ students and workers.

Before we get into the information on anti-trans legislation, I'd like to remind my gay and lesbian brethren of some facts. I recently saw a tweet from someone stating that the "gay community" shouldn't have hitched itself to transgender rights. It's pretty sad when we look to demonize among our own ranks rather than unite against oppression. It's cowardly. It seems that the LGBT community forgets where it came from, yet they are delusional if they think they're accepted by the GOP and its right-wing base. They are also more than naive if they believe what they have achieved, which is still actually less than full equality, is safe here.

The fallout from Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law has already begun, my brethren. Equality Florida reports that rainbow "safe space" stickers are being peeled from classroom doors, LGBTQ educators are being instructed to take down any photos they may have of their families on display, and children's books are being banned. If you believe this is going to stop in Florida, you are delusional. Florida is the GOP's test drive of authoritarian rule. It is where it begins, not ends.

In fact, more "Don't Say Gay" laws have been proposed this year in other states. That's how this works. The GOP uses a model in one state, sometimes with the help of the American Legislative Exchange Council, to pass cookie-cutter bills in other states.

Of the more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills for the year 2022 that are being tracked by the Human Rights Campaign, one third affect trans youth. That means that the balance of those bills affects the gay and lesbian community.

Again, in Florida, an anti-bullying video supporting LGBTQ+ students was removed from circulation, literally declaring open season on these kids in a venue where they should feel safe and included -- their schools. Ron DeSantis, a Viktor Orban wanna-be, invokes parental rights nonsense to justify these heinous actions.

Just seven years ago the LGBTQ+ community celebrated the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. It will not take a half century to overturn that decision since it was also argued on privacy rights, as was Roe v. Wade. Not only did Clarence Thomas make that point immediately after Roe, but Ted Cruz recently stated that the Supreme Court was wrong to legalize it to begin with. All of this chatter sends a clear message to the states and to the evangelical entities at the heart of all of this oppression.

None of this is actually rocket science. The GOP has gone full-on extreme now that Trump was elected. He was the final piece of the puzzle in a very long quest for the far right. The evangelicals, white supremacists, militias, gun nuts and the rest of the deplorables are its base. The rest of us represent the Democratic Party base.

The right unites to achieve its goals while the left cannibalizes each other. It's time for the left to wake up, stop acting like children, and take a page out of the right's playbook if we intend to survive as a nation. We should not be bracing for our rights to be 'rolled back.' Instead, we should be uniting to fight all the harder.

Below, we talk more about specific anti-transgender legislation and give you resources to keep track of the assault on LGBTQ+ rights.

Buoyed by the prospect of taking both the House and the Senate in November midterms, the House GOP is laying the groundwork for a national anti-transgender legislation push, much like their plan for a nationwide abortion ban. They must be voted out.

Learn how social media has helped amplify lies about LGBTQ+ people by downloading the CCDH-HRC report below.

The year 2021 saw a vast increase in the number of anti-trans bills introduced on a state-by-state basis. However, 2022 is sure to be a record-breaking year on this front.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, they are tracking 583+ anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in the state legislatures, of which more than 313 are harmful and more than 137 are anti-trans. The legislation runs the gamut, from "bathroom bills" to restricting transgender youth from participating in sports to denying transgender youth gender-affirming health care.

Even though support for LGBTQ and transgender rights among the general population continues to grow, so do the number of bills designed to take away those rights. The bills are not supported by the people, but rather are the product of well-funded and virulent anti-LGBTQ+ organizations, such as The Heritage Foundation, the Alliance Defending Freedom (designated a hate group by the SPLC) and Focus on the Family.

We talk about Florida in the previous section, so now on to Texas where they have written discrimination into the Texas GOP party platform by calling homosexuality an abnormal lifestyle choice, and labeling being transgender a serious mental health issue.

In February of this year, Governor Greg Abbott instructed the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate families supporting transgender treatment and support as child abuse. A lower court stopped that process in March of this year, but the Texas Supreme Court overturned that injunction in May, paving the way for widespread denial of gender-affirming care. As a result, many families with transgender children are leaving the state.

We focus on just two states here, Florida and Texas, because they have been the most active in this legislation. We could not possibly do the topic justice. You can follow the progress of this legislation by following the legislation tracker provided by Freedom for All Americans and the ACLU below.