LGBTQ+ Policy and Legislation
To view our Policy & Legislation posts, please view the archive or the bottom of this page!
The Q Center is introducing a series that provides accessible and easily digestible information about policies, bills, and laws, and describe how policies impact our LGBTQ+ community. Policy touches many facets of our lives like healthcare, employment, education, social services or the use of public spaces. Policy can be described as a document that outlines guidelines and procedures and are developed by public and private organizations like government agencies, businesses, public institutions, and organizations. Bills and laws are developed in legislative bodies at the local, state and federal level like city and town councils, state legislatures and the United States Congress. It is important to note that all legislation is policy but not all policy is legislation because legislation – a collection of laws – are developed and processed in legislative bodies and become the laws we live under whereas policies can be developed in different public and private organizations. Furthermore, policies reinforce an organization’s mission and values that act as a scaffold for internal purposes and can interact outwardly with the public. As a result, the public is considered a stakeholder – that means us! We are stakeholders and, as members of many communities, possess the power to advocate for policies and legislation that improve our lives.
Recent Blog Posts
- Queer People & Policy: the importance of voter registration
The 2024 Election is Coming Up – and queer voices are needed now more than ever The queer community has the power to impact change when we come together in solidarity….
- Diversion Tactics
We’ve seen an alarming rise in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation over the past few years, and it’s important to name that it isn’t just happening out of the blue. The rise in anti-LGBTQ+…
- Don’t Say Gay Settlement
The Don’t Say Gay Bill (HB 1557), signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2022, criminalized discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through eighth-grade classrooms, banned safe spaces and…
- The Dangers of Copycat Bills: A Closer Look at Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation
The term “copycat bill”, otherwise known as model legislation, might sound innocuous at first. What harm could come from mimicking or modeling off of laws from other cities and states? However,…
- SCOTUS Hearing on Mifepristone
What happened: Remember our post about Washington State passing a law (SB 5768) last session to protect access to mife for Washingtonians? The SCOTUS ruling to follow Tuesday’s hearing is what…
- Anti-Trans Legislation in the U.S.: Outlook and Our Power
The Current Landscape For nearly a decade now, the U.S. has seen an enormous uptick in anti-trans legislation. This year, 2024 broke all previous records; nearly 500 anti-trans bills have been…
