LGBTQ+ Policy and Legislation
If you would like to see our posts, please navigate to the archive link in the sidebar to the right of this page or the bottom of this page to see previews of the six most recent posts.
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
- 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 select books in public schools, and was intended to stoke an environment of hostility towards any teacher, staff, or student who held a Queer…
- 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, when it comes to issues like LGBTQ+ rights, copycat bills can be incredibly dangerous. Let’s delve deeper into what exactly a copycat bill is…
- 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 they were preparing for. Early on Tuesday, March 26th, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) heard arguments on access to the medication…
- 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 proposed this year, and it’s only March. Nearly 400 of these bills were proposed in January alone. Many of these bills are reintroductions of…
- SB 5768
SB 5768 (WA): Protecting access to abortion medications by authorizing the department of corrections to acquire, sell, deliver, distribute, and dispense abortion medications. What is the landscape that SB 5768 is responding to? This coming August, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will review a case which could reverse the Food and Drug…
- Nex Benedict and Oklahoma Bill No. 615
CW: assault, death/murder, transphobia, bathroom “debate” The bathroom debate has been raging for decades but took center stage as a red herring tactic by politicians under the guise of protecting youth. Sadly, transphobia on this level is contagious and it has a major cost. Nex Benedict was a 16 year old member of the Choctaw…
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