Trans leaders, advocates host rally against Louisiana’s anti-LGBTQ+ bills

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — June is recognized as Pride month and members of the LGBTQ+ community aren’t backing down from state legislators.

Advocate groups joined state representative Delisha Boyd at the Capitol to continue to push for their rights. This comes after the Louisiana legislature advanced multiple bills that advocates said could harm the LGBTQ+ community worldwide. 

“All of the bills this year that attract the fabric of our community in the most sacred of our spaces, our libraries, our classrooms, and our doctor offices, impact children every single bill,” said event organizer, Sarah Guidry.

As state lawmakers continue to push anti-LGBTQ+ bills, trans leaders continue to speak out. The bills the legislature are looking to pass include a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth and discussions of gender identity and orientation in schools, which organizers said are unjust. 

“These are our children, these are our neighbors, these are our friends, and young people who are going to be adults. We have an opportunity to step in and create a world where they can grow up to be kind adults, loving adults, caring adults,” said Pearl Ricks, executive director of the reproductive justice action collective.

One bill requires parental consent to use names or pronouns that don’t match a student’s birth certificate, but teachers can still refuse to use them. Guidry said anti-bills like this should make people mindful of who’s in the office.

“We really want to highlight in this last week that there’s a lot on the table. We still have bills like ‘Don’t Say Gay,’ we still have bills that are attacking trans youth in our schools, we are still very bleched on the precipice of having the gender affirming care band brought back,” said Guidry.

State Representative Delisha Boyd was also a part of this movement after attempting to pass bill HB40, which would allow LGBTQ+ members to be protected against discrimination in workplaces. The bill was voted down in committee.

Leaders said no matter the outcome, they will continue to advocate going into the upcoming elections and after.

 Today the Senate revived the bill aimed at banning gender-affirming care for minors.