The Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer civil rights organization, declared a national emergency for members of the LGBTQ+ community on Tuesday.
The group’s president, Kelley Robinson, claims that public disdain for the LGBTQ community has forced many gay and transgender people to flee their homes.
“LGBTQ+ Americans are living in a state of emergency. The increasing threats facing millions in our community are not just perceived — they are real, tangible and dangerous,” Robinson said. “In many cases, they lead to violence against LGBTQ+ people, forcing families to uproot their lives and flee their homes in search of safer states, and sparking a tidal wave of rising homophobia and transphobia that threatens the safety of each of us. endangers. us in danger.”
In addition to the emergency declaration, the group commemorated Pride Month with the release of a digital guide designed to help “LGBTQ+ travelers and people living in hostile states”.
The digital book offers “health and safety” resources and summarizes which states it deems discriminatory against the queer community amid “an unprecedented wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in 2023.”
But the travel advice isn’t enough to help victims in states where lawmakers are targeting LGBTQ, Robinson said told the Associated Press.
“We need champions now,” she said. “When Dobbs fell, you saw a federal response to address the abortion crisis we find ourselves in. We are in an even greater crisis for the health and well-being of the LGBTQ+ community, and we need that same kind of response.
“The number of calls I get every day from parents asking how they can move to another state because they would rather mourn their home than their child is real. This is a different level of urgency and requires a different level of response.”
If it isn’t crystal clear at this point that the Human Rights Campaign is a sham organization run by toxic executives who enrich themselves by raising millions of dollars by lying to gay men about bogus threats and now a ridiculous and embarrassing “national… https://t.co/x1f30Yr0aE
— Brandon Straka (@BrandonStraka) June 6, 2023
The Campaign for human rights also gave one advisory to its members last month, warning of the dangers of traveling to Florida, where GOP Governor Ron DeSantis passed the Parental Rights in Education Act. The law prohibits school staff or third parties from instructing children about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.
LGBTQ advocates characterize the measure as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, claiming the legislation is part of a larger effort to erase them from Florida schools and society.
“While not a blanket recommendation against travel or a call for a boycott, the travel advisory outlines the devastating consequences of laws hostile to the LGBTQ community,” the Human Rights Campaign said in a statement.
The group insists it will not shy away from attempts to thwart the community: “LGBTQ+ people across the country will not be erased — not now, not ever,” the group said.