Red States Really do Want Queers to Die

Republicans like Ron DeSantis won't be happy until queer people are either dead or invisible (and preferably both).

As a general rule, I’m suspicious of political hyperbole of any kind. Often, it obscures more than it reveals, and it short circuits any efforts to have genuine conversations about some of the most pressing issues of the present. Unfortunately for queers living in red states–and, if the GOP has its way, for queers everywhere–one of the two major parties in the United States really does seem to want queer people dead. No really, I mean it. Republican-led legislatures and governors have set themselves the task of expunging queer people of all stripes from every facet of public life they can, and no one is leading this effort more stridently, or effectively, than Florida’s Ron DeSantis. 

Some, I’m sure, will rush to assert that this is just another example of the left setting its hair on fire over nothing, that I’m just looking for an excuse to beat up on DeSantis and conservatives writ large who are, after all, only doing what they have to in order to protect some variation of “the children,” “civilization,” “decency,” or whatever other bullshit buzzword they’ve come up with. In the most recent example of DeSantis willingness to pursue the culture war in the most egregious and awful way possible, he recently signed into law SB1580, revealingly titled “Protections of Medical Conscience,” which essentially gives medical providers the freedom to discriminate against queer people based on their religious beliefs. It’s not difficult to see how this could have significant, and extremely negative, effects on LGBTQ+ people of all varieties, particularly since these supposed faith warriors aren’t shy about making their preferences clear. 

It’s up to all of us who think about and cover such things to call this for what it is, i.e. a desire to literally do away with queer people. It’s quite egregious, even by the standards of today’s Republican Party–which, after all, has become the party of election denialism, QAnon, and who knows what else–but at the same time it’s but the logical conclusion of their decades-long effort to make sure that queer people understand that they are nothing more than second-class citizens and that, if they know what’s good for them, they’ll stay in the closet and out of public sight. We’re already seeing how this sort of legislation will have a distinct cooling effect, as the Tampa Pride event was canceled in response to the anti-drag bill DeSantis already signed into law. 

Nor is such annihilation limited to the physical/medical world. As many predicted when the first version of the “Don’t Say Gay” was introduced, it was only a matter of time until he started to remove mention of queer people from all levels of education in Florida. Given that DeSantis has already done everything in his power to gut DEI and other similar initiatives at Florida’s universities–and given the fact that he’s already investigating teachers for showing Disney’s film Strange World to students–it’s only a matter of time before queer history is erased from almost every curriculum. 

The effects of this are difficult to overstate. As any elder queer will tell you, there’s something innately validating about hearing about your own history, of knowing that there have queer people before you who have persevered despite every effort to destroy them or to push them into the closet. When young people read queer history, they’re learning about a part of themselves, understanding that this community has always been a part of the American fabric, even if they haven’t always  But then, that’s exactly what makes such history dangerous to the GOP and those who would like nothing more than to see queer people (and any other minority they don’t like) shunted out of sight again, preferably with violence.

Make no mistake. This isn’t about “protecting the children” or “preventing grooming” or whatever other bullshit excuse DeSantis and his ilk try to dredge up to make it seem as if what they’re doing is for the protection of the weak and vulnerable. In fact these are nothing else than attacks on those who have repeatedly been shown to be among those whose rights have always been under attack from the right. It’s hard to say what’s the most discouraging aspect of this. For me, I think it’s that this feels like a retread of the 1970s and 1980s, when everyone and their grandmother thought that the gays were the gravest threat to the social fabric of the US since the commies. No matter how many steps forward we make as a society, it seems, there are always those who are more than ready to take us backward. Never mind that many Americans believe this type of legislation is nothing more than political theater; for DeSantis and his ilk that’s precisely the point. Whether or not these laws remain on the books or are subsequently struck down by the courts–and it’s important to remember that conservatives have also been very successful at hijacking that branch of government as well–DeSantis has shown to the rabid Republican base that he has what it takes to fight back against the “woke” extremists. 

The looming question, of course, is to what extent this will all be successful or to what extent the population of Florida will continue to give DeSantis and his ilk the kind of power they so eagerly crave. I’d like to say that I have hope that they’ll take a look at all of this culture war nonsense–and its looming economic impact–and realize that this isn’t the kind of governance they deserve. Unfortunately, given the fact that they re-elected this man after seeing what kinds of damage he was going to do, I’m not going to hold out much hope. 

This isn’t to say that I’m willing to throw Florida under the bus. Aside from the fact that there are still quite a few queer people still living there whose lives and livelihoods will continue to be impacted by these kinds of noxious policies, there’s also the fact that Florida is far from alone in its attempts to make life as miserable as possible for trans and queer folk more generally. All across this country, Republican-controlled legislatures are going out of their way to draft legislation that will make life more difficult for queer people and, while their ire seems pretty fixed on trans people in particular, they’ve already shown a willingness to go after all of the other letters of the alphabet as well. Tempting as it might be to write off Florida altogether, it’s important to recognize the extent to which it is already being used as a prototype for other states to follow. 

Much as I hate to say it, there are some very dark days ahead, but there is still hope. There are signs that the GOP’s war against queer people–particularly when it comes to book bans and other education-related matters–isn’t quite the guarantee that they thought it was. Almost everyone in America knows at least one queer person in their life, and I firmly believe—I have to believe—that they’re going to make Republicans pay for their platform of hatred, in 2024 and beyond.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s fight back!