The Human Rights Campaign declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. on Tuesday and released a guidebook pointing to laws it deems discriminatory in each state, along with “know your rights” information and resources to help people relocate to states with stronger LGBTQ+ protections.
Sounding the alarm about the current political climate, the nation’s largest organization devoted to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans said travel advisories aren’t enough to help people already living in states where lawmakers have targeted LGBTQ+ people. “We need champions right now,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in an interview with The Associated Press. President Joe Biden and other LGBTQ+ rights supporters with decision-making authorities, she said, need to be more than just allies.
The declaration is a call to action for “people in power at every level” of government and the business community, she said, urging them to fight for LGBTQ+ rights with the same fervor as they’ve fought for abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer. “When Dobbs fell, you saw a federal response to deal with the abortion crisis that we’re in,” Robinson said. “We are in a crisis of even greater scale to the health and well-being of the LGBTQ+ community, and we need that same sort of response.”
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