News & Commentary

Over the past four years, a wave of damning legislation has threatened the lives of many LGBTQ+ Alabamians, especially our state's trans community.

Lawmakers are in a hurry to attack our constitutional rights and promote government overreach in limiting healthcare options for Alabamians, just to pander to their base ahead of primaries in May.

Misinformation is fueling an attack on trans youth in state legislatures. These attacks overwhelmingly focus on youth and schools.

This year, legislation has swept the country that threatens the trans and gender non-conforming community. More than 80 bills have been filed in state legislatures across the country in order to strip trans children of life-preserving healthcare, ban their participation in athletics, and deny them the dignity of recognition by their chosen name among other heinous acts. For years, myself and my colleagues at the ACLU have fought across the country alongside advocates in our states to kill bills which would violate the constitutional rights of transgender people, and, in many cases, put their lives only further at risk.  

The 2021 Legislative Session has kicked off and there's no shortage of important legislation that calls us to act!

Every year on November 20th, we hold a vigil to remember all the trans victims of murder and suicide the world over. Every year I read the list of names, I think about how my community is hurting, and I realize, every year, that any one of those lists could have my name on it.

Since 1970, the LGBTQ community and our allies have marked June as LGBTQ Pride Month, in honor of the uprising at the Stonewall Inn in 1969. 51 years after Stonewall, a protest that was begun by Black and Brown transgender women like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, the community returned to its roots for this Pride month. LGBTQ people across this nation have risked their own personal health to take to the streets in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. We have joined with individuals of all backgrounds to demand an end to systemic racism, white supremacy, and police brutality.

The 2020 Alabama Legislative Session convened on Tuesday, February 4, 2020. Read more about Following the 2020 Legislative Session.

June is Pride Month, chosen to commemorate the anniversary of the Stonewall riots that happened in June 1969 and is largely regarded as the catalyst for the gay rights movement. This month, many cities hold their own Pride parades and festivals, which represents an opportunity for the LGBTQ community to be visible, to be celebrated, and to inspire.