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Next Tuesday, May 16, a march on the Alabama State Capitol will be held to protest anti-trans legislation.
The march is being organized by the Alabama LGBTQ Action Group, which is a coalition of community organizations and individuals in Alabama. The event is being dubbed “Drag Me To The Capitol” and will be held at 11 a.m.
During last year’s session and the current session the legislature has passed numerous anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ bills. Many prominent organizations including the Human Rights Campaign, have as recently as last week, warned about the harms these laws could produce.
The bills include:
- HB261 – relating to two and four-year higher education institutions and would require trans athletes to participate only on teams that align with their sex assigned at birth.
- HB405 also known as “LGBTQ+ Erasure Act” would prohibit LGBTQ+ people from bringing claims of sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination under state law.
- HB401 – would ban drag and “gender-oriented materials” in K-12 public schools, libraries, and public places where minors are present. It would also make it a misdemeanor to expose minors to drag and “gender-oriented materials” in other venues with fines of up to $10,000 or up to one year in jail.
- HB354 – known as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” this bill would provide that classroom instruction or discussions related to gender identity or sexual orientation may not be provided to public school students, K-8, and require state boards of education to adopt procedures for notifying a student’s parents of their gender identity or sexual orientation if they deem it necessary.
- HB7 – would prohibit certain public entities from promoting, endorsing, or requiring affirmation of certain “divisive concepts” relating to race, sex, or religion.
- HB312 – would prohibit training and education of “divisive concepts” relating to race, sex, or religion in K-12 and public higher education institutions.
The coalition is urging all allies to participate in the march and protest legislation that they say would, “criminalize freedom of expression.”
