LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, declared a state of emergency in June regarding legislation that is impacting the livelihood of the LGBTQ+ community across the country.
The HRC said more than 75 anti-LGBTQ+ had been signed into law in different states.
Sen. Clarke Tucker, District 14, said there have been a number of Arkansas bills that have gone against the LGBTQ+ community.
Tucker said in 2021 those bills included banning transgender female student-athletes from joining female sports teams, a ban on gender-affirming care, and most recently, in 2023, a law that enables people to sue their doctor for malpractice 15 years after receiving gender-affirming care, and a law placing restrictions on transgender student pronouns were enacted.
“What we are talking about is the government intervening in family decisions that they’re making lovingly,” informed with their doctors,” Tucker said. “What the legislators are saying is that we know better than these families about what’s best for these families.”
Gwendolyn Herzig, a pharmacy owner who is transgender, said most of the legislation this year has targeted the transgender community.
“These are people who have jobs, they want to go on vacation, they just want to live a normal life,” Herzig said. “So just to be constantly attacked or have legislation that looms over you that can that have your rights stripped away is just very taxing for those individuals.”
Herzig said the most challenging part of this year had been the mounting anxiety and depression it puts on the already taxing community.
“I have to warn our providers when we go into legislative session to make sure you check in on your patients because the LGBTQ+ community already has a high suicidal rate,” Herzig said. “It’s really just making sure we are checking on our patients and our community to make sure they’re okay.”
Jessica Disney, a trans woman who advocates for LGBTQ+ rights, said the rhetoric in the state’s bathroom bill had caused concerns for a rise in hateful rhetoric and violent language towards transgender people.
“It wanted to label us as potential sexual offenders,” Disney said. “In a lot of ways for myself and others, it feels humiliating, dehumanizing [and] this kind of legislation and those like it causes people like us to be viewed as less than human in many ways.”
Disney said bills that threaten the transgender community had created a nerve-wracking life experience.
“It can be uncomfortable,” Disney said. “I have to almost keep an eye out on my surrounding to make sure if somebody were to suddenly get violent, raise their voice or come after me, I’m not putting other people in danger because of where I am at.”
KATV reached out to Governor Sarah Sander’s office about the declared emergency from the HRC, and her communications team released the following:
The Human Rights Campaign is an extremist organization that pushes unpopular policies on Americans and calls anyone who opposes them a bigot. This isn’t about targeting anyone, the governor supports laws that protect kids and keeps the radical left’s agenda out of schools. Arkansas isn’t going to rewrite the rules of biology, distribute inappropriate material to children, or undermine women’s sports just to please a handful of far-left advocates.
