Criminalizing Queerness

June 15, 2022

June is LGBTQIA+ Pride Month. There’s a plethora of celebratory events. There’s a mountain of material for understanding the history of queer liberation.

There’s also plenty to mourn. To understand the history and present struggles of queer liberation means we must reckon with senseless cruelty and violence directed at the LGBTQIA+ community.

Such cruelty has been extremely pronounced in recent months. As Adam M. Rhodes notes,“the reality—as queer and trans people know all too well—is that the U.S. legal system has long targeted and punished queer people simply for existing.”

Recent attacks on LGBTQIA+ individuals’ human rights to dignity, safety, autonomy, and health have been relentless. Hundreds of anti-trans bills have been introduced. Put plainly, these efforts “weaponize the criminal legal system to terrorize trans youth and the people who love them.”

We at the Woodhull Freedom Foundation vehemently believe LGBTQIA+ folks shouldn’t be subjected to this system of terror. And neither should those who love them. We oppose a system that convicts loving parents, strips doctors of their licenses, and communicates time and time again that members of the LGBTQIA+ community are somehow less than human.