Matt Lavietes

The deadly attack at an LGBTQ club in Colorado last month — where a shooter turned the venue’s “Drag Divas” night into a massacre — has made an already harrowing year for drag performers worse. Eight of the country’s top drag queens told NBC News that the current environment has subdued their larger-than-life personas, prompting four of them to increase security at their events in recent weeks.

The Nov. 19 shooting at Colorado Springs’ sole LGBTQ nightclub, Club Q, left five people dead and 17 others shot and injured. The 22-year-old suspect is being held without bond on suspicion of murder and hate crimes, though a motive has not been shared by authorities.

This attack comes on the heels of widespread anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, over 100 protests and threats directed at drag events and several pieces of novel legislation seeking to restrict drag shows. 

“We’re trying to smile and make people happy for the holidays, and in the back of our heads we’re thinking, ‘I hope I don’t get shot,’” said Jinkx Monsoon, winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season five and “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” season seven. 

Monsoon, who is set to make her Broadway debut in “Chicago” next year, said that over the past several months, she had been using metal detectors and creating venue escape routes for her U.S. events. Since the Club Q shooting, however, she has hired armed guards and has started to ban re-entry following the start of her performances.

Drag superstar Alaska Thunderf— 5000, winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” season two and co-host of the popular drag podcast “Race Chaser,” said that in the days following the Club Q shooting, she sat down with her staff to plot out escape routes for each venue remaining on her current nationwide tour. 

At a couple of her gigs this week, police squad cars havebeen stationed down the block from the venues, she added.

“It’s mortifying that we even have to think about these things for something as joyous and celebratory as a drag show,” Alaska said. “Why do we have to be worried about where the exits are and where a safe route to get to safety is? It’s terrifying, but that’s the reality of it.”

Bigoted rhetoric and violence 

The Club Q shooting, while the most high-profile and deadly attack affecting the LGBTQ community this year, followed a string of attacks on the queer community — particularly transgender people and drag performers (many of whom identify as gay men or trans women offstage). 

For months, many right-wing lawmakers, media personalities and activists have accused LGBTQ people — and drag performers in particular — of “grooming,” “indoctrinating” and “sexualizing” children. 

The word “grooming” has long been associated with mischaracterizing LGBTQ people, particularly gay men and transgender women, as child sex abusers, and advocates have warned recently that its resurgence could lead to real-world violence. 

San Diego LGBTQ bars turn to metal detectors after Club Q shooting

NOV. 30, 202201:59

The day after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed the Parental Rights in Education law — or what critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — the word “grooming” was mentioned on Twitter nearly 8,000 times, compared with just 40 times on the first day of this year, according to Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic.

Even in the days following the Colorado Springs shooting, some right-wing figures doubled down on the rhetoric. 

Last week, Fox News host Tucker Carlson was joined by the leader of Gays Against Groomers, a self-described “coalition of gays against the sexualization, indoctrination and medicalization of children,”who said shootings would continue to happen “until we end this evil agenda that is attacking children.” Neither a representative for Fox News nor Gays Against Groomers immediately responded to NBC News’ requests for comment.

Monsoon told NBC News that online trolls have flooded two of her old music videos over the past two weeks with disparaging comments accusing drag queens of sexualizing children. The music videos featured hired teen and child actors, dancing innocently and attending a backyard birthday party.

“Because they can’t call us ‘faggots,’ because we have enough support behind us, they call us ‘groomers’ and ‘pedophiles’ instead,” Monsoon said.

Aside from the surge in trope-laced rhetoric, LGBTQ Americans have also been subjected to threats or acts of violence.

A report released by LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD days after the Club Q shooting found that drag events faced at least 124 protests and significant threats in 47 states so far this year. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, for example, a doughnut shop was vandalized and firebombed by a Molotov cocktail in two separate incidents after it hosted a drag event in October, according to KFOR and KJRH, NBC affiliates in Oklahoma.

Yvie Oddly, winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 11, said her management company sent her and other drag performers an email Tuesday, saying they had requested extra security staff at their shows and will have the security teams check patrons for guns.

Recommended

U.S. NEWSTexas man charged with threatening Boston doctor who provides transgender care 

OUT POP CULTUREIn ‘Spoiler Alert,’ journalist Michael Ausiello’s heartbreaking memoir is adapted for the big screen

“It is unfortunate that the world has come to this, but your safety and that of the communities you visit is the priority,” the email, which Oddly shared with NBC News, says.

On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security in a terrorism advisory bulletin raised concerns about potential threats to the LGBTQ, Jewish and migrant communities from violent extremists inside the U.S. The bulletin said some extremists have been inspired by recent attacks, including the Colorado Springs shooting.

An old art form meets new opponents

Drag has been an art form since at least the 16th century, and in its modern form, with individual performers building up their own fan bases, since the early 1900s. However, the art form has only recently been thrust into the center of the latest American culture war. 

Latrice Royale, who has appeared on both “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars,” reasoned that the backlash is due to the greater visibility of drag brought on by the global success of the RuPaul-led competition shows, which have spinoffs in at least 16 other countries. Since it launched in 2009, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has become a global phenomenon, giving mainstream legitimacy to a nightclub art form and transforming small-town performers into worldwide celebrities. 

“Back in the day, before drag was so mainstream and on every television channel and all of the media and daytime, we were underground,” Royale, 50, who has been doing drag for over 30 years, said. “Everything happened at night, at nightclubs, in the wee hours of the morning. It was not accessible to the mainstream of the world.”

Drag’s move from queer nightclubs to prime-time television brought it — and its over-the-top characters and costumes — legions of new fans, including children. 

Drag performers who have hosted events that have catered to children, such as Drag Story Hours at public libraries or family-friendly drag brunches, have particularly drawn the ire of conservative protesters. 

“I don’t like parents bringing their kids to meet me, because I don’t want to be seen next to a kid, because I don’t want to be labeled a pedophile,” Monsoon said. “You start to mistrust yourself for no other reason than this language is just being put on you constantly. It is dehumanizing. It makes you feel insane to just be yourself.”

So far this year, at least eight bills have been proposed seeking to restrict drag, according to GLAAD. Last month, for example, a bill was introduced in Tennessee that would ban drag queens from performing on public or private property in the presence of a minor. If signed into law, repeat offenders would be charged with a felony and could face up to six years in prison. 

At least two members of Congress, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, have spoken out against children being at drag performances, with Greene saying, in part, “It should be illegal to take children into Drag Queen shows.” Neither Greene nor Boebert immediately responded to NBC News’ requests for comment. 

The eight drag queens who spoke with NBC News all agreed that not every drag performance is appropriate for minors — just like not every television show or movie is meant for children. These performers said when their shows incorporate adult material, they include parental advisory warnings on their tickets and show advertisements. However, they added that because not all drag is appropriate for children does not mean it should be banned entirely or face draconian restrictions.

“People need to look at us like they look at any other profession or art forms,” Oddly said. “There are some things that are not going to be made for the youth, but that does not mean that all of us are out here, like people seem to think we are, trying to ‘convert’ or ‘groom’ or whatever.”

Despite the challenges for the drag industry in recent months, Shea Couleé, who won the fifth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars,” cautioned young performers not to live in fear. 

“You can’t shake a b—- that’s not afraid of you,” Couleé said. “I can get maybe a disapproving glance, but the moment I look them deadass in the eye and make eye contact, who do you think is the one looking down at the ground first? Them.”

BenDeLaCreme, who appeared on the sixth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and the third season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars,” shared a similar sentiment. 

The cases were weeks apart and eerily similar: Two young men at popular New York City gay bars. They each left with at least one mysterious person. They were both found dead. Both of their bank accounts were drained.

And they may not be the only ones.

More gay New Yorkers are coming forward for the first time with accounts that share notable similarities to the unexplained deaths this spring of Julio Ramirez, 25, a social worker, and John Umberger, 33, a political consultant.

The biggest difference so far: They survived.

NBC News spoke to two people who described harrowing experiences that seem to broadly fit the pattern of what happened to Ramirez and Umberger. 

“It sounded so eerily similar to what happened to me,” Tyler Burt, 27, said about Ramirez’s death. “I was like, ‘I’m lucky to be alive.’” 

NYPD investigates attacks possibly linked to deaths of two gay men

NOV. 16, 202203:08

Burt and a student at New York University believe they fell victim to a larger string of robberies and assaults that police are investigating. Their stories also mirror a troubling detail that Ramirez’s and Umberger’s families have only suspected — that they felt like they were drugged before they were robbed.

The New York City Police Department said that the city’s medical examiner is still determining the official causes of Ramirez’s and Umberger’s deaths. There have been no arrests. Police would not confirm whether Burt’s or the student’s cases were a part of their ongoing investigation. 

The NYPD provided a statement on Friday reiterating that police and the district attorney’s office are investigating “several incidents where individuals have been victims to either robberies or assault,” in which some but not all are members of the LGBTQ community. NBC News could not verify that the men’s experiences were connected to the string of robberies and assaults. 

Meanwhile, the gay community in the country’s largest LGBTQ city awaits answers.

John Pederson, 55, says he was robbed in similar circumstances in 2018 and, combined with the recent reports, the experience has left him shaken.

“Part of it’s like, am I crazy?” Pederson said. “Women are so aware of this as a thing that happens. I don’t think gay men would ever suspect that this could be done to them.”

No memories and emptied bank accounts

In December, Burt — who reached out to NBC News on social media after recent reports regarding the two deaths — was walking home from a night out with friends when he stopped at The Boiler Room, a popular gay bar in Manhattan’s East Village, for one last drink by himself. Sitting alone at the bar was the last thing Burt says he remembers before waking up the next morning in his apartment confused.

Burt said he woke up lying on top of his bed with all of his clothes and shoes on and his phone missing. He then noticed that his personal laptop, iPad, headphones and wallet were also missing. Using his work laptop, he discovered that was just the beginning of what would amount to roughly $15,000 of stolen belongings and funds. The person or people who robbed him accessed his checking account, overdrafting it to pay off his credit cards and then using them to buy three new iPhones that morning. 

Burt, who reported the incident to the police the day after the encounter, said he believes an assailant used his unconscious face to unlock his iPhone and bank accounts using the Face ID feature. He said he believes that the person or people who robbed him also slipped him some sort of drug, knocking him unconscious and causing him to black out. 

“I don’t think I was drinking nearly enough to have zero recollection. Also, that’s never happened to me before,” Burt said, adding that he had a total of three to four drinks over the course of four hours. “I’ll go out and I’ll get home and be like, ‘Oh, gosh, I don’t remember getting home,’ or, ‘I don’t remember leaving,’ or something like that because I drank a lot, but I don’t remember anything. I don’t remember a single thing after I had that drink, which has just never happened to me in my life before.”

The father of a New York University student, who spoke to NBC News on the condition that his name not be published out of fear of putting his son in danger, said that his 21-year-old son also believes he was targeted by men with similar motives on April 8, less than two weeks before Ramirez’s death.

He said that his son, who also requested that his name not be published, told him he was leaving The Q bar in Hell’s Kitchen, the same bar Umberger was last seen at, with three men he had just met that night. The four of them, he said, had planned to go back to his son’s apartment to meet a friend who was already there. The man — who connected with NBC News through Linda Clary, Umberger’s mother — said his son and his son’s friend believe they were drugged at some point after returning to the apartment with the three unidentified men. The father said that his son and his son’s friend believe they were drugged because of the sudden nature of their blackouts and loss of memory coupled with the robbery.

When the two gained consciousness, the father said, his son’s phone was missing, his bank accounts were emptied using cash apps and his credit cards were maxed out. In total, the man said, about $5,000 worth of cash and items were stolen from his son. Similarly to Burt, the college student’s father said his son believes the assailants used his unconscious face to unlock his iPhone and bank accounts using Face ID. His son’s friend, he said, had her wallet stolen. The father of the college student said that his son filed a police report and that his case is still being investigated. NBC News was not able to independently verify the son’s account.

Recommended

OUT POP CULTURE‘The Inspection’ highlights a gay Black Marine’s experience under ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’

OUT POLITICS AND POLICYFaith groups split over bill to protect same-sex marriage

Pederson, a freelance computer consultant who reached out to NBC News on social media after recent reports regarding the two deaths, said that on Nov. 16, 2018, he also had a similar encounter. Pederson said he was heading home from Tribeca after attending a large private party, where he had three to four drinks over several hours. While alone and hailing a cab, he said he suddenly and uncharacteristically blacked out on the street corner and was robbed.  

He regained consciousness momentarily, waking up to a man shaking him violently in the back seat of an unfamiliar car, yelling, “What’s the PIN number? What’s the PIN number? If you just give us the PIN number, we’ll take you home,” he said. The next thing he remembers is being dropped off in front of his apartment building before waking up the next morning with a bloodied face and his bank account wiped out.

Pederson said that he was not feeling heavily intoxicated before abruptly blacking out, nor did he have a hangover the next morning, which he said is common for him on the rare occasions he drinks too much alcohol. 

‘You would not want to wish this on anyone’

Although traumatized, Burt, the father of the NYU student and Pederson said they look back on the incidents today with gratitude that they weren’t fatal. 

It took Burt about a month after the encounter before he felt comfortable sleeping in his apartment again, he said, adding that the incident prompted him to go to therapy.

“It took me a while to really process what had happened to me and how terrifying it was,” Burt said. “And then seeing stuff that’s come out — like that kid who died in May — that really could have been me. It was just one small move away from that happening to me.”

“There’s a lot of ‘what ifs,’ that I’ve gone through in my head, which is, you know, not fun to think about,” he added.

Less than two weeks after the college student’s alleged encounter in early April, Ramirez was found dead in the back of a taxi. His body was discovered an hour after he was seen leaving the Ritz Bar and Lounge with three unidentified men, according to the NYPD. His family previously told NBC News that approximately $20,000 had been drained from his bank accounts. 

Roughly a month later, Umberger was found dead after he and two unidentified men left another popular Hell’s Kitchen gay bar, The Q. The unidentified men transferred about $20,000 out of Umberger’s bank accounts and maxed out his credit cards, according to Clary, Umberger’s mother.

“The pain and sorrow and horror is like nothing else,” Clary said. “You would not want to wish this on anyone.”

Burt, Pederson, Clary and the college student’s father all said they felt the NYPD did not initially take their cases as seriously as they had hoped and were, at times, unresponsive.

“It seemed like he was being reluctant to do anything that required a little bit of extra work,” Burt said of the detective on his case. “It just felt like it was not a priority at all and I was the one following up, bugging this guy, time and time again and I was just getting nowhere.”

The father of the college student who was allegedly robbed said that police stopped returning his phone calls until recently, months after the deaths of Ramirez and Umberger.

New York City Council member Erik Bottcher, whose district includes Hell’s Kitchen, told NBC News in a phone call that his office has been in contact with the NYPD and the Manhattan district attorney’s office on a weekly basis since reports surfaced in May about Ramirez’s death. His office has sought to ensure that appropriate resources have been dedicated to the investigation, he added.

“It’s horrifying and infuriating that people are being preyed upon and victimized in New York City in this way,” Bottcher said. “Whoever’s doing this needs to be brought to justice.”

While the NYPD only confirmed it was looking into “several” other potentially related incidents, Clary said she was told there were at least a dozen other cases included in the investigation. She spoke highly of the current detective on her son’s investigation. But her message to the police and public officials was clear: “People, do your job.”

“Thank you for the work you do,” she added, but “I need you to work harder, and I need you to do more for the sake of your great city and for the sake of citizens that are counting on you.”

The New York City Police Department confirmed Monday that it is investigating a string of robberies and assaults that may be connected to the deaths of two gay men earlier this year shortly after they left gay bars in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. 

In an emailed statement, Julian Phillips, a spokesperson for the NYPD’s Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information, confirmed that the deaths of Julio Ramirez and John Umberger are being investigated among “several incidents where individuals have been victims of either robberies or assault.” No arrests have been made in Umberger’s death, which remains under NYPD investigation, according to a department official.

In April, Ramirez, a 25-year-old social worker, was found dead in the back of a taxi an hour after being seen leaving the Ritz Bar and Lounge with three unidentified men. His family previously told NBC News that approximately $20,000 had been drained from his bank accounts and that they believed he was drugged.

About a month later, Umberger, a 33-year-old political consultant, was found dead after he and two unidentified men left another popular Hell’s Kitchen gay bar, the Q. The unidentified men transferred about $20,000 out of Umberger’s bank accounts and maxed out his credit cards, according to Umberger’s mother, Linda Clary, who also believes her son was drugged. 

Get the Morning Rundown

Get a head start on the morning’s top stories.SIGN UPTHIS SITE IS PROTECTED BY RECAPTCHA PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS OF SERVICE

The NYPD spokesperson said the city’s medical examiner is still determining the official causes of deaths for Ramirez and Umberger and added that some, though not all, of the victims in their investigation are believed to be part of the LGBTQ community.

Over the weekend, New York City Council member Erik Bottcher, who represents a swath of Manhattan’s West Side that includes Hell’s Kitchen, released a statement on Instagram saying that his office has been in contact with the NYPD and the New York County District Attorney’s Office regarding the investigation.

Recommended

OPINIONWhy we moved 1,028 miles to protect our trans son’s life

WORLD CUPRainbow-themed badge adorns U.S. training facility at Qatar World Cup

“The monsters responsible for these crimes need to be apprehended and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he wrote, adding that “significant resources” are being dedicated to the case.

A representative for Bottcher’s office did not immediately provide a comment. A representative for the New York County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Democrat Becca Balint is the winner of Vermont’s at-large Congressional District race, NBC News projected. She is the first woman and the first LGBTQ person elected to Congress from the state.

With 72% of precincts reporting Tuesday night, Balint had 61.5%, while her Republican opponent, Liam Madden, had 28.8%.

On Tuesday evening, Balint thanked her supporters in an Instagram post with a caption saying: “Today, we reaffirmed that Vermont, and this nation, is still a place where anything is possible. We’re still capable of change and progress.”

She added, “Tonight, after 231 years, Vermonters are sending a woman and openly gay person to Congress for the first time.”

https://iframe.nbcnews.com/Z3rqdAc?_showcaption=true&app=1

Balint’s win against Madden, an Iraq War veteran, was widely expected. Vermont has not sent a Republican to Congress since it re-elected former Sen. Jim Jeffords in 2000.

Madden took to Twitter on Tuesday evening to congratulate Balint on her historic feat.

“Congratulations to @BeccaBalintVT for being Vermont’s first woman Congressional Representative,” he wrote. “Well Done.”

Although it was anticipated, Balint’s win was long awaited for women’s rights advocates around the country. Her victory ended Vermont’s status as the only state never to have sent a woman to Congress.

“The future of LGBTQ equality and women’s rights were on the ballot — and Vermonters delivered tonight,” Annise Parker, the president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which works to increase the number of LGBTQ elected officials across the U.S., said in a statement. “For nearly a decade, Becca led efforts to pass meaningful legislation to increase fairness and equity within Vermont. Now, she is ready to do the same in Congress.”

Democrat Maura Healey is the winner of Massachusetts’ gubernatorial race, defeating Republican Geoff Diehl and making history as the first out lesbian to be elected governor, NBC News projected. 

Healey is the state’s attorney general, and Diehl is a former state representative who co-chaired former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign in Massachusetts. 

Addressing her supporters at a victory rally in Boston on Tuesday evening, Healey dedicated her win to “every little girl and every young LGBTQ person out there.”

“I hope tonight shows you that you can be whatever, whoever you want to be,” she said to a roaring crowd. “And nothing and no one can ever get in your way except your own imagination, and that’s not going to happen.”

Healey’s win was a long-awaited victory for LGBTQ advocates who have been trying to elect a lesbian to the highest office in state government for decades.

Annise Parker, the president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which helps queer candidates get elected to public office, said Healey’s historic win will help send a message that “LGBTQ people have a place in American society and can become respected public leaders.”

“We are confident that under Maura’s leadership, Massachusetts will reach new heights as one of the most inclusive states in the country,” Parker said in a statement. 

Healey will follow two other out LGBTQ Democrats who have been elected to lead their states: Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, who is bisexual, became the first openly LGBTQ person to be elected governor in 2015, and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis became the first openly gay man to be elected governor in 2018. (Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey was not out when he was elected to office in 2001; he came out as gay in his 2004 resignation speech.)

One other LGBTQ Democrat, out lesbian Tina Kotek, could join Healey in her history-making feat. Kotek is in a competitive three-way gubernatorial race in Oregon. 

Healey’s victory with running mate Kim Driscoll will also mark the first time in U.S. history that women will serve as both governor and lieutenant governor of a state, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the projected winner of Arkansas’ gubernatorial race, is poised to join Healey in this historic feat, as the two candidates in Arkansas’ lieutenant governor’s race are both women. 

Healey is no stranger to shattering glass ceilings for LGBTQ Americans. 

In 2009, Healey led the country’s first successful challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that prohibited federal recognition of same-sex marriages. And in 2014, she broke barriers again, becoming the country’s first out lesbian to be elected state attorney general.

In the last leg of what has been a heated midterm election cycle, some conservative groups have ramped up misleading or inflammatory campaign ads targeting transgender rights, which have become an increasingly partisan and divisive issue.

A radio ad from America First Legal, a conservative group founded by Stephen Miller, who served as a top adviser to former President Donald Trump, accused President Joe Biden and “progressive leaders” of pushing children to take hormones and undergo surgery “to remove their breasts and genitals.”

“Not long ago, everyone knew that you’re either born a boy or a girl,” the narrator says over ominous music. “Not anymore. The Biden administration’s pushing radical gender experiments on children.”

America First Legal did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment. 

Within the last several weeks, the American Principles Project aired campaign ads in six battleground states, the group wrote on Twitter. One of the TV ads, which it released in Arizona, accuses Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat, and President Biden of “pushing dangerous transgender drugs and surgeries on kids — taking away parental rights.” Simultaneously, the group launched an ad in Wisconsin accusing Democratic candidates of supporting legislation “that would destroy girls’ sports.”

https://iframe.nbcnews.com/ss4Cn2T?_showcaption=true&app=1

Terry Schilling, president of American Principles Project PAC, told NBC News that the “explosion of gender ideology” is “one of the biggest threats” to American families.

“Our goal with our ads is to ensure American voters across the political spectrum understand what’s really happening on these issues (despite the media gaslighting) and that Democrats like Joe Biden and his allies are responsible for it,” he said in an email. 

Citizens for Sanity, another group formed by former Trump administration advisers, has released ads addressing immigration, criminal justice, gender identity and other issues in such battleground states as Nevada, Arizona and Georgia. One of its ads accuses Biden and Democrats of telling children “boys are girls and girls are boys” and promoting “surgery to remove body parts.”

https://iframe.nbcnews.com/pUIYTGJ?_showcaption=true&app=1

Citizens for Sanity did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment.

The Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, estimates these groups have spent at least $50 million on such ads across at least 25 states, though NBC News could not independently confirm this finding. 

https://iframe.nbcnews.com/AtBiZcr?_showcaption=true&app=1

Transgender advocates have slammed the advertisements as misleading and dangerous, and have pointed to the medical community’s support of gender-affirming care for trans youths. 

Major medical associations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association, have supported such care for transgender minors. In a June 2021 statement, the American Medical Association reinforced its opposition to restrictions on transgender medical care and denounced “governmental intrusion into the practice of medicine that is detrimental to the health of transgender and gender-diverse children and adults.”

Adolescents generally cannot receive gender-affirming surgery until they are 18, but in rare circumstances some surgeons may perform a double mastectomy, also known as top surgery, on teens under 18 “who are able to fully understand the risks and benefits,” according to the Endocrine Society. The effects of a more common treatment for transgender minors, puberty blockers, are reversible, the society says.

Justin Unga, the director of strategic initiatives for the Human Rights Campaign, said ads targeting transgender rights can have real-world ramifications.

“The lies that they’re telling really illustrate the sickening length that some people will go to animate the most extreme and dangerous elements of their base regardless of the consequences,” Unga told NBC News. “And we have seen what these consequences are.”

https://iframe.nbcnews.com/ak3KjKw?_showcaption=true&app=1

The ad blitz in the last leg of the 2022 election cycle comes as transgender issues — and to an extent LGBTQ issues more broadly — have increasingly become a wedge issue in the nation’s culture wars.

A record 346 anti-LGBTQ bills have been filed in state legislatures around the country this year, including 145 that restrict transgender rights, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Many of the bills aim to restrict gender-affirming care for trans minors; prohibit trans girls and women from competing on girls’ sports teams in school; and bar the instruction of topics relating to sexual orientation or gender identity at school. This year alone, at least 12 bills restricting transgender rights have been signed into law, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. And on Friday, two Florida medical boards effectively banned gender-affirming care for trans minors who are not already undergoing treatment.

Homophobic and transphobic slurs and rhetoric have also had a resurgence within the nation’s political discourse this year. Conservative lawmakers and pundits have repeatedly accused supporters of LGBTQ rights, critics of legislation like Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law (dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law) and drag performers of trying to “groom” or “indoctrinate” children.

The word “grooming” — which has appeared in several of the recent election ads — has long been associated with mischaracterizing LGBTQ people, particularly gay men and transgender women, as child sex abusers. On March 29, the day after Florida’s pejoratively dubbed  Don’t Say Gay bill was signed into law, the word “grooming” was mentioned on Twitter 7,959 times, compared with 40 times on the first day of this year, according to data pulled from Twitter by Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic. 

The record-number of bills and surge of charged rhetoric has also coincided with a wave of acts and threats of violence against the LGBTQ community across the country. More than 1,300 hate-based incidents against Americans were motivated by their sexual orientation or gender identity in 2020, accounting for 16% of all biased-fueled encounters that year, according to the FBI’s most recent hate crime data.

“These targeted ads are taking place in swing states. Even convincing a relatively small number of voters to show up could be enough for some elections to change the results.”

GABRIELE MAGNI , LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY

Perhaps most notably so far this year, police arrested 31 people at an annual LGBTQ Pride event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in June on charges of suspicion of conspiracy to riot. Those who were arrested went to the event with gas masks and shields. And just last month, a man lit and threw a molotov cocktail inside a doughnut shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after the shop hosted a drag event.

Gillian Branstetter, a communications strategist at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the ads are meant to boost turnout of conservative voters, particularly in battleground states. 

“Broadly speaking, rhetoric and messaging against transgender rights are aimed at people who are already convinced that transgender people are a great evil to society,” she said. “All these ads are meant to do is to activate them and remind them to go vote on Tuesday.”

Gabriele Magni, an assistant professor of political science at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and director of the school’s LGBTQ Politics Research Initiative, said that although the ads are polarizing for most voters, they could be quite effective.

“These targeted ads are taking place in swing states,” Magni said. “Even convincing a relatively small number of voters to show up could be enough for some elections to change the results.”

A poll released by the Pew Research Center in June found that a rising share of Americans say a person’s gender is determined by their sex assigned at birth. The survey of more than 10,000 adults, which was conducted from May 16 to 22, found that 60% of respondents said a person’s gender is determined at birth, up from 56% in 2021 and 54% in 2017.

The same poll also highlighted the country’s partisan divide over gender-affirming care, specifically, 72% of Republicans surveyed said it should be illegal for medical providers to provide this type of treatment to minors, compared with 26% of Democrats.

Many of the recent campaign ads targeting transgender rights were directed at Black and Latino voters, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Unga said this was a tactic to divide groups of voters who traditionally share common goals of achieving equality.

“This practice of ‘othering,’ of weaponizing marginalized people, feels all too familiar in these political spaces,” he said. “My warning for anyone who tries it is that you’re playing with fire.”

“Successful political movements,” he said, “are about addition, not division.”

Branstetter said the ads underscore the importance of turning out voters who are in favor of transgender rights.

“If trans people are going to be a priority for our enemies, we absolutely have to be a priority for our friends,” she said. 

For the first time in the nation’s history, Americans from all 50 states and the District of Columbia will have a chance to elect an LGBTQ person to public office.

A new report by the political action committee LGBTQ Victory Fund found that of the 1,065 LGBTQ candidates who ran primary campaigns, a historic 678 of them — the vast majority of which are Democrats — will appear on the ballot in November, an 18.1% increase from the 2020 general election

The record-breaking election year comes as a historic number of anti-LGBTQ laws have been introduced in state legislatures throughout the country and as homophobic tropes have resurfacedin the nation’s mainstream political discourse.

“Voters are sick and tired of the relentless attacks lobbed against the LGBTQ community this year,” Annise Parker, the president and chief executive of the Victory Fund and the former mayor of Houston, said in a statement. “Bigots want us to stay home and stay quiet, but their attacks are backfiring and instead have motivated a new wave of LGBTQ leaders to run for office.”

More than 340 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures this year, according to the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group. The proposed legislation largely consists of measures that would limit transgender athletes from competing on school sports teams that correspond with their gender identity, access to gender-affirming care for trans people and the instruction of topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity at school. 

This year, conservative lawmakers, television pundits and other public figures have accused opponents of a Florida education law  — which critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law — of trying to “groom” or “indoctrinate” children. The word “grooming” has long been associated with mischaracterizing LGBTQ people, particularly gay men and transgender women, as child sex abusers.

Gabriele Magni, an assistant professor of political science at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and director of the school’s LGBTQ Politics Research Initiative, said that having queer politicians in public office can serve as a powerful tool to counter the anti-LGBTQ sentiment in the nation’s politics and policy.

He cited Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., as an example. Baldwin, the first openly gay person elected to the U.S. Senate, led efforts to codify same-sex marriage into federal law earlier this year. The Senate will vote on the bill after the midterm elections, and Baldwin has been largely tasked with working across the aisle to earn Republican support.

“By being present in office, they make issues more personal for other legislators,” Magni said. “So, if you’re voting against some LGBTQ rights, you’re not voting against LGBTQ rights in abstract anymore, but you’re voting to deny rights to someone who sits next to you every day at work.”

Recommended

OUT NEWSRussia moves to ban ‘LGBT propaganda’ among all ages 

OUT NEWSSame-sex marriage is now legal in all of Mexico’s states 

Beyond getting laws passed, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer legislators often use their political megaphones to advocate on behalf of the community, Magni added. He pointed to the pressure campaign LGBTQ lawmakers — including Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., and Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y. — placed on the Biden administration this year to speed up the distribution of vaccines amid the monkeypox outbreak, which disproportionately affected gay and bisexual men.

Within the record-breaking election year for LGBTQ candidates, dozens of them will also have the chance to make history on their own. 

Notably, Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Maura Healey, a Democrat, and Oregon gubernatorial candidate, Tina Kotek, also a Democrat, are vying to become the nation’s first lesbian governors. Polls predict Healey to have a smooth path to victory, but a third party candidate in Oregon’s race may complicate Kotek’s chances.

If Vermont voters elect Becca Balint, a lesbian, to the U.S. House of Representatives, she’ll be the first woman and first LGBTQ person the state sends to Congress.

As gender identity and gender-affirming care have taken center stage in the nation’s policy debates on LGBTQ issues, the Victory Fund report also found that transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming candidates ran for office in record-breaking numbers this year. The group represents 13.9% of this year’s LGBTQ primary and general election candidates, up from 7.9% in 2020 and 9.1% in 2018.

“Sitting on the sidelines isn’t an option when our rights are on the chopping block,” Parker said.

Gubernatorial candidates Maura Healey and Tina Kotek are no strangers to political firsts.

In 2009, Healey, who is now the Massachusetts attorney general, led the nation’s first successful challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that prohibited federal recognition of same-sex marriages. And in 2014 she broke barriers again, becoming the nation’s first out lesbian elected state attorney general.

Nearly 3,000 miles west, Kotek became the country’s first out lesbian speaker of a state House of Representatives in 2013. She made history again by becoming Oregon’s longest-serving House speaker, before stepping down in January to run for governor.

This coming Election Day, these lesbian trailblazers could shatter glass ceilings once more, simultaneously becoming the first out lesbians ever elected governor in the United States.

“If I can be someone who represents and also gives others the belief that they can be anything they want to be and do anything they want to do, regardless of race, gender, identity, religion, that’s where I want to be,” Healy, 51, told NBC News. “That’s something I take seriously, and I think that’s what other LGBTQ+ leaders do as well — recognizing that we’re not just in a vacuum.”

To achieve that, Healey, a Democrat, will have to get past Republican Geoff Diehl, a former state representative endorsed by former President Donald Trump. If Healy wins — which she’s projected to do by a wide margin — she’ll also become her state’s first elected female governor.

For Kotek, who is also a Democrat, the odds are less promising. She not only faces Republican Christine Drazan, the former minority leader of the Oregon House, but also a third-party candidate, Betsy Johnson, who recent polling suggests is dividing Democratic voters. 

If either Healy or Kotek succeeds, they will follow two other out LGBTQ Democrats who have been elected to lead their states: Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, who is bisexual and became the first openly LGBTQ person to be elected governor in 2015, and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who became the first openly gay man to be elected governor in 2018. Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey was not out when he was elected to office in 2001, though he did come out as gay during his 2004 resignation speech.

“We’ve come a long way,” Lisa Turner, executive director of LPAC, a political action committee dedicated to electing lesbians and other queer women to political office, said of how far Healey and Kotek have come. “It validates the amount of work and effort that LGBTQ women have been putting into the community, into equality fights, into the electoral process.”

Sean Meloy, vice president of political programs at the political action committee LGBTQ Victory Fund, which has endorsed both Kotek and Healey, said seeing more LGBTQ candidates run formidable campaigns for governorships “shows that this is not a one-and-done kind of occurrence.”

“It shows that we are indeed part of the American political experience and that we need people to continue to come out of the closet and step forward and serve their communities,” Meloy said. “That inspiration is key to making sure that we are equitably represented in government.”

Healey was born in Maryland but said she was born “over” Massachusetts: Her longtime Bay State family placed soil from the New England state underneath Healey’s delivery bed before her birth. As a child, Healey grew up as the oldest of five siblings in an old farm house in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. 

She first planted her seeds in Massachusetts when she attended Harvard College, where she captained the women’s basketball team. After playing professional basketball in Austria for several years, she returned to Massachusetts to attend Northeastern University School of Law. 

Several years after graduating, Healey began her life in public service working for the office she would one day lead, the Massachusetts attorney general’s office. During that time, she had the opportunity to work with someone she described as one of her lesbian role models: American lawyer and civil rights advocate Mary Bonauto, who is best known for arguing on behalf of same-sex couples in the 2015 Supreme Court case, Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage across the U.S.