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After the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, there was a sense that our fight for equality was nearing its end. A growing number of people began to support marriage rights, especially as they discovered that their own family members and friends, such as siblings, parents, aunts, teachers, and others, identified as gay. These personal connections demonstrated that the LGBTQ+ community posed no threat to society.

However, this acceptance was met with opposition from the religious right and conservatives who had spent over 50 years working towards overturning the right to abortion, using deceptive campaigns and misinformation. Despite the fact that a majority of people believe in a woman’s right to choose, the conservative movement’s success in overturning Roe v. Wade emboldened them to target other issues they disagreed with.

Under the leadership of Donald Trump and his divisive “leave-no-prisoner-behind” campaign, an atmosphere conducive to inciting violence was created. Trump portrayed those who disagreed with his beliefs as enemies, including immigrants, Muslims, the homeless, Black individuals, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other minorities.

The conservative movement sought to undermine the LGBTQ+ community by falsely portraying “Drag Queens” as individuals intent on grooming children. In reality, drag queens are performers who dress up as women for entertainment purposes, a practice that has existed in movies, television, and plays for years. Most of these performances are comedic or satirical in nature. However, conservative parents, influenced by right-wing propaganda against drag queens, falsely believed that all drag queens were attempting to influence their children’s sexual orientation. They also attacked teachers who offered support to children facing gender-related challenges or who simply lent a listening ear.

The early years of education, from kindergarten to fourth grade, should be a time for children to enjoy their childhood, but conservative parents injected sexuality into the conversation by indoctrinating their children to fear and hate these individuals they labeled as “perverts.” The children themselves were primarily concerned with playing on swings and experiencing the joys of childhood.

Subsequently, the conservative movement targeted transgender individuals. While the issue of transgender rights had not been a major problem prior to Roe v. Wade being overturned, there were local conservatives who opposed their children using the same bathrooms as transgender individuals. One potential solution would have been to create separate transgender bathrooms to address their concerns, but the real motivation behind their opposition was rooted in hatred and prejudice towards the LGBTQ+ community.

 It was not about the children or the bathrooms themselves; it was solely aimed at turning public sentiment against the LGBTQ+ community. Moreover, the conservative movement attacked books under the false pretext of removing sexually explicit or pornographic content, but in reality, their goal was to eradicate any mention of homosexuality. They claimed to be protecting people from the devil and sought to erase gay history, culture, and achievements from the education system in favor of teaching their own version of Christian values. They aimed to suppress anything they disagreed with, including black history, to the extent that words like “gay,” “transgender,” and “black” would be effectively silenced. This manipulation and censorship of information is what grooming children truly looks like.

Furthermore, the conservative movement targeted teachers who dared to teach accurate American history, including its failures, in an effort to prevent their children from learning the truth. They banned books that contained real history and imposed their own distorted version on schools. While claiming to protect children, they expanded their restrictions to encompass all students from kindergarten to twelfth grade. They even denied healthcare to transgender teenagers, seeking to reverse their transitioning process and force them to conform to their own narrow definition of what a person should be. Initially, they justified these actions as measures to safeguard minors, but they eventually extended the denials to adults as well. This pattern of deception and discrimination repeats itself year after year.

When faced with significant public backlash or declining popularity, the conservative movement resorts to violence. They now target businesses that support the LGBTQ+ community and engage in physical violence on the streets. Although such incidents had occurred at a lower level in the past, the policies and rhetoric of the Trump administration, combined with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, emboldened them to escalate their actions to a more widespread and violent level across the nation.

They have compelled businesses to withdraw their support for the gay community and pressured cities to suppress gay pride festivals, all in an attempt to silence LGBTQ+ voices. In 2017, I wrote a report titled “Thirty Years Does a Man Make,” reflecting on my pride in witnessing a time when we were treated as equals. Yet, within just five years, we find ourselves losing so much ground. We must find a way to save this country, if it is still possible.

During the Christian Crusades throughout Europe in the twelfth century, Christians went to different countries killing those who don’t share their religion. We have an American form of the crusades here in America. Different time period, same hate.