George Santos and the Current State of LGBT Liberation

    In the Tiktok from @duncantdothisanymore, the creator addresses the evolving state of the LGBT community by posing a clever query: could the people who fought for gay liberation at Stonewall ever imagine George Santos being the openly gay, Republican Congressman that he is in 2023? Despite this question's rhetorical and sarcastic nature, its answer illuminates the current state of LGBT rights. My answer is no, I don’t think they could imagine it. 

    George Santos’ position in the House of Representatives, despite his sexual orientation, is evidence of widespread gay tolerance, at least at a superficial level. His ability to run for, be elected to, and hold what I would describe as “high-ranking” public office as an openly gay man is a feat that gay activists of 1969 couldn’t fathom. This shift in public opinion signals that gay people, while still discriminated against in other spheres, have worked their way into the majority, or hegemon, of American society, albeit conditionally. Members of the Republican Party’s acceptance of George Santos are contingent on his willingness to hurt his very own (LGBTQ) community. It seems he’s had no qualms with doing so.

    In his short time as a Congressman, he’s co-sponsored a plethora of harmful bills in the Senate. Most notably, he’s co-sponsored a slew of anti-trans House Resolutions, namely HR734, HR736, HR1399, HR3328, HR3329. HR734 is an act that would amend title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to only protect against sex-based discrimination for one’s sex assigned at birth, declining to protect against discrimination against one’s lived gender. HR736 requires that elementary and middle schools receive parental consent before providing students gender-affirming accommodations and changing their gender markers, pronouns, or preferred names, stripping their autonomy and endangering trans students. HR1399 would prohibit gender-affirming care to minors, further harming trans youth. HR3328 is a nearly identical bill. HR3329 would prohibit taxpayers from funding “gender transitioning procedures,” decreasing access to gender-affirming care and delegitimizing this care as healthcare. Santos’ (recent) history of anti-trans legislation speaks to a larger societal issue: while gay rights in the United States have increased to match societal acceptance of gays, trans people are not accepted in American society at large and, therefore, have little to no legal protection.

    While the last 55 years have seen a large growth in gay rights, recent legislation shows a movement away from trans rights toward trans discrimination in legislation and in society at large. The creator’s heavily-contested closing sentiment, “...that’s why Marsha threw the brick,” alludes to the irony embedded in the result of the fight for gay liberation. While drag queens and trans activists like Marsha P. Johnson are regarded within the LGBT community as the “vanguard” of the Stonewall Uprising (and many like it across the country at the time), thus providing the exigence for the gay liberation/rights movement, they’ve seldom been included in increased protections for the LGBT community that occurred as a result.

*It should be noted that the aforementioned video contains misinformation, as no one died at the Stonewall Uprising

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