Rising hatred
Strong winds of anti-LGBTQ sentiment are blowing across the country, and Anjali Rimi, a South Asian transgender woman living in the Bay Area, knows all too well what it’s like to be the target of such hostility.
In June, she found herself being stalked by the same people who had been attacking her online, “so this year I didn’t want to go to Pride,” she told India Currents in an interview. In fact, she’s been staying out less these days.
Nearly 600 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced in state legislatures across the country last year, three times the number of similar bills expected to be introduced in 2022, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Speaking at an Ethnic Media Service briefing on July 18, Becky Monroe, deputy director for strategic initiatives and external relations in the Civil Rights Division, provided a breakdown of the data for California.
Chorus of hatred
When Dylan Mulvaney, a social media influencer and transgender woman, promoted a Bud Light-sponsored contest on her Instagram account on April 1 of last year, she had no idea the events she would set in motion.
Her seemingly innocuous marketing tactic sparked outrage against both transgender people and the brand itself, with conservatives calling for a boycott.
California saw a surge in verbal and physical attacks against gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and non-gender-conforming people over the past year, according to a report released by California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office. But over the same period, the number of hate incidents statewide fell 7.1%, from 2,120 in 2022 to 1,970 in 2023.
The number of hate events and hate crimes targeting gay, lesbian, and bisexual people increased 4.1 percent, from 391 in 2022 to 405 in 2023, while the number of hate events and hate crimes targeting transgender people increased 10.2 percent, from 59 in 2022 to 65 in 2023.
Hatred on the Streets
Two years ago, Anjali Rimi and a transgender friend were attacked while walking in downtown San Francisco when a man on a motorcycle lunged at them just as they were about to cross the street, leaving Anjali injured.
Rimi has also experienced negative treatment within South Asian LGBTQ communities: “When I sit at a table with gay men, I’m made to feel less than them. As a transgender person, I’m made to feel like I belong to a lower rung of the social hierarchy,” she said.
The situation is even tougher for transgender people, both within and outside the South Asian community.
Transgender intolerance
A recent poll conducted by the Los Angeles Times and NORC, a research institute at the University of Chicago, to gauge public opinion on the LGBTQ community found that while most Americans support same-sex marriage, same-sex parenting, and laws that protect queer people from workplace discrimination, they are less tolerant of transgender and non-binary, or non-gender-conforming, people of all ages.
Politics played a major role in influencing people’s thoughts and feelings.
Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD, told PBS in an interview that politicians are broadcasting anti-LGBTQ messages on air, which are then picked up by social media and spread offline, leading to hatred and acts of violence.
Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric
Those who watched the recent Republican National Convention in Milwaukee may have seen the kind of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric Ellis describes being tossed around.
“Let me be clear: there are only two genders,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a right-wing Republican from Georgia. Rep. John James, a Michigan Republican, complained about transgender women playing girls’ sports. “Our daughters were sold their hope, and now they’re being forced into biologically male playing fields and locker rooms,” he said.
Rimi said the LGBTQ community in South Asia is affected more by international political events, such as the Israel-Hamas war and the political situation in India, than by domestic politics.
Rimi is a Hindu and is not afraid to hide this fact and wears a sari in public, which has led her opponents to attack her for being a supporter of Hindutva and a friend of Zionism.
