Hundreds protest in New York against US anti-LGBT+ laws

New York, United States, Mar 31 (EFE).- Hundreds of trans youth on Friday gathered in New York to protest against a string of laws against the LGBT+ community that have been approved or tabled in around 20 American states, including Florida and Kentucky.

In the city’s Union Square, the trans protesters said the laws were on attack on their right to take decisions about their bodies and lives, and aimed to deny them gender-affirming medical procedures and prevent them from competing in the school sport teams of the genders they identify with.

Slogans of “Fuck you Florida” and “Fuck you Kentucky” reflected the teenagers’ anger against the states that have approved regressive legislation, as the protesters marked the “International Transgender Day of Visibility,” held on Mar. 31 annually since 2009 to raise awareness towards ending discrimination against trans people.

Last year Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis signed the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans talking about sexual identity in schools.

Meanwhile earlier this week Republican-dominated Kentucky legislature revoked a veto imposed by Democrat governor Andy Beshear on anti-trans laws that are some of the most extreme according to rights groups.

These laws, most of which have been brought over the last three years, specifically target trans youth who do not identify with the sex they were born with.

Some of the speakers at the Union Square event said they were fed up with the growing violence, hate and ignorance against them.

They added that nearly 400 bills had been tabled in different legislatures in the United States with the explicit purpose of denying the most vulnerable children the basic resources required for their survival.

The fight by the community was highlighted as the struggle for trans “lives, bodies and future.”

After the speeches, the trans youth held a street march to demand their rights and carrying placards with slogans such as “Trans Liberation,” and “Trans rights are human rights.”

New York governor Kathy Hochul had officially declared Friday as the Transgender Day of Visibility and announced that several iconic buildings of the state would be lit up in the pink, white and blue colors to mark the occasion. EFE

rh/ia

.