Authoritarianism Surges in U.S. as Texas Attacks LGBTQ Families and Republicans Praise Putin
Do you see how authoritarian the U.S. is becoming?
When the New York Times notification flashed on my screen yesterday, I gasped in shock
Grim news about the rise of authoritarianism had broken, much faster and much worse than people expected — in the U.S., not eastern Europe. As the world holds its breath and hangs on to hope that Ukraine will resist a naked war of aggression waged by the authoritarian Vladimir Putin, the U.S. sinks deeper into an anti-democratic quagmire, with Republican leaders all over the nation flexing political muscles to persecute LGBTQ people for political points as they praise totalitarian rule.
What’s happening in Texas right now is straight out of dystopian fiction.
Does the this sound like the U.S. or Russia?
A woman in Texas was just suspended from her state job because she has a teenage transgender daughter suspected of receiving gender-affirming treatment from a qualified doctor. Shortly after the employee cleared out her desk, state investigators knocked on the door of her home seeking her daughter’s medical records. She refused to comply, and the ACLU is suing Texas over it, but she has no idea when or if she might be able to go back to work.
She says her daughter is terrified.
Similar investigations are kicking off all over Texas in the wake of Governor Greg Abbott’s order last week requiring “all licensed professionals who have direct contact with children” to report suspicions that children are receiving gender-affirming treatment, and asking ordinary citizens to turn in their neighbors.
The New York Times says Abbott’s order, implementing a written opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that gender-affirming care is child abuse, has already had a “chilling effect on families with trans children or teens,” many of whom say they no longer want to publicly identify as trans. Some families say if going underground is not an option, they may try to move out of state. They’ll have to choose wisely, because other Republican states have signaled they may copy the new Texas tactic.
Health care, critical to the wellbeing of trans teens, is already being restricted in Texas.
The mother of a transgender teen boy in Houston told the Times her son has only a week’s supply of testosterone left but their family health clinic has suspended refills and new prescriptions for minors. Reports of similar restrictions are coming in from around the state.
Note that all this is happening despite the Texas Senate declining to approve a bill last year that would have defined trans health care in children as child abuse.
Does this sound like the U.S. or Russia?
In Florida, the state legislature is on the verge of passing a law that would put public schools at risk of being sued and teachers at risk of losing their jobs for discussing gay or trans issues, even by mentioning their own families or letting students discuss their own families.
The sponsor of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill later proposed an amendment to force school staff to involuntarily out LGBTQ students to their parents, even if staff realistically fear such outing could lead to “abuse, neglect or abandonment.” He withdrew the amendment a few days later, saying it was turning into a “distraction,” but he vigorously defended it and vows to sponsor an independent bill with the same language “soon.”
Governor Ron DeSantis has signaled support for the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which is expected to sail through the state Senate, and which will empower ordinary Florida citizens to sue schools, in a move LGBTQ advocates say would have an unprecedented chilling effect on classroom discussion.
As Slate’s legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern has commented, if you think “Don’t Say Gay” will apply only to early grades or won’t stop almost all discussion of LGBTQ topics in all public schools, you haven’t read the bill. If anyone tries to tell you otherwise, assume they are lying.
In the wake of the Florida bill, 15 other states have introduced similar measures.
Does this sound like the U.S. or Russia?
All over the country, school boards are removing books from school library shelves if the books contain LGBTQ characters or themes, often on the grounds that the books are “obscene,” even when that definition is absurd. Perennial classics like “The Chocolate War,” containing zero sexual description and widely regarded as thoughtful and literary, are being banned solely because they contain gay or trans characters or ideas. Some communities, including one in Tennessee, have held bonfires to burn books that contain LGBTQ content and books about the U.S. history of racism.
U.S. authoritarianism is on the rise even as Europe battles it in Ukraine
I’m glued to reports from eastern Europe, horrified by images of children and other civilians slaughtered in a war of aggression led by Russia, a regime renowned for authoritarianism. I flip to Fox News from time to time, my jaw dropping as conservative broadcasters like Tucker Carlson and Pete Hegseth defend authoritarianism and praise Donald Trump for embracing Russian President Vladimir Putin.
I’ve watched Russian state TV Russia 1 and the Kremlin-backed RT network play Fox News segments every day that support Putin and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Trump advisor Steve Bannon has lauded Putin’s authoritarianism in explicit terms, even praising him for banning Pride flags and being hostile to transgender people. Bannon publicly wishes the U.S. could be more like Russia.
It feels like he’s getting his wish.
Conservative leaders here just don’t seem to care about an authoritarian state using war to expand its borders. Asked recently if he believes Trump should condemn Putin, Senator Rick Scott of Florida dodged and weaved, saying first that Trump would have to make up his own mind and then, when pressed, saying Republicans must concentrate on winning the Senate back.
Last Sunday, Republican senator Tom Cotton refused four times to condemn or even comment on Donald Trump’s repeated praise for Putin.
Republican senator and outlier Mitt Romney of Utah has complained, “I’ve got morons on my team,” blasting fellow Republicans for attending a White nationalist event run by leaders rooting for Russia’s Ukraine invasion to succeed.
The Republican Party has embraced authoritarianism, and LGBTQ people are scared to death
Small wonder many Republican leaders can’t find it in their hearts to roundly condemn Putin and his war of aggression. Republicans have been cozying up to authoritarian, white nationalist, racist, homophobic, transphobic ideals for years, especially since Trump took over effective party leadership.
That state employee and mom in Texas, known only as Jane Doe for now, is scared to death. She stands to lose her livelihood and even custody of her daughter because Governor Abbott decreed by fiat that her family may not make medical decisions based on the best advice of their own doctors. She’s had to clean out her desk and put up with the fear of investigators knocking on her door — because the governor decided his authority trumps her personal liberty.
The majority of people in the U.S. say they support LGBTQ equality and say they value diversity, but somehow a political party that does not represent a majority is leveraging fear of the other to hold onto power, striking out against vulnerable minorities who often have little power to fight back.
That’s the definition itself of authoritarianism. It’s happening in Russia, where LGBTQ people cower in fear, it’s invading Ukraine as you read this, and it’s a cancer eating away at Texas, Florida, and much of the rest of the U.S.
Whatever happened to the supposed Republican values of personal liberty and freedom from intrusive government?
Would somebody please tell Republican Governor Greg Abbott that overruling personal medical decisions by fiat is exactly the kind of thing President Putin does every day?
This story is a response to the Prism & Pen writing prompt, Let’s Write About How Queer People Live Under Authoritarianism.
Other stories so far →
James Finn is a columnist for the LA Blade, a former Air Force intelligence analyst, an alumnus of Queer Nation and Act Up NY, and an “agented” but unpublished novelist. Send questions, comments, and story ideas to [email protected].
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