Colorado Gov. Jared Polis: Anti-LGBTQ laws are "un-American"
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) on Sunday described the growing number of laws targeting LGBTQ people in Republican states as "un-American."
The backdrop: State lawmakers introduced more than 150 anti-LGBTQ bills across the country during the first six weeks of 2022, per USA Today. Polis, who in 2018 became the first openly-gay man elected to a governorship, described the efforts as "Republican overreach."
What they're saying: “Look, words matter. Laws matter," Polis told CNN's "State of the Union" during an interview. "When a group of people, LGBTQ youth, feel targeted by the words and laws that some politicians espouse, of course, it can increase anxiety, depression."
- "I think what this is it's an example of Republican overreach on an issue that the American people have long moved past. The American people as a whole are completely accepting of who people love and how they live their lives."
- “These hard policies about saying certain youth can’t play sports, and certain people aren’t allowed in certain places, or micromanaging what restroom people use and mandating what they do are really, frankly, un-American and are an example of Republican overreach, which will ultimately hurt their party, if they can’t espouse the full diversity of the American people,” he added.
Background: Over two-thirds of LGBTQ youth said debates over state laws that target transgender people have negatively impacted their mental health, according to a Trevor Project poll out last month.
