A new report from the advocacy group American Atheists lays out yet another way in which America is rapidly becoming a nation of haves and have nots: the residents of blue states who have rights, and the residents of red states where Republican lawmakers, propelled by a right-wing Supreme Court and Christian nationalist interest groups, are taking a sledgehammer to those rights.
In its sixth annual “State of the Secular States,” the group reports that in 2023, its staff tracked over 1,000 bills in state legislatures that sought to undermine equal rights based on religion, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, or otherwise undermined religious equality. That number was double the total in 2022 (the previous high). Of those, 162 became law, including bans on abortion and gender-affirming care, restrictions on trans kids’ freedom to use their pronouns and bathrooms at school, book and drag show bans, curriculum control, and more.
Many of the legislators behind these bills, reports the group, were “emboldened and enabled by astroturfed activists.”
Many of the legislators behind these bills, the group reports, were “emboldened and enabled by astroturfed activists.” These activists pose as grassroots campaigners, when in fact they are backed by right-wing organizations bent on restricting Americans’ freedom to read, teach, learn, obtain medical care and even exist. Using buzzwords and phrases like “gender ideology” or “grooming,” and turning critical race theory and diversity, equality and inclusion into pejoratives are the keys to these moral panics. Right-wing groups try to use the term “parental rights” to put an appealing gloss on their anti-democratic agenda and obscure their goal of imposing a Christian nationalist ideology on others.
As a consequence, red state residents — the have-nots — live in an increasingly grim dystopia. In those states, often obtaining an abortion is impossible, even if not getting one might kill you. Parents of trans kids might have to move elsewhere just to get their child essential medical care. Under the banner of “parental rights,” Republican state legislatures have sought to control freedom of expression through bans on books and drag shows, and by restricting academic freedom in public schools and universities.
Residents of Republican-controlled states might have to look to Democratic-controlled states to protect them from their own elected officials. Some blue states have enacted “sanctuary” laws, which shield health care providers and their patients from other states from being prosecuted or penalized.
The push for these new laws has been building for years, but until recently Supreme Court precedent stood in the way. But the current Supreme Court, shaped by the Federalist Society, former President Donald Trump and Republican senators, has bestowed gifts on Christian right activists and Republican state lawmakers, rather than antagonizing them.
After the court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health in 2022, Republican-controlled state legislatures worked swiftly not only to ban abortion, but to also invade the privacy rights of anyone seeking an abortion, and to terrify medical providers. We’ve seen the impact almost immediately.
Texas recently passed a law allowing unlicensed chaplains to serve as school guidance counselors.
Another 2022 case has opened the door for religious coercion, in ways we are only beginning to see. In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the court sided with a public high school football coach who prayed with players on the field, and in the process dealt a near-fatal blow to the separation of church and state. Texas, which has often served as an incubator for Christian nationalist legislation other states have mimicked, recently passed a law allowing unlicensed chaplains to serve as school guidance counselors. The law contains no guardrails to prevent these chaplains from proselytizing to students, or denying students services based on their religion or lack of one, their sexual orientation or their gender identity. As the American Atheists report notes, since the Kennedy decision, “it has become more difficult to challenge unconstitutional religious coercion in public schools.”
The Associated Press reports that Republican-controlled statehouses are this year again taking aim at trans people, with more looking to restrict or outlaw gender-affirming care for trans minors, potentially expanding the number of states with bans on health care that the nation’s leading medical and psychological professional associations consider effective, safe and essential. Others are taking cues from Florida, which last year restricted care for trans adults so severely it is virtually impossible to access it there.
Republican state lawmakers are also planning legislation to limit trans students’ bathroom access and participation in sports. Others are looking to dictate what pronouns a trans child can or cannot use at school, after nine states passed such laws last year. In Florida a legislator has introduced a 2024 bill that would prevent local and state government agencies from using an employee or contractor’s preferred pronouns. A West Virginia lawmaker is proposing to define trans people as “obscene matter” under the state’s indecent exposure law. Not all these bills will become law, but they illustrate how extreme the GOP has become to satisfy its base.
As state legislative sessions get underway this year, we can expect more such bills from Republicans, whose election year wish list appears to be expanding into ever more nightmarish scenarios for their scapegoated citizenry. In the red states of the have-nots, run by a party in thrall to MAGA, equal rights are no longer a goal to desire; they’re a problem to be stamped out.