But this past spring the Republican-led state legislature passed a series of controversial bills that targeted the LGBTQ community.

That’s when Kleinmahon said he started having difficult conversations with his family about leaving the home they love. When he explained to his six-year-old daughter that their family had no choice but to leave New Orleans, she said, “We do have a choice, just one of them isn’t a good one.”

The Kleinmahons join other LGBTQ families who are also facing the same choice. They say they no longer feel safe or welcomed in states that have passed laws targeting their community. Many have made the difficult decision to leave.

In 2023, more than 525 anti-LGBTQ bills were passed in 41 states, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an organization that advocates for the LGBTQ community. Of those bills, more than 220 explicitly targeted transgender people. As of June, 77 anti-LGBTQ bills had been signed into law.

  • matchphoenix@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    Louisiana’s just beginning the “find out” phase, after fucking around and passing hateful, discriminatory bills.

    • Moonguide@lemmy.ml
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      The people will find out, the fucks actually responsible for this will get the best treatments possible world wide.

      • ElCrusher@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        The people voted them into power so they can deal with the consequences. I know, not everyone voted for them, but then again, not everyone voted. Maybe the people will make different choices after suffering the consequences of their voting decisions. If they anger enough of the voter base, there could be some change. Or maybe Louisiana will become Mississippi 2, Electric Boogaloo.

        • HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml
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          The people voted them into power so they can deal with the consequences.

          This is a very black and white perspective. Gerrymandering, candidate fixing, straight up corruption and potential election rigging all complicate the situation.

          • luciferofastora@discuss.online
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            Maybe it will be enough to alert some of them to those issues? If the effects of corruption are felt more strongly, people may be more vocal about it and realise how many like-minded people there are. Then they may come to wonder how these bills keep getting passed if so many people oppose them.

            Or they may keep their heads low for fear of sticking out and becoming the next target, or become dog-in-burning-house impersonators: “This is fine :)”

      • jennwiththesea@lemmy.world
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        The only people who will “find out” are those who can’t afford to travel for healthcare. These policies always hurt the lowest socioeconomic brackets first and foremost.

        ETA: To be clear, this is a bad thing. These policies are evil and disgusting. Instead of getting mad at the people who may not have even been able to get the time off to vote, let’s be mad at the perps who put up these policies to begin with.

    • AmberPrince@kbin.social
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      They aren’t going to find out. All the people are going to learn is that it is “ThE wOkE LeFt” causing all of these problems with their radical agenda.

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        Typically these people “find out” when it matters to them. Their sister’s kid can’t get a surgery and dies. That’s when it comes home.

        It’s too late, but they didn’t care until it was too late. Thoughts and prayers.

    • sugarfree@lemmy.world
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      Please find something new to say, it’s so boring seeing people use that phrase.

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    Kleinmahon said he was also receiving hate mail at his job from people condemning him for being gay and saying he needed to “find Jesus.”

    Oh, ffs. Religious types are the worst.

  • Sharkfeek@lemmy.fmhy.net
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    Soon they’ll find themselves crossing state lines for life saving procedures, just like women needing life saving abortions already do in their states.

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      And they will be angry at the doctors being so far way instead of realizing the true root of the problem.

      • Wet Noodle@sopuli.xyz
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        Unfortunately you’re definitely right, they’re gonna be mad that all the doctors were ‘indoctrinated’ into not agreeing with trans genocide and forced births

    • creamed_eels@toast.ooo
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      Until they pass a law preventing the movement of people to other areas for healthcare because it’s too woke or something. We simply can’t have people getting liberal heart transplants, it’s against the freedom…of…the right to…bear freeze peach…I dunno

      • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
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        Interstate commerce is pretty much the reason the federal government exists, if states start seriously restricting interstate travel then the feds will have to step in. A few abortions isn’t enough to warrant a federal response yet but stopping a good portion of interstate medical care might gets the feds involved

      • ElectricCattleman@lemmy.world
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        Religious conservatives used to be against all sorts of medical and scientific practices, saying they were an abomination or an afront to God’s plan.

    • Ertebolle@kbin.social
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      And I bet in some cases they’ll end up running afoul of laws passed to stop people from crossing state lines for abortions.

  • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
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    A pediatric cardiologist was recently needed to save the life of my friend’s 8 month old daughter, hopefully Louisiana can figure their shit out and reverse these laws so that this man and others like him feel safe in that state again. Unfortunately these backwards ass laws will likely cause the deaths of many

    • evatronic@lemm.ee
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      The damage is done. Even if the laws are repealed, there’s no way this guy would go back. The culture that let these laws exist in the first place is still there.

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    The kids might die of undiagnosed heart conditions, but at LEAST they won’t be Trans-Gay!! (disclaimer)

    • Trae@lemmy.world
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      That’d be considered a win for a lot of these people. They would rather their young children die of easily preventable illnesses then find out that they’re gay.

    • bobman@unilem.org
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      I think Louisiana is worse than Mississippi.

      At least Mississippi has some decent geography.

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    Why the hell does Louisiana only have one pediatric cardiologist?

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      Because it’s a for-profit healthcare system and that’s not where they pay pediatric cardiologists what they feel they’re worth.

      And when you’re a pediatric cardiologist, you pretty much dictate your salary.

      • spez@sh.itjust.works
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        What do you mean? Are public hospitals also for-profit in Louisiana? How can an employee dictate thier salary?

        Edit: also why the fuck am I downvoted? I can’t ask questions?

        • RickRussell_CA@lemmy.world
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          They dictate their salary by leaving and finding people who will pay them.

          Pediatric cardiology is a difficult specialty and it turns out that people are willing to spend quite a lot of money when their children have heart problems.

          • InputZero@lemmy.ml
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            Difficult, with a small supply of doctors and a high demand from patients. What would you pay to save your child’s life?

        • TrueStoryBob@lemmy.world
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          I can’t give you a breakdown of the numbers but, some of the public hospitals in the state have been privatized, yes.

    • Saneless@sh.itjust.works
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      Smart people don’t want to raise families in states designed to be at the bottom of lists like education, jobs, medicine, and happiness

      But hey, I’m sure the people still living there have owned the libs so many times, it’s all worth it

    • kent_eh
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      Maybe for the same reason they now have one fewer?

    • dhork@lemmy.world
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      The very end of the article said “Now there are two pediatric cardiologists in the state”, which implies there were three before.

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    Excluding communities simply because you feel like theyʼre unclean is so… boring. Like, we as a species have done the whole / “racial purity” / “religious monoculture” thing for thousands of years now. Excluding people for non-violent reasons doesnʼt give you an advantage; you just get left behind as people with new ideas get poached by inclusive tolerant cultures that are intolerant of your intolerance. You can try to raise the switching cost by building walls and making emigration illegal, but sooner or later you get invaded; at best you get ignored and stagnate, dying an early death from silly things like tooth decay because you chased out all the dentists.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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    I’m guessing most of you have lived in America long enough to know that we prefer our public policy to exercise cruelty in any way possible.

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    Jesus Christ. They’re the new black people. Except the old black people still face discrimination, and Italians, Irish, and Asians all got allowed into the “white” club.