With the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the quite a few assaults on transgender individuals nationwide this yr, it’s simple to be consumed by the doom and gloom of 2022. However some legislative victories this yr can’t go unrecognized, and so they show that the wrestle for equal rights is definitely worth the struggle.
Right here’s a recap of among the greatest wins for equality in 2022.
We made an enormous stride in marriage equality.
Following a yr filled with quite a few assaults on the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood, the yr is ending on a very good word for queer Individuals. On Dec. 13, President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified the popularity of same-sex marriages nationwide. The laws additionally grants safety to interracial marriages.
Similar-sex unions have been legalized nationwide in 2015 after the Supreme Court docket’s ruling within the Obergefell v. Hodges case. Nevertheless, for the reason that ruling wasn’t codified into regulation, same-sex unions have been weak to reversal in the identical manner that abortion rights have been dismantled when Roe v. Wade was overturned in June.
When the 1973 choice guaranteeing abortion entry was reversed, Justice Clarence Thomas steered revisiting earlier choices, comparable to same-sex marriage, which prompted bipartisan efforts to make sure protections for these rights.
The Respect for Marriage Act now presents a safeguard to those marriages.
Marijuana was legalized in additional states.
A number of states have made strides to legalize marijuana for medical and leisure use.
In June, Oklahoma grew to become the thirtieth state to legalize medical marijuana, adopted by Utah and Missouri by way of poll measures in November’s midterm elections. Voters additionally made Michigan the tenth state within the nation — and first state within the Midwest — to legalize leisure marijuana.
In keeping with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, marijuana is essentially the most generally used federally unlawful drug within the nation. Two-thirds of Individuals help the legalization of the substance, and it has now been legalized in additional than half of the states within the U.S.
Marijuana legal guidelines have been used to unfairly criminalize Black and brown individuals, based on the ACLU. Racial disparities exist as effectively in marijuana-related arrests, as Black individuals are 3.6 occasions extra doubtless than white individuals to be arrested for marijuana possession.
Knowledge reveals that there are decrease arrest charges in states which have decriminalized marijuana.
These state wins complement ongoing efforts for marijuana reform. In October, Biden pardoned 1000’s of individuals who had been convicted on federal prices of marijuana possession, and he urged governors to do the identical with state offenses. The Biden administration can also be reviewing whether or not the substance ought to stay in the identical authorized class as medication comparable to heroin and LSD.
Abortion entry was protected in some states regardless of threats to finish it.
The lack of Roe v. Wade meant that it was as much as the states to outline their very own limits, if any, on abortion entry. Following the Supreme Court docket’s choice in June, greater than half of the states within the U.S. banned or deliberate to ban abortion rights.
Stakes have been excessive through the midterm elections, with abortion entry on poll initiatives in 5 states. However voters elected to defend reproductive rights in all of these states.
Although extra threats to reproductive rights are nonetheless looming within the U.S., abortion is presently authorized in 13 states, regardless of efforts to ban it or restrict entry, and legislators are pushing to guard different reproductive rights which are weak to assault, comparable to in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The Social Safety Administration made strikes that provide the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood higher recognition.
Whereas nationwide assaults towards transgender individuals made headlines this yr, there glimpses of fine information got here via.
In October, the Social Safety Administration made a coverage change to permit candidates to self-report the intercourse that greatest aligns with their gender id, even when it differs from the intercourse they have been assigned at delivery.
The plan was part of efforts to be extra inclusive, and advocates consider it might assist mitigate the danger of discrimination, harassment and violence that transgender Individuals face. To additional these efforts, the company can also be exploring coverage and system updates that might enable an “X” beneath intercourse designation for these whose gender id doesn’t align with male or feminine.
Florida’s Particular person Freedom Act was briefly blocked.
Since December 2021, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has been pushing to halt colleges from educating crucial race principle — a tutorial framework that examines how actions, programs and establishments have been formed by social conceptions of race and ethnicity — within the state of Florida.
The Particular person Freedom Act, which was beforehand known as the Cease W.O.Ok.E. Act, prohibited colleges and workplaces from educating and discussing race-based materials or make use of coaching that would recommend that people from one racial or ethnic group are chargeable for and should settle for the guilt for actions dedicated by others previously. It additionally bars educating materials or coaching that categorizes people, based mostly on their intercourse or race, as “privileged or oppressed.”
Proponents of the framework consider that it teaches the reality about America’s historical past, together with the methods racism has formed it, whereas opponents argue that it racially divides society and deems white individuals to be inherently racist.
Though it went into impact in July, a federal decide in Florida blocked it from going into impact in companies in August. One other decide in November discovered the laws to be a violation of the First and 14th Amendments and blocked its enforcement in Florida’s public establishments of upper schooling. In keeping with the Authorized Protection Fund, Ok-12 colleges are nonetheless being affected by the regulation.
DeSantis stated he would attraction the November ruling, however the ACLU’s Nationwide Authorized Director David Cole stated in a podcast that he’s optimistic the ACLU will succeed.
A courtroom blocked Texas’ investigations of fogeys of trans kids.
In February, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) directed the state Division of Household and Protecting Providers to examine the mother and father of transgender kids.
The directive, which predates the slew of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and actions that occurred nationwide all year long, resided on the argument that offering transgender kids with gender-affirming therapies, comparable to puberty blockers or hormone remedy, is a type of baby abuse.
Authorized battles proceeded earlier this yr, which included a lawsuit from the ACLU and a brief injunction on the directive being overturned. In the newest replace on the state of affairs, the kid welfare company was as soon as once more blocked in September from investigating mother and father who’re offering gender-affirming medical care to their transgender kids.
An Arizona ruling might pave the best way for the state to reform its jail system.
In June, a decide dominated that the Arizona Division of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry was in violation of the Eighth Modification by failing to supply sufficient medical and psychological well being providers to incarcerated individuals.
The ACLU first filed a lawsuit on these circumstances and insufficient providers in 2012. Jail officers settled the case in 2014, however no enhancements have been made to the circumstances and to well being care providers regardless of quite a few experiences of preventable deaths and struggling on the prisons.
In keeping with the Jail Coverage Initiative, 42,000 individuals are in Arizona’s state prisons. The ruling is a serious win for prisoner rights and is a pathway to enhancements in well being care providers and higher circumstances for individuals who are incarcerated.
“It’ll lead to an enormous aid order and actual oversight and monitoring to ensure that we deal with individuals as human beings, even once they have been locked up,” Cole, who works for the ACLU, stated in a podcast.