After years of progressive strides, 2016 turned out to be an unfortunate stumbling block in the LGBTQ community’s quest for equality.
Unquestionably the year’s most devastating blow took place on June 12, when 49 people, most of whom identified as queer, were killed in the devastating Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. As sickening as that grisly act of homophobia was, hopes that such an unparalleled tragedy would encourage national solidarity with the LGBTQ community were soon dashed when Donald Trump, who ran on an explicitly anti-queer platform, won the U.S. presidency in November.
Orlando shooter Omar Mateen’s actions were, of course, an unprecedented level of extremism that lie beyond critical scope. But there were a number of public figures whose actions and words during 2016 fed into the culture that allowed an act of hate like the massacre to occur.
From former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, who aggressively backed his state’s anti-transgender “bathroom bill,” to Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, who suggested he’d rather be crucified than ditch his opposition to LGBTQ rights, 2016 made in very clear that there are still people in positions of authority who want to dismantle the progress the LGBTQ community has made over the past decade.
As keen as we are to be forward-thinking after the challenges of the last year, we also must reckon with the forces ― and individuals ― who still oppose our basic rights. In the spirit of resistance in 2017, here’s an honest look back at 13 people who actively worked against the rights and humanity of LGBTQ people in 2016.
We can (hopefully) only go up from here, folks.