When the legislation came to the floor of the House, Mr. He brought medical experts and local organizers who provide support to L.G.B.T.Q. He connected constituents with Republican proponents of the measures, hoping to change the lawmakers’ minds by making them more comfortable with gay and transgender people and explaining the burdens they said such legislation would create. Rafferty, too, has spent his term in the Legislature working to prevent new restrictions on gay and transgender young people. Todd said that she was most proud of the Alabama legislation that she had helped to block - measures she considered harmful to L.G.B.T.Q. The first, Patricia Todd, held the same Birmingham-area House seat before him. He ran for the Legislature in 2018, becoming only the second openly gay lawmaker elected in the state. He spent nine years as an employee of Birmingham AIDS Outreach, working with young people and organizing H.I.V. Only after leaving the Marines, just over a decade ago, did he become more open about his sexuality. While in the military, he avoided conversations about personal relationships, although he was already in a relationship with the man who would later become his husband.
Rafferty attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham and joined the Marine Corps. Before his junior year, looking for a fresh start, he transferred to a different school and did not reveal his sexual identity to classmates or teachers. His early teens were filled with taunting and bullying that he described as a “daily gantlet.” He ran away from home. Kay Ivey, a Republican, signed both measures the following day.īorn and raised in Birmingham, he first came out as gay in 1998. That legislation also limited classroom discussions on gender and sexual orientation, similar to a Florida measure derided by critics as “Don’t Say Gay.” Gov. On that same day in early April, the State Senate voted 26-5 for a bill mandating that K-12 students use only bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with the gender on their original birth certificate, rather than their current gender identity. The House approved the legislation by a vote of 66-28. Rafferty’s loss was swift and resounding. Just don’t you dare call me a friend after this.” He ended his speech with a direct appeal: “I’m begging y’all, all right?”Īnd then he acknowledged that his efforts were largely futile: “What’s going to happen is going to happen.
“It’s even harder growing up being different and then have the state Legislature, your elected officials, the leaders of this state, put a target on children’s backs.” “It’s hard enough growing up being different,” he said. Minutes before Alabama lawmakers were set to vote on a bill criminalizing medical care for young transgender people who are transitioning, State Representative Neil Rafferty took to the floor of the House and pleaded with his colleagues to reconsider.