Letter: Lawmakers fearmonger LGBTQ youth and ignore real problems

From: Julia Stumpff

Columbus

There is a part of the musical “The Music Man” where Harold Higgins sings a song entitled “Ya Got Trouble.” In the song, he convinces the townspeople that the pool table in town is going to corrupt their kids, and they need to sign their kids up for band and buy his instruments in order to keep their kids out of trouble. In the song, he is using fearmongering about the “bad” influence of pool to sell band instruments, and he is effective.

I remember how silly and obvious this was the first time I saw this musical as an elementary student. I never dreamed a situation like that could actually happen. However, as a resident of Indiana, I feel like I am living the horror version of that song right now. Instead of fearmongering over the game of pool to get people to buy musical instruments, politicians are using fearmongering about LGBTQ+ youth, more specifically, transgender youth, to get laws passed that control access to books and medical care and to control speech in schools. It is horrifying because this fearmongering leads to death of LGBTQ+ people by suicide and murder. It is also horrifying because Indiana has documented health issues which need to be addressed.

In a state where legislators quickly banned abortion after Roe V. Wade was overturned, Indiana has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the country. In 2020, there were 6.6 deaths per 1,000 live births in Indiana compared to 5.4 per 1,000 in the US. That is about 10 babies every week. We also have much higher percentages of drug overdose deaths, teen births, and food insecurity and worse air pollution than the US as a whole.

I implore Indiana legislators to stop the fearmongering about the “other” through anti-LGBTQ legislation and use that energy to work on the documented complex and difficult health issues facing our state.