Abstract

LGBTQ2S+ rights in the United States have seen steady rights advancements in the past two decades. However, there has recently been a rise in anti-LGBTQ2S+ laws that focus on parental rights and the well-being of children. These laws are increasingly successful despite favorable public opinion towards LGBTQ2S+ rights and increased protections for LGBTQ2S+ Americans. Following the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States, conservative opposition to LGBTQ2S+ rights shifted away from emotional discourses of disgust to legal rights-based discourses of religious freedom and individual liberties. This discursive shift seemingly removed emotional discourses from conservative opposition to LGBTQ2S+ rights, but this project finds that this is not entirely true. Through a case study of Florida’s Don’t Say Gay or Trans bill, I ask how emotional discourses are currently being used by conservative opposition to LGBTQ2S+ rights. My findings demonstrate that emotional discourses of fear, security, and disgust are still present in contemporary conservative opposition, and that the shift to legal rights-based discourses represents a sanitization of emotional discourses that are unfavorable to an increasingly LGBTQ2S+ friendly public.