Gay man persuades his father to stop voting Republican

“That letter was a boundary, not a conviction. It was not intended to persuade anyone.

“Trannys in their 20s texted me and I was like, ‘Do it man, how open-source that shit! We are only free when we are all free.’

“I quickly got to a point where I was very proud to have published this message. Especially when people said they wanted to copy and paste this to help their situation.”

Before his account was deleted, the letter posted on Twitter quickly went viral, garnering more than 15,000 likes and over 3,000 retweets.

Despite overwhelming support online, some were quick to criticize, even going so far as to call the move “narcissistic and painful to read.”

Short’s husband took to Twitter to announce his suspension and many rallied to support his account being reinstated.

“We made progress on LGBTQIA rights when people recognized that we are their brothers, sisters, friends, children, parents and loved ones, and denying us rights meant hurting their own families,” his husband said called.

“Now the conservatives are realizing that that is actually power. We CAN change minds. It has influence and we can use it. Only YOU alone can do it. You don’t have to be a billionaire to make waves. We can make the country stronger and more inclusive… and that scares them.”

Republican states have introduced some of the most anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the US

A wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation has swept the US in recent months, with senators in Arkansas approving a bill that would criminalize trans people for using a restroom when a child is present.

Senate Bill 270, the most extreme “bathroom bill” in the US, was passed by lawmakers on March 7th. This means that a trans person could be charged with sexual indecency with a child if they remain in the same public locker room with a “minor of the opposite sex present.”

The Kentucky legislature passed an expanded anti-trans law targeting the rights of vulnerable young trans people in the state.

On Thursday evening (March 16), the state legislature passed the law within hours with the approval of a committee and both the House and Senate.

Senate Bill 150 seeks to ban gender-affirming health care for trans youth, requires physicians to release young trans people from transition, and bars schools from speaking to students of all ages about gender identity or sexual orientation.

Tennessee became the first U.S. state to enact a ban on public drag performances that minors could potentially see, on March 2. It comes as a number of red states are pursuing similar efforts to criminalize drag performers, coinciding with bigoted, baseless rhetoric vilifying LGBTQ+ people as unsafe for children.