A gay doctor who is one of Louisiana’s only specialist paediatric cardiologists has left the state after the introduction of a Don’t Say Gay copycat bill and a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth.

Jake Kleinmahon, who was one of just three doctors specialising in heart transplants for children in Louisiana, chose to leave the state with his family, as they no longer felt safe.

Kleinmahon met and fell in love with his husband Tom in New Orleans, and the couple expected remain in Louisiana, even after retirement. However, he told CNN that the state’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation made him and his family feel unwelcome and that he ultimately “didn’t have a choice”.

    • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They don’t have the numbers. 19 states have majority Democrat Senate and Houses, and they need 66% of state legislatures to call one. They would only need two more states, but there’s several problems with that. For one, not every Republican is on board, and the more moderate ones know how destabilizing it would be for moneyed interests. There’s also a great chance it would plunge us into a civil war, and there’s no guarantee that ends well for them. I think it’s likely to be the opposite.

      They’re unlikely to even get to that point however because consolidating power in existing red states is actually counterproductive. They ensure a state that they already have will remain theirs, at the expense of chasing people out to other states, including swing states, who will be incredibly angry against their party. Plus, you have Republicans in these states moving to the red states as conservative havens. The net effect, states that aren’t solid red are going to get more Democrat voters, and they’re already struggling with a dwindling Republican voter base.

      Knock on wood I’m right and this isn’t just baseless optimism

        • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          True, they had to wait for the deaths of two people elderly people who had well known medical problems. Sheesh what are the odds an 87 year old woman would die within a 2 year window?

          Instead of here where they need tens of millions of people to migrate. Meanwhile they will continue to have to issue precise strikes on the few functional parts of their own economy. Georgia for example will need the population of Atlanta and Athens and Augusta and Columbus to pack up and leave. Those areas have reps of their own and will just sit their quitely while their own consistency is driven out?

          I almost want them to try, on some level, just to see how badly this will go. “Ok we put a tax on lattes in Atlanta, that should do it”.