This week on Under the Radar with Callie Crossley:

More than 400 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced in several state legislatures this year alone, according to data published by the ACLU. That is a record amount, and more than twice the amount of anti-LGBTQ bills introduced last year.

"We are living in a country where one in five transgender youth are not getting the access to the often life-saving care they need," said Janson Wu, executive director of GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, or GLAD. "If you were to ask me what I am most concerned about, it's around medical care."

Private companies have also become entangled in the culture war. Bud Light received backlash after featuring a transgender TikTok influence and activist in a social media ad promoting the beer.

"This culture war is a real war, and I think it's really important to see the attacks on transgender care alongside all the other attacks that are happening in the very same states; the attacks on reproductive healthcare, the attacks on teaching the facts about American history racially, and the attacks on voting rights," said E.J. Graff, a journalist, author and managing editor of The Monkey Cage, an independent, political science–oriented blog at The Washington Post. "This is a real culture war, a real backlash moment for the country."

Plus, some activists continue to take to the streets. One LGBTQ+ group in New Hampshire, Rainbow Reload, is taking up arms for self protection.

"Young people who are [LGBTQ+], young people who are youth of color, young people who are marganilaized in our society by a variety of experiences and identites have grown up living with this kind of fear and anxiety, and needing to vigilant and perhaps hypervigilant," said Grace Sterling Stowell, executive director of the Boston Alliance of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Youth, or BAGLY. "At the same time, what's happening now is another level, and especially in their lifetimes, this is the worst it's ever been."

Listen to those stories and more on Under the Radar's LGBTQ+ news roundtable.

GUESTS:

Grace Sterling Stowell, executive director of the Boston Alliance of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Youth, or BAGLY.

Janson Wu, executive director of GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, or GLAD.

E.J. Graff, journalist, author and managing editor of The Monkey Cage, an independent, political science–oriented blog at the Washington Post.