In this March 3, 2022 file photo, Hillsborough High School students protest a Republican-backed bill dubbed the"Don't Say Gay" that would prohibit classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity, in Tampa, Fla.Growing up in the 1990s and early 2000s just outside of Akron, Ohio, Shane Stahl felt it was taboo to talk about being part of the LGBTQ+ community or about LGBTQ+ experiences.
"It made me want to leave if I could," he told ABC News.
Shane Stahl, 40, said growing up in Ohio, the wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the United States took a toll on his mental health.Research has shown that LGBTQ+ people are more likely to experience mental health struggles than those who are heterosexual or cisgender. These biases and discrimination can take shape as anti-LGBTQ+ legislation including forced outing in schools, school sports bans, banning gender-affirming care for minors, criminalizing drag performances, book bans and limiting the ability of LGBTQ+ people to foster or adopt children.found more than 100 anti-LGBTQ+ laws have passed in the last five years with more than half of them passing last year.Pick, who identifies as lesbian, said she remembers when the U.S. was debating marriage equality.
Pick said she was heartened when the conversation around same-sex marriage in the U.S. started shifting in a positive direction.