As the US is engaging in a political and cultural war about abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, the large South Asian community living in the country comments on the situation. Gowri Vijayakumar, assistant professor of sociology and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies points out that South Asian communities in the US may not be uniformly oppressive of queer identities, however, this has not precluded them from committing caste, gender, sex, and sexuality-based violence. In the book “Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom,” lawyers, Julie F. Kay and Kathryn Kolbert describe how anti-abortion conservatives worked relentlessly for over 50 years to not just try to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court judgment that legalized abortion nationwide, but also swayed public opinion against LGBTQ+ rights and same-sex marriage by working hand-in-glove with Christian right-wing extremists. Kay and Kolbert write “anti-abortion extremists, white supremacists, and patriot movement anti-government groups align with abortion opponents in vehemently opposing same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ protections.” And, while same-sex marriage may be the law of the land (it has been this way since the landmark 2015 Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges), the May 2022 leak from the offices of the US Supreme Court in the Dobbs case has now raised concerns about this legal precedent. After all, the logic employed in Obergefell was similar to that applied in Dobbs (the case before the Supreme Court that directly challenged the constitutionality of Roe v Wade). Today, reproductive rights activists in the United States are dismayed by the leaked draft majority ruling, authored by Associate Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, which categorically indicates an overruling of Roe v Wade. Months earlier, in March 2022, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made headlines for signing into law House Bill (HB) 1557, “The Parental Rights in Education Bill.” Opponents dubbed this bill the “don’t say gay bill” for prohibiting almost all classroom discussions about sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten through grade 3. The vague language in the bill made it unclear precisely what kind of conversations about sexual orientation or gender identity would be allowed and what wouldn’t. This bill not only hits LGBTQ+ parents the hardest (because it also doesn’t specify whether even saying “two moms” and “two dads” in the classroom would be allowed anymore) but is also problematic for relying on age-old tropes about homosexuality being “unnatural,” “deviant,” and, hence, “corrupting” the youth. Conservatives claim that the bill “protects” children from sexual predators and “groomers,” which is based on another antiquated stereotype linked to the idea of a “gay agenda.” That trope comes from something that popular American evangelical commentator and theologian Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr. once described as “propaganda for immorality” and “poisonous to Christian morality” in the context of increasing representation of gay and lesbian characters in Hollywood during the 2000s. The same reasoning is applied by conservatives today in the context of LGBTQ+ education. Finally, parental notification rules in the bill also mean that teachers may becompelled to “out” closeted LGBTQ+ children to parents under this law if it furthers the interest of the child’s “health.” The bill states “A school district may not adopt procedures or student support forms that prohibit school district personnel from notifying a parent about his or her student's mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being,” and does not specify how “health” and “well-being” are defined under the law. Overall, the bill’s vagueness is one of the key reasons why it has the potential for misuse. Social media is filled with strong reactions from the South Asian Community to both the Roe v Wade leak and the overall state of affairs with LGBTQ+ rights. Alok Vaid Menon, prominent public speaker, commentator, and author of “Beyond the Gender Binary” posted the following image on Instagram, reminding everyone that while the impending abortion restrictions would adversely affect women, they would also affect transgender men, non-binary people, and anyone else with a uterus. Alok's call to unite women and LGBTQ+ people to jointly protest the potential overruling of Roe are poignant. A post shared by ALOK (@alokvmenon) Anisha Singh, a civil rights advocate and recently appointed Executive Director of the Sikh Coalition also shared a series of tweets in support of “Roe v Wade”. This is why we protested and cried when Trump won. When Kavanaugh was confirmed. When Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed. We knew this was coming. Elections have consequences.