On PBS, Amanpour Warns LGBTQ ‘Human Rights Are Under Fire’ from ‘Strange’ DeSantis

Amanpour & Co.

January 26, 2023

11:18:50 p.m.

AMANPOUR: Human rights are under fire all over the world and in the west, particularly in the United States where new state laws target gay, trans, and minority populations. In his nonfiction hit, “Far from the Tree”, the author, Andrew Solomon, brings empathy to those on the margins. Sharing stories of families who are raising children who challenged society’s definition of normal.

AMANPOUR: And I spoke with Solomon about the remarkable social progress he has experienced, and the backlash that threatens to undermine it.

AMANPOUR: Andrew Solomon, welcome to the program.

ANDREW SOLOMON, AUTHOR, “FAR FROM THE TREE”: What a pleasure to be here.

AMANPOUR: And you are here in London and you have screened the documentary, “Far from the Tree”, for Human Rights Watch. I’m interested to know why. Why that film? Why Human Rights Watch? What’s the connection?

SOLOMON: I have been very involved with two programs with human rights watch, the disability program and the LGBT program. And they are particularly strong in both of those arenas. You know, if somebody who has the disability to mental health complained and who is gay, I am very aware of how the rights and privileges available to me are unavailable to people in most of the world.

AMANPOUR: So, the interesting thing is, “Far from the Tree”, it’s about parenting and surprise, you know, surprises that can develop in parenting and children. For example, parents of queer children, deaf children, those with dwarfism, et cetera. What do you see has changed in the years, the decades since you wrote the book?

SOLOMON: Well, there’s no question that people are more aware of disability rights. That the idea of disability rights has been validated and the notion that the lives of people with disabilities have their own valor and their own value. The life with disabilities aren’t automatically ones with our project. That has come to be more in the public conversation. On gay rights, gay marriage is spreading. It’s become more ubiquitous, but there are still so many examples of terrible prejudice in parts of the world where homosexuality is not accepted. But also, in the U.S. and in the U.K., and in other major developed countries, problems for people who want to have families, problems for people who get fired from their jobs, problems for people who do not get the housing they want. And an enormous amount of violence that is directed against LGBTQ people who, in most of the world, had very little protection.

AMANPOUR: And especially children because I have seen some of your other articles, that you know — I mean, maybe adults can deal with it somewhat better than children. You also had that experience in your childhood, right?

SOLOMON: I did. I was very secretive about the fact that I was gay, at least I thought I was being secretive. And I had a family that was not pleased when I finally came out in my early 20s and I struggled a lot with the sense that I was somehow broken or damaged and that I belonged at the margins, and that I would never have the basic satisfactions of life. The idea that I would end up married to a man with a family was not only something I failed to mention. It was something that was unimaginable when I was growing up.

AMANPOUR: Did your parents ever become pleased, satisfied, accepting of you?

SOLOMON: My mother died a couple of years after I came out. So, we did not have very much time, but before she died, she said all the right things. I’m not sure she meant them, but she said them.

AMANPOUR: That is good though.

SOLOMON: It was a good — yes.

AMANPOUR: Talk about that then. Because for parents who don’t know, and who are struggling, what should they do? I mean, obviously, we know what they should do, but those who are really struggling, at least saying the right things, did it give you some comfort?

SOLOMON: It did give me comfort. And I think it made my father’s acceptance more possible. And he, in the end, threw us a beautiful wedding and was very embracing.

AMANPOUR: Really?

SOLOMON: But I think parents really need to recognize that their children feel isolated and are suffering, even in situations where there appears to be great acceptance. You have to understand that it’s difficult.

AMANPOUR: So, you mentioned many countries where it’s just, frankly, illegal and paying of death in many African countries, many Islamic countries, and it’s terrible, and that happens now. But in the United States of America, so-called global superpower based on human rights and universal rights, freedom of expression, freedom to be the individual.

We’re seeing right now today the very laws and norms and social acceptances that have come towards LGBTQ being challenged, whether it’s at the court level or, let’s just say, the governor of Florida, or somebody who clearly wants to be the next president, has implemented a whole raft of strange, strange requests, bills, laws. How do you see it going in Florida?

SOLOMON: There was a study that came out a few weeks ago that said that children growing up in States where gay marriage was legal, prior to federal recognition, had significantly better mental health than children growing up in States where it was illegal. And I had, what was to me, a shocking experience which is that I was giving a lecture on youth suicide that was sponsored by the largest children’s hospital in Northern Texas.

And I went down there and before I came, they said someone was going to interview me after the lecture, and they wanted to look over my notes before I came down. And I said, well my notes won’t make that much sense to you. I said, but I’ll send you some of the anecdotes I’m going to tell.

AMANPOUR: Because you scribbled them? Yes.

SOLOMON: Exactly. And so, I sent them a few things and I got a message from the children’s hospital saying, one of the people you talked about is transgender. And transgender children is a very politicized issue here, and we feel that you are talking about that will alienate a lot of people. So, we would like to ask you to skip that story.

And I ended up giving the lecture, telling that story, and ending by saying that anyone who supported legislation like the legislation in Texas, that takes medical decisions out of the hands of children, their doctors, and their parents, and puts it in the hands of people who have no qualifications, thereby further stigmatizing —

AMANPOUR: Such as politicians?

SOLOMON: Exactly. Thereby further stigmatizing what is already the most marginalized group in America, that those people have blood dripping from

their hands. And it seems to me —

AMANPOUR: That is pretty harsh. Blood dripping from their hands.

SOLOMON: Yes.

AMANPOUR: What do you mean?

SOLOMON: Well, that the rate of suicide among trans children is the highest after children who were sexually abused in early childhood in the nation. And if you said to me that a children’s hospital did not want to touch something that is killing a record-breaking number of children, what kind of responsibility is that to the larger society?

And in the States, where there are these laws, and where trans children aren’t able to live as who they are, the rates of suicide among them are incredibly high.

AMANPOUR: OK. I’m going to get that in a moment. But first, I want to ask you about youth suicide, young people suicide, which is as you say exploding right off the record levels. So, you wrote a really powerful essay entitled, “The Mystifying Rise of Child Suicide”. I want you to just read — we’ve given it to you, we’ve printed out a small extract from the article, and then we’ll talk about it.

SOLOMON: Children’s worlds may be…