By Wilson Ring|Associated Press

MONTPELIER, Vt.-- Hundreds of young people collected on the yard of the Vermont Statehouse on Friday as part of a nationwide series of occasions to help develop assistance for transgender rights in the middle of what they denounced as an increasingly hostile climate.

Chanting, "We're here, we're queer, get utilized to it!" lots of curtained themselves in pride flags or brought posters with messages like "yay gay" or "secure trans kids."

Similar occasions were planned at capitols in states including South Carolina, Alabama, Minnesota, Nebraska and Montana, and at other venues Friday and this weekend.

Young people, some as young as middle-school, stood in front of the Vermont crowd and informed of their struggles with their sexuality at a time when lots of people throughout the country refuse to acknowledge them.

Charlie Draugh, a 17-year-old high school senior from Chisago, Minnesota, who attends a boarding school in Vermont, stated he was upset that groups are attempting to control his life and turn him into a political pawn that he is not.

" My life is not your dispute," Draugh said. "It is not a political issue. I am not injuring anybody and I am definitely not injuring myself."

The rallies-- called "Transgender Day of Visibility"-- come as Republican lawmakers throughout the U.S. have actually pursued hundreds of proposals this year to push back on LGBTQ+ rights, particularly rights for transgender citizens, consisting of banning transgender women from ladies' sports, keeping transgender people from utilizing washrooms in line with their gender identities and requiring schools to deadname transgender students-- needing they be identified by names they were offered at birth.

A minimum of 11 states have actually now enacted laws limiting or prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota and West Virginia. Federal judges have blocked enforcement of laws in Alabama and Arkansas, and almost two lots states are considering bills this year to restrict or ban care.

In North Dakota, the state Senate voted Thursday to override a veto by Republican Gov. Doug Burgum of an expense that would usually restrict public school instructors and staff from describing transgender trainees by pronouns other than those showing the gender appointed to them at birth. If the North Dakota House will also vote to override the veto, it's uncertain.

On Friday, President Joe Biden provided a declaration supporting Transgender Day of Visibility. The president stated transgender Americans are worthy of to be safe and supported in every community. He knocked what he called numerous despiteful and severe state laws that target transgender kids and their households.

" Let me be clear: These attacks are un-American and should end," Biden's declaration stated. "The bullying, discrimination, and political attacks that trans kids face have worsened our nationwide psychological health crisis."

Dana Kaplan, the executive director of Outright Vermont, which assisted sponsor Friday's event at the Vermont Statehouse, stated the level of targeted hate for transgender youth is extraordinary.

" There are over 450 expenses today that are particularly targeting the LGBTQ community and trying to strip trans kids of their right to exist-- when it comes down to it, their rights to play sports, their right to gender verifying healthcare," Kaplan said. "These are sort of basic pillars of what all of us need to be able to live our lives and for trans youths, they are having to take on way more than any young adult ever should."

Vermont was the very first state in the country to pass a law permitting civil unions for same-sex couples and adopted among the very first gay marital relationship laws. It has actually been known for being normally inviting to the LGBTQ+ community.

A number of cops from the Vermont capitol were seeing the Montpelier rally, however there were no problems and the rally slowly began to disperse about an hour after it started.

Aspen Overy, 19, of Burlington, who came out as transgender a couple of years earlier, stated they attended the Montpelier rally to reveal assistance for other trans people.

" I think there's this myth of Vermont as like this beautiful, perfect little state," Overy stated. "But as many of the trans kids stated today ... those kids still often face so much hatred and discrimination for being, for living their lives which's not all right."

Overy, a student at the University of Vermont, said they hoped the rally would make it simpler to support each other and develop community amongst transgender people in Vermont.

"In addition, I think it also supplies a place for these people to feel seen, which is so important, and to feel welcomed," Overy said.