This story is part of our monthly series, Campus Dispatch. Read the rest of the stories in the series here.

On March 1, at a protest in Columbia, Missouri, Central Trans Action Bloc founder Harry Castillow took the microphone. He introduced himself as a cisgender, straight, white male, earning cheers and laughter from the crowd.

“I am here because there are people that I love here,” Castillow, the father of a transgender child, said. “I’m here because there are people that I care for, and I don’t understand why there aren’t more people here doing the same thing.”

The protest was part of a statewide effort led by the Missouri Democratic Party LGBTQ Caucus. More than 200 LGBTQ community members and allies huddled between the Roger B. Wilson Boone County Government Center and the Boone County Courthouse as Castillow continued his speech.

The protests come amid a years-long effort to target the LGBTQ community with restrictive laws. In Missouri, the cycle hits every spring like clockwork: Legislators file a slew of bills targeting the LGBTQ community, and the groups affected by the legislation are left to figure out their next steps. The state currently has 39 anti-LGBTQ bills being reviewed or making their way through the legislative process, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Many of the potential policies are aimed directly at transgender Missourians.

Some of the major bills include proposals to cement bans on transgender minors’ access to gender-affirming care and ability to participate on sports teams that align with their gender identities. Another bill targets drag performers and drag shows.

“It’s exhausting,” said Mel Constantine Miseo, a board member of the Center Project, mid-Missouri’s sole LGBTQ community center. “But we have to keep fighting and doing everything we can.”

A few years........

© Rewire.News