LGBTQ News
Donald Trump said in an interview yesterday that voters should treat the 2026 midterms as if he is on the ballot, while bringing up how he is going to make "transgender… end." Former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), who is now a Fox News host, asked Trump on his show yesterday about the u...
An unintended confluence of AI, blind allegiance, and rabid homophobia is landing supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin's anti-LGBTQ+ crusade in court, leading even his most faithful supporters to question the authoritarian state's methods. Homophobic authors of anti-LGB...
Several cast members from series 2 of the now-canceled sapphic reality dating show I Kissed a Girl have alleged that the final edit of the show that aired on the BBC depicted them in ways that they felt were racist and at times censorious, according to public posts they have made...
Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R) is trying to use transphobia to turn people against marriage equality in the state, repeating the strategy she used last year in her failed run for governor. Earle-Sears has emerged as a leader among anti-LGBTQ+ advocates fighting ...
This story originally appeared on The Advocate.While politicians continue to target transgender people and shift their positions, Megan Rapinoe remains steadfast in her support for trans athletes.On the Who’s With Me? podcast, the soccer legend and out lesbian was asked by host W...
Minnesota passed legislation in 2023 to establish itself as a “trans refuge” state, but now a transgender teenager and his mother are left suing Essentia Health, a regional healthcare system in the state, after they terminated his gender-affirming care with no notice or explanati...
This story originally appeared on The Advocate.A new Human Rights Campaign report estimates that 12 percent of U.S. adults are LGBTQ+, a higher share than several widely cited estimates. But the federal government is removing the questions the HRC report and similar research reli...
In June 1993, Newsweek ran a cover featuring two embracing women sporting pearls, denim, and outdated haircuts with a single bolded word above their heads: Lesbians. The mere existence of these women-loving-women was news unto itself – and cover-worthy news at that. I don't remem...
A Georgia librarian filed a federal lawsuit this week against the county and regional library system that fired her after she included a children’s book about a transgender boy in a library display. In her lawsuit, filed earlier this week in the Southern District of Georgia, LaVo...
It was impossible not to feel your heart warm when watching a video of actors Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen together. Their friendship was warm, with a level of camaraderie, candor and care, that any of us deserve, and that many coveted. But they weren’t just friends, they wer...
Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. often preached that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Change, he asserted, takes a long time, but if we stay committed for the long-haul, we can bring it about. I believe that King envisioned the path toward ...
More than 130 million names have been struck from India’s electoral rolls during a sweeping voter-list revision under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. For transgender people and other LGBTQ Indians, the process has raised fears of exclusion from the ballot, particularly among those ...
BIDDEFORD, Maine — Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau on Wednesday said U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) “should not be underestimated.” “I’m not going to count her out,” the gay Democrat told the Washington Blade during an interview in Biddeford, an old textile mill city near the...
This story originally appeared on Out.In announcing his death at age 86, the official X account for legendary actor Sir Patrick Stewart rightly called him an activist for human rights. William Shatner, Stewart's costar in Star Trek: Generations, also praised Stewart for his "deep...
Renowned British actor Patrick Stewart, a gay rights ally who was perhaps best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the science-fiction TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor Charles Xavier in several films in the X-Men superhero franchise, died today at t...
With less than a week before the midterm elections, Republicans are claiming that Democrats want to force children to transition, a wildly untrue claim with no basis in reality. Republicans have spent nearly $200 million on anti-trans ads this election cycle election, even though...
In a live TV interview, British-American journalist Mehdi Hasan repeatedly called anti-LGBTQ+ Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) a racist bigot and asked her if she was a drunk. The exchange occurred when they both appeared on the Thursday installment of Piers Morgan Uncensored, a news talk ...
Dolores Huerta, a tireless advocate for human rights well into her 90s, died of cancer on Wednesday at her home in California, her family said in a statement announcing her death. She was 96. Huerta is perhaps best known for co-founding the United Farm Workers (UFW) union with Ch...
While campaigning for Democratic US Senate candidate Scott Colom in Mississippi, out former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recalled an experience with Colom's opponent, incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), from his time in the Biden administration. Buttigieg spent muc...
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had the audience laughing with a clever joke at the expense of current Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth while speaking at an event supporting out congressional candidate, Cait Conley, in New York. "Speaker [Mike] Johnson sent them [mem...
Police in Bahawalnagar, Pakistan, have arrested two men in connection with the death of a transgender woman who had previously filed a harassment complaint against them. Local officials with Bahawalnagar’s City B Division Police Station say the victim, Zoya Malik, was attacked by...
Cosplayer Clara Tan was on her way home to the state of New York from an event in California when she was aggressively taken into ICE custody at the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport without being shown the warrant. After a suspected broken foot with no m...
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — Poodle Beach has long been a draw for LGBTQ visitors to this popular beach town and on Thursday, the state of Delaware officially took notice. A large crowd gathered on the boardwalk at 11 a.m. under a perfect blue sky to witness the dedication of a new Sta...
Barack Obama brutally mocked the Trump administration for its dramatic response to his joke about the president's design aesthetic while ignoring the former president's criticisms of its actual policies affecting Americans. While campaigning for Democrats in Cleveland last week, ...
What if there were magic in the world, and it could give us the power to attain the things we long for in this life? That’s the question we are asked to contemplate in “Wicker,” the new film from co-writer/directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, which adapts Ursula Witt...
Early voting, and polls, give hope Democrats could have a great day next Tuesday. But I have been disappointed before. Clearly, many polls were wrong in the last presidential election, and in this year’s primaries. So, it all comes down to who comes out to vote. Democrats have ru...
This story is based on LGBTQ Nation interviews with John Kyper in October and in 2025, and includes recollections from a history of his deportation that he shared with Left History in 2008. John Kyper was just a hippie hitchhiker traveling to Canada. But a backpack filled with co...
A group of North Carolina drag queens have issued cease-and-desist orders to the funders of a political ad for Republican Jennifer Balkcom after being depicted as deepfaked versions of themselves dancing with Democratic opponent Jamie Ager.The ad in question, which was approved b...
Nine months ago, in January of 2026, I penned a column that advocated for gender affirming care among trans youth. Providing gender affirming care to trans youth is an issue that I care deeply about, mainly because I understand and know the suffering that young trans people can f...
By Marnina Miller 12 years ago, on October 23, 2014, Positive Women’s Network-USA (PWN-USA) joined Venita Ray and Morénike Giwa Onaiw, PhD in creating Day of Action to End Violence Against Women Living With HIV. They created this day in honor of Elisha Henson and Cicely Bolden, t...
A female student who was banned from playing the male lead role in her high school musical filed a lawsuit against the school district on Monday, alleging she was discriminated against based on Title IX. Ana Mota, a 17-year-old senior at South Grand Prairie High School, was initi...
A Virginia pastor is suing to invalidate a state ballot measure asking voters to remove the state’s 2006 constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and to add a right to marry regardless of a partner’s sex, gender, or race. Filed by the Founding Freedoms Law Center on behalf of Past...
How’s this for a game of Gay Mad Libs? RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Briar Blush has been engaged in a bitter, weeklong back-and-forth with rapper Azealia Banks on X. The Twitter drama began with season 18 contestant Briar commenting on another female rapper, namely the MAGA-fied...
Here's a real headline that ran on Advocate yesterday: "Democrats haven’t yet won control of Congress, but their retreat on trans rights is already underway." A retreat? Considering how strong Democrats have stood on trans issues at the federal level since the wave of anti-trans ...
A court in New York rejected a claim last week from a religious clothing retailer that her constitutional rights were violated when she was fined for refusing to sell a wedding jumpsuit to a lesbian woman. She'll now have to pay $5,000 in damages and a $20,000 fine. It all starte...
(Originally posted October 8, 2026) Five states have ballot measures in the 2026 midterm elections that target the health, safety, and well-being of LGBTQ people, youth and families. If passed, the ballot measures would also have negative impacts on other vulnerable youth and on ...
This story originally appeared on The Advocate.Dolores Huerta, the labor rights activist, civil rights leader, and United Farm Workers co-founder, died Wednesday surrounded by family at her home in Bakersfield, California. She was 96.Family spokesperson Erik Olvera told The Assoc...
This year, the Human Rights Campaign found that a record-breaking 12% of U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ, representing about 25.6 million people, according to a study of U.S. Census data. This record-high figure, combined with declining approval ratings for President Donald Trump, ...
When New York Times reporter Jeffrey Schmalz collapsed at his desk in the paper's newsroom, just days before Christmas in 1990, few of his colleagues knew for certain that he was gay – he'd only shared that fact with a close circle of friends and family – and none were aware he h...
Someone has been sending mailers and text messages to millions of Texas voters claiming to be from a transgender organization. The mailers, addressed to children in the households, appear to be designed to stir up anger at trans people just before the midterm elections. Now lawye...
The Office of Mayor Muriel Bowser hosted the 39th annual High Heel Race on Tuesday, a drag tradition that began back on Halloween 1986. LGBTQ+ Halloween celebrations often have rich local histories — from Florida’s Wicked Manors to New York City’s Greenwich Village Parade. For Wa...
Trans people have become a major focus of political discussion in recent years, and as candidates across the political spectrum run anti-trans ads, the work of trans journalists is crucial. But several trans journalists spoke out recently about the danger inherent in their work i...
This story originally appeared on Out.Here's a twist just in time for Halloween.HBO Max has cast a cisgender male actor who made waves for playing a 14-year-old trans athlete in its new Harry Potter television series.The irony is that since 2020, the creator of the upcoming serie...
Bry Sharland thinks of his Pink Triangle Portraits project as a quest. It’s a quest not only to memorialize the lives of queer people who were persecuted by the Nazis, but also to celebrate them and to capture the queer joy they experienced in spite of their suffering. Related Ru...
The Department of Justice is suing a Maryland School District for allegedly "facilitating the secret 'transitioning' of children’s 'gender identity' at school without their parents’ knowledge or consent, in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act [FERPA]." Anne...
Uncloseted Media published this story on Oct. 28. This story was reported in partnership with The 19th, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. By BROOKE MIGDON | Max Sorgenfrey was sipping a coffee at a cafe in Charleston, S.C., in early October when her p...
Political scientists decided to test the conservative claim that kicking transgender women out of women’s sports is primarily motivated by a desire to protect cisgender women. Their findings? Not quite true.As the researchers wrote for The Conversation, “individuals with the most...
Anti-trans activists were ejected from a National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) match on Friday after unveiling a large "Save Women's Sports" banner and anti-trans t-shirts halfway through the game. According to right-wing outlet Outkick, a part of Fox News, the protest in Portlan...
A Republican activist is sounding the alarm in Maine, saying that Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) hammered the nails in her own campaign's coffin by running a terrible ad that mocks Maine loggers. "The race is over," concluded Sam Patten, a former Collins staffer and the editor of a co...
With Election Day a week away, it seems all that Republicans want to talk about is transgender people. The data firm AdImpact has been keeping a tally of issues-based political ads in the midterm election cycle and says that Republicans have spent $183 million on television ads t...
By JESSICA CALEFATI and JUSTIN FENTON | The U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division on Tuesday sued Anne Arundel County’s Board of Education, claiming the district secretly allowed students to change their gender without their parents’ knowledge or consent. The Trump a...
Sophia Hutchins, the 29-year-old MAGA supporting transgender woman who was once rumored to be the girlfriend of right-wing trans conservative millionaire Caitlyn Jenner, recently died in an accident while driving an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) near Jenner's condo in Malibu, Califor...
Voters are facing a number of ballot questions this year in Virginia and Maryland. Question 2 in Virginia would codify marriage rights for same-sex couples in the state Constitution. Question 3 in Maryland would grant state lawmakers more authority to redistrict congressional dis...
Comedian Adam Conover shared that his dating app bio says “bisexual” in response to a question from Nicole Byer about whether he is “queer-identified.”While not a formal coming out, the actor — known for Adam Ruins Everything and his own podcast Factually! —has been increasingly ...
Currently, Republicans hold a majority across the federal government, with control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, alongside a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court. That control has allowed the Trump-Vance administration to pursue an aggressive policy...
A Republican city councilmember in Dallas who participated in an ad denouncing a Democratic candidate as "dangerous" to children due to her support of trans rights was found guilty of child endangerment in connection with driving while under the influence. The ad shows Dallas Cen...
MANCHESTER, N.H. — New Hampshire Congressman Chris Pappas on Monday said he has “campaigned authentically as myself” in the campaign to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). “I’m really proud of who I am, but [I am] more proud of the fact that New Hampshire embraces...
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research arm of the Department of Justice, has put out a call for researchers to study an alleged connection between gender dysphoria and violent crime. A successful application will lead to up to $1 million in federal funding to “Gene...
The White House tried to make Democrats look bad with an AI-generated video just a week before Election Day, but social media users are saying that the clip just makes Democrats look awesome. The deepfake video shows well-known Democrats – including Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton...
This story originally appeared on The Advocate.Lane Rasberry likes to wear the color blue. Only blue. Years ago, a fortune teller said another color would play a role in his death, and Rasberry hasn’t taken chances since.The habit has inspired a cheeky online username, Bluerasber...
