The CEO of an anti-trans clothing company is trying to bribe professional women’s soccer players into speaking out against trans athletes – but none of them are taking her up on it.
Jennifer Sey, a retired artistic gymnast who won the 1986 National Gymnastics Championship, runs the anti-trans clothing company XX-XY Athletics, which donates money from each purchase to organizations fighting against trans inclusion in sports.
Sey regularly spouts anti-trans rhetoric on social media and recently wrote that she’d give $10,000 to the next player in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) “to stand up in defense of keeping women’s soccer female.”
“A full-throated defense,” she emphasized. “A press conference. Nothing mealy-mouthed.”
Her offer aimed to build on an anti-trans New York Postessay by NWSL player Elizabeth Eddy in the wake of her team, the Angel City Football Club, signing an intersex player. Eddy claimed to be fighting for the “integrity of women’s sports.” In other words, she was arguing to exclude trans and intersex players from women’s leagues.
After Sey’s post, others offered to add money to the pot. Two anonymous people added $5,000, and Clay Travis – founder of the anti-LGBTQ+ sports site Outkick – offered $15,000, bringing the total to $35,000.
But according to Out, not a single player has taken Sey up on her offer. What’s more, there are reportedly no trans players currently in the league.
In fact, after Eddy published her essay, Angel City captain Sarah Gorden and vice captain Angelina Anderson spoke out in support of trans athletes.
“That article does not speak for this team and this locker room,” Gorden said during an October 30 press conference.
She said her teammates were “hurt,” “harmed,” and “disgusted” by Eddy’s words.
“We don’t agree with the things written, for a plethora of reasons, but mostly the undertones come across as transphobic and racist as well.” (The essay used a photo of cisgender woman player Barbra Banda, who is from Zambia.)
Anderson added that Angel City “is a place for everyone” and that Los Angeles is “a place that was founded upon inclusivity and love for all people.”
Sey, on the other hand, appeared on Fox News after Eddy published her essay to claim that there are “several males” in the NWSL. She then claimed Banda, who plays for the Orlando Pride, is a man.
The NWSL does not have a formal policy when it comes to gender eligibility, which has earned the league criticism from folks on all sides of the debate.
“You have to take a stance,” sports writer Julie Kliegman told The Athletic. “It has to be clear, it has to be transparent, and it has to be inclusive. Otherwise, this neutral ground isn’t really so neutral, because it’s leaving room for players like Eddy to steer the conversation.”
Queer spaces have long been tied to nightlife culture, born from necessity in bars and clubs where safety and community were first found. But what started as a sanctuary has, for some, become a source of harm. As rates of addiction, relapse, and overdose climb across the LGBTQ+ population, we must reckon with an uncomfortable truth: celebration shouldn’t come at the cost of our lives.
This is not a call to ban alcohol from queer spaces. This is a call for balance, choices, and inclusive celebration that embraces sobriety as more than just abstinence but as joy, vitality, and connection on our own terms.
The Queer Addiction Crisis
A 2020 study from the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that LGBTQ adults are more than twice as likely to experience substance use disorders as their heterosexual peers. Rates among transgender individuals are even higher, driven by disproportionate levels of stigma, trauma, and mental health challenges. Among queer men, the use of methamphetamine, particularly in the context of sex, remains a pressing public health concern.
Experts point to three main reasons: community norms that normalize heavy use; expectations that partying is part of queer life; and the ongoing trauma and stress of discrimination. The COVID-19 pandemic only deepened the crisis. Isolated and vulnerable, many LGBTQ individuals relapsed or found themselves using more to cope.
A Movement Takes Root
In 2009, a group of newly sober gay men in Manhattan attended a church-basement dance on Pride weekend. The event was meant to be a safe space, but the atmosphere was somber, the crowd sparse. As fireworks lit up the Hudson River, one of them asked, “Why isn’t there something big and fun for us?”
That question sparked a movement. The following year, that same group pooled their resources and threw a sober Pride party they dubbed “The Wild West.” It was rowdy, vibrant, and completely alcohol-free. Over 300 people showed up.
Since then, the organization has grown into one of the largest sober LGBTQ+ event producers in the world. What began as a single party has evolved into a full-fledged nonprofit that now hosts events in Fire Island, Amsterdam, and Tennessee, with plans to soon expand to London. The decision to host an event in Tennessee was both political and personal, as queer people living in states hostile to LGBTQ+ rights also deserve queer and sober safe spaces. Similarly, the London expansion was prompted by rising rates of methamphetamine use in the city’s gay male population.
More Than Just Abstinence
Gay & Sober isn’t about replacing one scene with another. It’s about reimagining what joy can look like when it’s not filtered through a substance.
In fact, not everyone who attends these events identifies as being in recovery. Today, an estimated 10% of attendees are “sober curious,” or people who want to explore a life without substances, even if they don’t use the language of addiction. Another 10% are allies or loved ones. The remaining 80% come from traditional 12-step backgrounds.
Gay & Sober’s programming reflects this diversity. The annual conference includes workshops on sober dating, sexual health, meditation, trauma recovery, and more. Keynote speakers have included folks ranging from The Velvet Rageauthor Dr. Alan Downs to former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson and designer Marc Jacobs.
Whether someone is newly sober, curious about quitting, or thirty years into recovery, the message is the same: you belong here. You deserve joy. And you don’t have to do it alone.
Pushback and Progress
The journey hasn’t been without criticism. Some old-school AA members have balked at the party atmosphere. “Go-go dancers at a sober event?” one detractor asked. Others raised concerns about sexual energy being triggering, particularly for those recovering from chemsex addiction.
Gay & Sober responded not by scaling back but by expanding. They introduced programming to directly address these issues: workshops on sober intimacy, boundaries, and harm reduction; guided meditations; and peer-led recovery circles.
Sobriety doesn’t mean sitting quietly in the corner while the rest of the world celebrates. It doesn’t mean exclusion from queer joy, culture, or community. It means agency. It means safety. It means showing up to your life fully present, fiercely proud, and radically alive. As Gay & Sober continues to grow, one thing is clear: the future of queer nightlife includes sober spaces. And that future is already here.
Because addiction may be dark, but recovery can be electric.
Mario Moreno is an alumnus of Gay & Sober, since its creation on Facebook in 2009, and has been involved in their annual conference as Volunteer Coordinator (2018-2019, 2021) and as Co-Chair (2022).
President Donald Trump just nominated transphobic Indiana attorney Justin Olson to serve as a federal judge in the Indiana Southern District Court. Olson works with the so-called Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) to sue universities and the NCAA for their trans-inclusive sports policies.
In a social media post announcing Olson’s nomination, Trump wrote, “Graduating magna cum laude from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Justin previously distinguished himself at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Indianapolis and, as a litigator, has been fighting tirelessly to keep men out of women’s sports.”
Olson is a lead lawyer in an anti-trans lawsuit financed by ICONS representing three former University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) women swimmers who sued UPenn, Harvard University, the Ivy League (an athletic conference of eight private universities, including UPenn and Harvard), and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
The lawsuit alleges that the universities and NCAA violated Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based educational discrimination, by allowing trans swimmer Lia Thomas to compete on UPenn’s women’s swim team during 2021 and 2022, Daily Journal reported, something which left the plaintiffs “repeatedly emotionally traumatized.” The suit seeks a total ban on trans female athletes — citing opportunities “lost” and “taken” from trans women who allegedly “displaced” cis women “unfairly.”
“The UPenn administrators went on to tell the [plaintiffs] that if the women spoke publicly about their concerns about Thomas’ participation on the Women’s Team, the reputation of those complaining about Thomas being on the team would be tainted with transphobia for the rest of their lives and they would probably never be able to get a job,’” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit wants the NCAA to “render invalid and reassign and revise all awards, records, points, prizes, titles, trophies announcements or other recognition assigned, given announced, communicate or recognized by the NCAA which were based in any way upon the competitive results or participation of any male who competed in women’s events.”
Last June, UPenn stripped Thomas of her athletic swimming records and adopted an anti-trans sports ban, after pressure from the current presidential administration.
Olson is also an attorney in ICONS’ lawsuit against San Jose State University (SJSU) and the Mountain West Conference for allowing a trans volleyball player to participate in collegiate matches. The player — who participated for three seasons without any issues over her participation — didn’t cause any unfair advantage or injuries, but the lawsuit claims her presence still stifled other female athletes’ “free speech.”
The U.S. Department of Education is currently investigating SJSU for the situation.
ICONS has also used its social media to demean three successful high school trans girls, and collegiate track athlete Sadie Schreiner, referring to them as “men” and “cheaters,” even though each was fully eligible to compete by the regulations of the respective governing bodies of their event, Outsportsreported.
Olson’s legal efforts align with that of the Trump administration
This past February, Trump signed an executive order to block federal funding for schools that allow trans girls and women to participate in school sports as their authentic selves, and the order told the DOJ to prosecute schools that allow trans students to play sports. Additionally, the order pressured all national and international governing sports bodies to also ban trans athletes.
President Joe Biden’s administration interpreted Title IX as a law prohibiting anti-trans discrimination since it’s impossible to discriminate on the basis of gender identity without taking sex into account. That is, banning trans girls from playing school sports but not cis girls, solely because of their sex assigned at birth, is the kind of discrimination that Title IX was intended to prevent, the previous administration believed.
The current administration is arguing that allowing trans girls to play school sports takes away “critical visibility for college scholarships and recognition” from cis girls, who are also “denied awards” if trans girls win. Trump and ICONS have baselessly claimed that trans athletes endanger girls and women’s safety, echoing transphobic smears that encourage violence against trans people and their allies.
Hours after being sworn in for a second term, President Donald Trump used his constitutionally vested powers to define “man” and “woman.” In an executive order, he said his administration would recognize only two immutable, biological sexes, determined at conception, in the name of “defending women” from a rising scourge: “gender ideology.”
It was the first-ever use of the phrase in an official White House statement, but it wasn’t new. Over the last decade, the fear of “gender ideology” has been used to mobilize right-wing movements from Argentina to Poland to Turkey. Now it’s a part of American parlance, too. It appeared in federal legislation in 2022, and Republicans have wielded it ever since to attack health care, picture books, and pronouns.
Like critical race theory and “wokeness,” “gender ideology” is both a bogeyman for the right and a reactionary backlash to social progress. The expression is generally used to scorn the idea that gender is a social construct different from biological sex (a distinction that has existed in the United States since at least the mid-20th century). For many people, this isn’t an ideology at all—just lived experience. But the Heritage Foundation describes “gender ideology” as a form of brainwashing: “the belief that children can be born in the wrong body,” which “inspires opaque proclamations like ‘transwomen are women.’”
In the right’s telling, the origins of this supposed ideology are varied: It is false consciousness, a leftist lie, a plot by globalist elites, a spiritual affront to the Lord—or all of these things combined. These ascribed meanings are both capacious and inconsistent, and that ambiguity is key to its weaponization. By condensing a range of anxieties into a single enemy, the phrase produces “existential fear”—your core values are under attack!—that “can then be exploited” by authoritarians, as philosopher Judith Butler argues in their 2024 book, Who’s Afraid of Gender?
The right seeks to cast gender identity not as something you are, but as something dangerous that you believe.
Butler traces the term’s provenance to the 1990s, when conservative Catholics began warning that the very concept of “gender” had subverted God’s will and “inspired ideologies” that were imperiling the nuclear family. In a 2004 letter to bishops, the Vatican decried homosexuality, railed against feminists for making women “adversaries” of men, and reaffirmed binary masculinity and femininity as the purest expression of God’s love. Any subversion of traditional gender roles wasn’t merely sinful. It wrought a culture, the Vatican said, that corrupted society at large.
The idea of a cancerous gender ideology really took off in the mid-2010s, appearing first in political debates in predominantly Catholic Latin American countries, and later getting cited by some of the world’s most notorious right-wing authoritarian leaders.
Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro—recently convicted of plotting a coup to stay in power—pledged in his 2019 inauguration speech to “combat gender ideology and rescue our values.” In an address to US Republicans at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán likened its spread to a foreign invasion. “We had to build not just a physical wall on our borders,” he said, “but a legal wall around our children to protect them from the ‘gender ideology’ that targets them.” Russia’s Vladimir Putin has repeatedly claimed that the notion of “gender freedoms” is a “decadent” threat, imported from the West.
The MAGA right deploys the phrase as an allegory for a broad liberal agenda it claims is polluting the nation—the idea is that trans people are part of “a corrupt elite that [have] imposed a whole bunch of ideologies from the top down on ‘regular people,’” explains Jules Gill-Peterson, a scholar of transgender history at Johns Hopkins University.
Trump famously exploited that notion to rally his base, pinning economic hardship on trans people. One notable campaign ad opened with the line “Kamala supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners,” and concluded with: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.” More recently, as the federal government shutdown caused SNAP benefits to lapse, the Trump administration saw an opportunity to blame trans people and immigrants for the imminent hunger of 42 million Americans. “Senate Democrats are withholding services to the American people in exchange for healthcare for illegals, gender mutilation, and other unknown ‘leverage’ points,” read a banner on the US Department of Agriculture’s website.
The right’s gripe isn’t just that trans people exist, but that their existence is tearing down the old world—of good men, obedient women, traditional family structures—and unleashing a new, godless age of chaos and precarity on you. Never mind that this idealized past of “American values” never existed. Trump and his allies stoke the fear of a false history’s destruction so they can, as Butler writes, “enter as forces of redemption and restoration.”
This is why Trump’s executive order promises specifically to “protect” women. And why the right echoes the rhetoric of trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs), who have been some of the loudest voices calling for the eradication of “gender ideology.”
“There is a benefit for right-wing anti-feminist groups in adopting and legitimizing themselves [with] the vocabularies provided by feminism,” Sophie Lewis, author of Enemy Feminisms, told me. But, she notes, it’s not as straightforward as “a co-optation or a weaponization or a sort of bad-faith borrowing.” The same extinction panic animates TERFs and Republican politicians alike. Both claim trans people pose an eliminationist threat, endangering not just women’s physical safety, but womanhood as we know it.
This perceived existential battle is, in part, why the anti-trans movement has focused so much of its attention on children. Stripping trans kids of gender-affirming health care and banning certain books and curricula are part of how the right attempts to enact its vision for the nation’s future.
Of late, the anti-trans messaging has grown increasingly sinister. Prominent Republicans now frequently peddle the lie that trans people are violent, dangerous, and out for blood. Donald Trump Jr. has called trans people, who make up about 1 percent of the US population, “the most violent domestic terror threat, if not in America, probably [in] the entire world.” In September, conservative commentator Megyn Kelly claimed trans activists and individuals have “been running around killing Americans in the name of transgender ideology.”
With its hateful rhetoric, the right seeks to cast gender identity not as something you are, but as something dangerous that you believe. An escalating regime of persecution and repression is therefore justified; we aren’t against trans people, just their ideology. Yet the end goal is the same: to wipe out transness itself.
Alastair Campbell has claimed senior BBC officials are “in the JK Rowling camp” when it comes to trans rights, following claims the organisation has a ‘pro-trans’ bias.
The 68-year-old journalist and former Labour strategist claimed he has often had “stand-up rows” with a large portion of the broadcaster’s senior staff, who he says share ‘gender-critical’ views.
It comes after BBC director general Tim Davie resigned over a leaked internal memo accusing the BBC of misleading viewers by editing a speech by US president Donald Trump.
Ex-BBC advisor Michael Prescott also claimed in the memo that the BBC was pushing a “pro trans agenda” by allegedly censoring content on LGBTQ+ issues.
Speaking with co-host and former Tory MP, Rory Stewart, during a livestream of his podcast, The Rest is Politics, Campbell said: “On transgender [people], I’ve had some stand up rows with really senior people at the BBC who are so far over in the kind of JK Rowling camp.
“And I think most young people – I’m not pretending I’m young here Rory, but I do talk to a lot of young people – I think they think on the trans issue that the BBC is the opposite of what Michael Prescott’s report is saying that it is.”
JK Rowling’s views on trans rights are well-documented and she regularly expresses her ‘gender-critical’ views online.
Criticism of BBC’s trans coverage
The BBC has, over the past few years, regularly faced criticism for its coverage of trans issues, with campaigners claiming it is institutionally anti-trans.
Most infamously was its October 2021 article spuriously claiming that cisgender lesbians were being “pressured” into having sex with trans women.
The article cites three anonymous cis women who claimed they had faced harassment for only dating “biologically female” women.
In the article, the BBC referenced a poll by gender-critical campaign group Get the L Out, which reported that 56 per cent of people had been pressured into having sex with trans women. The poll had a sample size of just eighty anonymous users on X/Twitter.
It faced further criticism in 2024 after featuring quotes from the Bayswater Support Group, an organisation infamous for its support of so-called conversion therapy.
Earlier that year, a report from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ)uncovered leaked messages from Bayswater’s internal forums showing members admitting they are “abusive” towards their children.
PinkNews has contacted the BBC press office for comment.
As Transgender Day of Remembrance approaches on November 20, a stark new report from Advocates for Trans Equality reveals the extent of the violence, erasure, and institutional abandonment confronting transgender Americans and the resilience of a community determined to survive it.
The 2025 Remembrance Report, prepared by A4TE’s public education team and seen exclusively by The Advocate, documents 27 violent deaths of transgender and gender-nonconforming people over the last year and 21 deaths by suicide, a devastating pattern that has become grimly familiar.
Sixty-one percent of the transgender people lost to suicide were between ages 15 and 24, a finding the report connects directly to the dismantling of youth protections, the loss of crisis resources such as the LGBTQ-specific 988 suicide crisis line option 3 ended by the Trump administration in June, and the continued spread of misinformation about gender identity from the highest levels of government.
“We are in an extraordinary moment in the fight for trans lives,” the report warns, describing a federal landscape in which crucial health research has been censored, civil rights protections rolled back, and references to transgender people stripped from public-facing government resources.
In January, when President Donald Trump returned to office, he issued a series of executive orders forcing federal agencies to cease recognizing trans and nonbinary people.
In an interview with The Advocate, Bahari Thomas, A4TE’s director of public education, stated that the report’s findings reflect structural truths that have long shaped the lives of transgender people in the United States.
“At the intersections of racism, transphobia, and misogyny, we have these disproportionate impacts on Black trans women,” Thomas said. “Not only when it comes to physical violence, but also other forms of violence — lack of access to resources, housing, jobs — things that really impact their ability to thrive.”
Heightened toll for Black trans women
The report found that 15 of the 17 transgender women of color killed this year were Black, underscoring a pattern that has persisted for more than a decade.
Gun violence accounted for 17 of the 27 violent deaths, including the killing of Washington, D.C.’sDream Johnson, a Black trans woman shot after men reportedly hurled anti-trans slurs at her.
Thomas cautioned that the data should be read not as isolated tragedies but as a measure of where the country stands.
“If we are not protecting the most marginalized of us, then who is protected at all?” they said. “When we lift up the most marginalized of us, including Black trans women, then we can all be lifted up by that.”
The report also identifies a pervasive crisis of intimate partner violence. Forty percent of violent deaths involved partners or people the victims trusted, including the widely reported case of Sam Nordquist, a Black trans man in New York whose torture and killing drew national scrutiny after police ignored multiple requests from his family to perform wellness checks.
Erasure as a policy position
The data arrives in an era when the federal government has adopted an explicit strategy of erasing transgender people from public life. The report documents how transgender health information has vanished from the Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention platforms, how research initiatives were halted or removed, and how agencies were directed to avoid acknowledging transgender identities across their programs.
“When the majority of folks don’t know a trans person, and they’re fed the idea that trans people don’t exist, it furthers this marginalization,” they said. “It opens a door to further discrimination.”
That erasure reverberates in the lives of young people. The report’s suicide data aligns with the Trevor Project’s findings on youth mental health, which show steep declines in well-being when care is restricted, affirming adults are scarce, or policymakers send overt signals that transgender young people should disappear.
“When we take away some of our fundamental rights to medically necessary health care, it tells young people that the adults who are supposed to be responsible for their well-being do not have their backs,” Thomas said. “Being a young person is hard enough.”
A fractured relationship with the police
The report also highlights the deep distrust between transgender communities and law enforcement. According to the U.S. Trans Survey, 62 percent of respondents said they were uncomfortable seeking help from police due to their gender identity. Those fears were reinforced by cases like those of Linda Becerra Moran and Rick Alastor Newman, both of whom were shot and killed by police officers this year.
Thomas acknowledged the impossible calculations many transgender people face when violence comes from someone they know.
“In some cases, law enforcement does fail us,” they said. “I hope that there are other networks of support — chosen family, nonprofits, domestic violence advocates — that can work in tandem with law enforcement. It’s a tough thing to navigate for trans folks, for Black folks in particular, for immigrants.”
What allies need to do now
As Transgender Day of Remembrance approaches, Thomas emphasized that allyship is less a state of being than an ongoing practice — one that must be exercised even in small, private moments.
“You don’t need to know everything about what it means to be trans to say, ‘Hey, maybe show that person some respect,’” they said. Much of that work involves interrupting misinformation “at the dinner table, at school,” or anywhere harmful rhetoric is repeated. “When each person does that, it grows to what can be a mass scale.”
However, Thomas also emphasized that TDOR must allow room not only for mourning but also for possibility.
“Trans Day of Remembrance is not just about honoring the folks who have passed,” they said. “It is also about celebrating the possibilities of the future… an era when we can live free from violence.”
To foster that collective resilience, A4TE will host “Give Them Their Flowers: A Trans Community Gathering,” a virtual, intergenerational event open to the public and featuring community elders, artists, and youth leaders from 6 to 7 p.m. Eastern on November 20.
If you or someone you know needs mental health resources and support, please call, text, or chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or visit988lifeline.org for 24/7 access to free and confidential services. Trans Lifeline, designed for transgender or gender-nonconforming people, can be reached at (877) 565-8860. The lifeline also provides resources to help with other crises, such as domestic violence situations. The Trevor Project Lifeline, for LGBTQ+ youth (ages 24 and younger), can be reached at (866) 488-7386. Users can also access chat services at TheTrevorProject.org/Help or text START to 678678.
Ethan Brignac, a transgender student at Wylie East High School, has been “Ethan” since seventh grade — to his friends, family and teachers. When he reached high school, his dad further validated his chosen name by requesting “Ethan” be used in school records, including in his email, class rosters and ID, which his teachers honored until this fall.
Three weeks after Brignac started his senior year, Wylie East administrators called him to the library and gave him a new ID. On it, in white capital letters, was a name he hadn’t been called in five years.
“In the first week of school, when I was kind of trying to convince my teachers to call me Ethan, I was like, ‘Hey, look, it’s still on my ID,’” said Brignac, who did not want The Texas Tribune to publish his birth name because it causes him discomfort. “Then one of my teachers this year said, ‘Okay, they’re gonna fix that soon.’”
Now, he said, some teachers seem to wedge his legal name into every interaction, outing him to peers and resurrecting the dread he felt before school records reflected his chosen name.
“It was definitely a big change having my deadname kind of sprawled everywhere,” Brignac said, referring to a derogatory practice of calling a trans person by their birth name. “It was like, wow, okay, that wasn’t just a social media post I saw, this is real life.”
A Wylie spokesperson said the move was “to ensure full compliance with state law, including Senate Bill 12.”
A sweeping piece of legislation that went into effect Sept. 1, SB 12 bars public school employees from socially transitioning a student, which it defines as helping to change a student’s sex assigned at birth by using a different name, pronoun or other practice that denies the birth sex. Dubbed the “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” the law allows guardians to report school-supported social transitioning to the school board, among other powers.
The law also prohibits K-12 faculty from referencing LGBTQ+ identities in class instruction and casual conversations, and it bans school-sanctioned clubs that center sexual orientation or gender identity.
Several transgender students at Texas schools that enforce birth names told the Tribune the new policies have transformed school from a place of support to one that rejects who they are. Considered a derogatory practice in the LGBTQ+ community, dead-naming undermines the wishes of trans people and in some cases, forcibly reveals their trans identity, which can cause or worsen mental health problems among these children, studies have found.
Some parents of trans Texas students say they are frustrated because the law appears to ignore their rights for those of other guardians. A few of these parents joined advocacy and teacher groups to file a lawsuit against SB 12 in August, seeking to pause districts from enforcing the law while the case proceeds.
Parents who support SB 12 say the law boosts their role in their children’s education. Many of them want to erase LGBTQ+ topics from K-12 schools, saying they prompt children to question their identities or that schools force progressive views onto their kids.
“We live in an insane world where a school board has to remind teachers that they cannot tell children, you know, suggest to kids they might be homosexual or they might be actually a girl if they’re a biological male,” said Jeffrey Keech, whose children go to Wylie schools. “It’s unbelievable to me that this even is an issue.”
The Tribune contacted two dozen districts across the state, including districts in the Austin, Houston and San Antonio areas, and spoke with a dozen teachers, parents and transgender students about how schools are implementing SB 12, finding that administrators are taking varied approaches. This is because the law leaves the Texas Education Agency and school districts to decide how to implement it, said Rachel Moran, a law professor at Texas A&M University who directs the education law program.
Some Texas school districts and boards, like Wylie, have adopted policies to ban teachers from aiding in social transitioning, but many have not yet — and are still allowing teachers to honor students’ preferred names and pronouns.
TEA would not respond to questions about how school districts are implementing SB 12, how many districts have complied with the law or deadlines for doing so.
Moran said schools might adopt hard-line policies to shield themselves from retribution.
“This is true with any broad mandate — some are going to be overcomplying,” she said. “It has a real chilling effect. They’re afraid to get anywhere close to a perceived line.”
Teachers told the Tribune the law leaves them anxious and confused because they are unsure when they can use nicknames or how they should respond to parents who request their children’s preferred names and pronouns be used. They lament that they won’t be able to support students who come out as queer. School district officials also worry how the policies will interfere with federal and district rules and daily affairs.
Now, Texas public school students sit in the crosshairs of debates over free speech, race, religion and gender and sexuality in school.
SB 12 is part of a slate of laws that increase oversight of K-12 schools, including new rules that mandate the Ten Commandments in classrooms and clear the way for book bans. In federal and state governments and now school board meetings, disagreements have escalated from “I don’t think that you have the right idea,” to “I don’t think you’re the right kind of person,” Moran said.
Once a place to hear diverse perspectives, she worries schools will leave children unable to tolerate different views.
“The stakes are not just whether I win or lose this particular culture war,” Moran said. “It’s whether I preserve a tradition that has been so formative of our democracy.”
School policies vary
In addition to the ban on social transitioning, SB 12 prohibits hiring, training, programs and activities centered on race, ethnicity, gender identity and sexual orientation — referenced in the law as diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives.
It also requires schools to tell parents their rights, such as allowing them access to school records and course content, and requiring that they give permission for their child to receive health care, hear lessons about sexuality and join clubs.
Among parts of the bill that confuse teachers and administrators is how to respond when parents ask that schools use their child’s preferred name and pronouns or what to call students who have already transitioned.
More than two months after the deadline to comply with SB 12, districts are implementing the bill differently.
Conner Carlow, a former registrar who now works as a classroom support specialist in the Leander school district, said faculty can continue to call students by their preferred name if that was done prior to SB 12 going into effect. However, faculty cannot use new names or new pronouns moving forward, and administrators must approve fresh changes on a case-by-case basis through a form parents submit. These updates are only allowed if they appear unrelated to social transitioning, he said.
The name change form is the only written directive Carlow has gotten regarding SB 12. Leander spokesperson Crestina Hardie would not say how the school district is handling name changes because the board has no policy about it. Hardie said the school district is waiting to enact new rules while it reviews the law and gets clarification from TEA and the district’s legal counsel.
“SB 12 deeply impacts personal and highly complex areas of school life, and the biggest challenge for districts statewide is the lack of clarity and consistency in how these laws intersect with existing Board policy, federal protections and day-to-day school operations,” Hardie said.
The Cypress-Fairbanks and Conroe school districts adopted policies that ban DEI practices and prohibit social transitioning or providing information about it.
Argyle and Academy school districts have posted parental rights resolutions, but nothing on social transitioning.
Deer Park linked SB 12 on its website, but it is unclear how the district will implement the law, including gender-affirming names and pronouns.
Wylie distributed a fact sheet advising employees to use the names and pronouns in school records and barring them from discussing race, color, ethnicity, gender identity and sexual orientation.
Although officials disagreed with parts of the law, Houston-based DRAW Academy rolled out the new rules. The 98 percent Hispanic charter district issued parental notices and consent forms, banned DEI and limited instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity, according to superintendent and CEO Patricia Beistegui.
“DRAW Academy stands for Diversity, Roots, and Wings, founded under the core belief that diversity and inclusivity is a strength in our democracy,” Beistegui said in an email. She said SB 12 is designed to make positive changes but actually revokes protections.
SB 12 and the way schools are implementing it forces teachers to blindly try to follow the law, said Charlotte Wilson, a Garland ISD special education teacher.
“It’s not clear to teachers what we can say or even do,” Wilson said, referencing instruction about race and LGBT topics. “Teachers are afraid because we don’t want to lose our certifications.”
Wilson wants a say in her children’s learning, but she thinks the law might lead teachers to skip lessons that touch on prohibited themes, undermining students’ quality of education.
“We already highlight different cultural historical events throughout the year, like MLK Day, Hispanic Heritage Month, women’s history,” Wilson said. “If we approach Pride Month the same way, as part of America’s inclusion, and communicate about what’s being taught, that shouldn’t violate anyone’s rights.”
Carlow said Leander’s bar on LGBTQ+ topics makes it hard to support his students. He remembers grappling with his sexuality as a middle schooler and how hard that was.
“I wasn’t telling my parents what was going on, so I imagine these kids aren’t either,” Carlow said. “The fact they’re willing to tell us before even the parents is a big deal, and now the fact that we have to just not accept them, I mean, it’s awful.”
“Called something I’m not”
The varied approaches to SB 12 means transgender students across Texas are experiencing different levels of alienation.
Pride flags fly and teachers use gender-affirming pronouns at Alief Early College High School, said Marshall Romero, a transgender third-year. The only change he noticed was a permission slip to join the speech and debate club.
An Alief spokesperson said the district also sent parents an opt-in and opt-out form for school health services.
Romero said the school remains largely supportive of LGTBQ+ students.
“I never had to worry about the teacher or any instructor telling me, like, ‘Hey, I can’t call you that, or I’m not going to call you that,’” Romero said. “Being able to be called by a name that reflects who I am, being called by certain pronouns, just really gives me a quality of life that I feel like I can hold on and is worth living.”
Cassie Hilborn, a Woodlands High School junior, yearns to be called her gender-affirming name at school. One of Hilborn’s earliest memories is looking in the mirror and wishing she was a girl. During the pandemic, she watched a YouTube video explaining what it meant to be transgender and finally understood why she felt misaligned with her body.
But the past year’s onslaught of transgender-focused federal and state policies stripped her confidence and dashed her plan to wear feminine clothes and ask her teachers to use her chosen name.
“It feels like every day I look at the news and then the headline just reads, ‘Sorry, more things you’ve lost,’” Hilborn said.
The Conroe school board, which governs Woodlands High School, was among the first in Texas to bar teachers from using gender-affirming names and pronouns.
At the school Dungeons & Dragons club, Hilborn’s peers and faculty adviser call her “Cassie,” but everyone else uses the legal name on her ID, which she hides under blue masking tape. She wants her classmates and teachers to know she’s transgender, but laws like SB 12 have discouraged her from coming out.
“Now, even teachers that might have respected my identity have been told that they unequivocally are not allowed to do so,” Hilborn said.
Once school records reflected Brignac’s preferred name, his grades climbed. He became president of the National Art Honor Society and founded an art mentorship program. He raised his hand so often that one teacher joked about it.
His stepmom Shannon Keene worries that being misgendered at school will thrust him back into isolation, like she saw before he entered high school.
This year’s reversal “made him feel rejected as a human being,” she said.
Having socially transitioned in seventh grade when he cut his hair and asked to go by Ethan, Brignac’s peers have been confused to hear his feminine name now used.
He’s reminded every day that his state and school deny his identity. “It’s rough being called something I’m not,” said Brignac, who now avoids talking in class.
Queer young people have disproportionate rates of depression and mental illness. But a study of 129 transgender and gender nonconforming students found that having their identities affirmed decreases symptoms of severe depression. Being called preferred names and pronouns is correlated with a drop in suicidal thoughts by 29 percent and suicidal behavior by 56 percent, according to the study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health in 2018.
Refusing to use preferred names tells transgender and nonbinary students they’re unworthy of respect, said Johnathan Gooch of Equality Texas, a nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ equality.
“It’s as if someone else picked a nickname for you that you didn’t want, a malicious nickname, that they repeatedly use despite the fact they know what you prefer to be called,” Gooch said.
Parental rights for all?
Some parents who support expelling discussions about queer identities from schools say SB 12 protects children from viewpoints that might spur them to question who they are.
Around three years ago, after Kevin Brooks’ then-middle school daughter returned from school in the Wylie district and said her friend used nonbinary pronouns, he responded: “Sweetheart, don’t buy into that foolishness.”
The army veteran thinks children are too young to learn about LGBTQ+ identities and that it confuses them to hear that gender and sexuality are spectrums, like some schools have taught.
“Why are you teaching these kids that are as young as 5 and 6 years old all this stuff that they don’t need to deal with?” Brooks said. “I told my son the other day, I wish you’d stay innocent till you’re 35 years old, because the stuff that’s going on in the world right now absolutely just, it not only mortifies me, it terrifies me. It just really pisses me off.”
Brooks hasn’t heard of teachers at Wylie discussing LGBTQ+ identities, but he’s terrified to imagine them pledging allegiance to a rainbow flag, which happened in a California classroom in 2021.
In May, Don Zimmerman participated in a protest against a transgender teacher at Cedar Ridge High School in the Round Rock district, where he lives and previously ran for the school board.
Students and at least one faculty member stood across the street with posters saying, “Y’all means all.” To Zimmerman, the faculty member’s presence is proof of schools “coaching children and encouraging them to embrace and publicly protest in favor of this transgender extremism.”
“The school is so hell bent on this agenda of promoting transgenderism and the LGBT lifestyle, …and the parents feel so powerless at stopping the public schools agenda that they go to the Legislature and get these laws passed,” said Zimmerman, who sent his third grader to private school to shield him from LGBTQ+-themed lessons.
Parents of transgender students say new policies complying with the so-called “parents’ bill of rights” are a slap in their face. Keene, Brignac’s stepmom, said policies against using gender-affirming names and pronouns pander to conservative views and hurt gender-queer children, who are 3.3 percent% of youths ages 13-17 in the U.S.
Brignac’s biological mom told the Tribune she is now seeking to change her son’s legal name so he hears Ethan when he graduates.
“I fail to see the correlation between a parent asking that their child be called by their preferred name and pronouns and providing direct instruction on gender identity,” Keene said. “It’s about control, not about rights. And it’s also just blatant disregard for a person’s sense of self. And to do that to kids is unconscionable.”
On Nov. 4, Erica Deuso made history when she became the first openly transgender mayor-elect of Pennsylvania, a milestone for inclusive political campaigns. Deuso won nearly 65% of the vote and was part of a great nightfor Democrats, with Zohran Mamdani, Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill all winning their races in New York City, Virginia and New Jersey, respectively.
Three days after she was elected, Uncloseted Media spoke with Deuso about how her political campaign strategies—which included focusing on “good neighbor” issues rather than on her gender identity—pushed her to win big.
Watch the full video above or read the transcript below.
Spencer Macnaughton: Hi everyone, I’m Spencer Macnaughton. I am joined today by Mayor-elect Erica Deuso. She is a scientist, advocate and community leader who was just elected as mayor of Downingtown, becoming the first openly transgender mayor in Pennsylvania. Mayor-elect, thank you so much for being here today.
Erica Deuso: Thank you for having me.
SM: So let’s get right into it. You won and you made history in Pennsylvania. How are you feeling?
ED: It was a very long day but we were very happy to see the results. It was a clean sweep here in Chester County. All of our statewide won, all of our countywide won, and very many of our local municipal offices won too. So we’re very pleased with that. As for me, I’m feeling a little bit overwhelmed. I looked at this as being “I’m running for mayor. I’m running to be the mayor of a small town in Pennsylvania,” and I looked at this as I knew the history, but I didn’t really know how big it was going to be. And then I took Wednesday off to sort of relax and recharge, and that’s when I started getting all the requests for interviews and talking points, phone interviews, in-person interviews, Zoom interviews. I underestimated how big this would be. So, I’m humbled by all the reactions and I’m ready to get to work.
SM: What do you mean you were surprised by how big this would be? What surprised you about the reaction?
ED: Well, you know, I’ve always looked at it like “I’m a scientist. I’m a business woman. I’m a sister, a daughter, a wife.” You know, my gender identity, myself, I don’t think about it. You know it’s been 16 years since I transitioned. So it’s not something that’s really front of mind for me anymore. And so, I came in this thinking I was gonna run on local issues: traffic, housing affordability, flooding mitigation, public safety. And that’s what I ran on. So coming into Tuesday, I knew the history, but I also knew that I didn’t run on my gender identity. And I was hoping that people around Downingtown would feel very much the same way. That they care about the kitchen table issues that face small towns all around this country. And so to see the outpouring of love and respect and just people calling from all over the country, people calling from all over the world, it’s very, very humbling to me. And I say that with as much gratitude as I can.
SM: Fantastic! And for those who don’t know, since we have a national audience, Downingtown is a small, predominantly white town of roughly 8,000 people, located in Chester County, west of Philadelphia. It typically swings Democratic, and its historical roots are in industrial and mill, as an industrial mill town, and it has a higher average household income than the national average, and typically swings Democrat. But I wanna know, what does Downingtown mean [to] you? How would you describe this town that just elected you as their mayor-elect?
ED: Well, very much like a lot of small towns, the town is defined by the people, you know? We have something very that we’re very proud of and that’s this good neighbor spirit where everybody comes out and helps everybody else. So when there’s a family in danger of poverty or housing issues, we come out as a community and support them. We had an individual who was abducted by ICE, and we’ve thrown rallies and raised money for the family, and we’re making sure that the family has what they need as far as money, food, housing, while the family patriarch is in ICE custody. When we had flooding, Hurricane Ida in 2021, historical flood, we started a program called Downingtown Strong. So we have this good neighbor spirit and that comes from the people, not the town itself. The town could be anywhere, but the people of Downingtown will always be what makes this town special.
Photos by Mark Fiske, courtesy of Deuso. Erica Deuso, Pennsylvania’s first trans mayor, pictured in Downingtown, PA.
The Political Campaign Strategies Behind Deuso’s Win
SM: And I hear you say multiple times, “good neighbor,” and I know that almost has been the slogan of your campaign, right? Tell me more about the political strategy behind the idea of branding your campaign as somebody who looks out for the good neighbor.
ED: So when I first moved here in 2007, it was before I transitioned. It was back in the aughts and people were still being discriminated [against] probably more than today. It just wasn’t news. And I was very scared. I was scared of what my neighbors would think, scared of what the town in general would think. The outpouring of love and support when I went through my transition was just amazing. So I look at this as giving back to the people who made me feel at home, made me feel welcome, even through the toughest part of my life. And I think when it comes to building my campaign, that’s where it was centered, is that I was trying to give back. Trying to thank the town for being there for me by saying that I’m going to be there for you.
SM: That’s beautiful. And take me back to when you did come out publicly. Do you have any kind of concrete examples that you can point to of when you remember the community coming around for you?
ED: So,I had a neighbor who lived across the street from me. I had just come out. She didn’t know. She knew me, but she didn’t know me well. So as I’m starting to come out, my hair’s getting longer, I’m dressing differently, I’m trying out new names and things like that. And it was winter time. She came out, we helped shovel out her car because she needed to get to work. And she asked me, “Hey, you know, what’s going on? I’ve seen a bunch of changes, but I don’t know what’s going on.” So I told her. And she’s like, “If you need anything, if you need me to stick up for you in town, if you need me to take you to a doctor’s appointment, if you need anything, just let me know.” And it was maybe a week later, we were out together, we grabbed some coffee and somebody, when I went and gave them my name, they called out, they just said, “Eric.” My friend, my new friend, who had known me basically for a week, goes up to the counter and says, “It’s Erica, get the name right.” And they turned, you know, they blushed. They said, “Oh, we’re so sorry, we got the name wrong” and everything. And I’ve never had a problem with that coffee shop since. It’s those sort of things where it’s just, if somebody misgenders you, if somebody dead names you, my community has my back.
SM: Having those people who have your back and stand up for you, Downingtown community members, how does that make you feel on an emotional level? What does it do for your mental health?
ED: It makes me feel at ease, you know. It makes me feel less tense, less anxiety. When you’re first coming out, you’re taking those first steps with trepidation. You’re wondering, “Is today going to be the day that someone’s going to call me a man? Is today the day where somebody’s going to call me out for using the bathroom at the McDonald’s, or who’s going to laugh at the way that I’m dressed or my makeup or something?” And to know that people have my back, to know I have friends and community members who are there to support and understand and learn and grow with me, that means everything because it made transition so much easier.
SM: And, you know, obviously Downingtown sounds like they’ve been an amazing support, most of the members. But I’m sure not everyone is supportive. And I’m sure you’ve met some people and interacted with people who maybe have never met a trans person before while you were campaigning. What did you find through your campaign worked the best in accessing people who may be misinformed about trans people, who may have never met a trans person and who could never imagine a trans person as their elected leader? What were the kind of tools that worked the best from a communication strategy point of view?
ED: Humor. Humor always works the greatest. I remember going to somebody’s door and a woman came to the door. She said, “Oh, I’m not voting for him.” And I’m like, “Who are you—there’s no hims around here.” And she said, “Oh, I thought you were a man.” And I’m like, “Nope, no, I haven’t been a man for 16 years. You know? And even then that’s questionable.” And she started to laugh. And I said, “Right now, I’m just worried about our town. I’m worried about the traffic on our street here. You know, we have this new development up the street, it empties right onto your street here. What’s going on with that? How has that affected you?” And she said, “Well, to be honest, it’s been a pain because I need to get to work right around the time that the kids are getting picked up from school. And it’s tough because now I have to wait for all the traffic and then the school buses.” And just by using that little bit of humor at the beginning, it bridged that gap. It made me be able to have a conversation with this person who originally had just dismissed me out of hand.
Photo by Mark Fiske, courtesy of Deuso.
SM: And it probably disarmed them and opened up a door for them to feel comfortable enough to ask you questions they might not be sure they can ask.
ED: All too often you see trans people being labeled as angry or upset or you’re going to trigger them by using a name or using a pronoun that they don’t agree with. And, to me, I just look at it from a point of humor and be able to disarm people through a little bit of humor, a little bit of good nature, and not taking things so seriously. Because at the end of the day, we’re all in this together. And if I can use a little bit of humor to disarm a situation and do some education, that’s far easier than coming at it from a place of anger or being upset.
SM: That’s so interesting. Any other strategies that you found worked?
ED: Just focusing on the issues has been the biggest thing. The other side of the aisle, people who want to bring hate and division into this town, came at me trying to make this campaign about my identity. They tried to find anything that I would post, like when I was endorsed by groups like Advocates for Trans Equality or the Victory Fund or LPAC. I would post things on social media saying, “Hey, I’m really proud to have been endorsed by these groups.” And they would take that as, you know, I’m trying to shove gender ideology on them. When in fact, it’s really just [that] we have a robust LGBTQ community in Chester County. And here in Pennsylvania, we have about 71,000 trans people. I want to make sure that they’re represented. And the rabble rousers, the people trying to push against me, tried to make this divisive about my gender. But it didn’t really work when all I’m talking about is public safety, traffic and flooding.
Photo by Mark Fiske, courtesy of Deuso. Erica Deuso engaging in political outreach on National Day of Action.
What Political Outreach Means for Deuso
SM: I think what you just said is kind of a micro representation of the strategies that worked in many other elections this week, right? Where you found, you know, Mayor-elect Mamdani of New York City focusing on affordability, but at the same time not ditching trans and queer people along the way. At the same time, we have the federal government winning from being hateful toward trans people. In my opinion, as somebody who looks at this all day, we’re reaching a precipice among the American populace where they’re starting to realize the BS of all of this misinformation and starting to recognize that “I don’t have to vote for a politician just because they’re against a group. I can actually care about the issues” kind of thing. Does that track?
ED: It does. I mean, if you look at the campaigns of Mayor-elect Mamdani, Governor-elect Spanberger, Governor-elect Sherrill in New Jersey, the anti-trans ads did nothing. I had somebody circulate a letter a couple days before the election saying that the flooding issues that I had were garbage, saying that I was misleading people with my gender identity. And they brought it around town through our local Turning Point Action group here in Chester County. They had middle schoolers running these letters and putting them on people’s doors and under placemats. The reaction to that was, “This is awful to a person around town.” I heard literally hundreds of people at the polls tell me, “You know, I wasn’t going to come out and vote today but getting that letter brought me out and not for what they thought it was going to do.” Um, I think people are just starting to see LGBTQ people, immigrants, people of other races, ethnic backgrounds, that didn’t scare people off the way that the opposition thought it was going to scare people off. We’re moving to a place where if a person is the most qualified person, I think people want that. And it starts up at the top. People are seeing that maybe we didn’t elect the most qualified person to be president right now. All these things that the current administration wants to do just to make some people’s lives harder is turning a lot of other people off. So if we focus on the things that really matter to the American people, to the people of Downingtown, the people of Pennsylvania, I think that’s what’s really gonna win people. If you compare somebody’s health care premiums to whether or not someone’s transgender, I think they’re gonna be more worried about the health care premiums at this point.
Pennsylvania Governor Election: The Bigger Picture
SM: So fascinating, and I think all of that resonates. And I think a lot of Americans are ready to just care about the issues and tackle the issues specifically. With that said, you are making history, right? As Pennsylvania’s first openly transgender mayor, what does that mean for you? How are you gonna balance focusing on the issues while also honoring this history that you’ve made?
ED: So it means a lot to me, my own gender identity. I’m so happy to be able to represent our community in this situation, but there’s a lot to do. The mayor of Downingtown’s major responsibility is working with the police, to make sure the police have what they need to do the job that they need to do. Working as mayor, I’m gonna make myself accountable, I’m going to make myself available. We’ve never had office hours here for a mayor, so I’m gonna set up office hours. I will be there to talk to you, listen to you, understand what the problems are—sorry, there’s a little bug—understand where the problems are in town.
SM: Obviously you’re courageous, but are you afraid in any ways being in this elected position, given how much animus there is towards the trans community right now in America?
ED: I was. At the very beginning of this, right after the primary, and it was a landslide. So that made a lot of people happy, but at the same time it really made some people unhappy. And there was some chatter, there were some potentials for violence. And we made sure that when we had some events this summer and this fall that we were doing our best to make sure we were protected. And we had two security people at a Fall Fest that we had here where people knew where I was going to be at every minute of the day, that day, and this was weeks after the Charlie Kirk assassination. And just because of the use of firearms, it was such an open place, I did invest personally in some protective armor underneath my clothes for that. Thankfully, we didn’t need it. So, we were safe with that. But still, we kept security in mind. Thankfully, there was no violence to speak of. Just a lot of people speaking out of a place of ignorance and misunderstanding.
SM: You’re saying armor, you wore a bulletproof vest?
ED: Yes.
SM: Wow, and I’m guessing you wouldn’t have done that and you wouldn’t have hired security if you weren’t transgender, is that fair?
ED: That is fair. This town leans Democratic. I’m not worried about a lot of the majority of the people of this town. And really the people of this town who could vote in the borough were not the problem. It was people from the outlying areas of this town, the townships that surround us. That’s where a lot of the divisiveness and people trying to force this campaign to be about my gender. That’s where they came from. We couldn’t really control them very well. So we just need to prepare for every eventuality.
SM: Obviously, there’s been transphobic comments on social media as there always are. Sometimes you’ve been responding and sometimes you haven’t. What’s kind of behind the decisions of when to engage and when to leave it?
ED: So I think when some of these comments come from a place of ignorance, there’s an opportunity for education. I remember one comment where somebody said, “You wanna just chop off your genitals” and things like that. And I said, “Look, if you follow the WPATH guidelines, everything starts with mental health,” and they came back and said, “I had no clue that there was this much involved with it.” To know that, yeah, they may disagree with it still, but at least they have a better understanding of the process and it isn’t just, somebody wakes up tomorrow and decides that they wanna go have surgery. It doesn’t work that way. And for other reasons, I don’t want a kid [or] another trans person to see my posts, see all the hate, and then not see me push back against it, you know? I don’t want them to think that I’m just gonna sit back and take it when other people in power are telling me, “You can’t use this bathroom,” or “You have to change your passport or your driver’s license or something that you have to change it back.” No, I’m not going to just stay silent because that trans kid is looking at me. They’re looking at me for leadership. And if I just stay silent on those sort of things, that person’s thinking, “Well, there’s no one standing up for me.”
SM: You must feel like you have a duty to engage.
ED: Exactly, that’s how I feel about it, is that, you know, when there’s something, you have to push back against it because there’s always people watching.
PA Governor Election and National Political Trends
SM: What would you say to politicians at the highest level of government in America right now who are stoking this fire of transphobia and anti-trans animus?
ED: Let’s have a conversation. I think if we can find 5% of an issue where we can agree on, I think we can build on that. Let’s bring the temperature down on LGBTQ issues. Let’s stop worrying about whether or not someone can change the letter on their passport. And let’s have a conversation about how best we can treat everybody as Americans. And as equals.
SM: And you would sit down with the Donald Trumps and the other people to talk about that? You would be open to that?
ED: If there was somebody who was willing to have an actual conversation where we could find common ground and build on it, I would sit down with anybody. That said, if I know that it’s not turning into a good-faith argument, that conversation is going to be over, and we’ll find somebody else who will have a good-faith conversation.
Photo by Mark Fiske, courtesy of Deuso. Erica Deuso connecting with families of Downingtown during her political campaign.
What It Means to Be a Trans Politician in Today’s Climate
SM: I want to go back to little Erica. At what age do you think you realized you were trans, and tell me a little bit about those early realizations.
ED: So, I believe I was 4. It was very early on, but that was 1984, at a time when people didn’t know anything about this. My parents obviously didn’t know anything about it. I lived with that for six years, knowing that I didn’t have the language, I didn’t have the verbiage, I didn’t understand what was going on. It was a time when kids didn’t go to therapists. And so I waited until I was 10 to tell my parents. And, obviously, it was 1990, and things didn’t go over well at that point. It wasn’t something they knew anything about and they came at it from a place of fear, not understanding. So I sort of shoved it down a little bit, and then college came around and I tried to do something about it again in college when I was 19. And I met my ex on the way to therapy. So put it on the shelf again. And it wasn’t until I was 29 that I realized, “Hey, I don’t wanna turn 30 and not know who I really am.” So I went to a therapist who specializes in gender identity and gender dysphoria here in the area. And by the end of the first session, she said, “I don’t think I’ve met another person who fits as many criteria for this as you do.” So we started on the path. I did get amicably divorced from my ex. Still friendly. I’m very happy for her. She has a very cute little girl, happily married again. I’m happily married now again. And life is good. And very, very happy with the way things happen. And everything happens for a reason. And I firmly believe that I’m living this life for a reason. Maybe it’s to be the mayor. Maybe it’s for something greater. Who knows? But right now I’m focused on being the best mayor Downingtown has ever had.
SM: What would your message to young kids be who might have dreams of being mayor or other, you know, amazing career paths, but aren’t sure if they can be out and proud and do these and achieve these ambitions?
ED: You will surprise yourself with what you’re capable of once you say that “I’m going to just be myself, no matter what anybody else says.” There will always be people who push you to be different, whether you’re trans or not, but you have to persevere and say, “This is who I am. This is what I’m going to do with my life,” and just keep pushing because you only have one life, and you need to live it in the way that’s going to bring you the most joy and the most happiness and be the best for yourself.
SM: What are you most excited [about] when it comes to getting to work?
ED: Well, I want everybody to know, who voted me in, that I’m eternally grateful for the responsibility that you have given me. I’m not gonna let you down.
SM: Fabulous. Well Mayor-elect Deuso, I think you should be very proud. You’re a role model overnight, kind of, which might have even surprised you. And I wish you the best of luck as Mayor of Downingtown. Thank you so much for speaking with me and Uncloseted Media today.
ED: Thank you so much for having me, and my door’s always open.
The SRJC Student Resource Centers have been working towards developing a plan to address the pause on SNAP (Cal Fresh) benefits and to mitigate the impact on our students.
As such, the following strategies are in place, allowing SRJC to come together in support.
In anticipation of a strain on local food banks, we are coordinating the SRJC Community Food Drive.
To ensure this effort provides the ability for students to prepare meals at home, we are asking for donations of items matching those listed here. Food Drive drop-off locations:
Petaluma Campus: Welcome & Connect Center in Building 500
Roseland: Building N Room 682
Santa Rosa Campus : Student Life Desk on the First Floor Bartolini
If you would like to support our efforts to increase food distribution to students through a monetary donation, you can make a gift online via the SRJC Foundation.
SRJC Petaluma Campus pantry hours are found here, and upcoming Free Farmer’s Market dates are found here.
PSTC, Shone Farm, and Online students should email socialwork@santarosa.edu for alternative locations if those listed do not work.
Services have been increased to provide grocery cards to students directly impacted by the SNAP (Cal Fresh) pause.
Grocery cards will be distributed to students who are SNAP (Cal Fresh) recipients by location. Students must bring proof of Cal Fresh eligibility such as their EBT card.
The Petaluma Welcome & Connect Center is distributing to students who are enrolled in SRJC Petaluma courses. Students can drop in during the following hours:
Since the start of Donald Trump’s second presidential term, Uncloseted Media has been checking in every 100 days to document each move in the administration’s ongoing and relentless attack on the LGBTQ community. These last few months have continued the trend of each 100 days being worse than the last. Trump has weaponized the assassination of Charlie Kirk to put an even bigger target on trans Americans, and he has been testing out new rhetoric, claiming that Democrats want “transgender for everybody,” a line he’s now used so many times that we couldn’t include every reference. With that in mind, here’s the administration’s complete track record on LGBTQ issues from days 201-300.
Aug. 9, 2025
Trump announces that he is nominating Department of State spokesperson Tammy Bruce as deputy ambassador to the United Nations. Bruce, an out lesbian, opposes transgender health care for minors and claims LGBTQ Pride commercials “really do damage to the gay and lesbian community.”
Aug. 11, 2025
During a public safety press conference, Trump orders the National Guardto deploy in Washington, D.C., claiming it will curb crime despite it being down. While doing so, he attacks the LGBTQ community, saying, “That’s why [Democrats] want men playing in women’s sports, that’s why they want transgender for everybody. Everybody, transgender.”
Aug. 12, 2025
Trump orders a review of the Smithsonian Institution to determine whether it aligns with his administration’s standards. He targets the museum’s exhibits on transgender athletes, ballroom drag and the evolution of LGBTQ identities, as well as a painting of a Black trans statue of Liberty—that was later withdrawn by the artist—in the National Portrait Library.
The same day, the State Department releases a revised 2024 Human Rights Report that omits references to LGBTQ people and erases mentions of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The report also removes critiques of governments for mistreating LGBTQ communities. For example, it removes information about Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ laws that encourage citizens to report their LGBTQ neighbors and that ban depictions of homosexuality or gender transition in schools or the media.
Aug. 14, 2025
The Department of Education (DOE) launches an investigation into four Kansas school districts, accusing them of violating Title IX as they “permit students to participate in sports and access intimate facilities based on ’gender identity’ rather than biological sex.”
Aug. 15, 2025
Budget cuts stemming from Trump’s federal workforce reductions eliminate $600,000 in funding for the D.C. Office of LGBTQ Affairs for 2026.
The same day, the administration announces plans to eliminate gender-affirming care from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program starting in 2026, cutting coverage for over 8 million people. The policy would block access to hormones and surgeries for federal workers and their families.
Aug. 20, 2025
The media reports on court filings that reveal that the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued subpoenas to hospitals for private medical records of LGBTQ patients 18 and younger. The DOJ requests billing data, communication with drug manufacturers, Social Security numbers and recordings from providers who treat gender non-conforming minors. Doctors across the country report threats and fear government retaliation.
“The subpoena is a breathtakingly invasive government overreach. … It’s specifically and strategically designed to intimidate health care providers and health care institutions into abandoning their patients,” says Jennifer L. Levi, senior director of transgender and queer rights at GLAD law, an LGBTQ legal group and civil rights organization.
Aug. 21, 2025
The White House publishes a list of 20 Smithsonian exhibits deemed “objectionable,” including many that highlight LGBTQ and non-white artists. Targeted works include the American History Museum’s LGBTQ+ exhibit that explores queer and disabled identities, as well as a Title IX anniversary display featuring transgender athletes.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) cuts $12 million of federal funding for California’s “Personal Responsibility Education Program,” which provides sex education to teens. HHS officials cite the state’s refusal to remove lessons on so-called “radical gender ideology.”
The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) upholds an executive order which directs the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to cut more than 1,700 grants, nearly 200 of which provide funding for HIV/AIDS.
The New York Times reports that the Trump administration will withhold more than half of the congressionally appropriated $6 billion for the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Experts say the cuts threaten HIV/AIDS services worldwide, as the Kenyan HIV/AIDs network NEPHAK announces layoffs and closures of health centers.
Aug. 23, 2025
ICE violently detains Brazilian trans woman Alice Correia Barbosa, later announcing plans to deport her.
Aug. 26, 2025
The administration warns U.S. states and territories that they will lose federal funding for sex education unless they “remove all references to gender ideology.” Forty-six states and D.C. receive letters ordering the purge of all “gender ideology” content within 60 days.
Aug. 28, 2025
The DOE orders Denver Public Schools to replace gender-neutral restrooms with sex-designated facilities within 10 days. If they don’t comply, the DOE suggests they will lose federal funding.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tells Fox News that the HHS is studying whether gender-transition medications or antidepressants cause violence, citing a church shooting in Minneapolis by a transgender woman. Research shows no such connection, and nearly all mass shootings are committed by cisgender men.
Aug. 29, 2025
In an interview with the Daily Caller, a right-wing opinion website, Trump baselessly claims that banning transgender troops improves military readiness. He falsely links transgender identities to violence and repeats debunked claims about gender-affirming care.
The Harvard Crimson posts Dean David J. Deming’s announcement that the university will no longer host programming for specific races or identity groups, signaling deeper cuts to diversity efforts. The move follows Trump’s demands that Harvard dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs or lose billions in federal research funding. Since Trump took office, Harvard has removed DEI language, closed identity-based offices and folded LGBTQ, women’s and minority programs into a single “Harvard Foundation.”
On a podcast with former George W. Bush special assistant Scott Jennings, Trump conflates crime with support for transgender people, saying Democrats are “fighting for criminals, just like they fought for transgender for everybody … all these crazy things.”
Sept. 3, 2025
After a settlement requiring the administration to restore health and science information to federal websites, HHS officials tell the Associated Press that they remain “committed to its mission of removing radical gender and DEI ideology from federal programs.” The reversal follows an executive order meant to eliminate the term “gender” from policies and delete public health pages about pregnancy risks, opioid addiction and AIDS.
During an Oval Office meeting with Polish President Karol Nawrocki, Trump once again says Democrats “gave us things like men playing in women’s sports, open borders for everybody, transgender for everybody.”
In response to the Minneapolis mass shooting, CNN reports that the DOJ is considering restricting transgender Americans’ Second Amendment rights by building off of Trump’s trans military ban and using it as justification for a firearm ban—something that would only be possible by declaring them mentally “defective.” The proposal sparks backlash from the National Rifle Association, who says in a statement that they “will not support … sweeping gun bans that arbitrarily strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights without due process.”
A Maine principals’ group challenges a subpoena from the DOJ that seeks athletic rosters statewide as part of the administration’s effort to ban transgender students from sports. The group argues the request would expose private student information unrelated to the case.
A federal appeals panel upholds an injunction blocking the Trump administration’s plan to deny accurate passports to transgender and nonbinary Americans. Judges rule the government failed to show how inclusive passports violate federal law. In its decision, the court writes:
“Based on the named plaintiffs’ affidavits and the expert declarations submitted by the plaintiffs, the district court made factual findings that the plaintiffs will suffer a variety of immediate and irreparable harms from the present enforcement of the challenged policy, including ‘a greater risk of experiencing harassment and violence’ while traveling abroad.”
Sept. 5, 2025
CNN uncovers years of homophobic and misogynistic posts by E.J. Antoni, Trump’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Antoni, an economist at the Heritage Foundation, contributor to Project 2025 and a “bystander” on Jan. 6, has repeatedly mocked LGBTQ people and journalists and appears to have been running an X account where he posted that “there is only one sexual orientation – everything else is a disorientation.” The administration would withdraw his nomination Sept. 30.
Sept. 8, 2025
Three military families sue the Department of Defense after the Trump administration’s ban on transgender health care. “This is a sweeping reversal of military health policy and a betrayal of military families who have sacrificed for our country,” says Sarah Austin, staff attorney at GLAD Law.
Speaking to the Religious Liberty Commission, Trump rambles, “On day one of my administration, I signed an executive order to slash federal funding for any school that pushes transgender insanity on our youth.” He goes on to falsely claim that some states can force children to transition without the parents knowing.
Sept. 9, 2025
A federal judge blocks the administration’s attempt to subpoena medical records of transgender minors at Boston Children’s Hospital. The court finds that:
“The Administration has been explicit about its disapproval of the transgender community and its aim to end GAC [gender-affirming care]. … It is abundantly clear that the true purpose of issuing the subpoena is to interfere with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ right to protect GAC within its borders, to harass and intimidate BCH to stop providing such care, and to dissuade patients from seeking such care.”
Sept. 11, 2025
The Wall Street Journal publishes a leaked Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives memo which falsely claims that shell casings found near the scene of Kirk’s murder were engraved with expressions of“transgender and anti-fascist ideology.”
Sept. 12, 2025
The DOJ removes a study from its website showing that far-right extremists have killed more Americans than any other domestic terrorist group. The archived report disappears two days after anti-LGBTQconservative Charlie Kirk is assassinated.
Sept. 15, 2025
In a press conference, Trump says he would “have no problem” removing Pride flags from Washington, D.C. streets after Brian Glenn, a far-right content creator, says that “a lot of people are very threatened by this flag.” Glenn attempts to paint the Progress Pride flag as the “transtifa” flag and suggests that “if you can label them a domestic terrorist group, in all reality, you could take that flag down.”
Trump acknowledges legal limits under free speech law but adds, “I think you probably could. Again, you’ll be sued, and it’s okay. I’ve been sued before a couple of times.”
