The transgender flags that usually adorn the Stonewall National Monument in New York City during Pride Month were missing this year, so some New Yorkers are taking matters into their own hands.
During June, Pride flags are placed around the park’s fence. They usually include a mixture of rainbow LGBTQ+ flags, transgender flags and progress flags, which have stripes to include communities of color.
Photographer and advocate Steven Love Menendez said he created and won federal approval for the installation nine years ago. Within a few years, the National Park Service was picking up the tab, buying and installing flags, including trans ones.
Pride flags fly in the wind at the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan’s West Village on June 19, 2023 in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
This year, however, Menendez said the National Park Service told him to change the protocol.
“I was told … only the traditional rainbow flag would be displayed this year,” he said.
Now, no transgender or progress flags are among the 250 rainbow flags installed around the park.
“It’s a terrible action for them to take,” Menendez said.
“I used to be listed as an LGBTQ activist, and now it says ‘Steven Menendez, LGB activist,'” Menendez said. “They took out the Q and the T.”
“I’m not going to stand by and watch us be erased from our own history”
Many visiting the monument said they are opposed to the change.
“I think it’s absurd. I think it’s petty,” said Willa Kingsford, a tourist from Portland.
“It’s horrible. They’re changing all of our history,” Los Angeles resident Patty Carter said.
Jay Edinin, of Queens, brought his own transgender flag to the monument.
“I’m not going to stand by and watch us be erased from our own history, from our own communities, and from the visibility that we desperately need right now,” he said.
The transgender flags that usually adorn the Stonewall National Monument in New York City during Pride Month were missing this year, so some New Yorkers are taking matters into their own hands. CBS News New York
He is not the only one bringing unauthorized flags to the park. A number of trans flags were seen planted in the soil.
National Park Service workers at the park told CBS News New York they are not authorized to speak on this subject. CBS News New York reached out by phone and email to the National Park Service and has not yet heard back.
The Trump Administration will eliminate funding for a crucial suicide hotline dedicated to LGBTQ+ youth in just one month.
The federal government will close the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services – a federal program that provides emergency crisis support to queer youth considering suicide – effective July 17, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration announced Wednesday. This is several months ahead of its initial October 1 closure deadline, first revealed by leaked budget draft in April.
“This is devastating, to say the least. Suicide prevention is about people, not politics,” Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, said in a statement. “The administration’s decision to remove a bipartisan, evidence-based service that has effectively supported a high-risk group of young people through their darkest moments is incomprehensible. The fact that this news comes to us halfway through Pride Month is callous – as is the administration’s choice to remove the ‘T’ from the acronym ‘LGBTQ+’ in their announcement. Transgenderpeople can never, and will never, be erased.”
The Trevor Project estimates that more than 1.8 million LGBTQ+ youth in the U.S. seriously consider suicide each year, and at least one attempts suicide every 45 seconds. The LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services, funded through the Department of Health and Human Services, has provided more than 1.2 million people with queer-inclusive crisis services, and the 988 Lifeline has served more than 14 million, government data shows.
The Trevor Project’s crisis services saw a 33 percent increase in calls and messages on the day of Trump’s inauguration compared to the weeks prior. Volume went up 46 percent the next day in comparison to typical daily rates. This followed a record-breaking 700 percent increase observed across the Trevor Project’s crisis lines on November 6, the day after the presidential election.
“I want every LGBTQ+ young person to know that you are worthy, you are loved, and you belong – despite this heartbreaking news,” Black continued. “The Trevor Project’s crisis counselors are here for you 24/7, just as we always have been, to help you navigate anything you might be feeling right now.”
The funding cuts can still be reversed by Congress. The Trevor Project is calling on legislators to restore funding for the lifeline in its annual budget, which individuals can support by visiting TheTrevorProject.org/ActNow.
If you or someone you know needs mental health resources and support, you can still 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.
Over the past week, the Trump administration has deployed thousands of troops, including the National Guard and the Marines, to crack down on protests in Los Angeles against ICE raids in the latest act of their ongoing legal and military attacks on undocumented immigrants.
Kelvin, a gay man from Harare, Zimbabwe, is one of over 11 millionundocumented immigrants in the U.S.—many of whom are afraid of being deported. He’s also one of the 100,000 people in the 2024 fiscal year who sought asylum in the U.S. because of their LGBTQ identity and one of the 1 million asylum cases pending determination.
“As an LGBTQ member, as an immigrant and as a black person … it’s like a gang team against me. So I can say ‘terrified’ is the only word I can use, but it is what it is at the end of the day,” he says, referring to the prospect of being sent back to Zimbabwe.
Kelvin, who has been living in New York City and asked to use his first name only for fear of being caught by ICE, grew up in the Pentecostal Church in Zimbabwe. Through his childhood, his family instilled in him the idea that being gay was an abomination and a sin, which forced him to hide his sexual orientation until he mustered up the courage to come out to his mom at 19 years old.
“She was cooking [when I told her],” he says.
He remembers his mother looking him in his eyes and responding in Shona—a Bantu language primarily spoken in central and southern African countries—“Mwari havazvifarire uye iwe unofanirwa kutendeuka,” or, in English, “God doesn’t like that and you need to repent.”
Portraits of Kelvin’s parents. Illustration by Zoe Gaupp.
Later, Kelvin told his dad while they were watching TV in the living room after dinner.
“Daddy ndiri ngochani,” or “Daddy I’m gay.”
Kelvin didn’t get the response he was looking for. “You’re not my kid and to me you’re dead and I don’t wanna see you again in my life and I want to have nothing to do with you,” Kelvin remembers his father yelling, telling him “goodbye” and to “leave immediately.”
Crying and confused, Kelvin—who had no idea that that would be the last time he’d ever see his father before he passed away in 2023—left his childhood home. He stayed with his cousin who protected him as locals came looking to stone him—a common practice in his village to show people they were unwanted.
Kelvin’s experience is not unusual for LGBTQ people in this part of the world. Zimbabwe is one of at least 67 countries that have national laws criminalizing same-sex relations between consenting adults, where the maximum sentence is a year in prison and a fine. The Zimbabwean Constitution offers no legal protections for LGBTQ individuals against discrimination, violence or harassment. As a result, LGBTQ Zimbabweans live in danger, both legally and socially.
In January 2024, four months after arriving in New York City, Kelvin sought asylum in the U.S. out of fear he’d be abused, imprisoned or killed because of his sexual orientation if he returned to his village.
During his time in the U.S., Kelvin met Kate Barnhart—the executive director of New Alternatives, an LGBTQ homeless youth resource center in New York City—who helped him find refuge at a shelter in Manhattan and is helping him secure asylum status.
“The city is closing the migrant shelters, and it’s really not entirely clear whether migrants are supposed to fold into the general homeless system or how any of that’s going to work,” Barnhart told Uncloseted Media.
Within the first 100 days of Trump’s second term, his administration has deported 139,000 people. These deportations include multiple LGBTQ asylum seekers—including Andry Hernández Romero, a 31-year-old gay makeup artist with no criminal record who fled Venezuela a year ago after he says he was targeted for his sexual orientation and his political views—and a gay man who fled Guatemala after receiving death threats over his sexual orientation. A federal judge recently ruled that the latter individual was wrongfully deported.
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In addition, Mayor Eric Adams has been cracking down on immigration in New York City, having ordered the closure of 52 migrant shelters in the past year. He’s also been aligning with the Trump administration on immigration policy, telling CBS News that he is “looking at ways that [he] can use [his] executive power to go after those dangerous, violent people.”
Barnhart says that all of this, coupled with the Trump administration’s military attacks on civilian demonstrators in Los Angeles, has created concern and fear for many LGBTQ asylum seekers, causing some of them to go underground to protect themselves.
“The mayor [being] basically beholden to Trump is really problematic from the point of view of those of us who would like to see New York City really take a strong stance as a sanctuary city,” she says.
For Kelvin, the city and the Trump administration’s hard stance on immigration is nerve-wrecking.
“There’s nothing I can really do to change it or control it so that’s why I refuse to really think about it,” Kelvin, 26, told Uncloseted Media about the latest escalation in immigration raids.
“Thinking about it that much … ain’t gonna change nothing,” he says. “[It] destroy[s] your inner peace.”
He says the pain of feeling misunderstood back home was so intense that he “wanted to end [his] life” and at one point tried to jump off a bridge in Harare, the nation’s capital. The only reason he survived was because a man came up to him and said that his life was worth living.
Myeshia Price, the former director of research at The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ advocacy organization that focuses on suicide prevention efforts, says that more than 1 in 3 asylum seekers and refugees experience depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder and that up to 15% of refugees have attempted suicide.
In addition, the Trump administration’s 2026 Skinny Budget proposal aims to increase the Department of Homeland Security’s budget by almost 65%, which would help fund the 20,000 new officer hires the president recently ordered from the department, to stop what Trump has described as an “invasion” at the U.S. border.
“At this critical moment, we need a historic Budget—one that ends the funding of our decline, puts Americans first, and delivers unprecedented support to our military and homeland security. The President’s Budget does all of that,” said Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget and co-author of Project 2025.
Kelvin, who previously lived in a shelter in the Bronx and is now working as a waiter and living in a studio apartment, has waited over a year for an interview with an officer who will decide if he should be granted asylum status. If he is denied, he will have the option to appeal to an immigration judge. According to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, only 14.4%of asylum cases filed in court were granted in 2023.
And the current political climate will likely make it significantly harder for Kelvin to be granted asylum. The Syracuse TRAC Immigration Databasefound that asylum approval rates in the U.S. dropped by a third in October in the lead-up to Donald Trump’s second term. The Trump campaign has threatened to increase detention of asylum seekers, introduce an application fee for asylum and end parole programs at the border. Additionally, one of the administration’s earliest actions in January was to suspend asylum entirely at the southern border.
As Kelvin grows roots in New York City, he hopes to get a degree in social work and fashion design. He finds the city offers greater freedom to connect with the gay community and to express his sexuality openly.
But with his status in limbo, he worries that if he’s sent back to Zimbabwe, he could be locked up or killed.
“That’s reality. So I just got to live with it. So, yeah. I’m okay. I’m good. I can see I’m excited because I’m safe. I’m good. So, yeah. Looking toward the future.”
Melissa Hortman, a former Minnesota House speaker who championed the passage of ambitious progressive policies in the state, was assassinated early Saturday in what Gov. Tim Walz called “an act of targeted political violence.”
Hortman, 55, who was elected to the Minnesota House in 2004, became the speaker of the state’s House of Representatives in 2019 and, during her first few years, presided over the chamber under a divided government. In 2022, when the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party won full control of the state government, Hortman played a key role in shaping what legislation the chamber would prioritize, working closely with Walz to enact a slew of progressive policies that included major investments in children and families, as well as expanded protections for abortion and gender-affirming care. She left the post in March.
A man posing as a police officer killed Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their home in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park in what Walz described at a news conference as an apparent “politically motivated assassination.” DFL state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were shot by the same gunman at their home in nearby Champlin. Walz said they were out of surgery and was “cautiously optimistic” that they would make a recovery.
“Our state lost a great leader and I lost the greatest of friends,” Walz said. “Speaker Hortman was someone who served the people of Minnesota with grace, compassion, humour and a sense of service. She was a formidable public servant, a fixture and a giant in Minnesota. She woke up every day determined to make this state a better place. She is irreplaceable and will be missed by so many.”
Hours after the attacks, an “extensive manhunt” remained underway for the suspect, who impersonated a law enforcement officer to enter Hortman’s home, Brooklyn Park chief of police Mark Bruley told reporters in a news conference Saturday. The suspect fled on foot, leaving behind his car, where, according to CNN, law enforcement officials found a list containing about 70 names, including abortion providers and advocates, as well as lawmakers.
Here’s a look at Hortman’s legislative history and legacy on key policies:
Abortion:
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion in June 2022, Minnesota emerged as a key access point for abortion as other Midwestern states moved to ban the procedure.
“There was a simmering rage that did not stop,” Hortman said after the 2022 election, according to Minnesota Public Radio. “I was hopeful that voters would take that energy and put it on the ballot and vote for Democrats. And thankfully they did.”
In 2023, Hortman led the Minnesota House in passing the PRO Act, legislation that codified the legality of abortion and other forms of reproductive health care in the state. In subsequent bills, the Minnesota legislature eliminated other restrictions on abortion, passed protections for abortion providers, boosted state funding for clinics providing abortion and eliminated funding for anti-abortion counseling centers.
In a 2024 interview with the Minnesota Reformer, Hortman cited a paid family and medical leave program as “the most rewarding” piece of legislation she passed. The legislature also enacted paid sick leave and paid safe leave for survivors of intimate partner violence, to help them find temporary housing or seek relief in court.
“An average person can take time, whether it’s to take care of somebody who has cancer or to take care of a new baby,” she said. “People shouldn’t have to choose between a job and recovering from illness.”
Child care and education:
Hortman and Walz passed major investments in child care and early childhood education aimed at lowering child poverty and hunger. These included providing free school breakfasts and lunches, expanding the child tax credit and increasing funding for early childhood scholarships, child care provider stabilization funds and child care for low-income families. Lawmakers also enacted a program making tuition at Minnesota’s public colleges free for families earning less than $80,00 a year.
“From the word ‘go,’ you can see that children were top of mind,” Hortman told the Reformer. “Gov. Tim Walz gave a very inspiring state of the state address in 2023. He was very clear that his administration was focused on reducing childhood poverty. The DFL House and the DFL Senate said, ‘Governor, we are right there with you.’”
After the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, Hortman worked across the aisle to negotiate police reforms. In 2023, the Minnesota legislature passed the Restore the Vote Act, which restored voting rights to formerly incarcerated Minnesotans upon completion of their sentences. Hortman was also an advocate for gun violence prevention . In 2023, Walz signed a bill that included gun safety measures like universal background checks and extreme risk protection orders, or “red flag” laws. In 2024, the Minnesota legislature passed a gun safety bill that, among other things, made straw purchases of firearms a felony.
“We clearly have a gun violence problem in this country, and there are things we can do about it, and we did them,” Hortman told the Reformer.
President-elect Donald Trump has named Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as his choice for secretary of state, even though the two once traded barbs as political rivalsduring the 2016 Republican presidential primary.
While Rubio has primarily served as a legislator for his home state of Florida, he has unwaveringly maintained anti-LGBTQ+ policy stances throughout his political career.
Marco Rubio at a glance
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Rubio has long opposed same-sex marriage, saying back in 2015 that the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing marriage equality was an example of the “government compelling” people “to sin.” He has said it is the duty of Christians to oppose the ruling.
He has also said he doesn’t believe that the U.S. Constitution gives the federal government the right to regulate marriage, the laws of which have traditionally been determined by states.
“There is no way that you can read that Constitution and deduce from it that there is a constitutional right to an abortion, or a constitutional right to marry someone of the same sex,” Rubio said.
In July 2022, Rubio said marriage equality is not “a real issue” (despite U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas saying that marriage equality should be overturned). He voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, a law requiring states and the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages. He reportedly called the law “a stupid waste of time.”
Trans children in sports
Rubio supports the so-called Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023, a law that would require schools’, colleges’, and universities’ athletics programs to determine a participant’s sex “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
In January 2024, Rubio sent a letter to USA Boxing for allowing “biological men to fight biological women,” a reference to the organization’s policy of allowing trans women to compete with cisgender women. He dishonestly stated that sports organizations’ trans inclusive policies compel athletes who identify as trans “to undergo dangerous and irreversible surgery that sterilizes them for life.”
During his 2022 re-election campaign, he ran transphobic ads accusing his opponent Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) of voting “to allow transgender youth sports.” His claim was based on Demings’ support of the Equality Act, legislation that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to pre-existing federal civil rights laws. The act would enshrine the rights of trans people to participate in school sports.
Transgender access to public bathrooms
When asked by the Catholic News Service whether “biological males should be permitted to use the women’s room in federal facilities and parks around the country,” Rubio responded, “No, I think men’s bathrooms are for men and women’s bathrooms are for women.”
He has also criticized the administration of President Joe Biden for requiring federal contractors to allow trans employees to use bathrooms matching their gender identity.
“We don’t send kids to school so the schools can raise our kids,” Rubio said. “We send them so they can teach them; raising kids are the job of parents and families, not schools. And so that’s what that bill does.”
Gender-affirming care for trans youth
Rubio opposes gender-affirming care for all transgender individuals regardless of age. Towards this end, he supported the Protecting Conscience in Healthcare Act to prohibit federal or state government agencies and “covered entities,” such as hospitals and health clinics, from requiring employees to recognize the existence of trans people or assist in the provision of gender-affirming care.
“It is deeply disturbing to see the progressive left infiltrate the American healthcare system and compromise the quality of patient care in the process,” Rubio wrote in September 2023.
Additionally, he has called gender-affirming care “harmful to children’ and claimed that it “undermines the legitimate role parents must play in the health of their children.”
“It is irresponsible and malicious to recommend these procedures to young people,” Rubio wrote in March 2023.
Discrimination protections
Rubio opposes the Equality Act, legislation that would enshrine LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination protections into federal law.
He also opposed President Barack Obama’s Executive Order 13672, which prohibited anti-LGBTQ+ workplace discrimination among companies doing business with the federal government. Rubio said the order required organizations to “violate the tenets of their faith,” by requiring them to treat queer employees fairly and with respect.
“There are many government contractors and small companies who provide services to the government who are faith-based people, and they are, they are being compelled to sin by government in their business conduct,” Rubio said. “That is not something we should be supporting.”
Same-sex adoption
Rubio supported Florida’s now-defunct ban on same-sex couples adopting.
“Some of these kids are the most disadvantaged in the state,” Rubio said a 2006 article in the Tallahassee Democrat. “They shouldn’t be forced to be part of a social experiment.” The state’s ban was overturned in 2010.
Other LGBTQ+ issues
In February 2023, Rubio and Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) introduced a bill to ban transgender people from serving openly in the U.S. military.
Rubio has spoken at least twice to groups that support so-called “conversion therapy,” attempts to change people’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Rubio’s career
In 1993, graduated with Bachelors of Arts degree in political science from the University of Florida
In 1996, graduated with a Juris Doctor from the University of Miami School of Law
During law school, Interned for U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
Worked on Republican senator Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign
In 1999, won election to Florida’s House of Representatives. Served until 2008.
Became first Cuban-American to be speaker of the Florida House of Representatives from 2005 to 2008
Elected to U.S. Senate in 2010. Re-elected in 2016 and 2022.
Nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as Secretary of State.
Rubio’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies may soon affect the world
If Rubio gets confirmed by the Senate as Trump’s Secretary of State, he will wield tremendous power by essentially signaling to other countries that the U.S. will tolerate anti-LGBTQ+ civil rights violations. This will endanger queer people and their allies and empower far-right and authoritarian political forces that may also work in the long-term against U.S. interests.
Gina Ortiz Jones, a lesbian and military veteran who served in President Joe Biden’s administration, has been elected mayor of San Antonio, the second-largest city in Texas and seventh-largest in the U.S.
Jones beat Rolando Pablos, a former Texas secretary of state, in a runoff election Saturday. The margin was 54.3 percent to 45.7 percent, according to Ballotpedia. They advanced to the runoff because no candidate out of 27 in the May 3 general election received a majority of the vote. In the general election, Jones led with 27.2 percent and Pablos came in second with 16.6 percent. The current mayor, Ron Nirenberg, could not run again due to term limits.
Races for mayor and other city positions in San Antonio are officially nonpartisan, but this election was partisan in practice. Jones emphasized her affiliation with the Democratic Party, while Pablos, who was elected secretary of state as a Republican, highlighted his ties to leading Republicans such as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Jones was undersecretary of the Air Force during the Biden administration; she was the first lesbian, second member of the LGBTQ+ community, and first woman of color (she’s Filipina American) to serve in the post. She twice ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House as a Democrat.
She was an intelligence officer in the Air Force and was deployed to Iraq during the war there, serving under “don’t ask, don’t tell.” After leaving the Air Force, she worked for the federal government as an adviser on intelligence and trade, with agencies including the Defense Intelligence Agency and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. She left government service six months into Donald Trump’s first term.
In the mayoral race, “she campaigned on her plans to expand early-childhood education to more children and increase affordable housing and work programs for unskilled workers,” The New York Timesreports.
“San Antonio showed up and showed out,” she told supporters Saturday night after the results came in. “We reminded them that our city is about compassion and it’s about leading with everybody in mind. … So I look forward to being a mayor for all.”
Two other cities among the largest 10 in the nation have had LGBTQ+, specifically lesbian, mayors. Annise Parker was mayor of Texas’s largest city, Houston, from 2010 to 2016. Until recently, she was president and CEO of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund. Houston is the fourth-largest city in the U.S. Another lesbian, Lori Lightfoot, was mayor of Chicago, the third-largest, from 2019 to 2023.
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson hailed Jones’s victory, releasing this statement: “Every one of us deserves leaders who value equality and will fight to ensure that we can live freely without fear of discrimination. Gina Ortiz Jones is that leader. That’s why HRC was proud to make calls and knock doors to help mobilize Equality Voters in San Antonio and put her over the finish line. Her win isn’t just exciting, it’s historic; as the first ever openly LGBTQ+ mayor of San Antonio during a time of ceaseless attacks on our community, Gina is emblematic of the resilience, strength, and joy that our community has already used to thrive in challenging times. We can’t wait to see her get to work tackling the problems that are impacting our neighbors, families and coworkers and standing up for the rights and safety of every San Antonian.”
Evan Low, president and CEO of LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, which endorsed Jones, issued this statement: “Gina Ortiz-Jones is LGBTQ+ Victory Fund family, and we are proud to see her rise to lead America’s seventh-largest city as mayor. As a veteran, her service reflects the estimated 1 million LGBTQ+ veterans who have contributed to our nation with honor, distinction, and an unyielding warrior spirit. San Antonio voters made the right call by sending Gina to City Hall, not only making history but selecting a candidate who is driven to make lives better in her hometown.”
Jones will be sworn in June 18 for a four-year term.
Members of Macon’s LGBTQ community gathered inside The Tubman Museum of African American Art, History, and Culture on June 5 to celebrate the start of Pride season and the induction of three local advocates at the forefront of activism, art, and education who have contributed significantly to LGBTQ visibility and progress.
Portraits of Marques Redd, co-founder and co-executive director of Rainbow Serpent, Richard Frazier, artistic and executive director of Theatre Macon, and Dr. Thomas Bullington, senior lecturer of English and Liberal Arts at Mercer University, were among 21 influential Macon LGBTQ leaders featured in the Pioneers and Trailblazers exhibit. Created in partnership with Storytellers Macon, inductees also shared their journeys of self-acceptance and advocacy throughout the evening.
Richard Frazier shares his story as a theatre professional in Macon and his journey toward self-acceptance as a gay man of mixed-race heritage during the Pioneers and Trailblazers Photo History Exhibit. (Image: Darian Aaron)
“We’ve been doing this exhibit for the past four years,” said DeMarcus Beckham, co-founder and special events chair of Macon Pride. “Each year, we add two to three individuals who we feel have contributed not just to Macon but our region’s history and the preservation of our communities’ civil rights.”
Since 2019, Macon Pride has hosted its annual Pride festival during the last week of September, and this year, the tradition will continue in addition to special programming throughout the month of June. For inductee Richard Frazier, the availability of multiple events created specifically for LGBTQ Maconites and their allies not only represents a thriving queer community but also creates a different narrative of life as a queer person in a small Southern town.
“Macon is an interesting community because it is a small town, but it’s not a small town in the way that I think people think it is,” Frazier said. “The culture here and the amount of emphasis that our community places on the arts and on creating community for everybody really sets it apart, I think, from most small towns, specifically in Georgia. It has a big city feel where you never know who you’ll get to meet, but it also has this lovely sense of community,” he said.
Multimedia artist and scholar Marques Redd shares his story of reconciling his sexuality with his faith and the affirmation he received through discovering untold stories of queerness in art during the Pioneers and Trailblazers Photo History Exhibit. (Image: Darian Aaron)
Macon native and inductee Marques Redd works to advance Black LGBTQ culture by exploring multimedia art, traditional African spirituality, and emerging tech. He tells GLAAD that the existence of an organization like Macon Pride would have significantly impacted his life during his formative years.
“When I was growing up, such an organization did not exist, and I think that really left a gap for people and the community,” Redd said. “There were no obvious places where people could turn for support, community, help, or fellowship.”
This year and every year going forward, Beckham says organizers want to be intentional about Macon Pride being an organization available to the community every day of the year.
Attendees inside the atrium of the Tubman Museum for Macon Pride’s Pioneer & Trailblazers Photo History Exhibit. (Image: Darian Aaron)
“Having local Pride, there’s a responsibility to show that we have a community here,” Beckham said. “We will hold space. We are your doctors, we are your lawyers, we are the people who are your community servants.”
Like Redd, whose family owned the now-closed Miracles Art Gallery in the 1990s, which housed one of the largest collections of Black art in the Southeast, in addition to his LGBTQ portrait, Redd has also curated a special exhibit of his family’s impressive Black art collection on the second level of the Tubman Museum simply titled “Miracles.”
“Multiple parts of my life are coming together in such a beautiful way, and I’m just excited to share this with everybody,” Redd said.
Beckham beams when discussing the Tubman Museum’s support of the queer community by hosting the LGBTQ photo exhibit and the opportunity provided in the space to celebrate the intersecting identities of the artists and art within its walls.
“To host an event in one of the largest African American museums in the southeast is baffling,” he said. “People will be able to see community spaces like this opening up for [LGBTQ] individuals and for us to have those conversations about intersectionality.”
Inductee Richard Frazier tells GLAAD that the evening was a reminder “to keep spreading love and to keep creating spaces where people feel safe and welcome,” specifically in places where the opposite experience is often expected.
“You can be your most authentic self even in this small town, and you don’t have to go somewhere else to be a part of a larger community or a safe space,” Frazier said. That’s something that I’ve really appreciated about what Macon Pride has done.
Dr. Thomas Bullington poses with a “Shade” fan before the start of Macon Pride’s Pioneer & Trailblazers Photo History Exhibit. (Image: Darian Aaron)
“This goes beyond anything that I could have imagined as a child and a young teenager,” Redd said. “It’s really thrilling to see, and it shows that times are changing. It’s taken community-wide pressure and organizing to make this happen, and I think it shows the power of what we can do when we all come together.”
At least six more Pride-related events are scheduled in Macon in June before more than 4,000 attendees from over 13 different counties in Georgia descend on Macon for the major Pride celebration. Beckham wants folks to know that Pride in Macon is more than “standing on a float dancing to Lady Gaga songs.”
“It’s an opportunity to find resources in your community and to find connections with other people like you,” he said. “But [it’s an opportunity] also to challenge norms because we are here. We have always been here and will continue to hold up space. And as long as there’s breath in my lungs, Macon Pride will exist, and we will have a community here.”
Jay Richards and his partner had decorated their apartment for Pride Month just hours before they received a message from their rental company telling them to take down their banners.
The couple lives in one of three apartments connected to Walker Memorial Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. which the church rent out through EJF Real Estate Services. Since WorldPride is being hosted in D.C. this year, Richards and his partner decided to show their holiday spirit by hanging rainbow flags on their gate alongside a sign reading “Happy Pride.”
It wasn’t long before the two received a message from their rental company asking them to take down the decorations. EJF wrote, via theWashington Blade: “We kindly ask that any decorations or items be removed by Tuesday, June 3, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. If items are still in place after this time, our team will remove them, and please note that a fee may apply for this service.”
The company cited a clause in their lease that prohibits exterior decorations, which the couple understood, but were still disappointed by. They asked if they could keep the decorations up until June 9, when WorldPride ends, which the company granted.
“While we remain mindful of our responsibility to both the lease and our client, we believe this is a respectful and reasonable approach,” a spokesperson for EJF told DC News Now. “EJF will not be removing the decorations ourselves and is honoring the residents’ plan, trusting they will follow through as promised.”
The couple thought that was the end of it, until a custodian from the church entered their gate Tuesday night and cut down the banners while Richards watched through the window. The Pride decorations were left on their doorstep, while the American flags they had put up alongside the rainbows were left untouched. The two then received an email from the church.
“This is not about subject matter. The mission of Walker Memorial Baptist Church is a prayerful congregation, walking in the spirit, bringing souls to Christ,” the message stated. “That is our focus. We seek unity, not division, through our lease requirement that there be no decorations on the outside of the property or common areas. In doing so, we avoid arbitrary decision-making and the need to distinguish between the content or subject matter of any decorations.”
While Richards understands that it was technically against his lease, he thought he had reached a compromise with his rental company. He now feels as if the rule was only enforced by the church because it was related to LGBTQ+ Pride.
“The email they sent me said we can’t put decorations up for any holidays,” Richards told the Blade. “But I do feel like if I had put something up for the holidays for Christmas that they wouldn’t have taken it down. But now they’re saying that no decorations can be put up.”
The No Place for LGBTQ+ Hate Act, introduced Thursday, would ensure that Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ orders would have no force or effect and that no federal funds would be used to put them into effect.
During his second term, Trump has issued executive orders saying the federal government will recognize only two sexes, male and female as assigned at birth, therefore denying the existence of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people; reinstating and expanding the trans military ban; seeking to prevent trans youth from receiving gender-affirming care; seeking to keep trans students from participating in sports under their gender identity; and requiring schools to deny the existence of trans people. Policies based on these orders have been implemented, and most are being challenged in court.
“Freedom is the right to safely live as your authentic self without fear of harassment, discrimination, or violence,” Merkley said in a press release. “President Trump and Republicans are attacking our LGBTQ+ neighbors, friends, and family members by rubberstamping discrimination in every aspect of daily life. As we mark Pride Month this year, we say ‘hell no’ to this hate and honor those who have fought for LGBTQ+ equality by never giving up on the vision of America as a land of freedom for all.”
“Trump cannot take away our rights or our health care just with the stroke of a pen,” Balint added. “I’m standing with Senator Merkley and my colleagues to show the Trump administration that their hate and dehumanizing rhetoric targeting queer Americans doesn’t intimidate us. We won’t back down when it comes to protecting our rights. No matter how much they try to erase us and our history, LGBTQI+ people are valued members of every community across this country.”
“LGBTQ+ people, including transgender people, live and work in every community. They serve in Congress, run companies, protect our country, and build families,” HRC Director of Government Affairs Jennifer Pike Bailey said in the release. “That means LGBTQ+ people deserve the same dignity and respect as everyone else. But the Trump-Vance Administration has launched an unrelenting assault on LGBTQ+ lives, issuing one executive action after another aimed at making it harder to see a doctor, go to school, and live life openly. Thank you to Senator Merkley and Congresswoman Balint for pushing back and declaring that this should be a country where freedom truly exists for all.”
“From day one, this administration has conspired to encourage and promote policies designed not simply to strip trans and intersex people of critical civil rights protections, but to push them out of nearly all sectors of public life,” said Sinead Murano-Kinney, Advocates for Trans Equality health policy analyst. From our jobs, schools, and access to medically necessary care to the use of public accommodations and participation in sports, the Trump Administration has sought to deny the existence of trans, nonbinary, and intersex people and to dehumanize us.”
“These actions by President Trump are baseless and lawless, far exceeding his powers and threatening the freedom and lives of transgender people across the country,” said ACLU Senior Legislative Advocate Ian Thompson.”This administration has made clear their goal is pushing transgender people out of public life entirely, and his executive orders have threatened their rights as workers, as patients, and as citizens. We are thankful for the leadership of Senator Merkley and Representative Balint in introducing this measure and we will continue to demand accountability for this administration and their dangerous, unconstitutional actions towards LGBTQ people.”
“This bill is a vital step in defending the rights, dignity, and safety of transgender people, who have again and again been maliciously targeted by the Trump administration’s discriminatory executive orders,” said Emily Martin, chief program officer at the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund. “These orders are rooted not in facts or fairness, but in fearmongering and bigotry. We refuse to let trans people be scapegoated by the administration’s campaign to erase their identities, deny them lifesaving health care, and push them out of schools, sports, and public life. We will always fight back against this lawless cruelty and recognize that these attacks both deeply harm trans people and threaten the rights and safety of all women and girls.”
A federal judge has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to deport a transgender immigrant after officers arrested her during her asylum hearing — but her attorneys say they still haven’t been able to contact her.
O.J.M., known only by her initials out of concerns for her safety, was leaving a courtroom during her asylum hearing on Monday when she was detained by ICE agents, who demanded that the court dismiss her case. She was then taken from the courthouse in Portland, Ore. and forcibly moved across state lines to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Wash.
ICE did not inform O.J.M.’s attorneys, from the immigration law firm Innovation Law Lab, of her location after her arrest, prompting them to file a habeas petition. The filing, obtained by Oregon Public Broadcasting, accuses ICE officials of committing “a deceptive sleight of hand” in an effort “to eject O.J.M. from her own asylum case, detain her, and transfer her away from the District of Oregon so that they can rapidly deport her.”
“Only nearly two years after O.J.M. was released from [immigration] custody and months after she applied for asylum, [officials] commenced removal proceedings against her in immigration court where she could present her asylum claim under the due process rights,” the petition reads. “O.J.M. had properly filed her asylum application, but ICE appears to be attempting to place her in expedited removal, a rapid deportation process with minimal protections.”
The petition says that O.J.M., who is is a 24-year-old trans woman, fled from Mexico to the U.S. in 2023 “fearing for her life” after she was abducted and raped “at the hands of a dangerous cartel” — the Knights Templar Cartel — because of her gender identity. It states: “They threatened to kill her because O.J.M. is a transgender woman.”
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Baggio issued an order on Tuesday commanding ICE not to remove O.J.M. from Oregon, but officials responded that they had already done so. Baggio then ordered ICE to report the “exact date and time” that she was transferred, as well as why agents “believed that such a move was immediately necessary,” and updated her order to forbid them from transporting her out of Tacoma, per OPB.
While O.J.M.’s lawyers are now aware of her location, they still have not been able to contact her. LGBTQ+ nonprofit Basic Rights Oregon said in a statement that the arrest “is an alarming escalation of the Trump Administration’s attacks on the safety of immigrants and refugees,” particularly because “the Trump Administration has made it a point to strip away as many legal protections for trans immigrants as they can.”
“Trans folks are often asylum seekers, and many have endured grave harm in their country of origin due to gender identity or sexual orientation,” the organization wrote. “Transgender individuals in immigration detention are at high risk for physical and sexual assault, denial of necessary medical care, and isolation in facilities used for punitive reasons.”
“Oregon is stronger because of immigrants, and because of transgender people,” it continued. “It is outrageous that ICE would come to Oregon and target a trans woman who is guilty only of seeking a safe and affirming place to live. Courthouse arrests destroy the integrity of our justice system.”
