Colored glass and antique tins line the walls of Again Vintage, each ware reflecting gentle window light. Here, the hustle of New York City finds calm, and by design. Co-owners Ryann Holmes and Sara Elise wanted to run a business but also cultivate a sense of relaxation. Some visitors tell them coming inside feels like an exhale, Holmes says.
The tense political moment has made inclusivity in their business approach feel more urgent. Last year, the store joined Everywhere Is Queer, an app that maps out LGBTQ+ businesses globally. Holmes says the platform has united LGBTQ+ business owners and creatives who often “operate in silos.”
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“People want to support Black- and queer-owned businesses, especially as a form of resistance to a lot of the stuff that we’re seeing now politically,” Holmes says. “It’s been a real connective tissue for us that folks are able to see us on the app already knowing that we’re a queer-affirming space.”
About four years ago, a hub for LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs was an idea Charlie Sprinkman had just brought to life. Everywhere Is Queer went live in January 2022 and today is funded through a mix of brand partnerships and paid perks, like in-app prioritization. A string of viral moments since has pushed the app past 20,000 participating businesses.
Sprinkman says threats facing the LGBTQ+ community are cause for strengthening that network even further. As of February, the American Civil Liberties Union reported that at least 398 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were being considered in statehouses around the country this year, many of them targeting transgender rights.
“It’s a really difficult time for our community right now,” Sprinkman says. “It’s now more than ever important that we really put the money in the hands of the people that see us as our most authentic selves.”
LGBTQ-owned businesses that use Everywhere Is Queer submit details about their companies for approval, then get marked by a pin on the map. Businesses can be filtered by type, from bars to hotels to retail, and can even advertise jobs.
“We’ve grown tremendously,” says Chris Redrich, the app’s developer. “We have about a quarter of a million app installs at this point, so we’re seeing pretty regular, repeat usage from users coming back, looking for connection and queer community around them.”
Again Vintage shop in NYCJack Walker
Sprinkman says he struggled to find centralized resources for LGBTQ+ people when he came out as a young adult. As he gradually found comfort and community in LGBTQ+ spaces, Sprinkman saw value in bridging that gap for others too.
Outside of liberal strongholds like New York City, business owners tell The Advocate that being featured on the app has not spurred a notable uptick in sales, likely because there are fewer users nearby. But they describe different benefits, like networking with other business owners and publicly signaling their connection to the LGBTQ+ community.
Rachel Csontos of St. Petersburg, Florida, launched their small business in 2024 without a physical storefront. Sales for their brand, Queer’d Apparel, came through social media and via the pop-up art markets that dot central Florida. The app has helped them meet other LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs.
“I kind of expected it to be an avenue for business, but it’s been more of an avenue for connection,” they say.
Kelsey Riker manages Kindred Post — a gift shop, event space, and contract postal unit in Juneau, Alaska. A tourist last year recommended that her store join the app, she says. Riker hopes the listing will draw new attention during this summer’s cruise season.
Everywhere is Queer creator Charlie Sprinkmancourtesy Everywhere is Queer
“We have a lot of businesses here in Juneau who are very friendly and welcoming and affirming to the queer community,” Riker says. “We want people to know that when they come and visit us here.”
Looking ahead, Sprinkman, who hails from a small town near Milwaukee, says Everywhere Is Queer is looking to develop new features to enhance user experience, though the specifics are not yet public.
In the meantime, he says building the platform has taught him a great deal about creating space for the LGBTQ+ community — and, ironically, starting a business himself.
“It’s just been the most incredible experience of my life,” Sprinkman says. “Hundreds of thousands of people have come across and interacted with Everywhere Is Queer. It’s just so beautiful.”
Nepal has elected its first out transgender lawmaker.
On Monday, Nepal’s Election Commission confirmed that Bhumika Shrestha will serve as a Member of Parliament, taking one of 182 seats in the country’s House of Representatives that the centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party secured in this month’s elections.
“I am very excited but also feel the responsibility on my shoulders,” Shrestha told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “Our constitution has provisions for our community, but they have not translated to laws and policies. Our community expects me to raise our issues.”
The 37-year-old activist and actress has been a leading figure in Nepal’s LGBTQ+ rights movement. According to Business Today, she has worked closely with the LGBTQ+ rights group Blue Diamond Society and was involved in the successful effort to include a third gender category on official documents. She was also the first Nepali citizen to travel with the updated documents. In 2019, Apolitical included her in its list of the Most Influential People in Global Policy, and her LGBTQ+ rights advocacy earned her a 2022 International Women of Courage Award from the U.S. Department of State.
Earlier this month, the Rastriya Swatantra Party won 125 of 165 directly elected seats in Nepal’s 275‑member House of Representatives as well as an additional 57 seats through the country’s proportional representation system. The party’s gains in the March 5 election follow deadly anti-corruption protests last September, which toppled the government.
While Nepal boasts some of the most progressive LGBTQ+ rights laws, AFP notes that Shrestha is the first LGBTQ+ person to hold public office in the country since 2008.
Supporters reportedly showered Shrestha with flowers and gifts at the Blue Diamond Society office in Kathmandu. The organization’s president, Umisha Pandey, noted to the AFP the difference Shrestha’s presence in the Nepali House will make for the country’s LGBTQ+ community.
“Our pains, our sufferings, our feeling, our stories, and our every problem is only understood by us, not by others.”
A transgender golfer has filed a lawsuit challenging 2024 United States Golf Association policy changes in women’s professional golf after being denied entry into a US Women’s Open qualifier last year.
Hailey Davidson is suing the USGA, the LPGA, three LPGA officials, and a New Jersey golf club which hosted the qualifier, arguing that updated policies unlawfully excluded her from competition.
The case, filed Thursday (19 March) in New Jersey, seeks unspecified damages.
At the centre of the dispute is a gender policy introduced in the USGA and LPGA for 2025 and beyond. The policy mandates that players in women’s categories must be assigned female at birth or have transitioned to female before puberty.
Davidson, 33, transitioned in her early 20s and underwent gender-affirming surgery in 2021, something which was required in a previous LPGA gender policy.
Davidson had previously competed in a US Open qualifier and LPGA Qualifying School under earlier rules in 2024. Under the new criteria, however, she was deemed ineligible to enter the same pathway the following year.
In her complaint, Davidson argues the rule effectively shuts out many transgender women from USGA women’s events and the LPGA, particularly given that access to puberty blockers or early transition care is restricted in many parts of the US.
She also claims the golf club hosting the qualifier deflected responsibility by stating that eligibility decisions were controlled by the USGA.
The LPGA, which is aware of the lawsuit, said in a statement it stands by its policy, describing it as the result of an expert-led process aimed at maintaining fairness in the elite women’s game.
Davidson has competed on smaller tours, including winning an event in Florida two years ago, before similar restrictions were introduced there.
In the middle of a busy New York City street, dozens of people lay still atop the pavement on Saturday afternoon. ACT UP, one of the world’s most prominent HIV advocacy groups, organized the demonstration outside Palantir, a software company that develops surveillance technology and contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The demonstration was a callback to die-ins staged by AIDS advocacy groupsfrom the 1980s onward to celebrate the organization’s 39th anniversary. Hundreds of protesters rallied at the New York City AIDS Memorial, then marched to Palantir’s unmarked office in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, protesting government spending on ICE and the war against Iran amid cuts to funding for HIV care.
The Trump administration is “spending more money on war than they are on health care. They’re spending more money on ice than they are on AIDS care,” Eric Sawyer, a founder of ACT UP New York who helped organize the protest, told The Advocate. “We think those priorities are way out of line with American priorities.”
“Their priorities are war and military spending because that, in turn, generates a lot of profits for the wealthy,” Kate Barnhart, executive director of New Alternatives for LGBTQ+ Homeless Youth, told The Advocate. “Many of our politicians own stock in these weapons profiteers. That’s why today’s march is making the connection between AIDS and health care and Palantir.”
In the 39 years since ACT UP was founded, Sawyer said elements of HIV activism have gotten harder. With the strength of HIV care today, he said, some believe organizing for HIV care has less “urgency.”
“During the initial founding of ACT UP, there were no treatments available. AIDS was a surefire death sentence,” Sawyer said. “People are putting less of their life at risk in doing activism.”
That is why continuing to organize and protest in person, rather than solely online, still matters, he said.
Protesters honored Mark Milano, an HIV activist who died in January after decades of organizing for people living with HIV. Jennifer Flynn Walker, an organizer with the racial and economic justice organization Popular Democracy, told The Advocate that honoring Milano’s legacy felt urgent.
“Mark Milano really dedicated much of his adult life to making sure that people around the world had access to HIV medications,” Flynn said. “It was really important to me and Popular Democracy to be able to be here and honor him and his legacy.”
Longtime organizer Ivy Kwan Arce told The Advocate that ACT UP’s ability to set and fight for achievable goals has set it apart from other activist groups. “It’s not about protesting and saying, ‘I want this,’ but really over-researching [so] that they have to take your recommendation,” she said.
Looking ahead, ACT UP organizer Mark Hannay said there will be more advocacy targets to meet. Saturday’s protest was one part of “an ongoing effort,” he told The Advocate.
“We have midterm elections coming up this fall. So we want voters to be informed about what’s been happening and connecting the dots,” he said. “So that, when they go to the polls, they vote for candidates who support health care, support social programs, and oppose war and ICE.”
Luanne James, director of the Rutherford County Library System in Tennessee, has garnered national support after refusing to move more than 190 LGBTQ+-themed books out of youth sections.
In an 18 March letter she sent to the board, she argued that relocating the titles would amount to “viewpoint discrimination” and violate the First Amendment, writing plainly: “Therefore, I will not comply.”
The board voted on 16 March to shift the books into adult sections following a review of “age-appropriate” materials prompted by state directives.
Library Board chair, Cody York, defended the move as a way to limit children’s exposure to content he considers inappropriate.
Free speech advocates say the effort targets LGBTQ+ representation rather than explicit material.
James’ refusal has put her position at risk. Board leadership has signalled they are considering disciplinary action, including possible termination.
PEN America publicly backed James on Friday (20 March), praising her for defending her community’s First Amendment rights, stating: “Children and teens deserve access to diverse books that represent their identities and stories.
“Luanne James is putting her job on the line to defend the First Amendment rights of all in her community.”
Same-sex marriages performed in other EU countries will now be recognized in Poland, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled on Friday. The decision marks a landmark moment for LGBTQ+ rights in one of the bloc’s most socially conservative countries.
The case involved a Polish couple who married in Germany in 2018. When they later moved to Warsaw, officials refused to register their marriage, citing the constitution’s definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.
Last November, the European Court of Justice ruled that EU member states cannot refuse to recognize same-sex marriages lawfully conducted elsewhere in the bloc. However, it had remained unclear whether Poland would implement that principle at home — until now.
The Mormon church updated its official principles to remind transgendermembers they will only be recognized in rituals by their “biological sex at birth.”
The update to the General Handbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not mark a formal change in doctrine, but it offers more detailed guidance on how gender transition affects eligibility for temple participation.
“Worthy members who do not pursue surgical, medical, or social transition away from their biological sex at birth may receive a temple recommend and temple ordinances,” the handbook reads. That follows a prior update to church doctrine in 2020 that reflected a crackdown on transgender identity. It’s a doubling down that has offended ex-Mormons, already driven from positions in the church based on their identity.
“This is specifically focusing on a very narrow exception to the point of vindictiveness, codifying the exception to the exception,” Laurie Lee Hall, a former stake president excommunicated from the church, told The Salt Lake Tribune.
Church leaders have continued to emphasize that transgender people are welcome in regular worship services. “All of Heavenly Father’s children are welcome at church,” the church says on its website.
The handbook also outlines a pathway for those who detransition. “Members who have taken steps to transition and then transition back to their biological sex at birth and are worthy and committed to keeping God’s commandments may receive [temple rituals],” the update states.
The change to the official text of the organization comes as the LDS Church has wrestled openly with LGBTQ+ tolerance. The update reflects the church’s broader approach to LGBTQ+ members: encouraging participation in congregational life while restricting access to certain rites. The faith allows gay and lesbian members to attend and serve in some capacities, but continues to teach that same-sex marriages are a sin.
The handbook also encourages bishops to work with members on a case-by-case basis with “sensitivity and Christlike love,” and advises those experiencing questions about gender identity to seek guidance from church leaders.
When Pornhub released its most-watched categories of 2025, queer-themed content held the top two spots: “Lesbian” was the most viewed category and “Transgender” was the second most viewed, up five spots from 2024.
The global appetite for LGBTQ adult content is increasing in tandem with the explosion of AI porn. Over the last year, Google searches for “AI porn generators” have steadily climbed, with one site receiving 8.57 million visitors in January. But unlike porn made up of real people, AI porn is largely unregulated, opening the door for the exploitation of queer bodies.
“More often than not, AI-generated pornography falls under this umbrella of ‘non photo-realistic media,’ or ‘non hyper-realistic adult content,’ not unlike illustration,” Aurélie Petit, a postdoctoral researcher at the Quebec research chair on French-language artificial intelligence and digital technologies, told Uncloseted Media and GAY TIMES. “And the moment you don’t know how to address this kind of content, then you don’t know what to do with a big part of AI adult productions.”
Though there have been steps taken to regulate the AI porn industry, there is still a long way to go. Last year, Congress passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act, which bans the publication of intimate, non-consensual images in the U.S., including AI-generated images. And the sharing of these images, known as deepfakes, is now a felony in Tennessee.
But much of AI porn isn’t based on one person’s likeness. Rather, it’s generated from a vast database of preexisting content used to teach the AI model. So any user who wants to create porn can simply ask an AI model to create their dream scenario, and—in a matter of minutes—a video to their liking that depicts realistic people is created.
“There’s a very real concern that some of the worst types of content on the internet—hateful content, non-consensual content of children … those exist on the internet, and we cannot verify that data sets [used to power AI algorithms] don’t include those images,” says Miranda Wei, postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy.
Outside of deepfakes, U.S. laws leave AI-generated porn in a legal gray area, often varying by state or municipality. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill cracking down on deepfakes and requiring AI-generated content to be watermarked. But there is yet to be consistent policy across the board on how to legislate AI porn.
“When you have real people, or images that look like real people, we understand harm,” says Petit. “But most platforms do not know what to do. … It’s really a legal blur, a policy blur.”
Depictions of Trans Women
Because transphobic people make up a significant chunk of porn consumers, mainstream trans porn is often designed in a way that leans into prejudice. Videos using slurs or harmful tropes perform well on porn websites, and Google trends show that searches for “tranny porn” and “shemale porn” remain high. On Reddit, the largest trans-related subreddit is r/traps, a porn-sharing group named after a derogatory term that describes trans women as “traps” for cis men.
“[The internet] is still often reflecting a very heteronormative mindset. … Those preexisting biases for what kinds of content exists on the internet informs the data that is fed into those AI models,” Wei told Uncloseted Media and GAY TIMES.
A quick search for “AI trans porn” produces countless generated images of hyper-feminine trans women with unrealistically large penises, often the same length as their torsos. Other videos show trans women being penetrated by men with penises so large that, in real life, they would inevitably cause physical harm.
“When they say trans, you need to really understand it’s trans women, and a trans woman who still has a penis … it’s really a fetishization of trans women pre-operation,” Petit says.
One of Google’s first search results for “AI trans porn” is for CreateAIShemale. On the site, users can build a trans woman from a wide variety of options. They can choose her age, the size of her breasts, butt and penis, and select from nearly 70 modifiers including “bimbo,” “spanked, hand print,” “impregnation” and “pony cock.” The site also lists 42 options for “race,” with strange inclusions such as “goblin” and “green skin.”
On a separate but similar site, the owners write: “Your fantasy, your rules. With Trans AI customization, you can design every detail of your AI companion—from physical characteristics and outfits to voice tone and personality traits. … Our shemale AI models can generate images and videos on demand, making your interactions more vivid and exciting. … Shemale AI makes it possible instantly.”
Brandon Robinson, associate professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of California, Riverside, says these infinite customization options are concerning: “[It] can further the objectification of trans women, as it treats them as just sex objects that can be changed and customized to one’s own likes and desires,” they say. “It also erases that trans women are real, actual human beings, with their own wants, needs, and desires.”
Beyond the fetishization lies a celebration of violence against trans women. A quick search yields videos with headlines that include “AI Generated Shemale Getting Destroyed by a Massive Dick.”
Robinson says these depictions exacerbate preexisting stereotypes. “A lot of men come into dating or hooking up with trans women with these stereotypes.”
Screenshot from PornHub.
Depictions of Gay Men
While deepfake laws in the U.S. now offer some protection, AI porn that isn’t based on one person’s likeness is harder to prosecute. And that’s concerning when you look at the global appetite for gay porn. In 2025, Pornhub reported that “femboy” and “twink” were the site’s two most searched for gay terms. And “Femboy Fixation” was one of the top five trends that defined 2025, with searches for “cute femboy” and “sexy femboy” up 79% and 93%, respectively.
What’s concerning is that AI has the ability to produce depictions of categories—which are code words for skinny, younger men—that take it to the next level. Many AI-generated depictions of these men show very thin, often emaciated, bodies. “It’s giving very unrealistic body ideas,” Robinson told Uncloseted Media and GAY TIMES. “And we know that there’s a history of eating disorders and body dysmorphia within the gay community.”
Screenshot from PornHub.
Depictions of children in AI porn is another space that has opened the door for bad-faith actors. A 2026 issue brief from UNICEF found that across 11 countries, at least 1.2 million children reported having had their images manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes through AI tools in the past year. And while there have been regulations on deepfakes, groups devoted to creating twink and femboy AI porn can create videos that depict youthful, small bodies, potentially making content that blurs the lines between adult content and child pornography.
While some may find it hard to believe that something as sinister and criminalized as child pornography could be informing AI models, Wei says it’s happening. “Using Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) is definitely not legal. It is awful. But lots of illegal things still happen,” she says. “People do use generative AI to generate AI CSAM, because the models have probably ingested CSAM before.”
Screenshot from PornHub.
Lesbian Porn and AI
Unrealistic depictions of lesbian sex are also popping up in AI porn. One AI-generated lesbian porn video shows a woman licking semen out of another woman’s vagina—inserting an invisible male presence into sex between women.
Another disturbing part of AI’s representation of lesbians has to do with how it often makes women look identical. In one AI-generated image, two lesbians in matching black bikinis sit on the beach. Their haircuts, facial features and bodies are the same. Through these kinds of images, AI risks encouraging viewers to overlook women’s individuality or—worse—lean into the fetish of incest.
In addition, many of the AI-generated depictions of women are feminine, extremely thin, white, and often have unrealistically large breasts and butts. While these attributes are already sought after in conventional porn, AI generators have the ability to produce depictions of women with impossible body proportions.
“[AI porn] maintains unrealistic beauty standards that most people can’t conform or live up to but also it pushes most people out of being seen as desirable and beautiful,” says Robinson.
The Impact on the Viewer
AI-generated porn can be harmful for those who watch it, especially for young people: Pornography is already highly addictive, with one study finding a 91% increase in pornography consumption since 2000. Another study found that between 17-24% of adolescents have experienced a dependency on AI.
Wei finds this troubling because much of how AI porn is generated is a black box. “From a consumer standpoint, you don’t really have the ability to audit how this tool was made,” she says.
Because of this, users may unknowingly consume media that is based off of abusive imagery or even child pornography. This is because the massive amount of data that tech companies use to feed their AI models is gathered from across the internet, making it impossible for individuals to vet each piece of information. “It feels more risky to use it when you don’t know who created [the AI porn], what their intentions were, or how they collected the data that was used to make it.”
Wei says what’s most concerning is that the data that tech companies use to feed their AI models is not always publicly available. “Large tech companies can be very protective of where they get their data. That is part of their business,” she says. “The scale at which these data sets are being collected means that you cannot have a human manually go through and verify that every piece collected was consensual [or] that a queer person was accurately depicted.”
What Can be Done?
Some popular generative AI models say there are safety regulations in place. ChatGPT’s website states that the model cannot be used for the creation of “illicit activities” or “sexual violence.” But Petit says that bad-faith actors may still succeed in skirting regulation. “There’s so many AI generators, and there’s people whose entire game is to break the generation,” she says. “You can tweak it more and more and can make the AI do something it doesn’t want.”
In one Reddit thread, a user of Elon Musk’s Grok expressed frustration about newly developed moderation making it harder to generate explicit images. In response, another user seemingly confirmed they were able to find a workaround: “Right now I’m generating realistic videos of completely naked men with tentacles and fluids and non-con sex talk and moans and it works great,” the user wrote.
The potential for nefarious uses of AI came to light when it was revealed that, starting in December 2025, Grok produced and shared upwards of 1.8 million sexualized images of women over the course of nine days. “As we’ve seen with Grok and the numerous scandals over the past few years, the ability to stop an AI model from creating explicit imagery of someone is … unsolved,” Wei says.
Wei doesn’t have a bulletproof solution. “I’m not necessarily aware of a universal technique that could prevent, 100% of the time, the creation of images of other people,” she says.
There are, however, strategies that help safeguard AI models. For example, red teaming, which consists of prompting an AI model to generate illicit content, is an ethical tool companies can use to spot regulatory weaknesses. “[It’s] a way to adversarially test, to attack a model and see if it can do harmful things which you are trying to prevent it from doing,” says Wei.
With some companies like Google employing hackers to red team in hopes of identifying security concerns, Wei thinks other AI companies should do the same.
Another approach lies in public model cards, which are small files accompanying AI models that provide information about the data the model was trained on, as well as the AI’s intended use and limitations. Both of these methods are in pursuit of transparency, which Wei sees as necessary to safer AI use. “There should be a way to make technologies safe when people want to use them. … Transparency is needed in order to make progress on safety issues, but that’s again, ongoing.”
In the meantime, Wei says that “tech companies and lawmakers need to step up” and implement greater regulation around AI porn. “Effective regulation also needs the input of people who already have lived experience with pornography, like sex workers and adult actors, and anyone who would be depicted in this imagery.”
European Union member states must allow transgender citizens to update their names and gender markers on identification documents, according to the EU’s highest court.
On Thursday, the EU Court of Justice (COJ) ruled that member state Bulgaria’s ban on trans people updating their names and gender markers on birth certificates — established in 2023 with a Bulgarian Supreme Court decision — violates the right to “freedom of movement” between EU countries guaranteed by the European Commission. All EU citizens’ right to freedom of movement supersedes any member country’s laws, the court said.
The decision came in a case brought by ILGA-Europe, Trans Europe and Central Asia, and two Bulgarian LGBTQ+ rights groups on behalf of a Bulgarian trans woman who currently lives in Italy, where she’s begun hormone therapy. Her requests to update her Bulgarian ID documents, however, have been denied.
As the groups representing the woman explained in a press release, “Because her life in Italy also depended on her Bulgarian documents, the lack of documents reflecting her lived gender creates an obstacle to her right to move and reside within EU member states.”
“This mismatch between her gender identity and expression and her gender marker in her official documents leads to discrimination in all areas of life where official documents are required. This includes everyday activities such as going to the doctor and paying for groceries by card, finding employment, enrolling in education, or obtaining housing,” the release continued.
The COJ agreed, ruling that “EU law precludes legislation of a Member State which does not permit the amendment of the gender data in the civil status registers of one of its nationals who has exercised his or her right to move and reside freely in another Member State.”
“The discrepancy between a person’s lived gender identity and the gender data appearing on his or her identity card is such as to hinder the exercise of his or her right to freedom of movement,” the court noted on March 12.
Such a restriction violates the right to respect for private life guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which, the court said, “protects gender identity and obliges Member States to provide for clear, accessible and effective procedures for the legal recognition of it.”
“Today, the EU Court of Justice has taken an important step towards a right to legal gender recognition in the EU,” TGEU Senior Policy Officer Richard Köhler said in a statement, reported by the Washington Blade. “Member states must allow their nationals living in another member state to change their gender data in public registries and identity cards to ensure they can fully enjoy their freedom of movement. National laws or courts cannot stand in their way.”
A Seattle man has been sentenced to seven years in prison for a violent hate crime attack against a transgender woman in the city’s University District.
Andre Karlow was convicted on Friday (13 March) of a second-degree assault and committing a hate crime for attacking Andie Holcepl in March 2025.
Holcepl testified that she encountered Karlow and several other men while walking to a Seattle Mariners opening day game.
Prosecutors said Karlow shouted insults and called her a “drag queen” before punching her in the mouth when she attempted to record the harassment.
Witnesses said multiple attackers then punched and kicked her while shouting anti-transgender slurs.
Holcepl suffered broken teeth, facial injuries, and a brain bleed before escaping to a restaurant for help.
Jurors determined the assault met Washington state’s legal definition of a hate crime, concluding Holcepl was targeted because of her gender identity.
During sentencing in King County Superior Court, prosecutors also referenced a recorded jail call in which Karlow said: “If I didn’t hate trans people before, I do now, absolutely. I think that Donald Trump should kill them all. Get them out of here. They’re weird.”
Assistant prosecutor Yessenia Manzo told the court that attacks like the one on Holcepl reinforce fears many transgender people feel about their safety in public spaces.
The University District assault was not the only case tied to Karlow. In 2024, he punched a transgender fare ambassador working for Sound Transit after being asked to verify his fare at a station.
A jury convicted him of fourth-degree assault in that case but did not reach a verdict on a hate crime charge.
According to reports, Karlow appeared largely remorseless during sentencing proceedings as the judge imposed an 84-month prison term for the 2025 attack.
