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About Gary Carnivele

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Meet the Conservative Think Tank Leading America’s Anti-DEI Movement

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Over the past five years, corporate America has abandoned diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices en masse, with the crusade to roll back these efforts only ramping up since Trump’s reelection.

A key factor fueling these rollbacks is shareholder proposals.

Over the last year, Apple, Alphabet, Netflix, JPMorganChase, PayPal, Costco, Goldman Sachs, Berkshire Hathaway, Walmart, Kroger and Coca-Cola have all received proposals to review or report on DEI policies, cut connections with LGBTQ advocacy organizations or cease DEI efforts altogether.

While it may seem like there are many forces behind these proposals, they were all submitted by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank commonly referred to as the National Center.

Although not very well known, they are effective: Since receiving their proposals, half of the companies listed above have watered down or abandoned their DEI practices, with Apple, JPMorganChase, Costco, Kroger and Coca-Cola standing firm.

And although the National Center has been trying to dismantle DEI for nearly two decades, they’re experiencing enormous success today due to the rise of the conservative crusade against “woke capitalism” and so-called “viewpoint discrimination.”

Jason Stahl, a historian and researcher specializing in right-wing think tanks and populism in the U.S., says the National Center’s newfound success reflects a renewed desire for socially conservative populist movements. “Think tanks prime themselves to respond to the American political culture in a populist way and to present themselves as for the people.”

“We’ve got Flint, Michigan without clean drinking water, we’ve got the flooding that occurred in Appalachia and North Carolina, we’ve got the fires in California and in Hawaii. Why aren’t we talking about all this?” he says. “Politics should be about the improvement of people’s lives,” but dominant powers in the U.S., including the National Center, want people to be fighting over DEI—a debate that detracts “from the material reality of people’s lives.”

How the National Center Is so Effective

Through shareholder proposals, the National Center—along with anyone who owns a high enough stake in a publicly traded company—can attempt to influence its governance.

In their proposal to Apple, the National Center submitted a “Request to Cease DEI Efforts,” writing, “Apple likely has over 50,000 [employees] who are potentially victims of this type of discrimination.” In their proposal to Alphabet, Google’s parent company, they came after the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Corporate Equality Index (CEI), calling it “hyper-partisan, divisive and increasingly radical.” Their supporting statement included disinformation about transgender people, claiming the HRC uses the CEI “to force [corporations] to do the political bidding of radical activists, which seek to sow gender confusion in youth, encourage permanent surgical procedures on confused and vulnerable teens, and effectively eliminate girls’ and women’s sports and bathrooms.”

And in their proposal to Goldman Sachs, they requested a “Racial Discrimination Audit,” citing a Supreme Court case that alleged Harvard University’s affirmative action policies discriminated against white students.

While the Goldman proposal failed, with just 2% of shares voting in its favor, the company still dropped their diversity and inclusion policies. But even these losses are often considered wins by the National Center, who have said that “the true aim of these proposals is to negotiate with companies and convince them to amend their equal employment opportunity policies to add protections against viewpoint discrimination.”

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R.G. Cravens, a senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center, says the anti-DEI movement is part of a bigger campaign to maintain the status quo in corporate America. “A lot of the rhetoric the hard right uses to describe DEI is based on racist and white supremacist narratives about people of color. For example, saying that DEI means unqualified people get jobs, they mean people of color who aren’t qualified to hold positions,” he says. “DEI policies are designed to interrupt systemic inequalities, and they do a lot beyond just what the hard right tends to caricature them as doing.”

In principle, DEI is meant to close wage and opportunity gaps in the workforce. LGBTQ workers earn 90 cents to every dollar earned by the average American worker, and women make 85 cents to every dollar earned by men. Meanwhile, Black and Latino workers make 24% and 28% less than white workers, respectively. Trans women, who are the most demonized in the crusade against DEI, earn just 60 cents on the dollar compared to the typical American worker.

Mary Wrenn, a professor of economics specializing in capitalism and neoliberalism at the University of Cambridge, says the crusade against DEI uses a similar strategy to that used against the civil rights movement of the 1960s. “There were a lot of economists and politicians who said that we should not force desegregation because the free market will take care of it. Of course that’s not true: We had to have legislation in order for the cultural and social spheres to catch up.”

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The National Center’s Free Enterprise Project and the Rise of Stefan Padfield

While the anti-DEI movement has only gained momentum in the last few years, the National Center has been around since 1982, when Amy Moritz Ridenour, a former campaign coordinator for Ronald Reagan, founded it.

In the 1990s, they successfully campaigned against the Clinton healthcare plan that would have provided universal healthcare to all Americans. Throughout the early 2000s, they campaigned to limit the amount that businesses which knowingly sold deadly asbestos products must pay in compensation to victims.

One of the National Center’s major initiatives is the Free Enterprise Project (FEP). Launched in 2007, they claim the FEP is “the original and premier opponent of the woke takeover of American corporate life and defender of true capitalism.”

Through the years, the FEP has campaigned against attacks on conservatives, pharmaceutical company support for the Affordable Care Act, and government initiatives to cap corporate carbon dioxide emissions.

But in recent years, the FEP’s focus has been to use shareholder activism to force a shift in corporate America. In 2021, they launched the Stop Corporate Tyranny coalition, which aims to “[expose] the Left’s nearly completed takeover of corporate America” and provide “resources and tools for everyday Americans to fight back against the Left’s woke and censoring mob in the corporate [world].”

The National Center’s funders include anti-LGBTQ hate groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom; religious donor-advised funds like National Christian Foundation; mainstream charitable funds like Fidelity, Schwab and Vanguard Charitable; and corporations such as ExxonMobil.

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“Free enterprise is just a mask for social conservatism because they want small government, but only with respect to business—they don’t want it with respect to people’s lives,” Wrenn told Uncloseted Media. “It’s about controlling the cultural conversation and our social norms, and that’s very tied up with white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism as an economic means by which to forward their personal agendas,” says Wrenn.

Stahl says President Trump’s positioning as a right-wing populist plays well into the National Center’s strategy. “They’re populist projects that say the liberals are out of touch and against your values. Over the decades, the messaging is the same but different issues get plugged in and we’re seeing this really come to its full flowering because [of] Trump,” he told Uncloseted Media.

In 2023, Stefan Padfield joined the FEP, quickly becoming the deputy director. The following year, the project convinced the U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn a Nasdaq board diversity rule that had required any Nasdaq-listed companies have—or explain why they don’t have—at least two “diverse” directors, including at least one woman and at least one other person who identifies as an underrepresented minority.

Padfield regularly posts transphobic quotes on X. In November, shortly after Trump won the election, he tweeted: “The trans insanity, the DEI indoctrination, the gender mutilations of kids—the moms looked at all that and said ‘hell no!’ at the polls.”

Padfield has also penned articles for RealClearMarkets, such as “A Question for Goldman Sachs: What Is a Woman?” in which he claims, “Transgenderism is one of the most divisive issues today,” reducing trans women to men who “become [women] simply by saying so.”

In an email to Uncloseted Media, Padfield says he has “no disdain for trans people or the wider LGBTQ community.” He says he wants to see all people have equal opportunities for maximum flourishing. “Having said that, if someone claims, for example, that they need to be permitted to surgically mutilate minors behind the backs of their parents in order to feel affirmed in their belief that children can be born in the wrong body, then I will be on the side of those defending those children.¹”

A screenshot of a social media post AI-generated content may be incorrect.

The Belief That America Should Be Governed as a Christian Theocracy

The National Center’s mission is reflective of a larger network of conservatives who claim to be protecting so-called viewpoint diversity. Last year, they launched an app to help shareholders identify conservative proposals that would help “hold woke corporations accountable.” The app also provided users with “neutrality v. wokeness” ratings of certain companies.

Cravens says that “viewpoint discrimination” has replaced “political correctness” as conservative buzzwords. “It’s this innocuous-sounding phrase like ‘We need to protect First Amendment speech and maintain pluralism’ … [this false notion] that conservatives and people who oppose anti-racist policies and LGBTQ-inclusive policies are discriminated against. But that is so reductionist because it ignores how white people have claimed and maintained power against communities of color through wealth inequality, racist corporate policies and banking practices,” he says.

He says there’s a rhetorical connection shared across these groups that Christian supremacists have been using for decades. “You say you’re concerned about children and trying to strengthen the family—that’s a totally different kind of marketing than ‘We are evangelicals and we’re here to take over.’ It’s been described as a stealth communication strategy to articulate the same message in secular terms in an effort to reach all Americans.”

What This Means for LGBTQ People

The National Center’s successes have a very real impact on LGBTQ communities. “I think they risk losing their jobs ultimately,” says Cravens. “One of the goals is to drive queer people back into a closet and dismantle any notion that it’s okay to be [openly] queer. They want to turn a group of people toxic so they won’t get service, they won’t get jobs and they won’t be part of society anymore.”

While powerful institutions try to sow division, advocates say it’s critical the LGBTQ community works together to push back against organizations like the National Center.

“It’s always been a minefield,” says Ben Greene, a transgender inclusion consultant and author of Good Queer News.

Greene urges LGBTQ people to stick together. “[We] are going to be our best antidote to [DEI setbacks]. ‘You had a bad experience?’ That needs to go on Glassdoor or your local LGBTQ social media page.” It is going to be an increasingly hard time but there is incredible solidarity between the LGBTQ community and other marginalized groups. “We can’t write off those little moments because that is what will get us out of this,” he says.

Cravens underscores the need for corporate America to have a backbone to push back against organizations like the National Center in an effort to create fair and inclusive workplaces. “A lot of companies advise against anti-DEI shareholder proposals already because they know it’s irresponsible and unprofitable to try to turn back the clock on civil rights. … They should recognize that there is value in diversity and vote down these policies inspired by hateful ideologies.”

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Largest trans survey ever finds the top reason transgender people stop transitioning is transphobia

A report on the largest survey ever of trans Americans’ health was released on Wednesday, June 11, and its findings reaffirmed what many academics, health care providers and trans people already know: gender-affirming care saves and improves lives, but transphobia often dissuades people from pursuing or continuing it when they need it most.

Over 84,000 trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people aged 18 and up responded to the 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey, spearheaded by Advocates for Trans Equality (A4TE). Of respondents who had transitioned, 9 percent had gone back to living as their sex assigned at birth at some point in their lives, at least for a short while — but in almost every single case, the reason was anti-trans discrimination from one’s family, friends, or community.

“Social and structural explanations dominated the reasons why respondents reported going back to living in their sex assigned at birth at some point,” the report found. “Only 4% of people who went back to living in their sex assigned at birth for a while cited that their reason was because they realized that gender transition was not for them. When considering all respondents who had transitioned, this number equates to only 0.36%.”

Meanwhile, respondents who received gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) or gender-affirming surgery overwhelmingly reported feeling “more satisfied” with their lives, 98 percent and 97 percent, respectively.

This watershed report contradicts the popular narrative being circulated by mainstream media, far-right politicians, and anti-trans groups that transgender people are “detransitioning” en masse due to life-shattering “transition regret.” In reality, it shows gender diverse people are living rich and vibrant lives, so long as they are provided the space, support, and care they need from their health care providers and communities.

The survey found a trans person’s overall health and wellbeing also heavily depend upon rates of familial support, a factor that has a profound influence over a trans person’s lifetime experience of suicidality.

The survey has been released in increments as researchers at A4TE wade through the unprecedented amounts of data from trans people who lent their voice to the project. It is a much-needed, comprehensive overview of the challenges — and victories — seen in trans health care since the prior iteration of the study. The report is especially vital considering the Trump Administration moved to remove transgender people from the U.S. Census and other government websites, rendering trans communities potentially invisible, and robbing researchers of crucial data informing public policy decisions.

“Having real concrete and rigorous data about the realities of trans people’s day-to-day lives is also a vital part of dispelling all of those assumptions and stereotypes that plague the public discourse about our community,” said Olivia Hunt, A4TE’s Director of Federal Policy, during a press briefing this week.

The report also touched upon trans people’s access to health care, which increased between 2015 and 2022; the quality of care, as trust between doctors and trans patients has improved; disparities between trans people across racial groups, which showed trans people of color are generally more prone to experience discrimination compared to white trans people; and the mental health challenges facing the trans community, as 44 percent of respondents met the criteria for serious psychological distress, compared to less than 4 percent of the general U.S. population.

Many of these issues have likely been exacerbated since the data was collected. The lead-up to President Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office incited a new wave of anti-trans animus, impeding access to care and stirring up transphobic vitriol and harassment.

“From 2015 to 2022, state-level policy environments became more protective in some ways for trans people; however, in 2022 alone, when the USTS was administered, 315 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced across the country, many of which harm trans and nonbinary people’s access to healthcare, participation in sports, access to public facilities, or other facets of public life,” the report says.

“This political landscape has only worsened since the administration of the 2022 USTS, with the introduction of 571 anti-LGBTQ nationwide in 2023 and 489 in 2024,” it continues. “At the time of writing, data on trans and nonbinary people has been erased from federal health surveys. As funding for LGBTQ research is stripped away, the USTS has become an ever more critical resource on the lived experiences of trans and nonbinary people.”

Nonetheless, trans life and trans joy have persisted, as testimonies featured in the U.S. Trans Survey demonstrate.

“I have thrived in the past 12 months in transition, I have a genuine smile on my face most days & laugh with genuine joy,” wrote Charlotte, a trans woman, in her survey response. “I have grown into the woman I was meant to be.”

And as Roo, a nonbinary person, wrote: “Once I learned what it meant to be trans, I never looked back. I traded in my Regina George-esque life for a future with a balding head and a predisposition for a beer gut. I’ve never been more happy to be alive—every single day. ”

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Gay weddings have boosted state and local economies by $6 billion since marriage equality

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Wedding spending by same-sex couples and their out-of-state guests has boosted state and local economies by approximately $5.9 billion over the past 10 years, a new study has found.

There are an estimated 823,000 same-sex couples in the U.S., according to a recent report from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, and more than 591,000 have married since the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized marriage equality nationwide. About 80 percent of married couples (473,000 couples) celebrated with a wedding or other events.

At the average $8,546 spent per wedding, these couples have spent approximately $4.9 billion on their celebrations, with an estimated 22.2 million guests in attendance. Among them, 7.6 million guests traveled from out-of-state, generating an additional economic boost of nearly $1 billion over the past 10 years. 

Same-sex couples’ weddings have also generated an estimated $432.2 million in state and local sales tax revenue — enough to support an estimated 41,300 jobs for one year.

The boost from Obergefell has been felt across U.S., with the biggest boost surprisingly seen in the regions with the least out LGBTQ+ residents. Approximately $2.3 billion of the wedding spending occurred in the South, $1.7 billion in the West, $1 billion in the Midwest, and $900 million in the Northeast.

“Marriage equality has had a significant impact on the lives and well-being of same-sex couples in the U.S.,” said lead author Christy Mallory, Interim Executive Director and Legal Director at the Williams Institute. “Additionally, it has offered a substantial financial benefit to businesses as well as state and local governments.”

Nine states have recently introduced resolutions asking the Supreme Court to reconsider Obergefell, citing state constitutional amendments banning marriage between same-sex couples that were nullified. None have yet passed, and even if they were to, the resolutions are nonbinding — meaning they carry no legal weight, and the court is not obligated to hear them.

While the Supreme Court has made no official move to reconsider marriage equality, some justices have voiced opposition to Obergefell even after the ruling. When the court overturned the national right to an abortion in Roe v. Wade, Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion at the time that the court should also revisit and overrule decisions that prevent state restrictions on contraception, marriage equality, sodomy, and other private consensual sex acts, calling the rulings “demonstrably erroneous.”

If the Supreme Court reverses Obergefell , marriages between same-sex couples will still be recognized federally under the Respect for Marriage Act. Signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022, the act mandates that the federal government recognizes same-sex and interracial marriages, and that all states recognize those performed in other states. However, the act does not require states to allow marriages between same-sex couples.

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Queer educators will soon unveil 10 new LGBTQ+ lessons for California public schools

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A coalition of local educators and LGBTQ+ organizations in California are unveiling 10 new LGBTQ+ history lessons for the state’s K-12 public school classrooms under the theme “Pride, Resistance, Joy: Teaching Intersectional LGBTQ+ Stories of California and Beyond.” 

The curriculum was created by local K-12 teachers in collaboration with the LGBTQ+ history organization One Institute, the ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, the UCLA History-Geography Project, and the queer student support program Out for Safe Schools at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. The ongoing collaborative partnership has been developing LGBTQ+ history curriculum for state schools since 2018.

While the lessons will be unveiled on Thursday, they’ll align with the state’s 2011 Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act, a law that requires public schools to include the historical contributions of LGBTQ+ Americans in history lessons and classroom textbooks.

Lesson plan materials provided by the aforementioned organizations show that one kindergarten lesson will explore, “What are some ways we can show how to be a strong community member?” An 8th-grade U.S. History lesson plan will ask, “To what extent did historical figures agree or disagree with ‘all men are created equal’ during their activism?” 

A 9th-grade Ethnic Studies lesson plan will ask, “What role did community organizations play in supporting queer AAPI [Asian-American and Pacific Islander] people in the 1980s and 1990s?” A 12th-grade U.S. Government lesson plan will ask, “How did LGBTQ+ immigrants push for more inclusive immigration policies in the 1970s and 1980s?”

The currently available lesson plans for high schoolers include ones about queer activist and poet Audre Lorde, AIDS & HIV activism, gay racial civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin, queerness in 1920s and 1930s Hollywood, trailblazing San Francisco politcian Harvey Milk, the removal of homosexuality as a classified mental disorder, transgender-inclusive German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, how urbanization affected alternative family structures, and other topics.

In a statement, Trevor Ladner, Director of Education Programs at One Institute said, “The FAIR Education Act affirms students’ right to study the pride, resistance, and joy of LGBTQ+ history and culture. These lesson plans equip K-12 teachers with standards-aligned resources and effective practices to teach intersectional LGBTQ+ histories,” 

Peta Lindsay, Associate Director of the UCLA History-Geography Project said, “LGBTQ+ students, teachers, and families are essential members of our communities, and LGBTQ+ history is an essential part of our shared history. Every student deserves access to empowering LGBTQ+ history in schools.”

The development of LGBTQ+ inclusive-curriculum under California’s FAIR Act

The landmark legislation, the first of its kind in the nation, was introduced by then-State Sen. Mark Leno (D), and signed into law by then-Gov. Jerry Brown(D).

Historian Don Romesburg, the lead scholar who worked with advocacy organizations to pass the act, served as director of a committee to develop the act’s original curriculum framework.

Romesburg and his committee of 20 scholars — all who specialize in different areas of LGBTQ+, U.S. and world history — went line-by-line through the state’s curriculum and suggested ways to incorporate LGBTQ+ material based on current research and age-appropriateness. Their framework didn’t just include famous LGBT historical figures but also encouraged students to think critically about family structures, gender roles, and institutional oppressions throughout time.

The current framework has students in the 2nd grade social studies classes learning how LGBTQ+ families exist alongside families with adoptive parents, step-parents, and parents who are immigrants. In 4th-grade California history, students learn about famous 19th-century stagecoach driver Charley Parkhurst, a western pioneer who lived and dressed as a man but was discovered after death to have been assigned a female gender at birth

“This is great time for critical thinking,” Romesburg said, “to get people to think about birth-assigned gender and why someone would dress like [a man] in the Gold Rush era of the West.”

In 5th grade Early American history classes, some lessons emphasize how two-spirit shamans and multi-parent families in indigenous American tribes changed as a result of colonization. In 8th grade, students of 19th-century U.S. history discuss how Black people and women forged their own families in response to slavery and industrialization.

Social science electives for 9th graders include mentions of famous lesbian and bisexual women in, and ethnic studies classes mention famous queer people of color. Modern world history classes for 10th graders cover the persecution of gay people during the Holocaust.

The 11th grade modern U.S. history classes look at the evolution of modern LGBTQ+ communities throughout history (like during the Harlem Renaissance, WWII, and the sexual liberation movement of the 1970s). They also cover the persecution of sexual and gender minorities by the medical community, the U.S. military, the U.S. government, the religious right, and throughout the AIDS epidemic and current LGBTQ+ court cases.

Over the years, the state train educators about how to incorporate LGBTQ+ material into their classes and to advocate for textbook and educational material providers to create LGBTQ+-inclusive materials. California is a huge text book market and has a huge influence on the rest of the country’s textbook materials, so textbook producers have a strong financial incentive to create textbooks in line with California’s new standards, standards that will likely affect the textbooks of smaller states around the U.S..

As for claims of “sexual brainwashing”, Romesburg said, “It’s a contemporary reality that there’s an modern LGBT rights movement and that LGBT people exist. You don’t have to take a political view on whether you approve of that to know that it has a history and that history is something that all students should have access to.”

He added, “One of the things that’s most exciting is there are many educators in California that have been eager to include LGBT content in their teaching, but they haven’t know how. And this gives them a roadmap in a substantial way to do this in elementary, middle and high school. It’s utterly transformative and truly history-making.”

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Pride Month display at NYC’s Stonewall National Monument excludes transgender flags

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.

This comes as the National Park Service is accused of actively erasing transgender visibility and history.

“It’s a terrible action for them to take”

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.
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.

Earlier this year, the National Park Service removed references to transgender and queer people from the Stonewall National Monument’s website.

“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.

Three small transgender flags stuck in soil behind a fence in Stonewall National Monument park.
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.

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Trump Administration to close LGBTQ+ youth suicide hotline in 30 days

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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.

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For a Gay Asylum Seeker, Trump’s ICE Crackdowns Strike Terror

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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.

Since President Trump’s return to office, many organizations—including Barnhart’s—are worried about federal funding and employee cuts, which have caused many groups that help asylum seekers to lose funding, cut programs and lay off employees.

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.

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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.”

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Frameline49: “Row of Life” Screening Happens Tuesday at the Roxie Theatre in SF & Streaming Now

tFormer Marine, three-time Paralympian, fourteen-time Guinness World Record setter, and renowned ocean rower Angela Madsen is committed to her sport. By chronicling the year leading up to Madsen’s unsupported solo row from Los Angeles to Hawai’i, director Soraya Simi captures both the everyday beauty of a sapphic love story and an athlete’s fearless tenacity. Once Madsen embarks on her nearly 3,000-mile journey, however, Row of Life takes a harrowing turn when the film team and Angela’s wife, Debra Madsen, suddenly lose contact with the rower. 

Although the final chapter of Angela Madsen’s incredible true story is marked by tragedy, Row of Life is a testament to the transformative, affirming power of sports. Brought to the screen in part by TOGETHXR, a media company founded by Sue Bird, Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim, and Simone Manuel, Row of Lifespotlights the remarkable life of an unsung gay athlete.

Tickets: https://www.frameline.org/films/frameline49/row-of-life

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NLGJA Los Angeles Announces Nominees for Inaugural Journalism Awards

The Los Angeles Chapter of NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists, an organization that advocates for fair and accurate coverage of the LGBTQ+ community in the Southland while striving to foster community among LA’s queer and trans journalists, news media professionals and creatives, has announced the nominees for three inaugural journalism awards for Southern California journalists and newsrooms who championed LGBTQ+ stories in 2024. The awards will be presented at the 2025 Press Pride Prom, a benefit and awards ceremony presented by ABC7 and hosted by award-winning journalist Tracy Gilchrist.

NLGJA Los Angeles’ Awards Committee has selected three nominees for three new awards. The Troy Masters Legacy Award for Visionaries in Media, presented in collaboration with the Los Angeles Blade, honors a journalist or news media professional whose work reflects a dedication to the craft of journalism and a commitment to setting the stage for the next generation of LGBTQ+ industry leaders. The award is named in honor of Troy Masters, veteran queer journalist and former publisher of the Los Angeles Blade, who passed away last year. The nominees include Mariah Castañeda, co-founder of LA Public Press; veteran journalist LZ Granderson, who currently serves as an OpEd columnist for the Los Angeles Times and an ABC News contributor; and John Griffiths, founder of GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics and Dorian Awards.

“We are honored to present an award this year in honor of beloved Los Angeles publisher and journalist Troy Masters,” said NLGJA LA co-president Hansen Bursic, “These nominees embody Masters’ dedication to LGBTQ+ journalism and his passion for community building in Southern California and beyond.”

The Excellence in LGBTQ+ Reporting Newsroom Award honors a news outlet whose coverage of the queer and trans community is well-informed, complex, varied and intersectional, with a track record of promoting The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists’ mission to advance fair and accurate coverage of LGBTQ+ communities and issues. The nominees include LAist, Los Angeles Blade, and Variety.

The Queer Beat Award for Excellence in LGBTQ+ Reporting honors a single story or series that demonstrates care, skill and a commitment to fair and accurate reporting of LGBTQ+ themes, issues and people. The nominees include A Night They Can’t Remember, at One of the Country’s Most Popular LGBTQ+ Bars by Kate Sosin and Steven Blum for The 19th; Banned Rainbows and ‘Forced Outing.’ Will Elections Reshape This Relentless School Board? by Jaweed Kaleem for the Los Angeles Times; and She Was Supposed to Be at Pulse Nightclub — And Club Q. Now She’s Fighting To Keep LGBTQ+ People Safe by Lil Kalish for HuffPost.

“These nominees represent the diverse and passionate spirit of Southern California’s LGBTQ+ journalism community,” added NLGJA LA co-president Katie Karl. “At a time when queer and trans stories and journalists are under attack, we are proud to uplift a few of the incredibly talented journalists who are speaking truth to power and helping tell our community’s stories.”

The award winners will be announced at Press Pride Prom, a benefit for the NLGJA LA Chapter and awards ceremony held on July 26 from 6 to 9 p.m. in Glendale at the historic Grand Central Air Terminal. The event, which offers LGBTQ+ and other attendees the opportunity to relive their high school prom as their authentic selves, will feature food, drinks and a live DJ. The event will be hosted by veteran LA-based journalist Tracy Gilchrist, recently made internet famous with her “Wicked” “holding space” interview with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. The event is presented by ABC7.

Early bird tickets are on sale now until June 20. Tables and regular tickets will also be available to purchase through July 18. You can learn more and get tickets here.

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British Library to reinstate Oscar Wilde’s reading pass in symbolic gesture of repentance

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The British Library has announced it will posthumously reinstate gay poet and playwright Oscar Wilde’s reader pass after revoking it in 1895 due to his homosexuality. 

Known at the time as the British Museum Reading Room, the venue banned Wilde after he was found guilty of “gross indecency” with men and sentenced to two years of hard labor.

The symbolic pass will be presented to Wilde’s grandson, Merlin Holland, at an event on October 16, Wilde’s birthday. Asked how Wilde might react to the gesture, Holland told The Guardian, “He’d probably say ‘about time’ too.”

Holland, who is also a Wilde scholar, said that his grandfather had already been imprisoned for three weeks when the British Museum Reading Room revoked his access. “So he wouldn’t have known about it, which was probably as well… It would have just added to his misery to feel that one of the world’s great libraries had banned him from books just as the law had banned him from daily life. But the restitution of his ticket is a lovely gesture of forgiveness, and I’m sure his spirit will be touched.”

Holland also said, however, that he doesn’t think his grandfather’s conviction should be pardoned as part of a 2017 UK law allowing posthumous pardons for anyone convicted under former laws that criminalized homosexuality. The law led to pardons for an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 gay and bisexual men, but the names of those men were not released. 

“Oscar didn’t think there was anything wrong in same-sex love… I’m not absolutely certain he has been pardoned… If I had to ask for a pardon, I wouldn’t, because all it would do is make the British establishment feel better about itself… History’s history, and you can’t start rewriting it.”

Laura Walker, lead curator of modern archives and manuscripts, said the reinstatement of the pass is even more important since the British Library owns a massive collection of Wilde’s manuscripts. 

“We really want to honour Wilde now and acknowledge what happened to him,” Walker told The Guardian. “Section 11 of the law, which related to the criminalization of homosexuality, was unjust.”

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