A group of transgender Girl Scouts have collectively sold over 71,000 cookies thanks to a heartwarming annual campaign.
Every year, independent trans journalist Erin Reed curates a list of trans and non-binary youngsters who are part of Girl Scout troops and asks readers to buy a box of cookies as part of a fundraising drive to help “make a few of their days better.”
Girl Scouts in the US famously sell boxes of biscuits between January and April to help raise funds for the youth organisation, raking in an average of over $800 million per year. Girl Scouts earn cumulative prizes depending on the amount of boxes they sell.
Over one million Girl Scouts sell an average of $800 million worth of cookies each year. (Getty)
Reed, 36, first decided to help trans Girl Scouts sell their boxes in 2022 upon discovering that the non-profit’s inclusion policy allows trans youngsters to join.
She revealed in a Thursday (22 January) blog post that this year’s curated list of nearly 200 Girl Scouts members had already helped them to sell a combined 71,254 boxes. This year’s boxes are priced at $6, meaning the drive has helped to raise an estimated sum of at least $427,524 in just three weeks.
While Reed said there was no way of knowing how many of those boxes were sold as a direct result of the campaign, she noted her list had been seen by over 2 million people on Facebook alone, adding that its reach has been “enormous.”
“With weeks still left in the season, [the number of boxes sold] is certain to climb even higher,” she said.
Girl Scouts campaign a ‘rare source of joy’ for trans youth
The campaign comes as political and legislative attacks targeting trans youngsters in the US continue to rip through state and federal governments.
It’s estimated that 39.4 per cent of trans youth live in a US state that has bannedgender-affirming care in some capacity, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Other legislative attacks on trans young people include bills forcing schools to out them to their parents or guardians, restricting LGBTQ+ subjects from school curriculum, or banning them from sporting events.
Reed said her campaign started predominantly to give trans young people hope as their fundamental human rights are further stripped away from them. She said she has heard from hundreds of trans young people and their families thanking her for starting the fundraiser.
“Transgender youth in the United States are under extraordinary pressure right now,” she said. “Many have lost access to health care as hospitals capitulate to the Trump administration, while others face constant hostility from political leaders in their own communities.
“Again and again, families and scouts themselves say the cookie drive has become a rare source of joy, a reminder that people across the country see them, value them, and care about their lives.”
If you are US-based, you can still donate to any one of the 189 participating Girl Scouts by viewing Erin Reed’s list here. Buyers are recommended to purchase boxes from participants who have not yet filled their goals, and must use the “ship the cookies” option to receive their order.
This story was produced with the support of MISTR, a telehealth platform offering free online access to PrEP, DoxyPEP, STI testing, Hepatitis C testing and treatment and long-term HIV care across the U.S. MISTR did not have any editorial input into the content of this story.
This story talks about addiction and substance use. If you or someone you know needs help, resources can be found here.
In 2015, on the patio of Nowhere Bar, a queer nightclub in Louisville, Kentucky, music pulsed and bodies pressed as 23-year-old Lucas Pearson moved through the flashing lights and a blur of grinding limbs.
“I just randomly started talking to this guy,” he recalls. “He had this little spoon on a necklace, scooped out a hit of white powder, and handed it to me.”
Pearson sniffed it. Euphoria washed over him, time began to slow and the dancing bodies faded into a soft haze. For more than 10 minutes, Pearson felt “entirely present.” His social anxiety, depression and any sadness he was feeling melted away.
While Pearson wouldn’t use ketamine again for the next five years, he says the feeling of ease the drug gave him was always “in the back of [his] mind.” So when he tried it for a second time in 2020 at a farm in upstate Kentucky, he liked the way it felt to disassociate from his childhood trauma.
“We got really messed up that night on it, and I was like, ‘I love this. I’ve missed this,’” Pearson told Uncloseted Media. “‘And I’m ready for some more.’”
Over the next three years, Pearson began using every day. Working remotely in the health care industry, no one checked in on him as long as he got his work done. He used ketamine at nightclubs, social events, game nights with friends and, eventually, at home alone.
“I was actively hooked on it,” he says. “I didn’t wanna do much of anything other than find that dissociating feeling. I just kept chasing it.”
While evidence suggests that most psychedelics have a lower risk of addictionthan other drugs, ketamine is an exception, in part because it affects dopamine levels. In a 2007 bulletin from the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, one researcher noted that after ketamine was invented in 1962, it developed a “reputation for insidiously trapping those who really knew better.” As a dissociative drug, ketamine induces a sense of detachment from one’s body, producing a trance-like state marked by pain relief, amnesia, euphoria and a distortion of reality.
Despite declines in the use of other recreational drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy and nitrous oxide, ketamine use continues to rise, with one study finding that use increased by 81.8% from 2015 to 2019 and rose another 40% from 2021 to 2022. That increase is driven in part by ketamine’s growing legitimacy as a treatment for depression, anxiety, OCD, trauma and even addiction.
As a result, ketamine clinics have proliferated across the U.S. with relatively few guardrails. At least a thousand clinics now offer off-label ketamine treatments outside of FDA-approved protections. Many commercial providers advertise same-day appointments and “almost immediate results.”
Alex Belser, a psychologist who studies psychedelic use in the queer community, says ketamine use has become pervasive among gay men. A 2025 study found that gay and lesbian adults in the U.S. are almost four times more likely to use ketamine than their heterosexual counterparts, and a 2011 study from the U.K. found that queer men were over three times more likely than queer women to use the drug.
Belser thinks ketamine use is so popular among gay men in part because of the high rates of loneliness, rejection and trauma they experience. “Ketamine is not inherently good or bad. When used thoughtfully with integrity, with good protocols, it can be a really helpful medicine. But if left unregulated, with the amount of access and normalization we have, it can lead to addiction, harm, isolation and bad outcomes,” he says.
Belser believes health misinformation is fueling a misunderstanding among gay men about the actual harm the drug can cause. “The medical and clinical communities have failed people by not adequately telling them that ketamine can lead to addiction and problematic outcomes,” he says. “It can serve people, but it can also damage people.”
‘Happy People Don’t Do Ketamine’
Part of the appeal of ketamine is that dissociative feelings can relieve depressive symptoms, making it alluring to those who have trauma or mental health disorders. While properly regulated treatment works for some people, psychiatrist Owen Bowden-Jones says that he senses “the vast majority [of those addicted] are using it to self-medicate for emotional distress.”
“I always wanted to numb out my past,” says Pearson. “For the longest time, I saw ketamine as a possible way out.”
Pearson, now 33, was raised in a conservative and religious family. When he came out as gay to his mom at 16, he cried so much that he couldn’t speak and had to write it on a piece of paper and hand it to her.
“She stormed out of the house and ended up calling every member of the family and outing me. So that was really painful,” he says. “My whole childhood, I did not feel like I could be who I knew I was.”
“So when I picked up drugs, it was definitely a thought in my mind: This life that I lived as a child, I don’t want to feel it anymore,” he says. “I just want to numb it.”
One study shows that gay men are over three times as likely to develop PTSD compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Trauma can be one event or a “long string of daily hurts, such as … homophobia, bullying, and time spent in the closet,” according to Chris Tompkins, a licensed family therapist who works with gay men. Research shows that people who experience trauma are more likely to have addiction issues.
J, a 33-year-old marketing researcher based in Los Angeles, says his ketamine use began casually in his early 20s in New York’s queer nightlife scene, where the drug circulated freely. What started as an occasional escape intensified during the pandemic, when isolation, depression and easy access turned ketamine into a daily habit.
“There’s a pretty fair connection between feelings of not being normal and my ketamine addiction,” J told Uncloseted Media. “I was bullied for being more feminine. My sexuality was a subject of speculation and that forced me to close down. So something like a dissociative drug is appealing because it either allows me to continue those blocks or to bring down the barriers.”
“There was a night when I had done K for the first time in a while, and the next couple of days, I felt so good,” he says. “I felt like my depression had lifted, and that feeling of doubt and fear I’d had throughout my life was totally gone.”
After that night, J, who asked to use a first initial to protect his identity, started using ketamine daily to chase the feeling of euphoria and relief. He got a prescription for ketamine treatment therapy, but he says it wasn’t enough.
“There were days when I would go do an infusion of ketamine and I would do more at home on my own. If I have the ability to escape feelings, to numb feelings, I will go after that.”
Many ketamine clinics in the U.S. advertise ketamine therapy as a cure-all. For example, the online clinic Better U promises that ketamine therapy will help you say goodbye to “Trauma,” “Chronic Stress,” “Depression and Anxiety,” “OCD,” “PTSD” and “Grief.”
What the clinic doesn’t note on its landing page is the possibility of addiction, which is what happened to J. While a common dose of ketamine is between 30-75 mg, J began using multiple grams a day. He spent thousands of dollars a month on ketamine and began structuring his life around the drug. “It stopped being about going out or having fun,” he says. “It just became what I did day in and day out.”
“Happy people don’t do ketamine,” Tasha, who is in recovery from a six-year-long addiction, told Uncloseted Media. She first tried the drug for fun at 17, but it became a problem after her father died when she was 26. At her peak, she was taking six to nine grams every day and up to 24 grams over the weekends.
“The wheels just fell off,” she says. “It’s an escapism drug—of course people with more trauma will do it more. You want to forget about everything so you take it and then it stops becoming fun and you don’t want to see your friends anymore. You just stay in your home behind closed doors sniffing K to get out of your head.”
The Physical Consequences of Ketamine
Tasha didn’t know that chronic ketamine use can cause inflammation, ulceration, and damage or scarring to the bladder, liver, kidneys and gallbladder. After using it for six years, she checked herself into the intensive care unit.
“I was just writhing in pain from K cramps, like a sharp stabbing pain under your ribs,” she says. “The trouble is, nothing works to fix them. The only thing that helps is doing more K. I had no idea it was so painful,” says Tasha, adding that she’s seen four people die from ketamine addiction in the last three years.
“There were times in my use where I would be screaming in bed in the worst agony I’ve ever felt in my life,” J says. “The only thing that made the pain better was using more drugs. It got to the point that I needed to have some amount of K in my system to function.”
“There is a massive explosion of ketamine use and addiction,” Mo Belal, a consultant urological surgeon and an expert on the severe bladder and kidney damage caused by chronic ketamine abuse, told Uncloseted Media. “The trouble is, it’s impossible to treat bladder and kidney damage when people are still using.”
Belal says that for those seeking treatment, there are no specific ketamine rehabilitation programs in the U.S. “Addiction and pain management services need to be involved in healing from ketamine abuse, because the drug’s effects often require specialized support.”
Belal says that during a one-hour rehab session, someone experiencing severe ketamine-related bladder pain might need to leave every 20 minutes, making it difficult for the patient to stay engaged.
“We need more awareness,” he says. “We need more centers for ketamine rehabilitation.”
Education and Awareness
While there is some research about the effects of ketamine, Belser could not point to any studies that focus on how the drug intersects with gay men experiencing trauma. “The community of ketamine researchers and prescribers has been naive historically in understanding the habit-forming properties of ketamine,” he says. “What are the effects of ketamine use, good or bad, for gay men experiencing trauma, lifelong discrimination and family rejection? We don’t know, because critical research hasn’t been funded.”
The Drug Enforcement Administration classifies ketamine’s abuse potential as moderate to low, a designation that may contribute to limited public education about its risks, including dependence and long-term side effects. Many people who encounter ketamine on the dance floor think it’s a healthy alternative to alcohol because they believe it’s non-addictive and it doesn’t give you a hangover.
Photo by Jon Cherry.
“I did think that it was pretty safe when I was using and I didn’t think it was going to be addictive,” Pearson says.
Pearson, who has been clean for two years, says it wasn’t until he reached out to a friend who had recovered from ketamine use that he began getting clean. “I saw how happy my friend was in recovery, how normal his life felt. … And I knew that was the life I wanted.”
Similarly, for J, he felt alone in his ketamine addiction. It wasn’t until he found a queer-centered substance rehab program in LA that he felt some hope.
“It helped patch some of the missing pieces to my experiences in treatment before,” he says. “I think that relapse is a part of every addict’s story and every recovery story. But I think my relapses indicated that I still had some unresolved trauma and deep wounds that I hadn’t been aware of yet. And I think being around queer people in recovery has been helpful for me to feel a lot more comfortable with myself.”
Photo by Jon Cherry.
Today, J is in therapy, continuing to break down the walls of his childhood trauma. Pearson is in a 12-step program after doing intensive therapy in his first few months of sobriety to help “clear up a lot of traumatic things that happened” in his past.
“I finally realized how far I’d drifted from everyone in my life—my friends, my family, even myself,” Pearson says. “I was chasing this feeling of disappearance, and it almost cost me everything. If I hadn’t stopped when I did, I don’t think I’d still be here. Getting sober gave me my life back, and I don’t ever want to lose that again.”
LGBTQ adults as a whole—but transgender and nonbinary adults especially—are experiencing an extraordinarily difficult and stressful political environment, leading to significant impacts on their everyday lives. The Movement Advancement Project (MAP) conducted a nationally representative survey with NORC at the University of Chicago to better understand the impacts of recent political developments. Survey findings show that the majority of LGBTQ adults report harm, mistreatment, and other negative experiences since the 2024 presidential election.
Click below to navigate this brief. Note that each section concludes with a set of arrows (↑ ↑ ↑) that redirect back to the table of contents.
Since the November 2024 election—and especially in the months since the beginning of President Trump’s second term—anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has increased, violence has escalated, and legislation, executive orders, and other targeted actions have drastically altered the lives of LGBTQ people, especially transgender people.
This survey offers a nationally representative snapshot of LGBTQ adults’ reported experiences, concerns, and actions following the November 2024 election. The results show that LGBTQ adults as a whole—but transgender and nonbinary adults especially—are experiencing an extraordinarily difficult and stressful political environment, leading to significant impacts on their everyday lives. The survey documents the urgent and often life-changing steps or decisions LGBTQ people have taken to protect themselves or their families since the November 2024 election. It also shows that LGBTQ people reported increasing their efforts to participate in or protect their community in the face of anti-LGBTQ politics or laws.
Methodology
This brief describes the results of a national survey of 1,055 LGBTQ adults (ages 18+) in the United States, including 111 transgender and nonbinary adults. This online survey was conducted by NORC’s AmeriSpeak panel and ran May 29 – June 13, 2025. Funded and operated by NORC at the University of Chicago, AmeriSpeak® is a probability-based panel designed to be representative of the US household population. Randomly selected US households are sampled with a known, non-zero probability of selection from the NORC National Sample Frame, and then contacted by US mail, email, telephone, and field interviewers (face to face). AmeriSpeak panelists participate in NORC studies or studies conducted by NORC on behalf of governmental agencies, academic researchers, and media and commercial organizations.
All differences shown in this brief (e.g., differences in responses between all LGBTQ respondents and transgender and nonbinary respondents) are statistically significant unless otherwise noted.
Recent LGBTQ-Related Politics Lead to Major Life Decisions
The Majority of LGBTQ People, and Even Higher Numbers of Transgender People, Have Made Major Life Decisions Due to Recent LGBTQ-Related Politics
Since November 2024, the majority (57%) of LGBTQ people—including 84% of transgender and nonbinary people—have made significant life decisions or taken steps in response to LGBTQ-related politics or laws(Figure 1). These include considering or actually moving to a different state; considering or actually finding a different job; attempting to update legal name or gender markers on identity documents; crossing state lines to receive medical care, and much more.
Across nearly every measure, transgender and nonbinary people reported taking these actions at much higher rates, sometimes even twice or three times as often (Figure 1). For example:
55% of transgender respondents have taken steps to be less visible as an LGBTQ person in their community, such as at work or school, compared to 24% of all LGBTQ respondents.
43% of transgender people have considered moving to a different state, compared to 25% of all LGBTQ people.
And, 9% of transgender people report they’ve actually moved to a different state since November 2024, as have 5% of all LGBTQ people.
36% of transgender people have considered finding a different job or place of work, compared to 18% of LGBTQ people.
And, 22% of transgender people have actually changed jobs or workplaces since November 2024, as have 11% of all LGBTQ people.
These are remarkably sobering findings that reflect the fear, anxiety, and uncertainty that many LGBTQ people and their families across the country are currently facing—and the very real and difficult choices about their lives that they are being forced to consider. This is especially true given the relatively short period of time considered by the survey (November 2024 to June 2025). This suggests that, as political attacks on LGBTQ people continue, these numbers may grow even higher.
LGBTQ People Also Report Taking Actions to Participate in and Protect Their Community, Not Only Themselves or Their Families
Figure 1 shows the important and often significant steps or decisions LGBTQ people have taken to protect themselves or their families since the November 2024 election. It also shows that LGBTQ people reported taking various actions to participate in or protect their community, in response to LGBTQ politics or laws—and again, transgender and nonbinary people reported these actions at much higher rates. For example:
21% of LGBTQ people—and 38% of transgender people—have joined or started participating in LGBTQ community or recreational opportunities where they live.
20% of LGBTQ people—and 42% of transgender people—have joined or started participating in LGBTQ advocacy or activism where they live.
18% of LGBTQ people—and 31% of transgender people—have taken steps to be more visible as an LGBTQ person in their community.
Figure 1
Nearly 1 in 10 Transgender People Report Moving to a New State
As shown in Figure 1, nearly one in 10 (9%) transgender adults in the survey have moved to a different state due to LGBTQ-related laws or politics, as have 5% of LGBTQ adults. Again, given that the survey only covered a relatively short time frame of November 2024 to June 2025, this is a remarkable impact.
This finding for transgender adults is also considerably higher than in other recent surveys. For example, a 2022 survey found that 5% of transgender adults had moved to a new state due to transgender-related laws,i and a 2023 survey similarly found that 4% of transgender young people (ages 13-24) had moved to a new state due to LGBTQ-related laws or politics.ii
Given that anti-LGBTQ political attacks have escalated over time, both in volume and in severity,iii and that various polls over time show growing numbers of transgender people reporting moving or considering moving due to these attacks, this suggests that these numbers may continue to grow in the future as political attacks continue.
Among all LGBTQ respondents who moved or considered moving due to LGBTQ-related laws (n=255), their top factors in deciding whether or where to move were:
overall quality of life (94% said this factored into their decision to some or a great extent),
affordability and economic factors (93%),
a state’s LGBTQ legal protections and rights (92%), and
a state’s LGBTQ community and allies (91%).
Mistreatment and Other Negative Experiences Related to Being LGBTQ
The Majority of LGBTQ People Report Discrimination and Harassment Since the November 2024 Election
As shown in Figure 2, the motivation for the life decisions and other steps LGBTQ people report taking due to LGBTQ-related politics are well-founded: 60% of LGBTQ people, including 82% of transgender and nonbinary people, report that they or an immediate family member have had at least one negative experience related to being LGBTQ since the November 2024 election.
Notably, for every experience other than seeing anti-LGBTQ political ads, transgender respondents report these experiences nearly twice as often as all LGBTQ respondents. And, a majority of transgender and nonbinary respondents report that, since November 2024 alone, they or an immediate family member have been discriminated against or mistreated by another person due to being LGBTQ (56%), or have been harassed online about being LGBTQ (53%).
Figure 2
Harms to Health and Well-Being
The Majority of LGBTQ People, and Even More Transgender People, Report Recent Politics Have Harmed Their Health & Well-Being
The survey further shows that LGBTQ people, and especially transgender people, report that recent anti-LGBTQ policies and rhetoric have negatively impacted their mental health (Figure 3), and that politics in general have negatively impacted their overall well-being (Figure 4). Both figures also show that transgender people are especially likely to report more intense impacts than LGBTQ respondents overall.
Figure 3
Note: Differences shown here (between all LGBTQ respondents and transgender and nonbinary respondents) are statistically significant for “very negative” and the net/total negative responses.
Figure 4
Notes: Differences shown here (between all LGBTQ respondents and transgender and nonbinary respondents) are statistically significant for “a lot” across all three levels (federal, state, and local), and for the net/total response for state politics only.
Figure 4further shows that a large majority of both LGBTQ people in general and transgender people specifically say that politics at every level – federal, state, and local – has negatively impacted their overall well-being in 2025. Respondents reported that political developments at various levels have negatively impacted their well-being, regardless of whether proposed legislation was enacted. This is especially important to note given that, on average, roughly 92% of anti-LGBTQ bills do not become law, but as shown above, they can still cause clear harm.
Importantly, transgender and nonbinary people are more likely (84%) than LGBTQ people in general (73%) to report that state politics specifically harmed their well-being (Figure 4), whereas rates for all LGBTQ respondents as a whole were similar for federal and local politics. This is consistent with recent years’ escalating state-level attacks on the LGBTQ community, which have especially targeted transgender people.
Additionally, transgender and nonbinary people were more likely to report that every level of politics – federal, state, and local – has negatively impacted their overall well-being “a lot,” a difference in intensity of impact that may otherwise be obscured by the similar total answers. For example, while transgender and LGBTQ respondents overall report similar rates of being generally negatively impacted by federal politics this year (88% and 86%, respectively), 48% of transgender respondents say they were negatively impacted “a lot” compared to 37% of all LGBTQ respondents.
Emotional Responses to Trump’s Anti-LGBTQ Actions
Most LGBTQ People Report Feeling Disgust, Anger, Anxiety, and Fear in Response to Trump’s Anti-LGBTQ Actions Since Inauguration—And Worry for the Impacts on Their Families
LGBTQ people expressed a range of negative emotions about Trump’s anti-LGBTQ actions since he took office again. Consistent with the pattern throughout this brief, transgender and nonbinary respondents reported these emotions and concerns at even higher rates than LGBTQ respondents as a whole—and more intense reactions as well.
Figure 5 shows that six in 10 LGBTQ people (60%) say they are worried about the impacts of Trump’s anti-LGBTQ actions on them or their families. That number rises to nearly nine in 10 for transgender people (86%)—a difference driven further by the intensity of that worry, with 60% of transgender people saying they are “very worried” compared to 36% of LGBTQ people saying the same.
Figure 5
Note: Differences shown here (between all LGBTQ respondents and transgender and nonbinary respondents) are statistically significant for “very worried” and the net/total worried responses.
Figure 6shows specific emotional reactions, with 70% or more of all LGBTQ respondents saying Trump’s anti-LGBTQ actions make them feel disgusted (80%), angry (77%), worried (76%), anxious (71%), and afraid (70%).
Among transgender respondents, reported rates of all these emotions were even higher, with more than 80% of transgender respondents reporting each. The top reported emotions were also different among transgender respondents, with worry, disgust, and fear topping their list.
As with previous findings in this brief, the differences between transgender respondents and LGBTQ respondents overall were also visible in the intensity of these emotional reactions. For example, not only did transgender people report higher levels of being afraid overall (87% vs. 70%), but they also reported much higher levels of being “very afraid” (62% vs. 46%), rather than “somewhat afraid” (25% vs. 24%).
Figure 6
Note: The survey also asked about more positive reactions such as excitement, happiness, optimism, and pride, but 10% or fewer respondents reported feeling any of these.
Presidential and Governmental Approval Rating
Among LGBTQ People, Trump’s Approval Ratings Are Extremely Low—As Is Approval of State Governments’ Handling of LGBTQ Issues
Only 10% of LGBTQ people in this survey approved of how Trump is handling his job overall. Even fewer (6%) approve of how he is handling LGBTQ issues specifically.
Clear Relationship Between States’ LGBTQ Policies and Approval of State Government’s Handling of LGBTQ Issues
As shown in Figure 7, there are clear differences in approval of state governments across regions of the country. There is also a clear relationship between LGBTQ respondents’ approval of how their state government is handling LGBTQ issues and the state’s actual LGBTQ policies (Figure 7).
Figure 7 breaks LGBTQ respondents out into regions of the country and compares those approval ratings to MAP’s LGBTQ Policy Scores. The pattern is clear: regions with higher LGBTQ policy scores (i.e., more inclusive and protective laws) also have higher approval of how state governments are handling LGBTQ issues.
Figure 7
Note: Survey responses by region, compared to regional averages on MAP’s Overall LGBTQ Policy Tally Score (max 49 points), as of 8/25/25. Regions as defined by U.S. Census Bureau.
Top Factors in the 2024 Presidential Election
LGBTQ Issues and Health Care Were Top Factors in the 2024 Election for LGBTQ People
In the 2024 presidential election, 68% of LGBTQ respondents in this survey reported voting for Kamala Harris, 11% for Donald Trump, 4% for someone else, and 15% said they did not vote.
When asked what three topics or issues had the greatest impact on their vote choice in the 2024 presidential election, responses were generally similar across both LGBTQ people overall and transgender people specifically, but with a few notable differences.
For all LGBTQ people, the top three issues were LGBTQ rights (42% of respondents said this was a top three issue for their vote choice in 2024), economy/inflation (36%), and health care (35%).
For transgender and nonbinary people, the top issue was also LGBTQ rights, but at a much higher rate, with 67% of transgender and nonbinary people saying this was a top three issue for their vote choice in 2024. This was followed by women’s rights (33%) and then health care (32%).
Conclusion
The survey highlights the clear and ongoing impacts of the current political environment on LGBTQ people, and especially transgender and nonbinary people, across the country.
The majority of LGBTQ people—and, consistently, even higher rates of transgender and nonbinary people—reported significant and often negative impacts across the board, such as making major life decisions due to LGBTQ-related laws or politics, experiencing harassment or discrimination, harm to their mental health or overall well-being, and much more.
As political attacks on LGBTQ people by federal, state, and local governments continue into the future, it is likely that these impacts will only accumulate. While the survey illustrates some of the many ways LGBTQ people are taking action to protect not only themselves but also their broader community, it is vital that people beyond LGBTQ people join in these efforts to protect their LGBTQ neighbors, friends, and family members, and to stop the ongoing attacks on LGBTQ people.
This second term of the Trump administration has been brutal in so many ways. For the LGBTQ+ community, it has meant a year of relentless legal and social attacks — scapegoating transgender people, pushing laws meant to strip us of our rights, and attempting to erase us altogether. The daily weight of it all can feel overwhelming.
As an older lesbian, it’s heartbreaking to witness such a coordinated and malicious effort to undo decades of progress – progress I saw, fought for, and experienced us win firsthand. And yet, the more I sit with what’s happening, the clearer the bigger picture becomes. No matter how desperately this administration and its supporters try to keep us down, they will fail. We have endured before. We will endure again. And it will continue, overall, to get better.
But before I lean too hard into optimism and play the role of Pollyanna, it’s worth sharing a bit of my background.
I grew up as a deeply closeted lesbian in the late 1970s, a time when the thought of two people of the same sex showing even the smallest public affection was unimaginable. Visibility came with real consequences: Ridicule was almost guaranteed, and few dared to be publicly out and proud. Before 1973, the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) actually considered homosexuality a disorder. It wasn’t completely removed until 1987.
I remained firmly in the closet through most of my youth and well into young adulthood, finally coming at age twenty-six. I learned to perform – to talk about boys, to act interested, to play a role that never, in a million years, fit. During those years, fear was my constant companion. I lived in a state of vigilance, terrified that someone might uncover my secret.
But even worse was the loneliness, the crushing, suffocating loneliness. Any attraction I felt for other girls had to be carried in silence.
There is a special kind of heart-wrenching pain that comes from living a lie. Even into my mid-twenties, I kept trying to convince myself that maybe, just maybe, I could be ‘normal’, like everyone else, and not a ‘gross lesbian’, a phrase I’d heard echoed for years. I told myself that my attraction to women was just some strange hormonal phase, something that would eventually pass.
Yet no matter how hard I tried to convince myself, each night still ended the same way—in tears. I ached to be loved and accepted for who I was, not judged for who I was drawn to. It was a quiet, grinding isolation, the kind that wears you down day by day, and one I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Dark thoughts lingered at the edges of my mind, tempting me with the idea of escape. I had no one to talk to, no one I felt I could trust during that time, and the loneliness was exhausting. More than once, I came dangerously close to giving in to the darkness.
It wasn’t until college in the 1990s that I met my first love, and everything began to change. I came out, found community, and slowly started shedding years of internalized homophobia and self-hatred. For the first time, the pain I felt no longer came from within; it came from the world around me. I realized then that I wasn’t the problem, and neither was my LGBTQ+ community. We were whole and worthy exactly as we were. The real harm was the homophobia and transphobia imposed from the outside.
Over the next couple of decades, I lived out and proud, continually fighting for equality and basic rights while witnessing both progress and fierce backlash. I lived through the AIDS crisis, watching President Reagan dismiss it as the “gay plague” and largely ignore the devastation. I watched the nation grapple with the horror of Matthew Shepard’s torture and death; Oregon’s Ballot Measures 9 and 13—thinly veiled as “No Special Rights”—which attacked our community under the slogan “Protect Our Children”; and the rape and murder of Brandon Teena, a transgender man, in 1993.
Yet alongside the setbacks, there has been remarkable progress: the first gay pride parade in 1972; ACT UP’s fearless activism in the 1980s; and the Clinton administration’s executive order barring discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal workplace. In 1997, I watched Ellen come out on national television and felt, for the first time, publicly seen. The first Transgender Day of Remembrance followed in 1999. In 2004, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon became the first same-sex couple married in San Francisco, and in 2015, marriage equality was finally recognized nationwide. In 2020, the Supreme Court affirmed federal employment protections for LGBTQ+ workers, and in the years since, LGBTQ+ leaders have continued to break barriers in public office—including in my home state of Oregon, which elected the nation’s first openly lesbian governor in 2022.
So many positive moments—some monumental, others quiet—have unfolded over the years. Taken together, they form a clear trajectory forward. Even when the pace slows, we are still moving in the right direction.
Which brings me to the present moment. Under the Trump administration, the barrage of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and rhetoric has been relentless, clearly aimed at dragging us backward. Decades of hard-won progress, both legal and cultural, are being challenged with a deeply unsettling speed and aggression.
History feels as though it is repeating itself, as backlash once again follows progress. Transgender rights are being rolled back at an alarming pace as some lawmakers urge the Supreme Court to reconsider same-sex marriage. At the same time, LGBTQ+ people are being pushed out of public life – removed from government webpages, targeted by “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, and even erased symbolically, as seen in the removal of all references to trans people at the Stonewall National Monument.
Make no mistake: This administration is determined to force us back into the closet and to criminalize our existence, both subtly and overtly. But despite this coordinated effort, I remain confident that the public will not accept a return to the past. Most Americans do not see LGBTQ+ people as the enemy, no matter how aggressively that narrative is pushed. Progress may slow. Backlash may grow louder. But the direction of history has not changed, and it will not stop here.
There was a time when I truly believed I would not survive what I was going through – those painful, lonely years spent in the closet, followed by coming out into a world that was still deeply unaccepting of LGBTQ+ people. But decades later, my life tells a very different story. I am a successful business owner, surrounded by a strong and loving community of friends and family. In my youth and ignorance, I never could have imagined that life could get this much better. But it did.
For younger queer generations who have not yet experienced years of being treated as abnormal or less than, I want you to know it does get better. You are not alone. You have a community, even if right now it’s just one or two people you trust. Find them. Confide in them. Talk about what you’re feeling. And if you can’t find someone you feel safe talking to, there are organizations and online resources created to support you and help guide you through difficult moments.
Since I can’t go back in time to offer comfort to my younger self, I offer it now to today’s younger LGBTQ+ generation. There is nothing wrong with you. You belong here. This is your country too, and you deserve to live openly and safely within it.
I know how dark it can feel when those in power try to convince you otherwise.
But even now, I believe that despite the backlash and the fear, it will get better. Because we are still here, and we always have been.
Shaley Howard is the author of “Excuse Me, Sir! Memoir of a Butch,” which received the IPPY Silver Award for excellence in 2024. She’s a small-business owner and an award-winning activist in Portland, Oregon.
If this story affected you, just know you are not alone. The Trans Lifeline Hotline offers support to trans/nonbinary people struggling with mental health from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. PST Monday-Friday. Call (877) 565-8860 to be connected to a trans/nonbinary peer operator and receive full anonymity and confidentiality. The Trevor Project Lifeline, for LGBTQ+ youth ages 24 and younger, can be reached at (866) 488-7386.
Gay hockey rivals-to-lovers show Heated Rivalry is all anyone can talk about, and for fans of the series looking for a real life queer love story in the sport then they need look no further than the upcoming Winter Olympics.
Heated Rivalry is an adaption of Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novel series and follows two hockey players, Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) and Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams), who are rivals on the ice but lovers between the sheets.
“Shane and Ilya are two of the biggest stars in major league hockey, bound by ambition, rivalry and a magnetic pull neither of them fully understands,” the show’s synopsis reads, for those who have somehow missed the Heated Rivalrytrain.
“Their secret fling evolves into an eight-year journey of self-discovery and rivalry. Over time, they must learn how to chase their desires on and off the ice.
“Torn between the sport they live for and the love they can’t ignore, Shane and Ilya must decide if there is room in their fiercely competitive world for something as fragile and as powerful as real love.”
The show has been a smash-hit since it premiere in November, scoring 99 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes and becoming Crave’s most-watched original series to date, with a huge fandom emerged in just two months – if the 8,000 works on AO3 are anything to go by…
For those eager for some real life queer hockey romance, you only need to look to pro hockey stars Anna Kjellbin and Ronja Savolainen, who play on different teams in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) and will face off against each other at the Winter Olympics in northeastern Italy but are engaged to be married.
Swedish star Kjellbin defenceman for the Toronto Sceptres while Finnish player Savolainen is a defenceman for Ottawa Charge.
Back in 2024, Savolainen confirmed love does not get in the way of competition, saying of playing against Kjellbin: “I don’t care who’s in front of me … if it’s going to be her, I’m going to hit her. We can take it up after the game.”
She added: “When you play, you just play. You don’t really think about who’s there. You’re friends after. On the ice, she’s my enemy. That’s how it goes.”
As per Out Sports, the couple were dating for five years before announcing their engagement in 2024.
Alongside Kjellbin and Savolainen, Cosmopolitan has also featured a story about skeleton sliders Kim Meylemans and Nicole Silveira, who are married and previously faced off against each other during the 2022 Winter Olympics.
“It’s very special to be able to share [the] Olympic Games with your partner,” Meylemans said back in 2022.
“It’s an extremely stressful, high-pressure period, so to have my person there as a comfort and safe space is of immense value to me, and also my performance. It brings a sense of calmness and normality into the [craziest] weeks of our career.”
The couple tied the knot on 1 August 2025 in a small, pre-Olympics ceremony, with plans for a “big dream beach wedding” in 2026.
“With the Games being in Italy and the current Italian government making decisions/laws that hurt the LGBTQ+ community…it feels extra special to potentially compete as a married couple and shine a light on marriage equality while doing so,” the couple said in a joint Instagram post.
“We’re still having our big dream beach wedding next year… We really love heading into this huge season and possibly last Olympic Games as spouses…no matter what curve balls this year and the challenges ahead will throw at us, our love comes first.”
Registration is officially open for Transcendence Kids Camp 2026, and we can’t wait to welcome young performers back for another unforgettable summer. Led by Broadway artists, Kids Camp offers a joyful, non-competitive musical theatre experience where campers explore singing, dancing, and acting while building confidence, creativity, and a lifelong love of the arts.
New for Summer 2026 Alongside our core camp experience, Kids Camp Jr. and Teen Camp Session 1will offer young artists the exciting opportunity to perform onstage in Radio Recall appearing alongside Transcendence’s Broadway performers as part of a Mainstage production at the Field of Dreams.
Choose the Session That’s Right for Your Young ArtistAges 8–12 | Kids Camp Jr. (July 6–10)An immersive week of workshops in singing, dancing, and acting, culminating in a special performance onstage at the Field of Dreams with the cast of Radio Recall.
Ages 13–17 | Teen Camp — Session 1 (July 6–10)A week of professional-level training alongside Broadway performers, ending with a performance onstage at the Field of Dreams with the cast of Radio Recall.
Ages 13–17 | Teen Camp — Session 2 (July 13–17)A week of advanced acting, singing, and dance workshops, culminating in a comprehensive showcase performance. Teen campers may participate in Session 1, Session 2, or both. Spots are limited and expected to fill quickly. Early registration is strongly encouraged.
Who was Renee Good, the woman murdered by ICE this last week? She was a mother, a wife, a poet, a creative. She was queer. She was a U.S. Citizen, “jus soli” (translation: having rights to the soil).
She was present during an ICE operation on January 7. And, from a certain standpoint, her very existence as a queer person in America today doesn’t just make her an activist; it makes her a voice for the voiceless. On that same day she was killed, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security deemed her a “domestic terrorist.”
There is something deeply unsettling with the many angles of video — looped on national and social media — clearly showing ICE agents were not in any clear and present danger from Good. The videos show her in the car, non-aggressively signaling for other cars to go around, audibly telling ICE officials to “go around” and that she wasn’t mad at them.
How did it end? With at least two shots. A fatal shot (reportedly to the head) took the life of a 37-year-old mother of three with no as-of-yet reported criminal history — a citizen, on the soil to which she had rights. She has become the fifth known person to die at the hands of reckless ICE agents since the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns intensified.
My reasons for writing this are twofold: First, to acknowledge the senseless violence this administration and its agents pose. This is the violence of a state that sees a citizen on her own soil and labels her a terrorist.
Second, to ask one question of the American people: When will it be enough?
It’s only been eight days into 2026. We no longer stand in individualism. We can no longer hide behind the busy-ness of finishing the holidays. We are confronted with the dry, choking lump of reality.
This is our national addiction: We are conditioned to play the “love game” when the latest album is released, posting on social media with the fervor of a Lady Gaga lyric: “Let’s have some fun, this beat is sick.”
In reality, these moments of levity and escapism are a luxury that come at a high expense, and eventually a cost: OUR FREEDOM. When authoritarianism shows itself on the streets, that kind of escape can become surrender. We can no longer whisper when it comes to our rights. Instead, we must use our real, loud voices to emerge from the background.
We must treat the future of American democracy with the same fervor as we do when those legendary artists drop a new EP, album, or tour!
With all that said, America, I leave you with this: When will we allow consumerism, capitalism, and convenience to no longer obscure the clear and present rapid approach of authoritarianism, presenting itself on the very soil we have rights to?
Renee Good had rights to this soil. If hers could be voided, so could yours.
Political expert Robert Reich believes the tide may finally be turning against Donald Trump.
“The slumbering giant of America is awakening,” wrote Reich – who served as President Bill Clinton’s secretary of labor and is now a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley – in a recent op-ed.
He was referring to what he called an “extraordinary week” during which irate Americans “forced Disney to put Jimmy Kimmel back on the air” and during which Trump’s “dictatorial narcissism revealed itself nearly as dramatically in the criminal indictment of former FBI director James Comey.”
“Over 6 million people watched Kimmel’s Tuesday monologue assailing Trump’s attempt to censor him,” Reich said. “Another 26 million watched it on social media, including YouTube. (Kimmel’s usual television audience is about 1.42 million.)”
In the same week, Reich pointed out that Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to invade “war ravaged Portland” and “ICE facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”
“There was also his bonkers speech to the United Nations telling delegates that their nations are ‘going to hell,’” Reich continued. “His attribution of autism to Tylenol, even though doctors say it is safe for pregnant women in moderation. His unilateral imposition of tariffs as high as 100 percent on imports of pharmaceuticals and kitchen cabinets.”
All of this, Reich concluded, indicates that “his neofascism and his dementia are both in plain sight.”
Trump’s approval ratings are plummeting, Reich said. Voters are increasingly turning against him, as evidenced by the several recent Democratic wins in special elections.
Recently, CNN’s chief data analyst, Harry Enten, detailed the president’s plummeting approval ratings regarding his anti-immigration crusade and his deployment of the National Guard into U.S. cities. Enten said 42% of Americans support Trump’s deployment of the National Guard, while 58% oppose it. He added that 64% of independents also oppose the move, which indicates it is not a winning strategy.
He also showed how approval ratings on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) have nosedived in Trump’s second term, dropping from zero points in his first term to negative 14 points today.
“Bottom line is the president may think this is a politically winning issue for him, but the numbers tell a very different story,” Enten said. “It’s, in fact, a political loser.”
Reich also pointed out that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) “is struggling to hold House Republicans together, facing rebellion on issues” like the release of the Epstein files.
He also praised Democrats in Congress for resisting budget approval without Republican agreement to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies.
He said he doesn’t know exactly when the “tipping point” will take place or what it will be, but he also assured Americans that “we’re getting closer.”
“I’ve been in and around politics for 60 years and have developed a sixth sense about the slumbering giant of America,” he said. “That giant is now stirring. He about to stand. He’s angry. Soon he will roar.”
He told Americans to continue fighting, assuring them, “Your activism is working.”
Reich has long been outspoken against Donald Trump. In May, he called the GOP’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill the “ugliest thing ever seen” and wrote a short and to-the-point op-ed on how only a “tiny minority” of Americans actually understand the content of the bill due to right-wing efforts to confuse and overwhelm them.
A Michigan judge, Kathleen Ryan, has voluntarily resigned after an investigation uncovered recordings of her feelings about the LGBTQ+ community and Black people.
Judge Kathleen Ryan, a self-proclaimed “new racist”, has departed from her Oakland County bench following the investigation.
As reported by WXYZ Detroit, in one recording from September 2024, Ryan shared offensive viewpoints about both demographics and said she isn’t “systemically racist” but a “new racist”.
The recordings were sent to public officials, including Oakland County executive Dave Coulter, who is gay. Some of Ryan’s slurs about the community were directed at him, according to Detroit Free Press.
Ryan, who has been on paid administrative leave for 15 months, has now voluntarily resigned.
Oakland County Probate Court administrator Edward Hutton provided the recordings, claiming that he was harassed by Ryan for years and felt she wouldn’t be able to provide fair rulings.
The lawyer said: “Nobody with that much hate in their heart for certain people — not just individuals, but groups of people – I don’t believe that they could possibly make fair, unbiased decisions regarding them.”
Hutton shared that Ryan referred to Black people as “lazy”. “From England, if you’re a Black from any other country, you’re doing way better. If you’re an American Black person, then you’re a f****** lazy piece of s***,” she can be heard saying in one of the recordings.
“Such language demeans the robe”
Dave Woodward, chair of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners, said he was “sickened” by what he heard on the recordings.
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“Such language demeans the robe, corrupts the judiciary, and erases the trust in our legal system,” he told the Detroit Free Press.
Coulter said: “There is absolutely no place for harassment of any kind or racist or homophobic language by anyone at Oakland County, especially by someone the public must be confident will act fairly and impartially. I have confidence that the agencies reviewing this matter will treat it with the seriousness it deserves and will take further action if warranted.”
Every month, Sonoma County loses an average of twelve people to accidental overdoses. It is the third-highest overdose death rate among Bay Area counties, driven by the spread of fentanyl in opioids and other drugs.
Face to Face Sonoma County is proving that community-based prevention can turn those numbers around.
According to data from the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) that was analyzed by the California Department of Public Health, Office of AIDS, in 2024 Face to Face distributed 44% of the naloxone obtained from DHCS’ Naloxone Distribution Program in Sonoma County yet accounted for 66% of the overdose reversals reported.
This extraordinary return reflects the power of strategic access: Face to Face doesn’t just distribute naloxone; it ensures the medication reaches the people and places where overdoses are most likely to occur.
“Our goal is zero overdose deaths, and we know how to get there,” said Kevin McAllister, Executive Director of Face to Face Sonoma County. “Naloxone saves lives when people have it and know how to use it. These numbers prove our approach works. Now we need to scale it.”
“This data confirms the vital role Face to Face plays in getting naloxone out in the community to reduce opioid overdoses in Sonoma County,” said Karen Smith, Face to Face Board Vice President. “We are proud to collaborate with our partners to provide practical care to the community that honors dignity for all.”
The organization’s approach centers on meeting people where they are. Face to Face provides naloxone (Narcan), fentanyl testing strips, and firsthand overdose prevention training through neighborhood outreach, partner sites, and direct community distribution. In 2023, the nonprofit purchased an EV Mobile Van that now operates twelve mobile routes to extend its reach into rural areas and communities that are harder to access. To further expand access, Face to Face installed wellness vending machines across the county provide 24/7 access to overdose prevention tools.
Lieutenant Christopher Mahurin of the Santa Rosa Police Department states that “Overdose prevention is a shared responsibility, and Face to Face plays a vital role in that work. Their naloxone distribution program saves lives every day in Sonoma County and provides a bridge to care for some of our most vulnerable community members. From a public safety standpoint, our partnership with Face to Face is essential as it reduces harm, preserves life, and strengthens the overall health and safety of our community.”
Savannah Carlson from Acts of Kindness, an organization that supports the unsheltered and financially underprivileged in Sonoma County says, “Face to Face has been generous with supplying our volunteers with naloxone for years. Many people on the streets care deeply about caring for their community and want to be prepared when they encounter a situation where someone is overdosing but may have trouble getting around to get it. Having immediate access to naloxone saves lives. Face to Face not only does mobile work but also partners with organizations like ours that are outside every day to make sure that the people who need access have it. We are incredibly grateful to have Face to Face and their decades of work in our community.”
