Planned Parenthood delivers care with pride — welcoming LGBTQ+ folks of every gender and identity with respect, warmth, and zero judgment. Services include gender-affirming hormone therapy, STI testing and treatment, PrEP and PEP, birth control, cancer screenings, and trusted referrals, all in a space designed to help you feel safe, seen, and supported. Join us for a fun, informative look at Planned Parenthood Northern California’s services, plus a behind-the-scenes peek at the patient experience. We’ll break down how to access care, what your visit looks like, and how to step in confidently — exactly as you are.
Two gay Iranian men who fled their home country after being arrested for “homosexual conduct” and facing possible execution are at risk of being deported by the United States as early as Sunday, according to their attorney, even as one federal court has intervened to temporarily block one of the removals. Advocates warn that the case exposes a deeper collapse of asylum protections.
The men, romantic partners in their late 30s and early 40s, were arrested in Iran in 2021 by the country’s morality police for what authorities described as homosexual activity — a charge that can carry punishments ranging from flogging to death. They were released from jail while awaiting sentencing and fled before punishment was imposed, eventually making their way to the United States to seek asylum, said Rebekah Wolf, a staff attorney with the American Immigration Council who represents them. Now the Trump administration is trying to send them back to Iran, she said.
“They are textbook asylum cases,” Wolf said in an interview with The Advocateon Saturday afternoon. “People from a country where who they are is criminalized and punishable by torture or death — that is literally the definition of an asylum seeker.”
In Iran, homosexuality carries some of the harshest penalties in the world, from flogging and torture to death. In 2022, human rights groups reported that two gay men convicted on sodomy charges after years on death row were executed, illustrating the real threat LGBTQ+ people face.
After fleeing Iran, the men traveled through Türkiye, Wolf explained, where they were also unsafe, before crossing into the United States at the southern border in January 2025 to apply for asylum. They arrived with a third LGBTQ+ person, a woman, who was also detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The two men have remained in detention for more than a year.
The woman, whom Wolf represented during her immigration proceedings, was granted asylum after a brief 45-minute hearing, she said. The government waived its right to appeal, and the woman was released from detention. The men’s cases took a drastically different turn.
According to Wolf, the two men did not have legal representation during their asylum hearings in late April and early May. Those hearings, she said, were marred by bias and basic violations of due process, including dismissive and inappropriate language about what kind of evidence LGBTQ+ asylum seekers should be able to provide.
“These are incredibly straightforward cases,” Wolf said. “But our immigration courts, when there aren’t other eyes — attorneys or otherwise — can be really fraught with bias.”
The contrast between the outcomes, she said, underscores the life-or-death consequences of navigating immigration court without counsel. “If only we had caught these cases five months earlier,” Wolf said, “we would have been in a very different situation.”
At the time the men’s asylum claims were denied, deportations to Iran were not taking place because the United States lacks diplomatic relations with Tehran. According to Wolf, that changed in late summer, when the government quietly resumed removal flights to Iran. This would be the third such flight since the fall, Wolf said.
The men were previously scheduled for deportation in September and again in December, but removals were halted after negotiations with ICE. This time, both were transferred from the Fort Bliss detention center in El Paso, Texas, to southern Arizona, where a group of about three dozen Iranian nationals has been assembled for a planned deportation flight on Sunday.
ICE’s position, Wolf said, is that once an immigration judge issues a final order of removal, the agency is free to execute deportation, even while appeals are pending. One of the men received a last-minute stay of removal late Friday from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Colorado, temporarily blocking his deportation, Wolf said. The other man does not yet have such protection.
“That’s all ICE cares about — that there’s an order,” Wolf said. While such removals were technically possible under prior administrations, she said, they were rarely pursued while federal appeals were underway. “It certainly was not the norm in the way that it is now.”
Human rights groups warn that deporting the men would almost certainly place them in immediate danger. Iran is one of a dozen countries that still execute people for same-sex relationships, according to international watchdogs, and LGBTQ+ people there face pervasive surveillance, arbitrary detention, and violence.
Advocates also point to recent U.S. immigration cases involving LGBTQ+ asylum seekers as evidence that the government has shown a willingness to send queer people into harm’s way. In 2025, The Advocate reported extensively on the case of Andry Hernández Romero, a Venezuelan makeup artist and out gay asylum seeker who was deported under the Trump administration to El Salvador’s notorious “Terrorism Confinement Center” or CECOT despite having no criminal record and without receiving a full asylum hearing. Hernández Romero spent more than four months in brutal detention conditions before a prisoner exchange ultimately secured his release. His case became a rallying point for critics who said the administration was willing to disregard basic procedural protections even when LGBTQ+ lives were at risk.
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, told The Advocatethrough a spokesperson that returning the men to Iran would knowingly place their lives at risk.
“Iran is one of 12 nations that still execute queer people. Sending these men back there would put them in immediate danger,” Robinson said. “But that’s par for the course for a Trump administration that deploys ICE to endanger our community’s lives every day. That same terror and cruelty murdered Renee Nicole Good, imprisoned Andry Hernandez Romero, and continues to force communities to live in fear. We join the American Immigration Council in demanding these men be kept safe — and call on Congress to rein in this out-of-control administration.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin did not reply to The Advocate’semailed questions seeking clarification on how the department is weighing the risk of persecution or execution in these cases.
Wolf said political intervention remains one of the few remaining avenues if courts do not act, though she cautioned that even those informal safeguards are eroding. Congressional offices have expressed alarm, she said, but ICE retains discretion to proceed.
“At the end of the day, ICE can just decide to take him off the flight,” Wolf said of the man who does not yet have a court-ordered stay. “If the courts don’t order them to, our hope is that they will be persuaded not to put my other client on that plane.”
The men, she said, are terrified. One speaks English and has repeatedly called her as removal looms. “He’s saying, ‘Please, Ms. Wolf, save my life,’” she said. The situation has grown even more anguishing because one man now has a stay while the other does not, raising the possibility that the couple could be separated — one deported to Iran, the other left behind.
Beyond the immediate danger, Wolf said the case illustrates how unprepared even experienced immigration lawyers have been for the scale and intensity of the current moment. Wolf has worked in immigration policy for more than 20 years and has spent over a decade as an asylum and detention attorney. She practiced during the first Trump administration, she said, but what is happening now is different in kind.
“We knew it was going to be bad,” she said. “But we had no idea how bad it was going to be.” She described an administration that has tested the boundaries of law and norms, identified where the cracks are, and “just bulldozed over them,” leaving lawyers with fewer tools to stop deportations even when the risk of death is clear.
What remains on the books, she said, often no longer exists in practice. Asylum is still the law of the land — only Congress can change that — but it can be rendered effectively unreachable through detention, speed, and procedural barriers.
“You can make it so unbearable and so impossible to access that, for all intents and purposes, it no longer exists,” Wolf said.
If the deportations proceed, she warned, the implications will extend far beyond this case. “The fact that this can happen to them means it could happen to anyone,” she said. The men, she added, repeatedly told her they came to the United States believing it was free and safe. “They’re asking, ‘Why can’t you stop this?’”
For now, at least one federal court has answered that question by stepping in. Whether the system will do the same for the other man, and whether the United States will choose to send a gay couple back to a country where they could be executed for who they are, remains an open and urgent question.
As of publication, ICE had not announced whether the deportation flight would proceed as planned.
A major Pride organisation has made the “difficult decision” to close permanently over “shifting politics and increased hostility” towards the LGBTQ+ community.
The Board of Directors for Tucson Pride announced on Thursday (22 January) that it planned to cancel the upcoming Tucson Pride Festival and to begin dissolving the 49-year-old company.
A statement published on its website said the decision was regretfully made after “thoughtful discussion and careful consideration” between its newly appointed Board.
“This decision was not made lightly,” the statement reads. “We recognise the deep importance Tucson Pride has held in our community since 1977, serving as a space of visibility, advocacy, celebration, and resilience for nearly five decades.”
LGBTQ+ charities across the US and UK have faced financial difficulties over growing hostility towards the community. (Getty)
While its official statement did not delve into the reasons behind the closure, a statement published in October 2025 on its decision to delay its Pride festival cited a combination of ongoing logistical and financial difficulties.
Officials said at the time that they and other LGBTQ+ nonprofits had been massively impacted by “shifting politics and increased hostility” against the community across the US, which had caused a huge decline in donations and corporate sponsorships.
Businesses have increasingly distanced themselves from Pride and LGBTQ+ organisations over the past few years according to The Guardian. Research into the number of Pride-related social media posts by major US and UK companies found that they had plummeted by 92 per cent since 2023.
LGBTQ+ charities were hit hardest in early 2025 after US president Donald Trump signed a set of executive orders overturning federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programmes, leading companies across the country to scale back their inclusion policies and sponsorships.
Tucson Pride said it planned to refund all donations received for the now-cancelled 2026 festival, including vendor fees, sponsorships, and other prepaid contributions. The donations, it said, would be refunded within 30 to 90 days of its announcement.
“We want to thank the Tucson LGBTQ+ community and its allies for your unwavering support, passion, and commitment over the years. Tucson Pride exists because of you, and its legacy will forever remain part of our city’s history,” the statement continued.
A human rights organisation in Uganda that supports members of the LGBTQ+ community was ordered to shut down by the government just days before the country’s election.
Chapter Four Uganda, which is dedicated to the protection of civil liberties and promotion of human rights – including LGBTQ+ rights – in the East African nation, had its operating permit suspended with immediate effect by the National Bureau for Non-Governmental Organisations under the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The suspension came just days before the country’s election, which incumbent president Yoweri Museveni – who has led the country since 1986 – won with 72 per cent.
The election was marred by violence, with Museveni’s challenger Bobi Wine alleging his win was down to “fake results” and “ballot stuffing”.
Alongside Chapter Four, several other human rights organisations in the country also had their permits suspended, with the Bureau citing alleged “intelligence information” that claimed the organisation was involved in activities deemed “prejudicial to the security and laws of Uganda” – which would violate Article 42(d) of the Non-Governmental Organisations Act.
In a statement, Chapter Four expressed “concern” over the indefinite suspension.
“The suspension is based on vague allegations that we engaged in activities that are prejudicial to the security and laws of Uganda. As a law-abiding organisation, we have closed our offices and temporarily suspended our operations. We regret any inconvenience this causes to our partners and the community of beneficiaries,” the organisation said.
“We consider this suspension unjustified and are pursuing all available administrative and legal measures to restore our operational status as soon as possible.”
The human rights organisation went on to say for more than a decade it has “worked transparently in courts of law, Parliament, and communities to protect and promote human rights, advance access to justice, and strengthen the rule of law – fostering fairer societies for all.”
It added: “We remain committed to collaborating with government authorities and the people of Uganda to advance the promise of Chapter Four in the 1995 Constitution.”
This crack down on human rights organisations is worrying for LGBTQ+ people in Uganda, who are already at heightened risk following the passage of the country’s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act – which immediately became one of the strictest pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the world when it was passed.
The Act doubled down on already cruel sanctions imposed on LGBTQ+ people in Uganda, where same-sex sexual acts and freedom to talk about queer topics were already illegal.
The legislation still punishes homosexuality with imprisonment for up to life but also introduced the new offence of ‘aggravated homosexuality’, which carries the death penalty.
Acts defined as ‘aggravated homosexuality’ include sexual activity with disabled people, those who are HIV positive and people aged 75 and over – with consent to the sexual act not constituting a defence to a charge. This category also applies to criminal offences such as rape of a child or adult and incest.
‘Attempted homosexuality’ is also punishable by law, with a punishment of up to 10 years in prison possible, while ‘attempted aggravated homosexuality’ can be met with up to 14 years imprisonment.
Condemning the suspension of Chapter Four’s permit, Kechukwu Uzoma, senior staff attorney at the Kennedy Human Rights Center, said: “The weaponisation of vague laws and attacks on the right to freedom of association during electoral periods directly violate the right to vote.
“Such repressive actions undermine the integrity of elections and weaken democracy at its core. All stakeholders, including the African Union, must act now.”
Reading is better when it’s shared.Whether you’re looking for thoughtful conversation, fresh reading ideas, or a reason to make time for books, there’s a place for you in one of our 20+ library book clubs. Find your fitBy location: Wherever you are in Sonoma County, you’ll find a group at a nearby library. You can even join the discussion online—same community, no commute.
By genre or topic: From mysteries and cookbooks to nonfiction and #OwnVoices titles, find others who share your curiosity for a particular style of storytelling.Explore all book clubsAll our book clubs are free and open to everyone. You’re welcome to participate as much or as little as you like—no pressure, just good books and good company. Find current meeting times, upcoming reading lists, and registration details on ourEvents Calendar. We hope you’ll read along with us! Warmly, Sonoma County Library P.S. Already in a book club? Find your group’s next read in our Book Sets for Book Groups, a curated list of titles with an extended six-week checkout period. Call your library to request a set.
Es mejor compartir la lectura.Si buscas una conversación profunda, nuevas lecturas o una excusa para dedicar tiempo a los libros, podrás encontrar tu lugar en alguno de nuestros clubes de lectura en la biblioteca, que son más de 20. Encuentra algo a tu medidaPor ubicación: Dondequiera que te encuentres en el condado de Sonoma, encontrarás un grupo en una biblioteca cercana. Incluso puedes unirte a la conversación en línea: la misma comunidad, sin tener que moverte.
Por género o tema: Desde misterio y libros de cocina hasta no ficción y títulos #OwnVoices, encuentra a otras personas que comparten tu curiosidad por un estilo particular de narración.Explora todos los clubes de lecturaTodos nuestros clubes de lectura son gratuitos y están abiertos a todas las personas. Puedes participar poco, mucho o como quieras sin ninguna obligación. Simplemente se trata de buenos libros en buena compañía. Encuentra los horarios de las reuniones actuales, las próximas listas de lectura y los detalles de inscripción en nuestroCalendario de Eventos. ¡Esperamos que leas con nosotros próximamente!
The Trump administration’s fight to prevent HIV-positive people from enlisting in the military will soon be settled, but not before upending the lives of those who want nothing more than to serve.
The Department of Defense has ordered officials not to train new recruits who are HIV-positive, according to guidance sent by the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command and obtained by CNN. The order, sent January 16, states “we are pausing shipping any HIV+ applicants and will follow-up in the coming weeks,” pending a ruling from an appeals court.
“As someone who was illegally kicked out of the Peace Corps for testing positive for HIV in 2008, I can tell you that it is extremely demoralizing to be told by your government that you’re not fit for service for a condition that can be easily and completely managed with one pill a day,” Jeremiah Johnson, cofounder of the HIV Funding Campaign and executive director of PrEP4All, tells The Advocate. “These unscientific policies on HIV also have a tendency to be contagious across government, leading to other discriminatory hiring policies, and influencing recent efforts to defund critical HIV treatment, care, and prevention services.”
Courts had previously ruled in Harrison v. Austin and Roe & Voe v. Austin that the military policy preventing the commissioning and retention of HIV-positive troops with undetectable viral loads who face no health limitations and pose no risk of transmission is unconstitutional. This prompted the Biden administration to announce in July 2022 that it would no longer defend the restrictions, which Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin did not appeal, instead ordering all military branches to change their regulations. However, his order did not change the barrier to enlistment.
Several HIV-positive enlistees who are asymptomatic and undetectable, represented by Lambda Legal, then filed a lawsuit againt the rule in November 2022: Isaiah Wilkins, a Black gay man who wishes to join the Army; Carol Coe, a transgender Latina lesbian, identified by a pseudonym, who wants to reenlist after having been discharged; and Natalie Noe, also identified by a pseudonym, a straight woman who wishes to enlist.
A federal district judge ruled in their favor and struck down the ban in August 2024. The case, Wilkins v. Austin, determined that the policy violates the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection clause and the Administrative Procedure Act, as it adds “to the ongoing stigma surrounding HIV-positive individuals while actively hampering the military’s own recruitment goals.”
Trump’s DOD has appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, which is expected to issue a ruling in the coming weeks. Greg Nevins, senior counsel at Lambda Legal, says that as the court has “approved an injunction we got in the earlier case and made many rulings favorable to us … the same court should not and probably will not contradict.”
“It should be unlawful, and it has been held to be unlawful in every ruling so far,” Nevins says. “Specifically, the military’s HIV ban was held to be irrational, discriminatory, arbitrary, and capricious regarding asymptomatic individuals living with HIV with an undetectable viral load.”
Until the court issues its ruling, those who were recently recruited are in limbo. Reggie Dunbar II, founder and CEO of Poz Military & Veterans USA INTL who himself is a veteran, says that the policy has created a state of confusion throughout the ranks.
Many enlistees have been suddenly iced out with no communication from the Pentagon, such as one friend of Dunbar’s whose deployment date was pushed back to October without explanation or warning, leaving him in a “strange mental place.” Those he knows currently living with HIV and serving are keeping their status to themselves “almost like they’re in a little hush-hush group.”
“It is very disheartening and very discouraging in a way because it takes me personally back to days of ACT UP,” Dunbar says. “It may be that we have to use some of the same tactics that we did back in the ’80s for things to get noticed. Because a lot of times, HIV, a person’s sexual orientation, are things that get swept under the rug.”
Meanwhile, a federal appeals court in December temporarily upheld the Trump administration’s ban on trans people serving in the military by preventing a nationwide injunction from going into effect while a lawsuit against the policy moves forward. Those currently serving have been forced into retirement.
Advocates worry that the ban on HIV-positive enlistees could strengthen the case against trans troops or provide a legal pathway to ban HIV-positive service members altogether. While the return of “don’t ask, don’t tell” isn’t likely, Dunbar notes “anything can happen” under Trump.
“My grandmother used to say something back in the day about a backdoor way to get to the front,” Dunbar says. “I think trying to keep people enlisting out that are living with HIV is a backdoor way to get to the front of possibly putting out people that are living with HIV that are still active duty, as well as transgendermembers.”
A former Space Force colonel fired by the Trump administration over her gender identity has raised over $100,000 less than 24 hours after launching a political campaign.
Retired astronautical engineer Bree Fram’s campaign to represent Virginia in US Congress has already skyrocketed into outer space less than a week after she made the announcement.
The 46-year-old Colonel announced her intention to run for the Congressional seat in a Tuesday (20 January) Instagram clip.
Bree Fram. (Getty)
“Too many Americans are afraid of what their own government is doing to them, instead of being confident in what it can do for them,” she said in the clip. “That’s why I’m running for Congress.”
Following the announcement, Fram launched a 24-hour fundraising haul aimed at raising funds for her campaign. In less than a day, it received more than $102,000 from at least 400 donors across 46 states, according to MetroWeekly.
She thanked donors in a social media post after the fundraising haul closed, saying they had helped to “turn the page on chaos, vengeance, and attacks on personal freedom.”
Fram was infamously removed from her position as an active duty officer of the United States Space Force in June 2025 after the US government enforced its ban on transgender military personnel. She is believed to be the highest ranking trans officer to have been fired under the executive order.
During her 23 years of service, Fram was deployed in Iraq and Qatar as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, eventually serving in both the US Air Force and Space Force. She came out as trans in 2016 and later became the first trans woman to reach the rank of Colonel.
She was among thousands of personnel ejected from their positions in the United States armed forces over the executive order, despite Trump administration officials struggling to justify the action.
Following her campaign announcement, Fram told InsideNoVa that she was not running “on a platform that is about identity” but rather on the basis of defending Americans’ “basic rights, particularly freedom of speech [and] freedom of assembly.”
“This is the calling”
The mother of two emphasised the need to restore democratic freedoms dismantled by the Trump administration in an interview with The Advocate, promising not to back down from the fight.
“No matter what rock we might look under, you can find something this administration has [done] that is worthy of not only an investigation but being held accountable,” she said, accusing Donald Trump of failing to “faithfully execute the laws of the United States and to fulfil his oath to support and defend the Constitution.”
Her focus is on ensuring Congress focuses on protecting Americans by investing in issues like social security, disease prevention, housing, and more.
“This is the calling,” she said. “If we don’t stand up now, we might not have anything to stand up for in the future.”
With increased visibility comes increased danger as anti-LGBTQ+ incidentscontinue to rise throughout the United States.
There were 1,042 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents across 47 states and Washington, D.C.in 2025, according to the ALERT Desk, GLAAD’s Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker, marking a five percent increase from the 984 incidents in 2024. These included 128 acts of vandalism, 76 assaults, 22 threats of mass violence, and 15 arson attempts.
Over half (532) of all incidents in 2025 specifically targeted transgender and gender non-conforming people, marking a 10 percent increase from the 485 incidents in 2024.
Pride events saw a dramatic increase in incidents, making it “one of the most dangerous years on record for LGBTQ Americans,” the report states. There were 268 incidents during June 2025, a nearly 400 percent increase from the 54 incidents in June 2022 when GLAAD first began collecting data.
The state with the most incidents was California (198), followed by New Hampshire (72), Texas (66), Ohio (50), and Washington (50). Data from law enforcement also shows a dramatic increase in anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in Los Angeles, which the report notes happened in the same period Democratic Gov.Gavin Newsom invited anti-trans figures such as Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk to appear on his podcast.
“Americans should refuse to accept a country where our neighbors fear for their safety,” GLAAD President and CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “With the ALERT Desk data showing an increase in violence against LGBTQ people, especially transgender Americans, we must join together in a united call against the violence and harassment that too many LGBTQ Americans face. Instead of growing divides that lead to this violence, politicians should recognize that all Americans deserve freedom, fairness, and safety.”
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.”
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