Christopher Wiggins

When Bentley Hudgins talks about democracy, they rarely begin with ideology. They talk about brown water running from neighborhood taps. About losing housing after an apartment complex changed ownership. About sleeping in a 1997 Dodge Dakota pickup truck during a brutal Georgia summer. About being disbelieved by doctors for years before finally receiving treatment that restored their hearing. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. And they talk about the exhaustion of watching politicians spend years targeting transgender people while basic problems remain unsolved. Support Independent Journalism LGBTQ+ stories deserve to […]

More than 400 people have donated upwards of $40,000 for the husband of a beloved Chicago gay community member, who prosecutors say was gunned down by his spouse’s ex-partner after years of alleged harassment and stalking claims that had previously reached the courts. The killing of Nicholas “Pup Tugger” Calzaretta, 37, has shaken Chicago’s LGBTQ+ leather and pup communities and intensified scrutiny over the limits of protective orders in cases involving escalating threats and intimate partner violence. Neighbors watched from behind police tape as officers flooded a quiet residential block in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. Children were arriving at nearby schools. And beside Calzaretta’s body, […]

For years, Missouri has been one of the country’s most aggressive testing grounds for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. It’s a Republican-controlled state where lawmakers have repeatedly introduced bills targeting transgender youth, dragperformers, school policies, and gender expression as part of the broader national culture war over LGBTQ+ rights. This year, none of them passed. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. In what advocates are calling a significant political upset, Missouri lawmakers adjourned their regular legislative session Friday without enacting any of the 58 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced during the 2026 session, according […]

In the wake of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that curtailed states’ ability to prohibit so-called “conversion therapy” outright, Colorado lawmakers are advancing a bill to deter the practice through civil liability rather than direct bans. The proposal, House Bill 26-1322, would allow people who say they were subjected to conversion therapy to sue licensed mental health providers, as well as those who employ or supervise them, with no statute of limitations, according to the bill’s text. Lawmakers say that change reflects the reality that many survivors do not come forward until years, sometimes decades, after the harm. Stay up to date with the […]

A Republican candidate for Congress in New Mexico is running on a platform shaped by a megachurch that condemns same-sex relationships, rejects transgender identities, and calls abortion murder. Greg Cunningham, backed by former President Donald Trump, has cast his campaign in explicitly ideological terms. Cunningham has called advancing the national Republican agenda his “number one priority” and has repeatedly framed his candidacy as rooted in faith, crediting his pastor with helping him enter politics. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. That pastor, Steve Smothermon, leads Legacy Church, an Albuquerque-based megachurch whose official doctrine […]

As Washington’s political and media class descends on the capital for White House Correspondents’ Dinner weekend, the Human Rights Campaign has a message for some of them on Grindr: “F*** Around and Find Out.” The LGBTQ+ advocacy group launched a geofenced ad campaign Friday and Saturday around the Correspondents’ Dinner and a Grindr-hosted party in Georgetown, targeting users who open the app near the weekend’s most visible gatherings. The ads link to HRC’s “My Body, My Health” campaign page and its broader “100 Days of Healthcare” initiative, which focuses on HIV prevention, access to care, and fighting stigma. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email […]