Christopher Wiggins

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After 30 years in uniform, a veteran in Nebraska who survived ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is running for Congress

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When Kishla Askins talks about why she is running for Congress in Nebraska, she does not begin with polling or party. She begins with the people she could not bring home. Askins, a retired U.S. Navy veteran and former senior Pentagon and Veterans Affairs official, spent more than 30 years in uniform, first as an enlisted sailor, then as a Navy corpsman and emergency medicine physician assistant who deployed with the Marine Corps to combat zones. Some of the service members under her care died. That loss, she said, still guides her. “I made a sacred promise,” Askins said in an interview with The […]

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A devastating reality: New report finds violence and erasure ahead of Transgender Day of Remembrance

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As Transgender Day of Remembrance approaches on November 20, a stark new report from Advocates for Trans Equality reveals the extent of the violence, erasure, and institutional abandonment confronting transgender Americans and the resilience of a community determined to survive it. The 2025 Remembrance Report, prepared by A4TE’s public education team and seen exclusively by The Advocate, documents 27 violent deaths of transgender and gender-nonconforming people over the last year and 21 deaths by suicide, a devastating pattern that has become grimly familiar. Sixty-one percent of the transgender people lost to suicide were between ages 15 and 24, a finding the report connects directly to […]

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Transgender Air Force members sue Trump administration over revoked retirements

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Seventeen longtime transgender members of the U.S. Air Force and Space Force have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging that the Department of the Air Force unlawfully revoked their approved retirement orders in violation of federal law. Filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., the 19-page complaint, brought by attorneys from GLAD Law, the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, pro-bono counsel from Stapleton Segal Cochran LLC, and the Law Office of Jeremy Spiegel, argues that the administration’s actions stripped the plaintiffs of retirement benefits they had already earned after years of honorable service. Each of the plaintiffs has between 15 and […]

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Fighting back: Lambda Legal unveils campaign to protect LGBTQ+ rights from Trump-era attacks

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Lambda Legal is taking its fight from the courtroom to the digital stage. With its new national campaign, “All Rise,” the nation’s oldest LGBTQ+ legal advocacy organization is turning a familiar courtroom command into a rallying cry — and a fundraising lifeline. The campaign, built around short- and long-form videos, paid digital ads, and a coordinated influencer blitz rolling out during LGBTQ+ History Month, is designed to keep Lambda Legal’s lawyers in courtrooms across the country as the Trump administration accelerates efforts to roll back hard-won rights. Backed by creators including Under The Desk News, Rose Montoya, Pattie Gonia, Isaias Hernandez, Blair Imani, […]

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A gay Maine man seeking Susan Collins’s senate seat says he isn’t buying Graham Platner’s redemption story

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Maine U.S. Senate candidate Jordan Wood says the moral test for public office isn’t about perfection — it’s about what people do once their mistakes are exposed. In an interview with The Advocate, the former congressional chief of staff and only out gay candidate in the race said fellow Democrat Graham Platner’s history of antigay posts and his Nazi-era tattoo aren’t just poor judgment. They’re disqualifying. Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate’s email newsletter. “I believe deeply in second chances,” Wood said. “But what I saw was someone who doesn’t understand what’s wrong with these statements — […]

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What public health experts want you to know about the severe mpox strain appearing in the U.S.

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A more severe strain of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, has quietly appeared in California, and for the first time, the infections weren’t brought here by travelers. For the nation’s LGBTQ+ communities, the news is unsettling not only because of what it says about the virus, but also because of what it reveals about a public health system in crisis. The strain began to spread in the spring of 2024 in people who had traveled outside the United States. In an interview with The Advocate, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and the Bidenadministration’s White House deputy coordinator for […]

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U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether to revisit marriage equality

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The U.S. Supreme Court is set to consider whether to hear a challenge that could reopen the question of who can get married. The challenge to marriage equality is being brought by Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who in 2015 defied a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. As SCOTUSblog reports, the justices will privately discuss Davis’s petition on November 7. Davis, who was briefly jailed a decade ago after citing “God’s authority” in refusing to issue licenses to a gay couple, is now asking the high court not only to reverse her loss in the lower courts but to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the […]

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Employees at VA hospital say they could be fired for wearing rainbow colors to work

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Employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Hampton Medical Center in Virginia say they were warned during the week of October 13 that they could be fired or disciplined for wearing or displaying rainbow-themed items, including official VA Pride lanyards, according to messages reviewed by The Advocate. The employees are being kept anonymous out of fear of retaliation. The exchanges suggest that the directive, which employees say came from local leadership, cited an “executive order,” creating confusion and fear among staff. That order appears linked to the Trump administration’s rollback of protections for transgender, nonbinary, and intersex veterans. As The Advocate previously reported, the VA in March rescinded Directive 1341, a […]

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Federal judge orders Pentagon to restore LGBTQ+ books, gender & diversity lessons in military schools

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A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, has ordered the Pentagon to restore nearly 600 books and reinstate lessons on race, gender, and identity in schoolsserving military families, ruling that the Trump administration’s restrictions on classroom content likely violated students’ First Amendment rights. In a 44-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles concluded that the Department of Defense Education Activity removed books and altered curricula in ways that suppressed certain viewpoints and deprived students of access to ideas about race and gender. She found that the department’s actions caused real harm and were likely motivated by viewpoint discrimination. The ruling requires the Pentagon to immediately return […]

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Gay California State Sen. Scott Wiener to challenge Nancy Pelosi for her congressional seat

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California state Sen. Scott Wiener, one of the country’s most influential LGBTQ+lawmakers, is preparing to run for Congress. It’s a move that would set up a dramatic generational contest against Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who has represented San Francisco in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1987. As first reported by The San Francisco Standard and The New York Times, Wiener plans to launch his campaign formally later this month. Pelosi, 85, has not said whether she will seek reelection in 2026, but Wiener, 55, appears to be moving ahead regardless. Wiener’s candidacy has been years in the making. He filed paperwork for a congressional committee in 2023 and […]

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