Daniel Villarreal

Texas Family Project — an anti-LGBTQ organization that wants to stop “the Left” from “indoctrinating kids,” “confusing children about changing their gender,” and “undermining parents’ ability to protect their children’s innocence” — has launched Defend Our Kids Texas, a website where people can report live drag queen performances. “Our mission is to expose attacks on our children’s innocence by uncovering and highlighting the left’s public displays of sexual degeneracy,” the website reads. The site’s lead face is Sara Gonzalez, a host for the conservative broadcast Blaze TV. Gonzales has called drag performers “pedophiles,” directed her social media followers to shut down drag performances […]

Barely a day after a deadly LGBTQ bar shooting killed two transgender people and three other patrons, Georgia senatorial candidate Herschel Walker (R) released a campaign ad slamming trans athletes. Democrats are pointing to Republican anti-LGBTQ campaigns like Walker’s as the type of rhetoric that led to the murder of five people at Colorado Springs bar Club Q on Saturday night. The video featured Riley Gaines, a self-described 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer. In March, Gaines tied for fifth place with trans swimmer Lia Thomas. Gaines has been complaining about it ever since. In Warnock’s ad, Gaines says, “For more than a […]

One night, someone called 911 to ask police in Malvern, Pennsylvania to conduct a mental wellness check on Maddie Hofmann, a 47-year-old transgender woman. The caller said that Maddie had sent an email that sounded like a suicide letter. When police checked on Hofmann, they ended up shooting her three times inside her own home. She died from the injuries. Her death left behind her wife, Rebecca Hoffman, and their two children, ages 9 and 4. Her wife and family are still searching for answers and accountability. “[My wife] belonged on medication, not on a shelf,” Rebecca told The Philadelphia Inquirer, referring […]

The nine out LGBTQ members of the U.S. House are also all chairs of the Equality Caucus, the congressional group that pursues LGBTQ legislation and issues statements against anti-queer discrimination. All nine are up for re-election, and the House’s Democratic majority and the future of LGBTQ rights hang in the balance. Here are all nine LGBTQ House members and how they’re expected to do in their races. ADVERTISING David Cicilline (D-RI) Cicilline is chair of the House Equality Caucus and a reliably progressive Democrat. He’s running his sixth reelection campaign, this time against Allen Waters (R). Get the Daily Brief […]

D.C. police have used DNA testing technology that could help solve the 1987 murder of a lesbian woman. On May 13, a 35-year-old woman named Greta Denise Rainey was found raped and strangled in her Capitol Hill apartment. Eighteen months before her death, a 22-year-old named Florence Eyssalenne was also found raped and murdered in her apartment, which was next to Johnson’s. At the time, investigators took DNA samples as part of a police rape kit. Now, using contemporary DNA-testing technology that wasn’t available at the time, police have tested the samples and formed a DNA profile of an unidentified […]

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, a case that could determine the future of LGBTQ rights nationwide. The case involves Lorie Smith, a Christian woman in Colorado who makes wedding announcement websites. Smith wanted to post a message on her professional website stating that she wouldn’t make websites for same-sex marriages because it would be against her faith. ADVERTISING When she found out that such a notice would violate Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws, she preemptively sued her state’s government, saying that the laws violated her First Amendment right to free speech. Her lawsuit sought to block enforcement […]