Hope Pisoni

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Why This Wall Street-Backed Conservative Think Tank Attacks LGBTQ Rights

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n April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis introduced the latest move in his fight against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs when he signed a bill into law that prohibits any local government in the state from spending money on DEI-related initiatives. The restrictions could threaten nondiscrimination ordinances, local pride events and other services, leading some LGBTQ advocates to label it a “pride ban.” The law’s definition of DEI is adapted from a model bill by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (MI), a New York City-based conservative think tank that formed in 1978. Since its model bill was released in 2023, at […]

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Microsoft Celebrates Pride While Allowing Hate Speech and Dropping DEI

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Julius Shan remembers sitting at his desk last August and opening an email that caught him by surprise: “Please find attached the memo terminating your employment with Microsoft, effective immediately.” “It was kind of a shock, but it was also kind of a relief to be fired,” he told Uncloseted Media. Shan, a 28-year-old gay man, had been on the outs with his employer for over a year. When he joined Microsoft in 2020, it felt like a good environment for LGBTQ employees. But over time, he grew disillusioned as he watched the company ignore criticisms from him and his […]

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Under New Extremism Laws, LGBTQ Russians Must Fight to Survive

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Natalia Soloviova always knew she was putting herself at risk. As the chair of the Russian LGBT Network, the largest queer advocacy group in the country, she had spent years preparing detailed security protocols for what she would do if the government came after her.  But it was still a nasty shock when she had to use them. In November 2023, almost two weeks before Russia’s supreme court would designate the “international LGBT movement” as an extremist organization, Soloviova’s heart sank when she watched Channel One, a state-funded TV network, air a reportabout her organization. They flashed her and her colleagues’ […]

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Your License Plate Might Be Funding an Anti-LGBTQ Extremist Group

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A LOOKOUT and Uncloseted Media investigation has found that millions of dollars from various state motor vehicle departments are being funneled into far-right groups that use that money to lobby lawmakers and fund litigation that defeat equity measures for millions of people across the country, including for women, people of color and, more specifically, LGBTQ people. And it’s all being done through what’s on the back of people’s cars. In a nationwide sampling of state specialty license plate financial data since 2020, more than $7 million has gone to groups that have helped champion anti-LGBTQ legislation, funded litigation that struck […]

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Trans Women in Prison Tell Their Stories

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On his first day back in office, President Trump signed an executive order that banned all forms of gender-affirming care for trans people in federal prisons. Six months later, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) from enforcing the order. This block is still in effect today. Despite the judge’s order, Uncloseted Media’s Hope Pisoni spoke with eight incarcerated trans women and reviewed legal statements by several more and found that the BOP is still denying trans people access to gender-affirming accommodations. Over the course of her monthslong investigation, Pisoni also found that the women who stood up for […]

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How a Former Blogger Became the New Leader of America’s Anti-Gay Marriage Movement

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In September 2025, the National Conservatism Conference hosted a meeting of America’s biggest right wing players in Washington, D.C. Some notable attendees included the Alliance Defending Freedom’s (ADF) president Kristen Waggoner, Project 2025 architect Russell Vought, and U.S. representatives and government officials, including Tulsi Gabbard and Sebastian Gorka. On the evening of its second day, Katy Faust took the stage: “We, as a country, have to do what no other country has dared. We retake marriage on behalf of children. … A massive coalition spearheaded by my nonprofit … aims to do exactly that,” Faust, the founder of Them Before Us—a 501(c)(3) whose goal is “defending children’s right […]

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We Spoke to 8 Trans Inmates. They Say the Bureau of Prisons Is Illegally Denying Them Care

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On his first day back in office, President Trump signed Executive Order 14168, which contains several provisions rolling back trans rights including a ban on the use of federal funds for gender-affirming health care in prisons. The following month, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) issued a memo outlining their compliance with the order and that they would be removing nearly all accommodations for trans people. This would include access to gender-affirming hormones, clothing and other items like razors and chest binders. In March 2025, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Transgender Law Center (TLC) filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over these […]

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Campus Conservatives See Resurgence in the Aftermath of Charlie Kirk

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It was a quiet Thursday ahead of Thanksgiving break at the University at Buffalo (UB) when Maria B. Quagliana received an email from the school that said campus police had confiscated several firearms from a student in response to reports of a “concerning conversation.” That student was Jacob Cassidy, the president of UB’s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), a right-wing student group. Cassidy had been overheard threatening to shoot up the school, allegedly telling his friend that he had “a foldable AR in [his] bag,” adding: “I’ll shoot them in the foot and knee so they can’t get away.” Quagliana, […]

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6 LGBTQ Minnesotans Speak Out Amid ICE Crackdowns

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Since the start of December, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, have been under the thumb of an extremely heavy presence of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). During the crackdown, which the agency refers to as “Operation Metro Surge,” at least 3,000 people—mostly undocumented immigrants—have been arrested so far. Tensions came to a boil in January when federal immigration enforcement agents shot and killed poet Renee Good and ICU nurse Alex Pretti on separate occasions. In response, Minneapolis-area residents have started to push back: On Jan. 23, Minnesotans organized the first citywide general strike in the U.S. in nearly 80 years, with tens of thousands protesting and over 700 […]

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Liberty Counsel’s Deep Network of Far Right Faith and Influence

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Liberty Counsel, the legal group representing Kim Davis’ latest push for the Supreme Court to overturn gay marriage, wants to reshape American society in a far-right Christian image—one in which LGBTQ people are excluded. They’ve been fighting LGBTQ rights for years, from Lawrence v. Texas to Proposition 8 to Obergefell. Along the way, they’ve claimed that gay people “know intuitively that what they are doing is immoral, unnatural, and self-destructive” and that they are “not controlled by reason,” but rather by “lust.” While the brunt of their work focuses on right-wing litigation, their efforts don’t stop there.  An Uncloseted Media investigation has uncovered that Liberty Counsel operates […]

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