The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has criticized companies like Molson Coors, Ford, and others for “abandoning their values and backtracking from commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)” following right-wing pressure campaigns.
The HRC concurrently released new survey data showing that rollbacks on DEI from large corporations in recent years are wildly unpopular with LGBTQ+ individuals and alienating many consumers. This data comes in response to far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Robby Starbuck allegedly causing numerous prominent companies — including Ford, Lowe’s, and Harley-Davidson— to significantly scale back their DEI efforts via public pressure campaigns. Starbuck, who reportedly believes that chemicals in tap water are turning kids gay, has over half a million followers on X.
“The LGBTQ+ community is an economic powerhouse, and we want to work for and support companies who support us. Attacks on DEI initiatives are shortsighted and make our workplaces less safe and less inclusive for hard-working Americans of all demographics and backgrounds,” Orlando Gonzales, Senior Vice President of Programs, Research, and Training at the HRC, wrote in an emailed statement. “This new data confirms that companies like Molson Coors, Ford, and others that abandon their values and backtrack from commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion risk losing both top employee talent and consumer dollars.”
According to the data, 80.1% of LGBTQ+ adults said that they would boycott a company that rolled back DEI measures, with 75.7% of LGBTQ+ adults having a less favorable view of such a company. Additionally, over half (52.5%) said they would try to get others to join the boycott, and similar numbers (51.7%) would remove any profile, credit card, or app they had with the company. Nearly 28% of respondents said they would join a protest or sign a petition against the company too.
Additionally, 72.4% of LGBTQ+ adults said they’d feel less supported by their company if their workplace rolled back inclusion efforts for the community, 66.6% said they’d feel less safe, and 54% said they’d experience a decline in their mental health. A third of participants said they’d be less productive, and 19.6% said they’d look for a different job entirely.
Meanwhile, over 95% of LGBTQ+ adults said that their company scoring high on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI) — a measure of LGBTQ+-inclusive company policies — would mean they feel their company supports the community. Half said that a CEI score of 100% would mean there’s strong support for the community.
The data similarly reflected that LGBTQ+ community members feel supported by companies that sponsor Pride parades, hire out leadership, donate to LGBTQ+ nonprofits, make community outreach efforts, and feature queer representation in their marketing and product development.
The President of the Human Rights Campaign, Kelley Robinson, said that Starbuck is a “MAGA bully and Republican-reject” whose “only business experience is hawking vitamins marketed by people profiting off of COVID disinformation.”
The HRC also referenced data from a Washington Post-Ipsos poll that found that most Americans support DEI measures and feel that these measures better support marginalized people while helping guarantee significant outreach to the public.
The survey was done in collaboration with Community Marketing & Insights (CMI) between August 8-18. Respondents were gathered from their broader LGBTQ+ Research Panel, a representative dataset of over 50,000 LGBTQ+ individuals. 2,490 individuals from all 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C., were surveyed, with 2,432 being eligible for participation in the data.
The data was weighted by the HRC to represent the total United States population based on age, race/ethnicity, gender identity, educational attainment, and geographic region in comparison to data from the Census, and political affiliation from the PRRI 2023 American Values Atlas. Weighting was done with a Stata program and was verified with hand calculations. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 4.6%.
Numerous anti-LGBTQ+ right-wing broadcasters — including Tim Pool and Dave Rubin — have been unwittingly working for a Russian government-funded media company established to push Russian propaganda and disinformation to American audiences, according to an indictment from the Department of Justice (DOJ). There’s no indication whether the broadcasters knew about the company’s Russian origins, but unsealed court documents showed that Russia favors former President Donald Trump to win the 2024 election, The Hillreported.
The FBI is now actively investigating the case which somewhat mirrors the Russian “troll farms” that flooded social media with anti-Democratic messaging during the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. Concurrently, the Biden administration announced on Wednesday Russian efforts to influence the 2024 U.S. election, and the DOJ announced its seizure of 32 web domains that Russia has used to spread its messages in the United States.
The DOJ indictment alleges that two employees of RT (formerly Russia Today), a state-controlled media outlet funded and directed by the Russian government, spent nearly $10 million over the last year to covertly finance and direct Tenet Media, a Tennessee-based online content creation company. The company, which platforms the aforementioned broadcasters, has published over 2,000 videos posted in the last 10 months on TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube. Their videos have been collectively viewed over 20 million times, according to the DOJ.
While the indictment doesn’t specifically mention Tenet Media by name, referring to it only as “U.S. Company 1,” the indictment mentioned that the company describes itself as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.” That description matches the same one that Tenet Media uses on YouTube, according to New York Times reporter Aric Toler.
The RT employees — Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva — worked under the pseudonyms Helena Shudra and Victoria Pesti, and oversaw the company’s funding and hiring as well as the editing of its content.
Tenet Media’s YouTube channel features numerous anti-LGBTQ+ videos including ones titled, “Fellas, Is It Gay To Date A Trans Woman?”, “The TRUTH About Gender Ideology”, videos claiming that Pride parades regularly expose children to nudity and another falsely accusing the drag queen segment of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies for “mocking Christianity.” (The segment’s artistic director said it depicted a Dionysian feast.)
In a similar vein, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has accused the U.S. of pushing gender “perversions” on Russian schoolchildren. Putin has used this reasoning to justify attacks on LGBTQ+ citizens and his ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Tenet Media has published numerous videos attacking Ukraine for spreading violence and unrest in Russia.
“While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, most are directed to the publicly stated goals of the Government of Russia and RT — to amplify domestic divisions in the United States,” the DOJ said.
Tenet Media’s webpage listing its “talent” includes Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, Tayler Hansen, and Turning Point USA chief creative officer Benny Johnson — all of them have shared anti-LGBTQ+ views on social media. Tenet Media has also featured talks between disgraced former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and conservative gay commentator Glenn Greenwald.
On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that Russian government agents operated websites, social media and created fake social media personas to spread propaganda furthering Russian interests. The DOJ said it had already seized 32 web domains connected to the Russian plot and suggested it would seize more as part of its ongoing investigation, The Verge reported.
Numerous media studies have shown that Russian government-funded “troll farms” disseminated Russian state propaganda designed to fuel political divisions between Americans during the 2016 and 2020 elections. The exposure of Tenet Media is just the latest iteration of the same ploy — and it apparently is using anti-LGBTQ+ media figures as part of its anti-American campaign.
Kamala Harris’ journey to become the first Black and South Asian vice president of the United States is nothing short of groundbreaking. Now, as the 2024 presidential nominee, understanding Kamala Harris’ political stances offers valuable insight into her vision for the future.
What key issues define her political agenda, and how might they affect her candidacy and the shaping of the nation? Let’s take a look at her stances to explore these questions further.
Gaza
As the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris has articulated her robust support for Israel’s right to defend itself, emphasizing the necessity of protection against threats from militant groups like Hamas. At the same time, she has acknowledged the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza, highlighting its severe impact on Palestinian civilians.
In her recent remarks, Harris affirmed her commitment to working with President Joe Biden to negotiate a cease-fire and secure the release of hostages held by Hamas. “Now is the time to get a hostage deal and a cease-fire deal done,” she asserted in her Democratic National Convention speech.
Moreover, Harris has consistently addressed the rights of Palestinians, advocating for their right to “dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination.” Her stance underscores a nuanced approach, aiming to maintain support from both pro-Israel Democrats and those advocating for Palestinian rights.
However, her campaign has said she doesn’t support an embargo on the sale of U.S. weapons to Israel, something long sought by pro-Palestinian protestors. She risks alienating them and other progressive voters if she doesn’t explain how her administration would differ from the current one’s approach.
If she becomes president, Harris is expected to replace some of the chief architects of the Biden administration’s strategy in Gaza, The Wall Street Journal reported. Her national security adviser, Philip Gordon, has emphasized the need for diplomatic (rather than military) foreign policy solutions. However, she has not yet laid out concrete details about the diplomatic levers she could use to force Israel to end its targeting of Palestinian civilians.
Kamala Harris has consistently championed the need to protect reproductive rights, advocating for national legislation that mirrors the protections once granted by Roe v. Wade. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned Roe, Harris emerged as a key figure in the Biden administration’s efforts to keep the issue at the forefront. Her proactive stance was underscored by a historic visit to an abortion clinic, marking the first such visit by a sitting vice president.
During her tenure in the Senate, Harris was a vocal supporter of abortion rights. She co-sponsored legislation to ban states from restricting abortion rights and opposed a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. She has also advocated for laws requiring states with histories of restricting abortion rights to obtain federal approval for new abortion-related laws.
In her speech at the end of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, she mentioned that former President Donald Trump and his conservative allies are “out of their minds” for intending to empower extremists, cut social programs, and outlaw abortion across the country.
Taxing the rich
Kamala Harris supports a comprehensive tax plan that would increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans and large corporations to generate nearly $5 trillion in revenue over the next decade. She would increase taxes on individuals earning more than $400,000 a year — a group representing approximately 1.8% of America’s top income earners. She has pledged to ensure that middle and lower-income families don’t face increased tax burdens.
Additionally, Harris wants to raise the corporate tax rate from the existing 21% to 28%, which would generate an estimated $1.3 trillion over ten years, according to the Treasury Department. By targeting affluent individuals and major corporations, she seeks to address economic disparities and secure funding for essential government initiatives without affecting the broader population.
Her campaign spokesman, James Singer, articulated her vision by saying the plan is “a fiscally responsible way to put money back in the pockets of working people and ensure billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share.”
Healthcare
During her 2019 presidential campaign, Harris supported the introduction of a “Medicare-for-all” public option that would allow people to choose between public and private health insurance. While she has since backed away from this plan, during her time in the Senate, she supported bills that expanded Medicare coverage in individual states.
She has supported the Inflation Reduction Act, which allows the federal government to negotiate drug prices for those most commonly prescribed under Medicare. As vice president, she has also spoken about the Biden administration’s efforts to reduce medical debt.
During her current presidential campaign, she has pledged to improve healthcare access by reducing drug prices and expanding coverage under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, a federal law that Republicans have long sought to repeal. She has also publicly opposed Republican proposals to privatize or cut health care programs for elderly and lower-income Americans.
The 2024 Democratic National Platform has also pledged to ensure that health insurers adequately cover mental health and substance use treatment.
Although she has not introduced new policies for tackling climate change, she has supported the Biden Administration’s pledges to fight climate change, pledged U.S. investments into helping other countries fight climate change, and previously supported the Green New Deal, which would invest federal funds into state and local efforts to end pollution and build renewable energy sources.
LGBTQ+ issues
Kamala Harris has consistently demonstrated her commitment to LGBTQ+ equality, building a record of support that spans her career in public service. As California’s Attorney General, Harris played a pivotal role in restoring marriage equality in the state by refusing to defend Proposition 8, a voter-approved measure that had revoked the right to same-sex marriage. Her decisive actions helped pave the way for the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that ultimately struck down the proposition.
As a vocal opponent of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, Harris has condemned policies that restrict the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly those affecting transgender youth. She emphasized her stance by saying, “The fight for equal rights is patriotic. We believe in the foundational principles of our country; we believe in the promise of freedom and equality and justice.”
As president, she has pledged to support the Equality Act, a bill that would add LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination protections to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. She has also pledged to continue protecting transgender students and gender-affirming care and to oppose anti-LGBTQ+ book bans in red states.
A vision for progressive change
Kamala Harris stands as an advocate for progressive change, pushing for policies that tax the rich, expand healthcare, fight environmental pollution, and expand LGBTQ+ civil rights. While her current campaign hasn’t always detailed the specific policies she’ll pursue as president, the Democratic National Platform and her past actions and statements reflect her long-term dedication to these issues.
Gay Brazilians have become targeted as a slew of murderers have been using dating apps to target gay men, Reuters reports.
One victim, Leo Nunes, was murdered on Lover’s Day in Brazil after he met someone on Hornet, a gay dating app. He was killed in a middle-class neighborhood in Sao Paulo.
One suspect has been arrested, however the string of crimes has yet to stop. People report being robbed and attacked after meeting up with assailants using fake profiles.
Straight men may be at risk, too, of “love cons,” where straight men are lured to a remote location to meet with a woman and are instead kidnapped and robbed.
Criminal groups are targeting LGBTQ+ people because of their known reluctance to interact with law enforcement.
“Because of structural homophobia, criminals know that LGBT people are vulnerable. They know they will be more easily intimidated,” said Wanderley Montanholi, a lawyer for the family of Heleno Veggi Dumba, a gay doctor who was murdered in April in Sao Paulo after an attempted robbery.
Three suspects have been arrested for Dumba’s killing, however none are charged as of yet.
Five gay men have been killed through these apps since March of 2024, although the number may be higher as deaths go unreported to police.
Brazilian police declined to comment to Reuters about murders linked to gay dating apps, mentioning only the “love cons.”
Gabriel, a gay man who did not give his surname to Reuters, was robbed by the same profile on the same street as Nunes. “One man put a gun to my stomach and asked me the password of my phone,” he said, which led to his bank accounts being accessed and his money and credit cards stolen.
According to Gabriel, the profile remained on Hornet for weeks after it was flagged, in spite of multiple people flagging it as well. Law enforcement declined to comment on the cases of Gabriel and other individuals who had been attacked.
Gerry Monaghan, head of operations at Hornet, said to Reuters that “all reports are looked at and reviewed by Hornet.” He also said that the company added additional staff to handle reporting and that they changed their reporting system to prioritize issues based on severity. He did not elaborate on this.
A spokesperson for Grindr said that they are “aware that in Brazil, digital platforms such as ours are occasionally abused to target LGBTQ+ people.” He referenced security features in the app and referenced their participation with law enforcement.
Ashley Brundage, 44, a DEI educator and former bank executive, moved one step closer on Tuesday to becoming the first elected transgender lawmaker from Florida despite a smear campaign perpetuated by the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis.
Brundage, running for a state House seat from the Tampa area, swamped her opposition with more than 81 percent of the vote in Florida House District 65’s Democratic primary.
She’ll face incumbent Republican Florida state Rep. Karen Gonzalez Pittman in November.
“I am incredibly honored and humbled to announce that we’ve won the Democratic primary election with a resounding victory over 80% for Florida State House District 65!” Brundage posted on X.
Brundage joins two other winning LGBTQ+ candidates in Florida, former state representative Joe Saunders and climate advocate Nate Douglas, in trying to erase Republicans’ super majority in the state legislature in November.
A fourth LGBTQ+ candidate, former Obama staffer Chad Klitzman, did not fare as well, losing his primary in heavily Democratic Broward County to a pro-LGBTQ+ rights candidate, Barbara Sharief.
Brundage’s opponent in the general election is a former teacher in the Tampa area who voted in favor of Don’t Say Gay legislation and book bans in school libraries. Brundage is the award-winning author of Empowering Differences: Leveraging Your Differences to Impact Change.
Brundage says Pittman “only helped to scare away people from wanting to come to Florida” with the “draconian laws” she’s helped to pass.
Those include Gov. DeSantis’ signature Don’t Say Gay legislation, which Brundage described in an interview with LGBTQ Nation as “absolutely ridiculous.”
DeSantis’ antipathy for Brundage extends back, incongruously, to an award for which he congratulated her.
In 2022, Brundage was given a Spirit of the Community award by the Florida Commission on the Status of Women for bringing in tens of millions of dollars to the Tampa area with an international economic empowerment conference. Brundage received a letter of congratulations from DeSantis, who, it turns out, didn’t know Brundage was trans.
But news organizations did, and Brundage says DeSantis “dodged everybody’s request for comment on it. No comment. No comment. No comment. I announced my candidacy, of course, and talked about the letter. And then he finally responded — to the Daily Mail in the U.K. And he told them that he would have never given me the award if he had known that I was a transgender woman.”
Like his hateful Don’t Say Gay laws, Brundage called DeSantis’ disavowal “ridiculous.”
“I still brought in a $12.5 million conference, selling out two entire hotels and a convention center for the city of Tampa,” Brundage says. “I still did that. I still created a scholarship foundation for youth, and I still mentored children and women in my community through financial literacy educational programs for free.
“So none of that has changed, but because he knows my political affiliation, all of a sudden, he wants to say that he wouldn’t have given me that award. And that’s exactly what’s wrong with our political world right now. Partisan politics get in the way of actually accomplishing things that are good for our economy.”
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) understands the stakes of the upcoming election. He immigrated to the U.S. at age 5, became a U.S. citizen in his early 20s, tackled the COVID-19 epidemic as the youngest and first out LGBTQ+ mayor of Long Beach, California, and—after the virus killed both his mother and stepfather—became the first out gay immigrant ever elected to Congress. Now Garcia is surrounded by some Republican legislators who believe COVID-19 was a hoax, immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” and that LGBTQ+ people don’t deserve legal protections.
About a month ago, Garcia was all in on the campaign to re-elect President Joe Biden. He supported Biden’s 2020 campaign as one of the first out LGBTQ+ people to deliver a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. In April, he helped launch a national initiative focused on rallying LGBTQ+ voters and volunteers behind Biden, and while many Democrats called on Biden to step down following his lackluster June 27 debate performance, Garcia wasn’t among them.
But a lot has changed over the last month. Biden dropped out of the presidential race on July 21 and immediately endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement. Garcia quickly expressed his support for Harris — a fellow Californian — noting that he served as her campaign co-chair during her candidacy for president during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
Barely two weeks later, Garcia cheered Harris’s selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as her running mate, calling him “a home run pick” and adding, “He’s a former teacher and veteran and understands Congress. He has a strong record standing up for working families. Let’s go Harris-Walz because we are not going back!”
“It’s sad to see what’s happening in so many states in the South and Texas and so many other places,” Garcia told LGBTQ Nation about the wave of Republican legislation trying to roll back protections for LGBTQ+, reproductive, and immigrant rights. “And it’s really unfortunate that [these places] send representatives to Congress that can really impact all of our rights.”
With a conservative Supreme Court willing to overturn the court’s past decisionsupholding the rights to contraception and same-sex marriage, “We’re in a really dangerous moment for the community,” Garcia said. “Which is why we need to be very honest and focused on pushing really hard, winning the White House, on flipping the house and making sure that we do everything we can organize in these states.”
Luckily, Democratic enthusiasm has skyrocketed since Harris replaced Biden. According to gay election data analyst Nate Silver, Harris currently leads Trump in five critical swing states.
But history shows us that polls are anything but certain. In 2016, data indicated a promising victory for then-presidential nominee Hillary Clinton just before her shocking loss to Trump despite winning the popular vote.
For his next term, Trump has promised to outlaw gender-affirming care for trans youth (with prison time for anyone complicit in the act), deny federal funds to any hospital or doctors that offer gender-affirming care, and roll back all Biden administration policy protecting trans students “on day one” of his presidency. With the aid of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, Trump has also promised a nationwide ban on trans student-athletes, a federal law recognizing only two genders, prosecution of schools with LGBTQ+-inclusive policies, and the end of all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs (DEI) that encourage the inclusion of non-white, women, and queer individuals.
Trump is also targeting undocumented immigrant families, and it’s an issue Garcia cares deeply about. Trump has also promised to conduct the largest domestic deportation of immigrants in American history (including individuals who have “anti-American views,” which is worrying since he considers racial justice and anti-fascist protestors to be “terrorists”); to reinstate his Muslim travel ban; to end the 125-year-old U.S. right to birthright citizenship; and to terminate the Department of Education.
“It’s really important that we tell people that we can’t be hopeless, that we have to fight back, and we can’t just allow them to steamroll us and to take our rights away.”Rep. Robert Garcia
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“I have met with folks that are really, really scared,” Garcia said. “I think it’s important to recognize that people are scared, that people are concerned at the same time. I think it’s really important that we tell people that we can’t be hopeless, that we have to fight back, and we can’t just allow them to steamroll us and to take our rights away.”
“It’s really important that we are aggressive and that we fight back, that we bring the fire,” Garcia added. “This is not a moment where we should be, in any way, holding back our punches. We’re going to be punching back really, really hard, and especially when you have nut jobs like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert who are impacting our community and who… are insulting LGBTQ+ families almost every day in Congress.”
Garcia has exemplified his willingness to fight back against the likes of Trump, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and their ilk in Congress.
He has said that Greene “obviously has no business being in Congress and is completely, in my opinion, a traitor to the country,” noting that she supported the Trump-inspired January 6, 2021, insurrection to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election. He has called out hypocritical Republicans for ignoring the Trump family’s numerous (and possibly unethical) foreign business deals while Trump was in the White House; he also led efforts to kick out now-former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) for his dishonesty and financial misdealings.
Garcia has compared Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric to Hitler’s, saying, “His imagery, the way he supports white nationalism, the way he supports white supremacy, and those kinds of comments are completely offensive to immigrants and hopefully to all Americans in this country.”
For Garcia, the fight over immigrant rights remains particularly personal and important. When he was sworn into Congress in January 2023, he swore on a copy of the U.S. Constitution and three meaningful personal items: a photo of his mother and stepfather, who he had recently lost to COVID, his citizenship certificate, and an original 1939 first-issue copy of a Superman comic from the Library of Congress. Superman is himself an immigrant who arrived in the U.S. as a child and fought for “Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow.”
Trump’s plan to deport 11 million undocumented people — despite his use of immigrant labor at his properties — would break up law-abiding immigrant families who have been living, working, and paying taxes in the U.S. for decades. Not only would the U.S. lose about $100 billion a year that they pay in taxes, according to Mother Jones, but the agriculture, construction, and hospitality industries, which largely rely on immigrant labor, would all take a massive hit.
“We came here when I was a young, young kid, and I grew up like a low-income family, a lot of good families, and it was a struggle and tough, but we all became citizens… very grateful and very patriotic Americans,” Garcia said. “And I certainly believe that other kids should have the same opportunity that was given to me to earn my citizenship.”
“It’s important, particularly in the LGBTQ+ community, to know that we all have shared struggles,” Garcia added, “and for us to have empathy and understand the humanity of migrants and of immigrants: that they are also LGBTQ+ migrants trying to flee oppressive countries or places where they are hurt or not accepted. There are areas where those issues intersect…. And I think it’s important for immigrants to support gay issues and vice versa.”
Garcia also knows that tomorrow may not look certain for LGBTQ+ people either, both domestically and abroad. But as a Congress member, he has shown what it means to fight for queer rights in the Capitol.
“Congress needs more radical homosexuals. I’m proud and openly queer, and we have 10 members of Congress that are gay — we need a lot more.”Rep. Robert Garcia
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For Garcia, “fighting back” not only means voting, though he acknowledges its importance — it means using influence to persuade and organize with others.
“Be vocal, be unapologetic, if you’re able to, with friends and family. Push and do what you can with organizing, volunteering for a campaign, and donating. There are a bunch of ways of organizing, and obviously, the work can happen any place,” Garcia said. “If you work at a school, there’s ways to organize. If you work at a healthcare system, there’s ways to organize. There’s a passion of community in every place, in every type of workplace.”
Garcia’s own means of organizing and persuading has included turning his House speeches into viral moments that raise his profile online. In fact, earlier this year, he won the “The Most Likely to Trumpet His Own Thirsty Award” in Politico‘s second-annual Thirsties Awards, an honor for “the members of Congress who have worked the hardest — at getting attention.”
For Garcia, these moments aren’t just about expressing himself, creating a viral moment, or raising his online profile. He sees it as an important part of the political process, too.
“When I try to incorporate pop culture and other things that I like, I know sometimes reaches a different audience,” Garcia said. “We have to learn how to speak to an entire audience, and we have to learn how to communicate to folks that maybe don’t follow politics.”
Garcia’s approach has made him a rising star in the Democratic Party, and he said he’s working hard to help elect other out and proud LGBTQ+ politicians, like Sarah McBride, who would become the first trans member of Congress out of Delaware, and Emily Randall of Washington who would be the first Latina lesbian in Congress.
“Congress needs more radical homosexuals,” Garcia said. “I’m proud and openly queer, and we have ten members of Congress that are gay — we need a lot more. We need a lot more folks that are aggressive, that stand up for the community: They’re going to talk about trans rights, health care, and the attacks on our community, and be proudly open while doing it.”
Over 1,000 people, primarily trans folk, showed up in a “Trans Folks for Harris” Zoom call to express support for Kamala Harris, The 19th reports.
“A lot of times, elected officials have not really taken our issues seriously, in part because they think that we’re too small of a community to matter,” said Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, executive director of Advocates for Trans Equality. “Now we’ve been able to prove that that is not true at all.”
The call featured a who’s who of well-known trans people, particularly trans politicians. Co-organized by activist Charlotte Clymer, the meeting also put a spotlight on elected officials like the soon-to-be Congresswoman and current Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride (D) and Hawaii’s first trans lawmaker, Kim Coco Iwamoto.
“We have so much power,” Clymer said. “We have way more power than they think, that’s for damn sure. And when we use that power, when we organize together and have each other’s backs, we can do great things.”
Over 2,600 more people have been screened for the fundraiser, with organizers still waiting to see just how much money has been raised.
Some LGBTQ+ individuals still remain skeptical of Harris, however, based on her having denied a trans woman gender-affirming care while in prison. Harris, however, has since apologized for this and disavowed her previous position.
In an attempt to garner more support, she picked Minnesota’s pro-LGBTQ+ governor, Tim Walz, as her running mate. He passed several policies that helped trans people during his time as governor, including helping to make the state a refuge for trans folks.
Activists at the event show that a sizable portion of LGBTQ+ people support Harris, in large part because she has a record of opposing policies that former President Donald Trump has enacted.
“It’s a step forward to ensure that trans people, especially Black and Brown trans women, have the representation and the resources they need to live with dignity and pride,” said Zahara Bassett, CEO of Chicago-based trans advocacy organization Life is Work. “We need to make sure that our future is one of equity, justice, and liberation for us all.”
Last Friday, two New Hampshire teenagers – soccer players who have been living as girls since a young age – have sued the state of New Hampshire for instituting a transgender sports ban. The lawsuit was filed with help from the ACLU.
The lawsuit claims that the ban on trans inclusion in girls’ sports violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title IX, a 1972 amendment that further guarantees equal treatment in education on the basis of sex.
The lawsuit also reveals that the plaintiffs are aiming to file a restraining order against the defendants alongside their attempt to issue a temporary injunction on the bill to allow the girls to go back to playing sports.
Chris Erchull, senior staff attorney with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), said in a statement, “Sports are a pillar of education in New Hampshire public schools because of the countless benefits of physical activity in a team environment, including physical and mental health, leadership skills, and social development. New Hampshire cannot justify singling out transgender girls to deny them essential educational benefits available to other students.”
H.B. 1205 was signed into law last month by Gov. Chris Sununu (R). The bill bans any transgender girl from participating on girls’ sports teams throughout high school. It was signed with two other anti-trans bills on the same day. A fourth bill, which would have overturned the state’s anti-discrimination measures for trans people, was vetoed by the governor.
The complaint names the Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Education, members of the New Hampshire Board of Education, as well as members of the girls’ high school school board, as defendants in the suit. The plaintiffs are represented by Chris Erchull and Ben Klein at GLAD, Henry Klementowicz and Gilles Bissonnette at the ACLU of New Hampshire, and Louis Lobel, Kevin DeJong, and Elaine Blais at Goodwin.
Henry Klementowicz, Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU of New Hampshire, said in a statement, “H.B. 1205 stigmatizes and discriminates against transgender girls and tells them they aren’t deserving of the same educational opportunities to other girls in public schools. All students do better in school when they have access to resources that improve their mental, emotional, and physical health and [the girls] deserve that same access.”
A gay man from Britain who was jailed in Qatar after being entrapped by the police has finally been permitted to leave by Qatari authorities and has returned to the United Kingdom after months of imprisonment in inhumane conditions.
Manuel Guerrero Aviña, a gay man who has British/Mexican citizenship, was arrested in February 2024 in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal. Aviña was a former employee of Qatar Air Lines. He was convicted of drug possession in a so-called “honey trap.”
Aviña said he responded to fake messages on Grindr that were actually sent by the police.
He was lured to a location in Doha, where the profile he was messaging with said would meet other gay men, he says. In Doha, the police were waiting to arrest him. The police say they found methamphetamine in his apartment during the arrest, which Aviña says they planted there.
He was jailed on February 4, and was given a suspended six-month prison term and a fine at Al Sadd Criminal Court in the capital city of Doha in June.
While jailed, Aviña was deprived of antiretroviral medication that he needs as an HIV-positive man. He was also forced to sign documents pertaining to his imprisonment that were written in Arabic, which he does not speak, without a translator. He said that he was forced to identify which contacts in his phone were his sexual partners, and subjected to “psychological torture.”
Aviña’s family and LGBTQ+ rights advocates around the world launched a campaign for him to return home, which was finally successful this week.
The X account @QatarFreeManuel announced yesterday, “At this moment Manuel flies free and dignified towards London! We are grateful for the unwavering support in this fight for justice. There is no doubt that ‘solidarity is the tenderness of peoples.’”
A statement posted on the accounts reads, “Manuel and his family thank you for your tireless support in this emblematic struggle against injustice, against homophobia and in favor of human rights for all people. But, as the saying goes, the struggle goes on, it is not over, and it will not end until there is justice for all people. Manuel’s case, and all the cases we have defended, teach us that only organisation, solidarity and courage can change this world and its injustices.”
Aviña himself spoke about his release, saying, “Although I welcome the fact that I can leave the country, I still condemn the unfair trial I have been subjected to and the torture and ill-treatment I endured during my preliminary detention.”
“I urge the UK and Mexican governments to raise concerns with the relevant Qatari authorities about the unfair trial and the violations of due process,” he added.
A federal appeals court just ruled that Iowa can its enact bill banning LGBTQ+ books from classrooms.
The ruling, from a three-judge panel of the Eight Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, decided that the preliminary injunction issued by a lower court was based on a “flawed analysis” of the law.
The bill, SF 496, requires parental consent before giving their child any book containing content relating to LGBTQ+ topics. This effectively censors LGBTQ+ books from youth living in antagonistic homes. It was signed into law last year by Gov. Kim Reynolds (R).
The bill was challenged in the court case Iowa Safe Schools, et al v. Reynolds.
The three-judge panel specifically ruled that the law can still be challenged in further court proceedings, and they invited more insight into the topic. The judges also rebuffed points made by Iowa’s state government that were considered dangerous by the ACLU, Lambda Legal, and legal firm Jenner & Block.
In a joint statement, the ACLU, Lambda Legal, and Jenner & Block criticized the ruling, saying, “Iowa families, and especially LGBTQ+ students who will again face bullying, intimidation, and censorship as they return for a new school year, are deeply frustrated and disappointed by this delay. Denying LGBTQ+ youth the chance to see themselves represented in classrooms and books sends a harmful message of shame and stigma that should not exist in schools.”
“We are, however, encouraged by the Eighth Circuit’s complete rejection of the State’s most dangerous arguments,” their statement continued. “The appeals court acknowledged that our student clients have been harmed by the law and have the right to bring suit. The court also rejected the State’s claim that banning books in libraries is a form of protected government speech. We will ask the district court to block the law again at the earliest opportunity.”
However, Gov. Reynolds celebrated the ruling in a statement, “Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit confirmed what we already knew—it should be parents who decide when and if sexually-explicit books are appropriate for their children. Here in Iowa, we will continue to focus on excellence in education and partnerships with parents and educators.”
While Reynolds and other Republican politicians have claimed that book bans seek to keep children from accessing “sexually-explicit” content, authors whose books are targeted by these bans are most frequently female, people of color, and/or LGBTQ+ individuals, according to the free-speech organization PEN America. Approximately 30% of the banned titles from the 2022-2023 school year included either characters of color or discussions of race and racism, and an additional 30% included LGBTQ+ characters or themes, the organization added.
Nevertheless, the Iowa attorney general, Brenna Bird, also celebrated the ruling, writing, “We went to court to defend Iowa’s schoolchildren and parental rights, and we won. This victory ensures age-appropriate books and curriculum in school classrooms and libraries. With this win, parents will no longer have to fear what their kids have access to in schools when they are not around.”
Joshua Brown, president of the Iowa State Education Association (ISEA), condemned the ruling. The ISEA was part of a separate lawsuit concerning this bill.
“Banning essential books in our schools is a burden for our educators, who will face punishment for not guessing which book fits into a supposed offensive category, and for our students, who are deprived of reading from great authors with valuable stories,” the ISEA wrote. “If Iowa’s elected leaders truly valued education professionals, they would leave important classroom decisions to the local school districts and the experts who work in them—not make what we teach our students a game of political football.”
