Molly Sprayregen

When customers book hair appointments at Chicago’s Logan Parlor, owner Jamie DiGrazia asks only two questions: How long is your hair, and how long do you want it to be? These questions may seem simple and even quite logical, but in fact, they are quietly revolutionary. 

While it’s quite common for a person’s hair length and style to deviate from gender norms, it remains standard practice in the beauty industry for pricing menus to offer women’s cuts and men’s cuts. DiGrazia says the model is both inefficient for salons as well as unfair and unaffirming for customers. 

“Everyone has the right to a safe and positive affirming hair service,” DiGrazia told LGBTQ Nation. At Logan Parlor and other affirming salons scattered across the country, pricing and time slots are based on desired length and style, not gender. DiGrazia’s nonprofit, Hair Has No Gender, aims to spread the concept of gender-free pricing throughout the industry. 

It’s no easy feat, though. Gender norms have been embedded into every nook and cranny of the industry for decades, and DiGrazia has found that some of the institutions in charge are profoundly resistant to change.

“Why wouldn’t we want to move towards this pricing structure that’s gonna support queer people, have women pay a fair price and allow the business owners to charge for their time, talent, and product instead of someone’s perceived or assumed gender identity?” they said. “Charging based on gender is jamming more traditional gender roles down everybody’s throat.”

But of course, that’s exactly what some social conservatives want. 

Making change on our own

As trans people have become more visible, a vicious conservative backlash seeks to erase anyone who deviates from the gender norms governed by sex assigned at birth. Laws targeting everything from gender-affirming care and anti-trans discrimination protections to pronoun use in schools have grown exponentially — both in number and cruelty — since the GOP began waging its war on this small and vulnerable community. 

Recently, Republican lawmakers took their battle to a new level, pushing for the right to police even the way kids dress and wear their hair. 

When DiGrazia caught wind of Arkansas’s “Vulnerable Youth Protection Act,” they began campaigning against it immediately. H.B. 1668 sought to punish adults who supported a young person’s social transition, meaning their decision to present as a gender they were not assigned at birth through changing their name, clothes, hair, or other physical attributes, but not through any medical care.

The bill defined social transitioning as “any act by which a minor adopts or espouses a gender identity that differs from the minor’s biological sex… including without limitation changes in clothing, pronouns, hairstyle, and name.”

DiGrazia watched the entire hearing in which the bill was introduced. “It was disgusting,” they said. In one clip, state Rep. Mary Bentley (R), the bill’s author, confirmed that the text says adults who support a child’s social transition, even when that child has consent from their parents, could be found civilly liable for up to 20 years for providing that support. 

Bentley called supporting trans youth “a horrible social experiment that is just devastating the lives of people.” 

“It was disgusting,” DiGrazia said. “I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears.” 

Perhaps even more shocking, they added, was the silence from major beauty associations, despite DiGrazia’s efforts to mobilize them.

“They basically took a ‘let’s wait and see approach,’” they said, declining to name the specific group they tried to work with. “I wrote them a pretty stern email about how that was a harmful choice… They have a responsibility to our industry.”

DiGrazia felt that even if the legislation was likely to die on its own due to unconstitutional language, it was important to come out hard against it, to send a message to lawmakers that the industry would not tolerate even the possibility of legislation so hateful and wouldn’t support a debate over trans kids’ dignity.

“They didn’t do anything about it, so I had to do it. I had to get my volunteers, get the graphic designer.” The Hair Has No Gender Instagram post on the bill was the organization’s most shared to date. “Hundreds of people shared it,” DiGrazia said. “I hope they called as well.”

Bentley did withdraw the bill after the hearing, as it was criticized by the Attorney General’s office for chilling free speech. However, she will work on amendments and language with the Attorney General’s office to bring it into a form that could pass. 

DiGrazia is ready to fight again, and they hope others will be too, whether against this particular bill or any similar ones that arise nationwide. 

“Make the calls, make the emails, tell [your] friends and family, and make [your] own campaign around it about how it’s harmful… I think people think that somebody else is going to do it, like I did,” he said. “No one else is going to do it.”

We need people that are willing to advocate and who are active allies to stand up against terrible things… It’s really important that we have this grassroots community,” he continued. “I just want to mobilize all these salons that are in the community that serve queer people… We’ve got to come together and make change on our own.”

Love your hair, love yourself

DiGrazia isn’t only trying to fight these bad bills and industry trends — they’re also trying to implement some good. 

In Illinois, they have been working with lawmakers to pass legislation that would enshrine gender-free pricing into law. The Gender-Based Discrimination in Service Industries Act would ban service businesses from charging different prices based on gender. It’s something that theoretically seems easy to get behind, but H.B. 5523 died in the state house in January. 

Some folks didn’t see a need for it, DiGrazia said, since gender-based pricing is technically already illegal through sex-discrimination law (though it remains common practice). Others thought it would be a burden to salons, who would have to change their pricing structures. 

DiGrazia said one beauty association even hired a lobbyist to advocate against the bill, which played a major role in its failure. The lobbyist argued the bill was vague and made untrained business owners vulnerable to the consequences of a law they wouldn’t know how to implement. 

Through their work with Hair Has No Gender, DiGrazia has heard from several brands that believe they should emphasize the business benefits of inclusion rather than the importance of queer and trans rights if they want to succeed in shifting hearts and minds on this issue. DiGrazia disagrees with this approach.

“I’m never going to do that,” they said, emphasizing that they’re dealing with a human rights issue. “The conversation is trans and queer rights. If it also benefits someone’s business, great…. [but] I’m not going to lead with that. That advice makes me sick.”

They said these kinds of changes are about keeping clients and coworkers safe and comfortable. “This is about being a good person and a good human and being an active ally and standing up for people who are being attacked,” DiGrazia said.

Stylists who are not trained to be inclusive could end up disappointing their clients at best and, at worst, making them feel profoundly unsafe or dysphoric. DiGrazia said they’ve worked with people who have not been given the haircut they asked for because their stylist perceived them as more feminine or masculine than the style they requested.

“I didn’t realize how important my hair was to me as my image until I had the cut that made me feel like me,” Logan Parlor client Emma Marzullo said in a video.

“Hair is an extension of yourself,” added Qadir Muhammad. “If you love your hair, you in turn love yourself a little bit more.”

Two major LGBTQ+ organizations – GLSEN and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) – both recently announced major layoffs, with HRC planning to lose 20 percent of its workforce and GLSEN losing a whopping 60 percent of its staff. Both organizations claim the layoffs will not affect their strong resistance to the Trump administration. 

GLSEN executive director Melanie Willingham-Jaggers said the organization has experienced a sharp revenue loss and the layoffs are part of plans to “right-size” the educational advocacy organization.

“We are not an injured version of the GLSEN we were before Monday. We are a new organization,” they told Advocate, confirming 18 employees had been laid off. “Right-sizing is bringing attention to the conditions, responding to the conditions, and being humble enough to do what is possible for us to survive, for us to be impactful, and for us to be sustainable.”

“We’re not doing the work of 42 people with 17 people,” they added. “We’re doing the critical work of 17 people in a way that is most humane, most sustainable, and most impactful.”

In a statement to LGBTQ Nation, Willingham-Jaggers said the smaller staff will not render the organization less effective and that the work “will be more focused and directed to areas that will have more impact.”

“This is a clarifying moment,” they said. “GLSEN’s north star and mission will continue to advocate for inclusive and equitable policies, shape the national conversation on systemic change and education justice, strengthen our national movement by working locally, across the country, via our chapter network and equip youth, families and educators with the necessary support, training, tools, strategy and community-building networks to create change in their local communities.”

They told Advocate relentless right-wing attacks over the past several years contributed to the funding dip. 

“In the desire to grow our way out of problems of scale, we hit a ceiling—and then our revenue hit a cliff because of right-wing attacks. They saw Target back off, and then they came for us even harder.” Here, they are referring to Target’s decision to remove certain Pride merchandise from its shelves after conservatives launched a boycott of the stores. 

Additionally, they said the overall right-wing crusade against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has led to waning engagement from corporate donors. 

But they also told LGBTQ Nation that GLSEN had already been considering ways to “streamline, right-size, and transform in order to meet the moment.” 

“In addition to funding, the political landscape and the hostile Trump administration is also requiring GLSEN, and all LGBTQ+ organizations, to rethink their approaches and be smarter and to not do ‘business as usual.’ This transformation is to ensure that our work is effective and transformational on all levels.” 

Willingham-Jaggers also expanded on GLSEN’s future in an op-ed.

HRC expressed similar sentiments. “Given the threats ahead of us, any LGBTQ organization or progressive organization that’s not seriously evaluating their strategies and structures is missing the reality of the threats in front of us,” a spokesperson told Advocate.

The organization will reportedly lay off about 50 employees by February 12, citing the need to “operate differently” as a result of the political and legislative climate. HRC representatives told Advocate it exceeded its funding goal over the past several years, which led the organization to expand programming and operating costs. But the expansion has now become unsustainable. 

Like Willingham-Jaggers, HRC president Kelley Robinson assured the community that the mission remains the same: “Our success has never been determined by the number of staff we have but by the impact that we make in the world. We need to stay laser-focused on how we can create change… We’re sharpening our focus on where we can make the most impact. This is about ensuring that we are agile and strategic in this moment.”

HRC employees are members of the Services Employees Union, which Robinson said they notified about the upcoming layoffs. 

Robinson is also currently pregnant but said her maternity leave in the spring will not get in the way of the organization’s success. 

“A movement is bigger than any single person,” she said. “I am proud to have a great chief of staff, a great chief operating officer, and an incredible team here at the Human Rights Campaign that, even while I’m on maternity leave, will be helping to move things forward.”

Robinson also said she doesn’t believe the layoffs mean HRC is any weaker. 

“If it’s our opposition asking that question, I think they do that at their own peril,” she said. “The best thing about being a queer person is that we have a history and a legacy of confronting impossible challenges and coming out the other side.”

“We aren’t going anywhere,” another official said. “This is about responsible leadership and positioning ourselves to be in a place of strength for our people—not just today, but in the years ahead.”

Another official said one big focus is rethinking communication how to talk about LGBTQ+ issues in the age of misinformation: “We need to make sure that the American people understand that trans people aren’t a thought exercise — that we are in every zip code, every family, every race and region, and we are not going anywhere. But we also need to be strategic about how we amplify these voices in a way that shifts the national conversation.”

Willingham-Jaggers emphasized to LGBTQ Nation:  “In these difficult times, one truth stands unshaken: our work has never been more essential. GLSEN sees this volatile reality as an opportunity to amplify the voices of grassroots movements, strengthen local communities, and champion the resilience of the underserved. Queer and trans people have always existed and will continue to thrive—together, we will press forward, overcome, and succeed.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has signed a bill adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s hate crime law, along with a companion billamending sentencing guidelines for hate crimes. 

The 1988 ethnic intimidation law initially applied only to religion, ethnicity, and race. The new law adds LGBTQ+ identities, as well as sex, age, disability, national origin, and affiliation with these groups. 

The bill was originally proposed in 2023 but faced controversy after conservatives spread false claims that it would criminalize the act of misgendering someone. Lawmakers introduced a new version of the bill this year. 

“As a Jew in a time of rampant antisemitism, and as a gay man in a time of uncertain rights, I promised the people of West Bloomfield, Commerce and the Lakes that I would move heaven and earth to tackle rising hate crimes and extremism,” said state Rep. Noah Arbit (D), who co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Kristian Grant (D). 

“Today, after two years of tremendous effort, battling disinformation, bigotry, lies and political paralysis, I am incredibly proud to have delivered on that promise in my first term with this new law.”

A first offense for committing a hate crime against one of the protected classes is punishable with a fine of $5,000 and/or up to two years behind bars. Punishments worsen based on the severity of the crime and the number of offenses. 

In a statement, out Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) praised Gov. Whitmer for signing the bills in the wake of the hate being spread by the Trump administration. 

“Over the past decade, we have seen not just an uptick in hate crimes, but a normalization of racist, antisemitic and bigoted language, symbolism and actions – including a close adviser to the President giving the Nazi salute during an inaugural rally just this week,” Nessel said. “It’s incumbent upon those of us with the authority to unilaterally denounce such sentiments; otherwise, there’s no stopping this behavior.” 

Whitmer signed the two bills along with 17 others, including one focused on student mental health, one expanding protections from sexual violence, one expanding community violence intervention services, and another establishing a threat assessment team for schools to monitor student behavior and mitigate threats.

“Each of these bills build on my administration’s commitment to protecting Michiganders and their families,” Whitmer said in a statement. “Since I took office, we’ve invested over $1.6 billion into public safety programs across six balanced, bipartisan budgets, ensuring Michiganders can feel safe no matter where they are. Together, let’s keep making a real difference in people’s lives.”

The 119th Congress officially began on January 3 and included among the new members are three history-making LGBTQ+ legislators: Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA), and Rep. Julie Johnson (D-TX). 

McBride, the first out transgender member of Congress, received a slew of support from the Democratic Party and national LGBTQ+ rights organizations. A major part of her platform was protecting transgender rights in the United States.

At only 34, McBride has already worked for the Human Rights Campaign and interned in the Obama-Biden White House. She was the first trans person to speak at the Democratic National Convention in 2016. She became the first trans person elected to a state senate in 2020, and in 2022, she became the first trans incumbent to win re-election in a state senate.

In her farewell speech to the Delaware Senate, she declared that “small states can do big things.” 

“As I head out and head to Washington, D.C.,” she continued, “I take with me the lessons that I have learned here. I take with me the hope that I have found here, that despite the rancor and the toxicity that we too often see in our politics, that we do genuinely have more in common than what divides us; that we can — and that we must — have conversations across disagreement, that we can have a politics of grace and a politics of progress.”

Randall is now the first out LGBTQ+ Latina woman in Congress, as well as the first out LGBTQ+ Congressperson from Washington state. 

Randall, a former Planned Parenthood fundraiser and member of her state senate’s Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee, made women’s rights and economic issues central to her campaign.

“What I learned in that job is that it is really important that we are bold about our commitment to reproductive freedom because it’s not just left-wing Democrats that care about abortion rights,” Randall told LGBTQ Nation in May about her time at Planned Parenthood. 

“It’s swing voters in Arizona, and Nevada. It’s Republicans in many communities. It’s folks who understand that our bodily autonomy and our ability to make decisions about our families and our teachers is so important. And that’s been affirmed to me time after time in my elections here in my purple district.”

Randall first ran for the state senate seat representing her hometown in 2018, when she defeated her “extreme MAGA” Republican opponent by a mere 102 votes. She was most recently the state Senate’s Majority Whip. 

She also told LGBTQ Nation in May that if she won, she’d be most excited “to bring the voices of my neighbors with me to make tough decisions and make investments in building a brighter future for all of us.” 

Johnson is now the first out LGBTQ+ congressperson from the South. In her 2018 state House race, Johnson unseated Matt Rinaldi, the anti-LGBTQ+ incumbent who wrote the state’s infamous anti-trans bathroom bill. In that role, she became the first lawmaker in the state to serve while married to a same-gender spouse. 

Johnson’s landslide victory included earning the majority of votes in even some of the most Republican counties in her district. 

“Julie Johnson is the representative Texas needs in Congress, where she’ll fiercely combat the bigotry and ignorance that’s taken over too much of our state politics,” said LGBTQ+ Victory Fund President & CEO Annise Parker. 

“Julie has an enviable record of advocating for her constituents in the state House, and there’s no doubt that experience will make her an invaluable member of the Texas congressional delegation. Whether she’s defending your right to reproductive health care or advancing public education, you can trust Julie to have your back in the tough fights ahead.”  

In December, the Dallas Voice named Johnson “LGBTQ Texan of the Year,” calling her a “bright spot” in the “disastrous” overall results for Democrats.

“Throughout her six years in the Texas Legislature, Johnson has remained a steadfast voice for common sense as well as for LGBTQ civil rights,” the Voice said. “And as we ready ourselves to keep up the fight in the face of so much fear and uncertainty, the knowledge that Johnson will be as much a steadfast force for sanity and progress in Washington as she was in Austin, provides a steadying hand and a ray of hope for the community.”

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced this week that the Boulder County Courthouse in Colorado has been designated a National Historic Landmark for being the site of the first issuing of a same-sex marriage license in the United States. 

On March 26, 1975, Boulder County Clerk Clela Rorex issued the license after confirming with the assistant district attorney that state law did not ban marriage between two people of the same sex. 

“This act of courage ignited a nationwide conversation about marriage equality and cemented the courthouse’s role as a symbol of hope and progress for the LGBTQ+ community,” the Boulder County Board of Commissioners wrote in a press release. “Within weeks, Rorex issued five more same-sex marriage licenses, and news outlets across the country spotlighted Boulder as a trailblazer for civil rights.”

The commission shared a quote from Rorex reflecting on the moment years after she issued that first license: “After having been so deeply involved in the women’s rights movements, who was I to then deny a right to anyone else? It wasn’t my job to legislate morality.”

While the college town of Boulder has a liberal reputation now, it was deeply divided over gay rights in 1975, and few, including Rorex, had thought about same-sex couples marrying. Seeing a parallel with the women’s movement and finding nothing in the law to prevent it, the 31-year-old county clerk ultimately granted six licenses to gay couples before the state’s attorney general at the time, J.D. MacFarlane, ordered her to stop.

“Our community includes people of many races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, gender identities, and professions, and we consider this diversity an asset that enriches the lives of all of our residents,” Commissioner Claire Levy said in a statement. “Honoring the Boulder County Courthouse with a National Historic Landmark designation is a tribute to these neighbors and a ringing endorsement that America is still the land of the brave.”

Commissioner Marta Loachamin also pointed out that the moment “is particularly meaningful in today’s sociopolitical climate, where many Americans feel unwelcome or excluded. Recognizing the courthouse as a National Historic Landmark underscores the United States’ dedication to fostering a future built on equity and justice for all.”

A new study has found that LGBTQ+ higher education students are more than three times as likely to have depression than their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts.

Published in the Journal of American College Health, the study examined data from almost 500,000 respondents to the annual Healthy Minds Study, which tracked mental health in full-time students ages 18 to 35 from 2007 to 2022.

“Our findings highlight a growing mental health crisis among LGBTQIA+ students that demands immediate attention,” says David Pagliaccio of the New York State Psychiatric Institute. “Academic institutions need to take urgent and proactive steps to address these alarming rises in depression that are affecting the lives of so many young adults, particularly among those who face unique challenges due to their sexual or gender identity.”

The findings not only concluded that LGBTQ+ students are more likely to suffer from depression but also that six times the number of respondents identified as LGBTQ+ in 2022 compared to when the study launched 15 years prior.

The analysis also found that overall depression rates have increased among students but that LGBTQ+ students account for nearly half of those reporting depression despite making up only one-fifth of the group. LGBTQ+ students were also twice as likely to go to therapy but half as likely to go to family members for help.

The results are not surprising considering the hostile anti-LGBTQ+ climate being perpetuated by federal and state lawmakers. The Trevor Project’s 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People (which surveys youth ages 13 to 24) found a “significant association” between poor mental health and anti-LGBTQ+ victimization, including that the mental health of 90% of LGBTQ+ youth has been negatively affected by politics.

Additionally, a study published in September revealed that anti-transgender laws have a direct, causal relationship with youth suicide attempts and that attempted suicide rates increased by as much as 72% following the passage of such laws.

Editor’s note: If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. The Trans Lifeline (1-877-565-8860) is staffed by trans people and will not contact law enforcement. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for youth via chat, text (678-678), or phone (1-866-488-7386). Help is available at all three resources in English and Spanish.