Sam Donndelinger

/ /

Strength In Weakness: Guy Hammond’s Program That Devastates LGBTQ Survivors

, ,

At 17 years old, Sami Tacher remembers standing atop a parking garage outside Seattle and staring down at the pavement. They had been trying for five years to suppress their attraction to men. At 15, Tacher had found Strength in Weakness, a Christian ministry that purported to teach people experiencing “same-sex attraction” how to resist those desires. To Tacher, who had grown up believing that being gay would destroy their relationship with God and devastate their family, SIW felt like an answer. Two years later, Tacher says, they could no longer imagine how they were supposed to live the rest […]

/ /

In the Middle of the Bible Belt, a Summer Camp Lets Trans Kids Exhale

,

On a June night in rural North Carolina, dozens of campers sat around the fire as a counselor asked them to close their eyes. “Picture a place where you feel completely safe,” they were told. “Think about what it looks like and how it feels, what you can hear, smell and taste.” When they were invited to share what they had imagined, one camper described sitting in a circle with other trans people. It was dark. Trees surrounded them. Mosquitoes buzzed. “‘That place is here, and this is the place where I feel safe,’” Jacob Hofheimer, one of the camp’s […]

/ /

150 Homes in 10 Years: How the Foster Care System Fails Trans Kids

,

At 8 years old in rural Kansas, Hayden Dawson remembers being forced to eat outside with the dogs. Other times, they weren’t fed at all. “I would chew sunflowers outside because I was so hungry until my face would become splotchy with a rash,” Hayden, now 20, told Uncloseted Media. Hayden, who is nonbinary and gender fluid, says whenever they wanted to wear boy clothes, play with boy toys or express themself in a gender nonconforming way, their foster parents were “highly offended” and worried that Hayden would be a “bad influence on the other kids.” They lived in the […]

/ /

Trans Women in Prison Tell Their Stories

, , , , ,

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 […]

/ /

Polyamory Isn’t Legally Protected in the U.S. Why?

,

Andrea, a 43-year-old software engineer, was once open about being polyamorous. She told family and friends that she maintained multiple romantic relationships simultaneously, with the full knowledge and consent of everyone involved. Over the years, that’s meant dating partners separately as well as being part of throuples, in which she had two primary partners. “I honored the structure of monogamy while I was in it and never pursued anyone else but something always felt off. … I felt very isolated,” she says. “Something was missing. And I was always drawn to the family structures of people who were in open […]

/ /

6 LGBTQ Minnesotans Speak Out Amid ICE Crackdowns

, , , ,

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 […]

/ /

How Pennsylvania’s First Trans Mayor-Elect Used a ‘Good Neighbor’ Campaign to Win

, , ,

On Nov. 4, Erica Deuso made history when she became the first openly transgender mayor-elect of Pennsylvania, a milestone for inclusive political campaigns. Deuso won nearly 65% of the vote and was part of a great nightfor Democrats, with Zohran Mamdani, Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill all winning their races in New York City, Virginia and New Jersey, respectively. Three days after she was elected, Uncloseted Media spoke with Deuso about how her political campaign strategies—which included focusing on “good neighbor” issues rather than on her gender identity—pushed her to win big. Watch the full video above or read the transcript below. Spencer Macnaughton: Hi everyone, […]

/ /

In Authoritarianism, Dictators Come for LGBTQ People First. Here’s Why

, ,

“Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go,” protestors chanted in the middle of Times Square, among a sea of signs that read “love reigns not kings,” “gays against faux-king Trump,” “we stand with … our trans family” and “the future is coming.” On Saturday, independent analysts estimated that the No Kings March drew between 5 and 8 million people, and organizers say over 7 million people attended 2,700 events across all 50 states. The event, which was organized to push against the rise of authoritarianism in the U.S., was the largest single-day protest in America since 1970. Among the crowd […]

/ /

‘[He] Helped Me … Hate Myself’: Conversion Therapy Survivors Speak Out

,

You don’t feel secure in your masculinity,” Sam Nieves remembers his licensed therapist telling him at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. “Go grab a Playboy and find a way to enjoy it,” the Mormon therapist told him. “He told me I can’t be straight if I don’t go fishing with my dad,” says Nieves, who was 20 at the time. “He told me I needed to play more sports, listen to country music, stuff like that. He told me something was wrong with me.” After these sessions, which lasted about a year and a half, Nieves started experiencing crippling […]

/ /

Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA’s Complete Track Record on LGBTQ Issues: What You Need to Know

, , ,

Following the assassination of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) co-founder Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10, there’s been significant posthumous discussion about who he was and what he left behind. President Trump and the Republican Party have described him as a martyr, making his funeral into a 200,000-person event comparable to those of deceased presidents, while calling for retribution against the “radical left” and trans people, despite the fact that the man who killed him is cisgender and his political affiliation is unclear. Some liberals have mourned Kirk, casting him as a champion of civil dialogue. Meanwhile, critics of his often hateful beliefs have faced repercussions, with retaliatory firings of educators, writers and reporters. In the midst […]

1 2