The Advocate

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Pete Buttigieg emerges as early favorite for 2028 Democratic nomination

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Pete Buttigieg is leading the field of potential Democratic presidential contenders for 2028, according to a new national poll. The latest Emerson College Polling survey, released this week, found Buttigieg at 18 percent support among Democratic primary voters, narrowly ahead of California Gov. Gavin Newsom at 16 percent. New York U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez followed at 11 percent, while Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and former Vice President Kamala Harris each received 10 percent. Another 18 percent of voters said they remain undecided. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. The results offer an early snapshot of a Democratic Party still searching for its […]

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Running for office while LGBTQ+ increasingly means preparing for violence

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After years of escalating anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in American politics, a new national report suggests the consequences are no longer confined to campaign ads, legislative fights, or online outrage. For many LGBTQ+ candidates, the threats have become intensely personal and increasingly physical. The threats arrive in direct messages, voicemail inboxes, comment sections, and late-night emails. Sometimes they follow candidates home. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. One LGBTQ+ candidate reported that a neighbor shot at their house after they advocated for transgender rights. Another described being shoved off a […]

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Trump’s FCC is eyeing warnings for trans TV content. Rights groups are pushing back

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For decades, LGBTQ+ Americans fought to be visible on television screens that either erased them entirely or treated them as punchlines, predators, or cautionary tales. Now, a coalition of more than 40 civil rights, free expression, and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups says the federal government is flirting with reviving that history in a new form. This time, the government wants to put warning labels on shows that include transgender and nonbinary people. In a joint filing submitted Friday to the Federal Communications Commission, organizations including GLAAD, Human Rights Campaign, PEN America, PFLAG National, Lambda Legal, and others, warned that a recent FCC inquiry into television ratings could pave the way for government-backed stigmatization […]

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Trans salutatorian’s powerful graduation speech puts Mississippi school’s mistreatment on display

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His commencement speech was greeted with applause and even cheers, but Jonas Hole, Salutatorian of the Class of 2026 at his Mississippi high school, had to endure being called “young lady,” being misgendered, and deadnamed by the same administrators who handed him his diploma.  “Despite my own self-acceptance, others judged me without understanding me. I became my label, and it felt as if my achievements, hardships, personality, all became irrelevant for the sole fact that I present myself differently,” he said. Hole identifies as transmasculine. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your […]

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Meet the Democrat poised to become Georgia’s first transgender state lawmaker

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When Bentley Hudgins talks about democracy, they rarely begin with ideology. They talk about brown water running from neighborhood taps. About losing housing after an apartment complex changed ownership. About sleeping in a 1997 Dodge Dakota pickup truck during a brutal Georgia summer. About being disbelieved by doctors for years before finally receiving treatment that restored their hearing. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. And they talk about the exhaustion of watching politicians spend years targeting transgender people while basic problems remain unsolved. Support Independent Journalism LGBTQ+ stories deserve to […]

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Chicago community raises more than $40K for husband of gay man killed in alleged stalker shooting

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More than 400 people have donated upwards of $40,000 for the husband of a beloved Chicago gay community member, who prosecutors say was gunned down by his spouse’s ex-partner after years of alleged harassment and stalking claims that had previously reached the courts. The killing of Nicholas “Pup Tugger” Calzaretta, 37, has shaken Chicago’s LGBTQ+ leather and pup communities and intensified scrutiny over the limits of protective orders in cases involving escalating threats and intimate partner violence. Neighbors watched from behind police tape as officers flooded a quiet residential block in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. Children were arriving at nearby schools. And beside Calzaretta’s body, […]

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Kansas anti-trans bathroom law leaves even state officials confused

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There may be a few public restrooms in Kansas where the state’s expansive anti-trans bathroom law won’t apply. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach issued an opinion exempting certain spaces from the requirement that restroom facilities be segregated based on gender assigned at birth. The Republican issued an opinion in response to a request from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s office, according to the Kansas Reflector. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. Kelly’s office said the law was overly vague and wanted clarity on whether it would apply even to restrooms […]

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Missouri Republicans introduced 58 anti-LGBTQ+ bills. Not one became law

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For years, Missouri has been one of the country’s most aggressive testing grounds for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. It’s a Republican-controlled state where lawmakers have repeatedly introduced bills targeting transgender youth, dragperformers, school policies, and gender expression as part of the broader national culture war over LGBTQ+ rights. This year, none of them passed. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. In what advocates are calling a significant political upset, Missouri lawmakers adjourned their regular legislative session Friday without enacting any of the 58 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced during the 2026 session, according […]

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Lawsuit accuses Trump DOJ of stripping anti-rape protections from trans prisoners

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The Trump administration is facing a new federal lawsuit accusing the Justice Department of illegally dismantling protections meant to shield transgenderincarcerated people from sexual abuse. Filed on Wednesday in federal court in Washington, D.C., the lawsuit challenges a December 2025 Justice Department memorandum directing prisons and federal auditors to disregard portions of the Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA, regulations that specifically protect transgender people behind bars. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. The suit, Poe v. U.S. Department of Justice, was brought by the National Center for LGBTQ Rights on behalf of Paulina Poe, a transgender […]

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Vatican report admits conversion therapy caused LGBTQ+ Catholics’ ‘profound suffering’

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Just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for minors in an 8-1 ruling that cast doubt on similar laws nationwide, a Catholic Church report is warning that so-called “reparative therapies” have caused LGBTQ+ Catholics “profound suffering” and spiritual harm. The published document comes from theologians assembled for the late Pope Francis’ Synod of Bishops. Remarkably, it includes testimony from two Catholic gay men in same-sex marriages, both of whom were previously subjected to so-called “conversion therapy.” That alone drew praise from advocates. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in […]

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