The Advocate

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Andry Hernández Romero, gay asylum seeker disappeared by Trump, part of prisoner swap

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Andry Hernández Romero, a gay makeup artist who sought asylum in the U.S. due to persecution in Venezuela but was deported to a prison in El Salvador, has been released as part of a prisoner swap — but he’s being sent back to Venezuela instead of the U.S. “We have confirmed that he is in Venezuela,” Immigrant Defenders Law Center President and CEO Lindsay Toczylowski told The Advocate. The organization is representing Hernández Romero in legal matters. Under a prisoner swap facilitated by the Trump administration, 10 U.S. citizens who had been held in Venezuela were released and more than 250 Venezuelan […]

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Harvard seemingly caves to Trump, shuts down LGBTQ+ and women’s center websites

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Harvard University has seemingly caved to the Trump Administration’s demand to end all diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives by removing the websites for its LGBTQ+ and women’s centers. The Ivy League’s pages for its Women’s Center, Office for BGLTQ Student Life, and Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations were removed Wednesday at the same time Dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, Hopi Hoekstra, revealed a new Office for Academic Culture and Community in an email to faculty shared with The Advocate. “This new office is part of the [university’s] ongoing effort to break down silos, ensuring all members of our community are connected, […]

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Black trans woman Dream Johnson killed in Washington, D.C.

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Police in Washington, D.C., are seeking the public’s help in finding the killer of a Black transgender woman who was shot to death about 12:30 a.m. Saturday. Bystanders flagged police down to where Dream Johnson, 28, lay unconscious on a city street, having been shot multiple times, the Washington Blade reports. She was taken to a local hospital, “but all lifesaving efforts failed and the victim was pronounced dead,” says a police statement quoted by the Blade. The police did not identify Johnson as trans, but trans activists and her family said she was. She had planned to legally change her to Dream. Vanna Terrell, Johnson’s aunt, told […]

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Puerto Rico trans rights advocates prepare legal fight as GOP governor considers gender-affirming care ban

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Puerto Rico, long regarded as a leader on transgender rights in the Caribbean, is facing a potential rollback as lawmakers push forward legislation to ban gender-affirming care for youth. The measure could criminalize parents and doctors and cut off vital medical support for the island’s trans community. The bill, approved by both chambers of Puerto Rico’s legislature, is now awaiting action by Republican Gov. Jenniffer González Colón. Although she had proposed amendments to protect access to puberty blockers and allow minors already undergoing treatment to continue care, lawmakers did not adopt those changes. The governor now faces a decision to sign or veto the bill. The U.S. Supreme Court recently […]

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Florida Republican official suspended for social posts mocking Pulse murder victims

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A Florida city suspended one of its council members over hateful social media posts, including one mocking victims of the Pulse shooting. Now, she has sued while alleging that some of the posts were doctored. The Groveland City Council last week suspended Councilwoman Judith Fike after nearly decade-old posts resurfaced, including one in which she wrote victims of the nearby Pulse mass shooting were killed more easily than if they had been hurled from buildings. According to The Orlando Sentinel, the post read: “‘Duh….why would the shooter target a gay club? My answer…Easier than marching them up steps to push off the roof..some […]

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Trump poised to make LGBTQ+ nonprofit workers ineligible for student loan forgiveness

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Donald Trump‘s Department of Education is drafting plans to gut a student loan forgiveness program for public servants — and employees of LGBTQ+ groups are being singled out.  Trump signed an executive order in March dismantling access to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, directly pointing to nonprofits that serve transgender people as ineligible for loan forgiveness. Now, the Education Department has unveiled drafted plans that would follow through with the order. The cuts are expected to disproportionately impact LGBTQ+ people, who are more likely to have student loans and more likely to work for nonprofits.  “The proposed restrictions on student loans […]

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LGBTQ+ groups face alarming funding crisis as Republican anti-trans attacks mount, new report finds

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Philanthropic support for LGBTQ+ causes is collapsing just as queer and transcommunities face an escalating national crisis. New data from Funders for LGBTQ Issues shows foundation funding for LGBTQ+ organizations in the U.S. dropped sharply to $209.4 million in 2023. That’s a staggering decline of nearly $49 million, or 19 percent, from 2022. When adjusted for inflation, that cut deepens to 22 percent. Even as the funding picture grows increasingly dire, many philanthropic institutions are opting to remain anonymous. The report omits the names of top funders and grantees for the first time in decades, reflecting a growing trend among donors who fear political retaliation […]

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This LGBTQ+ travel company’s mission of inclusivity is radical & ‘You’re more than welcome’

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As the Trump administration escalates its attacks on transgender people’s rights, revoking “X” gender markers on passports (something a federal court has halted), instructing consular officials to deny visas based on gender presentation, and enforcing a binary-only framework, one LGBTQ+ travelcompany is charting a course toward inclusivity for marginalized travelers. VACAYA, a queer-focused cruise and resort company founded in 2017, has become a sanctuary for those too often sidelined, even within LGBTQ+ spaces: transgender, nonbinary, BIPOC, body-diverse, bisexual, and pansexual travelers. “In our industry, trans travelers are often trapped, by their passports, by government systems, by legal names that don’t reflect who they are,” Randle Roper, VACAYA’s cofounder and chief […]

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10% of new business owners are LGBTQ+ — and they’re offering better benefits

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There are more LGBTQ+ new business owners than ever recorded — and they’re treating their employees better than others. Ten percent of all new business owners in 2024 identified as LGBTQ+, according to a new report from Gusto, marking a 50 percent increase from 2023. This is in line with demographic shifts, the study notes, as about 9.3 percent of U.S. adultssaid in a Gallup survey last year that they identify as something other than heterosexual, up from 7.6 percent from the previous year.  This suggests that “more LGBTQ people are seeing fewer barriers to entrepreneurship and are choosing it as an accessible and viable path to make a […]

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How SNAP cuts will disproportionately impact some LGBTQ+ people

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Cutting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will disproportionately harm the LGBTQ+ community — and women and transgender people will bear the brunt of the changes.  About 15 percent of LGBTQ+ adults — nearly 2.1 million people, including 250,000 trans individuals and 1.3 million lesbian and bisexual women — received SNAP benefits in the past year, according to a new report by the Williams Institute, compared to 11 percent of non-LGBTQ+ adults. SNAP is the largest anti-hunger program in the U.S., supporting over 42 million people monthly. The current Budget Reconciliation Bill, Donald Trump‘s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” would cause an estimated seven million people to either lose their SNAP benefits or […]

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