The Advocate

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Darra Gordon to lead Family Equality as LGBTQ+ families grapple with an uncertain time 

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In a time of unprecedented challenges for LGBTQ+ families, Family Equality, the national nonprofit dedicated to advancing equality for LGBTQ+ families, has announced the appointment of Darra Gordon as its new CEO. With over two decades of experience in nonprofit leadership, Gordon steps into the role with a clear mission: to build a stronger, more resilient, and more impactful organization that can protect, celebrate, and support LGBTQ+ families nationwide. For Gordon, this role is more than just a career move. “Family Equality’s mission is so deeply personal to me,” she told The Advocate. “I’m a proud member of the community. My wife and […]

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WorldPride 2025 expects huge ‘visibility’ march & rally in D.C. amid Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ agenda

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As the second Trump administration continues its sweeping rollback of LGBTQ+ rights and diversity initiatives, organizers of WorldPride 2025 in Washington, D.C., are forging ahead, determined to make this year’s global celebration a moment of defiance, resilience, and renewed visibility for the LGBTQ+ community. Despite recently losing a corporate legacy sponsorship amid an atmosphere where some companies are pulling back from diversity initiatives, Capital Pride Alliance executive director Ryan A. Bos emphasized the importance of showing up. Capital Pride Alliance is responsible for putting on this year’s WorldPride events from May 17 until June 8. “There are calls for us to cancel WorldPride or for WorldPride to move somewhere else, but […]

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In a major win for trans students, New Jersey court rules against forced outing policies

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This week, the New Jersey Superior Court’s Appellate Division issued twounanimous rulings blocking forced outing policies in school districts across Morris and Monmouth counties. In mid-2023, Hanover Township Public Schools in Morris County, Marlboro Township Public Schools in Monmouth County, Middletown Public Schools in Monmouth County, and Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District in Monmouth County implemented policies mandating the disclosure of a student’s transgender status to their parents. The policies varied in scope—some required notification only if a student formally changed their gender identity at school, while others mandated disclosure if a student merely mentioned being transgender in counseling sessions. Shortly after the policies were enacted, […]

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Drag group slams Donald Trump for takeover of Kennedy Center board and vowing to end drag shows

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Donald Trump has announced his plans to wipe out the board of trustees at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and replace the chairman with himself. Trump said that he was specifically motivated to overhaul the center so he could end the drag shows it occasionally hosts.  “At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN. I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” Trump said on Truth Social. “We will […]

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Pete Buttigieg and Dana Nessel, out gay and lesbian politicians, lead in early Senate poll

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Out gay former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and out lesbian Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel are the leading candidates in an early U.S. Senate primary poll.  A large majority of Democratic primary voters (77 percent) have a positive view of Buttigieg for the competitive Senate seat, according to a survey from Blueprint Polling via Semafor. Nessel is a close second, earning favorability from 72 percent of voters. The next closest candidate was Democratic Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist with 45 percent. About 40 percent of Democratic primary voters said they would vote for Buttigieg, and 16 percent said they would vote for Nessel. Around 30 percent were […]

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Human Rights Campaign to lay off 20% of staff as LGBTQ+ organization restructures

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The Human Rights Campaign is set to lay off approximately 20 percent of its workforce in a major restructuring effort in what the group’s leadership said is to adapt to the evolving political and financial landscape, The Advocate has exclusively learned. According to a senior HRC official knowledgeable about the decision-making process, the layoffs, which will take effect on February 12, will impact about 50 employees. By the start of its next fiscal year on April 1, HRC expects to have around 180 staff members. Another senior official said that the decision reflects a need to “operate differently” in response to external political and legislative threats […]

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N.Y. attorney general: stopping care for trans youth will violate state law

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New York State Attorney General Letitia James has advised health care providers in the state that failing to provide gender-affirming care to transgender minors violates New York antidiscrimination law. Donald Trump issued an executive order last week titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” targets the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and surgeries for anyone under 19, referring to them as “chemical and surgical mutilation.” It directs federal agencies to rescind policies supporting such treatments, withdraw funding from institutions that provide them, and enforce existing laws limiting access to these procedures. This comes even though these procedures are endorsed by every major medical organization. The order requires the Department of Health […]

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EEOC won’t advocate for trans and nonbinary people, in keeping with Trump’s ‘two sexes’ order

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The acting chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is implementing Donald Trump’s “two sexes” executive order by removing many protections and information for transgender and nonbinary people. Acting Chair Andrea Lucas “announced that one of her priorities — for compliance, investigations, and litigation — is to defend the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights, including women’s rights to single-sex spaces at work,” an EEOC press release states. She has removed the agency’s pronoun app, which allowed employees to display their pronouns alongside their name on their Microsoft 365 profiles; ended the use of the X gender marker during the intake process for filing a discrimination charge; […]

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Target dropped DEI, so Minnesota’s largest Pride festival dropped Target’s sponsorship — and raised even more

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After Target made the decision to drop diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, Minnesota’s largest Pride festival decided to drop them as a sponsor. Now, Twin Cities Pride has more funding than they started with. Target issued a memo on Friday announcing the end of its three-year DEI goals, including its Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) program and “all external diversity-focused survey’s including HRC’s Corporate Equality index.” The Human Rights Campaign effort, which provides benchmarks on corporate policies relevant to LGBTQ+ employees, previously gave Target a score of 100 percent, dubbing the company a “Leader in LGBTQ+ Workplace Inclusion.” In response, the largest Pride organization in Minnesota and the […]

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To erase transgender people further, Trump administration implements policy prohibiting pronouns in emails

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The Trump administration has ordered federal employees to remove pronouns from their email signatures, a move widely seen as an attack on transgenderworkers and a broader attempt to erase LGBTQ+ identities from government workplaces. The directive, which applies to agencies including the State Department, Department of Defense, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Department of Transportation, follows a series of executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Federal workers were instructed to comply with new guidelines by 5:00 p.m. Friday, ABC News reports. The orders, issued through internal memos and the Office of Personnel Management, cite Trump’s “Defending Women from Gender […]

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