Uncloseted Media

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LGBTQ Spaces Say ‘All Are Welcome.’ Asian Men Know Better

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Cody Seiya did not feel welcome in Provincetown. “Is that for yellow pride?” a man sneered at Seiya in the middle of Ptown’s tea dance, referring to a yellow bandanna he was wearing around his neck. It wasn’t the first time Seiya, a 33-year-old gay Asian American, had experienced racism from other queer men. Years earlier at Rage, a now-closed gay club in West Hollywood, another white man asked him what he was doing there. “It’s not Gameboi night,” the man said to him, referring to the Asian-themed weekly party the venue hosted. “That was really the first time that […]

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Gay boys and sex trafficking: An under-resourced epidemic

At 16 years old, Jose Alfaro remembers being trapped in a dimly lit room and told to give a naked stranger a massage and “let him do what he wants.” “I was terrified and I had a bodily reaction of tremor, just shaking uncontrollably,” Alfaro, now 34, told Uncloseted Media. “I felt cold, even though I wasn’t cold. I didn’t know what to do when I’m in a room with two adult men and the door is locked.” Alfaro, who was raised in the small, conservative town of Navasota, Texas, says he was given the choice of conversion therapy or living on […]

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‘Girl Scouts but Indoctrination’: A Christian Extremist Alternative

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Growing up, Kenzie remembers dragging her feet as her mom sent her to American Heritage Girls (AHG) programs. “I describe it as Girl Scouts but indoctrination,” says Kenzie, a 20-year-old dance major from Oklahoma.  “Ever since I was little, I always knew I was queer; different from the people around me. … [In the eyes of AHG staff] it felt wrong to be feminine, but also wrong to be masculine.” AHG and Trail Life USA—a similar organization for boys—have troops in all 50 states and more than 110,000 members. They teach kids that homosexuality is sinful and that anything outside the gender […]

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Days 101-200: Every Anti-LGBTQ Move the Trump Administration Has Made

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Back in April, Uncloseted Media documented every move President Donald Trump made on LGBTQ issues in his first 100 days and uncovered a relentless and unprecedented attack against the community. That attack has only intensified. Here’s the Trump administration’s complete track record from days 101-200. May 1, 2025 The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) publishes “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices,” a 409‑page report promoting “gender exploratory therapy.” The report’s nine authors are left anonymous in a move experts have called unusual. MIT philosophy professor Alex Byrne would later come forward as one of the authors, drawing criticism for […]

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More Than HIV: Trump’s Cuts Shatter Kenya’s Health Care System

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After two years of living with tuberculosis (TB), 38-year-old Selina Kimuto’s condition is worse than ever. A single mother living in Kibera—Nairobi’s biggest slum—Kimuto had been receiving medication to treat her infection. But in June, her hospital told her that they wouldn’t be able to give her any more until October, due to severe shortages caused by the sudden pull-out of U.S. foreign aid. Since then, Kimuto’s condition has rapidly deteriorated. “I’ve really tried, but I can’t do it alone, to wash even my own clothes by myself,” Kimuto told Uncloseted Media. “Even the housework, I’m not doing it by […]

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Why Anti-Trans Hate Makes a Toxic Environment for Women Athletes

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Earlier this year, 16-year-old AB Hernandez became the target of nationwide hate and harassment when the president of a local school board publicly doxxed the track and field athlete and outed her as transgender. Right-wing activists misgendered her and called her mom “evil;” swarms of adults showed up to heckle her at games; Charlie Kirk pushed state governor Gavin Newsom to condemn her; and President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from California over her participation. While transgender athletes are very rare, this type of harassment towards them is playing out across the country and internationally. A trans girl was harassedat a soccer game in Bow, New Hampshire, by […]

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A Philosophy Professor Is the Only Known Author of Trump’s Big Trans Health Care Report. Why?

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In a family friend’s front yard at around 11 years old, Elle Setiya remembers listening in on her dad’s conversation with Alex Byrne, a philosophy professor at MIT. She recalls Byrne airing his grievances to her dad—who heads up the philosophy department—about the growing trans rights movement. “Can someone really just say they’re a woman and that’s it? Whatever happened to biological sex?” she remembers Byrne saying. “I felt it personally in a way that I wasn’t expecting to, because it brought up the feelings of discomfort around my presentation,” Setiya, now 18, told Uncloseted Media. “It did make [transitioning] […]

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Tomorrow, LGBTQ Youth Will Lose a Lifeline. What Now?

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When Arden was 16, they called a suicide crisis hotline “thinking their life was over.” They were in an abusive relationship, regularly self-harming, and felt that nothing was helping. “It was terrifying,” they told Uncloseted Media. “If it weren’t for the hotline, I would have killed myself.” Since that day, Arden, now 24 years old and living in Brooklyn, has used various crisis helplines. When the 988 national suicide prevention hotline launched a “Press 3” option in 2022 for LGBTQ youth, they immediately started using the resource. Arden, who identifies as nonbinary, says the LGBTQ hotline workers “respected their identity” […]

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America First Legal’s Complete Track Record on LGBTQ Issues

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Senior White House adviser and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has played a central role in shaping policies in both Trump administrations. He had a key role in the first Muslim travel ban, the first trans military ban and various initiatives to erode the rights of trans students. In Trump 2.0, Miller has either written or edited all of the more than 160 executive orders the president has signed so far. In 2021, Miller—who is not a lawyer—founded America First Legal (AFL), a right-wing organization designed to fight the so-called “woke agenda” in courtrooms across the U.S. AFL’s goal is to function as a legal battering ram […]

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Five Trans Youth Speak Out as SCOTUS Upholds Health Care Ban

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On June 18, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The 6-3 ruling is expected to have a broad impact as 24 other states have already enacted similar laws, which bar puberty blockers, hormone therapy (HRT) and gender transition surgeries for trans youth. As of 2024, 46% of transgender and nonbinary youth seriously considered suicide, and many advocates say this is in part because of their inability to access gender-affirming care.  Uncloseted Media wanted to pass the microphone to the kids and young adults who could be directly affected by SCOTUS’ decision. So we called up […]

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