Southern Baptists plan to vote this week on acting to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage 10 years ago this month. The step is part of a growing effort by evangelicals nationwide to reverse Obergefell, and coincides with a renewed campaign in state legislatures to challenge the widely accepted view that same-sex marriage has become an established civil right.
While the Southern Baptist Convention has long opposed gay marriage, the vote at its annual meeting in Dallas will be the first time that the largest Protestant denomination in America will ask representatives of its tens of thousands of member churches to work to end it. Conservative Christian activists hope to build on their movement’s success in overturning Roe v. Wade.
Read the full article. The resolution was authored by Andrew Walker [photo], an “ethicist” with the Southern Baptist Convention. The organization was founded in 1845 after churches in northern states objected to slavery.
Legislators in Texas have passed a bill requiring a person’s sex assigned at birth rather than their gender identity for official state documents and records.
House Bill 229, entitled “Relating to general definitions for and collection of governmental information regarding biological sex” or the Women’s Rights Bill, passed the state Senate on a party-line vote of 20 to 11 late Wednesday night. The bill passed the House by a vote of 87 to 56 on May 12.
“A governmental entity that collects vital statistics information that identifies the sex of an individual for the purpose of complying with antidiscrimination laws or for the purpose of gathering public health, crime, economic, or other data shall identify each individual as either male or female,” the text of the approved bill reads.
The bill specifically defines male and female for official state government purposes as sex assigned at birth rather than gender identity.
“‘Female’ and ‘woman’ mean an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed to produce ova,” the text of the bill continues, adding “‘Male’ and ‘man’ mean an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed to fertilize the ova of a female.”
The bill adds there are reasons for separating gender along a binary definition.
“There are legitimate reasons to distinguish between the sexes with respect to athletics, prisons and other correctional facilities, domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, locker rooms, restrooms, and other areas where biology, safety, or privacy are implicated,” the bill reads.
In March, it was revealed that the Texas Department of Public Safety recorded every time a resident requested to update their gender on their driver’s licenses online. The gathered data also included people who inquired about the process via phone or in person.
Also in March, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton directed state agencies to ignore court orders on gender changes that conflicted with state law.
The bill now heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature or veto. It’s most likely that he will sign it.
J.K. Rowling is using her wealth attained from the Harry Potter series to create an organization dedicated to removing transgender people’s rights “in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces.”
The author announced in a Saturday post to X, formerly Twitter, that she would be founding the J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund, using her personal fortune. The website for the group states that it “offers legal funding support to individuals and organisations fighting to retain women’s sex-based rights in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces.”
“I looked into all options and a private fund is the most efficient, streamlined way for me to do this,” she said. “Lots of people are offering to contribute, which I truly appreciate, but there are many other women’s rights orgs that could do with the money, so donate away, just not to me!”
It is not the first time Rowling has used her over $1 billion net worth to influence legal cases involving so-called women’s sex-based rights — a dog whistle used by herself and other anti-trans activists to exclude trans people from public spaces and reduce women to their genitals.
Rowling donated £70,000 (roughly $88,200) to the anti-trans group For Women Scotland in 2024 after it lost its challenge to a 2018 Scottish law that legally recognized trans women as women. The group appealed its case to the U.K. Supreme Court, which ruled last month that trans women aren’t considered women under the nation’s Equality Act.
Rowling responded to the decision by posting a picture of her having a drink and smoking a cigar, with the text “I love it when a plan comes together.” The post was widely criticized, including by The Mandalorian and The Last of Us star Pedro Pascal, who called it serious “Voldemort villain s—” and referred to Rowling as a “heinous loser.”
Pascal, whose younger sister Lux is trans, urged his followers to not “buy a single Harry Potter thing ever,” including by boycotting the upcoming HBO series and attractions at Universal Studios theme parks.
“It’s time to tell these corporations that transphobia loses money,” he said.
The current presidential administration has ended funding for the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development (CHAVD), a move that researchers say will likely set efforts to end HIV globally back by a decade.
The two teams leading the $258 million vaccine program at Duke University and the Scripps Research Institute were informed of the move on Friday, May 30, by officials at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), The New York Times and CBS News reported. A senior NIH official told the Times that the agency’s leadership had reviewed the program and “does not support it moving forward.”
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has also instructed NIH not to fund HIV vaccine research in the next fiscal year, with some exceptions, CBS News said.
An HIV vaccine has proved elusive, both aforementioned news outlets reported. But Dennis Burton, an immunology professor with the Scripps team, told CBS that researchers have “begun to see light at the end of the tunnel after many years of research.”
“This is a terrible time to cut it off. We’re beginning to get close. We’re getting good results out of clinical trials,” Burton said.
“The HIV pandemìc will never be ended without a vaccine, so kìlling research on one will end up kìlling people,” John Moore, an HIV researcher at Weill Cornell Medical in New York, told the Times. “The NIH’s multiyear investment in advanced vaccine technologies shouldn’t be abandoned on a whim like this.”
While a senior NIH official told the Times that the agency expects to shift its focus away from vaccine research and “toward using currently available approaches to eliminate HIV/AIDS,” the president’s second-term administration has essentially reversed course on the president’s first-term plan to end HIV by 2030.
Following the president’s January executive order calling for a 90-day hold on all U.S. foreign aid, the administration shut down United States Agency for International Development’s operations, including those of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPRAR). In February, the State Department backtracked slightly, announcing that the program to prevent HIV in low- and middle-income foreign countries could provide PrEP medications to pregnant and breastfeeding women, but not to LGBTQ+ people and other high-risk groups for contracting HIV.
HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard told CBS News that “critical HIV/AIDS programs will continue” under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s proposed new agency, the “Administration for a Healthy America.” But as the Times notes, details about the new agency are scarce.
Meanwhile, Scripps Research’s Burton warned that shutting down crucial HIV vaccine research would have consequences that linger for years, even if a subsequent administration were to restore funding. “This is a setback of probably a decade for HIV vaccine research,” he told CBS.
While the Times notes that clinical trials based on CHAVD’s work may continue if NIH continues funding for its HIV Vaccine Trial Network, a spokesperson for pharmaceutical and biotech company Moderna said that the agency also paused funding for its own clinical trial for an HIV vaccine last week. Mitchell Warren, executive director of the HIV prevention organization AVAC, warned that even if funding for clinical trials is maintained, research out of the Duke and Scripps programs is crucial to developing vaccine candidates for those trials.
“As they take a wrecking ball to HIV treatment & prevention, they’re now ending the work to create an HIV vaccine,” California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) wrote in a Bluesky post responding to the news of the CHAVD funding cut. The current presidential administration, he added, “truly [doesn’t] care if HIV surges. They don’t care if people die.”
People march in the 2024 San Diego Pride Parade.Daniel Knighton / Getty Images
For many European gays, the festive Eurovision Song Contest each May marks the unofficial kickoff to the global Pride season.
As usual, there were soaring highlights and scandalous lowlights among the competing Eurovision nations at the 2025 edition of the contest in Basel, Switzerland, this month. But another country was on the lips of many queer jet-setters this year: the United States, with its spate of new anti-trans and anti-immigrant policies that are causing some LGBTQ travelers to reconsider their upcoming American itineraries.
SeveralEuropean countries, including Denmark, Finland and Germany, have issued official cautions for LGBTQ travelers visiting the U.S., particularly those with an “X” gender listed on their passport. Meanwhile, out of concerns for participant safety, Canada’s leading LGBTQ rights group, Egale Canada, pulled out of participation in WorldPride DC, and the African Human Rights Coalitionhas called for a boycott of this edition of the international Pride event, coordinated by InterPride and usually held every two years.
“It doesn’t feel right to at the moment,” Karl Krause told NBC News at Eurovision in Basel, referring to travel to the U.S. Krause, who is German by birth, lives in Amsterdam with his Dutch partner, Daan Colijn, and together they are travel-focused content creators known to their followers as Couple of Men. In 2021, Lonely Planet awarded them its first Best in Travel LGBTIQ Storyteller Award, a nod to their work for the LGBTQ community.
Daan Colijn and Karl Krause during Fort Lauderdale Pride in 2023.Couple of Men
“As gay men traveling to the U.S., we are probably still the more privileged part of the community,” Krause said. “But we had some interesting conversations recently in Bilbao with a trans person who was like, ‘I cannot, I literally cannot travel to the U.S., because I have no idea how they would receive my diverse passport, if I would be put in detention or whatever. I have my little daughter — I’m not going to risk any of this.’”
Krause said that was the moment he realized that while he and Colijn as gay men may not yet be feeling the full effects of the Trump administration’s policies, they were already having an impact on other travelers within the LGBTQ community.
“So how can we in good feeling promote this destination?” he asked. “How can I send a trans friend or nonbinary friend and try to inspire them to go to the U.S. when they are in what’s supposed to be the best time of their year, to spend in a country where they don’t feel safe?”
Colijn added that he and Krause want to send their followers “somewhere where they are safe, where they feel welcome.”
“At the moment, of course a lot of people will still feel very, very welcome in the majority of America — a lot of places are still the same, or maybe even trying to do better. But we just want to be careful in what we are supporting,” Colijn said.
John Tanzella, president and CEO ofthe International LGBTQ+ Travel Association, or IGLTA, told NBC News that such concerns are commonplace this year.
“We’ve heard from travelers feeling uncertain about visiting the U.S., especially trans and gender-diverse individuals,” he said. “These decisions are often driven by concerns about safety, treatment at the border and access to affirming health care. Some have canceled their trips. Many others are still coming, but they’re being more selective about where they go.”
Nicoló Manfredini, an Italian trans man living in Valencia, Spain, said he was recently able to enter the U.S. without incident thanks to having an “M” marker on his passport, but the government’s anti-trans policies currently make America a place he would rather not visit again.
“Originally I had planned to go to WorldPride, but not now,” he said.
Given the current environment in the U.S., Manfredini added, he said he would only travel to the U.S. if he had to do so for work.
Even American gender-diverse people are adjusting their travel plans because of Trump administration policies, according to a study released earlier this month by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. Of the more than 300 transgender, nonbinary and other gender-diverse people surveyed, 70% said they are less likely to go on vacation to U.S. states they view as less trans-affirming.
Krause said that despite usually attending at least one and sometimes several U.S. Pride events every year, this year will be different.
“We were actually planning to go to Washington, D.C., for WorldPride, but this is off the table for us … How safe can we be in Washington? Just saying that scares me a little bit,” he said, noting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was particularly concerning. “I don’t know what is going on there now and who is coming, and I don’t feel safe with the idea that I’m going there and I’m walking and maybe there is a mob [coming] from whatever direction.”
Capital Pride Alliance, the organizers behind WorldPride DC, which started earlier this month and continues through June 8, did not respond to requests for comment from NBC News, but the event’s website details security protocols and includes a passport advisory for transgender and nonbinary travelers.
Sahand Miraminy, director of operations for Capital Pride Alliance, told The Washington Post this week that security measures at WorldPride DC will include weapons screening at the entrance to the street festival June 7 and 8, which will also be fenced in.
In addition to the local and federal “agency support that we have, we also hire private security and have many forms of safety measures and surveillance that we may not share at all times with the public,” he said, “but there are certainly conversations that we’re having with those agencies on a weekly basis.”
Organizers at NYC Pride, arguably the most globally popular of U.S. Pride events each year and held like most big cities during Pride Month in June, are also stepping up security plans for 2025.
“NYC Pride has contracted a private firm with vast experience managing LGBTQIA+ events to lead on-site security,” spokesperson Kevin Kilbride said. “Given the size and visibility of our events, NYC Pride is monitored and secured by municipal agencies at every level of government to protect our freedom of expression and ensure a safe space for our community.”
A reveler looking out a window during the 2023 Pride Parade in in New York City. David Dee Delgado / Reuters file
Tanzella said that since safety is unfortunately never guaranteed for the LGBTQ community, careful planning is more essential than ever for LGBTQ travelers coming to the U.S. this year.
“Research destinations with strong reputations for inclusion and visible LGBTQ+ support,” he advised. “Connect with local LGBTQ+ organizations for on-the-ground insights, stay informed about local laws and current events, and have a plan for accessing affirming health care if needed. Most importantly, prioritize places where you feel respected and supported.”
Cities and states with long-standing reputations for LGBTQ inclusivity are getting more attention, Tanzella added.
“In this climate, a destination’s visible commitment to inclusion through its policies, community engagement, and public support truly matters,” he said.
In October, the IGLTA will host its annual global convention in Palm Springs, California, a destination Colijn said he and Krause can and will enthusiastically visit.
“We were there just last year, and we felt how amazing and welcome and how much old queer culture is there,” he said. “So of course we want to go there, and we can fully tell people to go there. Unless of course we might get in trouble at the border.”
Krause, however, noted that he and Colijn still haven’t booked their Palm Springs trip just yet, because they fear that under the Trump administration “everything can change overnight.”
“There is no long-term planning,” he said.
Kilbride said he understands the need global queer travelers feel to exhibit caution this year, but he said he believes Pride remains one of the most powerful tools in the collective struggle for equality.
“We stand with the international LGBTIA+ community, particularly our trans and nonbinary siblings,” he said. “But we also believe the fight for our community is more important now than ever. We need to show up big to make it clear: We’re here, we’re queer, and we’re not going anywhere.”
Marriage for same-sex couples has been legal across the United States since the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision a decade ago. While Democratic support for gay nuptials has risen steadily since that landmark 2015 ruling, Republican support has tumbled 14 points since its record high of 55% in 2021 and 2022, according to a Gallup report released Thursday.
In the latest Gallup Poll, 41% of Republicans and 88% of Democrats said marriages between same-sex couples should be “recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages.” This 47-point gap is the largest it has been since Gallup first started asking the question in 1996. The report found 76% of independents and 68% of all U.S. adults surveyed backed marriage rights for same-sex couples.
A separate question about whether “gay or lesbian relations” are “morally acceptable or morally wrong” found a similar political trend, with 86% of Democrats, 69% of independents and 38% of Republicans answering answering “morally acceptable.”
When broken down by nonpolitical subgroups, women, younger people and college graduates were more likely to support gay marriage and find same-sex relations morally acceptable than men, older people and those who did not graduate college.
The Gallup report’s authors noted that the “widening political divide suggests potential vulnerabilities in the durability of LGBTQ+ rights” in the country.
The report cited Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion in the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling — which overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision — that stated the high court ”should reconsider” some of its past rulings, including the 2015 same-sex marriage decision.
And, as NBC News reported earlier this year, lawmakers in at least nine states have introduced measures to try to chip away at same-sex couples’ right to marry.
Even before Donald Trump’s executive orders terminating all DEI positions in the federal government, dozens of major companies had already abandoned their practices. Many made their decisions after conservatives online specifically targeted them for their policies and threatened boycotts, with failed filmmaker turned failed congressional candidate Robby Starbuck taking credit for spearheading the movement.
This withdrawal didn’t just encompass inclusive work environments and hiring practices, or participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index — in abandoning DEI, companies also ceased many of their community partnerships. This included small businesses, minority- and women-owned businesses, and organizations supporting underserved groups: veterans, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people.
As a result, many of the companies abandoning DEI have stopped sponsoring Pride Month events. Here are the companies that have walked back their support, some of them after decades of allyship.
Anheuser-Busch
The brewer behind brands such as Bud Light, Budweiser, Corona, and Stella Artois declined to sponsor Pride in its home city of St. Louis after a partnership of over 30 years. DEI and outreach director, Jordan Braxton, told NBC News that St. Louis Pride was left $150,000 short of its goal, until donations from the community made up the difference within days.
The company also withdrew from San Francisco Pride and Columbus Pride. Anheuser-Busch, which was the target of a conservative boycott after simply sending a free beer to a transgender influencer, has not yet commented publicly on its backing out of Pride events.
Booz Allen Hamilton
U.S. government defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. dropped its sponsorship of WorldPride, which is being hosted in Washington, D.C. from May 17 to June 8., shortly after it ended its DEI programs.
Chief People Officer Aimee George Leary said during a virtual company town hall first viewed by Bloomberg : “While our existing people programs comply with law, it is clear from [Trump’s] executive orders and other public statements, that the definition of what’s allowed is changing, so we must make changes. If we don’t, we could be ineligible for contracts with the federal government. This would put our ability to operate and our company at risk.”
Citi
Banking giant Citi was one of the low-level donors that withdrew or scaled back its sponsorship of NYC Pride. Spokesperson Kevin Kilbride told The New York Times that “the vast majority of what we have heard is that folks are treading carefully from an economic perspective.”
Comcast
Comcast was another major company that withdrew from San Francisco Pride, according to Ford. A spokesperson for the corporation would not comment on why it backed out, but noted to NBC that it is sponsoring other Pride celebrations in its home state of California, including Silicon Valley Pride, Oakland Pride, and some events at San Francisco Pride that are hosted by other nonprofits.
Diageo
Diageo, the company behind alcohol brands such as Baileys, Captain Morgan, Crown Royal, and Smirnoff among others also withdrew from San Francisco Pride. A spokesperson told NBC that the company backed out due to some changes in the sponsorships budget for California, but that it would still be active in the city during June, and would be involved in Pride events around the country through its Smirnoff vodka brand.
Garnier
Heritage of Pride, the organization that produces New York City’s annual Pride events, previously had five “Platinum” donors — those who had donated $175,000. This year, it has just one. Hair care company Garnier was one of the four “Platinum” donors that has withdrawn its support in 2025 after several years of sponsorship.
Lowe’s
Lowe’s Home Improvement withdrew its support for Pride Month events this year in Columbus, Ohio. Stonewall Columbus Executive Director Densil Porteous told The Columbus Dispatch that the $125,000 in lost donations was made up for by the community and their other partners.
“Those [companies] who probably only saw this opportunity as a marketing moment have backed down, and we are sorry to see them go,” Porteous said. “But we are thankful for those partners who continue to support us.”
Mastercard
Mastercard was another one of NYC Pride’s four “Platinum” donors that withdrew support after several years of sponsoring the celebration. However, the company will still be participating in the march and other events.
“Mastercard is a longstanding supporter of the many communities of which our employees are members, including the LGBTQIA+ community globally,” a spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal.
Nissan
Automaker Nissan was another one of the low-level donors that withdrew or scaled back its sponsorship of NYC Pride, while also withdrawing from San Francisco Pride and Columbus Pride.
A spokesperson told NBC that the company is “currently reviewing all marketing and sales spending, including auto shows, sports properties and other entertainment activations, to maximize both efficiency and breakthrough effectiveness,” adding, “Nissan remains committed to promoting an inclusive culture for employees, consumers, dealers and other key stakeholders.”
PepsiCo
PepsiCo — which makes Aquafina, Cap’n Crunch, Cheetos, Doritos, Frito’s, Gatorade, Lay’s, Life, cereal, Lipton, Mountain Dew, Tostitos, and Quaker Oats among other snacks and drinks — was another one of the low-level donors that withdrew or scaled back its sponsorship of NYC Pride.
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers was another one of the low-level donors that withdrew or scaled back its sponsorship of NYC Pride, as first reported by WSJ.
Skyy Vodka
Skyy Vodka was another one of the four “Platinum” donors that either stopped or scaled back support, or asked for their involvement to go unpublicized, as first reported by The Times.
Target
Target is the fourth “Platinum” donor to alter its commitment to Heritage of Pride. While the company is still “sponsoring NYC Pride at a level consistent with last year,” according to spokesperson Joe Unger, Kilbride told The Times that it is contributing as a “silent partner” and requested not to be listed as a Platinum donor to avoid “the publicity.”
Conversely, after Target made the decision to drop DEI initiatives, the largest Pride festival in the company’s home state of Minnesota decided to drop them as a sponsor. Twin Cities Pride raised over twice the amount pledged by Target in less than 24 hours.
Walmart withdrew its sponsorship from Stonewall Columbus’ Pride Month Events. The company said that store employees in the Columbus area will still be volunteering with community organizations, including LGBTQ+ organizations.
Spokesperson Jimmy Carter told The Dispatch that the company is focused on “creating an environment where our associates and customers feel they belong.”
LGBTQ people in the U.S. see lower social acceptance for transgender people than those who are lesbian, gay or bisexual, a new Pew Research Center poll found.
Pew found that about 6 in 10 LGBTQ adults said there is “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of social acceptance in the U.S. for gay and lesbian people. Only about 1 in 10 said the same for nonbinary and transgender people — and about half said there was “not much” or no acceptance at all for transgender people.
Giovonni Santiago, a 39-year-old transgender man and Air Force veteran who lives in Northeast Ohio and was not a participant in the survey, said he feels that acceptance for transgender people has declined in the last few years – roughly in step with the rise of state laws banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, regulating which school and public bathrooms transgender people can use and which sports they can play.
He said he’s seen acceptance get worse nationally, following the lead of some places that were early adopters of restrictions.
“They were like the anomaly for ignorance and in hatred, especially towards trans people,” Santiago said. “But now we see that it’s just kind of sweeping the nation, unfortunately.”
Still, Santiago said he doesn’t fear for his own personal safety — a contrast with most transgender people, who said they have feared for their safety at some point.
“I guess I don’t feel it as much because I live a life that most people don’t know that I’m trans unless I specifically tell them,” said Santiago, who runs a nonprofit dedicated to supporting transgender youth.
The survey of 3,959 LGBTQ adults was conducted in January, after President Donald Trump was elected but just before he returned to office and set into motion a series of policies that question the existence of transgender people.
A “Rise Up for Trans Youth” rally in New York against President Donald Trump’s executive actions targeting transgender people on Feb. 7.Stephanie Keith / Bloomberg via Getty Images file
On his first day, Trump signed an executive order calling on the government to recognize people as male or female based on the “biological truth” of their future cells at conception, rather than accept scientific evidence that gender is a spectrum. Since then, he’s begun ousting transgender service members from the military, and tried to bar transgender women and girls from sports competitions for females and block federal funding for gender-affirming care for transgender people under 19, among other orders.
A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted in May found that about half of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling transgender issues, with a range of views on specific actions.
According to the Pew poll, about two-thirds of LGBTQ adults said the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationally 10 years ago boosted acceptance of same-sex couples “a lot more” or “somewhat more.” The Supreme Court is expected to rule in coming weeks on a major case regarding transgender people — deciding whether Tennessee can enforce a ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
Transgender people are less likely than gay or lesbian adults to say they’re accepted by all their family members. The majority of LGBTQ said their siblings and friends accepted them, though the rates were slightly higher among gay or lesbian people. About half of gay and lesbian people said their parents did, compared with about one-third of transgender people. Only about 1 in 10 transgender people reported feeling accepted by their extended family, compared with about 3 in 10 gay or lesbian people.
Transgender people are more likely than gay, lesbian or bisexual people to say they feel “extremely” or “very” connected to a broader LGBTQ+ community and to say that all or most of their friends are also LGBTQ.
Some elements of the experience are similar. About one-third of transgender and lesbian or gay adults said they first felt they might be LGBTQ by the time they were 10 and most did by age 13. About half waited until they were at least 18 to first tell someone.
Audrey Campos hosts a Loteria game night at Jackie O’s Cocktail Club in Fort Worth, Texas, on Tuesday.Ronaldo Bolaños / AP
Aubrey Campos, 41, runs a taco truck near a hub of LGBTQ bars in Fort Worth, Texas, and also serves as a community organizer. She says her parents were supportive when she came out as transgender at about age 12. But the younger trans people she works with often have very different experiences — including some who were kicked out of their homes.
“Now the times are a little bit dark,” she said. “This is a time that we to come together and make it brighter and make it known that we aren’t going to just disappear.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, headed by Mehmet Oz, has sent a letter to some hospitals demanding information on their provision of gender-affirming care to transgender youth.
The CMS, like all of Donald Trump’s administration, is opposed to this care, falsely claiming it is experimental and is not supported by evidence.
The letter, dated Wednesday, expresses “urgent concerns with both the quality standards adherence and profits related to these harmful procedures,” says a CMS press release. The release quotes Oz as saying, “These are irreversible, high-risk procedures being conducted on vulnerable children, often at taxpayer expense. Hospitals accepting federal funds are expected to meet rigorous quality standards and uphold the highest level of stewardship when it comes to public resources — we will not turn a blind eye to procedures that lack a solid foundation of evidence and may result in lifelong harm.”
“The United States government has serious concerns with medical interventions for gender dysphoria in children,” the letter reads. “These interventions include surgical procedures that attempt to transform an individual’s physical appearance to align with an identity that differs from his or her sex or that attempt, for purposes of treating gender dysphoria, to alter or remove an individual’s sexual organs to minimize or destroy their natural biological functions. These interventions also include, but are not limited to, the use of puberty blockers, including GnRH agonists and other procedures, approaches, or modalities, to delay the onset or progression of normally-timed puberty for purposes of treating gender dysphoria, as well as the use of sex hormones, such as estrogen, progesterone, or testosterone, and androgen blockers to align an individual’s physical appearance with an identity that differs from his or her sex. … CMS believes that these interventions were initiated with an underdeveloped body of evidence, lack reliable evidence of benefits for minors, and are now known to carry serious risks of long-term and irreparable harm.”
In reality, the procedures are not harmful and are often lifesaving. Studies by the Trevor Project, which assists LGBTQ+ youth in crisis, and other researchers have found that access to gender-affirming care reduces the risk of suicide among young trans people. Also, such care is endorsed by every major medical association, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the American Psychiatric Association.
Also, genital surgery is almost never performed on minors, although some undergo top surgery or facial surgery. The effects of puberty blockers are reversible, and the effects of cross-sex hormones usually are as well. Regret about transition is rare.
The letter goes on to ask about “the adequacy of informed consent protocols for children with gender dysphoria, including how children are deemed capable of making these potentially life-changing decisions and when parental consent is required.”
The answer about consent, from a Human Rights Campaigndocument: “If medications or surgery are part of their gender journey, they are only prescribed after further assessments to ensure they meet prescribing criteria. This can include but is not limited to documentation and referral letters, parental consent, and ongoing mental health support. At all stages, gender-affirming care is only delivered after patients and their families have been counseled, and informed consent has been given.”
The letter further asks for billing codes for gender-affirmation procedures, how much revenue these procedures generate, and what the profit margins for this care are — as if doctors and hospitals are providing it out of greed.
Dr. Kellan E. Baker, executive director of the Institute for Health Research and Policy at Whitman-Walker, an LGBTQ-focused clinic, issues a statement denouncing the letter. “This ‘request’ is a blatant attempt to intimidate providers into betraying their professional obligation to care for their patients,” Baker said. “It is vitally important that hospitals, states, elected officials, and courts stand up to these strong-arm tactics and protect patients’ right to care. And it is vital that providers recognize this document has no legal force or effect and that they continue to provide the care their patients need.”
A recent study from the Department of Health and Human Services, headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is anti-trans, went so far as to recommend conversion therapy for trans youth rather than gender-affirming care. Conversion therapy has been shown to cause harm to young people and has been repudiated by all major medical and mental health organizations. Many states have barred licensed professionals from subjecting minors to it.
The “Big Beautiful Bill” on the federal budget, which was passed narrowly by the House of Representatives and is pending in the Senate, would attack gender-affirming care even further. It would bar Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program from covering any gender-affirming services for people of any age. It also would no longer classify gender-affirming care as an “essential health benefit” under the Affordable Care Act, explicitly excluding transition-related care from private insurance plans regulated by federal standards.
Chase, a 9-year-old trans girl, sits with her parents, Candace and Brandon, as their family prepares for a life-changing move to New Zealand. Jimena Peck for NBC News
Denver parents Brandon and Candace are spending tens of thousands of dollars to move to New Zealand in July. The reason, they said, is to protect their 9-year-old transgender daughter, Chase, from the effects of the Trump administration’s policies and an increasingly hostile climate for trans people in the United States.
“You’re taught to believe, or indoctrinated, I suppose, in America that this is the land of the free and promise and all of that, and for my child’s rights to be stripped away for just being herself is gross,” Candace said, adding that she and her family feel like they have “no control over” their future in the United States.
Brandon and Candace, who agreed to speak on the condition that their last names not be used to protect their family from harassment and threats, are one of five families interviewed by NBC News who have either already left or plan to leave the country as a result of federal and state policies targeting transgender people and their health care. The families described fears of increased anti-trans violence and losing access to health care and identification documents that reflect their gender identities.
Chase shares a quiet moment in her bedroom with her mom, Candace, and the family cat, who will be joining them in New Zealand.Jimena Peck for NBC News
During Donald Trump’s first presidential term, many trans people talked about leaving the country, according to Sydney Duncan, a lawyer for Advocates for Trans Equality, the country’s largest transgender rights group. However, few people actually did.
Trump’s second term has had a more immediate effect on trans people and their rights because of several executive orders he issued this year. The orders, many of which are blocked in court or have faced lawsuits, have prohibited federal funds from going to hospitals that provide transition-related care to minors, barred trans women and girls from competing in female sportsin K-12 schools and colleges,blocked trans people from getting passports that reflect their gender identities and banned trans people from military service.
But while an increasing number of trans people are deciding to leave the United States, Duncan cautioned that it still isn’t a widespread trend.
“The reality is that a lot of people of trans experience don’t have the resources to travel or to escape the policies of this administration,” Duncan said.
Brandon and Candace said they will arrive in New Zealand with only their clothing, sentimental items and ski gear.Jimena Peck for NBC News
‘We were supposed to be safe here’
Brandon and Candace said their fears of having to leave the country were realized just 13 days into Trump’s second term. That is when Chase’s medical team at the Children’s Hospital Colorado told them it could no longer provide transition-related medical care to anyone under 19 because of an executive order Trump issued that barred research and education grants from going to hospitals that provide such care to minors.
The couple were shocked, in part because Colorado is among about a dozen states that have passed “shield” laws intended to protect access to trans health care, they said.
“Our reaction was we were supposed to be safe here until we left,” Candace said. “And immediately, we weren’t.”
Chase keeps what the family calls a “pillow library.” It’s a collection of four to five books under her pillow that she reads after her parents put her to bed. Jimena Peck for NBC News
Some parents told NBC News that if the court allows the law to stand, they fear Trump will try to declare all transition care for minors child abuse and directthe attorney general to investigate parents who have been vocal advocates for their trans kids, similar to what Republican officials in Texas did in 2022. Trump issued a proclamation in April for Child Abuse Prevention Month declaring “the sinister threat of gender ideology” one of “the most prevalent forms of child abuse facing our country today.”
So far, Chase hasn’t received any transition-related care other than therapy and regular checks at the hospital to monitor for when she starts puberty. However, she is likely to consider it in the near future, and Brandon and Candace said they don’t want to raise her in an environment in which she hears negative rhetoric about trans people from elected officials.
Chase loves playing soccer and skiing, and she keeps what the family calls a “pillow library” — a collection of four to five books under her pillow that she reads after they put her to bed. Chase said she feels both happy and sad about moving, because she doesn’t want to leave her friends, but she does want to try living somewhere new.
Chase, who is in fourth grade, looks at pictures of Taylor Swift in her bedroom.Jimena Peck for NBC News
Asked in an interview with her parents whether she is aware of Trump’s policies regarding trans people, Chase, who is in the fourth grade, said, “I am very aware about what he has been doing to people like me, and how I feel about it is I hate it, because I think everybody deserves to have that care.”
Brandon and Candace said they chose New Zealand because Brandon loved it when he visited a few years ago, it is very LGBTQ-friendly, their kids will be able to speak the language, and its way of life is similar to Denver’s.
They began planning the move while they applied for jobs in New Zealand. On Tuesday, Brandon officially accepted a job as a sales manager at a winery in Queenstown. He should have an accredited employer visa in about four weeks, while visas for the rest of the family will take an additional two. Accredited employer visas allow people to stay for up to five years if they have received job offers from accredited employers, and they provide a path to permanent residence. It will also provide Candace with a partner visa that will allow her to work in New Zealand.
The family will leave the United States and begin 35 hours of travel to their new home on July 23. The winery offered a house on the vineyard for the family to stay for six weeks until they find a home to rent.
When Chase found out that Brandon had gotten the job at the winery, she burst into “tears of happiness,” Candace said.
Chase and her family look at a map of Queenstown, New Zealand, where they’ll be moving in July.Jimena Peck for NBC News
“School’s ending next week, and then everything kind of gets real,” she said, adding that the entire family feels a mix of excitement and sadness about having to start saying goodbye to their lives in the United States.
They estimated that the total cost of moving their family — which also includes Chase’s older brother, a 90-pound dog and two cats — will be $65,000 to $80,000. That total includes one-way plane tickets for the family of four ($6,000); relocation services for their three pets, if they can afford to take all of them ($25,000); visa applications ($3,000); lawyer fees ($2,000); and required medical tests for the move that aren’t covered by insurance.
Candace organized a GoFundMe fundraiser with a goal of $50,000, in part because, she said, she felt bad asking for anything more. The money will go toward the expenses they’ve paid with their savings so far and to whatever they need when they arrive with only their clothing, sentimental items and ski gear. They’ve raised just over $6,500 and have already taken money out of one of their 401(k) retirement plans to cover some moving costs.
Chase and her mom share an embrace in their Denver living room. Jimena Peck for NBC News
A pre-emptive departure
The Jackson family of Missouri left more than a year before the 2024 election. Debi Jackson’s child Avery, who uses they/them pronouns and is about to turn 18, became a prominent face in trans advocacy after they were featured on the cover of National Geographic in January 2017, when they were 9 years old.
The family lived in Kansas City for 15 years and often traveled to the State Capitol to testify against legislation targeting trans people. She said that after a series of difficult events — the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade; a shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 people; and Missouri’s enacting a ban on gender-affirming care for minors — her kids asked her why they were still in the United States.
“In that moment, I realized they were just saying they wanted out completely,” Jackson said. “A big part of it was their fear over the escalation of violence that we could all tell was going to come, because for years they had been listening to the language about trans people become more and more dehumanizing and become more and more violent in the way it was presented.”
Jackson said she also knew trans issues would be important for Republicans in the 2024 election, and she feared that photos of Avery — which she said prominent right-wing figures in Brazil, France and Poland were already using in speeches and online — could be featured in Republican attack ads.
She said she also knew the family couldn’t afford to move to another state first and then leave the country if Trump won.
Just a few months later, in September 2023, Jackson packed up her family and moved them to a country in the European Union, which for safety reasons she declined to name. She said it took her two months to raise $15,000 online to pay to transport their four dogs to Europe and for an initial deposit to rent a home.
Jackson does consulting and freelance writing remotely and was able to get a digital nomad visa, which in some countries can provide permanent residency. Now settled in her new home, Jackson said she spends time each day answering some of the hundreds of direct messages she gets on social media from parents with trans children who want to move either to other states or out of the country entirely.
Jackson said many Americans don’t know, for example, that they can’t move to other countries, particularly in Europe, and apply for asylum because of their or their children’s trans status. No countries that provide asylum to LGBTQ peoplebecause of fears of persecution accept U.S. citizens through those programs. When people are denied asylum by one of the more than two dozen member countries in the European Union, they are also banned from re-entering all other countries in the E.U. except Ireland and Switzerland for two years if they are from what are considered “safe countries.”
“I spend a lot of time researching and replying to people,” Jackson said. “That’s really the way that I deal with stress and trauma, is by trying to actually be proactive rather than reactive.”
Chase in her bedroom as she prepares for a move to New Zealand.Jimena Peck for NBC News
‘Life is starting again’
It’s not only trans minors and their parents who are making the move. Ohio couple Marina, 30, and Faye, 23 — who are both trans and requested that only their first names be used because of fears of being publicly targeted — are leaving the United States behind for Australia. Faye saidone of the turning points for her was the Trump administration’s detaining and trying to deport people with valid visas and revoking the visas of foreign-born college students. Faye is an Australian citizen on a student visa, and Marina is a U.S. citizen.
The couple have to move before Marina turns 31 in August, because they plan to get work holiday visas, which are available only to those 30 and younger and would allow them to stay and work in Australia for up to a year. It costs $600 to apply, and applicants also have to show that they have at least $5,000 in their bank accounts. After that year is up, the couple have to decide whether they want to get married.
Marina said they’re looking forward to the stress of the move’s being over.
“Every time I look at my cat, I’m about to cry,” Marina said of their 10-year-old pet, which they have to leave behind until Marina’s sister can, they hope, bring her over after having completed Australia’s rigorous process to move animals into the country. “It’s really overwhelming. I feel like once we actually have our feet down on the ground in Australia, it’s definitely going to be sad and still a lot of emotion, but part of it’s definitely going to feel like life is starting again.”
As for Duncan, the Advocates for Trans Equality lawyer, she that said she and her wife, a college professor in Alabama, have talked about leaving the country but that one of the problems they’ve run into is whether there is a safer place to go.
“What does Canada look like in 10 years? Do they get to where we are now? Or do they learn from our mistakes here?” she said. “It just becomes a Rubik’s Cube of decisions to solve, and that’s exhausting.”
