The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Friday that age verification “porn ID” laws are an appropriate way to regulate content for minors without infringing on the First Amendment rights of adults.
The ruling, in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, has major implications for the accessibility of any online speech the government could decide is harmful to children.
Laws that potentially curb civil liberties are subject to rigorous legal standards. Two lower courts had applied different standards to the Texas law, and the Supreme Court decided that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ lower standard was correct in this case. Strict scrutiny, the standard applied by the Texas district court, requires that a law must be narrowly tailored, further a compelling government interest and be the least restrictive option. The 5th Circuit used a lower standard, known as rational basis, to evaluate the law, essentially saying it has no potential to jeopardize freedom of speech.
Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas held that the law should be evaluated based on intermediate scrutiny, the standard in between, because it only “incidentally burdens the protected speech of adults.” Laws must further an important government interest and do so by “means substantially related to that interest.” Texas’ law survives this test, Thomas wrote. Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented.
By saying the law does not have to meet strict scrutiny, the opinion paves the legal way for increased site-based age verification on the web. The privacy concerns accompanying the uploading of verifiable identification to sensitive websites are not seen as overly burdensome to adults.
Consequently, the court ruled restrictions on protected free speech for adults can be applied in the name of protecting children.
In 2023, Texas passed a law requiring websites with at least one-third sexual content — characterized as “material harmful to minors” — to verify the age of users using government identification or other reliable techniques. The law was initially blocked by a district judge, but then the preliminary injunction was overruled by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The law has been in effect while the Supreme Court considered the case.
Many digital civil rights groups have raised the alarm over privacy risks of web-based age verification. Texas, like the majority of states, does not have a state-recognized digital identification system. Websites would need to contract with a third- party company that handles photos of physical IDs or runs face-scans to determine the age of users. The risk is compounded as a user typically must verify their age every time they try to view a page. Device-based age verification, where pieces of technology like phones or computers are age-locked, generally only requires identification once.
Critics of age verification laws worry how state governments will determine what kinds of content qualify as “harmful to minors,” especially as right-wing extremists increasingly characterise any type of LGBTQ+ media as inappropriate for children — or outright consider the existence of queer people to be pornographic. The ability to easily access information about reproductive health or dissenting political opinions could be targeted by laws championing children down the line.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced legislation helping bring financial equality to same-sex married couples.
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine reintroduced the Refund Equality Act on Thursday, the 10-year anniversary of the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court ruling, which legalized marriage equality as a constitutional right.
The act would allow married same-sex couples to amend tax returns dating back to when they were married, which would help them secure about $55 million in refunds, according a 2021 report by the Joint Committee on Taxation and cited by the senators.
The reintroduced bill would:
Allow same-sex couples who were married in jurisdictions that recognized same-sex marriage before 2013 – including Massachusetts, Connecticut, California, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Washington, D.C – to file for income tax adjustments for those years, back to the date of their marriage.
Create exceptions for two tax code limitations: One that gives married couples three years to begin filing jointly after their most recent separate returns, and another, which requires a claim for tax credits or refunds to be filed within three years of the initial return.
Create exemptions that include adjustments to capital loss carryback and adjustments for retired service members who receive an award of disability compensation.
The bill is being reintroduced alongside Democratic Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden’s Equal Dignity for Married Taxpayers Act, which Senator Warren co-sponsors. That legislation would protect LGBTQ+ Americans from inequality and discrimination by removing gender-specific references to marriage in the tax code.
Warren’s office said that the legislation will be packaged together and reintroduced in the House of Representatives by U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, a Democrat from California, as part of the PRIDE Act.
Warren’s office also notes that the Democrat had originally introduced the act back in 2017 with more than 70 colleagues in Congress.
“No one should ever have to pay more in taxes because of who they love,” Warren said in a statement. “I’m fighting to reverse this discrimination and get couples the refunds they are owed.”
Collins echoed the sentiment in a statement.
“For years, legally married same-sex couples were not allowed to file joint tax returns and missed out on refunds they otherwise would have received,” Collins said. She added that the bipartisan bill would be a “practical step of giving those couples the opportunity to file amended returns and receive the full refunds they are entitled to.”
Chu brought up the Supreme Court’s Windsor decision, which forced the federal government to recognize marriage equality in the states where it was legal at the time. At the center of the case was widow Edie Windsor’s challenge that she and her late wife should have had the same financial benefits as opposite-sex couples.
“For years, same-sex married couples were denied the ability to file taxes jointly and claim tax refunds they had rightfully earned because of the Defense of Marriage Act. Twelve years ago, the Supreme Court’s Windsor decision corrected this injustice, but IRS rules about amending tax returns have prevented these couples from claiming all of the refunds they should have earned,” Chu said. “The PRIDE Act would finally address this by enabling same-sex couples to rightfully claim the tax refunds they deserve as well as update the tax code to promote dignity and equality by erasing gendered language of husband and wife that leaves out same-sex couples. This Pride Month, I am proud to join with my House and Senate colleagues in introducing this pro-equality legislation.”
Wyden said the legislation is needed as attempts to erode marriage equality increase by some conservative lawmakers.
“The right to marry whoever you love may be recognized as the law of the land, but the work toward true equality is far from over,” Senator Wyden said. “The opponents of marriage equality are working to roll back the clock on the progress we’ve made in recent years and decades. That’s all the more reason to root out the remnants of discrimination from the laws on the books, including in our tax code.”
The monthlong celebration of LGBTQ Pride reached its rainbow-laden crescendo Sunday as huge crowds took part in jubilant, daylong street parties from New York to San Francisco.
Pride celebrations typically weave politics and protest together with colorful pageantry, but this year’s iterations took a decidedly more defiant stance as Republicans, led by President Donald Trump, have sought to roll back LGBTQ friendly policies.
The theme of the festivities in Manhattan was, appropriately, “Rise Up: Pride in Protest.” San Francisco’s Pride theme was “Queer Joy is Resistance,” while Seattle was simply “Louder.”
Lance Brammer, a 56-year-old teacher from Ohio attending his first Pride parade in New York, said he felt “validated” as he marveled at the sheer size of the city’s celebration, the nation’s oldest and largest.
“With the climate that we have politically, it just seems like they’re trying to do away with the whole LGBTQ community, especially the trans community,” he said wearing a vivid, multicolored shirt. “And it just shows that they’ve got a fight ahead of them if they think that they’re going to do that with all of these people here and all of the support.”
In San Francisco, Xander Briere said the LGBTQ+ community is fighting for its very survival in the face of sustained attacks and changing public sentiment, particularly against transgender people.
“We’re slowly rolling back the clock, and it’s unfortunate and it’s scary,” the program specialist at the San Francisco Community Health Center said. “It feels like the world hates us right now, but this is a beautiful community celebration of resistance, of history to show the world that we are here and we are not going anywhere.”
California State Senator Scott Wiener, center, at the San Francisco Pride Parade on Sunday.Josh Edelson / AFP via Getty Images
Manhattan’s parade wound its way down Fifth Avenue with more than 700 participating groups greeted by huge crowds.
The rolling celebration passed the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village gay bar where a 1969 police raid triggered protests and fired up the LGBTQ+ rights movement. The first pride march, held in New York City in 1970, commemorated the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. The site is now a national monument.
Meanwhile, marchers in San Francisco, host to another of the world’s largest Pride events, headed down the California city’s central Market Street to concert stages set up at the Civic Center Plaza. Denver, Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis and Toronto, Canada, were among the other major North American cities that hosted Pride parades Sunday.
Several global cities including Tokyo, Paris and Sao Paulo, held their events earlier this month while others come later in the year, including London in July and Rio de Janeiro in November.
Since taking office in January, Trump has taken specific aim at transgender people, removing them from the military, preventing federal insurance programs from paying for gender-affirming surgeries for young people and attempting to keep transgender athletes out of girls and women’s sports.
“We have to be visible. We have to come together. We have to fight. Our existence is trying to be erased,” said Jahnel Butler, one of the community grand marshals at the San Francisco parade.
Peter McLaughlin said he’s lived in New York for years but has never attended the Pride parade. The 34-year-old Brooklyn resident said he felt compelled this year as a transgender man.
“A lot of people just don’t understand that letting people live doesn’t take away from their own experience, and right now it’s just important to show that we’re just people,” McLaughlin said.
Gabrielle Meighan, 23, of New Jersey, said she felt it was important to come out to this year’s celebrations because they come days after the tenth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark June 26, 2015, ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that recognized same-sex marriage nationwide.
Manhattan also hosted on Sunday the Queer Liberation March, an activism-centered event launched in recent years amid concerns that the more mainstream parade had become too corporate.
Marchers holding signs that included “Gender affirming care saves lives” and “No Pride in apartheid” headed north from the city’s AIDS Memorial to Columbus Circle near Central Park.
Among the other headwinds faced by gay rights groups this year is the loss of corporate sponsorship.
American companies have pulled back support of Pride events, reflecting a broader walking back of diversity and inclusion efforts amid shifting public sentiment.
NYC Pride said earlier this month that about 20% of its corporate sponsors dropped or reduced support, including PepsiCo and Nissan. Organizers of San Francisco Pride said they lost the support of five major corporate donors, including Comcast and Anheuser-Busch.
Thursday, June 26 marks the tenth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that cleared the way for the freedom to marry for same-sex couples nationwide.
A new report from The Williams Institute finds that the Obergefell ruling ”has had the most profound impact on the South. From 2014 to 2023, the percentage of cohabiting same-sex couples who were married grew by 21% in the South (38% to 59%), 16% in the West (46% to 62%), 15% in the Midwest (41% to 55%), and by 11% in the Northeast (50% to 60%).” A majority of Southern states (AL, AR, GA, KY, LA, MS, TN, TX) still had bans in place prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying until Obergefell, and every other Southern state (FL, NC, SC, VA, WV) had only stopped enforcing their bans 8 months prior to the ruling.
Overall, the Williams Institute found that, as of June 2025, there are an estimated 823,000 married same-sex couples in the United States, more than double the number of married same-sex couples in June 2015 when Obergefell was decided. These couples are raising nearly 300,000 children (299,000).
An additional recent report from The Williams Institute also found that the largest economic impact of allowing same-sex couples to marry was felt in the Southeast. An estimated $2.3 billion was spent on weddings between same-sex couples in the Southeast, around 40% of the estimated $5.9 billion total nationwide spending on weddings between same-sex couples from 2015 through 2025.
On Wednesday, June 25, 2025, the Campaign for Southern Equality will join with partner organizations in Alabama to mark the tenth anniversary; Alabama was one of the last states to continue to fight against marriage for same-sex couples, even passing a law attempting to stop issuing marriage licenses to any couple at all. The event, ”10 Years of the Freedom to Marry: Love Will Always Win,” will be held at the Birmingham Museum of Art, in partnership with Central Alabama Pride and Alabama Equality. Speakers include former U.S. Senator Doug Jones; Freedom to Marry founder and 2025 Presidential Citizens Medal recipient Evan Wolfson; Campaign for Southern Equality’s Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara; Rev. Carmarion Anderson; Michael Rudulph, husband to Alabama’s only out LGBTQ+ lawmaker Neil Rafferty; and others. Learn more about the event here.
Polling in support of the freedom to marry remains at historic highs. There is majority support in every single state, according to 2025 PRRI data, ranging from a low of 50% support in Arkansas to 68% support in Virginia. Recent polling from just this month released by Centerline Liberties and Project Right Side found that public support is strongly bipartisan; 56% of Republicans said they supported allowing same-sex couples to marry, and 63% of Republicans said they believe a person who supports same-sex couples marrying can still be considered a Republican.
In the years leading up to the Obergefell ruling, the Campaign for Southern Equality pioneered the “We Do” campaign, in which couples requested marriage licenses in Southern states, provoking denials and shining a light on the urgent need for federal action on the freedom to marry. The effort, from 2011-2015, was the largest sustained campaign around marriage equality in the South, taking place at a time when many predicted it would be decades before the freedom to marry would be achieved in the region. The Campaign for Southern Equality was proud to be a part of lawsuits that brought the freedom to marry to North Carolina and Mississippi.
Adam Polaski, Communications & Political Director of Freedom to Marry, said today:
“Ten years ago, laws on marriage for same-sex couples were finally settled — and over the past decade, Americans have moved on, with the decision becoming deeply ingrained in our country and culture. The freedom to marry has helped millions of Americans take care of each other, build stability, and plan for the future. Nowhere is that clearer than in the South, where hundreds of thousands of people are leading lives that are strengthened by the freedom to marry. As we celebrate this tenth anniversary, our team is proud to have been a part of this historic movement, and we will continue working toward the lived and legal equality of LGBTQ+ people all across the South.
The Campaign for Southern Equality has helped hundreds of same-sex couples and their families share their stories about why marriage matters to them over the past ten years and beyond. If you are looking to connect with a same-sex couple or family member for your coverage of the Obergefell anniversary, please reach out to adam@southernequality.org.
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Based in Asheville, NC, the Campaign for Southern Equality promotes full LGBTQ equality across the South. Our work is rooted in commitments to equity in race, gender, and class. Through our Trans Youth Emergency Project we provide logistical and financial support directly to the families of trans youth who are impacted by anti-transgender healthcare bans in the South. www.southernequality.org
In this rapidly changing landscape, MAP’s LGBTQ Equality Maps provide a detailed snapshot of the current state of LGBTQ laws and policies in the United States. See below for a listing of state level policy changes, plus MAP’s bill tracking and policy research updates, as of June 20, 2025.
▸▸ State Policy Updates Parental opt-out/opt-in for LGBTQ-related curriculumSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
May 1: Montana enacted a new law requiring parents to opt children in to LGBTQ-inclusive content in schools. It expands the previous law allowing parents to opt children out. It applies to all grades K-12 and will not go into effect until July 1.
Bans on transgender people’s use of bathrooms and facilitiesSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
There are now 19 states with a law or policy banning transgender people from using bathrooms according to their gender identity in various government-owned settings. Now, more than 1 in 4 (26%) transgender people nationwide live under some form of these policies.
May 1: North Dakota expanded its existing K-12 bathroom ban by adding new penalties and enforcements. Originally, the state’s 2023 ban had no penalties defined, but this 2025 law allows for complaints to be submitted against schools, for the state attorney general to take action via investigations or enforcement against schools, and for up to a $2,500 penalty for each violation of the ban. May 12: Arizona’s governor vetoed a K-12 bathroom ban. May 13: Oklahoma expanded its existing K-12 bathroom ban to also apply to state-owned prisons and correctional facilities. May 16: In Montana, a court granted a preliminary injunction, blocking enforcement of the state’s bathroom ban for the remainder of the ongoing lawsuit. This built on an earlier, temporary block of the bathroom ban. June 3: South Carolina renewed its existing K-12 bathroom ban. Because the ban was originally passed as part of the state’s annual budget, it must be renewed annually to remain in effect.
“Shield” or “refuge” laws protecting transgender health careSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.May 12: Washington state expanded its existing shield law, adding new privacy protections. Read more details here.May 13: Vermont expanded its existing shield law in multiple ways. Read more details here.May 16 and May 23: Colorado enacted two new bills, expanding existing protections in multiple ways, including new privacy protections related to testosterone prescriptions.
Repealing HIV criminalization lawsSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.May 20: Maryland fully repealed its HIV criminalization law, becoming the second state this year to do so after North Dakota in March.
Confirmatory adoptionSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.May 23: Vermont became the 10th state with a confirmatory adoption process, a policy that helps protect the legal rights of many kinds of families, including LGBTQ families. Read more details here.June 3: Nevada became the 11th state to offer confirmatory adoption.
Bans on medical care for transgender youthSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here, including a chronology and details on effective dates, exceptions, lawsuits, and more.
There are now 27 states with a ban or restriction on medically necessary, prescribed health care for transgender youth. Now 2 in 5 (40%) transgender youth live in states with these bans. However, lawsuits have been filed against the bans in at least 18 of these states.
May 13: In Montana, a court ruled that the state’s ban on medically necessary care was unconstitutional under state law — meaning the ruling is not affected by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Skrmetti — striking down the state’s ban. The state may yet appeal.May 28: A new lawsuit was filed against the ban in Kansas. Now there are at least 18 active lawsuits against state bans on medically necessary care for transgender youth. May 30: Following the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, Missouri banned abortion statewide. In November 2024, Missouri voters overturned that ban at the ballot box, making abortion legal again in the state.
But this May, the Missouri legislature disregarded the will of voters and initiated a ballot measure to ban abortion once again — and this time, to ban medically necessary health care for transgender youth at the same time. Even though Missouri already bans this health care for minors, this new ballot initiative would enshrine the ban into the state’s constitution (if successful).
The measure, currently known as HJR 73, is scheduled to appear on the November 2026 midterm ballot, and it will be the first statewide ballot initiative explicitly targeting transgender health care, as well as the first statewide ballot initiative that explicitly combines both abortion rights and transgender medical care.
SCOTUS Update: U.S. v. SkrmettiLast week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in United States v. Skrmetti, upholding Tennessee’s ban on healthcare for transgender youth. This is a devastating ruling for transgender youth, their families, and their doctors across the country. The Court has failed to protect families’ freedoms and offered a green light for politicians’ continued efforts to control access to essential medical care.
It’s important, however, to remember that even after today’s decision, transgender young people will still be able to receive care in the states that have not banned it. We must protect access to this care in the states where it is available, resist efforts to restrict funding or insurance coverage, work to overturn bans, and ensure that no such bans are passed in other states. Families and doctors should be making these health care decisions — not politicians.
Medicaid coverage of transgender-related health careSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.June 11: Iowa banned its Medicaid program from covering medically necessary healthcare for transgender people, regardless of age. Previously, the state was under court order to provide such coverage, as excluding the coverage was against the state’s transgender-inclusive civil rights law. However, this past February, the state removed gender identity nondiscrimination protections from its civil rights law, and now the state has also banned coverage of Medicaid benefits.
Conversion “therapy” lawsSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.June 3: As part of South Carolina’s state budget, the state enacted a first of its kind law withholding state funds from any municipality that has a local-level law protecting minors against the dangerous and discredited practice of conversion “therapy.” The state’s capital, Columbia, is the only city in the state with these protections, so this law effectively directly targets Columbia and threatens to withhold nearly $4 million in state funding from the city unless they repeal their ordinance protecting youth.June 17: Under this threat, the Columbia City Council voted to repeal the ordinance, though the repeal will need to be voted on a second time before it becomes official. That second vote has not yet been scheduled, and for now the local law remains in effect.
Gender-neutral “X” markers on birth certificatesSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.June 3: Puerto Rico will become the 18th state or territory (including D.C.) to allow a gender-neutral “X” marker on birth certificates. This court ruling will become final and binding in 30 days unless appealed, and then the state’s birth certificate registry will need to update its system before the option will be available to the public.
Bans on transgender kids playing school sportsSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here, including a chronology of laws and vetoes, a breakdown of grade applicability, and further analyses.
There are now 29 states that ban transgender students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity. More than 2 in 5 (42%) transgender youth live in states with these bans.June 4: Nebraska became the 29th state with a ban on transgender youth’s participation in school sports. It applies to K-12 and higher education and will go into effect on July 1.
Changes in MAP’s Policy Tally categorizationsSee our Overall, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity Policy Tally maps here, summarizing states’ scores across all the 50+ laws and policies we track.South Carolina’s new law targeting local level conversion “therapy” protections dropped the state to “Negative” on our Sexual Orientation Tally. It was already “Negative” on both our Overall and Gender Identity Tallies.
▸▸ MAP’s LGBTQ Equality Bill TrackerTo continue highlighting trends across the country, included below are our current bill tracking counts for anti-LGBTQ bills in state legislatures.Note that these counts may differ from other organizations or public counts for a variety of reasons, and this work is greatly facilitated by the work of other organizations including the ACLU, Trans Formations Project, and the Equality Federation and their member state groups.
As of June 20, 2025, MAP is tracking over 715 anti-LGBTQ bills across 49 states – i.e., every state but Vermont.
▸▸ MAP Policy Research UpdatesMore and more religious exemption laws have been enacted across the country in recent years. As a result, MAP’s policy team has revised and expanded the Equality Maps that track these laws for easier viewing and better understanding.
Click above or below to view our newly organized Equality Maps:
Child welfare religious exemptions map shows states that permit child-placing agencies to refuse to place and provide services to children and families, including LGBTQ people and others, if doing so conflicts with their religious beliefs.
Medical providers religious exemptions map shows states that permit medical providers to refuse to serve LGBTQ people and others, if doing so conflicts with the provider’s (or provider’s employer’s) religious beliefs.
Marriage-related religious exemptions map shows two different kinds of marriage-related exemptions: those that permit private businesses to deny wedding-related services to same-sex couples, and those that permit public employees (such as those issuing wedding licenses) to refuse to work with couples of whose marriage they disapprove.
“Religious Freedom Restoration Acts” (RFRA) map shows states that permit people, churches, non-profit organizations, and sometimes corporations to seek exemptions from state laws that they say burden their religious beliefs. The individual person or organization must seek out an exemption, such as through court proceedings; this is distinct from the other types of exemptions above, which instead grant a blanket license to discriminate to any child welfare service provider, medical provider, or other depending on the focus on the bill.
To schedule an interview with a MAP researcher or for questions, please contact Dana Juniel at dana@mapresearch.org.
On Tuesday, Democrats in Washington, D.C., elected U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia of California as the new ranking member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, making him the first out gay immigrant to lead the party on one of Congress’ most powerful and combative panels.
House Democrats made the announcement official in a post on X, formerly Twitter, shortly before 11 a.m. Eastern. “House Democrats elect @RepRobertGarcia the Ranking Member of the @OversightDems,” they wrote.
At 47, Garcia is not just the youngest Democrat to lead a major committee — he’s also one of the most outspoken. A former Long Beach mayor, an immigrant from Peru, and an unapologetically queer political figure, Garcia has repeatedly called out far-right extremism and Trump-era authoritarianism. Now, he steps into one of the party’s most high-profile roles at a time when the Oversight Committee has become a central theater for Republican grievance politics.
Garcia’s election follows the death of Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly, who led Democrats on the committee until stepping down this spring amid cancer treatment. With Connolly’s passing in May, Democrats faced a pivotal choice: maintain the old guard or signal a generational shift. They chose the latter. Garcia’s office did not immediately respond to The Advocate’s request for comment.
Garcia secured the Steering Committee’s recommendation on the first ballot — a surprise to many — and swept the full caucus vote after Reps. Kweisi Mfume of Maryland and Jasmine Crockett of Texas withdrew from the race. His final challenger, acting ranking member, Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch, was unable to match the momentum behind Garcia’s bid.
It wasn’t just about age. Garcia framed his candidacy around lived experience and executive skill, pointing to his tenure running a port city during a global pandemic and his confrontations with far-right members in committee hearings. He positioned himself not just as a fighter but as someone who was already in the ring.
Garcia is the only Democrat who sits on every committee far-right Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene does. He’s matched her culture-war provocations with fact-based, often viral, rebukes. When Greene brandished nude photos of Hunter Biden during a 2023 hearing, Garcia responded in February with an image of Elon Musk — deadpan calling it a “dick pic” — to spotlight hypocrisy and the spectacle that Oversight had become under GOP control during a Department of Government Efficiency subcommittee hearing.
Earlier this year, he led a fact-finding trip to El Salvador to investigate the deportation of gay asylum-seeker Andry Hernández Romero to the CECOT mega-prison after Romero came to the United States legally to attend an appointment the U.S. government gave him. In May, Garcia appealed to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to request a sign of life to send to Romero’s mother, but Noem refused to engage.
Born in Lima and raised in Southern California, Garcia became a citizen in his twenties, earned a doctorate in education, and eventually became Long Beach’s first out LGBTQ+ mayor. When he arrived in Congress in 2023, he was the first out gay immigrant elected to the House. Now, in his second term, he holds one of the chamber’s most visible Democratic roles.
Garcia will serve as a counter to the Oversight agenda of Republican Chair U.S. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who has utilized the committee to advance investigations aligned with President Donald Trump’s political interests, including attacks on former President Joe Biden’s family, public health officials, transgender students, and federal workers.
LGBTQ+ political leaders immediately celebrated the vote as a watershed moment. The Human Rights Campaign issued congratulations on social media. Equality PAC — co-chaired by gay New York Rep. Ritchie Torres and gay House Veterans’ Affairs Ranking Member Rep. Mark Takano of California — said Garcia’s election was both an institutional milestone and a powerful symbol of what pro-equality leadership can look like.
In a statement, Takano and Torres said Garcia’s new role “marks an historic achievement and a powerful moment for LGBTQ representation in Congress,” noting that he joins lesbianMinnesota U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, the ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee and Takano as one of three openly LGBTQ+ members now leading Democrats on House committees.
They added that Oversight “plays a critical role in holding Trump and his administration accountable, protecting democracy, and defending the rights and freedoms of all Americans,” and that Garcia “has been a fearless voice for truth and justice.”
That’s according to recently published research from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law that looks at the impact of the June 26, 2015, Supreme Court ruling. The academic institution figures that there are roughly 823,000 queer married couples in the U.S. today, double the number at the end of 2014, the last full year when states could bar same-sex unions.
Before the court decision made clear that same-sex couples in every state had a constitutional right to wed a partner regardless of gender, many states, particularly in the South, prohibited such marriages. Thanks to that, the percentage of cohabitating same-sex couples who were married in the South jumped by 21 percent after the ruling, compared to a 16 percent leap in the West, a 15 percent jump in the Midwest and just an 11 percent spike in the Northeast, where many states allowed gay couples to marry before the ruling.
As a demonstration of the significance of the court decision, about 59 percent of all cohabiting same-sex couples in the country are now married, according to the Williams Institute. Wedded couples made up a majority of cohabiting same-sex couples every year since 2016, the first full year when the decision was in effect nationwide.
The decision also significantly impacted the makeup of modern families. Over 300,000 U.S. children are now being raised by married same-sex couples.
But the data also shows the number of families under threat as a growing number of right-wing politicians push to reverse marriage protection. Indeed, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas made clear he’d be willing to overturnObergefell if given the chance when a conservative majority tossed the 50-year-old Roe v. Wade decision.
The Williams Institute noted that 433,000 married couples — and 305,000 unmarried ones — still live in states with laws banning marriage equality on the books. Those bans cannot be enforced because of Obergefell, but would immediately go into effect if the conservative majority brushed the decade-old decision aside.
A survey found 80 percent of same-sex couples were concerned about an overturning of the decision, with 41 percent “very concerned.” About 25 percent of couples have already taken steps to preserve their family, whether that means speeding up marriage, securing second-parent adoptions, or relocating to a state without laws on the books.
But for the moment, love remains the chief reason 93 percent of same-sex couples wed, while 74 percent list companionship and 75 percent cite legal protections. Wedded bliss brings mental health rewards as well, with 83 percent saying it improves a sense of safety and security, 75 percent proclaiming it boosts life satisfaction, and 67 percent saying it helps relationship stability.
All these gay weddings also brought a financial boon to states, whether they have bans on the books or not. Spending on same-sex weddings provides a $5.9 billion boost to economies across the country, generating $432.2 million in state and local taxes.
Nightlife has long been a tool for queer communities in America to find each other, celebrate identity and feel accepted. In rural and urban areas alike, gay bars provide an enlightening—if imperfect—window into understanding the health and culture of America’s LGBTQ population.
In a first-of-its-kind analysis, Uncloseted Media mapped every single LGBTQ nightlife location in the U.S. The data is based on a 2023 census of gay bars and clubs by sociologist and Oberlin College professor Greggor Mattson and was updated in 2025 by Columbia Journalism School graduate students Dan O’Connor and Tory Lysik¹.
The findings reveal unexpected trends that inform us about the state of the American gay bar and—more broadly–queer culture in the U.S. Here they are:
1. There are gay bars in every state except Wyoming and North Dakota
LGBTQ bars and clubs by state
Data as of May 2025
Unsurprisingly, states with large cities tend to have the most LGBTQ nightlife. California takes the top spot with 128 gay bars and Texas comes in at a distant second with 67.
New York is third, with 61 bars, followed closely by Florida’s 59 bars. Illinois rounds out the top five with 40 bars.
Montana, South Dakota, Kansas, New Mexico and Vermont have just one gay bar. Wyoming and North Dakota have none. For someone in northwestern North Dakota, it would take over 7 hours of driving across roughly 500 miles to reach Club David, the nearest gay bar in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. If they have a passport handy and are short on time, they could make the four-hour trek north of the border to Q Nightclub and Lounge in Regina, Saskatchewan.
For Wyoming, advocates say the state’s conservative values are not the main reason there’s no gay bar. Quite simply, “Demand is limited in a state of half a million people spread out over almost 100,000 square miles,” Sara Burlingame, who serves as Wyoming Equality’s executive director, told Uncloseted Media.
Despite this, she says there are still options. Bars in Laramie, the state’s main college town, host occasional drag nights and other queer-focused events. Other people leave the state entirely, flocking to Salt Lake City or Denver.
“For generations, if you were LGBTQ and you didn’t want the struggle of the legislature fighting over whether you should have rights or not, or churches preaching against you, or someone who was raised to believe that they should be violent towards you … You graduated high school, and then you got the hell out of dodge,” says Burlingame. And when queer people leave, demand for gay nightlife declines further.
2. When you control LGBTQ nightlife per capita, different results emerge
LGBTQ bars per one million residents
While California has the most gay bars, Delaware, DC, and Rhode Island have the greatest number of bars for their populations. Utah, Kansas, New Jersey and New Mexico have the fewest
D.C. has the most gay bars per capita, with 13 bars serving a population of slightly more than 1 million residents.
Delaware comes in second, with roughly 700,000 residents and six bars, four of which are in the resort town of Rehoboth Beach, a popular gay travel destination.
Hawaii, with 5.53 gay bars per million residents, comes in third. The islands blend the classic gay bar with Indigenous Polynesian motifs. Hula’s Bar and Lei Stand is one of the state’s eight gay bars and has served locals and tourists alike for over 50 years.
Rhode Island comes in fourth with 5.39 gay bars per million people, and Louisiana rounds out the top five.
In addition to Wyoming and North Dakota, there are six states with fewer than one gay bar per million people. Alabama, with 5 gay bars, has just 0.97 bars per million people. New Jersey, just outside two of the country’s largest queer nightlife hubs in New York City and Philadelphia, has just 0.53 bars per million residents. And Kansas comes in last place with just 0.34 gay bars per million residents.
3. Most bars are in urban areas, but don’t count out rural queers
LGBTQ bars by county
Data as of May 2025
Mapping the bars by county shows a concentration around the largest cities. Los Angeles County, New York County (Manhattan) and Cook County (Chicago) stand out. But so do counties with smaller cities, including Columbus, El Paso and Salt Lake.
266 of the country’s 750 gay bars were in the 20 most populous counties. That means roughly 35.5% of the nation’s gay bars exist in an area with just 18.5% of the U.S. population.
The map reveals that there are large swathes of the Mountain West that lack any dedicated spaces for gay nightlife. Stathis Yeros, a historian and designer who has traveled the country researching queer spaces, says rural LGBTQ folks are used to this and are willing to drive long distances to visit a queer watering hole.
“What I have found in the places I visited is that [the] separation between urban and rural doesn’t quite exist in a big part of the U.S.,” he says. “You can go to an event in Atlanta, and you can go back to your house in the outskirts of Birmingham.”
4. In big cities, neighborhood bars struggle to compete with gayborhood bars
Most of the 45 NYC gay bars are concentrated in a few neighborhoods
Hell’s Kitchen, the West Village, Williamsburg and Harlem are hotspots while the Bronx and Staten Island have no gay nightlife spots 0 1 2 3 4+
Even in areas famous for their nightlife, access to queer spaces can be uneven. Only three of New York City’s five boroughs have a single queer bar.
Manhattan, with its storied gayborhoods like the West Village, Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen and Harlem, is home to 36 gay bars. In Hell’s Kitchen, a 15-minute walk with only small detours away from 9th Avenue could bring you past 10 gay bars.
Brooklyn is home to five gay bars, and Queens has four, but the Bronx and Staten Island have zero. When the Bronx lost its last gay bar in 2023, its owner told the Bronx Times, “It’s just difficult when you’re up against Manhattan.”
The Manhattan pull may explain New Jersey’s small gay bar scene. The state has two gay bars in Jersey City, one in suburban Bergen County and two on the shore.
Similar patterns can be seen in Chicago and Los Angeles, with nearly all of Chicago’s gay bars in the city’s Northeast, while Southern California has clusters in West Hollywood, Long Beach and Palm Springs.
“Gay bars have been concentrating,” says Greggor Mattson, the sociologist whose team first collected the census data on gay bars nationwide. “Think about the possibilities of barhopping versus going to a single bar.”
5. Blue states tend to have more gay bars, but the correlation is not strong
States that voted blue in 2024 have more gay bars per person
But the correlation is weaker than you may expect, hover over each dot to find your state
While an imperfect measure of a state’s political leaning, there is a moderate correlation between Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential vote share and the number of gay bars. D.C., where Harris got just over 90% of the vote, has the most gay bars for its population. And she earned the smallest vote share in bar-less Wyoming.
But the data also reveals several hotspots in conservative states. Ohio, which voted 55% for Trump in 2024 and swung red, has 33 gay bars and beet red Louisiana has 22 bars, mostly around New Orleans.
That suggests little impact of party politics on gay bars, even though 86% of LGBTQ voters cast their ballot for Harris, according to one exit poll.
6. Lesbian bars and POC-focused queer bars are harder to find
Lesbian bars across the country
Data as of May 2025 0 1 2 3+
Many bars continue to draw crowds of white gay men, while bars catering to people of color (POC), queer women and trans folks are rare.
“There are now individuals, increasingly, who identify as LGBTQ+ who don’t necessarily feel safe or empowered or that they are with others like themselves when they walk through the doors of a gay bar,” says Amin Ghaziani, an urban sexualities researcher at the University of British Columbia.
Mattson’s data found that while 66% of LGBTQ bars appear to cater to both men and women, 24% cater primarily to men.
Bars catering mostly to queer women are rare. Per 2025 numbers from the Lesbian Bar Project, there are 36 lesbian bars across the country—that’s just 4.8% of all queer bars. And per Mattson’s data, just 6.6% of queer bars catered to POC.
7. Bars are important—but there’s so much to queer culture
Those without a gay bar in town don’t necessarily need a watering hole to find community. Every August in Wyoming, over 500 queer people from across the Mountain West flock to Medicine Bow National Forest for “Rendezvous,” a five-day LGBTQ campout.
Every August, hundreds flock to Wyoming Equality’s Rendezvous campout. (Courtesy of Sara Burlingame)
Burlingame of Wyoming Equality says the unique character of her state’s queer community sometimes surprises outsiders given its overlap with the area’s outdoorsy and gun-toting culture. “LGBTQ Wyomingites are still Wyomingites,” she says.
Queer communities across the country are shaped by politics, geography, distinct histories and circumstances, making nationwide generalizations impossible. Yeros, who has spent time researching queer spaces in the South, emphasizes that each community has its own story.
“What happens in Atlanta is not necessarily the same as what happen[s] in New Orleans,” he says. “It’s certainly not the same as what happens in San Francisco or New York or Chicago.”
Texas is being sued over its “Don’t Say Gay” law that not only bans discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms, but goes even further by completely outlawing LGBTQ+ student clubs.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT) announced Monday that they will be filing a lawsuit against Senate Bill 12. Signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday, the law is scheduled to take effect September 1 and be implemented in the 2025-2026 school year.
S.B. 12 flatly states that “a school district or open-enrollment charter school may not authorize or sponsor a student club based on sexual orientation or gender identity.” The law bans all diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, which it incorrectly defines as “differential treatment” based on race.
The bill also contains a forced outing policy “prohibiting an employee of the district from assisting a student enrolled in the district with social transitioning,” which it defines as “a person’s transition from the person’s biological sex at birth to the opposite biological sex through the adoption of a different name, different pronouns, or other expressions of gender that deny or encourage a denial of the person’s biological sex at birth.”
“This ban on education harms Texas schools by shutting down important discussions and programs that mention race, ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation,” Brian Klosterboer, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement. “Students should be free to learn about themselves and the world around them, but S.B. 12 aims to punish kids for being who they are and ban teachers from supporting them. It sends the false message that Black, Brown, LGBTQIA+, and other students don’t belong in the classroom or in our state.”
The law is similar to Florida‘s colloquially named “Don’t Say Gay” bill which prohibited public school staff from discussing LGBTQ+ identities in any capacity. Texas’ S.B. 12 states that “a school district, open-enrollment charter school, or district or charter school employee may not provide or allow a third party to provide instruction, guidance, activities, or programming regarding sexual orientation or gender identity to students enrolled in prekindergarten through 12th grade.”
Florida was forced to overturn several key aspects of its “Don’t Say Gay” law in March of last year after reaching a settlement in a lawsuit brought by LGBTQ+ advocates. The settlement clarified that the law does not forbid conversations about LGBTQ+ individuals, nor does it block the implementation of anti-bullying initiatives based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Additionally, it does not prohibit the formation of Gay-Straight Alliance groups or other LGBTQ+ student clubs.
“S.B. 12 seeks to erase students’ identities and make it impossible for teachers, parents, and volunteers to tell the truth about the history and diversity of our state,” said Cameron Samuels, executive director for SEAT. “State leaders have been in the business of manufacturing problems that don’t exist – such as stoking fear against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – to ignore the solutions that students need and deserve. And barring student organizations and teachers from supporting LGBTQIA+ young people, particularly trans and nonbinary students, is inflicting even more harm and making our schools unsafe and unjust.”
“As students, Texas must not exclude us from the narrative or decision-making in curricula,” Samuels continued. “We are here to ensure that inclusive public education is a cornerstone to our state’s pluralistic and multicultural democracy.”
The average LGBTQ+ or intersex household made just 85 cents for every dollar earned by those in other categories in 2024, says a new report from the Center for American Progress.
“Over the course of a year, those 15 lost cents add up, amounting to about $12,600 in lost income per year for the average LGBTQI+ household,” says the CAP report, which was published as a column on CAP’s website Tuesday for LGBTQI+ Equal Pay Awareness Day. “That is more than the average household spends on food and gasoline in an entire year.”
Discrimination may be a reason for the gap, CAP notes. “In 2024, approximately a quarter of LGBTQI+ people reported experiencing discrimination in the workplace, compared with 16 percent of non-LGBTQI+ people,” according to the report. Also, LGBTQI+ people who responded to CAP’s LGBTQI+ Community Survey tended to be younger than non-LGBTQI+ people in the survey, and earnings tend to increase with age.
“With the Trump administration rolling back protections against discrimination and harassment in the workplace, it is likely that this income gap will worsen for most protected classes, including LGBTQI+ people,” the CAP researchers predict. “The intersection of [sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics] and racial demographics further drives up wage gaps for LGBTQI+ households. Among LGBTQI+ people of color, the average household made just 74 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic, non-LGBTQI+ households in 2024.”
Transgender and women’s households also had large wage gaps. “Transgender or nonbinary households made just 70 cents for every dollar made by non-LGBTQI+ households, equating to $24,800 per year in lost income,” the researchers note.
“Among LGBTQI+ women-headed households, the gap is even larger, at 52 percent, amounting to nearly $40,000 in annual losses,” the study adds.
The report’s analysis includes data from a nationally representative group of 3,360 people over age 18, 1,703 of whom identify as LGBTQI+. It was conducted in partnership with nonpartisan research group NORC at the University of Chicago.
“While our data on its own can’t explain the forces that create these wage gaps, we know the intersecting dynamics of sexism, racism, and discrimination likely play a key role,” Sara Estep, economist for the Women’s Initiative at CAP and coauthor of the report, said in a press release. “At the same time, the Trump administration has defanged many of the agencies tasked with enforcing existing nondiscrimination laws and addressing these issues.”
“When enforcement against discrimination is lacking, it harms LGBTQI+ folks and threatens their lifelong economic stability,” added Haley Norris, policy analyst for LGBTQI+ Policy at CAP and coauthor of the column. “People with intersecting marginalized identities experience worse workplace discrimination and tend to suffer larger disparities in household income. The Trump administration’s rollback of nondiscrimination laws is going to hit these people the hardest.”
We must protect access to this care in the states where it is available, resist efforts to restrict funding or insurance coverage, work to overturn bans, and ensure that no such bans are passed in other states. Families and doctors should be making these health care decisions — not politicians.
