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LGBTQ Equality Maps Updates and Bill Tracking for September 2025

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 and local level policy changes, plus MAP’s bill tracking and policy research updates, as of August 25, 2025. ▸▸ State Policy UpdatesOngoing developments with gender marker changes on identity documentsIn Kansas, residents’ ability to change the gender marker on their driver’s licensesremains contested. After a 2023 law was enacted defining “sex” throughout state law to enable discrimination against transgender people, the state’s attorney general successfully sued the state’s license-issuing agency to force […]

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US TikToker thanks supporters as he continues to battle to free boyfriend from ICE detention

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A man has thanked his followers for their support as he battles to free his boyfriend from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention.  Eric Duran has been recording his efforts to free boyfriend Juan since 21 July. In a TikTok posted on Sunday (31 August), he said Juan, with whom he has been in a relationship for more than a year, is being held in Louisiana, having been moved from Colorado and Arizona. “I got a call from someone whose brother-in-law is with Juan and shared they were transferred to this facility,” Duran wrote. “I was then able to confirm through the ICE […]

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ACLU Sues Texas Over GOP’s New “Don’t Say Gay” Law

The Texas Tribune reports: The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and a group of LGBTQ+ and student rights organizations are suing to block a new state law that would ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in K-12 public schools. “Senate Bill 12 is a blatant attempt to erase students’ identities and silence the stories that make Texas strong,” said Brian Klosterboer, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas. “Every student — no matter their race, gender, or background — deserves to feel seen, safe, and supported in school.” Because of SB 12’s ban on discussions of sexual orientation and gender […]

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Texas Republicans assigned troopers to tail this out lawmaker. He dragged them to a gay bar

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Texas state troopers now follow Democratic lawmakers’ every move to ensure they vote on redistricting. So one out lawmaker led police to a Dallas drag room. Texas state Rep. Venton Jones, the Texas House Democratic Caucus whip and one of the few out lawmakers in the Lone Star State, met with fellow Democratic state Rep. Terry Meza at the Rose Room, a gay bar in Dallas’s Oak Lawn gayborhood, according to Chron. The lawmakers were there to meet with the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas, but their attendance meant dragging police escorts into the venue. “We are always happy to have Reps. Meza and @VentonJonesTX at meetings […]

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Hundreds March Against DeSantis In Miami Beach

Miami’s CBS affiliate reports: Hundreds of people marched along Washington Avenue on Sunday in a protest against Florida’s order to remove rainbow-painted crosswalks, a move critics say targets LGBTQ+ pride and local control. The demonstration, called the “Forever Proud March,” was organized by Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez and the Greater Miami LGBT Chamber of Commerce. Marchers carried rainbow flags and signs, chanting, “This is what democracy looks like” and “Pride rights are human rights.” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who was at the protest, said the state’s directive to strip away the crosswalks was arbitrary and harmful, arguing that the […]

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Three More Arrested In Pulse Memorial Protest 

Click Orlando reports: The Florida Highway Patrol arrested three people on Sunday during a protest near the crosswalk outside of the former Pulse nightclub. The “Chalk For Pride” event was scheduled for 6 p.m. at South Orange Avenue and West Esther Street to protest the removal of “Pride crosswalks” and the “abuse of laws that threaten our freedom of expression,” according to a news release. According to the FHP, 39-year-old Zane Aparicio , 25-year-old Mary Jane East and 26-year-old Donavon Short were arrested and taken to the Orange County jail. On Friday night — Orestes Sebastian Suarez, 29 — was arrested after […]

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As Trump takes aim at the Smithsonian, meet the woman racing to visit every exhibit

Earlier this year, TikToker Kathryn Jones began a quest to visit every exhibit at the Smithsonian museums and read every plaque.Justine Goode / NBC News; Getty Images Pausing next to a hulking steam locomotive at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History on Friday, Kathryn Jones bent down to look at a tiny silk slipper. “I’ve never seen one in person. It’s so small,” she said, pointing at the shoe once worn by a Chinese immigrant with bound feet. “That’s why I love museums. It takes those facts and solidifies it.” The recording of a trail whistle hooted in the […]

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Harvard removes dedicated tutor support for LGBTQ+ students

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As part of a wider rollback on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives (DEI), the Ivy League university will no longer designate residential proctors or tutors specifically for LGBTQ+ or first-generation/low-income undergraduates, according to the college newspaper, The Harvard Crimson. The tutors and proctors will have their tasks folded into “specialty” roles. The change was reportedly announced last week in an email from associate dean of students Lauren Brandt. Proctors and tutors are live-in advisers who support and help plan activities for students in their first year at Harvard. A document included with Brandt’s email informed students that “Culture and Community” proctors […]

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Texas is gerrymandering the only LGBTQ+ member of Congress from the South out of her seat

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Texas Republicans‘ redrawn congressional maps will split up the district of the only out LGBTQ+ representative from the South.  Julie Johnson, an out lesbian elected to the state’s 32nd congressional district last year, condemned the GOP’s plans to pick up five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives by gerrymandering Democratic districts. She said the proposal, approved by the state House of Representatives Wednesday, would “decimate TX32, splitting my constituents into 8 different districts spreading all the way to the Oklahoma border and East Texas.” “Today, Texas Republicans and Governor Abbott rammed through the Texas House a set of rigged and racist congressional maps […]

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Pete Hegseth appears on podcast of pastor who called for murder of transgender allies

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has appeared at least four times on the Reformation Red Pill podcast, a far-right podcast hosted by Joshua Haymes, an anti-LGBTQ+ extremist who was also a former pastor at the church that Hegseth attends, The Guardian reported.  The publication noted that Haymes wants to execute adulterers and people who have abortions, that he seemingly called for the deaths of LGBTQ+ Pride marchers, and also considers liberalism a greater threat to the nation than neo-Nazism. Haymes is aligned with the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), a Christian Nationalist denomination that believes the United States should be subject to biblical law, and […]

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