National

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

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

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As Trump hits delete, the race is on to save LGBTQ data

The race is on to try to stop vital information from being rewritten or scrubbed from U.S. government websites, with researchers warning that the loss of key data could create risks for the environment and marginalized communities. Thousands of U.S. government web pages are being altered or deleted following a slew of executive orders from President Donald Trump targeting what his administration calls “gender ideology extremism” and environmental policies. “In order to make rational, effective public health policy, you need to have accurate, comprehensive public health data to work with. Remove that and it is a recipe for disaster,” said […]

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References to transgender and queer removed from Stonewall National Monument’s web page

References to transgender and queer people were erased from the Stonewall National Monument’s web page, marking one of the latest moves of the current administration after President Donald Trump said the government would recognize male and female as the only biological sexes.  The page used to say “LGBTQ+,” according to an archived version of the National Park Service’s website. It now only says “LGB.”  Stacy Lentz, co-owner of the Stonewall Inn and the chief executive of the nonprofit Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative, said the Trump administration was trying to “erase trans people from history and from existing.” “There is no Pride without […]

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Dept. of Education ends all trans-inclusive policies & shuts out LGBTQ+ lawmakers

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The Department of Education (DOE) has directed its workers to end all transgender-inclusive programs and policies in accordance with President Donald Trump’s anti-transgender executive orders. Trump has pledged to eliminate the DOE, Elon Musk, a Trump campaign donor who has been acting as if he were co-president, has given his underlings access to the DOE and its data, and LGBTQ+ congresspeople were denied entry into the DOE last Friday. In an unsigned email sent last Friday from “ED Internal Communications,” DOE employees were told to end all programs, contracts, policies, outward-facing media, regulations, and internal practices that “fail to affirm […]

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Passports with ‘X’ sex markers will be valid until they expire or are renewed, State Department says

The State Department issued new guidance on passports with “X” sex markers and applications that request to change a passport sex marker, according to a memo reviewed by NBC News. The new guidance comes after the State Department suspended all applications for passports and CRBAs, which are birth records for U.S. citizens born abroad, that request an “X” sex marker or a sex marker change, following a memo last month from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.  The policy change resulted in widespread confusion, particularly among the transgender community, about whether passports with an “X” sex marker would be valid for international travel […]

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Lambda Legal says it needs more willing plaintiffs to fight Donald Trump

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The CEO of Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, says they have long been preparing for Donald Trump’s arrival in the Oval Office.  In an interview with The Advocate, Kevin Jennings said Trump is utilizing a “shock and awe” strategy, flooding the nation with outlandish moves all at once to intentionally overwhelm. But his team is not surprised.  “At Lambda Legal, we knew this was coming. So we have neither been shocked nor awed by what’s happening,” Jennings assured.  “We’ve seen this movie before,” he added. “We sued the Trump administration 14 times during his first presidency and won 12 of those cases […]

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

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

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

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

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DOJ ordered review of ‘gender ideology’ compliance at child safety authority

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the primary U.S. nonprofit fighting child sexual exploitation, said Friday that it is removing all references to transgender people from its public materials. The move is in accordance with an executive order President Trump signed last week, which bars federal funding that goes to “gender ideology” and makes it the official policy of the federal government not to recognize their gender identity. “Earlier this week, like many federally funded non-profits, NCMEC was directed by DOJ to comply with Executive Order 14168,” a NCMEC spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We are responding to this direction […]

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

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

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