National

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United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking Releases 2024 Report

The United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking (USACHT) has released its highly anticipated 2024 annual report. This year’s report focuses on centering survivor expertise, amplifying the voices of those with lived experience in the sex trades, and emphasizing the urgent need to address forced criminality within anti-trafficking efforts. The report highlights key recommendations to improve federal anti-trafficking work, based on insights gathered during regional trips and consultations with survivor-led organizations. Community United for Safety and Protection (CUSP), a survivor-led organization advocating for the rights and safety of people in the sex trades in Alaska, played a pivotal role in […]

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actionlink Releases Doxing Guide

As 2024 draws to a close and we get prepared for 2025, we want to share a new resource with you as part of our community! Today we want to send you our Doxxing Dangers: A guide to prevention, precautions, and reaction. As you get ready to move from one year to another, learn more about doxxing, how it can impact you, how to prevent it from happening, and how to react if it does happen to you. We will keep creating talking points, toolkits, and sharing ways you can help support equality in the weeks and months to come. We […]

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New laws for 2025: AI safeguards, legacy admissions and transgender health care

With the new year comes an array of new laws slated to take effect across the country throughout 2025 on issues like artificial intelligence, legacy college admissions and surgical care for transgender youth. More than half a dozen states will have new data privacy and consumer protections, while federal regulations will require air travelers to present compliant licenses or identification cards to fly domestically. After a busy election cycle, state legislatures are ready to tackle yet another year of hot-button political issues, soon under a Trump administration. Here are some of the laws that will ring in 2025: Guardrails against […]

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Ohio Senate passes “shameful” bill that would force schools to out LGBTQ+ kids to their parents

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The Ohio Senate and House have now both passed a bill that would forcibly out LGBTQ+ students to their parents and also allow parents to opt their child out of “sexuality content” at school.  House Bill 8 defines sexuality content as “any oral or written instruction, presentation, image, or description of sexual concepts or gender ideology provided in a classroom setting,” with exceptions granted for STI and abuse discussion, as well as “incidental references” to sexual concepts or “gender ideology.” There is also a total ban on “sexuality content” in grades three and below, with all other grades facing a requirement […]

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Ohio changes election forms to protect transgender political candidates

Ohio’s Secretary of State Frank LaRose has changed the state’s candidate declaration forms to help prevent a repeat of earlier this year when a trans candidate was disqualified after failing to list her deadname. Vanessa Joy, a transgender woman, was disqualified from running as a Democrat to represent House District 50 in Stark County in January after she failed to include on her signature petition forms any names she legally used within the prior five years. While Joy was upset about the forced outing of her deadname, she was more upset that she was not informed of the requirement at the time she […]

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President Jimmy Carter dead at 100 — here’s his history as an LGBTQ+ ally

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Former President Jimmy Carter, the 39th U.S. president, will be remembered as a staunch LGBTQ+ ally, although it took him time to evolve on some issues. The former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner died on Sunday after over a year in hospice care. He is the longest-lived U.S. president. He passed away at his home in Plains, Ga. — the same house he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died last year, spent the majority of their lives, according to the Carter Center. “Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” the center wrote on X, formerly […]

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Equality Wrapped: Key Takeaways from LGBTQ-Related Policy in 2024

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As this unprecedented year of change comes to an end, we at MAP are taking a look back at the laws and policies that directly impact the experiences of LGBTQ people across the country. Below, we offer an overview of the major trends and biggest shifts from the past 12 months. High Level Points of Interest MAP’s real-time tracking shows that anti-LGBTQ laws were enacted in at least 18 states this year, but it also highlights numerous wins, including the fact that 92% of anti-LGBTQ bills introduced this year have not become law, according to the ACLU, as of December 10, 2024. […]

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Out ER nurse Molly Cook explains how she won 4 elections in just one year

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State Sen. Molly Cook, 33, a sixth-generation Texan and former ER nurse, starts a new term in January after multiple campaigns in a single year that would have left a less energetic candidate exhausted on a beach on South Padre Island. Not so for Cook, who has only upped her game with every electoral challenge. A savvy internet presence — substitute “Hi, guys” with “Hey, y’all” and you get Cook’s polished, Texas-styled YouTube video intros — the millennial lawmaker is all about the organizing, online and off. “I’m ready to go all gas, no brakes,” Cook enthuses in a clip introducing her […]

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Courthouse that issued country’s first gay marriage license becomes National Historic Landmark

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U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced this week that the Boulder County Courthouse in Colorado has been designated a National Historic Landmark for being the site of the first issuing of a same-sex marriage license in the United States.  On March 26, 1975, Boulder County Clerk Clela Rorex issued the license after confirming with the assistant district attorney that state law did not ban marriage between two people of the same sex.  “This act of courage ignited a nationwide conversation about marriage equality and cemented the courthouse’s role as a symbol of hope and progress for the LGBTQ+ community,” […]

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These knitters are keeping thousands of LGBTQ homeless youths cozy this winter

Knit the Rainbow founder Austin Rivers, right, and Shamus MacFarlane, the organization’s administrative assistant.Jay Valle / NBCU Academy Like many who took up new hobbies during the pandemic, Austin Rivers found comfort in knitting. But his craft took on a larger meaning when he realized his scarves and hats could also support his New York City queer community.  He was particularly eager to help homeless LGBTQ youths, who comprise up to 40% of the country’s homeless youth population. “I don’t have the capacity to build a shelter, the network or the connections to help in that way, but what I can do […]

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