On Tuesday afternoon, police apprehended a man caught in the act of vandalizing the Pink Triangle, San Francisco’s annual and iconic Pride Month commemoration atop Twin Peaks.
The nearly acre-wide art installation overlooking the Castro District was defaced with black spray paint. 19-year-old Lester Bamacajeronimo of San Francisco was apprehended at around 12:30 p.m. shortly after police arrived on the scene and gave chase.
“Officers pursued the male suspect on foot and detained him,” SFPD said in a statement. “Evidence of vandalism tools were located and seized. Charges are pending.”
A motive in the crime has yet to be determined.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie condemned the vandalism as “hateful.”
“This Pride Month, we commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Pink Triangle, a powerful installation that celebrates the resilience of our LGBTQ+ community. This hateful act of vandalism does not reflect San Francisco’s values and will not be tolerated,” Lurie said in a statement.
Founder of the Triangle Project, Patrick Carney, described the damage as foot-wide zigzagging lines that run back and forth across the installation.
Twenty-six of the 175 tarps that comprise the massive triangle were damaged, he told KRON News.
Pink paint will likely be used to restore the damaged tarps, Carney said. “However, that’s a temporary fix, and we’ll still have to throw those tarps away.”
Carney said anti-transgender stickers had been popping up near the triangle prior to yesterday’s vandalism. He and other community members have responded by covering them up with tape or scratching them out.
The Pink Triangle has been subject to violence before, with several of the pink canvas tarps set ablaze during Pride Month in 2009. The triangle has been graffitied at least twice in the past, Carney said.
The Pink Triangle first appeared as a rogue art installation high above the city in 1995, reclaiming the symbol gay people were identified with by the Nazi regime in Germany in the 1930s and ’40s.
Hundreds of volunteers gather annually to put the triangle together at the beginning of June.
California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) called the vandalism a “horrific attack on the LGBTQ community.”
“The Pink Triangle is a symbol of our community’s resilience in the face of hatred and violence,” Wiener said in a statement. “We’re not going anywhere, and no amount of vandalism or violence will change that.”
The triangle will remain atop Twin Peaks until after San Francisco’s Pride parade and festival on June 29.
President-elect Donald Trump has named Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as his choice for secretary of state, even though the two once traded barbs as political rivalsduring the 2016 Republican presidential primary.
While Rubio has primarily served as a legislator for his home state of Florida, he has unwaveringly maintained anti-LGBTQ+ policy stances throughout his political career.
Marco Rubio at a glance
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Rubio has long opposed same-sex marriage, saying back in 2015 that the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing marriage equality was an example of the “government compelling” people “to sin.” He has said it is the duty of Christians to oppose the ruling.
He has also said he doesn’t believe that the U.S. Constitution gives the federal government the right to regulate marriage, the laws of which have traditionally been determined by states.
“There is no way that you can read that Constitution and deduce from it that there is a constitutional right to an abortion, or a constitutional right to marry someone of the same sex,” Rubio said.
In July 2022, Rubio said marriage equality is not “a real issue” (despite U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas saying that marriage equality should be overturned). He voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, a law requiring states and the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages. He reportedly called the law “a stupid waste of time.”
Trans children in sports
Rubio supports the so-called Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023, a law that would require schools’, colleges’, and universities’ athletics programs to determine a participant’s sex “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
In January 2024, Rubio sent a letter to USA Boxing for allowing “biological men to fight biological women,” a reference to the organization’s policy of allowing trans women to compete with cisgender women. He dishonestly stated that sports organizations’ trans inclusive policies compel athletes who identify as trans “to undergo dangerous and irreversible surgery that sterilizes them for life.”
During his 2022 re-election campaign, he ran transphobic ads accusing his opponent Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) of voting “to allow transgender youth sports.” His claim was based on Demings’ support of the Equality Act, legislation that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to pre-existing federal civil rights laws. The act would enshrine the rights of trans people to participate in school sports.
Transgender access to public bathrooms
When asked by the Catholic News Service whether “biological males should be permitted to use the women’s room in federal facilities and parks around the country,” Rubio responded, “No, I think men’s bathrooms are for men and women’s bathrooms are for women.”
He has also criticized the administration of President Joe Biden for requiring federal contractors to allow trans employees to use bathrooms matching their gender identity.
“We don’t send kids to school so the schools can raise our kids,” Rubio said. “We send them so they can teach them; raising kids are the job of parents and families, not schools. And so that’s what that bill does.”
Gender-affirming care for trans youth
Rubio opposes gender-affirming care for all transgender individuals regardless of age. Towards this end, he supported the Protecting Conscience in Healthcare Act to prohibit federal or state government agencies and “covered entities,” such as hospitals and health clinics, from requiring employees to recognize the existence of trans people or assist in the provision of gender-affirming care.
“It is deeply disturbing to see the progressive left infiltrate the American healthcare system and compromise the quality of patient care in the process,” Rubio wrote in September 2023.
Additionally, he has called gender-affirming care “harmful to children’ and claimed that it “undermines the legitimate role parents must play in the health of their children.”
“It is irresponsible and malicious to recommend these procedures to young people,” Rubio wrote in March 2023.
Discrimination protections
Rubio opposes the Equality Act, legislation that would enshrine LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination protections into federal law.
He also opposed President Barack Obama’s Executive Order 13672, which prohibited anti-LGBTQ+ workplace discrimination among companies doing business with the federal government. Rubio said the order required organizations to “violate the tenets of their faith,” by requiring them to treat queer employees fairly and with respect.
“There are many government contractors and small companies who provide services to the government who are faith-based people, and they are, they are being compelled to sin by government in their business conduct,” Rubio said. “That is not something we should be supporting.”
Same-sex adoption
Rubio supported Florida’s now-defunct ban on same-sex couples adopting.
“Some of these kids are the most disadvantaged in the state,” Rubio said a 2006 article in the Tallahassee Democrat. “They shouldn’t be forced to be part of a social experiment.” The state’s ban was overturned in 2010.
Other LGBTQ+ issues
In February 2023, Rubio and Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) introduced a bill to ban transgender people from serving openly in the U.S. military.
Rubio has spoken at least twice to groups that support so-called “conversion therapy,” attempts to change people’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Rubio’s career
In 1993, graduated with Bachelors of Arts degree in political science from the University of Florida
In 1996, graduated with a Juris Doctor from the University of Miami School of Law
During law school, Interned for U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
Worked on Republican senator Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign
In 1999, won election to Florida’s House of Representatives. Served until 2008.
Became first Cuban-American to be speaker of the Florida House of Representatives from 2005 to 2008
Elected to U.S. Senate in 2010. Re-elected in 2016 and 2022.
Nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as Secretary of State.
Rubio’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies may soon affect the world
If Rubio gets confirmed by the Senate as Trump’s Secretary of State, he will wield tremendous power by essentially signaling to other countries that the U.S. will tolerate anti-LGBTQ+ civil rights violations. This will endanger queer people and their allies and empower far-right and authoritarian political forces that may also work in the long-term against U.S. interests.
Gina Ortiz Jones, a lesbian and military veteran who served in President Joe Biden’s administration, has been elected mayor of San Antonio, the second-largest city in Texas and seventh-largest in the U.S.
Jones beat Rolando Pablos, a former Texas secretary of state, in a runoff election Saturday. The margin was 54.3 percent to 45.7 percent, according to Ballotpedia. They advanced to the runoff because no candidate out of 27 in the May 3 general election received a majority of the vote. In the general election, Jones led with 27.2 percent and Pablos came in second with 16.6 percent. The current mayor, Ron Nirenberg, could not run again due to term limits.
Races for mayor and other city positions in San Antonio are officially nonpartisan, but this election was partisan in practice. Jones emphasized her affiliation with the Democratic Party, while Pablos, who was elected secretary of state as a Republican, highlighted his ties to leading Republicans such as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Jones was undersecretary of the Air Force during the Biden administration; she was the first lesbian, second member of the LGBTQ+ community, and first woman of color (she’s Filipina American) to serve in the post. She twice ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House as a Democrat.
She was an intelligence officer in the Air Force and was deployed to Iraq during the war there, serving under “don’t ask, don’t tell.” After leaving the Air Force, she worked for the federal government as an adviser on intelligence and trade, with agencies including the Defense Intelligence Agency and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. She left government service six months into Donald Trump’s first term.
In the mayoral race, “she campaigned on her plans to expand early-childhood education to more children and increase affordable housing and work programs for unskilled workers,” The New York Timesreports.
“San Antonio showed up and showed out,” she told supporters Saturday night after the results came in. “We reminded them that our city is about compassion and it’s about leading with everybody in mind. … So I look forward to being a mayor for all.”
Two other cities among the largest 10 in the nation have had LGBTQ+, specifically lesbian, mayors. Annise Parker was mayor of Texas’s largest city, Houston, from 2010 to 2016. Until recently, she was president and CEO of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund. Houston is the fourth-largest city in the U.S. Another lesbian, Lori Lightfoot, was mayor of Chicago, the third-largest, from 2019 to 2023.
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson hailed Jones’s victory, releasing this statement: “Every one of us deserves leaders who value equality and will fight to ensure that we can live freely without fear of discrimination. Gina Ortiz Jones is that leader. That’s why HRC was proud to make calls and knock doors to help mobilize Equality Voters in San Antonio and put her over the finish line. Her win isn’t just exciting, it’s historic; as the first ever openly LGBTQ+ mayor of San Antonio during a time of ceaseless attacks on our community, Gina is emblematic of the resilience, strength, and joy that our community has already used to thrive in challenging times. We can’t wait to see her get to work tackling the problems that are impacting our neighbors, families and coworkers and standing up for the rights and safety of every San Antonian.”
Evan Low, president and CEO of LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, which endorsed Jones, issued this statement: “Gina Ortiz-Jones is LGBTQ+ Victory Fund family, and we are proud to see her rise to lead America’s seventh-largest city as mayor. As a veteran, her service reflects the estimated 1 million LGBTQ+ veterans who have contributed to our nation with honor, distinction, and an unyielding warrior spirit. San Antonio voters made the right call by sending Gina to City Hall, not only making history but selecting a candidate who is driven to make lives better in her hometown.”
Jones will be sworn in June 18 for a four-year term.
There are approximately 49,000 LGBTQ+ adult immigrants living in Los Angeles County who do not have U.S. citizenship, according to a new report from the Williams Institute, including 26,000 who hold lawful residency and 23,000 who are undocumented. Of these groups, 5,200 are transgender or nonbinary, just under 1,000 of whom are undocumented.
Over 1.25 million LGBTQ+ adult immigrants live in the U.S., with an estimated 10 percent — 122,000 people — living in Los Angeles County. About 60 percent of LGBTQ+ non-citizens in the county have origins in Latin America.
Immigration enforcement could most severely impact Los Angeles County Supervisorial Districts 1 and 2, which contain several historically Black, Latine, Asian, and Pacific Islander neighborhoods. These districts are home to nearly 29,000 LGBTQ+ non-citizens — nearly 60 percent of all LGBTQ+ non-citizens in the county — who are at heightened risk as the president deploys more law enforcement in response to ongoing anti-ICE protests.
At least 118 immigrants were arrested in Los Angeles between Friday and Saturday last week, ICE said in a Saturday post on X, sparking massive protests outside several government buildings in the city’s downtown area. Donald Trumpthen usurped California’s sovereignty by deploying the National Guard without Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s request — the first time since 1965 that a president has bypassed a governor’s authority to deploy the troops.
“LA’s LGBT undocumented immigrants face the most immediate risks of detention and deportation, but LGBT people who hold legal status and even naturalized citizens may face collateral consequences of the increased immigration enforcement,” lead author Laurel Sprague, Research Director at the Williams Institute, said in a statement. “These policies and practices erode trust in community institutions, increase fear and psychological distress, and lead to poorer economic opportunities and overall health outcomes, especially among those who know someone who was detained or deported.”
One high-profile case of an LGBTQ+ immigrant wrongly being detained by ICE in California is Andry Hernández Romero, a 32-year-old gay Venezuelan makeup artist who was secretly deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador’s CECOT prison earlier this year.
Hernández Romero had been awaiting an asylum hearing at Otay Mesa Detention Center when he was deported without warning in March, his attorney Lindsay Toczylowski told The Advocate in April. His lawyers located him only after identifying him in footage posted by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, showing shackled Venezuelan men being marched off a U.S.military plane. A Time photographer said he cried out, “I’m gay! I’m a stylist!” before being taken away.
Hernández Romero is presumed to be inside CECOT, a supermax prison described as a modern-day gulag, where inmates are held often without charges and are denied communication with the outside world. His legal team has received no confirmation of his condition or whereabouts.
Members of Macon’s LGBTQ community gathered inside The Tubman Museum of African American Art, History, and Culture on June 5 to celebrate the start of Pride season and the induction of three local advocates at the forefront of activism, art, and education who have contributed significantly to LGBTQ visibility and progress.
Portraits of Marques Redd, co-founder and co-executive director of Rainbow Serpent, Richard Frazier, artistic and executive director of Theatre Macon, and Dr. Thomas Bullington, senior lecturer of English and Liberal Arts at Mercer University, were among 21 influential Macon LGBTQ leaders featured in the Pioneers and Trailblazers exhibit. Created in partnership with Storytellers Macon, inductees also shared their journeys of self-acceptance and advocacy throughout the evening.
Richard Frazier shares his story as a theatre professional in Macon and his journey toward self-acceptance as a gay man of mixed-race heritage during the Pioneers and Trailblazers Photo History Exhibit. (Image: Darian Aaron)
“We’ve been doing this exhibit for the past four years,” said DeMarcus Beckham, co-founder and special events chair of Macon Pride. “Each year, we add two to three individuals who we feel have contributed not just to Macon but our region’s history and the preservation of our communities’ civil rights.”
Since 2019, Macon Pride has hosted its annual Pride festival during the last week of September, and this year, the tradition will continue in addition to special programming throughout the month of June. For inductee Richard Frazier, the availability of multiple events created specifically for LGBTQ Maconites and their allies not only represents a thriving queer community but also creates a different narrative of life as a queer person in a small Southern town.
“Macon is an interesting community because it is a small town, but it’s not a small town in the way that I think people think it is,” Frazier said. “The culture here and the amount of emphasis that our community places on the arts and on creating community for everybody really sets it apart, I think, from most small towns, specifically in Georgia. It has a big city feel where you never know who you’ll get to meet, but it also has this lovely sense of community,” he said.
Multimedia artist and scholar Marques Redd shares his story of reconciling his sexuality with his faith and the affirmation he received through discovering untold stories of queerness in art during the Pioneers and Trailblazers Photo History Exhibit. (Image: Darian Aaron)
Macon native and inductee Marques Redd works to advance Black LGBTQ culture by exploring multimedia art, traditional African spirituality, and emerging tech. He tells GLAAD that the existence of an organization like Macon Pride would have significantly impacted his life during his formative years.
“When I was growing up, such an organization did not exist, and I think that really left a gap for people and the community,” Redd said. “There were no obvious places where people could turn for support, community, help, or fellowship.”
This year and every year going forward, Beckham says organizers want to be intentional about Macon Pride being an organization available to the community every day of the year.
Attendees inside the atrium of the Tubman Museum for Macon Pride’s Pioneer & Trailblazers Photo History Exhibit. (Image: Darian Aaron)
“Having local Pride, there’s a responsibility to show that we have a community here,” Beckham said. “We will hold space. We are your doctors, we are your lawyers, we are the people who are your community servants.”
Like Redd, whose family owned the now-closed Miracles Art Gallery in the 1990s, which housed one of the largest collections of Black art in the Southeast, in addition to his LGBTQ portrait, Redd has also curated a special exhibit of his family’s impressive Black art collection on the second level of the Tubman Museum simply titled “Miracles.”
“Multiple parts of my life are coming together in such a beautiful way, and I’m just excited to share this with everybody,” Redd said.
Beckham beams when discussing the Tubman Museum’s support of the queer community by hosting the LGBTQ photo exhibit and the opportunity provided in the space to celebrate the intersecting identities of the artists and art within its walls.
“To host an event in one of the largest African American museums in the southeast is baffling,” he said. “People will be able to see community spaces like this opening up for [LGBTQ] individuals and for us to have those conversations about intersectionality.”
Inductee Richard Frazier tells GLAAD that the evening was a reminder “to keep spreading love and to keep creating spaces where people feel safe and welcome,” specifically in places where the opposite experience is often expected.
“You can be your most authentic self even in this small town, and you don’t have to go somewhere else to be a part of a larger community or a safe space,” Frazier said. That’s something that I’ve really appreciated about what Macon Pride has done.
Dr. Thomas Bullington poses with a “Shade” fan before the start of Macon Pride’s Pioneer & Trailblazers Photo History Exhibit. (Image: Darian Aaron)
“This goes beyond anything that I could have imagined as a child and a young teenager,” Redd said. “It’s really thrilling to see, and it shows that times are changing. It’s taken community-wide pressure and organizing to make this happen, and I think it shows the power of what we can do when we all come together.”
At least six more Pride-related events are scheduled in Macon in June before more than 4,000 attendees from over 13 different counties in Georgia descend on Macon for the major Pride celebration. Beckham wants folks to know that Pride in Macon is more than “standing on a float dancing to Lady Gaga songs.”
“It’s an opportunity to find resources in your community and to find connections with other people like you,” he said. “But [it’s an opportunity] also to challenge norms because we are here. We have always been here and will continue to hold up space. And as long as there’s breath in my lungs, Macon Pride will exist, and we will have a community here.”
A human rights group has warned a travel ban on 12 countries imposed by Donald Trump will disproportionately affect LGBTQ+ people and other vulnerable groups.
The 78-year-old US president signed a proclamation in the early hours of Thursday (5 May) banning travel to the US for nationals of several countries.
Countries whose citizens are now banned from entering the US are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
The White House cited several national security concerns in a statement after Trump signed the travel ban, claiming it would help protect the US from “foreign terrorists.”
But the proclamation was described as “truly punitive” by Human Rights First attorney, Robyn Barnard, who said the US is trying to punish the countries on the travel ban list.
Speaking to BBC World Service, Barnard, who describes herself as an “immigrant several times over,” said the travel ban mirrors an executive order signed during Trump’s first term in 2017 which banned citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for 90 days.
“There is no clear thread between each,” she said, noting the only “commonalities” between the two travel bans are that several of the countries have “restrictive policies against women and girls and [LGBTQ+] individuals and others,” the travel ban will make it impossible for these discriminated-against groups to “reunite with loved ones in the US”, in the words of Human Rights First.
She continued: “It really feels like it’s about punishment and creating more chaos and dysfunction in our immigration system.”
LGBTQ+ people, women, and girls would be disproportionately affected by the travel ban, experts have said. (Getty)
Hours after Trump signed the travel ban, the US president wrote on his Truth Social platform: “We don’t want them.”
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He cited a recent attack in Boulder Colorado in which 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman threw a set of Molotov cocktails into a crowd of protestors, injuring at least 15 people, according to AP.
Mr Soliman, who was being held by Colorado Police on a $10 million cash-only bond, is an Egyptian national; a country which does not appear on Trump’s travel ban.
Regardless, Trump wrote that the attack “underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted,” as well as those who “come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas.”
On the same day, the president also signed an executive order restricting the right for foreign students to study at Harvard University under temporary visas.
Jay Richards and his partner had decorated their apartment for Pride Month just hours before they received a message from their rental company telling them to take down their banners.
The couple lives in one of three apartments connected to Walker Memorial Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. which the church rent out through EJF Real Estate Services. Since WorldPride is being hosted in D.C. this year, Richards and his partner decided to show their holiday spirit by hanging rainbow flags on their gate alongside a sign reading “Happy Pride.”
It wasn’t long before the two received a message from their rental company asking them to take down the decorations. EJF wrote, via theWashington Blade: “We kindly ask that any decorations or items be removed by Tuesday, June 3, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. If items are still in place after this time, our team will remove them, and please note that a fee may apply for this service.”
The company cited a clause in their lease that prohibits exterior decorations, which the couple understood, but were still disappointed by. They asked if they could keep the decorations up until June 9, when WorldPride ends, which the company granted.
“While we remain mindful of our responsibility to both the lease and our client, we believe this is a respectful and reasonable approach,” a spokesperson for EJF told DC News Now. “EJF will not be removing the decorations ourselves and is honoring the residents’ plan, trusting they will follow through as promised.”
The couple thought that was the end of it, until a custodian from the church entered their gate Tuesday night and cut down the banners while Richards watched through the window. The Pride decorations were left on their doorstep, while the American flags they had put up alongside the rainbows were left untouched. The two then received an email from the church.
“This is not about subject matter. The mission of Walker Memorial Baptist Church is a prayerful congregation, walking in the spirit, bringing souls to Christ,” the message stated. “That is our focus. We seek unity, not division, through our lease requirement that there be no decorations on the outside of the property or common areas. In doing so, we avoid arbitrary decision-making and the need to distinguish between the content or subject matter of any decorations.”
While Richards understands that it was technically against his lease, he thought he had reached a compromise with his rental company. He now feels as if the rule was only enforced by the church because it was related to LGBTQ+ Pride.
“The email they sent me said we can’t put decorations up for any holidays,” Richards told the Blade. “But I do feel like if I had put something up for the holidays for Christmas that they wouldn’t have taken it down. But now they’re saying that no decorations can be put up.”
The No Place for LGBTQ+ Hate Act, introduced Thursday, would ensure that Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ orders would have no force or effect and that no federal funds would be used to put them into effect.
During his second term, Trump has issued executive orders saying the federal government will recognize only two sexes, male and female as assigned at birth, therefore denying the existence of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people; reinstating and expanding the trans military ban; seeking to prevent trans youth from receiving gender-affirming care; seeking to keep trans students from participating in sports under their gender identity; and requiring schools to deny the existence of trans people. Policies based on these orders have been implemented, and most are being challenged in court.
“Freedom is the right to safely live as your authentic self without fear of harassment, discrimination, or violence,” Merkley said in a press release. “President Trump and Republicans are attacking our LGBTQ+ neighbors, friends, and family members by rubberstamping discrimination in every aspect of daily life. As we mark Pride Month this year, we say ‘hell no’ to this hate and honor those who have fought for LGBTQ+ equality by never giving up on the vision of America as a land of freedom for all.”
“Trump cannot take away our rights or our health care just with the stroke of a pen,” Balint added. “I’m standing with Senator Merkley and my colleagues to show the Trump administration that their hate and dehumanizing rhetoric targeting queer Americans doesn’t intimidate us. We won’t back down when it comes to protecting our rights. No matter how much they try to erase us and our history, LGBTQI+ people are valued members of every community across this country.”
“LGBTQ+ people, including transgender people, live and work in every community. They serve in Congress, run companies, protect our country, and build families,” HRC Director of Government Affairs Jennifer Pike Bailey said in the release. “That means LGBTQ+ people deserve the same dignity and respect as everyone else. But the Trump-Vance Administration has launched an unrelenting assault on LGBTQ+ lives, issuing one executive action after another aimed at making it harder to see a doctor, go to school, and live life openly. Thank you to Senator Merkley and Congresswoman Balint for pushing back and declaring that this should be a country where freedom truly exists for all.”
“From day one, this administration has conspired to encourage and promote policies designed not simply to strip trans and intersex people of critical civil rights protections, but to push them out of nearly all sectors of public life,” said Sinead Murano-Kinney, Advocates for Trans Equality health policy analyst. From our jobs, schools, and access to medically necessary care to the use of public accommodations and participation in sports, the Trump Administration has sought to deny the existence of trans, nonbinary, and intersex people and to dehumanize us.”
“These actions by President Trump are baseless and lawless, far exceeding his powers and threatening the freedom and lives of transgender people across the country,” said ACLU Senior Legislative Advocate Ian Thompson.”This administration has made clear their goal is pushing transgender people out of public life entirely, and his executive orders have threatened their rights as workers, as patients, and as citizens. We are thankful for the leadership of Senator Merkley and Representative Balint in introducing this measure and we will continue to demand accountability for this administration and their dangerous, unconstitutional actions towards LGBTQ people.”
“This bill is a vital step in defending the rights, dignity, and safety of transgender people, who have again and again been maliciously targeted by the Trump administration’s discriminatory executive orders,” said Emily Martin, chief program officer at the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund. “These orders are rooted not in facts or fairness, but in fearmongering and bigotry. We refuse to let trans people be scapegoated by the administration’s campaign to erase their identities, deny them lifesaving health care, and push them out of schools, sports, and public life. We will always fight back against this lawless cruelty and recognize that these attacks both deeply harm trans people and threaten the rights and safety of all women and girls.”
A federal judge has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to deport a transgender immigrant after officers arrested her during her asylum hearing — but her attorneys say they still haven’t been able to contact her.
O.J.M., known only by her initials out of concerns for her safety, was leaving a courtroom during her asylum hearing on Monday when she was detained by ICE agents, who demanded that the court dismiss her case. She was then taken from the courthouse in Portland, Ore. and forcibly moved across state lines to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Wash.
ICE did not inform O.J.M.’s attorneys, from the immigration law firm Innovation Law Lab, of her location after her arrest, prompting them to file a habeas petition. The filing, obtained by Oregon Public Broadcasting, accuses ICE officials of committing “a deceptive sleight of hand” in an effort “to eject O.J.M. from her own asylum case, detain her, and transfer her away from the District of Oregon so that they can rapidly deport her.”
“Only nearly two years after O.J.M. was released from [immigration] custody and months after she applied for asylum, [officials] commenced removal proceedings against her in immigration court where she could present her asylum claim under the due process rights,” the petition reads. “O.J.M. had properly filed her asylum application, but ICE appears to be attempting to place her in expedited removal, a rapid deportation process with minimal protections.”
The petition says that O.J.M., who is is a 24-year-old trans woman, fled from Mexico to the U.S. in 2023 “fearing for her life” after she was abducted and raped “at the hands of a dangerous cartel” — the Knights Templar Cartel — because of her gender identity. It states: “They threatened to kill her because O.J.M. is a transgender woman.”
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Baggio issued an order on Tuesday commanding ICE not to remove O.J.M. from Oregon, but officials responded that they had already done so. Baggio then ordered ICE to report the “exact date and time” that she was transferred, as well as why agents “believed that such a move was immediately necessary,” and updated her order to forbid them from transporting her out of Tacoma, per OPB.
While O.J.M.’s lawyers are now aware of her location, they still have not been able to contact her. LGBTQ+ nonprofit Basic Rights Oregon said in a statement that the arrest “is an alarming escalation of the Trump Administration’s attacks on the safety of immigrants and refugees,” particularly because “the Trump Administration has made it a point to strip away as many legal protections for trans immigrants as they can.”
“Trans folks are often asylum seekers, and many have endured grave harm in their country of origin due to gender identity or sexual orientation,” the organization wrote. “Transgender individuals in immigration detention are at high risk for physical and sexual assault, denial of necessary medical care, and isolation in facilities used for punitive reasons.”
“Oregon is stronger because of immigrants, and because of transgender people,” it continued. “It is outrageous that ICE would come to Oregon and target a trans woman who is guilty only of seeking a safe and affirming place to live. Courthouse arrests destroy the integrity of our justice system.”
Just hours before Naples Pride was set to go with an outdoors drag show performance in the city’s Cambier Park, a federal court ruled against Pride’s plan, forcing it to move the performance indoors.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta on June 6 granted the city of Naples’ motion to stay a preliminary injunction that District Judge John Steele granted last month in Fort Myers.
Naples Pride in April filed a federal lawsuit against the city after officials denied a permit to allow it to present the 2025 Pride Fest drag show, one of its main moneymakers, outdoors.
