A nonbinary person in Brazil has been granted official documents with a neutral gender marker for the first time in a historic and unanimous court victory.
The case involves a person who originally requested to be recognized as male on their official documents after they started hormone replacement therapy, but they later regretted making this decision and appealed to the Supreme Court of Justice in Brasilia. The person’s name has not been published in the media.
A panel of five judges at the court ruled in their favor, with Judge Nancy Andrighi writing in her ruling: “This human being must be suffering greatly. To undergo surgery, take hormones, become what she thought would be good for her and then realize it was not the case.”
The case is currently sealed, but it represents the first time that someone in Brazil has been able to get gender neutral official documents in the country, according to the AP.
For over a decade, the organization I founded, Gays With Kids, has proudly stood as a beacon of support, education, and visibility for gay men on the path to fatherhood. From the beginning, our mission has been rooted in a singular belief: Every person, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, deserves the opportunity to create and raise a family. That belief hasn’t changed. But the world around us has.
Over the past year, we’ve watched with growing alarm as the movement against DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) has moved from fringe rhetoric to mainstream policy. Politicians and influencers alike have declared open season on the very principles that helped us inch closer to equality, principles that affirmed our right not just to live openly, but to love, marry, and parent with dignity.
These attacks have consequences.
When laws are passed to defund DEI initiatives, or when universities are forced to shutter offices that serve LGBTQ+ students, or when healthcare providers are threatened for offering gender-affirming care, the ripple effect is felt across every aspect of LGBTQ+ life, including family building.
Surrogacy, adoption, foster care, and fertility access are already complex and costly journeys. For LGBTQ+ people, they’re even more so, compounded by legal roadblocks, discriminatory policies, and social stigma.
DEI frameworks were never about “special rights”; they were about leveling the playing field, ensuring that our families had the same opportunities, protections, and support systems as any other. Without these systems in place, the path to parenthood becomes steeper, narrower, and more uncertain.
That’s why I’m thrilled that the GWK Academy is officially expanding its services beyond gay men to support all LGBTQ+ people with their family-building needs. In doing so, we are transitioning into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization—a move that allows us to provide free, vital educational resources, advocacy, and community to anyone in our community hoping to become a parent.
This expansion comes at a critical moment. As anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric becomes more emboldened, as rights and resources are rolled back in state after state, and as disinformation spreads regarding what it means to be an LGBTQ+ parent, we are doubling down on our commitment to serve the entire community: gay dads, lesbian moms, queer parents, transgender and nonbinary people, bisexual parents, and anyone who needs a trusted, affirming guide to help navigate the journey to parenthood.
We are doing this not just because it is right, but because it is necessary.
Let’s be clear: The current wave of efforts against DEI is not just a political maneuver. It is a targeted attempt to silence, erase, and disempower marginalized communities, including LGBTQ+ families. These policies don’t just remove language from mission statements; they remove critical support from the real people who need it. For LGBTQ+ prospective parents, that can mean losing access to affirming healthcare providers, adoption agencies, legal protections, and financial resources.
By becoming a nonprofit, GWK Academy is taking a bold step to insulate our work from these attacks. We are building partnerships with LGBTQ+ affirming clinics, agencies, and legal experts to ensure our community can access accurate, inclusive, and life-changing information. We are creating new educational programs tailored to all family-building paths, from IVF to foster care, from co-parenting to adoption. And we are advocating — loudly and proudly — for a world where LGBTQ+ parents and their children are not just accepted but celebrated.
This is a deeply personal mission. Like so many LGBTQ+ people, I grew up believing that being gay meant I would never be a dad. And yet, here I am — a proud father, raising children in a loving and supportive home. I know the joy that comes from becoming a parent. I also know the fear, the confusion, and the heartbreak that can come with navigating a system that wasn’t built for us.
GWK Academy exists to change that.
To every LGBTQ+ person out there wondering if parenthood is possible for you: Yes, it is. And we are here to walk that journey with you, every step of the way. Whether you’re just beginning to explore your options, deep into the legal paperwork, or already a parent looking to connect with community, we’ve got your back.
When you think about Bible study, images might pop into your head of kids learning principles like forgiveness or loving thy neighbor, and that’s just what LifeWise Academy advertises on its website: “A supportive and inclusive atmosphere where everyone feels valued.”
But for many parents and LGBTQ kids in at least 591 American public schools with LifeWise programs, that’s far from the truth.
One parent says their daughter was “mercilessly bullied by LifeWise kids for ‘looking like a Lesbian who is going to burn in hell.’” Another had to remove their transgender son from school after he was bullied following the presidential election, with the school fearing LifeWise staff and students would make things worse.
And a third parent—a queer mom—says, “As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, my children’s safety in the public school setting is compromised when students are permitted to be removed from the school… to be taught discriminatory and harmful things about my family.”
For an hour a week, students from kindergarten through 12th grade learn about religious concepts rooted—in part—in homophobia and transphobia. For example, students are taught that anything other than a nuclear family, with one mom and one dad who are married, is wrong and that there is no such thing as being transgender.
LifeWise even requiresitsemployees to agree to their worldview statement, which says, “God’s design for the gift of sex is for it to be exercised and enjoyed exclusively within the covenant relationship of marriage between one man and one woman. Additionally, a person’s sex has been given as a gift from God and should not be altered.”
“This is not just learning about a religion,” says Sloan Okrey Anderson, an assistant professor of social work at St. Catherine University who researches LGBTQ populations and Christianity. “The content is from a very specific, hyper-conservative, white American evangelical perspective, a very specific white nationalist-adjacent version of Christianity.”
Since its inception seven years ago, LifeWise has grown massively with 50,000 students projected to attend LifeWise classes across 29 states. The organization was founded in Ohio, which has at least 197 programs, and it has a disproportionate presence in the Midwest.
LifeWise’s growth in the U.S. reflects a trend of politicians and lawmakers attempting to incorporate Christianity in public schools and minimize LGBTQ representation. Last year, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public education announced all schools in the state would be required to teach students about the Bible—a decision which came shortly after Louisiana attempted to mandate that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom. This is all occurring as the Supreme Court seems poised to side with Maryland parents who want to remove their kids from classes that are teaching LGBTQ-themed books.
How LifeWise Is Allowed to Operate
Since American public schools aren’t allowed to promote any one religion, LifeWise uses what’s known as Released Time Religious Instruction (RTRI), a precedent set in a 1952 Supreme Court case that allows public school students with parental consent to receive religious education off school property during the school day, although it was only meant to be used by individual families, not a nationwide organization.
RTRI prohibits public funds from being used to facilitate the program and schools from promoting it, but LifeWise gets around this by having children recruit their peers and bribing them with sweet treats. For example, LifeWise in Wauseon, Ohio, has provided children with “student business cards” to hand out to friends and has said, “If you [can] get 90 kids to come, [we’ll] give you an ice cream party.”
LifeWise Academy Wauseon, OH. Student business cards | Screenshot: Wauseon Character Academy on YouTube
Curriculum
LifeWise teaches elementary and middle school students a variety of Christian principles. But embedded in the core curriculum are more insidious, anti-LGBTQ teachings. In a sixth grade lesson plan obtained by Uncloseted Media, LifeWise teaches 11– to 12-year-olds that “God created people as ‘male and female’” and “God designed two separate, distinct genders to complement one another in relationship.”
But high school is where the curriculum really sinks its teeth into issues related to LGBTQ identities. LifeWise’s high school curriculum uses the “Foundations” series that starts with “Understanding the Times,” based on a book by the same name.
The original book was written in 2006 by Jeff Myers and David Noebel, two conservative evangelicals, and contains a plethora of harmful and untrue homophobic, transphobic and even Islamophobic teachings.
On page 324, they write, “Being raised by parents who have been involved in same-sex relationships is correlated with several negative social outcomes, including crime, substance abuse, and forced sexual encounters.”
And on page 409, they critique people who disavow heteronormative power structures: “This way of thinking continues to creep into judicial decisions, most recently … through the decision of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy to overthrow the Defense of Marriage Act because he viewed it as oppressive to people experiencing same-sex attraction.”
Okrey Anderson says that reducing LGBTQ identities down to worldviews is a distinct form of othering. “You’re granting permission to and empowering these kids to go out and see people’s identities and lived experiences as a worldview to be debated and you’re othering them. … Every scrap of misinformation that you spread about trans people translates directly into violence against trans people.”
Beyond the curriculum, LifeWise has a rulebook that gives instructors—who are not required to have teaching certifications from the Department of Education—guidance on how to answer “difficult questions from students.”
Excerpt from Lifewise’s Difficult Questions from Students document. | screenshot
The document explains that anyone who is experiencing gender dysphoria or is attracted to someone of the same sex should deny those feelings. If a child asks, “What would God think if I changed my gender?” LifeWise teachers are instructed to deny that trans, gender diverse and intersex people exist, and to explain that “God made us male or female. No matter how we feel, or how confused we are, we should trust and respect God’s perfect design and how He created us.”
If a kid asks about same-sex relationships, LifeWise instructs teachers to explain that “God designed the first man and woman to have a loving relationship with one another in marriage” and “anything different from this kind of romantic relationship between a husband and a wife is sin.”
“It’s grotesque,” says Olivia Murray, a professor at Portland State University whose research focuses on education. “From a child, youth and adolescent perspective, how does this build critical thinkers?”
Murray says social and emotional learning should teach children to “call out and question what we know and think deeper into the how and the why of knowledge.” She says a better approach might be to ask a question in return like, “What do you think of your friend who was presumed male at birth that uses female pronouns?” or “What’s your interpretation of the Bible and how might that impact your religion and relationships in the world?”
Policies and Staff
LifeWise operates with little diversity. According to its website, all of its senior leadership boast nuclear families, and three-quarters are men.
Staff are expected to remain abstinent, with the only exception being for those in heterosexual marriages.
Excerpt from LifeWise’s team member conduct policy. | screenshot
Christopher Elder was a volunteer at LifeWise’s chapter in Paulding Village, Ohio, until he was terminated shortly after he started dating his boyfriend.
“My identity in Christ, to me, looks like loving and supporting my boyfriend and everyone in the LGBTQ community,” Elder, 25, told Uncloseted Media. But when he told his director he had a boyfriend and asked if he could continue to volunteer, he was surprised by the answer. His director said, “Since the LifeWise Worldview Statement is that God’s design is for marriage to be between one man and one woman and your current choice doesn’t align with that stance, I think it’s best that you not volunteer at this time.”
Christopher Elder {right} and his boyfriend [left} | Photo courtesy of Elder
The director at LifeWise’s Paulding Village, Ohio chapter did not respond to Uncloseted Media’s request for comment.
“I thought that as long as Jason and I are abstinent, then I [could] still volunteer,” says Elder. “I’m not killing anybody, I’m not blatantly opposing the Bible, it’s just this one thing. … It’s unfair and unjust because my biggest passion is serving Christ.”
Murray says this discrimination creates an awful learning environment for teachers and students alike. “From an educator perspective, we need to teach with integrity and oftentimes that means adhering to our identity,” she says. “To teach in ways that are closeted or against our lived experiences or desires can be disingenuous and students can feel that.”
LifeWise’s repressive policies extend as far as using the bathroom. Their policy manual states that “team members and students attending LifeWise will use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender identified on their birth certificates.” If staff don’t abide, they will face disciplinary action. If students don’t follow, they’ll be outed to their parents.
“It’s always gonna be based on passing,” says Okrey Anderson. “Even cis kids who are maybe ambiguous-looking—they’re going to be targeted specifically by leadership for a conversation where they’re told ‘Hey, you need to dress more femininely’ or whatever it may be.”
LifeWise did not respond to Uncloseted Media’s request for comment.
Concerned Parents
As the program infiltrates public schools across the country, some school districts are deciding not to allow LifeWise to operate. Last year, at a Board of Education meeting in Westerville, Ohio, one mom explained to the Board why she and her wife decided not to opt their daughter into LifeWise.
“LifeWise has a clearly stated anti-LGBTQIA policy,” she said. “My daughter has explained on numerous occasions [that] she has been confronted by peers in LifeWise. She’s been asked to explain why she does not attend and pressed about if she believes in Christ, in God, in religion. … All of this seems incredibly counterproductive for a school district that otherwise is so clearly committed to diversity, equity, inclusion and student safety and wellbeing.”
But parents are pushing back beyond School Board meetings. Revere City Schools—also in Ohio—have been under pressure from Revere Citizens Against LifeWise Academy, a group fighting to keep the program out of their community.
“Public education is literally the cornerstone of our democracy and it is just one more thing that is being threatened along with book bans and teachers,” Gaines told Uncloseted Media, adding that they have upward of 14,000 group members on Facebook. “We wanted to bring awareness to that, and the more we looked into it, the more nefarious it became.”
Since 2023, Parrish and Gaines’ group has amassed a massive collection of documents and knowledge on LifeWise and its operations, most of which would likely still be kept behind closed doors if it wasn’t for their work. Their website contains resources to help parents make an informed decision about whether to opt their children in, as well as testimony from concerned parents.
Among their findings are 140 internal policy documents, information about LifeWise’s funding—which includes over $3.4 million in grants, including some from the notoriously anti-LGBTQ National Christian Foundation—and details about how LifeWise conducts background checks and trains its educators.
In one shocking discovery, they found that an Ohio teacher, who was previously fired from a public school for sexting with a student, was subsequently hired to be a local program director at LifeWise.
Their methods for obtaining this information landed Parrish a lawsuit from LifeWise last year that ended in a settlement agreement.
Despite pushback efforts, LifeWise has forged a clear path for growth. In at least 11 states, school districts are required to have a policy that greenlights programs like LifeWise, leaving communities with no mechanism to keep the Academy out.
LifeWise’s ultimate goal is for conservative Christian teachings to be embedded in public schools across America.
And in select schools, this is already happening. Starting later this year, the LifeWise chapter in Liberty Center, Ohio, will begin offering a for-credit class for high school students. If LifeWise has their way, this could spread across the country thanks to model legislation provided by the Released Time Resource Institute, a LifeWise-founded think tank that provides resources for legislators and educators.
“A lot of people from conservative backgrounds often fear the recruitment of queer and trans folks recruiting other people in, and I feel like it’s really flipped on its head here,” says Murray. “This grooming that’s occurring here … is incredibly damaging.”
Okrey Anderson agrees. “By exposing kids to this type of theology—whether that’s queer kids or not—you are potentially robbing those kids of a future spiritual life. … You could be poisoning them forever to have a meaningful relationship to deity in a way that feels safe and comfortable for them.”
This story was originally published in Uncloseted Media. For all their LGBTQ-focused journalism, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber at UnclosetedMedia.com.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the largest U.S. professional association of pediatricians (representing an estimated 67,000 members), has condemned a report opposing gender-affirming care recently released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As such, the AAP has directed its pediatric healthcare providers to “continue to support pediatricians and the well-being of all children” by continuing to provide gender-affirming care to youth as endorsed by almost all major U.S. medical associations.
“This report misrepresents the current medical consensus and fails to reflect the realities of pediatric care,” said AAP President, Dr. Susan J. Kressly, M.D., in a statement. “AAP was not consulted in the development of this report, yet our policy and intentions behind our recommendations were cited throughout in inaccurate and misleading ways. The report prioritizes opinions over dispassionate reviews of evidence.”
“As we have seen with immunizations, bypassing medical expertise and scientific evidence has real consequences for the health of America’s children,” Kressly’s statement continued. “Patients, their families, and their physicians—not politicians or government officials —should be the ones to make decisions together about what care is best for them based on evidence-based, age-appropriate care.”
AAP’s statement was co-signed by the American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American College of Physicians, American Osteopathic Association, and American Psychiatric Association.
At the start of May, the Trump administration’s HHS released a 400-page review of trans youth healthcare that called the current best practices for gender-affirming care— endorsed by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) as well as mainstream medical organizations and professionals — “unproven.” The report was completed in just 90 days, identified none of its contributors, and underwent no peer review process before publication.
The report ignored numerous studies in which trans people expressed happiness with their transitions and instead pointed to a 1988 study of low employment and romantic partners among trans people as evidence of trans people doing “poorly” after receiving gender-affirming care. The report also pushed conversion therapy to change the gender identities of trans youth and promoted long-debunked claims that trans youth identify as such due to a mass “social contagion,” and are likely to just be gay or to return to a cisgender identity later in life.
The report also pushed claims that European countries are “pulling back” on gender-affirming care after the review of the United Kingdom’s Cass Review, a four-year-long study of trans healthcare research that excluded numerous studies showing the benefits of gender-affirming care. Despite this claim, major medical associations from France, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have all released reports condemning the Cass Review’s findings.
The AAP has roundly criticized legislative efforts to outlaw gender-affirming care. The AAP joined five other medical organizations representing 600,000 physicians and medical students opposing Republican infringements on the patient-physician relationship, including the Trump administration’s elimination of $477 million in related research grant funding-affirming treatments, removing gender-affirming care as a covered benefit for the children of federal employees and military members, and an April 22 memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi threatening physicians with felony charges for providing certain types of gender-affirming care.
Two days after the College of Cardinals gathered to elect a new pope, a decision has been made. Robert Prevost has been chosen, becoming the first American pope in history. He’s adopted the name Pope Leo XIV.
Leo’s ascension to the papacy comes after Pope Francis, a relatively progressive pope when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights, died last month.
The new pope is from Chicago and is 69. He earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Villanova University in Pennsylvania, then received a diploma in theology at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.
He previously served as a Catholic missionary in South America, CNN reports. He worked in Trujillo, Peru, for about 10 years and then served as bishop of the Peruvian city of Chiclayo from 2014 until 2023.
The outlet states that many believe Leo will continue many of Francis’s reforms.
In his first speech as pope, Leo said, “We have to seek together to be a missionary church. A church that builds bridges and dialogue.”
The new pontiff also honored his predecessor.
“Let us keep in our ears the weak voice of Pope Francis that blesses Rome. The Pope who blessed Rome, gave his blessing to the entire world that morning of Easter. Allow me to follow up on that blessing. God loves us. God loves everyone. Evil will not prevail.”
While he honored Francis, there are some questions about his support of LGBTQ+ rights. Francis made several pro-LGBTQ+ reforms during his papacy. But the new pope has made some anti-LGBTQ+ statements. In 2012, at a meeting of bishops, “he lamented that Western news media and popular culture fostered ‘sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel,’” The New York Times reports. He specifically mentioned the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.” As bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, he objected to a plan to teach about gender in schools, saying, “The promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don’t exist.”
However, “he has voiced compassion for the LGBTQ community,” according to the Meidas Touch Network. But “while he may foster a more welcoming environment, he has not signaled any openness to changing Church teaching on same-sex marriage or the ordination of women,” Meidas Touch reports.
LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD said it looked forward to working with Leo. The group had previously met with Francis to discuss LGBTQ+ rights.
“The Roman Catholic Church stands on the threshold of a hopeful and inclusive new chapter. With Pope Leo XIV’s leadership, there is an extraordinary opportunity to inspire billions around the world and further embrace LGBTQ people with compassion, dignity, and love,” GLAAD’s CEO and president Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement provided to The Advocate. “He can build on the progress already made and help create a Church that truly reflects the universal message of acceptance and care for all. We are hopeful to collaborate with Pope Leo, just as we did with Pope Francis, to help ensure the Church continues to grow as a welcoming home for everyone.”
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which works for LGBTQ+ equality in the Catholic Church, released a statement saying it was “disappointing” to hear of the new pope’s 2012 anti-LGBTQ+ comment. “We pray that in the 13 years that have passed, 12 of which were under the papacy of Pope Francis, that his heart and mind have developed more progressively on LGBTQ+ issues, and we will take a wait-and-see attitude to see if that has happened,” DeBernardo added.
“We pray that as our church transitions from 12 years of an historic papacy, Pope Leo XIV will continue the welcome and outreach to LGBTQ+ people which Pope Francis inaugurated,” he continued. “The healing that began with Who am I to judge? needs to continue and grow to ‘Who am I, if not a friend to LGBTQ+ people?'”
DignityUSA, another LGBTQ+ Catholic group, issued a press release saying in part, “We note that this [2012] statement was made during the papacy of Benedict XVI, when doctrinal adherence appeared to be expected. In addition, the voices of LGBTQ people were rarely heard at that level of church leadership. We pray that Pope Leo XIV will demonstrate a willingness to listen and grow as he begins his new role as the leader of the global Church.”
Like most Americans, I love visiting old places, whether Savannah, Seattle, or Santa Fe. I love historic architecture, gardens, and sacred sites. I like nothing better than hearing music in an old church, eating at a legacy restaurant, or staying at an old Airbnb.
But until a few years ago, I didn’t see myself in the historic sites I toured—not in the grand mansions built by the robber barons in the 19th century from Newport to the Coast of California, nor even in the homes of the founding fathers, from George Washington to John Adams. Though I enjoyed visiting and learned a lot, it was as if the place had to be for fancy or rich people to be a place people cared to save.
In recent years, historic places have begun to tell more stories about the many people who lived and worked there. Those stories can help people see themselves in the place and feel that sense of belonging that is essential for our mental and emotional health and to recognize the connections between us.
The descendants of Italian immigrants see themselves in the stories told at New York’s Tenement Museum and how their experience was like that of Irish immigrants. Jewish people can see themselves in the historic Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, and hear how religious freedom was equally essential to Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians. African-Americans can see themselves in the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and understand how civil rights impact everyone.
Lesbian, gay, bi, transgender, and queer people can see themselves at places that now tell these stories. From Iberia, Lousiana’s Shadows-on-the-Teche, which tells the story of not only of the plantation economy, but also of Weeks Hall and the creative society of straight and queer preservationists in Louisiana. The Pauli Murray House in Durham, North Carolina, tells the story of the lawyer, writer, and Episcopalian saint, Pauli Murray, who questioned her gender. These places tell stories that are layered and complex and include everyone in the history of America.
I’m deeply grateful we tell these stories. I wish these stories had been told when I was younger, because historic places do more than just educate visitors about the past. For many Americans, they are sources of profound personal meaning. But as the Trump Administration moves to erase stories about the fight for equality and equal representation, the stakes have never been higher.
Recently, the National Park Service removed references to transgender and queer people from the website for the Stonewall National Monument. This move completely negates the instrumental role of transgender and queer people who participated in the revolt that jump-started a more activist gay rights movement. This erasure not only prevents transgender and queer people from seeing themselves in our history, and knowing that they will be part of our future, it also erases the connections and complexity for everyone who cares about the progress of the United States toward a more perfect union.
This erasure can also be a matter of life and death for young people.
When I first consciously knew I was gay, my first thought was, Oh, that’s what I am. My second, and immediate, thought was, if anyone ever finds out, I will be killed. For over a decade after that, I was closeted. From time to time, I considered suicide. The rate of suicide among LGBTQ teens is four times the national average.
I wish I had heard and known the stories of LGBTQ+ people like Pauli Murray or Weeks Hall in the places I visited back then. The stories of these places may have given me a sense of belonging, of seeing myself in the world, and in this place we call the United States of America.
The same principle applies to all of us, regardless of who we love or what we look like. That’s why we must continue to tell these stories. They represent the history of our country’s quest to form a more perfect union and ensure that we live up to the ideals on which it was founded.
The mayor of Salisbury, Maryland has announced that three Pride flag crosswalks located in his city’s downtown area will be painted over in order to “maintain neutrality in public spaces.” The city is now soliciting artists to propose designs that “[embody] the character, history, or artistic vibrancy of the city,” WMDT reported.
One LGBTQ Nation reader has accused the mayor of “erasing” the local LGBTQ+ community amid Republican efforts to remove LGBTQ+ visibility and inclusion in public life.
“Our city is home to a diverse and vibrant community, and we want our public spaces to be welcoming to all. However, we also have a responsibility to ensure that government property remains neutral and does not promote any particular movement or cause,” Salisbury Mayor Randy Taylor said. “By moving forward with a neutral design, we are ensuring that city property remains a place where every individual, regardless of background or belief, feels they belong.”
The city has launched the Crosswalk Canvas offering artists a $3,000 stipend for a design that “aligns with the city’s commitment to keeping public spaces free of political or ideological influence while ensuring they remain welcoming and inclusive for all residents.”
The city will choose the winning design by July 14; the decision will be made by panel of city officials and community representatives from the Public Art Committee. The winning artist will begin repainting the crosswalks on July 15, and finish by mid-September. The new designs will remain for up to two years.
The city’s first rainbow crosswalk was painted in 2018 by over 60 Salisbury PFLAG volunteers who donated paint and materials. It was the state’s first rainbow crosswalk, and volunteers traveled from as far as three hours away to help paint it, according to the Salisbury chapter of PFLAG.
The second and third crosswalks — bearing images of the transgender and Progress Pride flags — were painted in 2021 and annually touched up with paint each October starting in 2022 in observation of LGBTQ+ History Month.
“This is grassroots visibility being erased by government policy—and it’s happening in a place where the LGBTQ+ community already faces hostility,” one reader wrote LGBTQ Nation. “The crosswalk was approved by a prior [mayoral] administration … The new administration’s push for ‘neutrality’ is really about erasure.”
Republican- and conservative-led political bodies have tried to outlaw the display of Pride flags as well as various public acknowledgements of LGBTQ+ identities under policies opposing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
On January 20, the day that President Trump again took the oath of office, Monique “Muffie” Mousseau got a slew of emails and phone calls.
“Homophobic people were saying the most horrific things,” she recalled. Two men threatened to kill her, and a woman said she wouldn’t exist any longer: “That I’m a virus to the United States.”
Mousseau is the executive director of Uniting Resilience, a grassroots organization based in Rapids City, South Dakota, that has advocated for LGBTQ+ Native youth since 2019. Following the inauguration, Mousseau and her wife, Felipa De Leon, made the difficult decision to stop posting about their organization’s events and resources on social media. They have become more guarded about their physical space, which has started to house other LGBTQ+ organizations that have been displaced by threats of violence and loss of funding in the new administration. Safety, lately, means keeping a lower profile.
“But we want the public to understand … we do exist and we are helping,” said Mousseau, a member of Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe.
The stakes for Mousseau’s community could not be higher. Queer Indigenous youth — often referred to under the umbrella term of “two-spirit,” which recognizes sexual and gender diversity across many Native tribes — face some of the highest rates of discrimination, harassment, violence and suicide of any group in the LGBTQ+ community.
That is especially true in South Dakota. Native Americans represent over 8 percent of the population, making it the third largest Native population by percentage of any state. In 2022, the LGBTQ+ youth nonprofit The Trevor Project found in a survey that 53 percent of queer youth in South Dakota had seriously contemplated suicide, well above the national average of 37 percent.
For years, South Dakota has been the launchpad for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. As Mousseau and De Leon watch the Trump administration chip away at LGBTQ+ rights nationally, they worry about the consequences at home.
A report released last month by the Human Rights Campaign and Uniting Resilience details the extreme challenges facing South Dakota’s two-spirit youth in everything from schools to housing to law enforcement. The two-year snapshot found that many students who reported facing bullying in school over their gender identity were removed from their classes and forced to learn remotely.
Challenges faced by South Dakota’s Native people are numerous. According to the report, Native South Dakotans are 2.5 times more likely to experience violent crimes and twice as likely be sexually assaulted or raped. The overwhelming majority (93 percent) of the state’s hate crimes were related to a person’s race, ethnicity or LGBTQ+ identity, the report noted.
Ami Patel, senior litigation counsel at the Human Rights Campaign, said the recent report on South Dakota’s two-spirit youth exposed deep disparities facing kids that its organization would not have captured without a collaboration with Uniting Resilience.
“Our hope is to continue to engage with Uniting Resilience on the ground in South Dakota, to continue this work over many more years to come, and also continue to raise awareness,” Patel said.
Increasingly, LGBTQ+ youth, both Indigenous and White, have been seeking out the group for support as the climate in Rapids City grows hostile toward them. The kids have pleaded for help getting support at school. Uniting Resilience knew that tribal histories could offer an example to the youth, an untapped narrative in which they were reflected. Uniting Resilience has helped connect kids and their parents to that history throughout the state, two-spirit youth, allies and even adversaries.
In 2015, the Supreme Court declared that LGBTQ+ couples could marry in every state. But the ruling had no jurisdiction over tribal traditions. As a consequence, De Leon, Mousseau and many other queer indigenous couples went years without being recognized as married in their own communities.
Mousseau and De Leon reviewed the cultural teachings of their tribe to gain clarity on the roles of LGBTQ+ people historically. There were many examples of people assigned male who dressed as women, took care of the chickens and cooked the food. There were female-assigned people who loaded up the horses and prepared the sweat lodge for ceremonies, tasks typically assigned to men.
“And nobody is making fun of them, nobody’s saying anything, just calling them by their name and doing what has to be done,” Mousseau said.
In May 2019, De Leon and Mousseau began to push the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe to recognize marriages like theirs. On July 8 of that year, the tribe passed an ordinance that did just that. That September, the tribe became the first to pass trans-inclusive hate crime protections, punishable by jail time, fines or restitution.
The following winter, South Dakota found itself in the middle of a national debate about health care for transgender minors. But as national press descended upon the capitol, lawmakers were greeted by the sight of two horseback riders with a transgender pride flag. The Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe and others from across the state had shown up en masse to oppose the bill. The bill failed in committee, but perhaps more importantly, the state’s Indigenous leaders had sent a message to lawmakers.
“Homophobia isn’t traditional,” said Mousseau in the HRC report. “That’s a colonized way of thinking.”
The group holds biweekly sweat lodges, weekly youth groups and meetings. Over the past two years, they have hosted more than 500 people at their annual pow-wow. As anti-trans advocates argue that transgender identity is new, Uniting Resilience teaches its youth that they are connected to a long line of other gender diverse people and deeply woven into the state’s history.
“I just want you to know I’m the richest person in this continent because I know our home and our ways and our ceremonies,” Mousseau said. “I don’t judge anybody, and I don’t consider anybody a gender.”
De Leon and Mousseau speak about their work in terms of “flashing lights.” They liken everything they do for LGBTQ+ youth to a crisis response, and they are first responders.
De Leon recalls that in 2016, she learned her own niece had died by suicide. Her niece had been holding hands with another girl, which her teachers said she couldn’t do. De Leon hadn’t even known her niece was LGBTQ+ because family members didn’t tell her. The fact that teachers and family could talk to her niece in such a way still haunts her.
“[Her uncle was] saying we already have a carpet muncher in the family,” De Leon said. “We don’t need another one.”
The realities facing two-spirit youth in South Dakota are only getting harder, said Mousseau. Within two days of Trump’s inauguration, three other LGBTQ+ organizations in the state called Uniting Resilience, asking for office space. They had been ejected from their own. Uniting Resilience made room, even for groups that didn’t represent Native LGBTQ+ people.
But in late April, the group made the excruciating decision to close their office altogether. Mousseau references threats of violence to the organization, murders near the office and displays of white supremacist symbols in town.
“I don’t want any of our LGBTQ+ groups to even experience any kind of violence … and the board knows that too,” she said. “It makes my stomach turn just talking with you about it, but it’s real, and I want you to know that, from my mouth, reality sucks right now with this administration. It’s very bad for somebody like me and my wife, 20 years together, having to navigate if we should hold hands or not.”
Uniting Resilience will continue to meet and hold youth groups, but won’t advertise those meetings widely. They have yet to decide if it’s safe to hold their annual pow-wow.
But Mousseau and De Leon say they are not discouraged. They’re working to educate law enforcement on issues facing two-spirit youth. They’re dreaming big — hoping someone can connect them with Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift.
“I just want you to know that we’re very active in not just our community, not just our state, but nationally,” Mousseau said. “You know, if a millionaire needs to donate money, send ‘em our way.”
The White House’s recently released 2026 budget proposal, sent to Congress last Friday, includes steep cuts to healthcare programs within the CDC and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These programs include research into LGBTQ+ communities and HIV prevention initiatives.
The 40-page document was sent out by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to be reviewed by Congress. The president has vowed to reduce wasteful government spending and waste during his second term. Despite this, his proposed budget appears to relinquish funding from public health programs that help citizens, while also increasing our nation’s military budget by 13% (which many argue is overfunded) and increasing funding towards Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security.
This increase in military and law enforcement spending can be seen as quite alarming, given the administration’s authoritarianism. If enacted, this budget plan would particularly harm LGBTQ+ people and those who rely on Medicaid by slashing HIV prevention and research programs, transgender healthcare access, and widespread diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Despite losing out on 26% of its budget, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did get one budget increase of $500 million towards the nonspecific aim to “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA), a key focus of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The MAHA plan seeks to merge several existing agencies within the HHS while also terminating programs that help LGBTQ+ people. These include the Ryan White HIV/AIDS programs within the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and LGBTQ+ youth programs and crisis lines from the Substance and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
The Ryan White HIV/AIDS programs are initiatives meant to educate the public on HIV prevention to end new transmissions. The programs would lose a reported $74 million in federal funding.
Other key department threats include replacing funding for STI prevention at the CDC with a $300 million grant program, and making it clear in the proposal that LGBTQ+ health priorities will be disregarded entirely.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will lose $17 billion. Administration officials have justified the dramatic NIH cuts, citing the institutes’ research into trans people as a reason. However, the NIH would still retain $27 billion for research that “would align with the president’s priorities.”
A common theme among budget cuts repeatedly revoke funding for any groups that allegedly support “gender ideology.”
Other cuts include a 35% reduction to the Office for Civil Rights’ budget and eliminating fundamental equity programs for small businesses and Department of Justice grant programs.
The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art has postponed an exhibition of works by LGBTQ+ African Artists, which was originally scheduled to open in late May to coincide with WorldPride, being held in Washington, D.C., this year.
Officials at the museum, which is in D.C., said the rescheduling was due to budget constraints and not because of Donald Trump’s orders banning federal funding for so-called woke content, The Washington Post reports.
“This exhibition was on a very ambitious schedule to meet WorldPride and we did not have enough time to secure all the private sector funds we had hoped to due to shifts in the fundraising environment,” museum spokeswoman Jennifer Mitchell told the Post.
“In late April, the show’s opening date was removed from the museum’s and the Smithsonian’s websites and replaced with ‘2025 – TBD,’” the paper reports. Now it is listed as opening in the early winter of 2026. August 20, 2026, remains the exhibition’s closing date, and therefore “work that initially would have been on display for a year and three months will now be on display for no more than eight months,” according to the Post.
A former museum researcher, speaking anonymously, told the Post that preparations for the show were well under way, with artwork on loan and the space being readied.
The exhibition is titled “Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art.” Artists to be featured in the show include Toyin Ojih Odutola, Zanele Muholi, Paul Emmanuel, Sabelo Mlangeni, and Meriem Bennani.
“Artists across Africa and the diaspora whose artworks connect to their identities and experiences as LGBTQ+ people are featured as the first continental and diasporic survey of its scale and scope outside of Africa,” the museum’s websitesays. “The show assembles artists whose work has implicitly or explicitly challenged local and global legacies of homophobia and bigotry, offering imaginings of alternative futures as well as celebrations of intimacy, faith, family and joy.”
Trump issued an executive order March 27 titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” It said the federal government will “restore the Smithsonian Institution to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness” by banning “expenditure on exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy.”
Kevin Gover, undersecretary for museums and culture at the Smithsonian, had already reviewed the exhibition’s content, and the call for postponement did not come from Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III or the museum’s board of regents, Mitchell told the Post. Instead, it was “an internal museum decision made by our leadership team,” she said.
The board of regents includes Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, Vice President JD Vance, three U.S. senators and three U.S. representatives — a mix of Democrats and Republicans — and nine members of the public.
The executive order directed Vance “to effectuate the policies of this order through his role.” In a memo to staff, Bunch “acknowledged the executive order while emphasizing the institution’s commitment to scholarly independence,” according to Diverse Education.
“We will continue to showcase world-class exhibits, collections, and objects, rooted in expertise and accuracy,” he wrote. “We will continue to employ our internal review processes which keep us accountable to the public. When we err, we adjust, pivot, and learn as needed.”
