It’s going to get worse before it gets better — but we’ve been there before.
With the results of the 2024 presidential election confirmed, members of the LGBTQ+ community are understandably distressed. Seeing as Donald Trump plans to rollback transgender rights and other protections for queer people, it’s clear why 86 percent of LGBTQ+ voters cast their ballots for Kamala Harris, and why 62 percent said they’d be “scared” for Trump to win.
Many are also alarmed that the hateful policies are seemingly what the majority of Americans have endorsed, but Dr. Michelle Forcier, a clinician with LGBTQ+ digital healthcare platform FOLX Health, believes it better to interpret the results in a different way.
“Remember too that despite, yes, Trump won, he really does not represent, in any way, shape or form, a very large number of U.S. citizens,” Forcier tells The Advocate. “We know that unfortunately, many people voted on a single issue, say immigration, the economy, inflation. Many persons decided to vote for someone who represents themselves as a business man, not a politician.”
“While many of these persons may buy into his words and action regarding racism, sexism, ableism, and trans and homophobia, many persons actually do not. They voted on a single issue, and our community is again collateral. Remember his win represents a very skewed and myopic focus for many — but not all — of the voting public. And we can learn from this win and our community can come back stronger.”
There’s room for despair, Forcier says, but there are ways to help get rid of it, too. Here are some of her tips on how to move forward.
Focus on the little things
One of the most important things to do over the next four years is to “take each moment one moment at a time” and “take each day one day at a time,” Forcier says. Focus on the little things around you that bring you joy: your family, friends, pets, favorite shows, hobbies — whatever it may be.
“We make space to grieve, and then work through our grief. We make room for hope, since that will help us envision how we move forward,” Forcier says. “We make room for confidence in our strength and abilities, and commitment to a future that is centered on equity and justice.”
Take care of your physical health
Because “we are here” and “we are not going anywhere,” Forcier says “we all need to plan for the long game. And the long game means we need to be whole, healthy, and centered in our best and most authentic selves.”
This means eating healthy, exercising, and sleeping well. It also includes maintaining your social circle and making new connections in your community — not self-isolating.
“We can get good sleep. We can exercise and make sure our nutrition is supporting our bodies and hearts. We connect and reach out to support, get supported, and create support for family, friends, and community,” Forcier continues. “We stay committed to our idea of what is right and just. We are not going anywhere.”
Stay off social media
For some, it may be cathartic to speak with others online or consume political content. For others, it could make the situation even more distressing. It’s not wrong to want to distract yourself at this moment.
“It is ok to not be all over the internet right now,” Forcier emphasizes. “Ask yourself — what am I looking for? Is the web creating good feelings of support or anxiety? And finally, ask yourself if you might turn off the computer or phone, and focus on the life and friends and family right there with you.”
Spend time around community
You may be able to find comfort in the people around you, or even just the knowledge that many others are feeling like you are right now. Forcier says to “tap into people and communities that make you feel safe and supported.”
“If those communities are online, your faith based community, a sports or activity group … whatever, whoever is safe and caring is who we need to be with right now,” she says.
Don’t do everything today
There will be calls to action, to mobilize, and to organize in the days ahead. It is not wrong for you to not be feeling up to it now. While using the means you have to fight back can help you to feel empowered, and you should not linger in despair, you do not have to do everything today.
“We don’t need to expose ourselves to false news, false narratives, and the hate that is out there. We can take that step back and say, for now, I need time and space to regroup,” Forcier says. “There will be time where many of us will reassess, venture forth and in direct and indirect ways, start taking on the people and systems that oppress us — but that does not have to be today or right now.”
Keep building hope
Hope is not a feeling that comes and goes — it is an ideal you must keep building day after day. As Forcier notes: “This is another 4 year political cycle. We can take from the experience and we can make of the experience what we will of it.”
“Will this be a chance to really explore racism, sexism, trans and homophobia in a meaningful way?” she asks. “Will we have opportunity to work harder, more explicitly to call discrimination and hate what it is? Will we not let them subjugate us, not let them squash our spirit — but raise our voices and our hearts so that love conquers hate?”
“I believe that love and compassion is stronger than ignorance, hate, and bias. I believe we have our work cut out for us, and while I wish we did not, it is what it is,” Forcier continues. “We are strong, smart, capable, and if nothing else, resilient. We will get through this false story line based on lies, hate, and power — and the queer community will still be there, and in all likelihood, even stronger.”
In a victory for abortion rights advocates, New Yorkers just voted to enshrine extensive anti-discrimination protections into their state constitution—permanently insulating the rights of pregnant people, abortion seekers, and the LGBTQ community, among others, from changing political winds.
Proposal 1 is one of 10 ballot initiatives to protect abortion rights that went before voters on Tuesday. Going into Election Day, supporters of abortion rights had won every single ballot initiative to go before voters since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
In December, the verified Facebook page of Adam Klotz, a Fox News meteorologist, started running strange video ads.
Some featured the distinctive voice of former President Donald Trump promising “$6,400 with your name on it, no payback required” just for clicking the ad and filling out a form.
In other ads with the same offer, President Joe Biden’s well-known cadence assured viewers that “this isn’t a loan with strings attached.”
There was no free cash. The audio was generated by AI. People who clicked were taken to a form asking for their personal information, which was sold to telemarketers who could target them for legitimate offers — or scams.
Klotz’s page ran more than 300 of these ads before ProPublica contacted the weather forecaster in late August. Through a spokesperson, Klotz said that his page had been hacked and he was locked out. “I had no idea that ads were being run until you reached out.”
Klotz’s page had been co-opted by a sprawling ad account network that has operated on Facebook for years, churning out roughly 100,000 misleading election and social issues ads despite Meta’s stated commitment to crack down on harmful content, according to an investigation and analysis by ProPublica and Columbia Journalism School’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, as well as research by the Tech Transparency Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit that researches large tech platforms. The organizations combined data and shared their analyses. TTP’s report was produced independently of ProPublica and Tow’s investigation and was shared with ProPublica prior to publication.
The network, which uses the name Patriot Democracy on many of its ad accounts, is one of eight deceptive Meta advertising operations identified by ProPublica and Tow. These networks have collectively controlled more than 340 Facebook pages, as well as associated Instagram and Messenger accounts. Most were created by the advertising networks, with some pages masquerading as government entities. Others were verified pages of people with public roles, like Klotz, who had been hacked. The networks have placed more than 160,000 election and social issues ads on these pages in English and Spanish. Meta showed the ads to users nearly 900 million times across Facebook and Instagram.
The ads are only a fraction of the more than $115 billion Meta earns annually in advertising revenue. But at just over $25 million in total lifetime spend, the networks collectively rank as the 11th-largest all-time advertiser on Meta for U.S. elections or social issues ads since the company began sharing data in 2018. The company’s failure to block these scams consistently highlights how one of the world’s largest platforms struggles to protect its users from fraud and deliver on its nearly decadelong promise to prevent deceptive political ads.
Most of these networks are run by lead-generation companies, which gather and sell people’s personal information. People who clicked on some of these ads were unwittingly signed up for monthly credit card charges, among many other schemes. Some, for example, were conned by an unscrupulous insurance agent into changing their Affordable Care Act health plans. While the agent earns a commission, the people who are scammed can lose their health insurance or face unexpected tax bills because of the switch.
The ads run by the networks employ tactics that Meta has banned, including the undisclosed use of deepfake audio and video of national political figures and promoting misleading claims about government programs to bait people into sharing personal information. Thousands of ads illegally displayed copies of state and county seals and the images of governors to trick users. “The State has recently approved that Illinois residents under the age of 89 may now qualify for up to $35,000 of Funeral Expense Insurance to cover any and all end-of-life expenses!” read one deceptive ad featuring a photo of Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois state seal.
More than 13,000 ads deployed divisive political rhetoric or false claims to promote unofficial Trump merchandise.
A deceptive ad used the image of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and the state seal. Credit: Screenshot by ProPublica
Meta removed some of the ads after initially approving them, the investigation found, but it failed to catch thousands of others with similar or even identical content. In many cases, even after removing the violating ads, it allowed the associated Facebook pages and accounts to continue operating, enabling the parent networks to spawn new pages and ads.
Meta requires ads related to elections or social issues like health care and immigration to include “paid for by” disclaimers that identify the person or entity behind the ads. But its rules for verifying advertisers and publicly disclosing who paid for such ads are less stringent than those of its main competitor, Google, ProPublica and Tow found. Many of the disclaimers on Facebook ads listed nonexistent entities.
A Meta spokesperson said it invests heavily in trust and safety and uses a mix of humans and technology to review election and social issues ads.
“We welcome ProPublica’s investigation into this scam activity, which included deceptive ads promoting Affordable Care Act tax credits and government-funded rent subsidies,” spokesperson Margarita Franklin said in an emailed statement. “… [A]s part of our ongoing work against scams, impersonation and spam, our enforcement systems had already detected and disabled a large portion of the Pages — and we reviewed and took action against the remainder of these Pages for various policy violations.”
Our analysis showed that while Meta had removed some pages and ads, its enforcement often lagged or was haphazard. Prior to being contacted by ProPublica and Tow, Meta had taken action against roughly 140 pages affiliated with these eight networks, representing less than half of the total identified in the investigation.
By then, the ads on those pages had been shown hundreds of millions of times, resulting in financial losses for an untold number of people.
Meta ultimately removed a substantial portion of pages flagged by this investigation. But after that enforcement, ProPublica and the Tow Center found that four of the networks ran more than 5,000 ads in October. Patriot Democracy alone activated two pages a day on average in the first half of this month.
“Their enforcement here is just super spotty and inconsistent, and they’re not actually attacking root problems,” said Jeff Allen, the chief research officer of the Integrity Institute, a nonprofit organization for trust and safety professionals.
He said networks like Patriot Democracy exploit the fact that a single Facebook page can be connected to multiple ad accounts and user profiles, creating a complex challenge for enforcement. “But these cracks have existed for the past eight years,” said Allen, a former Meta data scientist who worked on integrity issues before departing in 2019.
“There are a lot of gaps in the system, and Facebook’s overall strategy is to play Whac-A-Mole.”
Franklin noted that scammers use a variety of tactics to conceal their activity. Meta constantly updates its detection and enforcement systems and works with industry and law enforcement partners to combat fraudulent activity, she said.
“This is a highly adversarial space, and we continue to update our enforcement systems to respond to evolving scammer behavior,” Franklin said. She added that Meta has taken legal action against several operators.
Meta’s Rules
Misleading election ads have posed a challenge for Meta since at least 2016, when Russian trolls purchased thousands of Facebook and Instagram ads targeting Americans ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Amid public outcry and pressure from Congress, Meta has created special rules for political and social issues advertisers, launched a public Ad Library to archive such ads and hired additional people to review ads. An integrity team has been tasked with enforcing Meta’s community and advertising standards.
In 2022 and 2023, Meta laid off over 20,000 employees, including members of its integrity team. The company said it has more than 40,000 people working on safety and security around the world, an increase since 2020. It declined to say whether it has more people working on election ad reviews this cycle compared with the last presidential election.
One of the team’s key responsibilities is to verify that election and social issues advertisers are who they say they are, and that their ads adhere to the company’s rules. Since 2019, Meta has required political and social issues advertisers to submit an Employer Identification Number, a government or military website and an associated email address, or a Federal Election Commission registration number.
Meta also allowed state and local organizations and candidates who aren’t federally registered to run ads by providing a corresponding website and email address, a “valid” phone number and a mail-deliverable address. It later relaxed the rules to allow advertisers to simply display the name of their Facebook page as the entity that paid for the ad.
Google, Meta’s main U.S. election ads competitor, doesn’t have similar carve-outs for ad disclaimers. It accepts only an FEC registration number, state elections ID or EIN to verify an organization. Google’s political ad disclaimers list the organization name or the name of a person who completed the ID verification process.
Franklin said Meta has rules to ensure that page name disclaimers aren’t abused. The company’s guidelines say that regardless of how much information advertisers disclose, the ads must “Accurately represent the name of the entity or person responsible for the ad.” But more than 100,000 ads identified by ProPublica and the Tow Center did not.
Patriot Democracy
Adam Klotz’s Facebook page and an example of an ad featuring a deepfake version of President Donald Trump’s voiceCredit: Screenshots by ProPublica
The “paid for by” disclaimers on the ads that mysteriously started appearing on weather forecaster Klotz’s hijacked page listed “Klotz Policy Group” as the advertiser. Klotz Policy Group is not affiliated with Adam Klotz, and the email and website address in the disclaimer do not point to a dedicated website. The group is also not listed in OpenCorporates or other business registration databases.
The advertiser disclaimer information for Klotz’s page listed the email admin@patriotdemocracy.com and the website patriotdemocracy.com/klotzpolicygroup. That URL led to a page that promoted dental coverage for Medicare recipients and used the branding of a site called Saving Tips Daily. Similar URLs with the patriotdemocracy.com domain appeared across other pages in the network, which enabled ProPublica, Tow and the Tech Transparency Project to link them to the same network. (For more details on how the ads and networks were identified, see the methodology section at the end of this story.)
Patriot Democracy is the biggest of the eight networks identified during the course of the investigation and has been active on Meta’s platforms for nearly five years. It includes 232 pages that have spent more than $13 million on more than 110,000 ads.
Allen said operations like Patriot Democracy spend millions on Meta ads because it helps them find victims.
“If they gave over $10 million to Facebook, then they may have extracted $15 million from American seniors with this garbage,” he said. “The harms add up.”
The pages often have official-sounding names such as “Government Cash Program,” “US Financial Relief” and “USA Stimulus Fund,” and their ad disclaimers list organization names that do not correspond to registered entities or websites.
Meta also allowed the page owners to falsely identify themselves as affiliated with the federal government. If a user looked up the page details of “Government Cash Program,” they would see a notation showing that it’s a “Government Website.” US Financial Relief is listed as a “Government organization.” More than 20 pages claimed to be a “Public Service.”
The Government Cash Program Facebook page falsely listed itself as a “Government Website.” Credit: Screenshot by ProPublica
One of the most common types of ads run by Patriot Democracy pages is for Trump merchandise, including coins, flags and hats.
One of these ads ensnared Sam Roberson, a 57-year-old Texas resident, last month. While browsing Facebook, Roberson was drawn to an offer for a Trump coin from a page called Stars and Stripes Supply. The coin was embossed with an image of the former president raising his fist after the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. One click took him to the site patriotprosnetwork.com, where Roberson paid $39.99 for 11 coins that he planned to give to his grandkids. He received the coins. But two weeks later, his card was charged another $29.99.
Roberson told ProPublica that he didn’t realize that he had signed up for a subscription. He contacted customer support to request a refund, but is skeptical the company will follow through.
“With these knuckleheads and how deep they are dug in, I may end up having to cancel the card,” he said.
When ProPublica called the site’s customer service line, a person who did not give their name said that customers who choose the “VIP” checkout option receive a discount on their purchases and are automatically enrolled in a monthly membership. The spokesperson said that customers are informed on the site and by email “how they got involved [in the membership] and how they can cancel.”
They said that someone else from the company could answer questions about advertising but hung up when asked how often they receive customer complaints about the membership fee.
An example of a Trump coin ad run by the Stars and Stripes Supply Facebook page Credit: Screenshot by ProPublica
ProPublica also sent an email with detailed questions about the coin offer and the subscription but did not receive a response.
The Stars and Stripes Supply page spent over $700,000 on Meta ads for Trump merchandise and ran ads as recently as Sept. 28 before it was removed by Meta. The page and the store have received onlinecomplaints about the billing scheme. It’s unclear who controls the page or the store, or how they are connected.
In addition to the billing schemes, the Trump merchandise ads often draw clicks with false claims and divisive language. Stars and Stripes Supply ran ads for Trump and JD Vance yard signs that falsely claimed “liberal activists are ripping Trump-Vance yard signs from the ground, sparking a wave of controversy across the nation.”
A page called Truly American ran a video ad for a “free” Trump flag and coin offer that was narrated by a female voice claiming to be Melania Trump. “Today we see free thinkers and independent voices like gay conservatives and Log Cabin Republicans silenced, censored and bullied by cancel-culture mobs. Donald stood against this and they tried to silence him for good,” the voice intoned, as the ad showed an image of Trump with his bloodied ear.
It’s unclear who ultimately controls the Patriot Democracy pages and associated Instagram accounts or who paid for the ads. Along with listing fake advertiser names, Patriot Democracy ad disclaimers show addresses that often correspond to WeWork co-working spaces or UPS stores. And the phone numbers, which are shared among multiple pages, led to generic voicemail messages — with one exception.
A man who answered one number said he’d never run ads on Meta and didn’t know why his phone number was listed. He said he was on his way to court and asked the reporter to call back later. He did not answer a subsequent call, and the phone number was soon disconnected.
The ownership information for patriotdemocracy.com and its related domains is also private, making it impossible to know who registered the domain. Meta did not answer specific questions about the network.
Before ProPublica and Tow reached out, Meta had removed less than half of Patriot Democracy pages for violating its advertising standards. It also failed to take action against the larger network, even after some of its pages were exposed in earlier reports by Forbes and researchers at Syracuse University.
Of the more than 110,000 ads on Patriot Democracy pages identified by ProPublica and Tow, Meta stopped just over 7,000, or roughly 6%, from running for violating standards. These ads were shown nearly 60 million times before Meta took action. Meta also consistently failed to detect and remove copies of ads it had previously banned due to policy violations, according to the analysis.
Franklin said Meta uses a variety of automated approaches to detect and remove duplicate ads. This includes training systems to recognize the images and videos used in previously removed ads in order to prevent them from running again. It also looks at a variety of signals, including user and payment information and the devices used to access accounts, to restrict or ban people who break its rules, she said.
Two ads run by the Patriot Democracy network falsely promised government subsidy checks. Credit: Screenshots by ProPublica
One of the most popular lures used by Patriot Democracy and other networks is the promise of free government cash.
More than 30,000 ads across the networks identified by ProPublica and Tow falsely claimed that nearly all Americans could receive government subsidies or are eligible for a “FREE Health Insurance Program.” People who clicked were often directed to unethical insurance agents who altered their existing ACA plan details or signed them up for plans they weren’t eligible for, pocketing a commission in the process. These ads were shown to users at least 38 million times.
The scheme has caused victims to lose their existing ACA health insurance or to be hit with unexpected tax bills from the IRS. In those cases, the agent falsely reported a lower income to enroll clients and secure a commission. In response to the surgein fraudulent enrollments, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the federal agency that administers the ACA, implemented stricter rules this summer for insurance agents.
A CMS spokesperson declined to comment on specific ads or platforms. But insurance marketers and other industry experts told ProPublica that Facebook ads are a scammer’s preferred method for ensnaring victims. Meta declined to comment on whether it’s in touch with CMS.
“It’s clear from speaking with a lot of different consumers that were ripped off that the Facebook ads played a big part,” said Jason Doss, an Atlanta lawyer who filed a class-action suit against a group of companies and individuals who allegedly used online ads, high-pressure insurance call centers and other methods to commit mass ACA enrollment fraud. The companies have moved to dismiss the case, citing a lack of jurisdiction and failure to show that any laws were broken, among other defenses. “We deny the allegations made and will be defending the case,” the CEO of one company named in the suit told ProPublica. The suit is ongoing.
Since 2021, Google has required U.S. health insurance advertisers to verify their identity and license status prior to running ads. Meta does not have this requirement. The company did not respond to questions about health insurance advertisers.
Taking on a Network
Meta’s failure to stop deceptive ads about government programs has forced some state and local officials to step in.
In January 2023, investigators in the Alaska Division of Insurance received complaints from consumers who said they were shown misleading ads on Facebook.
The ads used the state seal of Alaska and in some cases a photo of the governor to falsely claim that the state was offering new funeral and burial benefits. “The State of Alaska approved NEW affordable Funeral programs, designed to cover 100% final expenses up to 25,000 or more. Not just a portion,” read one ad.
As with other types of deceptive ads, the burial ads tricked people into filling out a form. In this case, they often ended up on the phone with someone trying to sell life insurance.
Alex Romero, Alaska’s chief insurance investigator, was alarmed. There weren’t any “new” state benefits. It’s also illegal in Alaska, and just about every state, to use a state seal without permission.
Searching the Meta Ad Library, he found hundreds of deceptive ads that used state seals. Romero warned his fellow state insurance investigators on a scheduled conference call soon after his discovery. “There was a proliferation of advertising using the same deceptive marketing,” Romero told ProPublica.
Around the same time, officials in Ventura County, California, were alerted to the unauthorized use of its county seal in Facebook ads. A local news outlet sent the county examples of burial insurance ads that used the Ventura County seal. Tiffany North, the county counsel, began an inquiry. She and Romero connected last spring and realized the same person was connected to the Facebook ads: a lead-generation marketer and insurance broker named Abel Medina.
Officials in Alaska and Ventura County, California, were alarmed by ads that used their seals without permission.Credit: Screenshots by ProPublica
Public records show that Medina, 35, owns companies such as Heartwork Global and Kontrol LLC, which have run election and social issues ads on several Facebook pages.
Romero said his research showed that Kontrol LLC was a key source of Facebook ads with state seals and images of governors. “Practically every state, a bunch of counties, several cities, they’re all getting tagged by this guy Medina,” he said.
Corporate records show that Final Expense Authority LLC is registered to Tiffani Panyanouvong, a 24-year-old former insurance broker. She told ProPublica that Medina registered the entity in her name without her permission when they were dating.
American Benefits & Services LLC is registered in Delaware and does not publicly list an owner. Panyanouvong said that Medina used that company and Final Expense Authority to run ads on Meta and that she “had nothing to do with his lead-generation services.”
“This is all because of him, and I was just his girlfriend at the time,” Panyanouvong told ProPublica in a WhatsApp message. “And he used me as another person to hide behind to get through the Facebook advertising loop holes.”
On his LinkedIn profile, Medina touts his Facebook ad expertise. He says he generated “$1.6 Million in sales in under eight months with only Facebook Final Expense Media Buying and growing other verticals.”
He’s also teaching others how to do it — for a fee. His profile points to a website, Scale Kontrol, which promises to help clients create a “cash cow advertising machine” by using Facebook ads to generate customer leads. The site also assures customers that it knows “work arounds” to avoid having ads “flagged, banned, restricted.”
Medina did not respond to phone messages or to a detailed list of questions sent to three email addresses, his Facebook account and a home address.
ProPublica and Tow found that the four companies have operated at least 40 Facebook pages and spent $2.1 million on more than 21,000 election and issues ads. Thousands of ads reviewed by ProPublica and Tow across pages linked to the companies made deceptive claims and appeared to break one or more Meta rules.
A deceptive ad for car insurance falsely suggested that President Joe Biden was sending government checks to pay for gas. Credit: Screenshot by ProPublica
The pages used deepfake audio of Biden to make false claims about government subsidies, ran deceptive auto insurance ads that promoted nonexistent “Biden Gas Relief Checks” using images of a U.S. Treasury check, and falsely claimed that “The State has approved a NEW Mortgage Protection Plan that protects your home and family in the event of an unexpected tragedy.” No such state plan exists.
Prior to being contacted by ProPublica, Meta had removed about half of the pages. Ten pages connected to these companies ran ads in the last three months.
In March 2023, North sent a cease-and-desist letter to Final Expense Authority. “Your use of the County’s official seal and your actions in misleading the public are unauthorized and unlawful,” she wrote.
The following month, Romero sent a similar letter to Medina, Panyanouvong and three of the companies. It cited five criminal and civil statutes that the state of Alaska believed they had violated and demanded they stop running ads with the state seal and images of the governor.
North and Romero said the ads with their respective seals stopped soon after the letters were sent. (Neither contacted Meta directly, telling ProPublica they focused on the companies running the ads.)
Final Expense Authority, the company registered to Panyanouvong, is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Monterey County district attorney’s office over its use of the California county’s seal. Emily Hickok, Monterey County’s chief deputy district attorney, confirmed the investigation to ProPublica and said her office reported the ads to Meta in February. She declined to comment further, citing the ongoing investigation.
Panyanouvong’s California insurance license was revoked in January. An attorney for the state Department of Insurance cited the use of Ventura County and Alaska seals in ads, among other alleged violations, state records show. Due to a prior criminal conviction for petty theft, records show that in 2019 Medina received a California insurance license on a probationary basis. It has been inactive since last November. He holds an active license in Texas.
The California Department of Insurance declined to comment on any investigations into the companies. “While we do not comment on open investigations, deceptive advertising on social media platforms can be a cause for licensing action or criminal prosecution,” it said in a statement to ProPublica.
Meta removed all of the active pages linked to the four companies after ProPublica and Tow shared them. It declined to say whether it had taken additional action. But as recently as early October, an ad from American Benefits & Services offered $100K to homeowners: “Claim cash back with these new home owners benefits programs that just became available.”
Still Locked Out
After ProPublica emailed Klotz, the meteorologist, in August to ask about the ads running via his page, his employer, Fox News, contacted Meta to get the ads removed and to restore his access. His verified page continued running ads promising easy money to Americans until early October. As of this week, he still doesn’t have access to his page.
“As far as I know the account is still hacked and in their control,” Klotz said.
Methodology
The pages and networks included in this investigation were identified by searching Meta’s Ad Library for keywords including “benefits,” “subsidy,” “stimulus,” “$6400” and “burial.” The initial keywords were chosen based on examples sourced from reports, FTC investigations and lawsuits. Each page added to the initial seed set was vetted by viewing its ads, advertiser disclaimer information, and page content and manager information.
Using this initial set, we expanded the list of keywords based on ads run by the pages and by searching the Ad Library for websites that the ads linked to. We then used the Ad Library Report interface to identify all pages for each advertiser. We also looked for pages that ran ads using the same advertiser disclaimer information.
Patriot Democracy
In the case of the Patriot Democracy network, we connected the pages and ads together via three domains that were used in “paid for by” ad disclaimers: informedempowerment.com, tacticalempowerment.com and patriotdemocracy.com. The disclaimers that used these domains often used the same phone numbers or addresses. Additionally, a Domain Name System analysis showed that all three domains resided on the same server.
Recently, Rainbow Railroad convened and moderated a timely dialogue on “International Peace and Security and LGBTQI+ Crisis Response” in a side event for the United Nations Summit of the Future.
We gathered with the co-sponsorship of Outright International, the Equal Rights Coalition, and the Governments of Malta, Colombia, and Canada, and through close collaboration with UNHCR’s Division of International Protection and its New York Office, as well as the UN Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.
Dr. Nishin Nathwani, Head of Strategy at Rainbow Railroad, moderated the discussion which featured expert interventions from:
Ambassador Bob Rae, Permanent Representative of Canada to the UN, and President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
Graeme Reid, UN Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Ambassador Vanessa Frazier, Permanent Representative of Malta to the United Nations
Ambassador Juan José Quintana, Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations
Richard Wilson, Executive Director of Lighthouse Equality Advocacy Project
André Du Plessis, United Nations Program Director at Outright International
Mr. Sivanka Dhanapala, Director of UNHCR Office in New York
Ambassador Vanessa Frazier, Permanent Representative of Malta to the United Nations and André Du Plessis, United Nations Program Director at Outright International
Prioritizing Multilateral Partnership and Queer Perspectives
The discussion explored how multilateral partnership can contribute to international peace and security. Participants examined successful partnerships with states, international organizations, and civil society, and identified areas where countries can champion the fight against LGBTQI+ persecution. Speakers shared how queer perspectives can be integrated into the Pact of the Future and in the Declaration on Future Generations, and where increased multilateralism can enhance international peace and security for at-risk LGBTQI+ people.
Richard Wilson, Executive Director of Lighthouse Equality Advocacy Project
Richard Wilson, an activist supported by Rainbow Railroad in resettling, spoke about their own lived experience on the panel, as well as their advocacy for LGBTQI+ asylum seekers. Reflecting on the conversation, they shared the following:
“Having the opportunity to share my story and listen to the proposed policies aimed at supporting displaced individuals, especially those in the LGBTQI+ community, gave me hope. I felt that the voices of people like me were not just being heard but also integrated into solutions that could make a tangible difference. Seeing global leaders take our concerns seriously and commit to taking action was incredibly powerful.”
This was Rainbow Railroad’s first event of this kind, after having recently been granted special consultative status by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Securing ECOSOC status is a challenging process, as applicants must be approved by a committee that includes members from countries like Russia, Pakistan, and China, nations that often subject LGBTQI+ groups to additional scrutiny.
Ambassador Bob Rae, Permanent Representative of Canada to the UN, and President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
Consultative status significantly increases Rainbow Railroad’s access to the UN, including through bodies such as the Human Rights Council, where we are better positioned to advocate for LGBTQI+ forced displacement and elevate the work of partner LGBTQI+ civil society organizations and activists doing this work on the ground globally. Bringing grassroots partners and refugees into high level meetings, provides a platform for those who lack the resources to attain this status themselves.
Forming the backdrop of this conversation is the global anti-gender movement, which has mobilized a coalition of populist groups and funders to target a wide range of programming including sexuality education, discussion on sexual and reproductive rights, and LGBTQI+ rights. Rainbow Railroad has received more than 50,000 requests for help since our founding, and we understand the need for a global coordinated response.
The rising tide of legislative and social changes that newly target LGBTQI+ communities not only jeopardize the safety of individuals and communities and their access to rights but also have broader implications for global peace and security. Experts acknowledged we need to collectively re-envision the landscape of how the international community adapts and responds to threats to human rights, underscoring how international mechanisms have been successfully utilized and could be further leveraged to enhance support to at-risk LGBTQI+ communities in crisis-affected contexts.
Advancing LGBTQI+ Rights in International Spaces
Activist Richard Wilson described the importance of conversations like this:
“This event opened my eyes to the global nature of the LGBTQI+ crisis response. It showed me that while the struggles of LGBTQI+ immigrants and asylum seekers are unique, they are not isolated. The panel gave me a deeper understanding of the complex intersection between displacement, identity, and security. It also highlighted the importance of international cooperation in addressing these crises and reassured me that there are ongoing efforts to improve the systems in place to protect and support people like me.”
Collective action and partnerships in multilateral spaces give us hope as we continue to advocate for the voices of LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers at the international level. Opportunities for these conversations are critical in our pursuit of creative solutions for international crisis response.
Lawmakers in the West African nation of Mali have voted to criminalise homosexuality.
Mali’s National Transitional Council voted 131-1 in favour of the proposed legislation, which, if signed into law by military leaders, who seized power in 2021, would outlaw gay sex between men.
It isn’t yet known what sanctions will be placed on those convicted.
The head of the country’s junta, Colonel Assimi Goïta, removed French as one of Mali’s official languages in June last year, and minister of justice and human rights Mamadou Kassogue has previously warned that “there are provisions in our laws that prohibit homosexuality in Mali”, adding: “Anyone who indulges in this practice, or promotes or condones it, will be prosecuted.
“We will not accept our customs and values being violated by people from elsewhere.”
In July, Ghana’s supreme court dismissed a lawsuit that challenged the country’s Criminal Code of 1960, which prohibits same-sex acts – branding them “unnatural carnal knowledge” – with punishment of up to three years in jail.
Under the criminal code, which dates back to British colonial times, LGBTQ+ people in the country face discrimination, but if the Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill passes into law, things are only likely to get worse.
New data released from LGBTQ+ Victory Fund shows that LGBTQ+ candidates continue to grow in diversity and make gains in representation in key areas compared to the previous presidential election in 2020.
“2024 is a pivotal year for our democracy, and we’ve already seen the power of hateful vitriol, misinformation and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric infecting the electoral process. Our work is the antidote, and we are proud to see so many LGBTQ+ candidates running to serve nearly everywhere in our nation – including nearly 400 candidates for state legislatures,” says LGBTQ+ Victory Fund President & CEO Annise Parker. “We know what’s at stake – our rights, freedoms and democracy itself. Out LGBTQ+ candidates for office bring critical values and perspectives to their work in leadership. These candidates represent our nation’s future, reflect our nation’s diversity and show that LGBTQ+ people are vital, instrumental voices in our halls of power.”
LGBTQ+ Victory Fund tracked at least 1,017 LGBTQ+ candidates who ran for local, state or federal office in 2024, a slight increase over the 2020 count of 1,006 and a slight decrease from 2022 midterms. As of this report LGBTQ+ Victory Fund has endorsed 483 candidates for office in 2024.
LGBTQ+ candidate pool was more diverse by gender identity, sexual orientation and race/ethnicity than 2020, while the number of candidates running stayed relatively consistent between 2020, 2022 and 2024.
LGBTQ+ candidates ran in 49 of the 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington D.C.
Nebraska was the only state with no LGBTQ+ candidates in 2024, California had the most with 198 LGBTQ+ candidates running.
LGBTQ+ candidates ran for all levels of government
More than one-third of candidates are running for state legislative offices in 2024, of which around 17% are transgender, nonbinary, gender non-conforming people.
40% of LGBTQ+ candidates ran for local office in 2024.
7% ran for federal office including congressional races.
The share of candidates who are transgender, nonbinary, gender non-conforming grew by more than seven percentage points between 2020 and 2024 (7.9% to 15.2%, respectively).
More candidates are pansexual, queer, or bisexual in 2024 compared to 2020
For the first time gay people represented fewer than 50% of total LGBTQ+ candidates.
Just over 1/3 of all LGBTQ+ candidates running this year are bisexual, pansexual or queer according to the data.
More than one-third of all LGBTQ+ candidates are candidates of color (37.6%), a proportional growth of 6.7% between the 2020 presidential election and 2024.
Hispanic/Latine LGBTQ+ candidates are the highest non-white racial/ethnic group represented with 14.1% of candidates reporting Hispanic/Latinx identity.
12.1% of candidates are Black, followed by 5.7% of candidates reporting multiracial identity and 3.7% of candidates reporting Asian American and/or Pacific Island heritage.
More LGBTQ+ candidates are on the ballot in 2024 when compared to 2020, with 574 on ballot in 2020 and 668 in 2024, growing 14.1%
Candidates for congress grew from 60 in 2020 to 71 in 2024, and the number on ballot increased from 24 to 38.
The Out on the Trail report is compiled using data from candidate applications submitted for our public LGBTQ+ candidate endorsement program, candidates who connect with us directly, and those who are found through research and connection with partner groups. In addition to connecting with candidates and campaigns and other primary sources of information like their websites and social media, we use secondary sources such as media coverage and partner records to validate candidates for inclusion within Out on the Trail. Due to the nature and complexity of identity, as well as the volume of races nationwide, this census of candidates may not include all LGBTQ+ candidates running in 2024.
About LGBTQ+ Victory Fund
LGBTQ+ Victory Fund works to achieve and sustain equality by increasing the number of out LGBTQ+ elected officials at all levels of government while ensuring they reflect the diversity of those they serve. Since 1991, Victory Fund has helped thousands of LGBTQ+ candidates win local, state and federal elections.
Two new cases of a more-infectious strain of mpox have been detected in the UK, health officials have said.
The new cases come after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced at the end of last month that a single case of Clade 1b mpox had been detected in the country.
The Clade 1b strain is associated with a more severe disease and higher mortality rates than Clade 2.
Two new cases of mpox have been identified in the UK. (Hakan Nural/Getty)
Both new UK patients were household contacts of the original patient and are receiving specialist care at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, in London.
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Professor Susan Hopkins, the chief medical adviser at UKHSA, said: “The overall risk to the UK population remains low. We are working with partners to make sure all contacts of the cases are identified and contacted, to reduce the risk of further spread.”
When the first UK case of the Clade Ib strain was announced, health secretary Wes Streeting praised the doctors and nurses treating the patient and said the government was “working alongside UKHSA and the NHS to protect the public and prevent transmission”, adding: “This includes securing vaccines and equipping healthcare professionals with the guidance and tools they need to respond to cases safely.
“We are also working with our international partners to support affected countries, to prevent further outbreaks.”
Mpox is a viral infection transmitted through close contact such as sex, touch, talking, or breathing close to another person, and is part of the smallpox family of viruses. Sufferers will often get a rash, along with other symptoms such as high temperature, swollen glands and chills.
The rash can go through several stages, beginning as raised spots that turn into small blisters filled with fluid that will eventually form scabs and fall off.
A group of 10 to 15 individuals allegedly attacked Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarro, a 22-year-old Colombian model, inside a Washington, D.C., McDonald’s fast food restaurant after a member of the group uttered homophobic slurs. The attack left Lascarro hospitalized, and he criticized both emergency personnel and local police for their responses to the violence.
The attack allegedly occurred in the early morning hours of Sunday, October 27, after Lascarro and his husband left two nearby LGBTQ+ nightclubs: Crush Bar and Bunker. While Lascarro was in line to use a McDonald’s self-service kiosk to place his order, Lascarro’s spouse, Stuart West, said a woman then screamed at his husband to “watch where the f**k he was going,” he told WTTG.
Lascarro reportedly tried to leave in order to avoid a conflict, when a group of 10 to 15 individuals — who were reportedly the woman’s friends — blocked Lascarro from leaving and allegedly called him homophobic slurs like “fa**ot” and demanded he apologize to the woman. Lascarro refused, and the assault allegedly began.
“Five to 10 individuals started just punching him all over his face, all over his body,” West said. “No one in the restaurant intervened; no one screamed ‘stop.’”
The attack reportedly left Lascarro injured and bleeding on the sidewalk outside the restaurant while the mob threw food, trash, and drinks at him. Two passers-by eventually contacted emergency medical services to assist Lascarro.
At Howard University Hospital, Lascarro was treated for a busted lip, scrapes, and bruises. He was placed in a neck brace and photos show him with bruises and blood on his face. Lascarro is reportedly recovering from his injuries.
“I fear for his mental health,” West said. “We’ve had conversations about whether D.C. is safe for us and whether the United States was the right choice.” Lascarro is originally from Colombia, moved to Washington, D.C., last year, and became a permanent resident of the U.S. this year, NBC News reported.
West and Lascarro said that they felt dismissed by both the emergency medical technicians (EMTs) who arrived at the scene and police who took a report of their incident later on. Lascarro said the EMTs failed to “acknowledge the severity of the assault and his experience as a gay man,” and West said police initially refused to acknowledge the attack as a possible hate crime until he contacted the police department’s LGBTQ+ liaison.
West launched a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign to help pay for Lascarro’s medical bills, as the attack has made it difficult for him to keep modeling. The campaign had raised $7,037 of its $20,000 goal by Monday morning.
“Thomas is a loving, compassionate person who did not deserve this, and no one in our community should face this kind of hatred,” West wrote for the campaign website. “Any help to ensure he gets the care he needs to regain his health and peace of mind will be a blessing.”
LGBTQI+ rights and refugee rights are under threat in the coming election, but this election is also an opportunity to renew our commitment to mobilizing in defence of our community, in the U.S. and around the world. Our freedom to organize, vote, challenge discriminatory legislation and advocate for progress are all on the ballot this election and cannot be taken for granted.
Rainbow Railroad’s Communities of Care program has been an antidote to the rising hate against the LGBTQI+ community in the U.S. Queer and trans Americans and allies are continuing to rally in support of refugees who are searching for safety, home, and belonging.
This is how our community is fighting back, and we must continue to raise our voices to ensure that all of the United States remains a safe place for LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers to live with dignity, protected by federal and state law, and supported by an affirming community. This is only possible if the U.S. Administration continues to implement the Memorandum on Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons Around the World. Our future as a community hangs in the balance.
It is critical to recognize that, like many other countries around the world, there are significant regional and local inequalities in access to safety for LGBTQI+ persons across the United States. For LGBTQI+ communities worldwide, the United States represents both a preferred country of resettlement and a site of discrimination and criminalization. Our activism in the United States is multi-pronged; we continue to advocate for the resettlement of LGBTQI+ refugees to safer communities in the United States, while also pushing back against anti-LGBTQI+ sentiment.
We are approaching a historic election in the United States, and it is vital to understand what is at stake for our community. As we continue to advocate for the resettlement of LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers into the United States, and mobilize our community in support of newcomers, we must acknowledge that the fight for LGBTQI+ liberation is happening on every front.
The program empowers everyday Americans to help LGBTQI+ refugees find home and belonging, providing critical support such as securing housing and employment, and accessing healthcare and other resources in their first 90 days in the U.S. – with training and ongoing support from Rainbow Railroad.
Since the program’s launch, Rainbow Railroad has mobilized more than 200 volunteers to form more than 40 Communities of Care. However, Welcome Corps, along with other pathways to resettle LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers in the United States, may be at risk. The next few months represent a critical period for LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers to access resettlement pathways into the United States, while they still exist.
At the 2023 Global Refugee Forum, Rainbow Railroad pledged to resettle at least 50 LGBTQI+ refugees through Welcome Corps. With the program currently at risk, we need support from our community to make this a reality in 2024.
Connecting Our Data to the Landscape for LGBTQI+ Rights in the United States
In June 2023, for the first time in the organization’s history, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced a National State of Emergency for LGBTQI+ Americans, following an overwhelming wave of anti-LGBTQI+ legislation across the country. Kelley Robinson, HRC President, stated, “LGBTQ+ Americans are living in a state of emergency. The multiplying threats facing millions in our community are not just perceived — they are real, tangible and dangerous.” At the recent UN Summit of the Future, First Lady of the United States, Jill Biden, responded to the HRC’s declaration, promising that, “We won’t stand for violence against LGBTQI people in the US and around the world”.
Rainbow Railroad’s own data supports the conclusion that there are real and present threats for LGBTQI+ Americans, with a major spike in requests for help from the United States following that announcement, in July 2023. Many of these requests originated from states that passed multiple laws restricting LGBTQI+ rights, limiting gender-affirming care for trans individuals, and permitting legal discrimination against LGBTQI+ people. In 2023, many states including Texas, Florida, Missouri, Ohio, and South Carolina passed, or attempted to pass, legislation restricting the rights of LGBTQI+ people.
Requests for help from the United States in 2024 also point to major issues at stake for our community in the upcoming election. A recent spike in requests for help in the summer of 2024 cited the need for aid and help relocating to a safer country, driven by heightened insecurity and anxiety over the implications of Project 2025, and the potential outcome of the 2024 Election.
Project 2025: LGBTQI+ Rights at Stake
Project 2025 is an initiative by the Heritage Foundation that, among other things, strongly opposes LGBTQI+ and immigrant rights, and racial equality. Some concerning ideas brought forward in Project 2025 are: mass deportation as well as ending the asylum system, censoring discussions on race and gender in schools, eradicating any laws that protect LGBTQI+ individuals, and cutting funding to any schools or medical facilities that protect or provide gender-affirming care to trans people.
Project 2025 is a direct threat to the rights of LGBTQI+ people, and it is critical that Americans speak out against its implementation.
As a community, we must act together to make our voices heard in defence of LGBTQI+ rights.
What actions will you take today to be part of a movement for change?
U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat from Kansas, broke new ground in Congress in 2019 as one of the few out LGBTQ+ and Native American members. Representing Kansas’s Third Congressional District, Davids is not only a vital advocate for diverse, marginalized communities but also a bipartisan force. In a spring interview with The Advocate, Davids discussed her commitment to bridging divides in Congress and protecting communities from rising discrimination and bullying, especially toward LGBTQ+ youth.
Davids’s experience underscores her groundbreaking role: a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation and one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress, alongside Deb Haaland of New Mexico, now the U.S. Secretary of the Interior in the Biden administration. She reflected on her responsibility to represent those historically excluded from Washington’s power circles, explaining that “when you’re used to being the only person like you in a room, there’s a level of just awareness of that.” She added that her visible identity as both Native and LGBTQ+ often allows her to break down assumptions and build connections across party lines.
For Davids, a commitment to her district comes with an understanding of the broader struggles facing LGBTQ+ young people, especially amid tragic cases like that of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary and transgender teen with Native American roots who died by suicide in Oklahoma this year. The tragedy brought national attention to the dangers of bullying, especially in politically charged states. President Joe Biden issued a statement honoring Benedict: “Every young person deserves to have the fundamental right and freedom to be who they are.” Davids expressed similar sentiments, explaining her dedication to inclusion and respect for LGBTQ+ youth. She also highlighted the importance of federal protections, such as the Equality Act, to ensure these communities receive “the same dignity and respect as everyone else.”
Davids is proud of reaching across the aisle and finding common ground with Republican colleagues, which she describes as an essential skill in today’s Congress. Davids has prioritized bipartisan issues, such as infrastructure investments, in her work on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “The more nerdy you get, the more bipartisan you can be,” she said, explaining how focusing on transportation, veteran services, and small business initiatives has allowed her to work productively with colleagues despite current political tensions. In 2023, she cosponsored 236 pieces of legislation, with more than 70 percent bipartisan support. Her recent efforts have brought about practical changes in Kansas, including clean water infrastructure, road safety upgrades, and federal grants to support job creation.
However, the current political climate, she notes, poses unique challenges. As Republican leaders, including former President Donald Trump, embrace divisive rhetoric, Davids worries about its impact on young people and LGBTQ+ communities. She noted that prominent lawmakers such as Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert — two ultra-vocal flamethrowers — fuel public divisiveness rather than seek solutions. “There are already too many young people who think that maybe they shouldn’t be here or that things would be better if they weren’t,” Davids said, stressing the need for elected officials to prioritize community safety and mental health.
Davids says that her connection to her constituents is crucial to her role. According to her 2023 year-end report, her office responded to more than 124,000 messages, hosted over 200 meetings, and resolved 1,650 cases for Kansans, including veterans and taxpayers seeking assistance. Her office has also facilitated grant funding to bolster the Kansas City area, creating jobs and improving public safety.
“Every opportunity we have to make sure to say, ‘Please talk to somebody, please reach out,’ is so important,” Davids told The Advocate, noting that she is in frequent contact with groups like the Trevor Project to ensure her legislative work aligns with the needs of LGBTQ+ young people. “As a federal legislator, I’m going to do what I can to try to work on legislation to try to humanize the experience that people are having for folks,” she said, adding, “It’s also on all of us to check in on people and to try to be as supportive of folks as we can be.”
Amid her advocacy, Davids is also pragmatic about achieving progress in today’s polarized Congress. A former mixed martial artist, she likened the fight for positive change to training for a competition, explaining that difficult times and struggles bring about growth and strength. “I legitimately think that in a hundred years from now, people are going to look back on this time in history, and I believe they’re going to be saying, ‘That was one of the most tumultuous, difficult times, and we came out stronger because of it,’” she said.
