In a state like Georgia that has a Republican trifecta — a Republican governor and a party majority in both chambers of the state legislature — queer community leaders and political strategists are working diligently to prove Atlanta isn’t the state’s only allegedly progressive community.
Georgia has roughly 8 million registered (active and inactive) voters. Georgia’s Secretary of State online data hub indicates there have been 121,898 more active voters since the December 2022 runoff election, and each one will count in a battleground state that could determine the nation’s future.
In September, the Georgia State Election Board voted to have all cast ballots counted by hand. Many consider this rule change an ongoing effort to undermine or at least delay election results. Democrats, who were once pushing Gov. Brian Kemp (R) to hold an ethics hearing, filed a lawsuit to have a judge push Kemp to remove some of the members of the elections board believed to be former President Donald Trump loyalists. While one judge dismissed the case in early October, a Fulton County Superior Court Judge issued an injunction blocking the hand count rule on the first day of early voting in the state. The judge felt the new rule was approved too close to Election Day and would create “administrative chaos.”
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Your LGBTQ+ guide to Election 2024
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Georgia’s narrative as a battleground state has been a major talking point in recent years. According to some reports, Stacey Abrams’ 2018 gubernatorial campaign was a test case to prove if the Democratic party mounted a “sustained voter outreach campaign,” the state could flip from red to blue. In Georgia, Joe Biden narrowly beat Trump by 11,779 votes during the 2020 election, garnering him the Electoral College votes needed to become the 46th president of the United States and strengthening the argument that Georgia could be a viable player on the national stage. Two years later, Sen. Raphael Warnock’s runoff win over Republican challenger Herschel Walker solidified the state’s status as a bonafide swing state.
How has this happened? An increasing number of LGBTQ+ community leaders and political strategists have worked tirelessly to galvanize voters of all ages, backgrounds, and identities to build a coalition beyond the state’s capital, Atlanta. They have also proven, to some extent, that they carry political power in the state and have built effective grassroots efforts in their local communities.
Georgians are fighting for people over politics
FTR Political Strategies co-founder Mo Pippin.
At 28, Mo Pippin (they/them) is one Georgian hoping to turn the state from purple to blue. In 2023, they co-founded FTR Political Strategies out of a need for greater engagement in local elections and voter education.
“Here in Roswell — which is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Athens — we’re doing the work to boil down these large, sometimes scary federal issues to local and state issues that are digestible, recognizable, and salient to people; and trying to connect them with better representatives,” Pippin told LGBTQ Nation. “I believe fully that young people have been primed to have conversations with people who are different from us. One of the primary things that we do to engage voters is we canvas; we knock on doors.”
Pippin said voters have warned them to be careful in their neighborhood whenever they canvass in traditionally conservative areas of Roswell. They believe the warning is rooted in an assumption that other residents in the region will not be welcoming and potentially combative.
“If I’m looking at our state government and I don’t see people who look like me or who act like me or who share the same values as I do, it’s an easy assumption that, because of what we’re told about democracy, these people who got into office through the means of popular vote naturally represent our entire population,” they said. “But that’s not the case. Our voter turnout in the state is incredibly low. The system is made that way. There are all of these structural reasons – getting their children to school, getting to work themselves, making sure their families are fed, and their health needs are met – why people are not able to engage in the [political process] in our state. People are too tired and too busy to vote.”
Organizations like Georgia Equality, the state’s largest and oldest LGBTQ+-centered advocacy organization, are actively working to engage, educate, and advocate. This past year, it played an integral role in helping defeat the nearly 20 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in the state legislature by appearing regularly at the state Capitol for hearings, votes, and meetings alongside other pro-LGBTQ+ groups. The organization also leveraged the community, organizing more than 5,000 people to make calls to their representatives during the session.
“Our priority is not to leave any LGBTQ+ Georgian behind,” Noël Heatherland (they/them), statewide organizing manager for Georgia Equality, told LGBTQ Nation. “And making sure that everyone, especially those who do not live inside the bubble of the city of Atlanta, is remembered and included throughout the year, especially during a time where our civic engagement and letting our voices be heard is so important.”
The queer experience in the state’s southern region comes with its own set of issues and specific concerns, said Heatherland, a native of Albany, Georgia. While recent reports suggest that most LGBTQ+ voters are motivated to support the Democratic party and concerned about issues like restricting women’s rights and banning medical care for transgender youth, Heatherland said queer Georgians are also concerned with a lot of the same issues that impact people across various communities and demographics.
Omarion Smart agrees. A senior at Georgia State University, Smart is a native of Bainbridge, Georgia, in the southwest region. He’s also policy director for Voters of Tomorrow, a social welfare organization for Gez Z, by Gen Z. Housing, food security, and the cost of living are key issues queer voters are taking to the ballot box this November, he said. Healtherland adds queer voters in the state are also concerned about quality education for their children and the safety of their children in schools. According to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, the LGBTQ+ population makes up about 4.7% of the population in the state of Georgia, with 27% of them having children.
“The majority of Georgians agree on these things,” Smart said. “We agree that housing should be affordable. We agree that we should have health care and that Medicare and Medicaid should be expanded. The economy. Housing. As well as the rise of transgender hate ideology and reproductive rights. They are all important issues to voters in Georgia. No one issue has priority over the other. Yet we have those in the legislature that do not reflect the population of our state, and it’s time that we change that.”
Smart’s concerns manifested this August when Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (R) launched the Georgia Senate Special Committee on the Protection of Women’s Sports “to ensure that female athletes across Georgia have the right to compete on a fair and level playing field.” Smart believes the committee and its purpose are “disgusting.”
“It’s not even intended to learn about these issues,” Smart said. “That’s just how the politics in our state are. Their goal is to spew their blatant hate and not be called out on their hatred.”
“We have those in the legislature that do not reflect the population of our state, and it’s time that we change that.”Omarian Smart, policy director, Voters of Tomorrow
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As far as Shawn Harris is concerned, the energy behind anti-LGBTQ+ and transgender legislation by the conservative party is a smokescreen. Harris is challenging Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for Georgia’s 14th congressional district, which includes Rome, Calhoun, and Dalton in the northwest. He said that Greene has created a narrative about the region that makes it seem problematic. Harris, however, says local voters are more focused on quality of life, including jobs and affordable housing.
“People get up every day from our area and drive either to Atlanta to go to work or they drive to Chattanooga, Tennessee. They get up every morning at 4 a.m. to beat the traffic,” Harris told LGBTQ Nation. “They’re not home when it’s time for their kids to get off from school. They’re not home for their kid’s soccer games or whatever. They do this for a good-paying job with insurance. And they need affordable housing.”
As election day gets closer, queer voters in Georgia have an impressive slate of candidates to consider: Gen Z Democrat Ashwin Ramaswamy is running for state Senate District 48, challenging Trump loyalist Shawn Still, who was indicted in the Fulton County election interference case last year; RaShaun Kemp won the Democratic primary to fill state Senate seat District 38 and is reportedly the first openly gay man elected to the state Senate; and Laura Judge is running for the County School Board, Post 5.
Rashaun Kemp. Photo via rashaunforgeorgia.com.
“The Cobb County school system has been implementing a ton of book bans against a variety of different books and also enacting discriminatory policies,” said strategist Pippin. “If she wins, control of the Cobb Board of Education would flip and stop the madness happening there. Her district is extremely competitive, and I’m cheering for her big time.”
One candidate with personal stakes is JD Jordan, running against John Albers for Georgia Senate District 56.
“He is running to protect his children from harmful state policies. The incumbent is a co-sponsor of anti-trans legislation that threatens healthcare access for JD’s children,” said Pippin. “He has five kids between the ages of 14 and 19, and two of them identify as transgender.”
Georgia Equality’s Heatherland said Albers is not cordial to LGBTQ+ people or allies and is not willing to listen to them when they are at the Capitol to discuss issues – even if they are his constituents. The district is now trending as one of the state’s most “flippable” districts.
“It’s one thing to speak up on behalf of LGBTQ+ children, and specifically transgender people, when you’re running for something in Atlanta and like 85% of the people you’re talking to agree with you,” added Pippin. “It’s another to do that in a district that is red like SD56, and JD is out here fighting that fight and helping dispel all the misinformation that is spewed about the queer community. He is the dad many of us in the community wish we had growing up.”
Police are investigating a threatening, homophobic e-mail sent to WNBA power forward Breanna Stewart‘s wife as the New York Liberty compete in the finals.
Police did not identify the person who filed the report, but said a 33-year-old woman made an aggravated harassment report on Oct. 10 after receiving “a threatening email.” Stewart confirmed the threats and that her wife filed the report after practice during an interview Tuesday.
The email in question said the couple, “don’t deserve to live and I hope you both die.”
Stewart, 30, who plays for the New York Liberty, is married to former WNBA player and Spanish National Team athlete Marta Xargay Casademont, 33. They married in July 2021 and share two children together.
The Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the matter as a possible bias incident on the grounds of sexual orientation discrimination. The New York Postwas the first to report on the threat.
“The fact it came to Marta’s email is something she (had to) see. The level of closeness was a little bit different,” she told reporters, according to The Associated Press. “Make sure that myself and Marta are okay, but that our kids are the safest.”
Stewart said she reported the threat to the team and league and Xargay filed a complaint with police. “Being in the Finals and everything like that it makes sense to file something formal,” Stewart said.
The threat came after the Liberty lost in Game 1 of the WNBA finals against the Minnesota Lynx. In that game, Stewart missed a free throw with less than a second left in regulation that would’ve given the Liberty the lead, and later missed on a layup that would have tied the game at the end of overtime.
“Sometimes people are taking things a little bit too far and too out of context. And Marta had gotten homophobic death threats. A few other things have happened,” she said. The two-time MVP said they reported the matter to make sure “we’re doing as much as possible to continue to make sure that our team and the league is aware of the situation and continue to keep everybody safe.”
NBC News has reached out to the New York Liberty and WNBA for comment.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert also spoke on the rising amountof hateful speech players have received on social media in her address before Game 1.
She said the leaguewill meet with the players association, players and teams to address the matterusing technology and prioritizing mental health and reinforcing security.
“First of all there’s no place in sports for this,” Engelbert said. “It just is something where we have to continue to be a voice for this, a voice against it, condemning it, and making sure that we find every opportunity to support our players, who have been dealing with this for much longer than this year.”
The Liberty and Lynx face off again for Game 3 on Wednesday night.
Today the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) and CenterLink released the 2024 LGBTQ Community Center Survey Report, which showed that 73% of LGBTQ centers surveyed reported they had experienced anti-LGBTQ threats or harassment over the past two years, much of which were specifically in response to anti-LGBTQ politics or rhetoric.
The 2024 LGBTQ Community Center Survey report had 199 participating LGBTQ community centers in 42 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The biennial survey series started in 2008, highlights the crucial role these centers play in the broader LGBTQ movement, offering an invaluable link between LGBTQ people and local, state, and national efforts to advance LGBTQ equality.
“As attacks on LGBTQ people escalate year after year, we applaud these centers’ ongoing dedication to serving on the front line – meeting both the immediate and long-term needs of LGBTQ people, their families, and their communities across the country,” said Tessa Juste, LGBTQ Movement Building and Policy Researcher from the Movement Advancement Project. “This report illustrates the vital difference these centers make in people’s everyday lives, while also highlighting the urgent need for continued funding and support of these centers and the lifelines they provide.”
The report also showed that the 199 participating LGBTQ community centers collectively serve over 58,700 people each week, or over 3 million people per year, with many centers primarily serving people and communities that are historically under-resourced and under-served, including low-income, people of color, transgender people, and those under the age of 18.
“This report is a crucial guidepost for us to see the positive impact of LGBTQ centers across the U.S. as well as what areas need additional resources,” said Denise Spivak, CEO of CenterLink. “As we celebrate our 30th anniversary, this report makes clear the importance of LGBTQ centers in our communities.”
Additional Key Findings The report breaks down program priorities, constituencies and services, infrastructure, fundraising, and staff, board, and volunteer capacity, in addition to the rising threats to safety and security experienced by centers.
Programs & Services 66% of LGBTQ community centers directly provide physical health, mental health, and/or anti-violence services or programs—and this number jumps to 95% of centers when including those that provide referrals to LGBTQ-friendly health providers. Half of centers (50%) offer computer resources or services to the public, providing needed tools for job searching and career development, social services, schoolwork, and more.Nearly all centers (92%) engage in advocacy, public policy, or civic engagement activities, across a wide range of issues and areas, including over half engaging in voter registration efforts. More than one-third of centers listed anti-transgender legislation or other focus areas as their top priority, reflecting the increasingly hostile political and legislative landscape today. Center Capacity Although LGBTQ community centers reported a collective 2024 budget of over $366 million across all centers, the report shows that the financial realities of LGBTQ community centers vary greatly. Over one-third of centers have budgets of less than $250,000. In addition, over 98% of that collective budget belongs to big budget centers (budgets of $250,000 or more).
Funding sources also vary across the different size centers: the largest share (41%) of big budget centers reported that government grants were their top single source of revenue in 2023, while the largest share (41%) of small budget centers said individual contributions were their main source of revenue in 2023.Government grants provide key resources to centers and are used to provide key services to LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ people alike in local communities across the country.
Over six in ten (64%) responding LGBTQ community centers reported currently having a government grant, totaling more than $117 million in funding for needed services like health and housing.While nearly half of all centers remain thinly staffed, 84% of responding centers employ paid staff, providing jobs to 3,100 people.In 2023, roughly 11,600 people volunteered over 421,000 hours at responding community centers, helping centers with and without paid staff to significantly expand their reach and impact.
MethodologyThe survey was conducted online in July 2024 and was distributed to LGBTQ community centers in the United States that are CenterLink members. The survey was jointly developed by MAP and CenterLink. Further details are available in the report.
About MAP: MAP’s mission is to provide independent and rigorous research, insight and communications that help speed equality and opportunity for all. MAP works to ensure that all people have a fair chance to pursue health and happiness, earn a living, take care of the ones they love, be safe in their communities, and participate in civic life. www.mapresearch.orgAbout CenterLink: For 30 years, CenterLink has been at the forefront of empowering LGBTQ community centers. Our mission is clear: to strengthen, support, and connect LGBTQ community centers, enabling them to effectively serve their communities across social, cultural, health, and advocacy areas. CenterLink facilitates over $1.5 million in collaborative funding annually, ensuring our centers have the resources to continue making a meaningful impact. We provide essential resources, guidance, and a collective voice to our emerging and established centers. www.lgbtqcenters.org
In honor of National Coming Out Day (October 11) and Spirit Day (October 17), GLAAD together with eharmony has released a report which explores the ways dating apps and pop culture intersect with how the LGBTQ community shares their identities in their dating lives.
The report unpacks brand new insights from the LGBTQ community (age 18+) and includes tips from Alex Schmider, GLAAD’s Senior Director of Entertainment & Transgender Inclusion.
eharmony.com
Some key findings from the report include:
Trans and Nonbinary daters:
The #1 reason transgender and nonbinary people reported not disclosing their gender is that they might be fetishized (45%)
Concerns of being bullied rose 3x higher among transgender participants compared to cis participants
58% find it hard to know who will be accepting of their gender
53% feel like an after-thought by dating app companies
41% feel unwanted by cis people
Bi+ Daters:
74% of all LGBTQ+ respondents say that bisexuality is still misunderstood in our society
When cis gay men and lesbians were asked about their feelings dating a bisexual person, 87% said they were open to it
43% said that indicating their sexuality on dating profiles gives them more options and helps them confirm who is interested in them
42% said they don’t like having to interact with straight people on dating apps
30% reported men tend to fetishize them
26% reported feeling judged by others in the LGBTQ+ community
eharmony.com
WLW Daters:
Many cis women are turning to dating apps to not only explore their sexual orientation and gender identity (41%), but to authentically express themselves when dating someone as their true selves (45%)
61% report having deeper emotional intimacy when dating women
Several myths and stereotypes about sapphic relationships were debunked by the study as well:
U-Hauling: Only 26% of cis lesbian and gay women report moving in together too quickly. “U-Hauling” isn’t as pervasive as we thought.
Lesbian Bed Death: Only 33% of cis lesbian and gay women said sex life declines over time when dating the same person, and 43% said they have a better sex life because their partners understand their body.
Friend-zoning: Just over one-quarter, 28% said they can’t get out of the friendzone.
Is there really a Masc Lesbian shortage? This past summer there was social media chatter regarding a lack of masc lesbians, but only 17% said they have experienced this
“eharmony continues to be an incredible example of what brands can achieve when choosing to responsibly support and serve their LGBTQ audiences and consumers, especially in the face of anti-LGBTQ attacks on corporate inclusion,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. “Together with GLAAD, eharmony’s new study measuring dating and pop culture sentiment will have a profound impact on expanding our understanding of the roles dating apps play in the coming out process and sharing identities. Coinciding with National Coming Out Day and Spirit Day, organized by GLAAD, this research underscores the fact that while there is no correct timeline for coming out, LGBTQ people must feel safe and supported in the coming out process, no matter how or where they decide to.”
via Getty Images
“Younger generations are more likely to be LGBTQ than the generations before them. While the LGBTQ community, including our corporate allies, is facing extraordinary levels of legislative and cultural backlash, LGBTQ people are wanting places to feel safe and be able to be fully themselves,” Ellis said. “Providing places that not only invite and welcome LGBTQ people, but also take measures to protect and support their belonging will not only bring about connection online but create a more accepting world outside.”
via Getty Images
“While we know that storytelling allows LGBTQ+ people to more clearly see themselves and be seen by others, we cannot underestimate the power of out and visible LGBTQ+ people in our culture who impact the way LGBTQ+ people feel about themselves, particularly those who are transgender,” Alex Schmider stated. 75% of respondents said that seeing transgender people in the media gives them more confidence. According to Schmider, “It’s not always been the case that LGBTQ+ people could be out as public figures but as they are, more LGBTQ+ people relate to and can find confidence in their examples.”
A Texas judge said she will not drop her lawsuit against a state commission that publicly sanctioned her for refusing to officiate at same-sex weddings, even though the commission withdrew its ethics warning last month.
Judge Dianne Hensley, an elected Texas justice of the peace who hears small claims and misdemeanor cases, said in a filing in an appeals court in Austin last week that the about-face by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct does not undermine her case.
Hensley is suing the commission for allegedly violating her religious rights as a Christian. The lawsuit seeks an order barring future sanctions, but does not ask the court to overturn the public warning. The Texas Supreme Court in June revived Hensley’s lawsuit.
The judicial commission’s Sept. 9 statement withdrawing its warning “does not acknowledge that judges and justices of the peace in Texas may lawfully choose to officiate only at opposite-sex weddings without fear of discipline,” Hensley’s lawyer, Jonathan Mitchell, said in the new court filing.
Mitchell declined to comment. A lawyer for the judicial commission, Douglas Lang, on Monday said it was opposed to the continuation of Hensley’s lawsuit.
Hensley did not immediately respond to a request for comment. She has denied violating judicial conduct rules.
Hensley, a Waco-based judge since 2015, is among about 800 justices of the peace in Texas. They can officiate at weddings for free or for a fee but are not required to do so.
The judicial commission said in its warning that Hensley’s conduct cast doubt “on her capacity to act impartially to persons appearing before her as a judge due to the person’s sexual orientation.”
A trial judge dismissed Henley’s lawsuit because she had not first appealed the commission’s warning. An appeals court later upheld the dismissal, but the state high court said Hensley could pursue her religious rights claims.
After gaining new members, the judicial conduct commission last month withdrew the 2019 warning and dismissed its complaint against Hensley after reviewing the facts and the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling.
Mitchell told the Texas Third Court of Appeals that the commission’s action “does not remove the threatened enforcement that Judge Hensley is suing over.”
Mitchell’s filing said the commission believed the withdrawal of the public warning should void Hensley’s lawsuit. The commission will ask the appeals court to weigh that issue, the filing said.
A lawyer for the commission has said Hensley’s lawsuit is seeking a “license to discriminate.”
Uganda’s recently-adopted anti-LGBTQ+ law could have cost the country as much as $1.6 billion (£1.23 billion) in the year since it was approved by parliament.
The Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), which carries the death sentence for “aggravated homosexuality”, was signed into law by president Yoweri Museveni in May 2023. Homosexuality was already illegal in Uganda, but the new legislation strengthened the law, including by criminalising the “promotion” of homosexuality.
In the year since it came into effect, queer Ugandans have faced a major increase in abuse, including beatings, attacks and arrests.
Now, in a new study, Open for Business has estimated that the law has cost the country between £470 million (£360 million) and $1.6 billion. That’s between 0.9 and 3.2 per cent of its gross domestic product, the standard measure of the value created through the production of goods and services in a country during a certain period.
The losses include foreign direct investment, international aid, trade and tourism.
Queer Ugandans have faced increased hostility since the new law took effect. (Getty)
Open for Business, which researches the economic effects of anti-LGBTQ+ policies, said the combined losses over a five-year period could rise higher still – possibly to a staggering $8.3 billion (£6.4 billion).
“This represents an inflection point for the country’s economy. The potential loss of talent and productivity, coupled with heightened stigma and discrimination, further deepens Uganda’s economic vulnerabilities and undermines efforts to diversify the economy and strengthen public health services,” the coalition of global companies said.
The new legislation fuelled a spike in abuse towards LGBTQ+ people within months of being passed. Last year, the Convening for Equality coalition reported 306 rights violations based on the victims’ sexual orientation and gender identity, between January and August last year.
Queer Ugandan human rights activist Arthur Kayima branded the law “vile”, adding: “Rather than focusing on the real issues Uganda is facing, Museveni [causes] distraction by attacking our fundamental right to exist.”
The gay 41-year-old Democratic candidate has an undergrad degree in mathematics, a master’s in business administration, and a professional career spanning regulatory rate optimization and corporate pharmacy benefit management.
With a knack for numbers, he’s all about finding the most elegant solution to complicated problems.
He’ll find plenty in the Missouri Legislature if he’s elected the next state rep from District 100 in St. Louis. Lovett says Jefferson City is mired in dysfunction.
While his CV may sound dry, the married girl dad brings passion rooted in Midwest values – like hard work, devotion to family, and humility – to both his long list of civic contributions and his candidacy.
He can still rattle off the Boy Scouts’ creed in seconds flat.
Lovett spoke from his home office in Ballwin, a suburb on the west side of St. Louis, in the same house where he listened to and learned from his grandfather’s stories of “fighting the good fight.”
LGBTQ Nation: You lost your race for the same seat you’re running for two years ago against the same candidate, Rep. Philip Oehlerking, by less than 200 votes. What’s changed between then and now, and why do you think you’re going to prevail in the rematch?
Colin Lovett: Last time around, I was a first-time candidate, so you don’t know what you don’t know. You’re drinking from the fire hose, trying to learn how to be a good candidate. You’re building name recognition and ID throughout the district. A lot of the people that are voting have never heard your name. So we spent a ton of time and effort in that first cycle getting our name out there and making the introduction of who am I and why am I good for the district. We came that close, and we’ve basically not stopped campaigning since then.
I come from the Harvey Milk school of politics of run, and if you don’t succeed, run, and then run again. This next iteration, it’s been so exciting, because now as we go door to door, people will say, “Oh yeah, I remember you. I voted for you in ’22, and I’m voting for you again.” Or when we get to tell them how close this race was, they’re shocked. “I had no idea that this race was that close.” And we get the opportunity to describe how consequential these state legislature races are. We’re only three seats away from breaking the Republican supermajority in the House. It was six seats in 2022.
Of 26,500 registered voters, there were 10,000 people that didn’t cast a vote in 2022, at least for the state rep race. And we only lost by 181. We’ve had a lot of success in educating our voters on those things. We’re going to bring them home this time.
You haven’t mentioned your opponent. What about his performance in the last couple of years?
So about my opponent, one of the hallmarks of my campaign is we have really tried to do a good job at telling our voters what I’m going to bring to the district and what I want to do, and not disparaging and striking him down. But I will say, he has a record now, and he is pretty extreme on the issues.
He voted alongside the Republican super-majority to make it more difficult for ballot initiatives to pass, to restrict reproductive freedom, access to health care. He’s been a big proponent of privatizing public education in the state. It’s disguised under parental rights and freedom, but they’re going to gut public education dollars to put them into private religious and parochial schools and charter schools.
Missourians will be voting in November on a ballot initiative called Amendment 3, which would enshrine the right to abortion in Missouri’s constitution. Is Donald Trump right that everything is working out fine for women in the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade?
Absolutely not. Providers are so terrified of the draconian laws that have been put into effect that they won’t provide the healthcare services women need, so people are forced to travel across state lines, and that leads to severe health complications up to and including death, and it’s just horrible.
We need to make sure that we are giving people the freedom to make healthcare decisions about their own bodies, and that includes issues around pregnancy and healthcare around abortion, but also around our trans community and being able to make decisions about our bodies in that way, too. The government really just needs to stay the hell out of the way.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley — who memorably ran out of the Capitol on January 6 after fist-pumping to a crowd of election-denying protesters on his way in — attended a rally a few weeks ago and conflated Amendment 3 with kids getting “sex change operations” in schools. Afterward, a spokesman confirmed that Hawley was making a false argument that reproductive health care encompasses transgender care. What do the tactics say about Hawley’s character?
I think at this point we’re starting to see Hawley, and not just him, but other candidates in our state, afraid that they’re going to lose their seats, and they’re going to say whatever they need to fear monger. And, yeah, it’s a complete lie.
What are the details in Amendment 3 that he’s making that connection with?
You’ll have to ask him.
In July, a St. Louis circuit court judge slapped down the Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s nefarious investigation into transgender children’s medical records. Bailey claimed, based on false testimony provided by a notorious anti-trans activist, that Washington University in St. Louis “systematically pressured or deceived parents and insurance providers into purchasing irreversible gender transition interventions.” The implication was that the school and others associated with gender-affirming care are doing it for the money. With that road blocked, where do you think Bailey’s next battle will be in his culture war on trans people?
If only I could predict the future, right?
I mean, for one, I really would love to see our candidate for attorney general, Elad Gross, defeat Andrew Bailey and become an actually good attorney general, where we don’t have these attacks lobbed on our trans kiddos and our trans community.
I don’t know where Bailey’s going to go next. I mean, there seems to be a lot of attempts to just completely antagonize the trans community in every way possible, from access to health care to being able to play sports in schools. What else could they go after? They could go after housing and public accommodations. I mean, there just seems to be an all-out war on the trans community.
There was recently some excitement around a local gym and a person who identifies as trans not being able to use the facilities that they needed to. At the Department of Revenue, there was a form that you could access to be able to legally change your gender. All of a sudden, that form was gone from the website.
It just seems like the leadership in the state, which right now is controlled by pretty extreme anti-trans people, are coming for whatever they can. That’s really not what Missourians are like. It’s just what, unfortunately, we have elected in our leadership right now.
Video just surfaced of failed anti-LGBTQ+ Missouri candidate for secretary of state Valentina Gomez dancing with the gays at a New Year’s Eve party last year in New York, to a DJ set from Drag Race alum Aquaria. She replied to one publication saying, it’s “impossible to walk around New York City without running into a mentally ill f**got.” You’re not a doctor, but how would you diagnose someone like Gomez?
Well, in honor of it being Mean Girls Day, I would say she doesn’t even go here (laughing). If you look at what the election results showed, she was widely unpopular, and it’s easy to get on camera and just shout a bunch of inflammatory nonsense, and she certainly got some attention, but the values of Missouri did not align with her candidacy. Maybe she should think about other things than running to serve the people of Missouri.
You’re for low taxes, a balanced budget, Second Amendment rights, increased funding for police and religious freedom protections. How do you describe your politics, and have you ever voted Republican?
I have never voted Republican, but if we really came down to a scenario where we had fascist leaders in the Democratic Party, I would consider voting for the right person rather than a party.
I have an eight-year-old who is in public schools, and every time she goes to school, I worry about gun safety and school shootings. We need to enact some of the low-hanging fruit gun laws to be able to make our schools and public places safer. But we’re a Second Amendment state. We own guns. We like to be able to protect our households.
In order to be pro-LGBTQ and equality, you don’t have to be against balanced budgets and being smart with the money. We should be smart with our public tax dollars and try and keep taxes as low as possible while funding some of the critical public services that our government provides.
It’s really about having leadership there to be able to make those balanced, nuanced decisions and make sure that we’re being responsible, but also providing care and service to the people who need it the most. That’s one of the reasons government is there. You know, you can walk and chew gum at the same time.
As you mentioned, the Missouri Legislature is overwhelmingly red, and there’s probably zero chance either chamber will flip Democrat in this year’s election. One of your policy goals is pushing through the Missouri Non-Discrimination Act (MONA), which would bar discrimination in the state based on sexual orientation and gender identity and hasn’t been taken up by Republicans. With little chance that bill and other legislation you support will pass, how do you view your role in Jefferson City if you’re elected?
When people are running for office, they have to align with their party on their messaging. Once you get elected and get into office, you find that you can work with those people. And I really look forward to using my ability to work with people from all walks of life, some that I agree with, some that I don’t agree with on everything, to be able to make progress for Missourians.
As it relates to MONA, you can be fired in Missouri for being gay or trans. You can be denied housing for those same reasons, too. MONA has been brought up in every legislative session since the year 2000 or 2001. In the last few years, we’ve gotten really close. The challenge is that if the Speaker of the House doesn’t deem it to be something that can be taken up for a floor vote, it just dies. But we’ve progressively, throughout the years, gotten a little closer each time. It’ll require a bipartisan effort and working together to make sure that we can get it teed up and across the finish line.
I think it’s fair to call you super civically engaged. You’re running for office, you’re president of your homeowners association, you’ve served on the boards of the LGBT Center of St. Louis and with the St. Louis Civic Orchestra and lots of other organizations. Who or what do you credit for your civic-mindedness?
I caught the bug from my grandfather. He enlisted after Pearl Harbor was attacked, like, literally, the next day, and he was the head of the military police unit that guarded the Little Rock Nine in 1957 at Central High School. I was educated by him and his stories of fighting the good fight.
The other thing I’ll say about that is, for me, it was Harvey Milk. When I came out in my 20s, I was kind of oblivious to LGBT history. Then I saw the film Milk and I was just stunned at how much history there had been in our community, and I just threw myself into community service and jumped into every LGBT org that I could, to just do what I could to continue to fight. If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu. We just saw that in the dog whistle from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the Dobbs decision. It’s an important reminder that we’ve come a long way, but we can’t take it for granted.
I interview a lot of LGBTQ+ candidates and electeds and not all of them advertise their identity the way you do. In particular, candidates will be forthcoming about their gender and sexuality in conversation, and happily accept strategic support and an endorsement from groups like the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, but then it’s hard to find much evidence on the front door to their campaign — their website — that they’re a member of the same community. You, on the other hand, are front and center with your identity, with video of you and your husband walking your dogs through your neighborhood right on your splash page. What’s your calculation of the value of identity in your campaign, and why doesn’t every LGBTQ+ candidate share it the way you do?
I can’t speak to everyone else and why they do or don’t. I mean, it’s kind of like coming out. Everyone has to go through that journey on their own time and when it’s the most right for them. But to me, it was really important to be completely honest and transparent about that. Here’s my family, here’s my husband, here’s our daughter. It’s part of who I am.
And so we put it on our literature. It’s on my website. It’s everywhere I go, and I don’t lead with LGBT issues, but it’s ingrained in who I am as a person, and it’s certainly part of my history and advocacy and how I got involved. And it really goes back to that Harvey Milk thing, right? “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” and being present. And if they know us, they vote for us, 10 to one.
What’s the single most important thing the world should do to address the climate crisis?
Accept that it’s real.
You were an Eagle Scout. What did membership in the Scouts teach you that you’ve brought to your public service and life in general, and is there a place for a single-sex group for kids — like the Boy Scouts of America was when you were growing up — in society today?
Interesting question. Being an Eagle Scout, I think the first thing that always comes to mind for that is it’s like cheerful service with a smile, right? It’s service to my community, doing the right thing. I mean, I could rattle off that a scout is “trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent” (laughing). But it’s true, and you live those values, and you just incorporate it into what you do. I got to learn how to survive in the woods. That was certainly fun, all the way down to some Lord of the Fliessituations (laughing), but, you know, trying not to burn down the woods.
Those values shouldn’t be exclusive to boys. The Girl Scouts equally have great leadership programs and skills, but they’re different organizations. I think that people who identify as male should be able to join Girl Scouts of America, and I think people who identify as females should be able to join formerly-known-as Boy Scouts of America. And everybody in between. They’re just good programs.
Would you support national mandatory service for young people in the military or some other form of public service of their choosing, like the Peace Corps or Teach for America?
Maybe mandatory. Maybe not, but maybe incentivized. You know, it’s such a good experience and opportunity for people to serve their community. I’ll be honest, I haven’t thought about it in depth, but maybe an exchange of service for benefit. That could be a start. I’ll think about that.
You’re a gun owner. What’s the gun and what do you use it for?
We have guns to be able to protect our house if somebody breaks in. I’ll just leave it at that. Don’t break into my house.
What can you tell us about your husband? How did you meet, and who proposed to whom?
As so many couples do, we met online, and I proposed to him. It was funny, because I was planning on proposing in Florida, and he was on a work trip, so I was planning on bringing the ring down and all of that. Well, then come to find out his parents were also joining us on this trip, so I had to find a way to sneak away from the parents to be able to propose, and then I got in really big trouble because I didn’t ask for permission ahead of time. But it was really great. We got the beachside proposal, and he said yes on the first ask.
Donald Trump says he’ll be a dictator on “day one” if he wins the presidency a second time. What’s your plan for day one if you win your race in November?
I will be making lots of phone calls. Unlike being President of the United States, being a state representative doesn’t give me a lot of unilateral power. So it’s going to be understanding the makeup of the Missouri legislature, forging relationships with other state representatives and lawmakers to understand where we can make tangible progress, and finding the folks that I can work with to champion some of our legislative priorities and make sure we get stuff done.
The last Missouri legislative session was one of the most dysfunctional, unproductive sessions that we’ve had to date, just because of all the infighting and the disagreement. I think we can be better than that.
What are you most looking forward to if you’re elected to represent the constituents of Missouri District 100?
Yeah, I mean really, it’s doing the job.
My goal goes back to that Boy Scout thing, right? Cheerful service with a smile — doing whatever I can in the capacity of my office to be as good of a public servant as I can be.
Hundreds of veterans who were dismissed from the U.S. military under the now-repealed “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy have been given honorable discharges following a yearlong review, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.
“Even though the majority of service members discharged for their sexual orientation … were honorably separated, nearly 2,000 were separated with less than fully honorable characterizations,” Christa A. Specht, a legal policy director at the Defense Department, said in a news release Tuesday.
After the repeal, those who were dismissed due to the policy could appeal for an upgrade to an honorable discharge, which would make them eligible for full military benefits. However, Specht noted, many people affected by the policy were unaware they could do so. The “proactive review” sought to address this.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said 851 cases were proactively reviewed over the past year, and 96.8% of them, more than 800, qualified for “relief.”
“Brave LGBTQ+ Americans have long volunteered to serve the country that they love,” Austin said in a statement Tuesday. “Under President Biden’s leadership, the Department of Defense has taken extraordinary steps to redress the harms done by ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and other policies on these former Service members.”
The announcement comes just over a year after the department announced it would conduct a “proactive review” of service members who were dismissed under the policy, which prohibited gay and lesbian members of the military from being open about their sexual orientation. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was in effect from February 1994 to September 2011 and resulted in the discharge of more than 13,000 service members.
“What this means is that of the nearly 13,500 individuals who were administratively separated under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, and served long enough to receive a merit-based characterization of service, 96% now have an honorable discharge,” Austin said in the statement.
Gays and lesbians dismissed from the military during the “don’t ask, don’t tell” era are part of a legacy that started well before 1994. Historians estimate at least 100,000 service members were forced out of the military due to their actual or perceived sexuality between World War II and 2011.
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign released a new ad centered around the claim that Vice President Kamala Harris “supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners and illegal aliens.” The ad highlights this claim while showing pictures of her with a trans person, a nonbinary person, and a drag queen.
“Kamala is for they/them,” the 30-second ad says. “President Trump is for you.”
LGBTQ Nation evaluated the ad to see whether it holds up to scrutiny.
Kamala’s History
While not explicitly stated within the ad, the core of the claim refers to a 2019 questionnaire sent out from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) asking for Harris’s stance on key policy issues when she was running as a presidential candidate independent from then-candidate Joe Biden.
The questionnaire asked: “As President will you use your executive authority to ensure that transgender and non-binary people who rely on the state for medical care — including those in prison and immigration detention — will have access to comprehensive treatment associated with gender transition, including all necessary surgical care? If yes, how will you do so?”
Harris said yes and replied: “It is important that transgender individuals who rely on the state for care receive the treatment they need, which includes access to treatment associated with gender transition. That’s why, as Attorney General, I pushed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide gender transition surgery to state inmates. I support policies ensuring that federal prisoners and detainees are able to obtain medically necessary care for gender transition, including surgical care, while incarcerated or detained. Transition treatment is a medical necessity, and I will direct all federal agencies responsible for providing essential medical care to deliver transition treatment.”
Is This Extreme? No, Actually.
The Trump ad frames Harris’ position as if it’s a very unusual and extreme stance. However, her stance is actually required by the Constitution. The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution restricts “cruel and unusual punishment” from being applied to prisoners or detainees in any context — this extends to healthcare as well. Because of this amendment, it’s unlawful to deny essential healthcare to anyone detained by the U.S. government.
Gender-affirming care is medically necessary according to leading medical associations like the American Medical Association and also the U.S. government. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Offices for Civil Rights details how denial of coverage for gender-affirming care violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Earlier this year, federal courts ruled that such care is medically necessary and needs to be included in state-funded health insurance plans.
Gender-affirming care includes hormone replacement therapy, fertility preservation treatments, and gender-affirming surgeries, which may include surgeries to change one’s chest and genitalia.
As such, failure to provide inmates and detainees gender-affirming care — including “sex-change surgeries” is unlawful and unconstitutional.
What Is Kamala’s Current Stance?
In a statement provided to CNN in September, Harris stated that her opinions on such policies are “shaped by three years of effective governance as part of the Biden-Harris Administration,” and that “as President, she will take that same pragmatic approach, focusing on common-sense solutions for the sake of progress.” CNN did not elaborate on whether Harris currently supports these claims.
Harris has made no public comment about her stances on these issues since. Michael Tyler, communications director for the Harris campaign told Fox News that the information within the questionnaire is not a part of her platform or proposals. Tyler didn’t offer new details on where she currently stands on the issue.
Are These Procedures Common?
Gender-affirming procedures, particularly surgeries, are not commonly conducted on federal inmates or detainees. According to a statement from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to FactCheck.org, only two federal prisoners — out of over 2,000 transgender federal prisoners — have received any form of gender-affirming surgery.
The Bureau of Prisons has a public document describing their procedures for trans prisoners. It says, “For transgender inmates in Bureau custody, surgery may be the final stage in the transition process and is generally considered only after one year of clear conduct and compliance with mental health, medical, and programming services at the gender-affirming facility. Once that period elapses, an inmate may submit a request to his or her Warden requesting surgical consideration”
As for undocumented immigrants detained by Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE), there is no public record of any surgeries being conducted. Such a surgery would be difficult to conduct – immigrants are held by Customs and Border Patrol for less than a week on average, while those held with ICE are detained for, on average, 47 days. Pre-operative preparations and post-surgical recovery time may require more time.
ICE said to FactCheck.com of their policies for trans inmates, “The agency recognizes that detained transgender noncitizens have unique needs while in ICE custody. In response to those needs, we have developed structures within our operation to safeguard their rights and ensure their emergent care needs are met from the moment they arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay.”
While ICE policy does recommend providing gender-affirming care to detainees, such surgeries would be difficult to provide due to the complexities involved. Gender-affirming surgeries involve multiple consultations with a surgeon over the course of a year and often have lengthy waiting lists. The surgeries also have a lengthy recovery period that is highly individualized, with post-surgical care requiring many months to upkeep. This is especially unlikely to occur in ICE custody. As of October 2024, there were fewer than 300 trans immigrants in custody.
There is, however, evidence of immigrants being deprived of such medically necessary care. Not only does ICE have a reputation of allegedly providing almost torturous conditions to detainees that often involve solitary confinement and deprivation of medical care, but trans immigrants have reported medical neglect in ICE facilities with the denial of hormone replacement therapy. One transgender woman even had a breast implant burst, which led to inadequate after-care and endless delays.
Expert Opinions and Verdict
LGBTQ Nation reached out to the Harris and Trump campaigns for comment on this issue, however neither responded before publication.
Amy Whelan, Senior Staff Attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said, “People in prisons and immigration facilities have protections under both the U.S. Constitution and federal law when they experience serious medical conditions.”
“Because those people have no ability to seek care on their own, they must be provided with medical care that sufficiently treats those serious conditions,” Whelan added. “As the medical community has understood for decades, surgery is medically necessary for some people who are experiencing serious gender dysphoria, just as insulin may be medically necessary for diabetics or removing a tumor may be medically necessary for someone diagnosed with cancer. These are foundational principles that apply to all people.”
Based on the above evidence, LGBTQ Nation rates this claim as having a mixture of truth and falsehoods within it.
While Harris has previously stated that she supports providing gender-affirming care to trans inmates and detainees, she has not provided up-to-date comment on the matter. There is scarce evidence that these procedures even occur with any notable frequency, and if anything there is an intense medical neglect of trans people being detained from care.
Pope Francis faced calls to overturn the Catholic Church’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender people on Saturday when he held talks with LGBTQ activists at the Vatican.
The 80-minute meeting, held privately at the guesthouse where the pope lives, included a Catholic sister who works with LGBTQ people, a member of the transgender community, and a U.S. medical doctor who helps run a clinic providing gender-affirming hormonal care for adults.
“I really wanted to share with Pope Francis about the joy that I have being a transgender Catholic person,” Michael Sennett, who took part in the meeting, told Reuters.
Sennett, a transgender man from Boston, said he told the pontiff about “the joy that I get from hormone replacement therapy and the surgeries that I’ve had that make me feel comfortable in my body”.
The unusual encounter was not listed on the Vatican’s official agenda of the pope’s meetings for the day.
The meeting with around a dozen LGBTQ activists comes six months after the Vatican’s doctrinal office firmly rejected gender-affirming care, saying it “risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.”
LGBTQ groups sharply criticized the Vatican document and said the doctrinal office did not seek input from transgender people about their experiences before rejecting gender-affirming care.
“We expressed that as the church makes policies in this area that it’s very important to speak with transgender individuals,” said Cynthia Herrick, an endocrinologist at a St. Louis, Missouri, clinic who took part in the papal meeting.
“The pope was very receptive,” said Herrick. “He listened very empathetically. He also shared that he always wants to focus on the person, the well-being of the person.”
Francis, who is 87, has been credited with leading the Catholic Church into taking a more welcoming approach towards the LGBTQ community, and has allowed priests to bless same-sex couples on a case-by-case basis.
But earlier this year he also used a highly derogatory Italian term about LGBTQ people, for which the Vatican apologized on his behalf.”
New Ways Ministry, a U.S.-based advocacy group for LGBTQ Catholics, organized Saturday’s event.
“The message really is that we need to listen to the experiences of transgender people,” said Sister Jeannine Gramick, the group’s co-founder, who asked Francis for the encounter. The meeting “means that the church is coming along, the church is joining the modern era,” she said.
Gramick’s work with LGBTQ Catholics has attracted the ire of Vatican and U.S. Catholic officials for decades, including Pope Benedict XVI. But she has developed a correspondence with Francis, who first welcomed her for a meeting at the Vatican last year.
The Vatican’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Saturday’s meeting.
