_This story originally appeared _on_ Them._
For all the Republicans who are trying to make attacks on transgender rights front and center during the 2026 midterm elections, the reality is that most voters do not care.
A new poll from GLAAD, timed to release at the start of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, asked a sample of over 5,000 adults in the U.S. about their top concerns as we head into a heated…
Hours after the Progress Pride flag was raised over the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison to mark the start of Pride Month, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany, a congressman representing the state, renewed a campaign pledge to remove it if elected governor, saying only the American and Wisconsin flags should fly above the building.
Tiffany, a Republican congressman from northern…
New Texas Tech University guidelines eliminating references to sexual orientation and gender identity from coursework forced nearly half of surveyed faculty members to make changes they described as harmful to their curricula.
Survey results released by the school’s Faculty Senate showed broad disapproval among educators regarding a memo issued by the university’s chancellors last…
As we begin Pride Month in the year of our lord 2026, I’m not going to mince words: it’s hard out here for our community.
Everywhere we turn, from state legislatures to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, we face an endless stream of lies and vitriol and, even worse, dangerous policies. Our healthcare, our history, and our families are all under attack. Trans kids are used as scapegoats for the failures…
Pete Buttigieg is leading the field of potential Democratic presidential contenders for 2028, according to a new national poll.
The latest Emerson College Polling survey, released this week, found Buttigieg at 18 percent support among Democratic primary voters, narrowly ahead of California Gov. Gavin Newsom at 16 percent. New York U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez followed at 11 percent,…
Updated: Texas AG Ken Paxton calls James Talarico’s support for trans kids ‘weird’ in runoff victory speech
Texas Republicans on Tuesday chose Attorney General Ken Paxton, the embattled conservative firebrand who spent years under felony indictment while spearheading some of the nation’s most aggressive anti-LGBTQ+ legal campaigns, as their nominee for the United States…
For decades, LGBTQ+ Americans fought to be visible on television screens that either erased them entirely or treated them as punchlines, predators, or cautionary tales. Now, a coalition of more than 40 civil rights, free expression, and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups says the federal government is flirting with reviving that history in a new form. This time, the government wants to put warning labels…
After years of escalating anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in American politics, a new national report suggests the consequences are no longer confined to campaign ads, legislative fights, or online outrage. For many LGBTQ+ candidates, the threats have become intensely personal and increasingly physical.
The threats arrive in direct messages, voicemail inboxes, comment sections, and late-night emails.…
For years, millions of NPR listeners knew Audie Cornish and Ari Shapiro as two of the calmest, smartest voices in American media.
Measured. Precise. Composed.
Now they’re discussing ketamine culture, queer thirst traps, AI brain rot, Mar-a-Lago face, and a surgically enhanced internet "looksmaxxing" personality named Clavicular, and they sound like the version of themselves listeners never…
Republicans on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce advanced legislation Thursday that critics say would push federally supported civics and history education deeper into the culture wars by restricting discussions of transgender identity, systemic racism, and diversity in American classrooms.
The bill, H.R. 8705, known as the “Civics and History Advancement to Restore…
Seattle’s LGBTQ Commission has formally requested that a civil state of emergency be declared to support nonprofits to address an influx of queer and trans people fleeing red states. Now, organizations serving LGBTQ+ people, particularly transgender newcomers, are rallying for potential tax breaks and emergency funding to ease mounting strains on housing, healthcare access, and social…
Rep. Eugene Vindman spent part of this spring praising a gay farming couple in rural Virginia as proof that LGBTQ+ people belong everywhere in his congressional district and in American life.
On Wednesday, Vindman voted for a bill critics say tells transgender children the opposite.
The first-term Virginia Democrat is facing fierce backlash from LGBTQ+ advocates after joining Republicans in…
A few weeks ago, I was talking with a younger friend after watching Cher absolutely nail her appearance on Saturday Night Live. She was brilliant, effortlessly Cher, the way she always is.
My friend, in his 30s, was dazzled. And I said, almost without thinking: “You know, I can remember watching her on The Sonny & Cher Show.” I got a blank stare as he asked, “Who is Sonny?” Talk about dating…
_This story was originally reported by Kate Sosin of The 19th. Meet Kate and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy._
Could she be the first Black trans person in Congress?
Every step Precious Brady-Davis has taken has been a first.
She was the first transgender bride on the TV show “Say Yes to the Dress.” She and her husband are the first transgender parents in…
One of California’s largest and most storied Pride celebrations unraveled in spectacular public fashion this weekend after the City of Long Beach abruptly canceled the annual Long Beach Pride Festival just hours before it was set to begin, igniting a bitter and public feud between city officials and LGBTQ+ organizers over safety, politics, and the future of Pride itself.
The collapse of the…
Charles Barkley gets it.
In the wake of the death from cancer of sports inclusion icon Jason Collins this week, Barkley told viewers of ESPN's Inside the NBA on Wednesday night where the United States of America stands in 2026 in embracing male athletes who are not straight.
"We live in a homophobic society, and that’s unfortunate,” he said. The "unfortunate" part, Barkley explained, is…
Authorities have arrested a Florida man on video voyeurism charges after he filmed attendees of Naples Pridefest using the restroom. Now, he claims he wanted to catch men grooming boys.
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office shows Andrew Sheets, 61, was booked on one count of digital video voyeurism and one count of distribution. He must appear in court on June 1.
A Naples Police Department…
Major social media platforms are retreating from protections for LGBTQ+ users and helping fuel a more hostile online environment, according to GLAAD’s annual Social Media Safety Index released last week, which found declining safety scores across nearly every major platform reviewed.
The report accuses companies, including Meta and YouTube, of weakening moderation policies, rolling back…
Miguel Trindade Deramo is running for the Washington, D.C., City Council in one of the most politically progressive neighborhoods in America. But the candidate says a year, marked by federal crackdowns, immigration sweeps, armed patrols, and fear spreading through Washington’s queer nightlife corridors, revealed how unprepared the nation’s capital was to protect many of the people who live…
Democratic congressional candidate Jack Schlossberg is unveiling a national proposal on Sunday to eliminate out-of-pocket costs for HIV prevention drugs while accusing his cousin, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., of dismantling federal HIV prevention efforts.
The 33-year-old grandson of President John F. Kennedy, running in one of the most closely watched Democratic congressional…
Meta is defending itself against claims of overzealous censorship of LGBTQ+ and sexual health-related content on its platforms.
The company faced renewed criticism after Instagram banned the account of sex toy retailer Bellesa Boutique, the latest in a string of controversies involving the moderation of queer and sexual wellness content, _Mashable_ reports. In response, a Meta spokesperson…
As part of a Trump administration counterterrorism strategy targeting left-wing groups, federal officials will also target pro-trans rights organizations.
A new directive released by the White House cites the assassination of anti-LGBTQ+ activist Charlie Kirk to justify the approach. Prosecutors say Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old accused of killing Kirk in September, recently began dating a…
It's a scene that's resonated with people around the world.
_Love, Simon_ is a monumental queer film known for being the first major Hollywood studio film to focus on a gay teenage romance. The impact is undeniably astronomical, but the relationship between Simon (Nick Robinson) and his father Jack (Josh Duhamel) has deeply resonated with many in the LGBTQ+ community.
One of the most pivotal…
Just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for minors in an 8-1 ruling that cast doubt on similar laws nationwide, a Catholic Church report is warning that so-called “reparative therapies” have caused LGBTQ+ Catholics “profound suffering” and spiritual harm
The published document comes from theologians assembled for the late Pope Francis’ Synod…
A Republican candidate for Congress in New Mexico is running on a platform shaped by a megachurch that condemns same-sex relationships, rejects transgender identities, and calls abortion murder.
Greg Cunningham, backed by former President Donald Trump, has cast his campaign in explicitly ideological terms. Cunningham has called advancing the national Republican agenda his “number one…
Meta’s independent Oversight Board has overturned the removal of an Instagram post celebrating lesbian relationships, issuing a pointed rebuke of the company’s handling of LGBTQ+ content and warning that Meta continues to make “repeated errors” when moderating queer self-expression online.
The Tuesday ruling centers on a Brazilian Portuguese Instagram carousel posted by a page focused on…
It’s hard to find good news in the United States right now, and even harder to notice it when it happens somewhere else. But some of the American evangelical right’s most hatefully aggressive anti-LGBTQ+ campaigns abroad are beginning to come undone. As their influence seems to increase here at home, they are losing ground elsewhere. Botswana has officially removed its anti-sodomy law from…
After Saturday’s traumatic event at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton, Senator Lindsey Graham was quick with a balm and a solution.
Many attendees are no doubt enduring a harsh case of PTSD. Mentalist Oz Pearlman, who was on the dais with the Trumps, said it was “likely the scariest moment of my life.”
So what does lascivious Lindsey do? He doesn’t respond with…
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to revive a Florida lawsuit that sought to punish a public school for respecting a transgender student’s identity, leaving intact a lower court ruling that LGBTQ+ advocates say protects young people from being forcibly outed at home.
The decision in __Littlejohn v. School Board of Leon County__ came just one week after the justices also declined to…
For years, anti-transgender activists have claimed that the vast majority of children and young adults who come out as trans, nonbinary, or otherwise gender-nonconforming are simply going through a phase. That argument holds that many will eventually reject their gender identity and return to living as the sex they were assigned at birth. Scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University now say…