2025 has been filled with relentless and unprecedented attacks against the LGBTQ community in the U.S. President Donald Trump’s anti-LGBTQ policies have spilled over to countries abroad, including heading north to some conservative Canadian provinces like Alberta.
Despite this, there have been moments of hope. Here is Uncloseted Media’s 2025 LGBTQ year in review.
Jan. 1
Liechtenstein’s Marriage Act, passed in 2024, officially takes effect, opening marriage to same-sex couples and aligning the microstate with 21 other European nations that already recognize same-sex marriage.
Meta introduces new rules to their platforms. They remove their third-party fact-checking program and roll back hate speech restrictions, which allows anti-LGBTQ rhetoric to flourish. A report by Uncloseted Media identifies users who spew trans and homophobic language. One user wrote, “Look at this disgusting piece of fag shit here !” Another told someone to go to “the insane asylum where you belong, tranny freak.” Both of these comments are still up on the platform.
On the first day of his second term, President Trump signs an executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The order forces federal agencies to treat sex as a fixed male and female binary “assigned at conception,” calls for “gender” to be scrubbed from federal guidance, halts federal funding for gender-affirming care and mandates trans women in prison to be sent to male facilities. Trump also issues a stop-work order for PEPFAR, the biggest HIV/AIDS relief program in the world. This kicks off a broader pattern of cuts to HIV prevention and research.
Over the next three months, Trump continues his attacks on the LGBTQ community by signing another executive order that bans trans women and girls from competing on sports teams that match their gender identity. He also directs agencies to curb gender-affirming care for anyone under 19 and to strip funding from schools that allow social transition, inclusive bathrooms or the use of affirming names and pronouns.
Jan. 23
Same-sex marriage becomes the law of the land in Thailand, making it the first country in Southeast Asia to recognize marriage equality and equal adoption rights for gay couples.
Jan. 27
The Idaho House passes a resolution urging the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) to revisit and overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, signaling a renewed appetite to attack marriage equality at the federal level.
Feb. 6
Australia amends its federal Criminal Code to add sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status as protected characteristics in hate-crime law. This creates stronger penalties for perpetrators of anti-LGBTQ hate crimes across the country.
Feb. 13
Sam Nordquist, a trans man from Minnesota, is found dead in Upstate New York after a woman he met online kidnapped and tortured him for weeks in a hotel room. Seven people connected to his death have been charged with murder. Sam’s friend, Jax Seeger, spoke to Uncloseted following the tragedy:
“From my understanding, they came out and said it wasn’t a hate crime … and part of their reasoning was because one or two of the suspects self-identified within the [LGBTQ] community. … Like, you can’t say that just because they identified as LGBTQ, they’re incapable of committing a hate crime. Sammy wasn’t just physically abused. He was psychologically abused and they didn’t go into what that consisted of, but I think that’s something to keep in mind. As well as just the level of abuse you know? Trans people deserve the same respect and the same love as everyone else.”
The week after our interview with Seeger, prosecutors upgrade the charges against Nordquist’s accused killers to first-degree murder.
Feb. 14
The Stonewall National Monument. Photo by TheCatalyst31.
The National Park Service (NPS) erases mentions of transgender people from the Stonewall memorial, furthering conservative efforts to push “LGB” without the “T.” A few months later, NPS would go on to remove mentions of bisexuals as well.
Feb. 25
Mexico City Pride 2025. Photo by Wotancito.
Mexico City’s Congress approves a resolution to reform the Law for the Recognition and Attention of LGBTTTI+ Persons. This move effectively recognizes nonbinary people.
Feb. 28
Kim Reynolds in 2024. Photo by Gage Skidmore.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signs SF 418 into law. This move officially removes “gender identity” from the Iowa Civil Rights Act’s list of protected classes in housing, employment and public accommodations. Iowa becomes the first state to remove civil rights from a previously protected group.
March 27
Gov. Spencer Cox announces that Utah will become the first state to ban LGBTQ pride flags in government buildings and public schools, effective May 7. While the move is framed as a “neutrality” measure, it is widely seen as part of a broader effort to erase public displays of queer identity. In protest, the Utah Pride Center unveils what it calls “the world’s largest transgender flag” in front of Utah’s State Capitol building in Salt Lake City.
April 4
A conversion therapy ban in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, goes into effect. This makes it illegal for therapists and religious leaders to practice conversion therapy on gay and trans people. In a media release, the NSW attorney general writes:
“This follows ongoing work by the NSW Government to progress reforms that ensure all members of our community feel valued, respected and equal.”
“This report not only rejects health care best practices for transgender people — it goes a step further by recommending conversion therapy, though under a new, rebranded name, ‘exploratory therapy’. Despite the report’s claims, this is, in fact, the same harmful practice of conversion therapy, just using friendlier language.”
May 6
Trump’s transgender military ban goes into effect. The change requires active trans service members to self-separate from the military or risk losing some of their Veterans Affairs benefits. Alaina Kupec, a retired transgender U.S. Navy lieutenant, says the decision punishes people who are qualified and want to serve the country:
“[This is] a really dark day for our country where basically we’re allowed to discriminate against a class of people.”
May 19
A Russian court fines Apple roughly $130,000 for four offenses, including the violation of Russia’s expanded “LGBT propaganda” law. The Russian law labels the “international LGBT movement” as extremist and treats queer visibility as a threat to state security. Anything that promotes “non-traditional sexual relations” violates the law.
May 30
Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court rules that residents can request an “X” gender marker on their birth certificates. This move explicitly recognizes nonbinary people and strengthens case law around self-determined gender in the U.S. territory.
Amid relentless attacks from the federal government, WorldPride takes place in Washington D.C. Ahead of the event, the African Human Rights Coalition calls for a boycott because of Trump’s swath of anti-LGBTQ policies. While roughly 1.2 million people attend, The Washington Post reports that the turnout is less than half of what organizers expected.
June 18
In a 6–3 decision, SCOTUS upholds Tennessee’s law banning gender-affirming care for minors, including puberty blockers and hormones. The ruling signals that similar bans in other Republican-controlled states are likely to stand, sharply narrowing access to medically recommended care for trans youth nationwide. Ten days after the ruling, five trans youth speak to Uncloseted Media, with Dylan Brandt, 20, saying:
“Lawmakers don’t need to be involved in my doctor visits. They have no right. They have no knowledge. … They’ve got a lane and they should stay in it.”
In defiance of a government ban on Pride events, roughly 100,000 people march the streets of Budapest, Hungary, to celebrate. The march was seen as both a showing of support for LGBTQ rights and a protest against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s conservative government.
Puerto Rico’s governor, Jenniffer González-Colón, signs one of the harshest anti-trans health care laws in the northern hemisphere. The law bans gender-affirming care for anyone under 21 and threatens to cut off public funding for hospitals that don’t comply. It also threatens doctors with up to 15 years in prison and loss of licensure for violations. Puerto Rico’s LGBTQ+ Federation and GLAAD release a joint statement condemning the bill:
“Banning this care and stripping the rights of parents to make the best medical decisions for their families would create unbearable burdens for the most marginalized in Puerto Rico. Lawmakers must vote to protect access to health care that saves lives, and allow families to make private health care decisions that help loved ones be themselves, be safe, and to thrive.”
July 17
The Trump administration shuts down the LGBTQ suicide hotline, a life-saving resource that had received over 1.3 million calls, chats and texts since it launched in 2022. Genna Brown, a 16-year-old queer kid in North Carolina, who had used the hotline, spoke with Uncloseted Media about the impact it had on her mental health:
“I was an extremely self-loathing, suicidal kid who was under the impression that God hated me and I was gonna burn in hell for eternity. … Connecting with someone who gets it was really helpful. … Because at home, I was so isolated and I didn’t really interact with other queer people.”
July 18
Cuba’s National Assembly passes a law allowing trans people to change their legal gender without any requirement for genital surgery. In a post on X, Minister of Justice Oscar Silvera Martínez writes that the new law “will allow the country to have a modern civil registry” provided by “the issuance of digital documents with full validity and efficiency.”
July 29
In a move hailed by human rights groups, the Caribbean nation of St. Lucia strikes down colonial-era laws criminalizing “buggery,” effectively decriminalizing consensual same-sex intimacy between adults.
Aug. 20
In the middle of the night, Florida’s Department of Transportation paints over a rainbow crosswalk made to honor the victims of the Pulse nightclub terrorist attack that left 49 people dead. Advocates respond in protest by installing rainbow-colored bike racks.
Sept. 1
Burkina Faso’s Transitional Legislative Assembly passes a law explicitly criminalizing homosexuality. The law imposes a two- to five-year prison sentence and fines on people convicted of same-sex activity, deepening the criminalization of queer people in West Africa.
Sept. 10
The assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University (UVU) kicks off a wave of anti-trans vitriol, including calls to criminalize the community and designate them as terrorists. In September, Uncloseted Media interviewed five current and former LGBTQ students at UVU. Simone Goodheart, a trans woman who had recently attended the school, spoke about how students were suggesting she was the murderer and how they were harassing her on campus:
“I would say a few of them were asking me to share my school schedule, which thankfully I’m not a student right now. But like damn, if that was the case? A few of them just make awful comments about my appearance, who I am as a person. Basically they just wanted to make sense [of it], but also they wanted to get their outrage out. Because yeah, somebody they cared for died. They are going through the grieving process and like there is outrage and frustration but they were misdirected and misconnected and just utilized by awful algorithms that try to boost the most amount of outrage possible in order to encourage engagement.”
Sept. 26
Slovakia’s parliament passes a constitutional amendment that formally recognizes only two genders, restricts legal gender transition and prohibits adoption by same-sex couples nationwide.
Oct. 6
Bari Weiss hosting a CBS News Town Hall with Erika Kirk. Screenshot/CBS News.
Bari Weiss is appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News, making her the first openly gay person to lead the network. Weiss often angles herself as an independent thinker and is known for criticizing the mainstream media. She has no experience in broadcast news and has surrounded herself in controversy, accusing former colleagues at The New York Times of bullying her. She has also railed against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, writing articles with headlines such as “Bari Weiss: End DEI.”
“It is time to end DEI for good. No more standing by as people are encouraged to segregate themselves. No more forced declarations that you will prioritize identity over excellence. No more compelled speech. No more going along with little lies for the sake of being polite.”
Oct. 7
SCOTUS appears poised to rule against a Colorado law that bans the discredited practice of conversion therapy on minors. The justices repeatedly question the state over whether the law hinders free speech.
The high-stakes case could roll back the rights of LGBTQ youth across the country. Colorado is one of more than 20 states that have banned conversion practices, and a ruling in favor of removing the ban could make those laws in other states vulnerable to similar challenges.
Zohran Mamdani, one of the most outspokenly pro-trans politicians in the country, is elected mayor of New York City. Meanwhile, anti-LGBTQ Republicans are defeated in Virginia’s and New Jersey’s gubernatorial elections. On the night of his win, Mamdani reaffirms his support for those who elected him:
“In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light. Here, we believe in standing up for those we love, whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall. Your struggle is ours, too.”
In a massive win for gay rights, SCOTUS rejects Kim Davis’ appeal and won’t revisit the landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015. This signifies a major defeat for the new push to overturn the ruling, which was spearheaded by Davis and her lawyers from Liberty Counsel.
Nov. 17
Across Alberta, Canada, anti-trans legislation takes effect. A trans sports ban for students also forces sports organizations and schools to collect sensitive personal information that risks outing trans and gender diverse youth. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announces plans to circumvent legal opposition to the province’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors by invoking the notwithstanding clause, a constitutional provision that will stop such challenges for five years. The measure was also used in Alberta in 2000 to advance legislation opposing gay marriage.
Nov. 19
New Zealand’s health minister, Simeon Brown, announces a halt to new prescriptions of puberty blockers for minors with gender dysphoria. Brown says the ban will remain until a British clinical trial is completed. Existing patients can continue treatment.
Nov. 25
The European Union’s (EU) top court rules that member states must recognize same-sex marriages contracted in any EU country for purposes such as residence and free movement, binding more conservative governments such as Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia to acknowledge queer couples’ marital status even if they refuse to perform such marriages at home.
Dec. 2
ADF International, the global arm of U.S. anti-LGBTQ legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, publicly backs a South Australian woman threatening legal action over a Headspace Berri mental-health presentation that mentioned LGBTQ issues, incest and bestiality in a classroom context. Elenie Poulos, an expert on the intersection of religious and political discourses, describes their impact as “huge,” saying:
“They have a very longstanding and aggressive approach to the rights of LGBTIQ people. They fight it in the courts in the US, they fight it politically, locally and in communities, and their aggressive anti-gay stance is extremely harmful.”
Dec. 18
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Oz announcerestrictive measures designed to block minors’ access to gender-affirming care. The plan proposes federal Medicare and Medicaid cuts to all hospitals that provide this care to minors. “The multitude of efforts we are seeing from federal legislators to strip transgender and nonbinary youth of the health care they need is deeply troubling,” says Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen of The Trevor Project.
Dec. 21
CBS News shelves a planned 60 Minutes segment on men deported to CECOT, an infamous prison in El Salvador. Internal sources indicate that the move to cancel the story came from the network’s editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who reportedly raised concerns about the Trump administration’s lack of response to the reporter’s outreach.
If objective, nonpartisan, rigorous, LGBTQ-focused journalism is important to you, please consider making a tax-deductible donation through our fiscal sponsor, Resource Impact, by clicking this button:
Hello all. I hope you are all having a grand Christmas. I did. I am … yet now I am struggling.
See Ron’s sister has been with us for two weeks and she had been a great grand help. She took over ever duty I had and helped me get back to the blog. Plus she gave Ron a connection to his childhood and his youth. Plus she gave me all her husband’s clothing and we are the same size. So for Christmas I got a complete new wardrobe of shorts / pants / shirts / and dress stuff. I was down to only two ill-fitting pair of old pants that hung off me. So it was a timeless gift. But her help was not done.
She brought big sister energy so while I have tried hard to get Ron to throw out old construction debris that he had piled in several rooms I never could get him to do so. She did. Then she got him to organize and pack away a lot of stuff he was just piling up. I was so happy we got back to a having two rooms that we had lost to just Ron piling things in them. But it gets even better.
She and Ron spent the time looking at places here that might fit her needs so she could be here in the winters instead of being up north and she has found what she wanted, she put in an offer and the people accepted. So she will come stay with us on and off this winter and then next year be here full-time. I love it.
Please understand I never had a caring sibling. I met my wonderful “brother” Randy well into adulthood and Randy is everything an abused kid like myself could every hope for in a supportive sibling. He has been the brother I always wanted … yet never had until a decade ago. But Ron had a tight knit large family who cares for each other and really they do care and love each other. Watching him and Diane this last two weeks has been amazing. In a way I am jealous because no matter how hard they try to include me … they are in a world of their own past. Having Ron’s sister as a part of our lives is going to be grand.
So the adventure begins again. She has already given me ideas on ways she can help if I wish. But I love her ideas.
Now the ugly and bad. Off and on I have been struggling and doing everything to hide it from them. Several times at night both the cat and Ron tried to wake me as I started to yell or scream out. My nightmares have gotten much worse. During the day while they were in the house I would come into my office, shut the door, and breakdown sobbing in tears. I am trying so hard to hold it all together but the memories hurt so bad, they are there always now pushing at the walls I try to build up in my mind. It used to be they were contained but now they are simply there, looking over the wall, shouting at me constantly trying to get my attention.
I did what so many advised and I admitted to my primary care I needed help. He was the first primary care I ever told of my abuse and he impressed me with how he handled the news and me after I told him. But h e sent me to their therapist on staff. But she is a very young woman and she is a behavior therapist and I need a trauma therapist. She is all about how to feel good, such as walk more each day, but I need someone to tell and get help for being a 3-year-old tied to the stair banisters with my arms strung up while I could barely touch the floor. I was nude and sometimes I was blindfolded. Either way I was hit or raped in this position. I need someone to tell these memories to. And it won’t be this 20 year old woman who wants me to think of how I can make my days happier by thinking of sunshine.
So I have tried to do the best I can. Tomorrow Ron will take his sister to the airport and on the way home get the supplies for me to make a tomato spaghetti meal for Randy. Ron will make the meat balls while I make the sauce. I will pretend I am OK and everything is great. Yet inside I will hear the screams of a beaten raped little boy, I will ignore it while I make good for everyone around. And when I lay my head down on the pillow after trying so hard to stop from doing so … the nightmares will come, the memories, the feelings, the screams trying so hard to burst out. And I will control what I can, the cat or Ron will wake me if the noise from my mouth gets too loud. A night of hopefully a bit of rest. Only to wake early in the morning and get up to do it all again. My life, over and over again. Thank you for reading / listening. It is hard to describe what my life is, but maybe this is the best example.
Ron just went to bed. He tried hard to get me to go with him. He knows how hard it is for me and how it is getting harder. The saddest point is he tries to help but doesn’t know how. When I scream out at night he asks if he can hold me knowing that to just grab me or pull me to him will induce more trauma. Having written this with the memories fresh in my mind I am scared to join him in the bedroom. Yet I must. How to finish this post? I never wanted people to feel sorry for me, my life is what it is and what I have tried to make it. Yet the idea of going to bed scares me.
Yes I have a way to end this post. As a kid from 8 to my teen years I would leave the local school and bike to the local town library in our little cow town. I would stay there in safety instead of going home to be abused. The local librarians must have known of my abuse because one of them gave me a book that described what abused boys could do to get help. But like me they were afraid of the big bruiser gorilla that lived in my home that I had to return to. So while I was not allowed to have books at home because that was not what a real boy did, they kept my books behind their desk for me … and every day I was beaten and every night I was raped. But the next day I could go to that town library after school and lose my sore body in the books. But no adult ever became my hero. That was little Scotties life. Good night. Best wishes and hugs.
tRump’s illegal military war crime actions / tRump’s gift to the oil companies that paid him prior / This is a war crime and illegal / tRump trying to get other countries resources for his own profits / tRump grifts and seeking bribes
It has nothing to do with US national security and all the minerals / traffic rights to make ships pay / and the “rare earth” metals that tRump wants a piece of. It is about profit. Hugs
The paying tribute and bribes to tRump and his slush funds is so anti what the US should and used to stand for. It is the very thing the founding fathers were most against. The courts have gutted the holding of tRump to account but the emoluments cause is what this was designed to stop. Ask yourself if Biden / Obama / Clinton had been so blatant in demanding bribes would you tRump cult supporters be OK with it still? Hugs
The appeals court told her to have it completely wrapped up by the first week of January and this is not doing that. I expect more to happen fast with this. She ignored the appeals court order to please tRump.
“There was blood everywhere, screams, people crying, people who couldn’t take it and were urinating and vomiting on themselves,” the college student from Venezuela who sought U.S. asylum, said. “Four guards grabbed me, and they beat me until I bled until the point of agony. They knocked our faces against the wall. That was when they broke one of my teeth.”
Mr. Miller’s belief that seven decades of immigration has produced millions of people who take more than they give — an assertion that has been refuted by years of economic data — is at the heart of the Trump administration’s campaign to restrict immigration and deport immigrants already in the country.
tRump trying to hold on to power illegally / Jan 6th insurrectionists / trying to change the history everyone seen live / Scamming / Using the US treasury & taxpayer funds to pay off tRump cult members.
The U.S. Air Force will provide Jan. 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt with military funeral honors, reversing a Biden-era decision that denied her family’s request, according to a legal group that has represented her family.
In June 2025, the Pentagon agreed to pay the Babbitt family a $5 million “wrongful death” settlement. Below, see the latest from Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who is himself reportedly suing the DOJ for $100 million.
Gay Pride Day on June 28, 1975 in downtown Minneapolis. Credit: Minnesota Historical Society/John Hustad Papers/Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies/University of Minnesota
It was likely one of the last pieces of city policy passed that winter, just before the New Year, a parting gift from a progressive city council.
On December 30, 1975, Minneapolis became the first city to adopt a trans-inclusive LGBTQ+ non-discrimination ordinance. Fifty years later, the United States still lacks similar protections on a federal level.
Minneapolis was special in that the right people were there at the right time, said Seth Goodspeed, director of development and communications at OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ rights organization.
“Minneapolis, since the early ’70s, has really been a leader in the gay rights movement,” he said. “That comes out of a lot of the student organizing at the University of Minnesota in the late ’60s.”
It was home to Jack Baker and Michael McConnell, two men who, in 1971, figured out how to legally marry, the first recorded same-sex marriage in history. It was also the stomping ground of Steve Endean, who founded the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign.
Endean started lobbying a city alderman, Earl Netwal, in 1973 to pass a gay rights ordinance. His timing was just right. In 1974 progressives won the mayoral race and the city council. That year they voted 10-0 to ban discrimination on the basis of “sexual preference.”
The next year, Tim Campbell, a local activist and publisher of the GLC Voice in Minneapolis, penned a trans-inclusive policy.
“I think it was a pendulum,” Goodspeed said. “The pendulum was sort of swinging back toward a more conservative mayor and a conservative city council.” (snip)
…
“You’re able to say, ‘We passed this two years ago, last year, in the past five years, and nothing’s really changed, there is no boogeyman under the bed,’” he said. “We’ve had these protections since the 1970s and all these fears that they might have … just never came to fruition.”
The public spaces in Nantes, a city along the Loire River in the west of France, might at first glance seem just like those in any other part of Europe. Across the city, there are numerous bike lanes, bustling fresh produce markets and pretty, historic squares.
But on closer inspection, there are signs of a profound attempt to make the city, its facilities and its built environment a more equitable place for women.
Hundreds of streets now bear the names of women, including Joséphine Baker, Frida Kahlo and Clémence Lefeuvre — the little-known creator of local specialty beurre blanc sauce. School yards, once dominated by soccer pitches, have been remodeled to incorporate spaces for calm and creativity. Stations for breastfeeding have been built in the city center to improve maternal comfort and visibly counter stigma. Free tampon dispensers have been installed in libraries, gyms and all kinds of other municipal buildings.
The new Boulevard Gisèle Halimi, named after the feminist lawyer (1927-2020), is located in the Prairie-au-Duc district on the Île de Nantes. Credit: Patrick Garcon / Nantes Métropole.
These initiatives form part of mayor Johanna Rolland’s bold plan to make Nantes, which is home to around 700,000 people and is the sixth largest city in France, a ville non-sexiste, or non-sexist city. From redesigning public areas to reallocating spending and inaugurating France’s leading center to counter gender-based violence, Nantes is trailblazing the way to safer, less discriminatory urban life.
“We couldn’t wait for change anymore, we had to take action,” says Mahaut Bertu, the deputy mayor of Nantes in charge of equality, the fight against discrimination and the non-sexist city project. “Femicides continue every year. Women suffer harassment every day. [To make change], we had to take a hold of the problem ourselves.”
Shortly after taking power in 2014, Rolland and her team set about carrying out research and compiling statistics on the extent of inequality in Nantes, since at that point limited information existed.
The findings of the research, which included income, violence and public spaces, were striking. Analysis found, for example, that of the 3,000 streets in Nantes, fewer than four percent of them were named after women compared with more than 36 percent bearing men’s names. More broadly, it found that, in 2014, 58 percent of women aged 15 to 64 were employed, compared to 63 percent of men. And women represented 70 percent of the so-called “working poor” — those in employment but below the poverty line.
From that understanding, city authorities went about introducing women-centered policy and ramping up investment. One of the most pressing issues was responding to gender-based violence.
In France, 99 percent of women have been victims of a sexist comment or act at least once in their lives, according to the French High Council for Equality, an independent advisory body. “Far from declining, sexism is becoming entrenched, even increasing,” its 2024 report concluded.
In November 2019, following years of consultation with residents, women’s rights groups and nonprofits, the city opened Citad’elles, a shelter for women victims of violence that provides free, centralized support 24/7 — something that to this day does not exist anywhere else in France. (snip)
…
This year, a pilot study is taking place in four of the schools to assess the impact of the new playgrounds. Fischer’s team is also working with school employees to help promote fairer use of the spaces.
At the same time, Nantes has an initiative to fight “period poverty” and to help reduce the costly burden of women’s sanitary products.
This is not true. The construction industry has crashed in Florida. No workers so nothing being built. Half crews means nothing built. The work is far to hard for most people. Hugs
In his first year back in office, Mr. Trump has unabashedly adopted the trappings of royalty just as he has asserted virtually unbridled power to transform American government and society to his liking. In both pageantry and policy, Mr. Trump has established a new, more audacious version of the imperial presidency that goes far beyond even the one associated with Richard M. Nixon, for whom the term was popularized half a century ago.
Trump is expected to announce plans to build a new, large warship that Trump is calling a “battleship” and is part of his larger vision to create a “Golden Fleet” that includes as many as 50 support ships, according to people familiar with the matter who were not authorized comment publicly.
Bigotry / Hate / Racism / DEI Misinformation / White Supremacy
Commissioners in Randolph County, North Carolina dissolved the county library system’s entire board of trustees last week, after the trustees voted to keep a picture book about a transgender boy on library shelves.
In October, the Randolph County Public Library’s Board of Trustees voted to keep the picture book Call Me Max on shelves despite some objections from members of the public. The book, written by Kyle Lukoff and illustrated by Luciano Lozano, tells the story of a young trans boy who asks to be called Max at school, eventually leading him to come out to his parents. The Randolph County trustees voted 5-2 to keep the book available, with some trustees reportedly commenting that removing or relocating the book would be a “slippery slope” toward censorship.
In response, the Randolph County Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 on December 8 to dissolve the library board and its governing bylaws entirely, Blue Ridge Public Radio (BPR) reported. Commissioner Hope Haywood, who cast one of the two dissenting votes, told BPR that the other commissioners’ likely intended to appoint new members, but that she had wanted to establish plans to facilitate that process first.
“Three commissioners didn’t see it that way. Three commissioners felt like, just abolish the board and then figure it out,” Haywood told BPR.
Minutes and video of the December 8 meeting were not yet available at time of writing. According to coverage of the meeting by local news website Randolph Hub, commission chairman Darrell Frye made bizarre comments about a member of his family he said had killed themself after being “brainwashed” on social media, apparently in reference to being trans. “It’s about, to me, exposing a child before it’s able to make a decision. It’s personal to me,” Frye reportedly said. Commissioner Kenny Kidd opined that dissolving the board of trustees was “a black-and-white issue,” and that “the soul of our children” was at stake.
“We adhere to the rules for the disposition of materials. We have the responsibility to serve all sides of issues,” trustee Betty Armfield reportedly told the board, adding that it was “parents’ responsibility to choose what they believe are appropriate books for their children.”
Call Me Max will still be available to check out from Randolph libraries in the wake of the commissioners’ vote, the county public information officer told CBS affiliate station WFMY. Still, Lukoff — who won a 2020 Stonewall Book Award for another picture book about a trans boy, When Aidan Became a Brother — lamented the vote and what it represents on Instagram last week.
“A library’s entire board of trustees was fired and replaced because they refused to ban one of my books. It’s so terrible,” Lukoff wrote. “I just feel so bad for the people who live in that community and love their library,” he added in a later reply.
Anti-LGBTQ+ activists have increasingly targeted local and school libraries over the past several years, particularly amid the rise in popularity of “Drag Queen Story Hour” events, some of which have been the subject of bomb threats and harassment from far-right militia groups. Tennessee officials have ordered libraries across the state to remove books with LGBTQ+ themes or characters this year, while in South Carolina, the York County Library board voted last week to move all books dealing with gender identity to sections for patrons aged 13 and older. One conservative activist claimed that move was necessary for “protecting childhood innocence.”
Issues of access to LGBTQ+ materials are increasingly landing in courts. Earlier this year, former Wyoming librarian Terri Lesley settled a wrongful dismissal lawsuit with county officials for $700,000, after she was fired in 2023 for refusing to remove LGBQ+ books from children’s and young adult sections of her library. (Neither party admitted wrongdoing as a result of the settlement.)
“People that want to keep pushing an agenda to go against these library materials and the First Amendment, I hope they see this, and I hope it’s a deterrent,” Lesley told CBC Radio in October.
Dr Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Mehmet Oz, better-known as Dr Oz, has raged about “$150k penis surgery” for trans youth, but he failed to cite any facts.
Dr Oz, who leads Medicaid and Medicare, announced on Thursday (18 December), alongside health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, measures that will ban gender-affirming care for trans youth.
The ban, part of Dr Oz’s bid to end “taxpayer funding of sex rejecting procedures for children in Medicaid and CHIP [children’s health insurance program], full stop”, takes the form of two new proposed rules from Medicaid and Medicare.
The first prevents doctors and hospitals from receiving federal Medicaid reimbursement for gender-affirming care provided to trans youth under the age of 18, while the second blocks all Medicaid and Medicare funding for any services at hospitals that provide pediatric gender-affirming care.
Medicaid, which is the health care program that covers low-income Americans, alongside older and disabled citizens, is taken at most hospitals, meaning the proposals could have a wide-ranging effect, as per New Hampshire Public Radio.
During announcing the proposals, Kennedy referred to gender-affirming care as “malpractice”, while Dr Oz went completely off topic.
The 65-year-old began ranting about the prices of bottom surgery, which is very rarely performed on individuals under 18.
“A vaginoplasty – a procedure a child does not need – costs $60,000,” he claimed, adding: “Shockingly, a phalloplasty, the creation of a penis, costs, on average, in America, $150,000 per child.
“I do believe, with doing some work, that these prices have continued to increase due to increased manufactured demand,” he continued. “A scrotalplasty, where you add testicles? That’s extra.”
Dr Oz didn’t clarify where he pulled his quoted figures from, but according to the Gender Confirmation Center, the price of a vaginoplasty is between $23,000 and $24,500, while phalloplasty ranges between $35,000 and $50,000.
According to 2025 data from the Williams Institute, about one per cent of people aged 13 and older identify as trans in the US, and despite the proposals attacking gender-affirming care for trans youth, multiple studies show that surgeries are rarely performed on minors.
A 2024 study by researchers at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health found that no gender-affirming surgeries were performed on trans or gender diverse youth (TGD) aged 12 and younger in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available.
For teens ages 15 to 17 and adults ages 18 and older, the rate of undergoing gender-affirming surgery was 2.1 per 100,000 and 5.3 per 100,000, respectively. The majority of surgeries were chest surgeries.
Co-author Elizabeth Boskey, instructor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, said: “We found that gender-affirming surgeries are rarely performed for transgender minors, suggesting that US surgeons are appropriately following international guidelines around assessment and care.”
Lead author Dannie Dai, research data analyst in the Department of Health Policy and Management, added: “Our findings suggest that legislation blocking gender-affirming care among TGD youth is not about protecting children, but is rooted in bias and stigma against TGD identities and seeks to address a perceived problem that does not actually exist.”
Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.
A same-sex female couple in Pennsylvania is suffering through a “Kafkaesque nightmare” after one of the women was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when she showed up for a regularly scheduled immigration check-in.
ICE agents detained her and shipped her to a detention center in California.
Xiomara Suarez, 28, arrived in the U.S. in 2022 seeking asylum after fleeing Peru, where she was stalked and endured a violent sexual assault based on her sexual orientation. In a sworn declaration to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials reviewed by Advocate, Suarez said Peruvian police refused to acknowledge her complaints or offer protection, and she feared for her life.
Suarez was admitted to the U.S. on “parole” as her request for permanent status was processed.
In February, Suarez married her then-girlfriend, Grazi Chiosque, 29, an American citizen. The couple hoped to adjust Suarez’s immigration status and smooth the way for her to obtain a green card. They filed the required documents in May.
Before that request was processed, however, Suarez was swept up in a wave of detentions by ICE at courthouses targeting immigrants scheduled for hearings — only to be arrested and shipped to detention centers despite their legal non-criminal status.
Suarez was now one of them.
Chiosque says her wife is enduring degrading and isolating conditions at the Adelanto ICE detention facility in Southern California, where she’s been detained since September.
“There’s mold in the food,” Chiosque said. “You don’t have any privacy.”
“She was put into shackles,” Suarez’s wife added. “She told me that crying because it really made her feel like she did something that was wrong, and she didn’t.”
Far from expediting Suarez’s immigration status, the couple’s decision to marry may have only complicated Suarez’s legal claim.
Earlier this month, she was scheduled for back-to-back appearances with government officials. The first was with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to adjudicate her spousal petition. The second was before an immigration judge related to her detention and status in the country.
Chiosque flew from Pennsylvania to help Suarez through the process.
At the first appointment, a supervisor with Citizenship and Immigration Services told Chiosque, referring to her wife, “USCIS does not have jurisdiction because she’s detained.”
“The immigration judge would have to adjudicate on both,” Chiosque was told.
But at that hearing, the explanation flipped, Chiosque said.
“‘No, I don’t have jurisdiction on the I-130,” the judge told Suarez, referring to her spousal petition. “There’s nothing I can do.”
“If USCIS does not want to give you an interview,” he added, “contact your congressman.”
The couple had hoped their marriage claim would help expedite Suarez’s permanent residency. Now it was keeping her behind bars.
“USCIS says it’s not them because she’s detained. And the judge says it’s not them, it’s USCIS,” Chiosque said.
Suarez was returned to detention. Her next immigration hearing is scheduled for January 28.
The couple’s legal limbo is indicative of a broader, and intentional, pattern by ICE and the Trump administration, said Álvaro M. Huerta, director of litigation and advocacy at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center.
“This administration is separating and trapping families like Xiomara and Grazielli in a Kafkaesque nightmare, with the clear intention of making life so unbearable that they abandon all hope,” Huerta said. “It’s not only a policy failure, but also a betrayal of LGBTQ immigrant families who deserve dignity, safety, and the chance to thrive.”
“It feels like we’re begging,” said Chiosque, whose wife sits in detention a continent away.
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.
Shutterstock
Scottie's Playtime 
_(cropped).jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
#/media/File:2025.06.07_World_Pride,_Washington,_DC_USA_158135_05745_(54582538995).jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}