I know this is old but I worked hard on it. Now that I got the issues between computers worked out and I am in the process of reinstalling all the programs I need to make the computer do what I want, checking to make sure the issue that came up a week ago from reappearing. The issues of full acceptance and equality for the full LGBTQ+ community. Hugs
Please notice that the entire campaign to erase LGBTQ+ from society started with the false premise that the LGBTQ+, especially children need to be protected from trans people and drag queens. But the same people claim to be grand Christians yet they never address sexual abuse of children in churches or other organizations like foster homes / orphanages. These same people support a man for president that was credibly accused of violently raping a 13, how many more did not report the abuse? They support a man who bragged about barging into the changing rooms of teen girls as they were in different states of being undressed some of them nude during the teen pageants claiming it was his right as the owner. He is a child sex predator by his own words claiming he would date / have sex with his own young not adult daughter. They supported a man convicted of sexually assaulting a woman with the commonly understood phrase raped her. But they claim the real problem is women being raped in bathrooms if trans women are in there also. They support Pete Hegseth for Sec. Of Def. He also has been accused of sexually assaulting / raping a woman and assaulting other women. It was reported that he was often drunk and enjoyed going to places where women take off their clothing and at least one occasion needed to be restrained from going on stage with the nude women. Tell me where is the effort to removed white men from the social media and from the military? Sorry but when they say woke it means anything they dislike just as CRT did. When they say DEI it is them saying the “N” word and that females are inferior to males. Well let me get to separating the posts. Hugs.
I wish I could still say it’s amazing that these bills even come up, while now instead, it’s amazing that they’re not brought into law. But here we are. Decent news from Montana!
Powerful Speeches From Trans Dems Flip 29 Republicans, Anti-Trans Bills Die In Montana by Erin Reed
Transgender Reps Zooey Zephyr and SJ Howell delivered powerful speeches on the Montana House floor on Thursday. Republicans defected en masse to join them in voting against anti-trans bills. Read on Substack
Something remarkable happened in Montana today. As has become routine, anti-trans bills were up for debate—the state has spent more than half of its legislative days this session pushing such bills through committees and the House floor, with Republicans largely voting in lockstep. But something changed.
A week ago, transgender Representative Zooey Zephyr delivered a powerful speech against a bill that would create a separate indecent exposure law for transgender people. Since then, momentum on the House floor slowed. Today, two of the most extreme bills targeting the transgender community came up for a vote. Transgender Representatives Zooey Zephyr and SJ Howell gave impassioned speeches—this time, they broke through. In a stunning turn, 29 Republicans defected, killing both bills. One Republican even took the floor to deliver a scathing rebuke of the bill’s sponsor.
The first bill to reach the House floor was HB 675, a measure that would ban drag performances and Pride parades in Montana. A previous drag ban had already been struck down by the courts after it was enforced against a transgender woman—who was not a drag artist—to prevent her from speaking about public history at a library. In response, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Caleb Hinkle, introduced HB 675 to circumvent that ruling.
Rather than relying on state enforcement, this bill would grant individuals the private right to sue if a public drag performance took place, making it more difficult to challenge in court. During committee hearings, Hinkle went even further, calling being transgender “a fetish” and arguing that the law was necessary to prevent trans people from dancing in public.
And that’s when transgender Representative Zooey Zephyr took to the floor.
“Here I am again to rise on another bill targeting the LGBTQ+ community,” she said, exasperated. “At its very core, drag is art. It is very beautiful art. It has a deep history in this country, and it is important to my community. You know, if you are a woman in this body wearing a suit today, you are in some way challenging gender norms that existed long ago… There were three-article-of-clothing laws 50 years ago that said if you wore three articles of clothing that were indicative of the opposite gender, they could stop you, arrest you… it was those laws that led to the police raiding an LGBTQ+ bar that led to the Stonewall riots, one of the most important civil rights moments in my community’s history,” she began.
“When the sponsor closed on this bill, he said, this bill is needed… and I quote his words… ‘because transgenderism is a fetish based on crossdressing.’ And I am here to stand before the body and say that my life is not a fetish. My existence is not a fetish. I was proud within a month ago to have my son up in the gallery here. Many of you on the other side met him. When I go to walk him to school, that’s not a lascivious display. That is not a fetish. That is my family. This is what these bills are trying to come after… not obscene shows in front of children, we have the Miller test for that, we have laws for that. This is a way to target the trans community, and that is in my opinion, and in the speaker’s own words.”
Then something even more remarkable happened: A Republican, Representative Sherry Essman, rose to defend Rep. Zephyr and chastised the bill’s sponsor. “I’m speaking as a parent and a grandmother. And I’m very emotional because I know the representative in seat 20 is also a parent. No matter what you think of that, she is doing her best to raise a child. I did my best to raise my children as I saw fit, and I’m taking it for granted that my children are going to raise my grandchildren as they see fit,” she began.
“Everybody in here talks about how important parental rights are. I want to tell you, in addition to parental rights, parental responsibility is also important. And if you can’t trust a decent parent to decide where and when their kids should see what, then we have a bigger problem,” she turned to parental rights and spoke about how people who claim those rights should vote against the bill.
And then, she closed by chastising the bill’s sponsor for bringing the bill, “Trust the parents to do what’s right, and stop these crazy bills that are a waste of time. They’re a waste of energy. We should be working on property tax relief and not doing this sort of business on the floor of this house and having to even talk about this.”
Following the speeches, 13 Republicans, the most of any anti-trans bill this cycle, flipped and voted against the bill. See it as it happened here:
Were this all that happened, it would have been remarkable enough—such aisle-crossing has become rare in modern politics, and on transgender issues, it is almost unheard of. But Representative Zephyr is not the only transgender lawmaker in Montana. Representative SJ Howell, a powerhouse in their own right, took the floor when an even more extreme bill followed immediately afterwards—HB754, a measure that would remove transgender children from their parents. They had a powerful speech to deliver as well.
Representative Howell opened, “I stand to oppose this bill… When a state intervenes to remove a child from their family, that is one of the most serious and weighty responsibilities that the state has. That is not something to be taken lightly. Every time a child is removed from their family, it’s a tragedy. Sometimes a necessary tragedy, but a tragedy nonetheless. This bill does not come close to the seriousness with which those decisions should be contemplated.”
They pointed directly to the bill’s language: “On page 1, line 19, any child protective service specialist, peace officer, or county attorney who has reason to believe any child is in immediate danger or harm may immediately remove the child. What we are adding… a child transitioning gender with the support of a parent or guardian is considered in immediate or apparent danger or harm.”
Howell then turned to the bill’s vagueness and the dangers it posed to transgender children as well as any child who defies gender norms. “Transitioning gender is not defined in this bill… so what does that mean? Maybe it means, as the sponsor said, surgery or medical treatment. Maybe it means therapy, mental healthcare. Maybe it means a kid who gets a haircut and a new set of clothes. Maybe a name change… a legal name change, or someone who wants to try out a different name… a strict reading of this bill could include all of that.”
They urged lawmakers to consider the real consequences. “Put yourself in the shoes of a CPS worker who is confronted with a young person, 15 years old maybe, who is happy… healthy… living in a stable home with loving parents, who is supported and has their needs met? And they are supposed to remove that child from their home and put them in the care of the state? We should absolutely not be doing that.”
Then, the bill went to a vote. This time, the Montana Republican Party fully fractured—29 Republicans crossed the aisle to defeat it.
Watch it as it happened here:
Following the vote, Representative Zephyr took to social media to discuss the implications. “These kind of votes are born out of transgender representation in government,” she posted on her bluesky account. “Howell & I have built solid relationships with Republicans and those relationships change hearts, minds, and (eventually) votes. It is painful, grueling work. But it makes a difference.”
At a time when anti-trans bills are sailing through red-state legislatures, many are left wondering how they can be stopped. Some Democrats, like Gavin Newsom, have chosen appeasement—standing alongside anti-trans hate leaders like Charlie Kirk instead of standing up for transgender people. But Representatives Zooey Zephyr and SJ Howell offer a different path. As transgender lawmakers in a Republican-dominated government, they have shown that representation, relationships, and the power of speaking truth in hostile spaces can move hearts and minds. Their success is a reminder that even in the most challenging environments, refusing to back down can make a difference.
Editor’s Note: The writer of this article is happily married to Representative Zooey Zephyr. While I am mindful of disclosing personal relationships in my reporting as a transgender journalist, I also recognize the importance of covering major moments like today’s events in Montana, and so I chose to report on this story with this disclosure. My goal remains delivering critical LGBTQ+ news to my readers with the integrity and urgency it deserves.
This writer, Crip Dyke, feels about Dems the way many here do; that they’re worthless doing anything except being polite. But when Dems do what they should, this writer publishes it so that people know. It’s what we should all do until someone with money forms a new party if that’s what people really want. (To me, it’d be easier to jump in and participate in the Dem party, and fix it from within. With numbers, it’d be easy and relatively quick to make the desired improvements. Anyway, here is good news about an issue on which we’ve all been writing and calling.)
Democrats Strike At Heart Of GOP Darkness, Kill Anti-Trans Sports Bill by Rebecca Schoenkopf
In the moment Death stepped on the Senate floor to claim S9, Tuberville reportedly whispered, ‘The horror. The horror.’Read on Substack
Let trans kids play. Image by Phil Roeder. Used under CCA 2.0.
In the 19 long, bitter decades since Trump issued Executive Order 14201, “Keeping Men Out Of Women’s Sports,” generations have been born, come of age, and died buried away from the sun, divided by uncrossable rivers. Few could conceive of the darkness of the soul in those times who have not lived them.
And so our forgotten years of hope reflecting off the waters of that most colonial of rivers, the Potomac, produced the most unexpected flicker yesterday: a filibuster victory in the Senate, blocking the codification of 14201 into law and ban trans participation in girls’ and women’s school sports. To quote Erin Reed:
Republicans called it the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.” Democrats dubbed it “The GOP Child Predator Empowerment Act”. The Senate clerk said it didn’t have the votes.
To misquote Joseph Conrad, the Democratic Party is a droll thing, a mysterious arrangement of spineless yes-men for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some acknowledgement of yourself that comes too late, leaving a crop of inextinguishable regrets. But not March 3, 2025!
And not today, Satan!
The vote was not quite so positive as The Hill would have you believe: They reported that “all Democrats voted against” the bill, recorded as S. 9. While zero Democrats voted for it, two Dems known to waffle in the face of anti-trans attacks did abstain. The Senate’s two independents (both of whom caucus with Democrats), Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, both voted against. The final margin of 51-45 included two abstentions from Republicans as well, Shelley Capito (R-WV) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY). Though Trump hasn’t ruled on the prior state of these Senators as blastocysts, both do appear to be women, curiously enough.
The defeat of S9 marks a rare moment in the 119th Congress in which Democrats hung together. On other votes including prominent Senate confirmations and measures in both the Senate and the House, there have been significant defections. HR 28, the House version of this bill, snagged two Democratic votes (both Texas centrists and both men). In a time when Democratic voters and other lefties have been crying out for principled obstructionism to be waged against Trump and the MAGA agenda, blocking S9 was a largely unexpected win. Calling out trans participation in girls’ and women’s sports has been a particularly effective form of attack by the GOP, even when lying their asses off, as Tommy Tuberville did on FOX:
“We’re getting to a point now where women and girls’ sports and getting ready to be extinct. Because already in states across this country, we have high school teams that are made up of totally boys participating against girls. […And wank, wank, wank.]”
Of course no one other than GOP primary voters have taken Tuberville seriously since his Auburn Tigers lost to 14 transsexual squirrels in Commodore drag. But if you need to hear it from someone who knows better than yr Wonkette, Kate Starbird, former NCAA basketball standout, former professional baller in the ABL and WNBA, and current University of Washington professor, had this to say about Tuberville’s demented lie:
“As a former athlete & current researcher of online rumors & disinfo, today’s atrocious example of the ‘right wing bullshit machine’ in action — anchored on a truly idiotic claim from a football coach turned GOP senator about trans girls making girls sports ‘extinct’ — enrages along both dimensions.”
(Wonkette was so impressed with this quote we are currently reviewing her inventory of dick jokes in preparation for the possible extension of an offer of employment.)
To be clear, under the filibuster rules, which could change if the GOP thinks abandoning this Senate tradition is important enough, the bill needed 60 votes to clear a procedural step — cloture — that would then allow an up-or-down vote on enactment. That final vote would have needed only the barest majority, and a tie can be split by the Vice President. But Republicans are not currently talking about eliminating cloture votes, and as long as the filibuster survives, the Protection of Women & Girls in Sports Act is dead.
Despite this victory depending on the GOP maintaining the filibuster and the fact that Republicans are constantly launching other attacks on immigrants, people of color, teachers, and many others, there’s good reason to celebrate the Dems acting like they know how to win. And many people are celebrating, including another former professional athlete and generally decent person, Chris Kluwe:
“I support and am happy the party came together to stop this.”
Of course the party pooper had to add:
“However, this is what they should be doing on EVERYTHING. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it – we are in an existential crisis as a country. We’re either going to emerge as Americans, or as something else.”
And that is, indeed, where we are. Like a flash of lightning in the clouds, we are glimpsing an ephemeral brightening of hope. We live in the flicker, may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday. The GOP has lost only the first of the ebb.
I have strong feelings about women’s restrooms, too, as we all know; so many thoughts about so many women’s bathroom issues. I’m in agreement with this essay. Stick with it, you’ll see. You might want a tissue.
A Trans Girl Approached Me in the Ladies’ Bathroom and It Bothered Me. Here’s Why. by Natalie S. Ohio
Why the girls’ bathroom is a sacred space for women and how we must seek to keep it that way.Read on Substack
Ugh, no hand soap. Again.
If there’s one thing living in Spain will teach you, it’s that hand washing isn’t priority número uno in public spaces.
Luckily, as someone who grew up here, this is no surprise to me. As Gang Starr once said, “I’m not new to this, I’m true to this.”
In other words, I carry soap sheets wherever I go.
As I was washing my hands in the shopping mall bathroom last week, the door cracked open and a head peeked around.
Big brown eyes appeared from under a blunt-cut fringe. A smattering of adolescent acne decorated soft, rounded cheeks and a set of metallic braces twinkled between glossy pink lips.
Either retro makeup is back in style or rubbing my hands together had sent me ricocheting back to the mid-80s…
We regarded each other for a moment.
“¿Puedo pasar?” May I come in?
Her delicate, childlike voice softly penetrated the silence of the empty bathroom.
“Sí, claro.” Of course.
I smiled and gestured to the vacant stalls and the rows of mirrored sinks behind me.
I wondered if she mistakenly believed from the outside that this was a single-person bathroom. Or maybe she thought I was a cleaner. It wouldn’t be the first time a Spaniard had seen my complexion and automatically assumed I was the help.
I was otherwise a little perplexed as to why she would ask.
She hesitated slightly as she stepped around the door.
“Bueno, es que… soy trans.”
Well, it’s just that… I’m trans.
What I’m about to say may sound strange to some, but here goes:
The ladies’ bathroom plays a surprisingly significant role in girlhood.
I’m not talking about the one at Grandma’s house with its peach-coloured wall tiles, nor the ones in fancy restaurants where you go to check your appearance on a date.
I’m talking about the public toilets that double as makeshift community hubs for women — grubby little social sinkholes you find in nightclubs, bars, and airports that offer a brief moment of tranquillity as the commotion fades behind the closing door.
Restrooms with precarious toilet seats, broken flushes, and “love urself babe ur perfect” scribbled in eyeliner on the inside of the stall.
I’m willing to bet that anybody who has used a public ladies’ room has had at least one memorably positive encounter with someone they’ve met inside.
What’s so special about it? I hear you cry. Men have bathrooms too and nobody bats an eyelid. If anything, the less said about those, the better.
On a functional level, nothing at all.
In fact, the ladies’ very often sucks in comparison to the men’s. A victim of long queues, scarce toilet paper, and the most unflattering lighting known to man.
However, we’re not talking about serviceability. If we were, we wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.
What I’m referencing is much deeper than that. Much more visceral.
I once undid a drunken stranger’s bodysuit in a nightclub bathroom so she could relieve herself before going back out to tear up the dancefloor. If you’ve any idea what a bodysuit is and where its fastening is located, you’ll understand why that’s a tall order.
I’ve witnessed countless girls take their drinks inside and leave them unattended by the sink without any concerns over getting roofied.
There’s nearly always someone giving an empowering pep talk to a broken-hearted friend who needs a boost of confidence.
Blister plasters, boob tape, and tampons are handed out like Werther’s Originals at a Women’s Institute meeting. Pleasant conversation dapples the air. Strangers become new best friends.
Outfits are readjusted, hair is coiffed, perfume is shared, and doors with faulty locks are guarded to prevent accidental walk-ins. Those who are desperate are permitted to jump the line.
It’s where the power of sorority is comfortably displayed.
The girls’ bathroom is one of the few places where female vulnerability isn’t preyed upon.
Conversely, it’s often bolstered and allowed to exist without any need for justification.
Sure, it’s where you go when nature calls. But it also acts as a cocoon-like environment — somewhere you can retreat to when you want to feel… safe.
Nat, why are you waxing lyrical about the loo?
Well, because this recent encounter brought about a bracing realisation for me — a conventional woman with an uncomplicated identity who fits comfortably within the margins of the archetype.
I realised that the person peeking her head around the door wasn’t merely asking for permission to enter the room.
She was asking for permission to belong.
She was giving me the power to accept or reject her appeal to exist freely in a space that—for people like me—is a place of comfort, and for people like her, is commonly associated with hostility and consternation.
The alignment of my biological sex and gender identity affords me the confidence to take up space in social settings where others, with less streamlined identities, may feel reluctant.
Of course, uncertainty is a perfectly natural phenomenon in adolescence — kids are constantly trying to make sense of themselves and explore how and where they best fit in a world governed by grown-ups. And this kid, who looked to be some 14 or 15 years old, is no different.
However, this situation was unique because it didn’t focus on the implicit social hierarchy that comes with a significant age gap.
Instead, our respective positions on the spectrum of womanhood forced us to weigh up the other’s existence.
It was as though she believed that within a shared space her identity would encroach on mine; so announcing that she was trans and verbally acknowledging our differences would help me to legitimise her humanity some.
She asked me if she could come in because there may have been a chance that I wouldn’t have wanted her to.
And that is devastating to me.
“Bueno, hija, ¿qué más da? Pasa, pasa.” So what, kiddo? Come on in.
I headed over to the hand dryer.
“Ay, muchas gracias!”
She smiled sweetly and walked past me in her fishnet tights and patent Dr. Martens.
Transphobia is not an alien concept in countries that operate under organised religion or have a traditional set of social values, such as Spain.
Vox—a prominent far-right political party—has been consistently vocal about its disdain towards transgender people and its desire to prevent their access to base-level human rights. Transgender people are persecuted by conservative political parties and their followers all across the nation.
Adults berating other adults is one thing, but what happens when this toxic, nefarious behaviour falls upon the shoulders of children?
Children are sacred
“Los niños son sagrados” (children are sacred) is a phrase you see and hear typically in response to the mistreatment of children in any form.
Children are revered in Hispanic culture, so why was this particular child so acutely aware of the controversy surrounding her identity? Shouldn’t the innocence we try so hard to preserve in children include transgender children too?
Shouldn’t she be able to exist as comfortably as her peers do?
Had I voiced an issue with her coming into the bathroom, there is no doubt in my mind that she would’ve turned away and left. And that’s what bothered the hell out of me. It upset me that she felt the need to even mention it.
Because who am I? I’m not important. I have no authority over public spaces or gender identity whatsoever.
I don’t care what people do in the privacy of a bathroom stall. I don’t stop to intimidate them or pass judgement.
I’m just a stranger washing her hands at the sink. But luckily for this girl, I’m a kind stranger. Someone whose cup of compassion and understanding runneth over.
The fact that she felt the need to ask stirred up feelings of pity and rage in equal measure.
It disgusts me that this harmless individual possibly has and probably will suffer at the hands of narrow-minded losers who mind other people’s business more than their own.
As if growing up isn’t already fraught with insecurity and a heightened awareness of your differences from others. Being a teenager in today’s world is like wandering into the seventh circle of hell with gasoline shorts on.
Sure, the world is a big, scary place. But the girls’ bathroom is something else entirely, and it should stay that way.
I felt a wave of protectiveness wash over me as I thought about how she must feel on a regular basis. Physically, she was long-limbed and lofty, yet she seemed so small and defenceless.
A kid.
Just figuring herself out, one day at a time.
When she came into the sink area, she told me she liked my outfit — I told her that I have my own clothing line and was wearing one of my newest designs. I offered her a soap sheet and asked her about her makeup — her parents had bought her an eyeshadow palette for her birthday recently. I’ve never been any good with eyeshadow. She doesn’t go a day without it.
So there we were.
Just two gals chopping it up in the girls’ bathroom, enjoying pleasant conversation with someone we’ll probably recall warmly once or twice before returning to the monotony of our everyday affairs.
I suppose that these are the situations we need more of. Just witnessing humans being humans and doing human things.
So often bigots behave as though those they’re prejudiced towards are a subhuman entity that needs to be exterminated to restore a sense of harmony and order to the world.
In reality, we’re all just people. Trying to get by and get on with things before we shuffle off this mortal coil once our number is up.
Coexisting peacefully really isn’t as complicated as it’s made out to be. Being kind to others is far from difficult.
We’re all different, and that’s fine — it doesn’t need to be fire and brimstone and bloodbaths and battalions.
So when you meet someone different from you, just share the soap.
Jenny Blake Isabella is proof that it is never too late to embrace being your true authentic self.
A former writer for both Marvel and DC comics Isabella is most well-known for creating the characters Black Lightning, Misty Knight and Tigra.
Over the weekend Isabella came out as transgender with a post on her social media with the meme “Keep Calm and Yes I’m Transgender”. She elaborated further in the caption writing, “This is real. I’ll have more to say soon. In the meantime, I ask you respect my privacy and especially that of my wife and our children. Thank you.”
Isabella is married to Barbara Isabella and the two share two children. While Isabella is now personally using the name Jenny Blacke, she shares that she will continue to write under both that name and her professional name Tony Isabella, and will be presenting as Tony Isabella at upcoming conventions this year. (snipn-MORE)
This story was originally reported by Mel Leonor Barclay and Jasmine Mithani of The 19th. Meet Mel and Jasmine and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.
Organizations that provide services to LGBTQ+ victims of domestic and intimate partner violence expect much of the federal funding they rely on to dry up as the Trump administration’s executive orders target the work they have been carrying out for years.
Some received direct notices from the federal government to stop work that promotes what the administration is calling “gender ideology extremism” and to include disclaimers on their websites that the federal government doesn’t support their mission.
Federal grants make up significant shares of operating budgets for many domestic violence nonprofits, and losing that funding puts their continued existence at risk.
Groups that focus specifically on LGBTQ+ victims are part of a broader network of federally funded nonprofits that provide life-saving counseling, housing and legal aid to people experiencing violence from spouses, partners or family members. Some nonprofits also train social workers, therapists and lawyers in how to work sensitively with LGBTQ+ victims of violence.
The White House has promised to slash funding for programs that don’t align with the administration’s ideology on gender, race and immigration.
Domestic violence groups and the broader network of gender-based violence nonprofits have been on high alert since a temporary federal freeze in late January, as The 19th reported this month. The vague language of President Donald Trump’s executive orders — “illegal” diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility activities; “gender ideology extremism” — has left organizations scrambling to figure out if they stand to lose federal funding.
Some are trying to protect their funding by removing language or resources that they fear may be at odds with the executive orders. The people leading groups founded specifically to support LGBTQ+ people say that for them, there is no hiding: The executive orders specifically target the people they are focused on serving.
“Some groups are making an effort to kind of change the way they talk about their services and the populations they serve. Our organization literally has the words gay and lesbian in our IRS name — we’re not fooling anybody. And obscuring what we do and who we serve doesn’t help those services stay accessible,” said Audacia Ray, the interim executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, officially the New York City Gay And Lesbian Anti-Violence Project Inc., which supports LGBTQ+ and HIV-affected victims of violence.
LGBTQ+ Americans, with the exception of gay men, are more likely to have experienced domestic violence, partner abuse or dating violence than cisgender and heterosexual people. Queer women are significantly more likely to have experienced intimate-partner violence in their lifetime than straight women, according to an analysis of federal survey data by the Human Rights Campaign.
Transgender people are four times more likely to be victims of violent crime than cisgender people, according to research from the Williams Institute at UCLA. Fifty-four percent of respondents to the 2015 U.S. Trans Survey — the most recent data available — said they have experienced intimate partner violence, and 47 percent reported being sexually assaulted. Transgender people are also more likely to experience severe physical intimate partner violence than the average American.
Nonprofits serving victims of violence have long relied on federal funding, especially since the Violence Against Women Act created specialized grant programs 30 years ago. They receive little support from private philanthropy: Most recent data from the Equitable Giving Lab shows about 0.1 percent of charitable giving in the United States goes toward LGBTQ+ causes, and less than 2 percent goes toward women and girls.
“The danger of this moment is that it becomes very nebulous to people how federal funding contributes to the basic social safety net. There aren’t donors. There isn’t all this money,” said the executive director of a regional nonprofit serving LGBTQ+ victims of violence that receives about 40 percent of its funding from the federal government. The organization helps offer shelter and direct cash assistance, among other services, to LGBTQ+ people fleeing violence.
The executive director spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear that their organization would be targeted further by the Trump administration.
“When people are facing imminent threat of being murdered, and there are no resources to give people funding to flee that situation … it is going to result in more death. Truly, I believe that.”
The need for targeted LGBTQ+ services
Nonprofits focused specifically on LGBTQ+ communities sprung up to meet the specific needs of this population, which experiences higher incidences of violence and also discrimination based on gender-identity and sexual orientation.
LGBTQ+ people are vulnerable to abuse related to their identity, including threats of outing that could cost them housing, jobs or other relationships. Queer survivors are often isolated from typical support systems like family who could help them in an abusive situation. Transgender people are more likely to be killed by intimate partner violence, and the risk is increased for people of color, especially Black trans women.
Groups focused on LGBTQ+ survivors serve as a critical safety net for LGBTQ+ victims, often accepting referrals from national and local groups without tailored resources. The Hotline, a national nonprofit that supports victims of domestic violence, describes the “fear of not receiving services” as an obstacle “to reaching safety that LGBTQ+ people might confront.” It offers referrals to service providers focused on LGBTQ+ people – the same providers that are now staring down the loss of federal funding.
Given the executive orders, “there’s no universe in which some of the work doesn’t take a hit. I feel very clear about that,” said Ray of the New York City Anti-Violence Project. And at the same time, “we have to be able to answer the phone and support our community, who’s directly impacted by all this violence.”
NYCAVP runs a 24/7 hotline for victims of violence, as well as free long-term counseling, legal services and connections to support groups. About two-thirds of the organization’s budget comes from a mix of federal, state and local government grants. Most of its funding comes from programs targeting “underserved communities.”
Ray said that the New York City Anti-Violence Project, in addition to offering direct services to victims, including through its hotline, also spends resources advocating and advising lawmakers on legislation affecting LGBTQ+ people. For example, NYCAVP helped shape the 2013 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, the first federal funding statute that banned discrimination based on actual or perceived gender identity and sexual orientation.
“My immediate thought was we will do what we do as long as we can, and we’re not preemptively laying people off or shutting anything down,” Ray said.
“We have a couple different contingency plans around, ‘What are the services that we need to prioritize and center, and how do we continue to do that as long as possible?’”
The executive director who spoke on condition of anonymity said their organization connected with more than 600 LGBTQ+ people facing abuse and violence in the past year. Some came as referrals from domestic and intimate partner violence organizations that weren’t equipped to serve them, or who were working with a victim needing relocation to a state less hostile to LGBTQ+ people. “It’s kind of like an informal witness protection program,” they said.
Without federal funding, they said, their ability to help these victims will significantly shrink.
How nonprofits are fighting back
In a lawsuit filed Thursday by Lambda Legal on behalf of nine nonprofits that receive federal funding, the plaintiffs argue that the Trump administration’s executive orders, including the order calling for the end of federal funding for activities that promote “gender ideology extremism,” amount to “an existential threat to transgender people.” They argue the orders are unconstitutional because they violate the groups’ free speech, due process and equal protection rights.
“The executive orders force plaintiffs to silence their speech and viewpoints… that are not only of great societal importance but also central to plaintiffs’ missions… or forgo federal funding,” the complaint reads. “That choice is an impossible one.”
Among the plaintiffs suing Trump is FORGE, one of the only organizations in the country focused on supporting transgender people experiencing intimate partner violence. FORGE trains providers who assist transgender and nonbinary survivors of sexual assault, intimate partner violence and hate crimes. The 30-year-old organization also connects victims with wellness services.
According to the case filing, 90 percent of FORGE’s funding is derived from federal grants, the highest out of any listed plaintiff. It has received grants from a wide range of agencies including the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institutes of Health.
Several other plaintiffs that received funds from HHS programs, according to the complaint, were sent notices in late January to “immediately terminate, to the maximum extent, all programs, personnel, activities, or contracts promoting ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’” or, separately, “gender ideology.”
“Trans and nonbinary people are scared and hurting – not only from the high levels of violence so many of us experience every day, but also because of the dehumanizing, erasing, and damaging impact of the Executive Orders. For the past 30 years, FORGE has been committed to serving trans survivors of sexual assault, stalking, and hate-fueled harm. We are not going anywhere,” michael munson, executive director of FORGE, said in a statement. “Conditioning federal funding on rejecting transgender identity and DEI not only harms trans people, but it also creates a world that is less safe and less free for us all.”
Deleting language and resources
The National LGBTQ Institute on Intimate Partner Violence urged fellow providers to “hold the line together” and stand in solidarity with LGBTQ+, immigrant and BIPOC survivors in an email obtained by The 19th. The missive explicitly called upon organizations to continue serving LGBTQ+ survivors, to not take down materials tailored to the queer community and to keep pronouns on public-facing materials. It also cited previous reporting from The 19th detailing how some groups removed mentions of LGBTQ+ people from their websites.
“For organizations that have removed LGBTQ+ materials, we encourage that these materials be restored,” the statement read. “We urge organizations to not cede our collective power as a movement and back down in our work to protect LGBTQ+ survivors.”
The group reminded organizations in its network that federal law — the same law that the New York City Anti-Violence Center helped pass — makes it illegal to discriminate based on actual or perceived gender identity or sexual orientation. “These federal non-discrimination policies remain in place and give us power to protect transgender survivors in the work that we do,” the organization said.
The Los Angeles LGBT Center, where the institute is housed, declined to speak on the record, citing the current lawsuit.
Several days later, Respect Together, the umbrella organization of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center and the Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect, publicly apologized for removing resources for LGBTQ+ people from their websites.
“Federal and state funding accounts for the vast majority of our operational budget, and as a result, we acted too swiftly to the news from the current administration,” the apology reads. “We heard you, and recognize that this was the wrong choice,” CEO Yolanda Edrington said in the statement. “We are committed to rebuilding trust, learning from this experience, and ensuring that our actions align with our mission to support survivors of all communities, their allies, and advocates.”
The Hotline, which had deactivated a page on LGBTQ+ resources earlier this month, has now restored it. The organization did not respond to a request for comment on the restoration, but told The 19th earlier this month that it was reviewing its website to protect its federal funding.
Even if groups commit to still serve all people in need, regardless of identity, removing resources adds friction. Visibility and ease of navigating resources when you are in need of services is important, said Tandra LaGrone, the CEO of In Our Own Voices, a nonprofit supporting LGBTQ+ people of color in upstate New York, which has received a grant from the Office on Violence Against Women.
The erasure of information can lead victims to feel like they are at fault, LaGrone said.
Ray said that it’s a big risk to not change their organization’s public-facing content in anticipation of a potential loss of funding, but they think holding steady is the right thing to do. Backing down won’t reduce violence, they said.
“I really believe that complying in advance of direct demands and being forced to change those programs is contributing to the overall violence against LGBT people,” Ray said. “That sort of advance compliance is extremely worrisome to me, because it shows that those orgs are concerned about the org as an institution more than they’re concerned about the community as a directly impacted population.”
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