National
Holder calls on LGBT attorneys to advance cause of equality
Att’y gen’l addresses annual gay lawyer convention
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder (Blade file photo by Michael Key)
During his keynote speech at the LGBT Bar Association’s annual Lavender Law Conference, Holder said those in attendance are or will be “uniquely situated to use the power of the law” to create a more equal society.
“And you have not only the power, but – I believe – the solemn responsibility, to do precisely that: to safeguard the rights and freedoms of everyone in this country, and to carry on the critical but unfinished work that lies ahead,” Holder said.
Holder added as he looked around the room that he “can’t help but feel optimistic” about where the efforts of attendees will take the country in the months and years ahead.
The attorney general delivered the remarks before an estimated 1,000 people at the dinner, which took place during the three-day conference at the Washington Hilton in D.C. Attendees discussed the conference as they dined on steak and salmon dinners prepared by the hotel’s kitchen.
During his speech, the attorney general ticked off numerous accomplishments of the Obama administration on LGBT issues, including repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the discontinuation of defending the Defense of Marriage Act in court and working with school districts to investigate and address bullying. Additionally, Holder said the Justice Department continues to “fight for” passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination and an updated Violence Against Women Act with LGBT protections.
Holder cited a Connecticut district court’s recent ruling against Section 3 of DOMA as part of the fallout of the Justice Department’s decision to no longer defend the anti-gay law — noting the judge shared the Obama administration’s belief that laws related to sexual orientation should be subjected to heightened scrutiny, or the assumption they’re unconstitutional.
“Since then, we’ve seen an encouraging – and increasing – number of courts hold this provision to be unconstitutional, including a federal district court in Connecticut that found that Section 3 fails to survive heightened constitutional scrutiny just last month,” Holder said.
Holder was well received by the audience, which gave him a standing ovation both upon his entrance to the stage and his exit.
Jonah Richmond, a gay 25-year-old student at Vermont Law School, said seeing Holder’s speech was the “opportunity of a lifetime” because of the historic nature of the times on LGBT rights.
Richmond added he was stricken by Holder’s commitment to not defend DOMA and the attorney general’s willingness to cite his LGBT attorneys in the Justice Department to show “he’s very comfortable working with them.”
Steve Ralls, a spokesperson for Immigration Equality, was in attendance during the speech and expressed a similar satisfaction with the attorney’s general remarks.
“I thought the attorney general’s speech was fantastic,” Ralls said. “He did a great job of highlighting the work the administration has done on behalf of the community and highlighting that there’s work left to be done.”
After if anything was absent from the speech that he wished he heard, Ralls replied, “Immigration Equality has a number of outstanding asks to the attorney general and other Cabinet agencies. We remain optimistic that the record of this administration will continue in the direction of progress. We hope by the this time next year, we’ll hear about all the great couples that are getting green cards.”
Among the outstanding requests Immigration Equality has for the administration is placing the marriage-based green card applications for bi-national same-sex couples in abeyance so they can remain together in the United States without fear of deportation.
The attorney general’s full prepared remarks follow:
REMARKS AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY BY ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER AT THE 2012 LAVENDER LAW CONFERENCE
Thank you, D’Arcy, for those kind words – and thank you all for such a warm welcome. It’s a pleasure to be here tonight, and a privilege to join with each of you – and with so many members of the National LGBT Bar Association – in celebrating and renewing our shared commitment to advancing the cause of equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals.
I’d particularly like to recognize the Association’s staff and entire leadership team, and to thank them for all they’ve done to bring us together for this year’s Lavender Law Conference and Career Fair. For more than two decades, this important annual event has brought together hundreds of legal practitioners and law students from across the country. This conference provides an opportunity to highlight the extraordinary work that this organization’s members are leading and participating in every day. And it offers a chance to reflect on the progress that, especially over the past few years, each of you has helped make possible – and to reaffirm our determination to carry this essential work into the future.
Because of your dedicated efforts, you have made this year’s gathering the largest minority recruiting event in the country, and the most successful Lavender Law Conference yet – with over 260 employers in attendance, including multiple representatives from the United States Department of Justice. In fact, I’m pleased to report that tonight we’re joined by a number of senior Deparment leaders, as well as five United States Attorneys who are strong LGBT allies: Melinda Haag, from the Northern District of California; David Hickton, from the Western District of Pennsylvania; Amanda Marshall, from the District of Oregon; Stephen Wigginton, from the Southern District of Illinois; and Robert Pitman, from the Western District of Texas.
Through workshop sessions, career counseling, and panel discussions, this conference is providing a unique platform for mentoring and engagement among some of the best attorneys in America on cutting-edge legal issues. You’re helping to call attention to the obstacles and biases – in forms both overt and subtle – that continue to affect far too many LGBT Americans every day. And you’re encouraging collaboration, cooperation, and more effective advocacy as we seek to design and implement innovative strategies for confronting the most persistent challenges that far too many Americans face.
As Attorney General, I consider it a privilege to be part of this annual gathering, and to join such a diverse group of partners, colleagues, and friends in working to strengthen our nation’s legal community, and legal system. And as an American, I am deeply proud to stand with you in celebrating the remarkable, once-unimaginable progress that – particularly over the past three and a half years – your leadership and coordinated efforts have helped to bring about.
We’ve come together at an exciting moment. Thanks to the work of tireless advocates, activists, and attorneys in – and far beyond – this room, our nation has made great strides on the road to LGBT equality and the unfinished struggle to secure and protect the civil rights of all< Americans. For President Obama, for me, and for our colleagues at every level of the Obama Administration, this work has long been a top priority – and I’m pleased to note that it has resulted in meaningful, measurable, and enduring change. We can all be proud that, today – for the first time in history – those who courageously serve their country in uniform need no longer hide their sexual orientation. As we approach the one-year anniversary of the end of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," it’s worth celebrating the fact that so many brave servicemen and women can now serve their country proudly, honestly, openly, and without fear of discharge. We can take pride in the fact that, early last year, President Obama and I directed Justice Department attorneys not to defend the constitutionality of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act. Since then, we’ve seen an encouraging – and increasing – number of courts hold this provision to be unconstitutional, including a federal district court in Connecticut that found that Section 3 fails to survive heightened constitutional scrutiny just last month. And we can be encouraged by the robust efforts that our nation’s Department of Justice is leading to ensure the vigorous enforcement of civil rights protections in order to safeguard LGBT individuals and others from the most brutal forms of bias-motivated violence. Thanks to the outstanding leadership of my good friend, Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez – and the dedication of skilled investigators, attorneys, law enforcement officials, and support staffers within the Department’s Civil Rights Division and throughout its partner agencies – today, this work is stronger than ever before. And our resolve to meet evolving threats with renewed vigilance has never been more clear. This past April, the Department issued its first-ever indictment for a hate crime based on sexual orientation under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act – a landmark measure signed into law by President Obama in 2009, which many of the people in this room helped to move forward – in relation to an alleged anti-gay crime in Kentucky. Since then, we’ve continued to review reported incidents that may fall under this legislation. Under this law, we’re working to strengthen our ability to achieve justice on behalf of those who are victimized simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. And we stand ready to vigorously pursue allegations of federal hate crimes wherever they arise; to bring charges whenever they are warranted; and to support the efforts of our state and local law enforcement partners to enforce their own hate crimes laws. The Civil Rights Division is also taking the lead in bolstering our ability to educate and train federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement officials on sexual orientation and gender identity-based discrimination, in order to ensure that those who serve on the front lines are well-equipped to prevent, identify, and stop it wherever it occurs. Just last month, the Department filed an historic consent decree with the City of New Orleans to address allegations of discrimination and harassment by local police, including against LGBT individuals. In this agreement, and in our broader efforts to combat such actions, we have demonstrated the importance – and the effectiveness – of working closely with elected and appointed authorities to identify troubling practices, to correct patterns of repeated violations, and to craft policies and procedures that ensure the rights and freedoms of the citizens that our law enforcement officers are sworn to serve and protect. In recent years, we’ve taken significant steps to raise awareness about the role that community leaders, public officials, and educators can play in protecting a variety of vulnerable populations – particularly the youngest members of our society. And we’ve worked to expand and extend these protections to make certain that our children can feel safe in their homes, on our streets – and especially in our schoolyards and classrooms. As many of you know all too well, every school year, bullying touches the lives of countless young people. As we’ve seen all too clearly, it can have a devastating – and potentially lifelong – impact. In response, the Department has been collaborating with educators, administrators, and students in school districts nationwide to investigate and address this troubling behavior. We’re working with our partners – including federal allies like the Department of Education, under the leadership of Secretary Arne Duncan – to explore ways to stop harassment and bullying before it starts. In places like Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District – where an investigation found that some students faced threats, physical violence, derogatory language, and other forms of harassment on a daily basis – we’ve successfully engaged with school districts and advocates to resolve harassment allegations and lay out detailed blueprints for sustainable reform. As we move forward, we will continue to promote safe and healthy learning environments; to support a Student Non-Discrimination Act that would allow us to better address harassment and bullying based on an individual’s real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity; to provide assistance to bullying victims; and to work closely with local leaders, parents, educators, and young people themselves to make certain that all of our students can feel safe – and free to be themselves – in school. Beyond these efforts, the Justice Department continues to support – and to fight for – legislative and policy reforms like an inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would extend protections to LGBT individuals in all workplaces, and an updated Violence Against Women Act that would ensure that the law’s non-discrimination provisions cover sexual orientation and gender identity. Even in the face of extraordinary budget challenges, we remain determined to use every available resource to build the necessary institutional and legal frameworks to end harassment, violence, and discrimination – and to provide the safeguards that, for LGBT Americans, my fellow citizens, are long overdue. But my colleagues and I aren’t merely content to advocate, and speak out, for these changes and reforms. We understand the importance of leading by example. And that’s why the Justice Department – and a wide range of agencies throughout the Administration – have taken decisive action to help create a more inclusive work environment for our own employees. To strengthen our mission of serving all Americans by recruiting – and retaining – highly-qualified individuals, like you, who reflect our nation’s rich diversity. And to make a sustained and concerted effort to provide the opportunities, support, and respect that every aspiring public servant needs to develop, to grow, and to thrive both personally and professionally. No one understands the importance of creating such an environment – or has advocated more passionately on behalf of the LGBT community – than President Obama. Thanks to his leadership, this Administration has made historic strides in adopting inclusive policies and sending a clear message that the federal government is “open for everyone,” and that it is an employer that accepts and respects every potential employee. For instance, within the Justice Department, I launched a new Diversity Management Initiative in 2010 in order to expand and strengthen strategies and programs for promoting fairness, equality, and opportunity for every member of the DOJ family – which today includes an increasing number of openly gay or lesbian U.S. Attorneys – including my good friend, Robert Pitman – as well as senior Department leaders, U.S. Marshals, the keynote speaker at your Transgender Law Institute and three of the attorneys recently named to the National LGBT Bar Association’s “Best Lawyers Under 40,” and an extremely dedicated, and ever-expanding, membership of a wonderful organization known as “DOJ Pride.” Earlier this summer, we held a Department-wide training workshop for managers across the country – which was conducted by a nationally-recognized expert on diversity and workplace inclusion, Dr. Richard Friend – who discussed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender inclusion as an imperative for effectively recruiting new talent and fully engaging all individuals in the workplace. In addition, the Bureau of Prisons has announced that every federal prison will appoint an LGBT representative to their Affirmative Employment Program, to help start a dialogue about issues facing staff members who serve in more than 120 facilities nationwide. Now, I believe these new actions and policies constitute promising steps in the right direction. But, like everyone here tonight, I also recognize that our journey – as a nation, and as a legal profession – is far from over. I know the progress we seek won’t always come as quickly as we might hope, or as easily as we would like. And that’s why, tonight, I’m not just here to thank you for all you’ve done to help bring us to this point; to highlight the Administration’s efforts in service of the same cause; or to celebrate everything that we’ve achieved together. I’m also here to ask for your continued help, to draw on your considerable passion and expertise, and to reiterate the Department’s commitment – and my own – to building on the momentum we’ve established, and ensuring that the recent successes we’ve seen are just the beginning. As current – and aspiring – leaders of the bench and bar, everyone here tonight understands what’s at stake. You realize how important every hard-fought legal victory – large and small – really is. You are – or soon will be – uniquely situated to use the power of the law, as well as your own gifts and knowledge, to help build a more fair, more equal, and more just society. And you have not only the power, but – I believe – the solemn responsibility, to do precisely that: to safeguard the rights and freedoms of everyone in this country, and to carry on the critical but unfinished work that lies ahead. Of course, this never has been – and never will be – easy. But as I look around this room, I can’t help but feel optimistic about where your efforts will lead us – and how far our collective commitment will take us – in the months and years ahead. With the benefit of your partnership and the strength of your passion, I know that we can – and I’m confident that we will – continue the work that has become both our shared priority and common cause. And I look forward to all that we will surely accomplish together. Thank you.
The White House
Trump-Vance administration ‘has dismantled’ US foreign policy infrastructure
Current White House took office on Jan. 20, 2025
Jessica Stern, the former special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights, on the eve of the first anniversary of the Trump-Vance administration said its foreign policy has “hurt people” around the world.
“The changes that they are making will take a long time to overturn and recover from,” she said on Jan. 14 during a virtual press conference the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice, a group she co-founded, co-organized.
Amnesty International USA National Director of Government Relations and Advocacy Amanda Klasing, Human Rights Watch Deputy Washington Director Nicole Widdersheim, Human Rights First President Uzra Zeya, PEN America’s Jonathan Friedman, and Center for Reproductive Rights Senior Federal Policy Council Liz McCaman Taylor also participated in the press conference.
The Trump-Vance administration took office on Jan. 20, 2025.
The White House proceeded to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, which funded LGBTQ and intersex rights organizations around the world.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio last March announced the State Department would administer the 17 percent of USAID contracts that had not been cancelled. Rubio issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the U.S. foreign aid freeze the White House announced shortly after it took office.
The global LGBTQ and intersex rights movement has lost more than an estimated $50 million in funding because of the cuts. The Washington Blade has previously reported PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to suspend services and even shut down.
Stern noted the State Department “has dismantled key parts of foreign policy infrastructure that enabled the United States to support democracy and human rights abroad” and its Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor “has effectively been dismantled.” She also pointed out her former position and others — the Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice, the Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, and the Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice — “have all been eliminated.”
President Donald Trump on Jan. 7 issued a memorandum that said the U.S. will withdraw from the U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and more than 60 other U.N. and international entities.
Rubio in a Jan. 10 Substack post said UN Women failed “to define what a woman is.”
“At a time when we desperately need to support women — all women — this is yet another example of the weaponization of transgender people by the Trump administration,” said Stern.
US ‘conducting enforced disappearances’
The Jan. 14 press conference took place a week after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman who left behind her wife and three children, in Minneapolis. American forces on Jan. 3 seized now former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, at their home in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, during an overnight operation. Trump also continues to insist the U.S. needs to gain control of Greenland.
Widdersheim during the press conference noted the Trump-Vance administration last March sent 252 Venezuelans to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison known by the Spanish acronym CECOT.
One of them, Andry Hernández Romero, is a gay asylum seeker who the White House claimed was a member of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang the Trump-Vance administration has designated as an “international terrorist organization.” Hernández upon his return to Venezuela last July said he suffered physical, sexual, and psychological abuse while at CECOT.
“In 2025 … the United States is conducting enforced disappearances,” said Widdersheim.
Zeya, who was Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights from 2021-2025, in response to the Blade’s question during the press conference said her group and other advocacy organizations have “got to keep doubling down in defense of the rule of law, to hold this administration to account.”
The White House
A full year of Trump and LGBTQ rights: all that’s been lost
White House since Inauguration Day has relentlessly attacked LGBTQ community
Uncloseted Media published this story on Jan. 20.
By NICO DiALESANDRO | One year ago today, Donald Trump was inaugurated as president of the United States for the second time. Since then, he and his administration have waged an all-out attack on the LGBTQ community by slashing crucial health and support programs, pressuring states to exclude transgender people from most aspects of life and erasing information about the community’s history. Here are all the biggest moves Trump has made against LGBTQ rights over the last 365 days.
Jan. 20, 2025 – Trump’s second first day
During his inaugural address, Trump says, “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.” Later that day, Trump signs “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” an executive order that defines “sex” in federal law to mean biological sex at conception. It also eliminates federal recognition of trans identities, blocks gender self-identification on federal documents, ceases federal funding for gender-affirming care and restricts trans people’s access to bathrooms, prisons, shelters, and other government facilities that match their gender identity.
Trump also signs “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” an executive order that orders federal agencies to terminate diversity, equity and inclusion mandates, policies and programs. This order repeals a policy put in place by the Biden administration that created initiatives for the federal government to combat systemic barriers related to hiring on the basis of race, religion, income, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability.
“We’re the party of common sense, you know, we don’t want to have men playing in women’s sports. We don’t want to have transgender operations for everyone,” Trump says at the Liberty Ball party that evening. Trump would go on to repeat the sentiment countless times throughout the year, including at press conferences with world leaders, in an interview with “60 Minutes” and even while deploying the National Guard in Washington.
Jan. 21, 2025 – The flurry of executive orders continues
Trump signs “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” another executive order that revokes a 1965 order which mandated affirmative action for federal contractors and required that they take steps to comply with nondiscrimination laws. The order violates the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which extended Title VII sex-based protections to trans people.
Nearly all LGBTQ- and HIV-focused content and resources are deleted from the White House’s website including the White House’s equity report, information about LGBTQ Pride Month and a fact sheet on expanding access to HIV prevention and treatment. In addition, the State Department removes its LGBTQ rights page, and the Department of Labor removes its LGBTQ workers page.
Jan. 28, 2025 – funding cuts
Trump signs “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” an executive order that bars federal funding for gender-affirming care for minors and directs the Department of Health and Human Services to restrict insurance coverage for such treatments under Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Hours after Trump signs the order, Uncloseted Media speaks with six LGBTQ kids to get their thoughts.
“For me, it’s definitely very frightening. Especially because right now I’m 16, and so, I’m going to become an adult over the course of his presidency. … And it’s really difficult, especially to plan for the future and have that lack of surety that I thought that I would,” Crow, who lives in Virginia, told Uncloseted Media.
Feb. 3, 2025
Mentions of LGBTQ people are erased or minimized across federal government websites, with a particular focus on trans and intersex people. The State Department first removes trans people in its travel safety guidelines, only mentioning the “LGB” community. As of publication, the web page has no mention of bisexual travelers either.
Feb. 5, 2025
Trump signs “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” an executive order that prohibits trans women and girls from competing on collegiate female sports teams.
Feb. 13, 2025
Under the direction of Trump’s executive order, the National Park Service removes references to trans and queer rights and history, including from the Stonewall National Monument pages. The “TQ” from “LGBTQ” is dropped in instances where the acronym is present. Protesters gather at the Stonewall National Monument in New York the next day to voice their outrage.
In an interview with Uncloseted Media, Stacy Lentz, co-owner of the Stonewall Inn, calls the removal a blatant attempt to rewrite history and exclude the very people who led the fight for equality.
Feb. 14, 2025
The U.S. withdraws from the United Nations LGBTI Core Group, which formed in 2008 and pledges to support LGBTQ and intersex rights by “work[ing] within the United Nations framework on ensuring universal respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, specifically lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons, with a particular focus on protection from violence and discrimination.”
March 15, 2025 – illegal deportations
The Trump-Vance administration deports 238 Venezuelan migrants to CECOT, a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. The administration claims these individuals are affiliated with the Tren de Aragua gang. Andry Hernández Romero, a gay makeup artist seeking asylum, is one of the migrants with no criminal record. Hernández vanished from U.S. custody before his asylum hearing, and his lawyer asserts he was deported without due process.
On July 18, Hernández is returned to Venezuela along with 249 other migrants. The Department of Homeland Security dismisses abuse allegations of torture, sexual assault and other inhumane treatment.
April 2, 2025
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services updates its policy to recognize only two biological sexes, male and female, for immigration benefit requests and official documentation. This policy shift reverses previous efforts to accommodate nonbinary and trans individuals, as it removes the “X” gender marker option from immigration forms.
“By denying trans people the right to self-select their gender, the government is making it harder for them to exist safely and with dignity. This is not about ‘common sense’ — it is about erasing an entire community from the legal landscape,” says Bridget Crawford, director of law and policy at Immigration Equality.
April 3, 2025
In his first few months in office, Trump and his administration cancel over 270 National Institutes of Health grants focused on LGBTQ health, totaling at least $125 million in unspent funds. The cancellations disrupt research on HIV testing and prevention, AIDS, cancer, mental health and more.
The cuts scrap more than $800 million worth of research into the health of LGBTQ people. The cuts abandon studies of cancers and viruses and set back efforts to defeat a resurgence of sexually transmitted infections. They also eliminate swaths of medical research on diseases that disproportionately afflict LGBTQ people, including HIV/AIDs, various sexually transmitted infections and cancers.
June 2, 2025
Stanford begins suspending gender-affirming care for people younger than 19 in response to Trump’s executive order. Other major health networks and many regional centers across the country begin following suit.
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles announces they will be cutting off care for patients as old as 25 beginning in July, stating that they were left with “no viable alternative” because they could not risk any cuts to their federal funding.
June 6, 2025
Trump’s military ban begins, disallowing trans people from serving in all branches of the armed forces and removing those currently in the service. Those who do not identify themselves will have their medical records surveyed and be involuntarily separated if it is discovered that they are trans.
July 1, 2025
Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” is passed by Congress. The sweeping package of tax breaks that largely benefit the wealthy include major funding cuts to LGBTQ health care as well as a number of support programs that disproportionately serve queer people.
July 17, 2025
The Trump-Vance administration officially shuts down the LGBTQ-specific option on the 988 youth suicide hotline. This comes a year after data finds that 41 percent of LGBTQ youth seriously considered suicide. Notably, there are no plans to shut down the other targeted hotline options. Arden, who called when they were 16, told Uncloseted Media, “If it weren’t for the hotline, I would have killed myself.”
Aug. 4, 2025
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests 40-year-old asylum seeker Rickardo Anthony Kelly during a routine immigration appointment. Kelly, who survived being shot 10 times in Jamaica by attackers who targeted him for being gay, is released two weeks later and describes the conditions of the ICE facility as “unconscionable,” “inhumane,” and “horrific.”
Aug. 12, 2025
The State Department releases a revised 2024 human rights report that omits references to LGBTQ people and erases mentions of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The report also removes critiques of governments for mistreating LGBTQ communities.
It excludes information about Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ laws that encourage citizens to report their LGBTQ neighbors and that ban depictions of homosexuality or gender transition in schools or the media.
Aug. 15, 2025
The Trump-Vance administration announces plans to eliminate gender-affirming care from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program starting in 2026. The policy would also block access to hormones and surgeries for federal workers and their families.
Aug. 20, 2025
The media reports on court filings that reveal that the Justice Department issued subpoenas to hospitals for private medical records of LGBTQ patients 18 and younger. The DOJ requests billing data, communication with drug manufacturers, Social Security numbers and recordings from providers who treat gender nonconforming minors. Doctors across the country report threats and fear government retaliation.
“The subpoena is a breathtakingly invasive government overreach. … It’s specifically and strategically designed to intimidate health care providers and health care institutions into abandoning their patients,” says Jennifer L. Levi, senior director of transgender and queer rights at GLAD law, an LGBTQ legal group and civil rights organization.
Sept. 4, 2025
In response to a mass shooting in Minneapolis that was carried out by a trans woman, CNN reports that the DOJ is considering restricting trans Americans’ Second Amendment rights. The department aims to justify a firearm ban by declaring trans people mentally “defective,” building off of Trump’s trans military ban. The proposal sparks backlash from the National Rifle Association, who says in a statement that they will not “support … gun bans that arbitrarily strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights.”
Sept. 12, 2025
The DOJ removes a study from its website showing that far-right extremists have killed more Americans than any other domestic terrorist group. The archived report disappears two days after anti-LGBTQ conservative activist Charlie Kirk is assassinated.
Sept. 22, 2025
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claims the administration is investigating why trans people are turning to “domestic terrorism,” despite no evidence of this. She calls anyone denying the false link “willfully ignorant,” despite the most recent data available from 2018 showing that trans people are four times more likely to be victims of violent crime when compared to cisgender people.
Sept. 23, 2025
Trump cancels a budget meeting and blames a potential government shutdown on Democrats’ support for trans-inclusive policies.
Oct. 1, 2025
FBI Director Kash Patel fires a trainee for displaying a Pride flag on his desk, labeling it an improper “political” message. The dismissal follows reports that pro-Trump appointees are combing internal FBI files to identify LGBTQ employees.
Oct. 3, 2025
Education Secretary Linda McMahon sends a nine-page proposal to nine universities that asks for a commitment to ban trans-inclusive facilities, define sex by “reproductive function” and limit race, gender or identity factors in admissions. The proposal calls for schools to revise their governance structures by “abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”
Oct. 10, 2025
The White House lays off more than 1,100 HHS employees. The Office of Population Affairs, which administered Title X family-planning networks, teen pregnancy prevention and LGBTQ health initiatives, is eliminated.
Nov. 6, 2025
The Supreme Court grants the Trump-Vance administration’s request to put a hold on federal rulings in Massachusetts, affecting trans and nonbinary people by preventing them from self-identifying correctly on their IDs, claiming to be in line with Trump’s “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” executive order. In her dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson writes, “This court has once again paved the way for the immediate infliction of injury without adequate (or, really, any) justification. Because I cannot acquiesce to this pointless but painful perversion of our equitable discretion, I respectfully dissent.”
Dec. 4, 2025
According to a memo obtained by NPR, the DOJ instructs inspectors to stop evaluating prisons and jails using standards designed to protect trans, intersex, and gender nonconforming people from sexual violence. This is in direct violation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act.
Dec. 18, 2025
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mehmet Oz, who leads Medicaid and Medicare, announce that HHS is heavily restricting trans health care; prohibiting Medicaid reimbursement for gender-affirming care for people under 18; and blocking all Medicare and Medicaid funding for hospitals that provide the care to minors.
Jan. 1, 2026
The Office of Personnel Management institutes policy changes that exclude coverage for “chemical and surgical” gender-affirming care in the FEHB and Postal Service Health Benefits plans for 2026, with narrow exceptions.
Jan. 7, 2026
Renee Good is shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis. Good leaves behind a wife, Becca, and three children. In a statement, Becca remembers her wife:
“Renee lived by an overarching belief: there is kindness in the world and we need to do everything we can to find it where it resides and nurture it where it needs to grow. Renee was a Christian who knew that all religions teach the same essential truth: we are here to love each other, care for each other, and keep each other safe and whole.”
Days later, Trump tells reporters, “At a very minimum, that woman was very, very disrespectful to law enforcement. … It was highly disrespectful of law enforcement. The woman and her friend were highly disrespectful of law enforcement.”
Additional reporting by Hope Pisoni. Washington Blade photos by Michael Key and Michael K. Lavers.
Florida
DNC slams White House for slashing Fla. AIDS funding
State will have to cut medications for more than 16,000 people
The Trump-Vance administration and congressional Republicans’ “Big Beautiful Bill” could strip more than 10,000 Floridians of life-saving HIV medication.
The Florida Department of Health announced there would be large cuts to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program in the Sunshine State. The program switched from covering those making up to 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, which was anyone making $62,600 or less, in 2025, to only covering those making up to 130 percent of the FPL, or $20,345 a year in 2026.
Cuts to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which provides medication to low-income people living with HIV/AIDS, will prevent a dramatic $120 million funding shortfall as a result of the Big Beautiful Bill according to the Florida Department of Health.
The International Association of Providers of AIDS Care and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo warned that the situation could easily become a “crisis” without changing the current funding setup.
“It is a serious issue,” Ladapo told the Tampa Bay Times. “It’s a really, really serious issue.”
The Florida Department of Health currently has a “UPDATES TO ADAP” warning on the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program webpage, recommending Floridians who once relied on tax credits and subsidies to pay for their costly HIV/AIDS medication to find other avenues to get the crucial medications — including through linking addresses of Florida Association of Community Health Centers and listing Florida Non-Profit HIV/AIDS Organizations rather than have the government pay for it.
HIV disproportionately impacts low income people, people of color, and LGBTQ people
The Tampa Bay Times first published this story on Thursday, which began gaining attention in the Sunshine State, eventually leading the Democratic Party to, once again, condemn the Big Beautiful Bill pushed by congressional republicans.
“Cruelty is a feature and not a bug of the Trump administration. In the latest attack on the LGBTQ+ community, Donald Trump and Florida Republicans are ripping away life-saving HIV medication from over 10,000 Floridians because they refuse to extend enhanced ACA tax credits,” Democratic National Committee spokesperson Albert Fujii told the Washington Blade. “While Donald Trump and his allies continue to make clear that they don’t give a damn about millions of Americans and our community, Democrats will keep fighting to protect health care for LGBTQ+ Americans across the country.”
More than 4.7 million people in Florida receive health insurance through the federal marketplace, according to KKF, an independent source for health policy research and polling. That is the largest amount of people in any state to be receiving federal health care — despite it only being the third most populous state.
Florida also has one of the largest shares of people who use the AIDS Drug Assistance Program who are on the federal marketplace: about 31 percent as of 2023, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
“I can’t understand why there’s been no transparency,” David Poole also told the Times, who oversaw Florida’s AIDS program from 1993 to 2005. “There is something seriously wrong.”
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