About 100 people turned out on Dec. 12 at D.C.’s Eaton Hotel to listen and ask questions to a panel of six LGBTQ rights advocates who discussed the impact on the LGBTQ community of the election last month of Donald Trump as U.S. president and a Republican majority in both houses of the U.S. Congress.

The event, which was hosted by the Washington Blade, was entitled, “Charting Our Future: LGBTQ+ Advocacy & Resilience in a Changing Landscape.”

“There are a lot of complicated issues that are coming for our community in the next four years, ” Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff told the gathering in opening remarks. “And we’re hoping this will be the first in a series of events. So please share your feedback with us,” he said.

The Blade organized the event in partnership with the D.C. LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition, HME Consulting & Advocacy, the Eaton Hotel, the D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center, Capital Pride Alliance, and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs. Heidi Ellis, CEO of the LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition, served as moderator.

The panelists, who presented a wide range of views, including optimism and concern over the incoming Trump administration, included: 

• D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), the Council’s only openly gay member

• Jordyn White, Vice President of Leadership, Development, and Research for the Human Rights Campaign Foundation

• Remmington Belford, Vice President of the Black Gifted & Whole Foundation, a member of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs Advisory Committee, who serves as press secretary for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

• Tyler Cargill, Outreach and Training Specialist for the D.C. Office of Human Rights

• Preston Mitchum, CEO of PDM Consulting, a D.C.-based “multipurpose Black queer owned and operated consulting firm.”

• Ava Benach, immigration attorney and founding partner of Banach Collopy law firm

• Reginald ‘Reggie’ Greer, Senior Adviser to the U.S. Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons at the U.S. State Department.

Parker, like most of the panelists, expressed both deep concern and optimism over what may happen in the next four years.

“I will be honest with you,” he said. “We have a Republican president and  Republicans control both chambers of the Congress. And they have said they want to install a level of oversight over the District that will not bode well for the folks in this room but also for the District,” he said.

“I’m concerned about our trans siblings, especially our Black and Brown trans siblings,” Parker said. “The last thing I will say quickly, though, is that we are not hopeless. And in thinking about advocacy and resilience in our title today, that’s what this community is all about. That’s what we’ve always known.”

Troy Masters, publisher of the Los Angeles Blade, died on Wednesday Dec. 11, according to a family member. He was 63. The LA County Coroner said the cause of death was suicide.

Masters was a well-respected and award-winning journalist and publisher with decades of experience, mostly in LGBTQ media. In 2017, he became the founding publisher of the Los Angeles Blade, a sister publication of the Washington Blade.

Praise for Masters’s work and dedication to LGBTQ equality and journalism poured in throughout the day.

Equality California released the following statement from Executive Director Tony Hoang: “We at Equality California are heartbroken by the unexpected passing of Troy Masters, a trailblazing journalist, publisher, and tireless advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. Troy’s remarkable career spanned decades, during which he used his voice and platform to amplify the stories of our community and champion the fight for equality.

“His passion for storytelling and relentless pursuit of social justice left an indelible mark on the fight for LGBTQ+ rights. Over many years, Equality California and the Los Angeles Blade have worked hand in hand to ensure LGBTQ+ stories are accurately represented and shared within the Los Angeles community and throughout California. 

“Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and the Los Angeles Blade and Washington Blade teams during this difficult time. We stand in solidarity with them as we honor Troy’s life, legacy, and unwavering dedication to our community. His passing is a profound loss, and he will be deeply missed.

“Rest in power, Troy. Your work will forever live on in the hearts and lives of those you fought so fiercely for.”

California state Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, (D-Los Angeles) said in a statement: “I am terribly saddened to hear of the passing of Troy Masters, a pillar in the LGBTQ+ community. In his many roles, he has covered life in our community and the challenges of our fight for civil rights and social justice.”

L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, in a statement on X, said she would miss Masters’s humor, wit and huge heart and praised his journalistic pursuits and dedication to uplifting the LGBTQ+ community.

Journalist and Blade contributor Jasmyne Cannick also praised Masters, describing him as a mentor.

“Through the years, he was supportive of my work, giving me space and a voice as a columnist and reporter for the Blade newspapers when it mattered most,” she said in on X. “Troy understood the importance of covering the Black LGBTQ+ community and made it a point to ask me what stories they needed to be telling.”

Michael Yamashita, publisher of the Bay Area Reporter, in a statement said, “I have known Troy as a fellow publisher and friend for over 20 years. He was smart and accomplished. More than a few times, he started gay publications — in New York City and Los Angeles. I will miss working with him.”

Dana Piccoli, managing director of News Is Out, a queer media collaborative, wrote: “Troy was a fierce advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and pioneer in queer media. We were lucky to work with him as a member of News Is Out and will forever be grateful for the barriers he broke down for the queer community. Our hearts are with our colleagues at the Los Angeles Blade and the Washington Blade.”

“It has been a tough day for all of us at the Blade,” said Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff. “Troy’s love of queer media and the city of Los Angeles is well known and he will be missed by so many. In his spirit, we will carry on with our mission and we are planning a celebration of his life in the coming months.”

A group of 45 Senate Democrats sent a letter Thursday urging leadership to reject the 55+ anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ measures that Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives have attached to must-pass FY25 spending bills, while also arguing that the “poison pill” policy riders must be kept out of the appropriations process moving forward.

The letter was addressed to the Senate’s Democratic and Republican leaders, Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Mitch McConnell (Ky.), along with the chair and vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). Among the signatories are 11 of the committee’s 14 Democratic members — including Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), and Cory Booker (N.J.), who led the effort.

The House, meanwhile, voted on Wednesday to approve the major annual defense funding bill, with a provision that would prohibit the children of U.S. service members from accessing gender-affirming health treatments under the Pentagon’s TRICARE program.

From here, the National Defense Authorization Act will face two major roadblocks that, for the past two years, have doomed other appropriations bills that were packed with partisan policy riders and passed by the House under the Republican leadership: first, the Senate’s Democratic majority, and second, President Joe Biden and his promise to veto legislation that would undermine reproductive rights or target trans and LGBTQ communities.

Of course, a path forward for these bills will become far clearer and easier next month when President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House and the 119th Congress is seated with Republicans reclaiming control of the upper chamber.

In their letter, the senators explained that appropriations funding in recent years has typically been passed by the Senate in committee, usually with wide bipartisan margins, but the process is undermined when their conservative counterparts in the lower chamber pack the bills with right-wing policy riders.

Relative to concerns about harms to the legislative process, however, the authors placed a greater emphasis on the case for rejecting these measures because they are “partisan, discriminatory, and harmful.”

For instance, the letter notes that as House Republicans seeking to use the appropriations process as a vehicle for opening the door to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, or to ban access to transgender medical care, LGBTQ Americans are facing an unprecedented onslaught of legislative attacks, with 42 state legislatures introducing more than 574 anti-LGBTQ bills this year alone.

Additionally, the senators wrote, policy riders that would further restrict access to reproductive healthcare come as Americans are reeling from the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Dobbs, which overturned protections that were first established when Roe v. Wade was decided in 1933. As a result, the letter notes, total abortion bans are now enforced in 13 states with a handful of others setting early gestational limits.