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Despite ‘relentless attacks,’ optimism for future of LGBTQ movement

National LGBTQ Task Force leaders address Creating Change Conference

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4 years ago

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Kierra Johnson and Mayra Hidalgo Salazar delivered the National LGBTQ Task Force’s annual State of the Movement address. (Blade file photo of Johnson by Michael Key; photo of Salazar courtesy of the Task Force)

Despite being hit with an unprecedented 300 or more anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in U.S. state legislatures over the past two years, the nation’s LGBTQ community at the same time has seen some important advances and there is reason for optimism, according to a March 19 LGBTQ State of the Movement address delivered by two key movement leaders.

Kierra Johnson and Mayra Hidalgo Salazar, executive director and deputy executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, offered a detailed assessment of where things stand today for LGBTQ people in the United States during the organization’s 22nd Annual Creating Change Conference, which was held virtually March 19-20.

Since it began in 1987, Task Force officials have said the Creating Change Conference has served as the LGBTQ movement’s preeminent organizing, skills-building, and networking event.  

Johnson and Salazar said the political attacks on LGBTQ rights and other progressive causes coming in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic have forced LGBTQ leaders and activists to adopt new strategies for responding to the attacks.

“We are doing this in the face of storms that have kept coming,” Salazar said. “In just the last year, there have been relentless attacks to gut voting rights, the right to protest, abortion access, and trans youth health and rights,” she stated in the address delivered jointly by the two women.

“There have been 100 anti-trans bills and over 300 anti-LGBTQ bills considered in state legislatures across the nation,” she continued, adding that a record number of deportations of immigrants, a “barrage” of racial injustice in the U.S. and abroad, and new and ongoing wars and conflicts, “have left many of us feeling afraid, disconnected, and powerless.”

Johnson continued those thoughts by saying, “We know that you are tired. Many of you are afraid and rightfully so…But I know that I’m talking to a group of people who know that these events, these feelings, they’re no reason to stop the work – anything but,” Johnson said. “These are the reasons we do the work. This is why what we do is so important, why you are showing up today, and tomorrow and it is the difference between the light at the end of the tunnel going out entirely and growing brighter and nearer for us and for generations to come.”

Salazar cited what she called optimistic data showing that more people are coming out as LGBTQ than ever before at an earlier age, with young people identifying in greater numbers as bisexual and nonbinary.

“Now some of you may be wondering, is there something in the water?” she continued. “Of course, the answer is no! But more people coming out and the fluidity in how they identify has everything to do with the work you and we have done and do every single day to build a world where people can embrace themselves – and be embraced – in every aspect of their lives.”

As a further sign of optimism, Johnson noted the political climate for LGBTQ people coming from the White House has changed for the better since January 2021.

“After four years of relentless attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, the Biden-Harris administration has brought more LGBTQ+ visibility and begun undoing the damage of Trump’s anti-LGBTQ policies – from protecting the civil rights of every LGBTQ+ person, to ensuring that LGBTQ+ Americans are leaders at every level of the federal government,” Johnson said.

“Together with you, we have successfully backed more queer, women, people of color candidates to join the White House than ever before,” Johnson told conference participants.

Among the LGBTQ White House appointees, she and Salazar said, are Gina Ortiz Jones, a lesbian and Iraq war veteran serving as the U.S. Undersecretary of the Air Force; Pete Buttigieg, who is serving as the first openly gay Cabinet Secretary confirmed by the U.S. Senate; Admiral Dr. Rachel Levine, who is serving as director of the U.S. Public Health Service at the Department of Health and Human Services and who became the first openly transgender person ever confirmed by the U.S. Senate; Reggie Greer, a Black gay man serving as White House Director of Priority Placement and Senior Adviser on LGBTQ+ Engagement; Ambassador Chantale Yokmin Wong, the U.S. Director of the Asian Development Bank who became the first out lesbian and first LGBTQ person of color with the rank of ambassador in U.S. history; and Mehgan Maury, a former National LGBTQ Task Force official now serving as Senior Adviser to the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau and the first nonbinary member of the Biden administration.

“Contrary to what many would have us believe, we have also made progress in the states,” Johnson stated in her remarks. She and Salazar pointed to bills providing various types of LGBTQ supportive services or protections that have passed in New Jersey, Oregon, Colorado, Washington State, and New Mexico in the past two years.

“And finally, to those of you – advocates, organizers, change makers – in Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Texas and Michigan – thank you for your tireless work and non-stop efforts to stop the devastating bills ravaging their way through your state legislatures and making their way to the desks of your governors,” Johnson said.

“You are showing the country and the world that trans kids matter, that Black Lives Matter, that saying Trans and Bi and Lesbian and Gay matters,” added Johnson. “While we’ve had some setbacks in these sessions, the work you’ve done means those losses are temporary. You are building long-term sustainable power,” Johnson said.

“Together we will use all the tools in our toolbox – from the streets to the courts to the pews and pulpits, to the media to the ballot box – to overturn and overcome these wretched attacks and take back our democracy from extremists who will do anything to sustain the status quo or worse, roll back the gains we’ve won,” according to Johnson.

Following is the text of the full remarks delivered by Kierra Johnson and Mayra Hidalgo Salazar in their LGBTQ State of the Movement Address on March 19 before the Creating Change Conference as provided by the National LGBTQ Task Force:

Johnson: Welcome to the State of the Movement 2022. Convening virtually was not what we envisioned for Creating Change this year. Like you, last spring we were hopeful that we would soon turn a corner and leave our COVID-19 lives behind. Then Delta and Omicron dished a dose of reality that was more devastating than we thought possible. We saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and then swiftly the tunnel got longer, until the light was all but impossible to see.

Johnson: We are now beginning our third year under the cloud of a global pandemic. While we’ve necessarily become pros at adapting to these changing conditions: moving the work forward, getting our kids to school, taking care of elders, navigating other health crises and wearing masks everywhere we go, COVID continues to have a deep impact on our health and well-being and on our community’s ability to fight back. Like you, we also hold the tension of trying to stay focused on how we show up in our work to build a different world, while acknowledging the challenges of shouldering sickness, the passing of friends and family, and the frustration of dreams deferred.

Salazar: And, because we are brilliant, creative and resourceful, we also found new and beautiful ways of building and being in community – like virtual events with magical moments we only dreamed possible, became reality.

Salazar: We are doing this in the face of storms that have kept coming. In just the last year, there have been relentless attacks to gut voting rights, the right to protest, abortion access, and trans youth health and rights. There have been 100 anti-trans bills and over 300 anti LGBTQ bills considered in state legislatures across the nation. And if that wasn’t enough to overwhelm us, the record deportations of immigrants under the Biden administration, the barrage of racial injustice here at home and abroad, and new and ongoing wars and conflicts, have left many of us feeling afraid, disconnected, and powerless. At any given moment, we are experiencing changes moving at an unbearable pace.

Johnson: We know that you are tired. Many of you are afraid and rightfully so. Be tired. Be angry. Be frustrated, confused, sad, be ALL of those things. But I know that I’m talking to a group of people who know that these events, these feelings; they’re not a reason to stop the work — anything but. These are the reasons we do the work. This is why what we do is so important, why you are showing up today, and tomorrow and it is the difference between the light at the end of the tunnel going out entirely, and growing brighter and nearer for us and for generations to come.” Congresswoman Ocasio Cortez recently reminded us that a resigned cynical working class that has given up is exactly what our opponents want. But she also reminds us that things are changing and that it is up to us to share good news and enjoy the good news and remind each other that we are having success and we are winning.

Salazar: Data is showing us that more people are coming out as LGBTQ than ever before and they are coming out earlier, with young people identifying in higher numbers as bisexual and nonbinary. Now some of you may be wondering, is there something in the water?! Of course, the answer is no! But more people coming out and the fluidity in how they identify has everything to do with the work you and we have done and do every single day to build a world where people can embrace themselves—and be embraced—in every facet of their lives.

Johnson: After four years of relentless attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, the Biden-Harris administration has brought more LGBTQ+ visibility and begun undoing the damage of Trump’s anti-LGBTQ policies— from protecting the civil rights of every LGBTQ+ person, to ensuring that LGBTQ+ Americans are leaders at every level of the federal government Together with you, we have successfully backed more queer, women, people of color candidates to join the White House than ever before including:

Salazar: Gina Ortiz Jones, a gay woman and Iraq veteran serves as the 27th U.S. Under Secretary of the Air Force – she identifies as an Ilocano, a member of a Filipino ethnolinguistic group. KJ: Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who is the first openly gay Cabinet Secretary confirmed by the U.S. Senate MHS: Admiral Dr. Rachel Levine, Head of U.S public health efforts at the Department of Health and Human Services, who is the first openly transgender person ever confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Johnson: Reggie Greer, a Black gay man now serves as White House Director of Priority Placement and Senior Advisor on LGBTQ+ Engagement. MHS: Ambassador Chantale Yokmin Wong U.S. Director of the Asian Development Bank, the first out lesbian and first LGBTQ person of color with the rank of ambassador in U.S. history.

Johnson: AND our own Mehgan Maury, who led our Queer the Census campaign and now serves as Senior Advisor to Director Robert Santos at the Census Bureau, the first non-binary member of the administration’s team.

Salazar: And we need more action, support, and resources from the White House to address the escalating attacks on our humanity and our rights. We need progress that goes beyond the pre[1]Trump status quo. The rights of LGBTQ+ people must be solidified to capture the full breadth of our experiences and face the onslaught of growing racism, xenophobia, homophobia and transphobia. MHS: And there is a bill in congress right now — The Equality Act – that if passed would move us forward in holding elected officials accountable at the federal level and in every state, expanding and protecting the civil rights of LGBTQ people, people of color and women.

Johnson: With each year more cross-movement, cross issue, cross community partnerships are created, and they are deepening. Whether creating new messages and frames to engage the community and address the state attacks on LGBTQ people, to creating interfaith strategies to assert a progressive religious and spiritual perspective to beat back discriminatory religious exemptions, to inspiring and supporting more BIPOC, Young People and Queer people to vote Commented [MS1]: i don’t want to uplift this as a win, especially while we are at/on the brink of another war Commented [MS2]: moving and advocate directly with legislators, we are fortifying our foundation for the hard work ahead!

Johnson: Contrary to what many would have us believe, we have also made progress in the states! New Jersey enacted a law that adds gender nonbinary to medical data collection. Oregon passed a law to add LGBTQ people to priority populations definition for workforce development programs and increases funding. Colorado passed a bill to support older people from diverse, racial, cultural, socioeconomic, gender and ability groups in community planning; health services and infrastructure.

Salazar: Washington State passed two bills – one that preserves a person’s ability to access abortion care, making the language trans-inclusive. And another that makes incarcerated folx medical records confidential, including for trans-affirming care and gender identity. New Mexico passed a bill to stop LGBTQ people from being blamed for people assaulting or murdering them, barring use of the so-called Panic defense.

Johnson: And finally, to those of you—advocates, organizers, change makers—in Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Texas and Michigan – thank you for your tireless work and non-stop efforts to stop the devastating bills ravaging their way through your state legislatures and making their way to the desks of your Governors. You are showing the country and the world that trans kids matter, that Black lives matter, that saying Trans and Bi and Lesbian and GAY matters. While we’ve had some setbacks in these sessions, the work you’ve done means those losses are temporary. You are building long term sustainable power. Together we will use all the tools in our toolbox— from the streets to the courts to the pews & pulpits, to the media to the ballot box—to overturn and overcome these wretched attacks and take back our democracy from extremists who will do anything to sustain the status quo or worse roll back the gains we’ve won.

Salazar: We are far from powerless. From weighing in on presidential appointments to engaging with civil rights leaders on strategies to ensure that our communities have access to the right to vote. We have been connecting with national and state partners, advising hill staff and Members of Congress and engaging LGBTQ people in a range of issues including the Equality Act and the Texas abortion ban. We have won protections in the workplace and nondiscrimination policies continue to pass in cities and states across the country. Actors, Athletes and musicians are exclaiming their pride and queering the media at every turn igniting a new force of queer and allied activism. Carl Nassib, Kal Penn, Tommy Dorfman, Hikaru Utada, Kehlani and Billy Porter are just a few of the celebrities that have come out in the last year as trans, non-binary, queer, HIV positive, and Pansexual. They are showing up and out as queer pop icons, public figures for a new generation looking for themselves boldly reflected in media, culture and politics. We must remember how we got here. We must celebrate our successes as forward momentum. We have much to be proud of…But we are FAR from done.

Salazar: In January of this year, Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) signed into law the first anti-trans bill of 2022. In doing so, she banned transgender girls from playing school sports. From there it has

been almost impossible to keep up with the barrage of attacks. Arizona, Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, New Hampshire and South Dakota and just a few of the states that introduced measures that target trans and nonbinary youth, their families and their communities.

Johnson: As if that wasn’t enough, in addition to the unabated and unrelenting state attacks on LGBTQ+ legislation, our communities have also been hit with attacks on reproductive rights, voting rights, and the erasure of the history and impact of BIPOC people in this country. In states across the country, the legislature has waged a triple threat of bad bills targeting our access to information, bodily autonomy, and ability to participate in our democracy. These are the foundation of personal, community and political power!

Salazar: The far-right has bemoaned for years that progressives have been trying to “censor” them, it is indeed the far-right taking steps to censor content of all kinds – from critical race theory to LGBTQ inclusive curricula, effectively erasing the diversity of people in this country and any accurate or inclusive understanding of our shared history. Book bans, which seem like an outdated tactic of fascist dictators, are back in style. The simple act of have a rainbow flag or Black Lives Matter sticker on your classroom door, meant to communicate a safe space, is now off the table. Imagine how our young people must feel as they are stripped of the symbols and information that made them feel safe and affirmed.

Johnson: Access to our most basic right to engage in our democracy is also at stake. The right to vote, our right to protest is being suppressed, curtained, blocked and gerrymandered at every turn.

Salazar: Finally, our self-determination and personal agency is also being threatened. Given the sharp rise in anti-LGBTQ laws passed over the last 8 years and what we are seeing now, it is no surprise we’re now experiencing what the American Medical Association has declared “an epidemic of violence against the transgender community,” most notably the skyrocketing rate of murders against trans women of color. The ability to make decision about who you are, how you walk through the world in your truth and have control over your own body are at the core of the anti-trans bills mentioned above and all the attempts to restrict abortion rights and access to reproductive related healthcare.

Johnson: If this feels familiar there is a reason – 40 years ago it was gay & lesbian teachers that were being targeted — today it’s trans kids and their parents.

Salazar: 40 years ago, it was Anita Bryant who was pulling out worn out tropes about “grooming” – and today it is Governors like DeSantis and Abbott recycling these tropes to spread misinformation about our community.

Johnson: 20 years ago, it was gay, lesbian and bisexual people being accused of trying to destroy the sanctity of (Christian) marriage and today it is loving families and allies of LGBTQ youth being accused of taking away “parental rights” when working for the safety and futures of all youth.

Johnson: Any historian or longtime Movement activist will tell you this cycle Is just that – a constant, sometimes subtle, sometimes direct, concerted effort to use queer people, reproductive freedom and democracy as the bait to push the buttons of conscious and unconscious homophobia, transphobia, sexism, misogyny, racism, Christian hegemony and classism in our country.

Johnson: This is our time, our opportunity to commit to building deeply and broadly across movements. To collaborate across issues and communities. We cannot win if we continue to organize in silos and ignore the WHOLE chess board. There is an opportunity to build intersectional partnerships, engage a larger base, and create solutions that have greater impact on more people. We must fight back. Now, for the remainder of this important election year, in every state facing anti-LGBTQ, anti-choice and anti-voting rights legislation.

Johnson: There is a lot at stake in this time but where there are challenges there are opportunities for us to learn, grow and succeed! Our political success will only ever be temporary if we’re not invested in building the power of the people. We win because more and more people are in coalition with us. But we know from the movements that came before ours that to hold onto those successes, our institutions and those in power must be willing to take action with us and we must be vigilant in holding them accountable.

Salazar: Today we are launching Queer the Vote and commit to building a robust and connected base of voters working across issues across communities to rebuild and strengthen our democracy. It is critical that queer people and our allies mobilize to take action, build power and create change whether that’s contacting your elected officials, providing testimony, or donating money and resources. And of course, above all else, if you are eligible, make sure you are registered to vote and turn out at the polls. Claim your power, use your voice, support your community and Queer the Vote!

The kind of change we imagine can take generations, and the Task Force is in this for the long haul – we’ve been at it for almost 50 years, and we won’t stop until we are all free. The pathway to liberation is long and if we are going to make it we must remember what we are working towards. We are organizing for our civil rights. We are demanding that our full humanity is honored and affirmed. And we are fighting for our democracy.

Johnson: We have already imagined the world we want…the world we deserve. Now we must have courage to act with and for our community to bring it into existence. The theme of CC22 is Remixed. A remix: a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, and/or changing pieces of the item. Our 2022 Creating Change theme Remixed refers not only to having pivoted from an in-person event to a digital one. Remixed is also a vision for how we can evolve as a movement. We have an opportunity to experiment and to play. To be responsive to what is new while benefiting from the wisdom, expertise, and talent of the past. I can’t wait to get back into the studio with you! We look forward to creating new sounds, covering some old tunes and remixing a new movement for the future…by us and for us. Forever together, we are powerful!

Johnson: Be You, Be Well and enjoy the rest of your Creating Change ‘22 remixed experience!

Salazar: Sea tú. Y que lo pasen delicioso. [Be you. And have a delicious time.]

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Massachusetts

EXCLUSIVE: Markey says transgender rights fight is ‘next frontier’

Mass. senator, 79, running for re-election

Published

3 hours ago

on

February 18, 2026

By

U.S. Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) speaks outside of the U.S. Supreme Court. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

For more than half a century, U.S. Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) has built a career around the idea that government can — and should — expand rights rather than restrict them. From pushing for environmental protections to consumer safeguards and civil liberties, the Massachusetts Democrat has long aligned himself with progressive causes.

In this political moment, as transgender Americans face a wave of federal and state-level attacks, Markey says this fight in particular demands urgent attention.

The Washington Blade spoke with Markey on Tuesday to discuss his reintroduction of the Trans Bill of Rights, his long record on LGBTQ rights, and his reelection campaign — a campaign he frames not simply as a bid for another term, but as part of a broader struggle over the direction of American democracy.

Markey’s political career spans more than five decades.

From 1973 to 1976, he served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, representing the 16th Middlesex District, which includes the Boston suburbs of Malden and Melrose, as well as the 26th Middlesex District.

In 1976, he successfully ran for Congress, winning the Democratic primary and defeating Republican Richard Daly in the general election by a 77-18 percent margin. He went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly four decades, from 1976 until 2013.

Markey in 2013 ran in the special election to fill an open Senate seat after John Kerry became secretary of state in the Obama-Biden administration. Markey defeated Republican Gabriel E. Gomez and completed the remaining 17 months of Kerry’s term. Markey took office on July 16, 2013, and has represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate ever since.

Over the years, Markey has built a reputation as a progressive Democrat focused on human rights. From environmental protection and consumer advocacy to civil liberties, he has consistently pushed for an expansive view of constitutional protections. In the Senate, he co-authored the Green New Deal, has advocated for Medicare for All, and has broadly championed civil rights. His committee work has included leadership roles on Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

Now, amid what he describes as escalating federal attacks on trans Americans, Markey said the reintroduction of the Trans Bill of Rights is not only urgent, but necessary for thousands of Americans simply trying to live their lives.

“The first day Donald Trump was in office, he began a relentless assault on the rights of transgender and nonbinary people,” Markey told the Blade. “It started with Executive Order 14168 ‘Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.’ That executive order mandates that federal agencies define gender as an unchangeable male/female binary determined by sex assigned at birth or conception.”

He argued that the executive action coincided with a sweeping legislative push in Republican-controlled statehouses.

“Last year, we saw over 1,000 anti trans bills across 49 states and the federal government were introduced. In January of 2026, to today, we’ve already seen 689 bills introduced,” he said. “The trans community needs to know there are allies who are willing to stand up for them and affirmatively declare that trans people deserve all of the rights to fully participate in public life like everyone else — so Trump and MAGA Republicans have tried hard over the last year to legislate all of these, all of these restrictions.”

Markey said the updated version of the Trans Bill of Rights is designed as a direct response to what he views as an increasingly aggressive posture from the Trump-Vance administration and its GOP congressional allies. He emphasized that the legislation reflects new threats that have emerged since the bill’s original introduction.

In order to respond to those developments, Markey worked with U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) to draft a revised version that would more comprehensively codify protections for trans Americans under federal law.

“What we’ve added to the legislation is this is all new,” he explained, describing how these proposed protections would fit into all facets of trans Americans’ lives. “This year’s version of it that Congresswoman Jayapal and I drafted, there’s an anti-trans bias in the immigration system should be eliminated.”

“Providers of gender affirming care should be protected from specious consumer and medical fraud accusations. The sexual and gender minority research office at the National Institutes of Health should be reopened and remain operational,” he continued. “Military discharges or transgender and nonbinary veterans and reclassification of discharge status should be reviewed. Housing assignments for transgender and nonbinary people in government custody should be based on their safety needs and involuntary, solitary or affirmative administrative confinement of a transgender or nonbinary individual because of their gender identity should be prohibited, so without it, all of those additional protections, and that’s Just to respond to the to the ever increasingly aggressive posture which Donald Trump and his mega Republicans are taking towards the transgender.”

The scope of the bill, he argued, reflects the breadth of challenges trans Americans face — from immigration and health care access to military service and incarceration conditions. In his view, the legislation is both a substantive policy response and a moral declaration.

On whether the bill can pass in the current Congress, Markey acknowledged the political hardships but insisted the effort itself carries as much significance as the bill’s success.

“Well, Republicans have become the party of capitulation, not courage,” Markey said. “We need Republicans of courage to stand up to Donald Trump and his hateful attacks. But amid the relentless attacks on the rights and lives of transgender people across the country by Trump and MAGA Republicans, it is critical to show the community that they have allies in Congress– the Trans Bill of Rights is an affirmative declaration that federal lawmakers believe trans rights are human eights and the trans people have the right to fully participate in public life, just like everyone else.”

Even if the legislation does not advance in this congress, Markey said, it establishes a framework for future action.

“It is very important that Congresswoman Jayapal and I introduce this legislation as a benchmark for what it is that we are going to be fighting for, not just this year, but next year,” he said when asked if the bill stood a legitimate chance of passing the federal legislative office when margins are so tight. “After we win the House and Senate to create a brand new, you know, floor for what we have to pass as legislation … We can give permanent protections.”

He framed the bill as groundwork for a future Congress in which Democrats regain control of both chambers, creating what he described as a necessary roadblock to what he views as the Trump-Vance administration’s increasingly restrictive agenda.

Markey also placed the current political climate within the longer arc of LGBTQ history and activism.

When asked how LGBTQ Americans should respond to the removal of the Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument — the first national monument dedicated to recognizing the LGBTQ rights movement — Markey was unwavering.

“My message from Stonewall to today is that there has been an ongoing battle to change the way in which our country responds to the needs of the LGBTQ and more specifically the transgender community,” he said. “When they seek to take down symbols of progress, we have to raise our voices.”

“We can’t agonize,” Markey stressed. “We have to organize in order to ensure that that community understands, and believes that we have their back and that we’re not going away — and that ultimately we will prevail.”

Markey added, “That this hatefully picketed White House is going to continue to demonize the transgender community for political gain, and they just have to know that there’s going to be an active, energetic resistance, that that is going to be there in the Senate and across our country.”

Pam Bondi ‘is clearly part’ of Epstein cover up

Beyond LGBTQ issues, Markey also addressed controversy surrounding Attorney General Pam Bondi and the handling of the Epstein files, sharply criticizing the administration’s response to congressional inquiries.

“Well, Pam Bondi is clearly part of a cover up,” Markey said when asked about the attorney general’s testimony to Congress amid growing bipartisan outrage over the way the White House has handled the release of the Epstein files. “She is clearly part of a whitewash which is taking place in the Trump administration … According to The New York Times, Trump has been mentioned 38,000 times in the [Epstein] files which have been released thus far. There are still 3 million more pages that have yet to be released. So this is clearly a cover up. Bondi was nothing more than disgraceful in the way in which she was responding to our questions.”

“I think in many ways, she worsened the position of the Trump administration by the willful ignoring of the central questions which were being asked by the committee,” he added.

‘I am as energized as I have ever been’

As he campaigns for reelection, Markey said the stakes extend beyond any single issue or piece of legislation. He framed his candidacy as part of a broader fight for democracy and constitutional protections — and one that makes him, as a 79-year-old, feel more capable and spirited than ever.

“Well, I am as energized as I have ever been,” he said. “Donald Trump is bringing out the Malden in me. My father was a truck driver in Malden, Mass., and I have had the opportunity of becoming a United States senator, and in this fight, I am looking ahead and leading the way, affirming rights for the trans community, showing up to defend their rights when they are threatened from this administration.”

He continued, reiterating his commitment not only to the trans community but to a future in which progressive and proactive pushes for expanded rights are seen, heard, and actualized.

“Our democracy is under threat from Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans who are trying to roll back everything we fought for and threaten everything we stand for in Massachusetts, and their corruption, their greed, their hate, just make me want to fight harder.”

When asked why Massachusetts voters should reelect him, he said his age and experience as a 79-year-old are assets rather than hindrances.

“That’s exactly what I’m doing and what I’m focused upon, traveling across the state, showing up for the families of Massachusetts, and I’m focused on the fights of today and the future to ensure that people have access to affordable health care, to clean air, clean water, the ability to pay for everyday necessities like energy and groceries.”

“I just don’t talk about progress. I deliver it,” he added. “There’s more to deliver for the people of Massachusetts and across this country, and I’m not stopping now as energized as I’ve ever been, and a focus on the future, and that future includes ensuring that the transgender community receives all of the protections of the United States Constitution that every American is entitled to, and that is the next frontier, and we have to continue to fight to make that promise a reality for that beleaguered community that Trump is deliberately targeting.”

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National

LGBTQ activists mourn the Rev. Jesse Jackson

Prominent civil rights leader died on Tuesday at 84

Published

16 hours ago

on

February 17, 2026

By

The Rev. Jesse Jackson in 1983. (Washington Blade archive photo by Jim Marks)

LGBTQ rights advocates have joined the nation’s civil rights leaders in reflecting on the life and work of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the famed U.S. civil rights leader whose family announced passed away on Feb. 17 at the age of 84.

Known as a follower and associate of African American civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson emerged in the 1960s as a leading civil rights advocate for the Black community and other minorities for decades throughout the U.S., including in Washington.

In a less known aspect of Jackson’s involvement in politics, following his campaigns for U.S. president in 1984 and 1988, Jackson won election in 1990 as the District of Columbia’s shadow senator, a ceremonial position created to lobby Congress for D.C. statehood.

Jackson, who at that time had a home in D.C., received strong support from D.C. voters, including LGBTQ voters who became aware of Jackson’s support for LGBTQ issues. He served just one six-year term as the city’s shadow senator before choosing not to run again.

An early supporter of marriage equality, Jackson was among the prominent speakers at the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Jackson joined other speakers at a rally on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.

During his run for president in 1988 the D.C. Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, an LGBTQ group that has since been renamed the Capital Stonewall Democrats, endorsed Jackson for president ahead of the city’s Democratic presidential primary.  

“The fight for justice requires courage, hope, and a relentlessness that will not be denied. Rev. Jesse Jackson embodied that fight every day,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization.

“From disrupting political systems and building people power to helping this country imagine a freer future for all of us, Rev. Jackson was a force,” Robinson said in a statement. “His historic presidential campaigns paved the way for generations of Black leaders to imagine ourselves in rooms we were once told were closed to us.”

Robinson added, “Reverand Jackson also stood up when it mattered; when it wasn’t easy and when it wasn’t popular. His support for marriage equality and for LGBTQ+ people affirmed a simple, powerful truth: our liberation is bound together.”

She also pointed to Jackson’s support for efforts to repeal California’s Proposition 8, a 2008 referendum passed by voters to ban same-sex marriage in the state.  

“Marriage is based on love and commitment, not on sexual orientation. I support the right for any person to marry the person of their choosing,” Robinson quoted Jackson as saying in support of efforts that succeeded in overturning the California marriage ban.

The national organization PFLAG, which represents parents, friends, and allies of the LGBTQ community, released a statement from its president, Brian K. Bond, citing Jackson’s longstanding support for the LGBTQ community.

“Today, as we learn of the passing of Rev. Jesse Jackson, we mourn the loss of a giant among us,” Bond said in the statement. “When many refused to acknowledge the existence and struggles of LGBTQ+ people, Rev. Jackson saw us, affirmed us, and demanded equality inclusively,” Bond said. “In his address to the Democratic National Convention in 1984, Rev. Jackson named us specifically as part of the fabric of the American Quilt,” Bond says in his statement.

The statement adds, “He has shown up for and marched with the LGBTQ+ movement through the AIDS crisis, marriage equality, and ever after. Rev. Jackson’s leadership and allyship for LGBTQ+ people will be felt profoundly by his PFLAG family. We will continue to honor his legacy as we continue to strive to achieve justice and equality for all.”

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, citing Jackson’s role as a D.C. shadow senator, said for many in the country, Jackson “was the first person they heard make the case for D.C. statehood. The first person they heard say: it’s the right thing to do.”

Bowser added, “In 1988, he said that we were at a crossroads, and he posed this question: Shall we expand, be inclusive, find unity and power; or suffer division and impotence? It is a question as relevant today as when he asked it,” the mayor said, “And in Rev. Jackson’s name and memory, we must continue fighting for the answer we know our nation deserves.”

D.C. Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) said she was honored to have worked with Jackson during his tenure as D.C. shadow senator and throughout his years as a civil rights advocate.

“From the front lines of the civil rights movement to national campaigns that expanded the political imagination of this country, Jesse Jackson lifted up the voices of those too often unheard,” Norton said in a statement. “He turned protest into progress and transformed moral conviction into political action”

According to Norton, “His work-built bridges across race, class, and geography, helping redefine what inclusive democracy could look like in America.”

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Trump falsely links trans people to terrorism

Intelligence agencies threatening to investigate community members as domestic terrorists

Published

17 hours ago

on

February 17, 2026

By

President Donald Trump (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Uncloseted Media published this article on Feb. 14.

By HOPE PISONI | In December, Kathy Brennan was in San Francisco on a video call with her wife and son when she started to feel a burning pain in her chest. While she ignored it at first, it quickly spread to more of her body until it was too much to bear. She called 911 and was brought to the hospital on a stretcher.

“My entire chest was just crushed in pain, I couldn’t even move it was so bad,” Brennan told Uncloseted Media. “I said ‘God, I am not ready to die here. Please don’t let me die.’ I was thinking about Alaina, and we have so much more life together.”

Brennan spent the next few days recovering in the hospital from what doctors determined to be a stress-induced heart attack.

Brennan had spent the past year in a near-constant state of what she called “safety monitoring” her wife, Alaina Kupec.

She obsessively followed the news about the Trump administration’s attacks against the trans community, especially as officials began openly labeling trans people as terrorists. Everywhere she went, she mentally patrolled for how to keep her wife safe.

“Is our home safe? Is my wife safe? Are we safe? What do we have to do? … Can we protect ourselves if people come to our door? What do we have to worry about when we go to the grocery store? Are we gonna get doxxed?” Brennan remembers thinking.

Kupec, a trans naval intelligence veteran, is an outspoken advocate for trans rights and is the founder president of Gender Research Advisory Council + Education (GRACE).

“I think the big worry is that she will be taken away from me and we won’t be able to find her. … Then, just for the sheer sake of cruelty, my beautiful, feminine woman of a wife, they would put her in a men’s prison.”

Brennan’s fear reflects that of many trans Americans and their loved ones. In the aftermath of the assassination of anti-trans conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the Trump administration and its allies began taking actions to target socially progressive people and organizations as terrorists, with a focus on trans people. In September, Trump signed an executive order designating Antifa, a decentralized movement focused on militant opposition to fascism, as the first ever “domestic terrorist organization.” At the same time, the closely allied Heritage Foundation — who penned Project 2025 — began pushing for the creation of a new national security designation called “Transgender Ideology-Inspired Violent Extremism.”

Shortly after, Trump released National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM)-7, which directs intelligence agencies to investigate left-wing political organizations for involvement in domestic terrorism, singling out “extremism on migration, race, and gender” and “hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.”

The unfounded trans terrorism panic has swept right-wing spaces, and experts say that it’s putting trans people in danger.

“If people are told, day after day, especially from … people with that veneer of legitimacy, that this entire group of people … is implicitly a dangerous terrorist, that sends that message that these people are able to be targeted for violence,” Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, told Uncloseted Media.

The what and the why

While Trump relied on anti-trans messaging since he began campaigning in the 2024 presidential election, his portrayal of trans people as a national security threat emerged in response to an August 2025 mass shooting in Minneapolis, where a trans person killed two children. While the overwhelming majority of mass shooters are cisgender men, right-wing figureheads blamed the shooting on the perpetrator’s transness.

While Kirk’s assassin is cisgender, early reports falsely claimed that he had engraved pro-trans messages onto his bullets, which conservative figures like Megyn Kelly and Laura Loomer used to blame trans people for the killing. “It’s time to designate the transgender movement as a terrorist movement,” Loomer said the following weekend on X. And Vice President JD Vance suggested that he considers trans people to be part of a “terrorist movement.”

The Trump administration picked up on this rhetoric to justify its actions: the Antifa executive order and NSPM-7 both reference Kirk’s assassination as well as either trans people or “extremism on gender.”

As these policies began rolling out, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reported that the FBI was preparing to designate trans people as “nihilistic violent extremists.” A leaked intelligence brief showed that U.S. Customs and Border Protection had centered the focus of one extremist group on their trans membership, referring to them as a “radical leftist trans militant cult.”

How these actions will be enforced remains to be seen. At least two trans women are currently jailed and awaiting trial over an anti-ICE protest where a local police officer was shot by a cis man, which the Department of Justice claims was connected to an “Antifa Cell.” It is not known whether the government will attempt to use the defendants’ transness to implicate them in terrorism charges.

And leaked documents indicate that the FBI is compiling a list of groups and individuals involved in extremism based on a number of beliefs including “radical gender ideology.” Their ability to compile such lists may be enhanced by a policy change from the Department of Homeland Security last February that allows the government to surveil people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

While some have questioned to what extent the administration intends to actually enforce all of these policies, experts say that the fact they’re being discussed poses a serious risk.

“From 9/11 onward, the United States has been leading a ‘global war on terror,’ so to label somebody as a terrorist is a rallying cry for violence and discrimination,” says Arie Kruglanski, a professor of psychology at the University of Maryland. “This term of terrorism calls people to action. … Once you label somebody as a terrorist, then clearly they present a mortal danger to society, and they need to be fought against.”

‘Tremendously damaging’

Lewis says that being exposed to these attacks can be “tremendously damaging.”

“It’s not even that there are [always] explicitly these immediate legal repercussions that some person will face, but it’s that othering, it’s that sense of fear every day,” he says.

That fear has caused Jewels Jones to withdraw from public life. Jones, a trans man from the South, says that the anti-trans vitriol online after Kirk’s death became too much to handle, and he had to leave social media almost entirely.

“I’m 23, I should be on social media, but I can’t because if I even go onto my timeline, something can trigger me,” Jones told Uncloseted Media. “[I miss] the feeling of freedom.”

With community often hard to find, Jones says he and several other trans people he knows have been struggling with substance use.

“Everyone here has their own reasons for turning to things such as drinking and smoking and partying and just finding [a way] to feel numb or ignore what’s going on,” Jones says. “Just being trans and having to see how everybody views you, how you’re perceived, how you’re feeling, all these different emotions that you feel is more than enough of a reason [to] turn to those things.”

PJ, a trans man from a small town in Arizona, who asked to remain anonymous because he is not out, says that after Trump’s inauguration, he’s started to hide his transness. And he’s not alone: Since the 2024 election, 55 percent of trans people have taken steps to be less visible in their communities.

“It is torture,” PJ says. “I do not like having to lower my voice when I speak to prevent sounding androgynous. I do not like having to hide away my wardrobe for ‘being too gay.’ There is no comfort in overcompensation.”

Individuals aren’t the only ones stepping into the shadows. Kupec has been withdrawing herself and her nonprofit from the internet as much as possible. She says GRACE used to host monthly calls, where as many as 100 people would join to hear from experts on issues facing the trans community. But now, they no longer have public meetings, and internal communications have moved to Signal, an encrypted messaging app.

“We have backed off of doing those things because of the fear of how this could be leveraged against us,” Kupec told Uncloseted Media. “It’s had a chilling effect on our ability to exercise our freedom of speech as individuals and as a nonprofit organization.”

Trying to leave

Because of this fear, many trans Americans are trying to leave. A survey by the Movement Advancement Project found that 43 percent of trans Americans had considered moving to a different state since the 2024 election, with 9 percent having already moved. And the Williams Institute found that 45 percent of trans people wanted to move out of the country.

Kupec has watched noteworthy friends disperse across the globe: Rachel See, the former chair for National Center for Transgender Equality, moved to Portugal; and author and advocate Brynn Tannehill moved to Canada.

“That’s part of what [the administration’s] desired outcome is, to get people to self-deport,” Kupec says.

For many, relocating isn’t easy: For 64 percent of trans people who want to move out of state, cost of living was cited as a barrier. PJ has been trying to move for years. But within the U.S., relatively LGBTQ-friendly states like California and Massachusetts have much higher costs of living, making moving there financially challenging.

Moving internationally is no small feat either — every country has its own laws to navigate around immigration.

PJ says he kept running into barriers while trying to leave. The Netherlands initially seemed promising, but he discovered that the path to residency required him to start a business, which he couldn’t afford to do. Other countries fell through because he didn’t have the money to cover application fees. The closest he got to making it out was when a friend on the east coast of Canada offered to let him stay with them for a while. But it fell through when the friend’s septic tank collapsed, ruining the house and forcing PJ back to the U.S.

“It seems like every plan that you make to try to get out of here, it just gets squashed,” he says.

Those barriers have gotten scarier for PJ as the clock may be ticking for him to be able to leave. In November, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to enforce a ban on passports with gender markers that do not align with an individual’s birth certificate, with the State Department’s website suggesting that passports which have already been updated may be invalidated.

Given all of these threats, PJ believes that trans Americans should be able to seek asylum in other countries. Applications for asylum by trans Americans have been rejected in countries including the Netherlands and Canada, and most European countries don’t view the U.S. as dangerous enough to grant refugee status despite many having issued travel advisories for trans residents visiting the country.

“We can’t really claim asylum right now so there’s not really many other options but sink or swim,” PJ says.

There have been some efforts to push for asylum status for trans Americans. Politicians, advocates and lawyers in Canada and Norway have called for their respective governments to accept trans Americans as refugees. And in July, a Canadian judge blocked the deportation of a nonbinary American who overstayed their visa, with one of the factors considered in the decision being “current conditions for LGBTQ, nonbinary, and transgender persons” in the U.S.

Finding hope and respite

In the face of all this, finding a support network can be crucial to survival. While community has been especially hard to find in the South, Jones says that he’s been able to connect with other transmasc people via reddit communities like r/TMPOC (Trans Masculine People of Color) or r/testosteronekickoff.

Kupec and Brennan find solace through their 12-year relationship. Brennan says, “I love her more now … than I did when I first fell mad smack in love with her.”

“Having love where there’s respect and kindness and joy and excitement and it goes both ways, that is really unique, not a lot of people have that,” she says. “But when you do have it, it’s like, ‘I wanna preserve this and protect this with every ounce of my energy and soul because it’s the center of my life,’ and I know that she feels that way too.”

As Brennan recovers from her heart attack, she’s been watching less news and joined a book club to connect with other people. Kupec, a Catholic, has been putting her faith in God to get through.

“I know who I am, I know my maker knows who I am, and I have strong faith that by doing the right thing, at the end of the day, that’s what’s going to win out.”

Additional reporting by Sam Donndelinger.

 

 

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