National
Thousands expected to participate in Gender Liberation March in D.C.
Participants will protest outside US Supreme Court, Heritage Foundation on Saturday

Thousands of people are expected to protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court and the Heritage Foundation headquarters on Saturday as part of the first Gender Liberation March.
The march will unite abortion rights, transgender, LGBTQ, and feminist advocates to demand bodily autonomy and self-determination.
The Gender Liberation March follows the National Trans Liberation March that took place in D.C. in late August, and is organized by a collective of gender justice based groups that includes the organizers behind the Women’s Marches and the Brooklyn Liberation Marches. One of the core organizers, writer and activist Raquel Willis, explained the march will highlight assaults on abortion access and gender-affirming care by the Republican Party and right-wing groups as broader attacks on freedoms.
“The aim for us was really to bring together the energies of the fight for abortion access, IVF access, and reproductive justice with the fight for gender-affirming care, and this larger kind of queer and trans liberation,” Willis said. “All of our liberation is bound up in each other’s. And so if you think that the attacks on trans people’s access to health care don’t include you, you are grossly mistaken. We all deserve to make decisions about our bodies and our destinies.”
The march targets the Heritage Foundation, the far-right think tank behind Project 2025, a blueprint to overhaul the federal government and attack trans and abortion rights under a potential second Trump administration. Protesters will also march on the Supreme Court, which is set to hear U.S. v. Skrmetti, a case with wide-reaching implications for medical treatment of trans youth, in October.
“This Supreme Court case could set precedent to further erode the rights around accessing this life-saving medical care. And we know that there are ramifications of this case that could also go beyond young people, and that’s exactly what the right wing apparatus that are pushing these bans want,” Eliel Cruz, another core organizer, said.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, 70 anti-LGBTQ laws have been enacted this year so far, of which 15 ban gender-affirming care for trans youth.
The march will kick off at noon with an opening ceremony at Columbus Circle in front of Union Station. Trans rights icon Miss Major, and the actor and activist Elliot Page are among the scheduled speakers of the event. People from across the country are expected to turn out; buses are scheduled to bring participants to D.C. from at least nine cities, including as far away as Chattanooga, Tenn.
At 1 p.m. marchers will begin moving toward the Heritage Foundation and the Supreme Court, before returning to Columbus Circle at 3 p.m. for a rally and festival featuring a variety of activities, as well as performances by artists.
Banned books will be distributed for free, and a youth area will host a drag queen story hour along with arts and crafts. The LGBTQ health organization FOLX will have a table to connect attendees to its HRT fund, and a voter engagement area will offer information on registering and participating in the upcoming election. A memorial space will honor those lost to anti-trans and gender-based violence.
Cruz noted that the relentless ongoing attacks on the LGBTQ community and on fundamental rights can take a toll, and emphasized that the march offers a chance for people to come together.
“I’m really excited about putting our spin on this rally and making it a place that is both political, but also has levity and there’s fun and joy involved, because we can’t, you know, we can’t just only think about all the kind of massive amount of work and attacks that we’re facing, but also remember that together, we can get through it,” Cruz said.
Sign up for the march here. Bus tickets to the rally can be booked here.
New York
Two teens shot steps from Stonewall Inn after NYC Pride parade
One of the victims remains in critical condition

On Sunday night, following the annual NYC Pride March, two girls were shot in Sheridan Square, feet away from the historic Stonewall Inn.
According to an NYPD report, the two girls, aged 16 and 17, were shot around 10:15 p.m. as Pride festivities began to wind down. The 16-year-old was struck in the head and, according to police sources, is said to be in critical condition, while the 17-year-old was said to be in stable condition.
The Washington Blade confirmed with the NYPD the details from the police reports and learned no arrests had been made as of noon Monday.
The shooting took place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, mere feet away from the most famous gay bar in the city — if not the world — the Stonewall Inn. Earlier that day, hundreds of thousands of people marched down Christopher Street to celebrate 55 years of LGBTQ people standing up for their rights.
In June 1969, after police raided the Stonewall Inn, members of the LGBTQ community pushed back, sparking what became known as the Stonewall riots. Over the course of two days, LGBTQ New Yorkers protested the discriminatory policing of queer spaces across the city and mobilized to speak out — and throw bottles if need be — at officers attempting to suppress their existence.
The following year, LGBTQ people returned to the Stonewall Inn and marched through the same streets where queer New Yorkers had been arrested, marking the first “Gay Pride March” in history and declaring that LGBTQ people were not going anywhere.
New York State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, whose district includes Greenwich Village, took to social media to comment on the shooting.
“After decades of peaceful Pride celebrations — this year gun fire and two people shot near the Stonewall Inn is a reminder that gun violence is everywhere,” the lesbian lawmaker said on X. “Guns are a problem despite the NRA BS.”
New York
Zohran Mamdani participates in NYC Pride parade
Mayoral candidate has detailed LGBTQ rights platform

Zohran Mamdani, the candidate for mayor of New York City who pulled a surprise victory in the primary contest last week, walked in the city’s Pride parade on Sunday.
The Democratic Socialist and New York State Assembly member published photos on social media with New York Attorney General Letitia James, telling followers it was “a joy to march in NYC Pride with the people’s champ” and to “see so many friends on this gorgeous day.”
“Happy Pride NYC,” he wrote, adding a rainbow emoji.
Mamdani’s platform includes a detailed plan for LGBTQ people who “across the United States are facing an increasingly hostile political environment.”
His campaign website explains: “New York City must be a refuge for LGBTQIA+ people, but private institutions in our own city have already started capitulating to Trump’s assault on trans rights.
“Meanwhile, the cost of living crisis confronting working class people across the city hits the LGBTQIA+ community particularly hard, with higher rates of unemployment and homelessness than the rest of the city.”
“The Mamdani administration will protect LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers by expanding and protecting gender-affirming care citywide, making NYC an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city, and creating the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.”
U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court upholds ACA rule that makes PrEP, other preventative care free
Liberal justices joined three conservatives in majority opinion

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a portion of the Affordable Care Act requiring private health insurers to cover the cost of preventative care including PrEP, which significantly reduces the risk of transmitting HIV.
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh authored the majority opinion in the case, Kennedy v. Braidwood Management. He was joined by two conservatives, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, along with the three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown-Jackson.
The court’s decision rejected the plaintiffs’ challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s reliance on the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force to “unilaterally” determine which types of care and services must be covered by payors without cost-sharing.
An independent all-volunteer panel of nationally recognized experts in prevention and primary care, the 16 task force members are selected by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve four-year terms.
They are responsible for evaluating the efficacy of counseling, screenings for diseases like cancer and diabetes, and preventative medicines — like Truvada for PrEP, drugs to reduce heart disease and strokes, and eye ointment for newborns to prevent infections.
Parties bringing the challenge objected especially to the mandatory coverage of PrEP, with some arguing the drugs would “encourage and facilitate homosexual behavior” against their religious beliefs.
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