National
Queer Americans from N.M. to Philly on coping with Trump 2.0
Activists, immigration rights attorneys on the tough road ahead
I tried not to look at the clock this morning as I prepared to write. However, curiosity got me: Trump had been president for exactly nine minutes. Although his presence loomed so large in the vacuum of the four years between terms 45 and 47 that it doesn’t seem as if he ever really left.
The question now is how we, as members of the LGBTQ community, will cope with the next four years. I live in the Four Corners area of New Mexico. The county of San Juan is rural and very red. My extended in-laws are mostly Trump supporters but, mercifully, the mutual gag order against discussing politics over Christmas was kept in place.
At one such family party a woman asked if my partner and I knew her son Eric Domiguez. Had we still been in my native Philadelphia we probably would not have known this particular Eric based on sheer population. So at first it was a case of, “You’re the only gay men in the room. Do you know my gay son?”
However, I did know him via Facebook and learned he’s related to my fiancé by marriage. Dominguez runs Alphabet Mafia Presents, a social group creating safe spaces for the queer community. He is also responsible for a queer-centric recovery group, Recovery Queers. Soon after the election the group addressed concerns.
“Alphabet Mafia Presents, Recovery Queers and Sasha’s Rainbow of Hope collaborated to set up a queer town hall in November to address community concerns about local impacts of a second Trump presidency,” Dominguez shared. “It was open to the entire community and had the police LGBT liaison from Farmington police department on hand to answer questions. The event was put together in response to an incident that happened at a local barbershop where a queer individual overheard a conversation between two Trump supporters making comments about how they can’t wait for Trump to get rid of all the queer people in his second term. That conversation brought up a lot of fear for what could happen in our small conservative community.”
Dominguez encountered people on social media in fear of what could happen, talking about leaving the country to find a safe space to exist, struggling with mental health issues, parents afraid for their trans children, and other topics. Interestingly, despite the small population of Farmington, N.M., they have had an LGBTQ police liaison since the aftermath of the Pulse nightclub massacre.
“And coming soon,” Dominguez shared, “we’ll have The Gay Agenda Four Corners. A website, social media pages and weekly newsletter to promote all queer events and resources happening throughout the Four Corners.”
As we have seen in our earlier history, from Stonewall to Anita Bryant, from ACT UP to marriage equality, LGBTQ people rally to take care of each other. Dominguez is concerned, as we all are, about Project 2025. But he takes solace in the people, groups, and events he works with locally.
“I’m an openly gay man that hosts queer events in rural communities. And conservative friends praise me and have told me they think God sent me here to bring our community together through the work I do. So yeah I am scared of what could happen. But my experience here in our small conservative town has shown me that we can come together in spite of our differences. I know this isn’t the same for all small towns,” he cautions. “But we have groups like Equality New Mexico that have been working to make New Mexico a sanctuary state for queer and trans people. Laws passed over the last few years have made New Mexico one of the safest states for queer people to exist. I have seen first hand how existing as a queer person in small rural communities has influenced change. I can focus on fear. Or step outside my comfort zone, interact with people with different beliefs and grow together as a community. Either way the only way I’ll make it through the next four years is finding support in the community.”
Tim Rudy, a stay-at-home dad, and Brian Rudy, an events planner, are a married couple with two recently adopted sons living in Brian’s native Texas. Being in a very red state, do they fear for the future as a same-sex couple with two young children?
“I can’t say we have experienced any challenges as a same-sex couple or a same-sex parent unit, at least not outwardly. People in this state are typically friendly and offer hospitality, even if they do talk about you behind your back in that charming southern way. Because of the areas we have chosen to live and work and the friends we choose to surround ourselves with, I feel like we are pretty well insulated from some of the ugliness one can experience in a deep red state,” Tim shared. “That being said – though it hasn’t touched me I know friends who have experienced assaults and various targeted attacks even on the streets of vehemently liberal Austin.”
As for being gay parents, the Rudys say the boys have not experienced negativity at school.
“They have fantastic support systems at school and Brian was a teacher for years so we are able to maneuver them into the most ideal learning environments. However, when our youngest was in daycare, Tim went to pick him up one day and a little girl ran up to him and started loudly asking why he had two dads. The easiest response to that is always that every family is going to look different. But this four-year-old was quite opinionated about the situation. Probably as a result of belief systems at home.”
Brian is the son of an Iranian refugee. He does not, however, feel threatened by Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“We are close with a number of people who this may directly affect in the local Persian community. Many Persians who fled Iran during the Iranian Revolution were forced to leave without their birth certificates and other identifying documentation (regardless of status or wealth) and that can present a major problem for them for obvious reasons,” Brian stated.
“Xenophobia isn’t a problem for us,” Tim added. “Brian’s maternal family has been in Texas for generations.”
While my fiancé’s family kept the gag order in place at holiday parties, the Rudys were not so lucky at a recent gathering.
“One issue that is unavoidable in this area is conservative friends and family,” Brian shared. “We were recently at a family party where an intoxicated family friend was shouting angrily about the democratic presidential candidate’s campaign, and when Tim engaged in order to discuss facts versus right-wing propaganda, the guest began berating Tim in front of the entire family and our children, which was unacceptable. Sadly, the host of the party, a close family member, chose not to apologize and instead explain that she ‘loves this country because we can all have our own beliefs.’”
Speaking of immigration issues, a talking point of both Trump and the shadowy figures behind Project 2025, I spoke to Joseph Best of Best & Associates, an immigration law group based in Philadelphia. Best has been practicing law since 2008. He says he became enamored with immigration law during an immigration clinic at Villanova University. As an immigration attorney he is eligible to practice in any state as immigration is a federal matter. He need only hold a license in one state to practice in any jurisdiction. And he does: His social media shows him in New York one day, or Maine, or Pennsylvania the next fighting for immigrants. Best has fought for several LGBTQ people to gain citizenship.
“LGBT people generally have very viable asylum cases and often we get good results because so many countries are openly persecuting their LGBTQ+ citizens, often proudly so,” he said. “Asylum law in the U.S. has positively evolved over the past several decades to broadly support protections for LGBT people. Although, because our system is so broken and arbitrary, there are still some very bad immigration judges who refuse to follow the law and struggle to find a legal or factual basis as an excuse to not grant protection to our clients.”
As for Project 2025, Best says it is “nothing new … save for its own explicit announcement of their intentions to destroy America as a pluralistic representative, secular democracy. Of course, the biggest impact that their anti-LGBT agenda would have on immigration would be to restrict the application of asylum law for people fleeing anti-LGBT violence and harm and the efforts to undo legal progress in the states and federally around marriage equality and privacy rights more broadly. But thankfully all of that is complicated to actually implement and cannot happen overnight allowing for political opposition to get organized in response. Transgender people are today the easiest targets in our community to pick on. But it is an old playbook that anyone old enough who survived AIDS and our struggle for LGBT rights in the 80s and 90s will recognize immediately.”
Tyrell Brown is executive director at Galaei QTBIPOC Social Justice and Founder and Program Director at Philly Pride 365. According to their website, “Serving the Latinx community while widening our embrace, GALAEI now provides services, support and advocacy for all Queer, Trans, Indigenous and People of Color (QTBIPOC) communities.” The community they serve is historically more vulnerable due to socio-economic issues and other divides in Philadelphia.
Brown has been active in Philly’s queer community for a long time. The Galaei organization is more than an office. It’s a vibrant community center nestled on a small street in the Fishtown section of the city. An area largely economically destroyed by the closing of manufacturing and fisheries – hence Fishtown – and one now increasingly vulnerable to recent gentrification displacing long-time residents.
“As the executive director here,” Brown explained, “I have forecasted the potential of this for a year, while also driving home to the staff and those I encounter in the community that times will be difficult, and that we may not be able to anticipate every action, challenge, by the coming administration…but ensuring them that we are a resilient people and that we will navigate these challenging times.”
They look forward to working with the community they serve and their organization’s programs will be focused on “legacy.” Galaei is ready to meet the needs of the community. Much like the queer town hall in Farmington, Brown has already fielded calls from the community, and had staff express their concerns about coping.
“We are working with a collective that offers group healing explicitly for our staff as part of our regular care routine bi-weekly, this will include meditation and group discussion related to our self-care.” Brown closed his discussion with me beautifully.
“Understand that you are more powerful than you know and that the person that you are, who you know today, is not necessarily the person that you can be. Butterflies can’t see their own wings but they still know how to fly. The challenges that are sure to come tomorrow may not be what we anticipate, they may startle you, but know that we are prepared.”
I am very fortunate to know all of these charismatic people on a personal level. I dreaded writing this piece. Putting this article into words meant that we are no longer awaiting Trump’s return. We are now living in the second administration of a leader most LGBTQ people fear. However, we are overwhelmingly hopeful that we can and will overcome.
Kansas
ACLU sues Kansas over law invalidating trans residents’ IDs
A new Kansas bill requires transgender residents to have their driver’s licenses reflect their sex assigned at birth, invalidating current licenses.
Transgender people across Kansas received letters in the mail on Wednesday demanding the immediate surrender of their driver’s licenses following passage of one of the harshest transgender bathroom bans in the nation. Now the American Civil Liberties Union is filing a lawsuit to block the ban and protect transgender residents from what advocates describe as “sweeping” and “punitive” consequences.
Independent journalist Erin Reed broke the story Wednesday after lawmakers approved House Substitute for Senate Bill 244. In her reporting, Reed included a photo of the letter sent to transgender Kansans, requiring them to obtain a driver’s license that reflects their sex assigned at birth rather than the gender with which they identify.
According to the reporting, transgender Kansans must surrender their driver’s licenses and that their current credentials — regardless of expiration date — will be considered invalid upon the law’s publication. The move effectively nullifies previously issued identification documents, creating immediate uncertainty for those impacted.
House Substitute for Senate Bill 244 also stipulates that any transgender person caught driving without a valid license could face a class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. That potential penalty adds a criminal dimension to what began as an administrative action. It also compounds the legal risks for transgender Kansans, as the state already requires county jails to house inmates according to sex assigned at birth — a policy that advocates say can place transgender detainees at heightened risk.
Beyond identification issues, SB 244 not only bans transgender people from using restrooms that match their gender identity in government buildings — including libraries, courthouses, state parks, hospitals, and interstate rest stops — with the possibility for criminal penalties, but also allows for what critics have described as a “bathroom bounty hunter” provision. The measure permits anyone who encounters a transgender person in a restroom — including potentially in private businesses — to sue them for large sums of money, dramatically expanding the scope of enforcement beyond government authorities.
The lawsuit challenging SB 244 was filed today in the District Court of Douglas County on behalf of anonymous plaintiffs Daniel Doe and Matthew Moe by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kansas, and Ballard Spahr LLP. The complaint argues that SB 244 violates the Kansas Constitution’s protections for personal autonomy, privacy, equality under the law, due process, and freedom of speech.
Additionally, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a temporary restraining order on behalf of the anonymous plaintiffs, arguing that the order — followed by a temporary injunction — is necessary to prevent the “irreparable harm” that would result from SB 244.
State Rep. Abi Boatman, a Wichita Democrat and the only transgender member of the Kansas Legislature, told the Kansas City Star on Wednesday that “persecution is the point.”
“This legislation is a direct attack on the dignity and humanity of transgender Kansans,” said Monica Bennett, legal director of the ACLU of Kansas. “It undermines our state’s strong constitutional protections against government overreach and persecution.”
“SB 244 is a cruel and craven threat to public safety all in the name of fostering fear, division, and paranoia,” said Harper Seldin, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project. “The invalidation of state-issued IDs threatens to out transgender people against their will every time they apply for a job, rent an apartment, or interact with police. Taken as a whole, SB 244 is a transparent attempt to deny transgender people autonomy over their own identities and push them out of public life altogether.”
“SB 244 presents a state-sanctioned attack on transgender people aimed at silencing, dehumanizing, and alienating Kansans whose gender identity does not conform to the state legislature’s preferences,” said Heather St. Clair, a Ballard Spahr litigator working on the case. “Ballard Spahr is committed to standing with the ACLU and the plaintiffs in fighting on behalf of transgender Kansans for a remedy against the injustices presented by SB 244, and is dedicated to protecting the constitutional rights jeopardized by this new law.”
National
After layoffs at Advocate, parent company acquires ‘Them’ from Conde Nast
Top editorial staff let go last week
Former staff members at the Advocate and Out magazines revealed that parent company Equalpride laid off a number of employees late last week.
Those let go included Advocate editor-in-chief Alex Cooper, Pride.com editor-in-chief Rachel Shatto, brand partnerships manager Erin Manley, community editor Marie-Adélina de la Ferriére, and Out magazine staff writers Moises Mendez and Bernardo Sim, according to a report in Hollywood Reporter.
Cooper, who joined the company in 2021, posted to social media that, “Few people have had the privilege of leading this legendary LGBTQ+ news outlet, and I’m deeply honored to have been one of them. To my team: thank you for the last four years. You’ve been the best. For those also affected today, please let me know how I can support you.”
The Advocate’s PR firm when reached by the Blade said it no longer represents the company. Emails to the Advocate went unanswered.
Equalpride on Friday announced it acquired “Them,” a digital LGBTQ outlet founded in 2017 by Conde Nast.
“Equalpride exists to elevate, celebrate and protect LGBTQ+ storytelling at scale,” Equalpride CEO Mark Berryhill said according to Hollywood Reporter. “By combining the strengths of our brands with this respected digital platform, we’re creating a unified ecosystem that delivers even more impact for our audiences, advertisers, and community partners.”
It’s not clear if “Them” staff would take over editorial responsibilities for the Advocate and Out.
Federal Government
Two very different views of the State of the Union
As Trump delivered his SOTU address inside the Capitol, Democratic lawmakers gathered outside in protest, condemning the administration’s harmful policies.
As President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address inside the U.S. Capitol — touting his achievements and targeting political enemies — progressive members of Congress gathered just outside in protest.
Their message was blunt: For many Americans, particularly LGBTQ people, the country is not better off.
Each year, as required by Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution, the president must “give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union.” The annual address is meant to outline accomplishments and preview the year ahead. This year, Trump delivered the longest State of the Union in U.S. history, clocking in at one hour and 48 minutes. He spoke about immigration, his “law and order” domestic agenda, his “peace through strength” foreign policy doctrine, and what he framed as the left’s ‘culture wars’ — especially those involving transgender youth and Christian values.
But one year into what he has called the “Trump 2.0” era, the picture painted outside the Capitol stood in stark contrast to the one described inside.
Transgender youth
In one of the most pointed moments of his speech, Trump spotlighted Sage Blair, using her story to portray gender-affirming care as coercive and dangerous. Framing the issue as one of parental rights and government overreach, he told lawmakers and viewers:
“In the gallery tonight are Sage Blair and her mother, Michelle. In 2021, Sage was 14 when school officials in Virginia sought to socially transition her to a new gender, treating her as a boy and hiding it from her parents. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Before long, a confused Sage ran away from home.
“After she was found in a horrific situation in Maryland, a left-wing judge refused to return Sage to her parents because they did not immediately state that their daughter was their son. Sage was thrown into an all-boys state home and suffered terribly for a long time. But today, all of that is behind them because Sage is a proud and wonderful young woman with a full ride scholarship to Liberty University.
“Sage and Michelle, please stand up. And thank you for your great bravery and who can believe that we’re even speaking about things like this. Fifteen years ago, if somebody was up here and said that, they’d say, what’s wrong with him? But now we have to say it because it’s going on all over, numerous states, without even telling the parents.
“But surely, we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will. Who would believe that we’ve been talking about that? We must ban it and we must ban it immediately. Look, nobody stands up. These people are crazy. I’m telling you, they’re crazy.”
The story, presented as encapsulation of a national crisis, became the foundation for Trump’s renewed call to ban gender-affirming care. LGBTQ advocates — and those familiar with Blair’s story — argue that the situation was far more complex than described and that using a single anecdote to justify sweeping federal restrictions places transgender people, particularly youth, at greater risk.
Equality Virginia said the president’s remarks were part of a broader effort to strip transgender Americans of access to care. In a statement to the Blade, the group said:
“Tonight, the president is choosing to double down on efforts to disrupt access to evidence-based, lifesaving care.
“Rather than allowing families and doctors to navigate deeply personal medical decisions free from federal interference — or allowing schools to respond with nuance and compassion without putting marginalized children at risk — the president is instead advocating for reckless, one-size-fits-all political control.
“At a time when Virginians are worried about rising costs, economic uncertainty, and aggressive immigration enforcement actions disrupting communities and families, attacking transgender young people is a blatant political distraction from the real challenges facing our nation. Virginia families and health care providers do not need Donald Trump telling them what care they do or do not need.”
For many in the LGBTQ community, the rhetoric inside the chamber echoed actions already taken by the administration.
Earlier this month, the Pride flag was removed from the Stonewall National Monument under a National Park Service directive that came from the top. Community members returned to the site, raised the flag again, and filed suit, arguing the removal violated federal law. To advocates, the move was symbolic — a signal that even the legacy of LGBTQ resistance was not immune.
Immigration and fear
Immigration dominated both events as well.
Inside the chamber, Trump boasted about the hundreds of thousands of immigrants detained in makeshift facilities. Outside, Democratic lawmakers described those same facilities as concentration camps and detailed what they characterized as the human toll of the administration’s enforcement policies.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), speaking to the crowd, painted a grim picture of communities living in fear:
“People are vanishing into thin air. Quiet mornings are punctuated by jarring violence. Students are assaulted by ICE agents sitting outside the high school, hard working residents are torn from their vehicles in front of their children. Families, hopelessly search for signs of their loved ones who have stopped answering their phones, stop replying to text… This is un-American, it is illegal, it is unconstitutional, and the people are going to rise up and fight for Gladys Vega and all of those poor people who today need to know that the people’s State of the Union is the beginning of a long fight that is going to result in the end of Republican control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the United States of America in 2026.”
Speakers emphasized that LGBTQ immigrants are often especially vulnerable — fleeing persecution abroad only to face detention and uncertainty in the United States. For them, the immigration crackdown and the attacks on transgender health care are not separate battles but intertwined fronts in a broader cultural and political war.
Queer leadership
After delivering remarks alongside Robert Garcia, Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, took the stage and transformed the freezing crowd’s anger into resolve.
Garcia later told the Blade that visibility matters in moments like this — especially when LGBTQ rights are under direct attack.
“We should be crystal clear about right now what is happening in our country,” Garcia said. “We have a president who is leading the single largest government cover up in modern history, we have the single largest sex trafficking ring in modern history right now being covered up by Donald Trump and Pam Bondi In the Department of Justice. Why are we protecting powerful, wealthy men who have abused and raped women and children in this country? Why is our government protecting these men at this very moment? In my place at the Capitol is a woman named Annie farmer. Annie and her sister Maria, both endured horrific abuse by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. As we move forward in this investigation, always center the survivors; we are going to get justice for the survivors. And Donald Trump may call this investigation a hoax. He may try to deflect our work, but our message to him is very clear that our investigation is just getting started, and we will we will get justice for these survivors.”
He told the Blade afterwards that having queer leaders front and center is itself an act of resistance.
“I obviously was very honored to speak with Kelley,” the California representative said. Kelley is doing a great job…it’s important that there are queer voices, trans voices, gay voices, in protest, and I think she’s a great example of that. It’s important to remind the country that the rights of our community continue to be attacked, and then we’ve got to stand up. Got to stand up for this as well.”
Robinson echoed that call, urging LGBTQ Americans — especially young people — not to lose hope despite the administration’s escalating rhetoric.
“There are hundreds of thousands of people that are standing up for you every single day that will not relent and will not give an inch until every member of our community is protected, especially our kids, especially our trans and queer kids. I just hope that the power of millions of voices drowns out that one loud one, because that’s really what I want folks to see at HRC. We’ve got 3.6 million members that are mobilizing to support our community every single day, 75 million equality voters, people that decide who they’re going to vote for based on issues related to our community. Our job is to make sure that all those people stand up so that those kids can see us and hear our voices, because we’re going to be what stands in the way.”
A boycott — and a warning
The list of Democratic lawmakers who boycotted the State of the Union included Sens. Ruben Gallego, Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley, Chris Murphy, Adam Schiff, Tina Smith, and Chris Van Hollen, along with dozens of House members.
For those gathered outside — and for viewers watching the livestream hosted by MoveOn — the counter-programming was not merely symbolic. It was a warning.
While the president spoke of strength and success inside the chamber, LGBTQ Americans — particularly transgender youth — were once again cast as political targets. And outside the Capitol, lawmakers and advocates made clear that the fight over their rights is far from over.
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