An Erie City, Pennsylvania city councilmember who intentionally misgendered a colleague from the dais last week is suffering the backlash, with dozens of outraged constituents showing up to a Wednesday night council meeting to share their displeasure.

The councilman, Ed Brzezinski, a former school board member and registered Democrat, sat stone-faced through the five-hour meeting.

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“In this country, we have freedom of speech, but that does not mean that we have freedom from consequence,” said Savannah Wilson, an Erie resident. Brzezinski’s behavior “last meeting is permission for discrimination,” Wilson said.

Brzezinski’s insult came toward the end of a heated council debate on June 9 over a bayfront redevelopment project.

Council President Tyler Titus, who is out as transgender and uses they/them pronouns, cautioned Brzezinski with a reminder to limit his interruptions, Erie News Now reports.

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Brzezinski replied to Dr. Titus, “Yes, ma’am.”

News of the slight spread quickly, and had Democrats in the county addressing hateful words from one of their own.

“Being registered as a Democrat is not a shield from accountability by the Democratic Party, as our values mean very little if they are only campaign language,” Erie County Democrats said in a statement.  

“This conduct is particularly concerning because it follows prior public concerns about Councilmember Brzezinski’s use of degrading language toward colleagues,” the statement added.

The rebukes continued at Wednesday night’s council meeting, where 58 attendees addressed his behavior during three hours of public comment in the packed council chamber, with almost all the comments directed almost exclusively at Brzezinski, Erie Times-News reported.

“Let us be clear: this was a deliberate act of disrespect and intent to harm a member of our trans community,” said trans constituent Rie Witherow.

“I am misgendered daily,” they said, adding that most of those incidents are simple mistakes.

Brzezinski’s outburst was not a mistake, they said, while calling on him to resign or for his colleagues to censure and strip him of his committee assignments.

Erie Mayor Daria Devlin publicly apologized to Titus during her report in chambers. She said she regretted not doing more in the moment after Brzezinski uttered the words.

Brzezinski said nothing through the comment period, only speaking at the end of the meeting to announce an unrelated event.

“That’s it. Thank you,” he said.

Titus saved their comments for the meeting’s final minutes.

“Healing does not happen by pretending harm did not occur. Healing happens when we tell the truth about what happened, we take responsibility for our role in it, and we commit ourselves to building a better city,” they said.

“That is my hope for this council, that is my hope for this city, and despite everything, that hope remains stronger than my anger,” Titus said.

Whether or not that message sank in seemed to be answered by a meeting attendee who watched Brzezinski exit the session.

“After hours of public comment condemning Ed’s decorum at the city council meeting tonight, Ed Brzezinski walked up to a young female reporter in the lobby, made smooching noises and commented that she was the only thing that kept him awake through the meeting. I heard him and he’ll have to hear me call him out at the next meeting,” social media user Sammie Voto wrote online.

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A church leader in Indianapolis is doubling down on a sermon delivered at the Sure Foundation Baptist Church in the state’s capital city last week that called on gay people to “blow yourself in the back of the head,” among other incendiary statements.

Church leader Justin Zhong endorsed the remarks delivered by lay pastor Stephen Falco during a Men’s Preaching Night service on June 29, including his assertion that, “There’s nothing good to be proud about being a f*g. You ought to blow yourself in the head in the back of the head. You’re so disgusting.”

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The church posted the sermon to YouTube, and it was widely denounced by members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies who called the hate-filled screed “theologically irresponsible” and “pastorally dangerous.”

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YouTube has since removed the video for violating its terms of service. A portion of the sermon was reposted by radio station 93 WIBC Indianapolis.

“Why do I hate sodomites, why do I hate f*gs? Because they attack children, they’re coming after your children, they are attacking them in schools today, and not only schools in public places, and they’re proud about it!” Falco said during the Pride month sermon titled “Pray the gay away.”

Another man identified in the same video as “Brother Wayne” followed Falco at the pulpit with a sermon he called “Worthy of Being Beaten,” according to the Indianapolis Star. He blamed society’s moral decline on a lack of discipline and physical punishment, calling beatings a deterrent that have been lost in American culture, while aiming his harshest rhetoric at immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community.

“I don’t even understand why we’re deporting these illegal criminals who are murderers, who are doing drug trafficking, sex trafficking, human trafficking. They’re putting them on a plane, and they’re sending them over to a prison in another country,” he said. “I say we put them to death right here. I say we beat them right here.”

Brother Wayne said of gay people, “I think they should be put to death. You know what, I’ll go further. I think they should be beaten in public first for all their sick and demented, just [slur] and the things they’re doing to our schools, to our government, to our institutions, to our churches. These people should be beaten and stomped in the mud, and then they should take a gun and blow the back of their heads off.”

While not officially associated with the notorious New Independent Fundamental Baptist Church, which has long espoused the death penalty for gay people, Sure Foundation Baptist Church says their pastor, Aaron Thompson, is a new IFB church member from Vancouver, Washington.

Both churches are “KJV only”, referring to their literal interpretation of the gospel from the King James Bible.

“The Bible is crystal clear that sodomites – homosexuals – deserve the death penalty carried out by a government that actually cares about the law of God,” said church leader Zhong in Falco’s defense.

“I will not apologize for preaching the Word of God. I will not apologize for stating facts. I will not negotiate with terrorists, among whom the LGBTHIV crowd is full of domestic terrorists,” Zhong said, before citing multiple verses from the Bible to make his church’s case on Facebook.

A sermon by Falco in March even directed ire at Donald Trump for appearing religious to secure political support while having a life of pride, perversion, blasphemy, and mockery of Jesus Christ.

He cited Trump’s declaration that he would date his own daughter if they weren’t related.

“Unless Donald Trump gets saved, which I hope he does … God will judge him for it and he will go to hell.”

In his June sermon, Falco also wished death on former President Joe Biden, whom he described as “a wicked reprobate.”

“I have prayed for the death of former President Biden many times,” he boasted.

But Falco’s most outlandish and threatening rhetoric was reserved for the LGBTQ+ community, which he shouted down as “evil” and “disgusting”.

Allies and activists rallied in the community’s defense, including an association of Black churches and activists.

“Such messages are not only theologically irresponsible but pastorally dangerous,” faith-based civil rights group Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis said in a statement. “The pulpit must never be used as a weapon to dehumanize, isolate, or incite fear.”

Equality Indiana called Falco’s sermon inflammatory and extremist, saying it could inspire violence against the community.

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The rising stars of the steamy, runaway HBO hit Heated Rivalry, which is about hockey players who repeatedly scored with each other, are now scoring with major advertisers too, even as Pride events struggle to hold on to sponsors.

Their sculpted bottoms play important supporting roles.

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A short horror-style video for Verizon called “Look Behind You” features Connor Storrie, who portrayed the Russian player Ilya Rozanov on Heated Rivalry. Set at a remote cabin in the woods, a series of creepy things happen to Connor but it ends humorously on the tagline, “The Best Butt, The Best Network. There’s no escape.”

Verizon CMO Leslie Berland told Marketing Brew, “There was a real spark of excitement around this idea of, ‘What if we bring together this famous butt with the Verizon 5G network and create really fun, interesting, compelling storytelling around that?’”

Hudson Williams, who repeatedly revealed his muscular physique as Heated Rivalry’s Canadian Shane Hollander, now shows off his body – this time clothed – as he exercises for the internet-connected workout system Peloton. His “Let Yourself Go” ad fittingly starts off with the camera trained on his derriere as he drips with sweat through a dance-infused workout.

“‘Let yourself go’ feels very in line with my beliefs,” Hudson said in the Peloton release. “It’s amazing what fitness can do for your life. I think everyone needs a form of movement that liberates them. Movement is the quickest way to get out of sticky feelings – whether that’s dancing or exercise.”

[Editor’s note: Peleton removed its ads featuring Williams after the emergence of a photo of him as a high school senior with a swastika drawn on his face. Williams’ representatives said he had no idea that the symbol had been drawn on his face by others when the photo was taken. The drawings were part of a school tradition in which seniors draw on one another.]

Big brands apparently weren’t scared of the spicy sex in the series, since a good number of them provided product placements, including Adidas, Corona, Doritos, Land Rover, Lays, Nike, Ray-Ban, Royal Caribbean, Tostitos, Under Armour and others.

So far, neither Heated Rivalry star has publicly defined their sexuality, even though Williams has been in a long-term relationship with a woman. Yet many advertisers are showing they will still choose LGBTQ+ stars – and those playing queer characters – even amid the current conservative political climate.

Verizon and Peloton are part of a pattern that signals a new era of “gay vague” advertising. Today’s spots don’t call attention to a celebrity’s queerness or queer-coded roles unless the viewer already knows. Their sexuality isn’t the point — their fame is.

That resolve was on full display during this year’s Super Bowl LX, where advertisers paid a record average of $8 million for 30-second ads – many that prominently featured openly LGBTQ+ stars. The lineup of rainbow celebrities included TV host and producer Andy Cohen for Nerds Juicy Gummy Clusters, SNL comedian Bowen Yang for RITZ crackers, and pop group Katseye, whose out members include Lara Raj and Megan Skiendiel, for State Farm. Levi’s tapped Grammy-winning bisexual rapper Doechii, and Pokémon paired Young Miko, the lesbian Puerto Rican rapper with bisexual pop icon Lady Gaga.

The trend extended into the 2026 Olympic Winter Games when The Hershey Company featured Jason Brown, a gay bronze-medal figure skater, in its “Happiness is the Real Gold” ad campaign with supportive messages from athletes’ parents.

But future queer representation on TV could get tougher, as the climate shifts.

The FCC is now evaluating whether TV ratings should flag “gender identity themes” or carry warning labels before programs featuring transgender or non-binary characters. No major corporation or media company has publicly opposed the plan, but resistance is being channeled through industry coalitions and trade groups. Public comments will be accepted through June 22, 2026.

With increased federal scrutiny about DEI policies, the Human Rights Campaign’s annual Corporate Equality Index, published February, reported a 65% decline in participation by Fortune 500 companies in the survey.

Accordingly, an April 2026 survey by Gravity Research of corporate executives found that 39% planned to reduce Pride engagement this year – 61% cited pressure from the White House and the broader political environment as the primary drivers. Tampa Pride and events in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Arlington, Texas have all canceled this year after punishing sponsor losses.

This may explain why “gay vague” is so appealing to advertisers right now as they try to ride things out. Brands can boast queer inclusion with less of a target on their backs. Here’s hoping it’s a strategy for the moment, and not a permanent retreat.

Michael Wilke has written for The New York Times and Advertising Age and is the founder of nonprofit AdRespect.org, which promotes advertising that respects diversity, gender identity/expression, and sexual orientation for a more accepting society and better business results.

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Inflammatory Fox host Jesse Watters spoke on The Five about how the only reason Hillary Clinton will be remembered in history is because she’s “a female.”

“These are the times to be alive. Historians will look back in 100 years. They’re not gonna look at the fake news stuff… They’re gonna see the big stuff, the world-defining moments, the rewiring of world trade, crime, the economy, the border, what we’re doing internationally… Hillary Clinton is going to be a footnote, and it’s just ’cause she’s a female.”

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His fellow panelists did not agree, but Watters doubled down. “It’s true! What has she done? She’s just a female, that’s it. A female that does what men do.”

Democrat Jessica Tarlov, who often appears on the show, mentioned Clinton’s roles as First Lady, a U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State.

“That’s just a job… She did a terrible job. Just like many men have done terrible jobs at those same jobs.”

Tarlov replied, “Rarely do I say this is beneath you, but it’s actually beneath you.”

“You’d be surprised,” Watters retorted. The rest of the panelists laughed as Tarlov appeared horrified.

Watters is notoriously anti-LGBTQ+ and is also obsessed with masculinity. He repeatedly mocks Democratic men for doing things like drinking from straws and eating ice cream, claiming it makes them effeminate.

Gallup Poll released global survey data on the state of gay and lesbian rights, and it’s pretty clear that we’re now in the midst of not just a national stagnation, but a global one that is affecting the lives of tens of millions of LGBTQ+ people.

Gallup has been asking people around the world, “Is the city or area where you live a good place or not a good place to live for gay or lesbian people?” since 2006, meaning they now have 20 years of data to look at. This roughly follows my career in LGBTQ+ media, by the way: I got my first job writing for a queer website in February 2007.

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Currently, 40% of people say their area is a good place, while 44% say it’s not. This is a significant improvement over the 23% who said that their area was a good place in 2006 and the 53% who said it was not.

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To be clear, this question isn’t an exact statistic measuring how many queer people are safe worldwide. First, mostly cishet people were surveyed because they’re just the vast majority of the population, and they are the people who are least likely to know what conditions LGBTQ+ people are living under. Second, the question focused just on “gay or lesbian people,” which excludes a large part of the community, although it’s unclear how aware straight people would be of that fact.

Last, it’s not clear what “a good place” even means in this context. Obviously, it doesn’t mean “gay and lesbian people are treated just as well or better than straight people” since that’s true nowhere in the world. So, at best, the question is asking if the discrimination and oppression queer people face in one’s locality is somewhat less than what queer people face elsewhere, based on the respondents’ imagination of what it’s like to be queer wherever they live, compared to, say, Russia or the U.S.

More likely, though, respondents were just answering based on whether they personally are OK with having gay people in their area. So this poll can offer some insight into broad trends, but don’t take it too literally.

Gallup showed poll results separated by countries that have legalized marriage equality and those that haven’t. The countries that legalized it saw a significant increase in the percentage of people saying their locality is a “good place” from 2006 to 2015 (39% to 73%), while the remaining countries saw some growth in the period after that (16% to 26%). Most countries and regions that legalized same-sex marriage by the mid-2010s, with the U.S. legalizing it nationwide in 2015.

It’s also notable that Gallup is not legally allowed to ask this question in some countries. Several countries banned either homosexuality or “LGBTQ+ propaganda” in the 2020s or increased the penalties for it, which means that the stagnation is likely worse than what is seen here. Also, the 2020 results are likely skewed because COVID prevented Gallup from conducting in-person interviews and from surveying certain countries altogether.

Broken down by country, legalizing same-sex marriage was correlated with an increase in positive attitudes towards gay and lesbian people in the three years before and after legalization. Because the increases came both before and after marriage was legalized, it’s less that public opinion caused or was caused by marriage being legalized and more that, as public opinion moved in our favor, societies became more aware of how denying a basic right to a historically oppressed minority for no reason other than their identity is a bad thing and also that governments recognizing equal rights for queer people in a highly visible way shifted some people’s attitudes as well. These things are coproductive.

But this all comes back to the question of the stagnation seen since around 2020 and why that happened.

One reason could be that there was just always going to be stagnation in attitudes towards gay people after marriage was legalized. In the 2000s, a lot of LGBTQ+ people saw marriage rights as either unachievable or at least a very difficult fight, more difficult than, say, getting anti-discrimination protections would have been. But here we are in the U.S. in 2026 with over 10 years of marriage equality and no law from Congress banning anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, with the latter unlikely to happen any time soon (the president has long been opposed to such legislation).

Marriage was not the hardest thing to get; it was actually one of the easier things because it places very few demands on individuals who are not queer themselves. It was a right that was denied to a discrete population that doesn’t affect pretty much anyone outside of that population, other than people acknowledging that it happened.

It was also a large and visible sign of acceptance of queer people. But by 2019-ish – the year that Austria, Taiwan, and most of Mexico legalized it – it had already happened in most places where it was going to happen any time soon, which meant that fewer people after that saw evidence of conditions improving for gay people.

A second factor is the global movement against trans rights, which really gained speed in the U.S. in 2021 when red states started banning gender-affirming care and sports participation after previously not caring about those issues. In the U.K., the Tavistock and Forstater cases (in 2020 and 2021, respectively) drew significant media attention to anti-trans attitudes (J.K. Rowling famously came out as a TERF in response to the Forstater case).

The U.S. and the U.K. remain highly culturally influential worldwide, in part due to the size of their economies and in part because English is the lingua franca, giving native English speakers an advantage in international discussions. The rise in fascist attitudes is global. They’re sharing ideas online. So it’s unlikely that increasingly negative attitudes towards trans people would remain confined to the U.S. and the U.K., or would only target trans people and not the larger LGBTQ+ population.

Last, the world has changed drastically since 2020, and not just with respect to LGBTQ+ rights. The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound effect on how people see each other, and time spent on social media increased significantly throughout the 2010s. Passive social media that feeds users content, like TikTok and Instagram Reels, grew in popularity in the 2020s, and outrage and negativity are rewarded on such platforms because they drive engagement. Meanwhile, other social media networks like Facebook and X – the latter of which still rules a lot of professional journalists’ worlds – turned to the right.

This list isn’t exhaustive. It’s just some observations from a news junkie who has been following these things for two decades. But it’s something to consider as we enter the next decade in this global story.

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A New Jersey cop who was fired for using an anti-gay slur on the job returned to work earlier this month, following a two-year legal battle.

Roselle, New Jersey, police chief Stacey Williams was fired in July 2024 and had his law enforcement license suspended after an investigation by the Union County Prosecutor’s Office found that he had used a homophobic slur and other offensive language both during an October 2022 conversation at Roselle Police Department headquarters and when referring to other officers, according to NJ.com.

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Williams challenged his termination, which also came after the local Policemen’s Benevolent Association union accused him of “abusive, retaliatory, and bizarre behavior.” In May 2025, a judge threw out most of the disciplinary charges against him, reducing his punishment to a 30-day suspension.

During a January 2025 hearing, Administrative Law Judge Thomas R. Betancourt reportedly heard how two of Williams’s subordinates – out Lieutenant Delmonte Pryor and Helder Freire – overheard him describing a personal friend as a “f***ot” during the October 2022 conversation. Pryor also alleged that Williams used the same slur in 2020.

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Williams claimed he did not remember using the slur, but said it was possible he had. He also admitted to calling a fellow officer a “f*g” 10 years prior. Williams argued that using the slur was “like calling somebody a punk.”

Williams argued that while he did not remember using the slur during the October 2022 conversation, he had joked “about a personal friend of mine, nothing to do with anybody homosexual whatsoever.”

When Pryor’s attorney asked Williams if he thought the slur was funny, he replied that “it depends on how you look at it.”

“Culturally, if you look into the Black neighborhood, people utilize f***ot and the N word,” said Williams, who is Black.

Ultimately, Betancourt found that Williams did use the slur during the October 2022 conversation, but that his “use of the word was neither discriminatory nor targeted toward another officer or specific individual in such a manner exhibiting homophobia or disapproval of those who identify as homosexual,” the New Jersey Monitor reported.

Betancourt also said he found Pryor’s discomfort over Williams’s use of the slur “overstated.”

The New Jersey Civil Service Commission later upheld Betancourt’s decision.

In February, lawyer for the Roselle Policemen’s Benevolent Association Peter Paris told NJ.com that Williams’s return to duty “would be a travesty.”

“He is known to be retaliatory even before this, so we would expect immediate retaliation,” Paris said.

But earlier this month, the New Jersey Police Training Commission reinstated Williams’ license, allowing him to return to his position as police chief on June 9 – despite Freire having been appointed to the position in the wake of his termination.

“While there is a long and sordid history of homophobic behavior by police chiefs in Roselle and other towns, I never imagined that the Civil Service Commission would expressly condone the unapologetic use by a police chief of abusive, homophobic tropes toward a subordinate officer,” Paris, who also represents Pryor in his own lawsuit against Roselle, told the Monitor. “It is clear that bigoted police chiefs in New Jersey are protected by the powers that be.”

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In May, the Colorado Supreme Court ordered Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHC) to resume providing gender-affirming care to trans youth after it suspended the program in January. Now, it says that they are resuming the program, but that doctors are refusing to provide the care for fear of losing their medical licenses or facing criminal charges.

The doctors say they individually sought legal counsel before reaching their decisions. In a communication to the families being denied care, they said, “We were each individually forced to make a very difficult decision, and none of us reached this decision lightly. Ultimately, each of our decisions is driven by the serious risk of federal action that could result in the inability to continue serving and caring for any patients for years into the future.”

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The gender-affirming care provided to minors through the CHC is limited to puberty blockers and hormone therapy prescriptions, and they do not provide surgeries to anyone under 18.

The doctors who work at CHC’s TRUE Center for Gender Diversity are actually employed by the University of Colorado School of Medicine, so the hospital theoretically cannot force them to provide any treatment or prescription that they don’t want to, according to a senior CHC official who spoke anonymously to The Denver Post.

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The official went on to say that the doctors don’t object to providing gender-affirming care to minors, but are concerned that they will be targeted by the federal government if they provide it.

John McHugh, an attorney for the plaintiff families, has criticized the hospital’s move, claiming it is an attempt to “side-step” the court order and shift blame from the administrators to the doctors. “It is, I think, devastating to our clients, to have fought this far… and to have the hospital trying to play games with compliance and to try to throw their providers under the bus,” McHugh said.

CHC suspended its gender-affirming care for minors back in January. Like many other hospitals in the country, CHC had received a subpoena from the Department of Justice (DOJ) demanding full records on patients and providers for any gender-affirming care given to minors over the last several years.

Many of these subpoenas have been quashed (including the one targeting CHC) with judges describing them as “fishing expeditions” that are intended to “intimidate” and “harass,” and noted that the “Government seeks to fulfill its policy agenda through compliance born of fear.”

However, in December, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared without evidence that gender-affirming care for minors was not safe or effective and that hospitals could be punished for providing it. CHC was then referred to the Office of the Attorney General for investigation, and they chose to suspend their gender-affirming care for those under 18 in January.

Families of those denied care filed a class-action lawsuit, and in May the Supreme Court of Colorado ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, saying that the suspension violated Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act. The court then instructed a lower court to issue a preliminary injunction to resume care while the main case proceeded through the courts.

Since that injunction was issued, CHC has worked to avoid complying with the order. Defending against the lawsuit before the Supreme Court’s ruling, the hospital argued that resuming care could expose it to federal action, legal costs, and the loss of funding. With that argument as support, earlier this month they requested that the plaintiff families put up a $250,000 bond before care was resumed, which they said would help to cover costs if it was later found that the injunction had been wrongly ordered.

Attorney Paula Greisen, representing the families, argued against that bond, noting that “If somebody else sues them, then go after that party for whatever damages it causes you. Don’t go after the children. Stop throwing up roadblocks to get around the court order.” Greisen argued that the bond should instead be $1, a common practice in discrimination cases, and a district judge agreed.

The doctors’ professed concern for federal retaliation is not unfounded. Texas Children’s Hospital settled with the DOJ in May to stop providing gender-affirming care to minors and to terminate five doctors, revoking their admitting privileges, preventing them from seeing patients at that hospital in the future. A clinic in Ohio also settled with an agreement to cease gender-affirming care for minors for 20 years. Both the Ohio and Texas institutions also had to agree to fund the establishment of detransition clinics.

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The Trump administration updated the language describing a small federal grant program in what experts are calling a “Trojan horse” that could have sweeping implications for IVF access and reproductive rights overall.

The Embryo Adoption Awareness and Services Program is a public awareness campaign through the Department of Health and Human Services aimed at shedding light on the surplus of frozen embryos available for adoption. It also provides funding to a small group of organizations seeking to help prospective parents adopt embryos.

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But the 62-page handbook describing the program now contains a stark message: that the program considers embryos as existing children. The program “recognizes embryo adoption first and foremost as a response to the needs of children who already exist and are in need of a family,” the description states, purporting to place “the best interests of the child at the center of all activities.”

The handbook also states that grant funds cannot be used to “facilitate the donation of human embryos to embryo-destructive research” or to “pay for, subsidize, promote, or otherwise support discarding or destroying human embryos.”

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Dorianne Mason, senior director of health equity and contraceptive access at the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), told HuffPost the updated language is “essentially a Trojan horse” and “incredibly harmful,” despite the fact that on its face, the program seems relatively non-controversial.

Anti-abortion activists have long advocated for the law to recognize both embryos and fetuses as having the same rights as fully born human beings, which could have tremendously detrimental effects on both IVF and abortion rights.

As states increasingly grant legal rights to unborn children in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, the debate has grown over whether embryos count as human beings or personal property that can be used, donated, or destroyed at will. Republicans are now stuck between trying to assure the majority of Americans they support IVF access while also catering to their more extreme far-right backers who want those who want the destruction of embryos to be considered legal murder.

In Alabama, for example, a 2024 state Supreme Court decision ruled that embryos have the same legal rights as children, creating widespread fear that IVF providers could face criminal charges if they mishandle or destroy an embryo.

Discarding unused or abandoned embryos is a routine part of the IVF process, and the court even acknowledged that its ruling would effectively end IVF treatment in Alabama. Several major providers in the state halted IVF treatment in the ensuing weeks, leaving LGBTQ+ couples, single people, and those who struggle with fertility issues with dwindling access to the most common method of assisted reproduction.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) then signed a bill shielding in-vitro fertilization (IVF) providers from civil and criminal liability, but the underlying issue of embryonic personhood remains in the state.

Heather Shumaker, NWLC’s senior director of state abortion access and lead on fetal personhood work, said the Trump administration’s declaration of embryonic personhood in the adoption program “is all part of their long-term plan to eventually ban abortion.”

“In order to do that, they have to have examples of embryos being treated as children in public policy and law,” Shumaker explained. “So, this is just fuel for that fire – to say, ‘Look, the federal government says that an embryo is in fact a child’ – and that becomes something to lean on when making these arguments.”

In the wake of the Alabama decision, other states across the country began to consider legislation that would define embryos and/or fetuses as people, causing many prospective parents – especially LGBTQ+ people, who disproportionately rely on assisted reproductive technology to have children – to become terrified for the future.

A 2024 study released by surrogacy agency SurrogateFirst in 2024 found that a whopping 98% of intended parents of all identities are concerned about legislation seeking to restrict family-building services.

The SurrogateFirst study found that 50% of same-sex couples said they are “extremely concerned” about fetal personhood bills, compared to 41% of heterosexual couples. 67% of same-sex couples also expressed extreme concern that IVF and surrogacy could be negatively impacted by these bills, compared to 29% of heterosexual couples.

But the national outrage spurred by the Alabama ruling made it clear that Americans on both sides of the aisle (including a significant number who are anti-abortion) overwhelmingly support easy access to IVF and other fertility treatments. This has placed Republicans in a tricky position, as these court decisions directly stem from their successful crusade to overturn Roe v. Wade.

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The Netherlands will ban conversion therapy after the Senate voted 75 to 57 in favor of legislation to eradicate the harmful practice. The Dutch House of Representatives has already approved the bill, which will reportedly punish anyone who practices conversion therapy on children or vulnerable adults with up to two years in prison and a fine of up to 27,500 euros (about $31,500). Therapists could also lose their licenses.

The country already bans some of the more extreme methods of conversion therapy, like medication and shock therapy, according to the NL Times, but the authors of the bill did not feel existing law was comprehensive enough.

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During parliamentary debate about the bill, Senator Peter Nicolaï, a member of the left-wing Partij voor de Dieren, reportedly emphasized the need to also cover the dangers of exorcism, prayer-based therapy, psychological pressure, and pseudo-therapy sessions.

The D66 and VVD parties, who spearheaded the bill, celebrated the victory and declared that “years of commitment to freedom, equality, and human dignity have been rewarded.”

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The Dutch LGBTQ+ Rights Group COC Netherlands celebrated the bill’s passage. “We have been fighting for the ban with victims and colleague organizations for almost 15 years and are very happy with this result. We see it as a victory for the victims,” the group said on social media, according to Facebook’s translation tool.

Numerous scientific studies on conversion therapy show that the abusive practices substantially increase the suicidality of its victims.

A 2013 survey, for example, showed that 84% of former patients who tried ex-gay therapy said it inflicted lasting shame and emotional harm, and in 2022, a report found that LGBTQ+ people who participated in sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts were more likely to experience negative impacts than those who did not, including serious psychological distress (47% vs 34%), depression (65% vs 27%), substance abuse (67% vs 50%), and attempted suicide (58% vs 39%).

Editor’s note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It’s staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

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Adam Trapski had his first brush with motorsports in the 1990s in New Zealand, when he was a young flag marshal. That’s one of the race officials you see along the track waving flags at drivers to share critical road conditions.

Trapski’s family had a problem with that, and more.

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“When I was growing up, my parents were homophobic and anti-motorsport. They didn’t like me being involved in the sport. So it was not a great family environment in that respect,” he told LGBTQ Nation.

They kicked the queer early-twentysomething out of the house on both accounts.

Trapski didn’t race cars as a kid, as if that was a possibility.

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“My first car was a horrible lime green-colored Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback called Kermit, followed by a four-door 1980 Ford Escort RS2000.”

Neither car was ready for the racetrack.

It wasn’t until almost 30 years later that the one-time flag marshal settled in behind the wheel of a racecar.

“I was 52 years old when I first started circuit racing in 2023, with no prior karting or racing experience,” Trapski says.

He calls race day “sheer adrenaline.”

“It’s the most rewarding, fun-filled, and exciting thing that you can ever possibly do,” he says.

Not to keep the excitement to himself, Trapski set out on a mission to give back by assembling a young, all-LGBTQ+ racing team.

Trapski had spent the intervening years between his racetrack forays volunteering with LGBTQ+ organizations, such as the New Zealand AIDS Foundation, the country’s first gay and lesbian Dragon Boat group, and its first gay rugby team. 

He wanted to give young, queer motorsports enthusiasts like him the chance to share in the fun in his new home in Australia.

“I wanted to provide a safe space and team environment for anyone who was LGBTQ+ to get involved in motorsport,” he says. None had previous experience racing or otherwise.

The result was the first all-LGBTQ+ motorsports team in the land Down Under.

“All current members of my team are from the LGBTQ+ community, which is fantastic,” Trapski says. “I have not heard of another purely LGBTQ+ race team anywhere in the world.”

Trapski also knew the right sponsorship was important for what would be a highly visible LGBTQ+ sports team. His “sponsors” are one homegrown nonprofit and a major LGBTQ+ sports advocacy organization. Trapski finances the team himself.

“The Rainbow Shoelace Project was created by then-12-year-old Abbie Jane, who was getting bullied at school because of her sexuality. They supply my team with beads and marketing material from their project, and I get to promote an amazing idea, created by someone passionate about fighting back against homophobia.”

“I even wear Rainbow beads on my race boots!” Trapski shares.

Proud2Play helps promote LGBTQ+ inclusion and understanding in all forms of sport in Australia and around the world.

The team enters “as many track events, club ‘sprint’ days, and race meetings” as they can, primarily around Victoria, which includes Melbourne in Australia’s southern-most state.

Four volunteers make up Trapski’s team, in roles covering “everything from simple repairs, tire changing, and temperature monitoring to refueling, in-car camera set-up, and answering questions from the public regarding our team and our sponsors.”   

At the center of it all is a major upgrade from Trapski’s first two beaters: a right drive 1990 BMW E30 325i, with a 5-speed manual gearbox and top speed of 124 mph, maybe higher after some recent modifications.

The team’s latest E30 Championship outing in 2025 saw them place 7th out of 21 entries.

Trapski calls his “rainbow crew, sponsors and supporters” three of his favorite things about his late-in-life racing career, aside from the sheer thrill of the driving. Those supporters include Michael Goode, Australia’s first openly gay top-tier racing driver.

“The biggest reward,” however, “has been meeting the parents of my pit crew, and others who have thanked me for creating hope for their children, by creating a safe LGBTQ+ race team and opportunities for young people to get involved in the sport that I love.”

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Frederick Crist Trump Jr. (Fred Trump Jr.) was born on October 14, 1938, in Queens, New York City. The eldest son of Mary Anne MacLeod Trump and real estate developer Fred Trump Sr., as well as the older brother of Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) and sisters Elizabeth and Maryanne, Fred Trump Jr. became an airline pilot rather than enter his father’s business like his younger brother, Donald Trump.

Fred Jr. struggled most of his life with the disease of addiction, largely with alcohol, a condition that contributed to his fatal heart attack at the young age of 43. On several public occasions, Donald Trump related the tragic story of his brother’s life as an alcoholic.

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He said in a 2017 speech that his brother had a tough life and told him many times not to drink or smoke. “And to this day, I’ve never had a drink,” he said. “I have no longing for it. I have no interest in it. To this day, I’ve never had a cigarette.”

The president seemed to believe that in heeding his brother’s advice, he has escaped the destructive effects of addiction. But as we know from medical and psychological research, the disease of addiction expresses itself in many ways.

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As one definition of the word makes clear: “Addiction is when you have a need or urge to do something or use something, even if it causes harm.” If continued over time, addictions cause long-lasting changes in brain structures, thus making the disease of addiction both a brain disorder and a mental illness.

The types of addiction include “substance addiction” (such as alcohol, drugs, tobacco, and food) and “non-substance addiction” or “behavioral addiction” (such as compulsive shopping, gambling, sex, social media, or video games).

The risk of developing an addiction depends on a combination of genetic, environmental, and developmental factors. The more factors a person has, the greater the chance of developing an addiction.

Signs of an addiction include obsessive thoughts and compulsive use or engagement in the rewarding stimuli (substances or behaviors) for immediate gratification. It is also characterized by increasingly continued use or engagement, even after experiencing negative consequences.

What is power?

In a 1968 speech given to striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. defined power as “the ability to achieve purpose and effect change.”

A dictionary definition views “power” (a noun) in general as: “The ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something.” In this definition, “capacity” is seen as a synonym of “power.”

Another definition of “power” is as a “great or marked ability to do or act; strength; might; force. In this definition, “energy” is a synonym.

A third definition is “the possession of control or command over people,” with the synonyms of authority and influence.

A final definition for our purposes here defines “power” as the “political ascendancy or control in the government of a country, state, etc.” by “overthrowing the legal government” with the synonyms sovereignty, rule, sway, and ascendancy.

We can place how leaders use their power on a spectrum from “With” on one side to “Over” on the other.

“Power With” refers to a leader or leaders utilizing their power collaboratively to empower those they lead. It involves a mutual appreciation and respect for autonomy to accomplish shared goals. For the leaders, getting it right has priority over being right.  

By contrast, “Power Over” refers to an undemocratic or authoritarian approach where the leader or leaders exert their dominance by dictating the actions to be taken, often using coercion or fear in which power is gained at another’s expense. Leaders give the orders, and they expect to be obeyed without challenge. For the leaders, being right has priority over getting it right.  

Power as addiction

History has shown a vast array of leaders and ordinary people who have become addicted to power. While people are initially attracted to power for a variety of reasons – like promoting social change, seeking personal admiration, or wanting to control others – as they accumulate power, some experience euphoria or a sense of fulfillment.

Over time, as in all forms of addiction, people develop dependency, with a need to maintain and even increase their power. This dependency dominates other aspects of life, including personal relationships and previously held values.

Addictions in general, and in the case of power addiction, often lead to unethical behaviors, isolation, and even paranoid thoughts that others are coming to take what is yours.

Enabling the addict

“Enabler” is the term given to those who fail to act to help addicts and stop them from harming themselves and others around them. “Passive bystander” or “bad Samaritan” is the name for someone who is conscious of bad actions developing around them but fails to intervene.

Enabling and passively standing by take many forms, including literally offering an addict substances, conspiring with an abuser in a sinister plot, contributing to denial by asserting that they don’t have a problem, downplaying the seriousness and making excuses for their behaviors, translating for others what the person “really meant,” downright lying, and so on.

How many times have we heard, “He didn’t mean it that way. What he really meant to say was…” and “You are misunderstanding her” or “I got this black eye by walking into a door.”

The Trump enablers

Though Donald Trump has followed the warning of his elder brother to refrain from addictive substances like alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, one can make a strong argument by observing his behaviors that he certainly displays the classic signs of addiction – in Trump’s case, non-substance addictions.

These include wealth, power, and sex. He stakes his personal value on the amount of wealth and power he can accumulate, and by how many notches he can carve on his bedpost representing his sexual conquests.

Trump’s enablers include members of the Republican Party in Congress and Republican politicians in state governments, in addition to the six Republican-nominated Supreme Court justices who seem to have relinquished their constitutional roles to serve one man.

They have, therefore, aided and abetted Trump’s need to consume as much power as he can and to act on his compulsive paranoid need to persecute his supposed enemies.

An all-consuming lust

On January 9, 1961, then-President-elect John F. Kennedy addressed a joint convention of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In his speech, he presented a touchstone by which history should evaluate a leader.

Beginning with his now-famous statement that “For of those to whom much is given, much is required” (a paraphrase of Luke 12:48), Kennedy enumerated four essential criteria in assessing a leader.

“And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each one of us,” he stated, “recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state – our success or failure, in whatever office we may hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions.”

“First, were we truly men of courage…. the courage to resist public pressure, as well as private greed?”

“Secondly, were we truly men of judgment…. with enough wisdom to know that we did not know, and enough candor to admit it?”

“Third, were we truly men of integrity…. men whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust?”

“Finally, were we truly men of dedication – with an honor mortgaged to no single individual or group, and compromised by no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving the public good and the national interest?”

I have enough conclusive evidence to rank Trump as a true danger to our nation and to the world community in his all-consuming lust for material riches and sexual conquests over the common good of the people who trusted him with their vote.

How do you judge him? How do you think history will judge him?  

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Chad Essert, the 44-year-old Republican police chief of Bethel, Ohio, was arrested and indicted last Thursday on 56 counts of sexual battery and 14 counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. He faces up to 280 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

The alleged incidents occurred between 2005 and 2010 while Essert served as a teacher in Sharonville and an instructor at the Young Marines, a national youth program for children ages 8 through high school.

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Essert became Bethel’s police chief in 2021. Reporting from 2023 found that he had been fired or resigned under threat of firing from three of his previous law enforcement jobs for allegedly sexually harassing a female officer, intimidating witnesses, lying, and disobeying orders. A 2020 domestic violence charge accused him of hitting a woman with his vehicle, causing minor injuries.

Conservative Christians and Republicans have repeatedly accused LGBTQ+ people and allies of “grooming” and “sexualizing” children. Essert is just the latest of a long line of Republicans to face legal consequences for such alleged crimes.

Vice President J.D. Vance wrote a social media message seemingly supporting an Major League Baseball player who wrote a Bible verse on their baseball cap during a June 12 Pride Night event at the Oracle Park ballpark in San Francisco, California.

The image that Vance commented on showed San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Laden Roupp, who wrote Gen 9:11-16, a Bible verse about the rainbow, on his black cap bearing his team’s logo in rainbow colors. The verse, which follows God’s promise to never again flood the world for its sinful ways, says, “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the Earth.”

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Sports Illustrated (SI) posted the image of Roupp and noted that he was one of three Giants players who wrote Bible verses on their Pride caps as well as that the MLB had issued a warning to the players. In response to SI‘s post, Vance wrote, “Trump won we don’t have to do this anymore.”

It’s unclear what exactly Vance thinks “we don’t have to do” anymore: hold baseball team Pride Nights, write Bible verses on ballcaps, or warn MLB players who break the league’s uniform rules by altering their apparel (as the MLB did in this case).

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It’s most likely that Vance meant that sports teams don’t have to hold Pride Nights or have players wear Pride-themed gear. The current presidential administration has largely sought to eliminate all LGBTQ+ recognition in its crusade to end all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, as well as its ongoing empowerment of anti-LGBTQ+ Christian conservatives.

Despite Vance’s vague assertion, 29 out of 30 MLB teams are holding Pride Night events this year, Outsports reported; the only team not doing so is the Texas Rangers.

After the Pride Night in question, Roupp deflected criticism about his Bible verse by saying, “There’s no hate at all. It’s just what I stand for and what I stand in. I believe in God, and that’s me.” When asked how he would respond to an LGBTQ+ critic of his Pride Night protest, he said, “I would push them to read the Bible,” as if only non-Christian queer people would take issue with his actions.

He added, “We live in a country where you’re welcome to believe what you want. There’s a freedom of speech and stuff like that, so that’s really all I have to say about that. I’m just thankful that God has put me in this situation and that I can go out and share his kingdom.”

MLB issued a warning to the Giants players, saying that the league’s uniform regulations prohibit any “alterations, writing or illustrations.” Outsports reported that there is no evidence that the MLB has ever fined a player for a uniform violation.

While the Giants could independently discipline its players, no reports indicate that they have done so. In a statement, the team said, “We understand that the choices by individual players have caused pain and anger to many in the LGBTQ+ community and we are sorry for that.”

After MLB issued a warning to the players, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) sent a June 16 letter to MLB, saying that the league “must answer for what appears to be a pattern of discrimination” against Christian players.

Fox News recently accused MLB of launching an “attack on faith”, with contributor Mary Katharine Ham saying, “It’s not tolerant, and by the way, support for LGBTQ causes has been going precipitously down because of this behavior. It used to be a live and let live argument, which is something most Americans were very friendly to, and then it became ‘Bake the cake and wear the hat, you bigot.'”

While Ham is correct that public and corporate support for LGBTQ+ causes has declined somewhat recently, the decline is largely due to federal, state, and local Republican attacks against companies and organizations that have LGBTQ+ inclusive DEI policies as well as right-wing campaigns targeting any groups that ally with the LGBTQ+ community.

Despite this, a recent GLAAD study showed that most Americans support brands that back Pride and also politicians who oppose anti-LGBTQ+ attacks.

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Rabidly anti-LGBTQ+ Christian nationalist Oklahoma state Sen. Dusty Deevers (R) lost his re-election bid yesterday as he came in dead last in a three-way Republican primary for his state Senate seat. Deevers received only 29.93% of all votes, placing third behind his opponents, Curtis Erwin (who won 33.12%) and Jean Hausheer (who won 36.95%).

In a video posted on Wednesday evening, Deevers blamed “wealthy outside groups” for spending “massive sums” to defeat him and other candidates. He also said he’s deeply grateful to his wife and six children, his church, and his local and national supporters.

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Last year, Deevers said that Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, is not settled law because “there is just no right to gay marriage in the Constitution” and because marriage is “God’s institution.”

Deevers’s campaign website also clearly states his anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs.

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“It is outrageous that drag queens are permitted to dance and twerk for children at pride parades and story hours in our state,” his website states. “It is outrageous that … public schools have exposed elementary and middle school children to… LGBTQ+ propaganda…. It is outrageous that Critical Race Theory and Queer Theory dominate in many of our public institutions. I promise to support legislation to put a stop to all of this.”

The extremist watchdog group, Right Wing Watch, noted that, upon taking office in 2023, “Deevers provided a case study in what happens when Christian nationalists get in power as he sought to abolish abortion, ban no-fault divorce, outlaw pornography, and literally take the nation back to the 1600s. Time and again, Deevers declared that the fundamental purpose of government is to convert people to faith in Jesus Christ.”

Indeed, Deevers introduced legislation in 2024 that would have massively fined and imprisoned consenting adults for sending sexual images or text messages to one another. The broadly and vaguely written bill would’ve allowed persecution of people acting in live theater performances, strip clubs, and possibly even burlesque and drag performances.

It’s unclear whether either of his opponents will be any less anti-LGBTQ+.

Hausheer’s campaign website states, “I stand on two unshakable foundations: the Holy Bible and the U.S. Constitution. If your law breaks either, I’m not voting for it…and if your feelings are hurt by that, I suggest you read both.”

Erwin’s website promises to protect “family values” (a common anti-LGBTQ+ dog whistle) and to defend religious liberty.

Hausheer and Erwin will face each other in a Republican primary run-off election scheduled for August 25. 

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