Daniel Villarreal

Jere Chang’s talented and gifted students in Atlanta, Georgia are growing up in a world very different from the one she grew up in.

When she was a student during the 1980s, she and her queer peers largely stayed closeted, trying to fit in to avoid being bullied or outed. There wasn’t much LGBTQ+ representation in the media. Instead, she constantly heard about how people like her were “abominations” who “live in sin.”

She worried that her own family might disown her if she ever came out, and she never imagined she’d be able to live authentically as a lesbian.

“We lived in fear yet strived to live our most authentic self,” she says, noting that many queers took refuge in Pride events or clubs and bars to express themselves freely.

But as she aged, the world changed around her: She saw more LGBTQ+ characters appearing in books, film, and TV, more transgender people embracing their identities, and more folks using language recognizing gender-neutral individuals.

She eventually came out to her mother — who said she’d love her no matter what — and gradually came out at work. She later married the woman she loves, something made possible nationwide by the 2015 Supreme Court decision. Now, they’re raising two great kids together.

So much has changed for the better for her and other queer people, and the upcoming generation gives her even more hope.

“I have faith that the young folks are creating a much more loving and accepting world,” she says. 

“In turn,” she adds, “I believe that young folks can learn from the older generation because we can relate to their experiences of coming out and/or not feeling accepted.”

Chang knows that the brave generations of LGBTQ+ activists who rose up at Stonewall and elsewhere helped pave the way for herself and other queers to live openly and happily. But “there’s still much work to be done,” she notes, at home and abroad. 

She observes that it’s dangerous to live as an out queer person in certain countries. In the U.S., her queer elders face financial, social, and health challenges as they enter their senior years. She encourages others to honor them by donating, volunteering, advocating, and educating on their behalf.

This humane kindness isn’t just evident in her classroom. It also shines through the short, funny videos she shares with over a million followers on social media. 

She smiles warmly while poking gentle fun at common teachers’ experiences and her students’ clever observations. Her relaxed friendliness and glow make her seem like a supportive teacher, one who is both a testament to the generations who came before her and a possible inspiration to the generations who will follow.

“I hope to make a difference for the folks who changed the course of history,”  she says. 

“I hope the younger generation continues the fight to create an all-inclusive society,” she adds, “regardless of gender, love, and identity.”

In that world, no student would feel afraid of coming out. They might not need to come out in the first place — that’s a world Chang longs for, and she’s planting the seeds for its future growth.

Texas Family Project — an anti-LGBTQ organization that wants to stop “the Left” from “indoctrinating kids,” “confusing children about changing their gender,” and “undermining parents’ ability to protect their children’s innocence” — has launched Defend Our Kids Texas, a website where people can report live drag queen performances.

“Our mission is to expose attacks on our children’s innocence by uncovering and highlighting the left’s public displays of sexual degeneracy,” the website reads.

The site’s lead face is Sara Gonzalez, a host for the conservative broadcast Blaze TV. Gonzales has called drag performers “pedophiles,” directed her social media followers to shut down drag performances in the state, and lied about performances just to whip up public outrage against them.

“Gonzales is teaming up with Texas Family Project… to expose the depravity of the left and fight for sound public policy to Defend Texas Kids,” the site proclaims.

The site uses right-wing rhetoric characterizing drag shows as an effort to “sexualize children” or “groom” them for rape. Even the site’s name is provocative, as the only reason Texas parents would need to “defend” their kids would be if someone were threatening their safety.

Such claims of drag queens “threatening” kids have led armed protestors and violent threats to be deployed against venues hosting all-ages drag shows as well as against bookstores, libraries, and other venues hosting drag queen story hours. The rhetoric is especially concerning since a mass shooter recently killed five and injured 18 while attacking a Colorado Springs drag bar.

While appearing last month on the show of bigoted Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Gonzales called drag events a form of “child abuse.” She also shared a video of a drag performance in Texas where a queen lip-synched to a song with explicit sexual lyrics. Gonzales claimed the event was all-ages, but she lied.

According to Raw Story, the venue advertised the event online with a disclaimer stating, “If you would not allow your children to see a rated R movie or watch TV-MA programming, this is not the event for them.”

During her appearance on his show, Carlson said that drag shows are “sexualizing children” and are “a huge moral crime that nobody should accept.”

Gonzales also recently lead a protest against a transgender story time at Patchouli Joe’s, a bookstore in the university town of Denton, Texas. The bookstore hosted a transgender individual who read three children’s books about gender to commemorate the last day of National Transgender Awareness Week.

The Texas Family Project encouraged its followers to “protest against this disgusting attempt to normalize and celebrate… something that leaves kids physically disfigured, sterilized, and traumatized for the rest of their lives.” It also called the event “abusive.”

The group’s rhetoric echoes right-wing disinformation about gender-affirming medical care for trans youth. Indeed, Texas Republicans have tried to have gender-affirming care criminalized as a form of “child abuse.” The claim opposes the advice of the country’s largest medical associations, has resulted in trans-affirming families fleeing the state, and disrupted the work of the state’s child abuse prevention agency.

During the event, Gonzales stalked the bookstore’s aisles, recording video of the storytime. When a security officer kicked her out, she continued recording and screamed to the audience, “This is child abuse! Child abuse! You should all have your children taken from you.”

Supporters of the event invited armed guards from a local roller derby team and the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club to protect its audience members. Gonzales identified these people as “antifa,” a word meaning anti-fascists. Police also attended to keep protestors from disturbing the book reading.

The event was also attended by Blaze TV contributor Alex Stein, a self-styled “troll” “comedian” who sexually harassed women like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and a female Vice News correspondent. Stein has protested drag events in the state before.

Two days after the event, Stein attended a Denton city council meeting and screamed about the bookstore “indoctrinating children to become transgender.”

Barely a day after a deadly LGBTQ bar shooting killed two transgender people and three other patrons, Georgia senatorial candidate Herschel Walker (R) released a campaign ad slamming trans athletes. Democrats are pointing to Republican anti-LGBTQ campaigns like Walker’s as the type of rhetoric that led to the murder of five people at Colorado Springs bar Club Q on Saturday night.

The video featured Riley Gaines, a self-described 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer. In March, Gaines tied for fifth place with trans swimmer Lia Thomas. Gaines has been complaining about it ever since.

In Warnock’s ad, Gaines says, “For more than a decade, I worked so hard. Four a.m. practices to be the best. But my senior year, I was forced to compete against a biological male.”

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Walker says, “That’s unfair and wrong.”

Both are peddling a right-wing narrative that trans women are a threat to women’s sports, locker rooms, and other female “safe spaces.” This narrative has been used to push trans youth sports bans across the nation, even in states where no trans athletes are competing in school sports.

Gaines continues, “A man won a swimming title that belonged to a woman, and Senator Warnock voted to let it happen.”

The on-screen text then reads: “Raphael Warnock voted to allow biological men to compete in women’s college sports.”

Walker says, “Warnock’s afraid to stand up for female athletes.” Walker will face incumbent Sen. Warnock (D) in a December 6 runoff election.

Looking into the camera, Gaines says, “Herschel Walker stands up for what’s right.”

Walker then smiles at the camera and says, “I’m Herschel Walker and I’m proud to approve this message.”

In the ad, Gaines doesn’t mention that she and Thomas were both actually beaten by cisgender female athletes, or that the number of trans athletes in collegiate sports is actually very small. She also doesn’t mention that women’s sports are actually threatened by huge funding disparities, rampant sexual abuse, and media neglect, rather than by trans people.

Walker’s ad was released just after Sunday’s Transgender Day of Remembrance, an annual commemoration of trans people who lost their lives to violence and otherwise. This year, at least 32 trans people have died from violence – most have been Black women.

In response to Walker’s ad, Nadine Bridges, executive director of One Colorado, the state’s LGBTQ advocacy organization, wrote, “Shame on Herschel Walker — and shame on every politician using LGBTQ lives as political props.”

“There’s an undeniable nexus between this kind of baseless and hateful rhetoric and the violence leveled against our community this weekend in Colorado Springs and the violence being perpetrated against marginalized communities all across this country,” Bridges added.

Sarah Kate Ellis, president and chief executive of the LGBTQ media watchdog group GLAAD, wrote, “Airing this kind of rubbish under the guise of a political campaign was already deplorable enough—but in the wake of Saturday night’s massacre at Club Q, it’s simply unconscionable.”

“These ads should be pulled immediately from Georgia’s airwaves before more lives are put in danger,” Ellis added.

In April, Gaines went onto the Fox News program of white supremacist and anti-LGBTQ bigot Tucker Carlson to talk about her discomfort with sharing a locker room with Thoma (Though she didn’t mention whether she actually saw Thomas in the locker room).

Gaines has since become a right-wing darling for continually speaking out about the issue. Her voice has joined a growing chorus of those who cast trans people as a threat to women’s and children’s safety. This chorus not only inspires legislation that harms trans people’s well-being, it also inspires violence against the greater LGBTQ community.

One night, someone called 911 to ask police in Malvern, Pennsylvania to conduct a mental wellness check on Maddie Hofmann, a 47-year-old transgender woman.

The caller said that Maddie had sent an email that sounded like a suicide letter. When police checked on Hofmann, they ended up shooting her three times inside her own home. She died from the injuries.

Her death left behind her wife, Rebecca Hoffman, and their two children, ages 9 and 4. Her wife and family are still searching for answers and accountability.

“[My wife] belonged on medication, not on a shelf,” Rebecca told The Philadelphia Inquirer, referring to a box of Hofmann’s ashes.

Maddie struggled with anxiety and depression and spent years going on and off medication. Weeks before the shooting occurred, Maddie had shared several concerning tweets, including one of her holding a firearm.

Maddie’s sister, Emily Flynn, said that both she and her sister were Korean adoptees raised by white parents. This resulted in some mental distress, Flynn said. Maddie had just begun finding healing and a voice for the painful isolation she felt in a predominantly white community.

Because Maddie was her family’s main income earner, Rebecca had to ask her mother for funds to cover her wife’s funeral and other living expenses. After what the Inquirer described as a “months-long back-and-forth” with Social Security, Rebecca finally received a check for her deceased spouse’s benefits.

But Rebecca hasn’t been able to read the police incident report or access body-camera footage, leaving her to rely on police accounts when explaining to her young children what happened.

“[My older child] wants to know if [police] didn’t do the right thing because they didn’t know what to do and maybe if someone told them, then they would know what to do next time,” said Rebecca. “But then he also is asking, Did they know the right thing but they just didn’t want to help his [parent] because his [parent] was different?”

In response to the shooting, the Chester County District Attorney’s Office said that Maddie had aimed a Glock 19 9mm handgun at police during the wellness check. As a result, no officers were charged in her slaying.

Malvern Mayor Zeyn Uzman said police officers in the local department took a three-hour course in 2021 that covered recognizing and responding to people with mental health issues and other special needs.

“Given the factual circumstances of the event and the incident lasted only 57 seconds, any additional training or policy changes would not have prevented this tragic occurrence,” Uzman told the Inquirer.

After her sister’s death, Flynn launched a GoFundMe campaign to provide for the well-being of Maddie’s children and to raise awareness to prevent similar incidents. Additional funds “will be used to start a foundation or scholarship fund for trans youth in the foster care system in Maddie’s name,” the campaign states.

The shooting is not only an example of trans people’s higher rates of negative encounters with law enforcement and judicial officials; it’s also a grim reminder that people in mental health crises make up about 25 percent of fatal police shooting victims in recent years, a Washington Post investigation noted. Many of these people died after police conducted wellness checks over fears of a possible suicide attempt.

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.

The nine out LGBTQ members of the U.S. House are also all chairs of the Equality Caucus, the congressional group that pursues LGBTQ legislation and issues statements against anti-queer discrimination. All nine are up for re-election, and the House’s Democratic majority and the future of LGBTQ rights hang in the balance.

Here are all nine LGBTQ House members and how they’re expected to do in their races.

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David Cicilline (D-RI)

Cicilline is chair of the House Equality Caucus and a reliably progressive Democrat. He’s running his sixth reelection campaign, this time against Allen Waters (R).

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Cicilline is expected to win his seat once again. The Cook Political Report rates the district as solidly Democrat, according to The Providence Journal.

Angie Craig (D-MN)

Craig is a member of the New Democrat Coalition, a pro-business and fiscally moderate congressional caucus, and sits on the House committees for agriculture, energy, commerce, and small business.

She is running against Tyler Kistner (R), a candidate she beat in 2020 by about two percentage points. Her district is considered a “toss-up” by several political pundits.

Sharice Davids (D-KS)

Davids, a 42-year-old, is not only the first out lesbian elected to the U.S. Congress from Kansas. She’s also one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress.

This year, the centrist Democrat faces off against Amanda Adkins (R) in a newly gerrymandered district that eliminated Democratic voters and added Republican ones, possibly endangering Davids after winning with a clear majority in 2020.

Mondaire Jones (D-NY)

Jones and Torres were the first out gay black members of Congress. However, Jones has already lost his re-election race. He was beaten in the Democratic primary by Daniel Goldman. Goldman will face Benine Hamdan (R).

Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY)

Maloney is the leader of the Democratic Party’s House campaign arm. His race is considered one of the most important because of his high profile within the party.

Maloney is facing a competitive race against Mike Lawler (R). The Cook Political Report recently moved their race to a “toss-up,” endangering the Democratic leader even though President Joe Biden (D) won the area by 10 points in 2020.

Chris Pappas (D-NH)

The 42-year-old incumbent serves on the House Committees for Transportation, Infrastructure, and Veterans’ Affairs.

His opponent is Karoline Leavitt (R), a 25-year-old staffer for former President Donald Trump who also served as Trump’s assistant press secretary; Trump has endorsed her. A recent poll showed Pappas beating Leavitt 49 to 43 percent in the Democrat-leaning district.

Mark Pocan (D-WI)

Not only is Pocan co-chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, he’s also chair emeritus of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He has voted against the sale of U.S. guided missiles to Isreal and also endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for president in 2020.

Pocan is facing off against Erik Olsen (R). The Economist forecasts Pocan as having a nearly 100 percent chance of winning.

Mark Takano (D-CA)

Takano, the first out LGBTQ Asian American elected to Congress, is co-chair of the Equality Caucus and also a member of the Progressive Caucus, the Arts Caucus, and the Asian/Pacific-American Caucus.

Takano is running against Aja Smith (R), a candidate he defeated once before in 2018. Takano is expected to easily beat her, in part because his district leans heavily Democrat.

Ritchie Torres (D-NY)

Torres, the first out gay Afro-Latino elected to Congress, has spent his career fighting for public housing, poor people, and LGBTQ rights.

Torres is running against Stylo Sapaskis (R). Torres is expected to win seeing as his district is solidly Democrat.

D.C. police have used DNA testing technology that could help solve the 1987 murder of a lesbian woman.

On May 13, a 35-year-old woman named Greta Denise Rainey was found raped and strangled in her Capitol Hill apartment. Eighteen months before her death, a 22-year-old named Florence Eyssalenne was also found raped and murdered in her apartment, which was next to Johnson’s.

At the time, investigators took DNA samples as part of a police rape kit. Now, using contemporary DNA-testing technology that wasn’t available at the time, police have tested the samples and formed a DNA profile of an unidentified male suspect.

“Essentially, the identity of this person is still unknown to us, however, we can say the individual is a male. We believe him to be of African American descent,” D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Captain Kevin Kentish told WRC-TV.

Kentish added that investigators may even look into whether the DNA samples match those donated by users of genealogy websites. However, he added, “That may take a little longer, so we don’t want to put all our eggs in that one basket.”

In the days following Rainey’s murder, D.C. police arrested her then-girlfriend Roxanne Johnson as a suspect, though it’s unclear what evidence compelled them to do so. Four months later, the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C. dropped the charges against her for unknown reasons. Johnson, who has always claimed innocence, said her landlord later evicted her because her arrest made other tenants nervous, The Washington Blade reported.

Johnson said she had left the apartment to go to work when the murder took place. She didn’t know how someone entered the apartment. Police said there were no signs of forced entry in either Rainey or Eyssalenne’s apartments.

Eyssalenne’s brother, Bernard Eyssalenne, has said he’d never given up on the hope of finding his sister’s killer. “I’ve always stayed in touch with all the investigators,” he said.

Police are offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction in the two cases. People with information can call 202-727-9099.