Two “insiders” with the Social Security Administration (SSA) warn that the recent accessing of personal Social Security information by billionaire transphobe Elon Musk and agents of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could easily enable the current presidential administration to identify transgender Americans for government persecution.
DOGE representatives Mike Russo and Akash Bobba entered the SSA on January 31 and got access to data on every person in the U.S. with a Social Security number, according to a court filing challenging DOGE’s access to the data. The data includes the addresses, medical and work histories, tax, banking and citizenship information, and family records of every person in the U.S. with a Social Security number, Rolling Stone reported.
DOGE had access to the data for nearly two months before federal Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander ordered DOGE and Musk to delete any non-anonymized data and to stop accessing the data in general. The AFL-CIO, one of the nation’s biggest labor unions, sued over the matter.
When Hollander asked government lawyers why DOGE needed unlimited access to the “personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information” of millions of Americans, the lawyers could provide no reason. DOGE has since claimed that it needs the data to find cases of theft and waste, but one expert who testified in the case says this isn’t true.
Tiffany Flick, a 30-year SSA veteran, testified in the case that DOGE’s demand for the data was “unusual and improper,” adding that neither Russo nor Bobba had the training or security clearances to handle such data. Flick said that a theft and waste audit could be conducted with access to the SSA’s full data set.
She also said DOGE’s access to the data left it vulnerable to mishandling by “bad actors” like hostile foreign governments or U.S. administration officials who could use the data to locate and persecute political dissidents, elected officials, journalists, transgender people, and other “political enemies.”
Zinnia Jones, a transgender activist and researcher, told Rolling Stone that the SSA data could be used to “identify nearly all likely transgender people in the U.S. with 99% confidence.” Jones noted that a 2015 U.S. Census Bureau used the same SSA data that DOGE accessed to estimate the nation’s trans population.
An anonymous former federal employee agreed with Jones’ assessment, adding that the information could be used to identify and remove trans employees from the government. An anonymous current SSA employee also told Rolling Stonethat the information could be used to harass medical providers who offer services of which the current administration disapproves. Currently, these services include gender-affirming care, a type of care that the current administration has sought to defund and eradicate completely.
This prospect seems notable considering that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently changed its policies to allow spying on LGBTQ+ people & groups as dangers to U.S. safety. The rule change occurred under the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis, an office that has a long track record of violating civil liberties and rights, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
In response to Judge Hollander’s ruling telling DOGE to stop accessing SSA data, SSA acting commissioner Leland Dudek said he could shut all SSA employees out of the data, saying, “Really, I want to turn it off and let the courts figure out how they want to run a federal agency.”
Dudek later walked back his comment, saying that the court had issued clarifying guidance about its orders. “Therefore, I am not shutting down the agency,” he said.
The African Human Rights Campaign (AHRC) called for a boycott of WorldPride – an international Pride celebration held in a different city every few years, with this year’s festivities to be held in D.C. – citing concerns about travel safety because of the Trump administration’s hostility towards the LGBTQ+ community. The statement echoes a similar statement put out by Germany.
WorldPride will take place in Washington, D.C., between May 17 and June 8. It is meant to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community’s resilience and history. However, recent attacks on the community by the federal government have made this year’s event a dangerous protest.
This is especially true for foreign visitors to the United States. It has become the center of international debate over the safety and visibility of LGBTQ+ people under the Trump administration’s attack on their rights. The president has violated court orders to halt deportations, which has made LGBTQ+ travelers even more weary of whether the laws against false imprisonment will protect them.
“The United States is no longer a free democratic country that WorldPride signed up for,” wrote AHRC Executive Director Melanie Nathan in her statement.
The AHRC advocates for LGBTQ+ Africans and asylum seekers and is now comparing attending WorldPride in the U.S. to legitimizing Apartheid in South Africa. Pointing to recent policies such as the gutting of asylum protections and increased hostility for trans and nonbinary people, the group says that visibility in a hostile environment will not guarantee safety.
“African Human Rights Coalition calls on WorldPride to come out and make the strongest of condemnation and solidarity statements, to cite all the antagonism that this current United States presents to its LGBTQI+ citizens,” said a spokesperson for the AHRC.
WorldPride organizers are facing increasing attacks on their funding in the wake of the administration’s attempts to end diversity initiatives. Booz Allen Hamilton, a firm with federal contracts, withdrew its sponsorship in February following Trump’s executive order to erase DEI efforts.
Despite concerns raised by organizations outside the U.S., WorldPride organizers are resisting the boycott call, emphasizing that participation is an act of resistance. They say that canceling or relocating the event outside the United States is not an option and see it as an opportunity to resist the government’s discrimination and demonstrate collective strength.
“A boycott of WorldPride sends the wrong message,” Ryan Boss, Capital Pride Alliance executive director, told The Advocate in a statement. “We need to show up together, show resilience and resistance to ensure we remain visible and heard.”
People are still concerned about travel restrictions. Capital Pride Alliance has stated they will make efforts to ensure the safety of those who plan to attend by working with law enforcement and federal agencies. The AHRC, however, argues that those agencies can not be trusted.
“To the transgender and nonbinary people who are considering joining us in D.C. for WorldPride, I want you to know that we are working tirelessly with agencies and advocates to ensure that you are able to safely and securely travel to and from the U.S.,” Boss said. “Our local community is vibrant and diverse, and we are excited to welcome everyone. For those that choose not to, or are unable to, join us in D.C., know that we need you to remain a part of this movement. Please stay active where you are and join us virtually if you are able.”
Though times remain uncertain, WorldPride is moving forward with preparations. WorldPride is planning the largest LGBTQ+ music festival in history. The event will run from June 6 to 8 and feature performances from Doechii, Kim Petras, Jennifer Lopez, Troy Sivan, and RuPaul, along with other performers.
In August, Texas banned drivers in the state from changing the gender markerson their driver’s licenses to match their gender identities. New reporting reveals that employees at the Department of Public Safety (DPS) continue to document every change request by trans drivers for collection in a state database.
At least 42 such attempts — including instances where people asked for guidance about state policies during calls, in-person appointments, and by email — have been reported in the last five months, according to documents shared with The Texas Newsroom.
DPS staff scanned and saved trans drivers’ information, the records show, and sent the data to a designated internal email account.
Officials at DPS and the Texas Attorney General’s office refused to say why the state is gathering the information, with whom it is sharing it, and whether the data collection is ongoing.
The documents also shed light on how those requests are handled. Some employees allowed the drivers to change the name listed on their licenses, but rejected their requests to update their gender. Others declined both requests.
Some new residents presented out-of-state or federal documents that matched their gender identity but were still denied a matching Texas license or ID.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has called court orders directing Texas officials at DPS and other agencies to change gender markers “illegal.”
Screenshots of DPS’ trans data collection email address circulated online soon after the state banned gender marker changes, and the account was overwhelmed with spam from people protesting it.
Out of 700 pages of emails reviewed in September, only one was about an actual request to change a gender marker. Another 80 came from pranksters and critics.
Someone signed up the email address for newsletters from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and a bargain hunter website called Krazy Coupon Lady. The address also received emails from QueerMeNow, an explicit gay adult entertainment blog, and Lovehoney, a British company that sells adult toys and lingerie, KERA News reported.
One email read, “oh no someone is spamming your gestapo list wow,” while others called the policy “evil,” “weird,” and fascistic. Some accused DPS employees of acting like a “good little Nαzi” and “a disgrace in the eyes of God.”
The new internal agency documents reveal employees continued to collect data and forward it internally for collection after the spamming uprise.
Last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton reiterated that it’s unlawful for trans Texans to change the gender listed on their state IDs, and added that any documents that have been altered are required to be changed back. There is no law prescribing the latter.
Earlier this year, a bill was introduced in the Texas Legislature to imprison anyone whose gender on state documents does not match the one assigned to them at birth.
On Friday night, a gay bar in Indianapolis was the scene of a heated exchange between Donald Trump supporters wearing MAGA hats and bar staff who say they abused them.
The bar staff threw them out.
“A group of individuals visited Chatterbox and intentionally misgendered and harassed a Chatterbox employee, resulting in them being asked to leave by our staff,” bar management posted to Instagram over the weekend. “They then continued verbally assaulting patrons and staff, threatened our establishment, and returned to record a video which has now been posted on multiple social media platforms.”
The video was recorded and posted to Facebook by Indianapolis resident Elise Hensley, who told News 8 that she’d visited the popular jazz bar several times, but this time, she and her friends wore MAGA hats.
In Hensley’s telling, “We went up to the bar and before we could even get a word out or order a drink, he just looked at me and said, ‘No,’” Hensley said. “I said, ‘Excuse me?’ He said, ‘Absolutely not.’ He said, ‘Your hat. You need to leave right now.’”
After getting ejected, Hensley returned, phone in hand, to confront the bar’s employees.
“I have a question,” Hensley told a bartender in the video.
“No, no, we’re not answering questions,” they responded. “Get out of the bar.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re a Trump supporter.”
“I know, but don’t you guys want our money?”
“No. Actually, we don’t. Get out of my bar right now.”
A patron interjected: “You’re not welcome!”
“I’m not f**king around,” the bartender continued. “Get out of my bar.”
“Are you serious?” asked Hensley.
“I’m dead serious. Out.”
“Because I’m wearing a Trump hat.”
“Yes.”
“That’s wild.”
“I don’t care. Get out,” the bartender demanded again.
“We can call the police or you can just leave,” a colleague added.
“You know this is discrimination, right?” said Hensley.
Laughter erupted.
“Boo hoo! Boo-f**king-hoo” the bartender exclaimed. “Get out of my bar.”
A patron still laughing at Hensley’s claim added, “That’s funny.”
Hensley’s post earned tens of thousands of likes and was shared across right-wing media, including by Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith (R).
Beckwith, a pastor and self-described Christian nationalist, has said public school students in Indiana are taught “gay” and “oral sex” and are “indoctrinated with Marxist ideology.”
Bar management was unrepentant about throwing the MAGA fans out.
“The Chatterbox is home to a diverse group of staff and patrons,” their post read. “We do not tolerate dehumanizing or disrespectful language or symbolism in our establishment. We have a right by law to refuse service to anyone who disrupts our business. We look forward to continue being a home for people who love music and appreciate our community.”
“I wore that hat because I do love our President of the United States,” Hensley said Sunday, oblivious — intentionally or not — to Trump’s views about the people she was confronting.
“He is our president. I do appreciate that and I don’t think I find anything wrong with me wanting to wear a Trump hat because he is our president.”
Hensley also attempted to defend herself by saying one of her friends with her at the bar that night was Black: “They probably have every right to kick me out,” she told News 8. “If you don’t want me at your bar, that is what it is. But also, the man that was with me was an African American male. He was wearing a Trump hat.”
A cisgender woman in Arizona is speaking out after she says she was harassed by cops in the women’s restroom of a Tucson Walmart late last month.
Kalaya Morton, 19, of Phoenix, says she and her ex-girlfriend were using adjacent stalls in the store’s women’s restroom when two male sheriff’s deputies entered.
“They were flashing lights on our feet and saying, ‘You have to get out of here. You have to come out. We need to talk to you,’” Morton told Advocate.
Morton, who identifies as a stud — queer slang for a Black masculine-presenting lesbian — says she believes a store employee who had been eyeing her earlier reported her to the cops believing she was a man. As the Advocate notes, Arizona law does not dictate that people use public restrooms that correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth.
In social media videos and in her interview with the outlet, Morton said that when she exited the bathroom stall, she lifted her shirt to prove to the deputies that she was a woman. But, she said, one of the deputies continued to insist she “looked like a man.”
On February 19, Morton posted a brief video of the encounter, showing the two deputies in the women’s bathroom. “They came in here in the girls’ restroom because I’m a girl and they didn’t think I was a girl, so they tried to come take me away,” Morton can be heard saying off camera.
“The only men in the women’s restroom were the cops,” she said.
The incident comes amid growing hostility toward transgender Americans on the political right. Republicans, including the president, have framed laws restricting transgender women’s and girls’ access to public facilities like bathrooms and locker rooms as efforts to protect cisgender women and girls. But critics have long argued that such restrictions will, in fact, inevitably lead to greater policing of all women’s gender presentation and invasive, potentially dangerous confrontations like the one Morton says she endured.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department told the outlet that authorities are aware of Morton’s social media video and have launched an internal investigation into the incident. A Walmart representative said that the company is cooperating with the investigation
In a March 1 TikTok video, Morton said she intends to sue.
“If someone mistakes me for a guy, I usually just correct them or let it go,” she said. “But this was different. This wasn’t just someone calling me ‘sir’ — this was law enforcement trying to remove me from a bathroom where I had every right to be.”
She said the confrontation left her afraid. “It’s already enough being Black and facing discrimination,” Morton said. “Now I have to worry about being harassed just for needing to pee?”
“This isn’t just about me,” she added. “It’s about making sure this doesn’t happen to the next person who just wants to use the restroom without being harassed.”
As disgusting as the Trump administration’s destruction of democracy is, what makes the pain that much worse is the sheer fecklessness of the response by the so-called opposition. Perhaps it was always too much to expect the elite mainstream media, which has always been as much amused as appalled by Trump, to call out the damage that he is doing (The New York Times has long been particularly disastrous on this account).
But you would think that at least the Democrats would take Trump’s attacks on government, civil rights, and human health as the crises that they are. Instead, the party has been acting as if the main problem is figuring out what the right focus-group message is to win next year’s midterm elections.
Consider Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s (D-MI) response to Trump’s address to Congress – the one where he threatened to annex Canada and Greenland, jail parents of trans children, and sell citizenship to the highest bidders. Slotkin’s speech was positively decorous by comparison. She said that Ronald Reagan would be rolling over in his grave, but only people in their 50s remember the Reagan presidency. She said that democracy is “at risk,” as if it isn’t already under direct assault.
“You want to cut waste? I’ll help you do it,” she said about Elon Musk and his chainsaw attacks on government. “But change doesn’t need to be chaotic or make us less safe.”
The speech underscores the fact that Democrats are stuck in the same mindset as before Trump was elected. The mistake that Democrats keep making is that they adopt Republicans’ framing but not Republicans’ tactics.
Republicans would never acknowledge that the government needs cutting. Instead, they would cry that veterans are on the verge of being made homeless by a heartless billionaire. They would say that it is only a matter of time before RFK’s crackpot beliefs kill us. They would insist that Trump only cares about fat cats and tax cheats. And they would use that language, not the kind of language that is oh-so-respectful of Republicans’ feelings.
And that message would be a lot easier to hear, not just among disheartened Democrats but among the independent Trump voters who have buyer’s remorse.
Perhaps the worst example of this false belief that Democrats can engage politely with the other side was the shameful performance of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Newsom trashed the trans community while appearing on the Charlie Kirk podcast.
The fact that Newsom even appeared on Kirk’s podcast is itself reprehensible. In doing so, Newsom legitimized a fringe figure who should be, at a minimum, shunned when he’s not being condemned. As a reminder, Kirk regularly engages in hateful anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and has even discussed stoning gay people.
And there’s the governor of the largest Democratic state, a would-be Democratic presidential candidate, nodding in agreement to an attack on a minority group. Clearly, Newsom thinks this is good politics, but it’s not. (It’s also bad morals). He’s just ceding ground to extremism.
The point now is to dig in at every possible moment. Democrats can’t pretend that it’s business as usual. For every inch that they give, Republicans will take a mile. As a case in point, ten Democrats agreed with Republicans to censure Rep. Al Green (D-TX) for his willingness to shout out his support for Medicaid during Trump’s speech. So, while Republicans are burning down the government, some Democrats are upset at Green’s table manners. Meanwhile, having gotten that victory, Republicans now want to strip him of his committee assignments.
This is what happens when you try to appear reasonable with unreasonable people. The Republican party is now a cult, and you can’t bargain with a cult. It will only keep coming at you for more, eroding protections, rights, and democracy itself until there is nothing left to defend.
The idea that Democrats can wait until the 2026 midterms to fix the problem is flat-out wrong. The problem isn’t getting Democrats back in power. The problem is preserving the nation now. By the time the midterms roll around, the damage will already have been done. Democrats need to stop acting as if it’s politics as usual and start acting as if it’s war. We’re in a fight to save democracy, not Congressional seats.
It’s a Thursday night or a Sunday afternoon, and you’re sitting on your couch with your phone in your hand.
What are you going to do?
That’s the question at the heart of a loneliness crisis that’s overwhelmed the LGBTQ+ community.
The rise of social media and “the apps,” a wave of bar closings during the COVID pandemic, and a hostile political environment have conspired to produce a sense of dread for gay Americans that still has a lot of us sheltering in place — alone together.
But the obstacles keeping us apart in real life are giving way to a connection revival.
Three years after the pandemic, more bars are opening. Movie theater attendance is up. Restaurants are bustling, and people are reassessing the value of living their lives online.
And politics are galvanizing the LGBTQ+ community.
“Look, just being gay, or lesbian, or trans, or in drag is in and of itself a political act, because they have made it that way,” says Daniel Narcicio, owner of Red Eye bar in New York and a longtime promoter. “Being yourself is inherently political when people in power are telling you that what you are is wrong. Being out, literally in a club or figuratively out of the closet, is a political act.”
Buffeted by an onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, Grindr, gentrification, and pandemic lockdowns, the gay bar is reemerging as a center of LGBTQ+ community, reimagined as a more inclusive space and primed for protest.
Mario Diaz at his Sunday party Hot Dog at El Cid in Silver Lake | Mario Diaz Presents
“They are and have always been our homes away from home,” says Mario Diaz, a club king in Los Angeles who hosts Hot Dog Sundays at El Cid in Silver Lake. “And to those of us that have been disowned by our blood families, simply our home. So they are essential. Community is crucial. And spaces for celebration are indispensable. This is what life is all about: connection and love.”
And Diaz adds, “If history has taught us anything, it’s that no one parties like the oppressed.”
Part of hooking up is the eye contact and that excruciating second between when you look down and look away and then look back to see if he’s looking back at you. But if you’re looking at your phone, you miss out on that.Sociology Professor Greggor Mattson
Gay bars took a hit
History can also teach us something about the gay bar business, and the political context they operate in.
“It is certainly the case that in 2017, gay bar owners said they saw a surge of patrons who had become complacent during the Obama years and rediscovered their need to find a place to gather together,” says Greggor Mattson, professor and chair of Sociology at Oberlin College in Ohio, who chronicled the state of gay bars across the United States in his 2023 book, Who Needs Gay Bars?
“I would never say that Trump is good for gay bar business because he’s so bad for members of our community,” Mattson adds, but history looks like it’s repeating itself.
By Mattson’s count, there are just over 800 gay bars operating across the United States (he visited several hundred in his cross-country research), and 2023 was the first year there had been an increase since 1997.
Many closed during the pandemic lockdowns and never recovered. Others fell victim to gentrification and redevelopment — the scrappy dive bars in low-rent neighborhoods that appealed to low-income regulars, slumming tourists, and real estate speculators alike.
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One example of pandemic resilience is Troop 429 in Norwalk, Connecticut, which managed to weather the COVID lockdowns by gaming the system.
“They were quite creative,” Mattson says. “Bars were closed, but retail was an essential business that was allowed to stay open. So they partnered with a record store and turned the bar into a record store where you could buy cocktails. That kept them open and allowed them to survive through COVID.”
Other bars partnered with food trucks, and some jurisdictions loosened rules around outdoor drinking, turning parking lots into open-air beer gardens.
At The Raven in Anchorage, Alaska, staff took it upon themselves to keep a voluntary log of everyone who came to the bar.
“When one of their patrons reported that they had tested positive for COVID, they called everyone to let them know. They were using skills they had honed during the AIDS crisis for community care. And in that way, I think gay bars may have had an advantage over other communities’ bars because this was not our first pandemic.”
The problem with phones
While lockdowns disappeared with the pandemic, Grindr still haunts the gay bar.
“Everything is different in bars because of phones,” says Mattson.
“One of the questions I was always asking owners who had been in the business for a while was, ‘What’s changed?’ And they all said people are worse conversationalists, and they don’t know how to be fun at the bar because we are all so used to when we feel borderline-uncomfortable whipping out our phone and looking down. And as you know, part of hooking up is the eye contact and that excruciating second between when you look down and look away and then look back to see if he’s looking back at you. But if you’re looking at your phone, you miss out on that.”
To be queer in my lifetime has consistently been a life on the fringe in a society full of judgment and shame. This is why our spaces are so important. LA promoter Mario Diaz
Worse than that, phones wielded in community spaces like gay bars are a sign of the addictive quality of the apps that users are glued to.
“To the extent that social media apps are driven by algorithms that are meant to get people to spend more time on them, I don’t think that we can trust they would be good for mental health,” says John Pachankis, the David R Kessler professor of Public Health and Psychiatry at Yale University.
“They keep people, straight or gay, out of the real world and into a world that’s built to be addictive, and addictive in ways that rely on self/other comparisons, self-evaluation, and ultimately feeling inferior,” Pachankis says.
Those symptoms can plague anyone who spends time on social media, but it might be particularly damaging to the mental health of LGBTQ+ people — because they’re set up for it.
“Probably the two biggest drivers of the mental health disparity affecting LGBT people happen at an early age,” Pachankis says.
“LGBTQ people are disproportionately exposed to parental non-acceptance and to peer rejection or bullying, and we know that those two types of stressors are targeted to an important aspect of who one is. They are evaluative and shame-inducing and are about the most stressful events and experiences that people can have. That sets people up for later mental health risk.”
Even in crowded places, our phones can keep us apart | Shutterstock
Ironically enough, there’s a good chance that the guy at the bar who’s looking away during a “borderline-uncomfortable” moment is on Grindr, simultaneously widening his selection of potential dates, shutting down the ones in front of him, and sparking a stressor unique to queer men.
“Research does show that to the extent that gay and bisexual men, for example, experience stressors from within the gay community, their mental health is particularly likely to suffer with outcomes like depressed mood, body image disturbance, and even sexual risk-taking,” Pachankis says.
“All is not lost,” though, says Mattson.
“As a teacher of young people, young people are vaguely aware of what they’re missing. And I think it’s incumbent on queer elders, particularly people older than 32, who now count as queer elders, to keep the art of witty bar side banter alive and to help people put their phones away,” he says.
“Some of the bar owners and some of the bartenders are really skilled at this like they are at the front lines of holding on to our humor,” Mattson explains. “There was one bar owner who said he instructed his bartenders to take people’s phones and that they could only have them back after they had introduced themselves to a stranger, and that sometimes they would get so involved that they would forget to get their phones back.”
Club impresario Nardicio has a different strategy for keeping his customers offline.
“Just last week, I threw my infamous Nardi Gras party and had a 15-person marching band come through at midnight,” he says. “And I can tell you, no one at the club was on Grindr. They were living for it.”
I will say that with everything that has happened since Trump’s come into office, I have seen even more support for what we are doing and more excitement for what we are doing.Rikki’s Women’s Sports Bar co-creator Sara Yergovich
Broadening gay bars’ appeal
Smaller gay bars, though, have had to come up with other strategies to bring customers in, despite the lure of the apps — by broadening their appeal.
“Owners of bear bars or leather bars would ask me, you know, ‘What should we be doing?’” says Mattson. “I directed them to lesbian bars because lesbian bars have been doing this now for almost 30 years. Every lesbian bar that I interviewed was open to everybody.”
Lesbian bars experienced decades of decline before a bounce back following the pandemic. There were over 200 women’s bars in the 1980s, and fewer than 20 by the start of the pandemic. Since then, the Lesbian Bar Project counts 34 lesbian bars up and running across the U.S.
That number will bump up to 35 with the May opening of Rikki’s Women’s Sports Bar in San Francisco’s Castro District.
“Our definition of women’s sports is broad and all-encompassing,” says Danielle Thoe, one of Rikki’s co-owners. “It’s hard to fit that in just a couple sentences when you’re describing the space and what we’re building, but I think that welcoming aspect is really important,” she says.
To live a free and joyful life as a queer person is the ultimate act of resistance.LA promoter Mario Diaz
“Sports have a different connection,” says Sara Yergovich, Thoe’s business partner. “They’re a different way to connect with people. We’re very community-based, and as long as they want to support women’s sports, everyone is welcome.”
The pair say politics have worked their way into Rikki’s even before the bar’s opening.
“I will say that with everything that has happened since Trump’s come into office, I have seen even more support for what we are doing and more excitement for what we are doing,” Yergovich says. “It feels like people have kind of latched onto this as, you know, maybe bad things are happening, but there are some good things that are happening, too, and trying to really hold on to that.”
“Trans athletes belong in sports,” says Thoe. “They are some of our investors, our backers, our community members, and so that’s something that we’ll really look to highlight and make clear as we continue to get up and running.”
The resistance is alive and well at the gay bar
Nardicio’s New York bar is highlighting its resistance, as well, in gestures subtler than a marching band.
“Take for instance, at Red Eye, we recently got an ‘A’ from the health department ’cause we keep it clean behind the bar. We took that ‘A,’ put it in the window and proudly put a ‘G’ and a ‘Y’ next to it, so it says ‘GAY’ boldly in our window. We aren’t backing down. It’s in your face. We’re here, we’re queer, and we keep a spotless bar!”
Daniel Nardicio at his Red Eye nightclub in New York | Daniel Nardicio
“I think many of us learned a few lessons in lockdown,” says LA promoter Diaz. “Lessons about what’s really important in life. About the importance of human connection. Lessons on how short and unpredictable life can be.”
“To be queer in my lifetime has consistently been a life on the fringe in a society full of judgment and shame,” Diaz says. “This is why our spaces are so important. We need these places to survive and hold onto our joy. To live a free and joyful life as a queer person is the ultimate act of resistance. The moment we lose that, we lose the fight.”
“When people tell me, ‘We don’t need gay bars anymore,’ I ask them how they felt when they first went back to a restaurant after the COVID lockdowns, and they rhapsodize about how amazing it was to be out in public and to see people,” says Mattson.
“And I said, for queer people, we still need that. Even if we lived in a perfect world that was perfectly accepting, we are still a minority. We are still often raised by very lovely straight people, but who can’t be there for us in all the ways that we need. So we’re always going to need places where we can gather together. And there’s something deeply human about our need to be around other humans.”
The United States has withdrawn from the United Nations LGBTI Core Group, a collection of countries actively supporting the rights of LGBTQ+ and intersex people globally.
The U.S. withdrew from the organization on February 14, according to reporting by the Washington Blade, with no public announcement. A State Department spokesperson on Saturday confirmed the withdrawal but did not specify the specific date.
“In line with the president’s recent executive orders, we have withdrawn from the U.N. LGBTI Core Group,” the spokesperson said.
During Trump’s first term in office, his administration said it established a mission to decriminalize homosexuality worldwide. The administration was called out for its “sham” campaign that allegedly didn’t actually do anything to support the decriminalization of homosexuality, but the promise to promote decriminalization was a point of pride for the administration, often used to combat claims that the administration was proceeding with anti-LGBTQ+ actions.
The U.N. group, dedicated to “ensuring universal respect for the human rights” of LGBTI people, was formed in 2008, and includes more than 40 countries.
Chile and the Netherlands are the current co-chairs. The EU, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and Outright International are observers.
“The overarching goal of the UN LGBTI Core Group in New York is to work within the United Nations framework on ensuring universal respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, specifically lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons, with a particular focus on protection from violence and discrimination,” the Core Group’s website details.
Member nations include Albania, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Honduras, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Montenegro, Nepal, the Netherlands, Peru, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Timor Leste, the U.K., and Uruguay.
The Core Group counts three specific objectives in its mission: raising awareness about LGBTI issues; contributing to multilateral work and negotiations at the United Nations; and seeking common ground and engaging in “a spirit of open, respectful and constructive dialogue and cooperation with UN member states and other stakeholders outside the Core Group.”
The U.S. joined the group in the final year of the George W. Bush administration. The promotion of LGBTQ+ and intersex rights were a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris administration’s foreign policy.
In September, former First Lady Jill Biden spoke at a Core Group event on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. As vice president, Joe Biden spoke to the group at an event that coincided with the U.N. General Assembly in 2016.
Since President Trump took office in January, departments and agencies across the federal government have been subject to executive orders stripping recognition of transgender people from U.S. government policy and purging “anti-American propaganda” like drag from the public square.
Based on Trump’s “gender Ideology” order issued on his first day in office and an order banning diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the federal government, the State Department alone has banned changes to sex markers on U.S. passports based and threatened arts organizations receiving U.S. government funds, leading to canceled exhibitions featuring LGBTQ+ and Black artists.
The shutdown of USAID, the United States Agency for International Development, has resulted in the loss of billions of dollars in aid to bipartisan programs like PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief. Advocates have called the cuts “catastrophic” for the global LGBTQ+ and intersex rights movement.
Out Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent allowed Donald Trump donor Elon Musk and his team access to the payment system used by the federal government. Musk is threatening to illegally stop spending mandated by Congress and has ordered the shutdown of USAID, which delivers humanitarian aid on behalf of the United States, claiming that Donald Trump wants him to. Trump does not have the authority to end USAID.
According to reporting from several media outlets, including CNN, The Washington Post, and the New York Times, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury David Lebryk has been put on leave because he tried to stop Musk and his team from getting access to the payment system and the data it uses this past Friday. Lebryk has been in charge of the system that issues payments on behalf of the federal government for the last 15 years and is known for his “unparalleled” understanding of the system, according to Rolling Stone.
“To put it bluntly, these payment systems simply cannot fail, and any politically motivated meddling in them risks severe damage to our country and the economy,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. “I am concerned that mismanagement of these payment systems could threaten the full faith and credit of the United States.”
Reuters reported that Musk and his team had locked out the civil servants whose jobs were to actually run the payment system and gave his unvetted team called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to the personal data of millions of federal employees. DOGE is not a real federal executive department, and its unvetted team includes young college graduates between the ages of 19 and 24 who have little to no governmental experience and no security clearances.
The billionaire said that he intends to cut $4 billion in federal spending per dayuntil September 30. The system that he accessed handles payments for Social Security, government salaries, tax refunds, and contractors hired by the government.
Neither Musk nor Trump have the authority to stop payments for spending ordered by Congress. It’s unclear what will happen if Musk gets the Trump adminsitration to stop payments illegally, but people could challenge his decisions in court. It’s unclear if the Trump administration would respect court decisions if they’re willing to ignore Congress’ spending decisions, and the takeover of the payment system could prevent career government employees from following court orders in defiance of Trump’s unilateral spending decisions.
This is a massive power grab, and Bessent has been key in creating this constitutional crisis. The New York Times reports that he gave Musk access to the payment system on Friday as part of an agreement, the same day that Lebryk was put on leave and then announced his sudden retirement. Bessent, an anonymous official told Politico, agreed to a plan that would give Cloud Software Group CEO Tom Krause access to the payment system to act as a liaison between Musk’s DOGE and the Treasury.
“The secretary’s approval was contingent on it being essentially a read-only operation,” the source said, referring to the code of the system that processes payments.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Musk “won’t have direct authority to stop individual payments or make other changes” under the agreement. But Musk getting access to the code of the payment system suggests that he is considering rewriting that code, and Bessent could be a willing accomplice in implementing those changes.
The payment system, run by the Bureau of Fiscal Service, is “studiously apolitical,” according to Lily Batchelder, Treasury secretary for tax policy under former President Joe Biden. This runs counter to Musk’s and Trump’s belief, according to the Wall Street Journal, that the system should be run by political appointees. Politicizing the payment system could allow Trump to bypass court decisions forcing the government to spend money authorized by Congress, removing a safeguard to Trump unilaterally — and illegally — cutting federal programs.
Musk said over the weekend on social media that the payment system had been sending money to “known fraudulent or terrorist groups,” but he didn’t provide any evidence. The Bureau of Fiscal Service has safeguards in place to prevent improper payments and it seems unlikely that Musk would have been able to spot such payments in mere hours that the Bureau hadn’t noticed in years.
He also complained that the Bureau hasn’t refused to send a payment that it was ordered to in its history, even though it does not have the legal authority to veto spending authorized by Congress.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has called for a congressional investigation into the events.
A San Francisco address that was once the site of a pre-Stonewall transgender uprising has been added to the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of historic sites, buildings, and objects in the United States.
The National Park Service added the building at 101-102 Taylor St. in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood to its official list of historic U.S. places worthy of preservation on January 27, without any public statement or press release, The Bay Area Reporter first reported.
The address was the location of Compton’s Cafeteria in the 1960s. One night in August 1966, a riot broke out at the 24-hour eatery between its trans and queer patrons and police officers after a drag queen threw a cup of coffee at a cop who was trying to arrest her. The café’s windows were shattered and a police car destroyed amid the protest against police harassment, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
The site is likely the first landmark to be registered specifically for its connection to the history of the transgender community, trans scholar and historian Susan Stryker, whose 2005 documentary Screaming Queen details the riot, told The Bay Area Reporter.
“There is Stonewall and sites connected to individual people like Pauli Murray, who was nonbinary,” Stryker noted. “But this is the first thing put on the register specifically because of its connection to the history of the transgender movement.”
Madison Levesque, an architectural historian with the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, first submitted a request for the site to be added to the national registry in 2022 as part of their master’s thesis in public history.
“Today, the Compton’s Cafeteria riot is remembered as a turning point towards militant resistance in the LGBTQ, and particularly transgender, community,” Levesque wrote in their 2022 application. “The property is significant at the national level because of its influence on the future political and social representation of transgender and gender-variant people within the United States.”
Stryker, whose work informed Levesque’s initial application and a revised version submitted late last year, credited Levesque with making the registration happen.
Historian and historic preservation planner Shayne Watson said that the news was “something to celebrate” amid the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on transgender rights. In just his first two weeks in office, President Donald Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders intended to further marginalize transgender Americans.
Earlier this week, the National Parks Service removed the letters T and Q from the “LGBTQ+” initials on its website for New York City’s Stonewall National Monument, effectively erasing trans, queer, and gender-nonconforming people’s leading role in the 1969 uprising that is widely recognized as the beginning of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. The move appears to be an effort to comply with Trump’s executive orders prohibiting any federal recognition of trans people in any aspect of civic life.
