A transgender military pilot filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday against a conservative influencer who falsely claimed on social media that she was flying the helicopter that collided with a commercial jet near Reagan National Airport in January, killing 67 people.
“I want to hold this person accountable for what they did to me,” Jo Ellis, a pilot who has served more than 15 years in the Virginia Army National Guard, said in a statement to NBC News. “It’s become too common that people can say horrible things about someone, profit at their expense, and get away with it.”
Jo Ellis created a “proof of life” video after false claims on social media linked her to the plane crash near Reagan National Airport in January.Jo Ellis
On Jan. 30, less than 24 hours after the crash, conservative influencer Matt Wallace, who has 2.2 million followers on the social media platform X, shared a post from another account he operates stating that the helicopter pilot was transgender, according to the lawsuit. Wallace included a photo of Ellis, and the post went viral, the lawsuit states.
Wallace deleted that original post, according to the lawsuit, and then shared two others linking Ellis to the crash. One referred to an interview that Ellis did with The Smerconish Podcast, in which she said President Donald Trump’s executive order barring trans people from serving and enlisting in the military made her nervous.
The second post included photos of Ellis and said she might have participated in “another trans terror attack,” according to the lawsuit. That post received 4.8 million views on X, the suit states.
Wallace did not immediately return a request for comment regarding the allegations in the lawsuit.
“I understand some people have associated me with the crash in D.C., and that is false,” Ellis said in the Facebook video. “It is insulting to the families to try to tie this to some sort of political agenda. They don’t deserve that. I don’t deserve this. And I hope that you all know that I am alive and well, and this should be sufficient for you all to end all the rumors.”
Soon after Ellis’ statement on Facebook, Wallace shared another X user’s post with Ellis’ video, writing that it was an “Important Update!” and adding that Ellis was not piloting the helicopter and is still alive. Wallace also wrote in another X post that the original rumor that Ellis had been flying the helicopter involved in the crash came from another account with the handle @FakeGayPolitics, which is no longer active. Wallace said the rumor “seemed credible” because Ellis, whom Wallace misgendered in his posts, “wrote an article calling out Trump’s trans military ban only a few days ago.”
Ellis was not involved in the midair collision, the lawsuit states, did not write an article “calling out” Trump’s trans military ban and did not engage in “another trans terror attack.”
Equality Legal Action Fund, an LGBTQ legal organization representing Ellis, argues in the complaint that Wallace “concocted a destructive and irresponsible defamation campaign” against Ellis.
“The damage caused to Plaintiff by Defendant was instantaneous and immense,” the lawsuit continues. “Prior to Defendant’s campaign, Plaintiff was a private citizen who led a private life away from social media and the limelight. When Plaintiff awoke on January 31, 2025, she discovered she was the second most-trending topic in the United States on X with more than 90,000 posts mentioning her name or her likeness. Plaintiff was forced into the public sphere and can no longer remain a private citizen due to Defendant’s lies.”
Ellis said her life was “turned upside down” by Wallace’s posts.
“I feared for the safety of my family and myself and had to arrange private armed security,” she said in her statement to NBC News. “I’m now recognized in public and forever associated with that terrible tragedy over the Potomac. When I go out in public I have to look over my shoulder now.”
Ellis’ suit seeks damages for the injury to her reputation, though Ellis said she plans to donate any money that she wins from the suit to the families of the people who died in the crash.
Trans people have increasingly been falsely blamed for tragedies and violence in recent years, particularly after mass shootings. Since 2022, false or unconfirmed claims have linked trans people to mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Philadelphia; Madison, Wisconsin; and Des Moines, Iowa.
In addition, since January, the Trump administration has enacted several policies targeting trans people, including the trans military ban, which states that being openly trans “is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.” Two judgeshave temporarily blocked that policy from taking effect.
Inside the Department of Veterans Affairs — the nation’s most extensive health care system — a quiet rebellion seems to be growing.
Dozens of VA clinicians are breaking their silence, accusing the Trumpadministration of abandoning the very veterans they swore to serve. In a searing letter asking VA staff to sign on to an editorial circulating this week — and obtained by The Advocate — they describe a workplace transformed by fear, censorship, and cruelty. When The Advocate became aware of the document Friday afternoon, more than 50 clinicians whose details are being kept confidential out of fear of retaliation had signed it, according to a person with knowledge of its contents.
“Our leadership is failing Veterans,” they write.
This growing outrage follows a dramatic policy reversal last month. On March 17, VA Secretary Doug Collins — appointed by President Donald Trump — ordered the agency to end new prescriptions for hormone therapy and referrals for gender-affirming care for transgender veterans. The announcement was part of a broader rollback of LGBTQ+ protections across the federal government since day one of the second Trump administration that has systematically targeted trans and nonbinary people’s existence. The Advocate was the first to report on the rollback of policies around the dignified treatment of transgender vets.
Clinicians say the policy does not just cut off lifesaving health care — it signals to transgender veterans that they are no longer safe or welcome in a system designed to care for them.
Since the March directive, VA staff say they’ve been ordered to remove Pride flags and other LGBTQ-inclusive signage from hospitals, delete pronouns from staff bios, and report colleagues for using words like “transgender” or “LGBTQ+” in official communications.
It didn’t happen overnight. “It happened in small steps, as oppression often does,” the letter says.
But now the impact is unmistakable. Veterans — especially transgender veterans — are afraid to come back. Inside VA facilities, fear is spreading like wildfire. “People across facilities have been signing with the promise for anonymity,” a VA provider told The Advocate. The provider — speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation — said some staff want to sign the letter but worry they could be fired if their names get out.
Their fear is not misplaced. Staff have been told to report on each other, the provider said.
In response to The Advocate’s request for comment, VA Press Secretary Peter Kasperowicz defended the rollback, calling it a “commonsense reform” that he said should have happened long ago.
“VA is phasing out treatment for gender dysphoria and directing all savings to helping paralyzed Veterans and amputees,” Kasperowicz said in a statement to The Advocate.
He added, “VA has received almost no criticism in response to this decision — proof that the vast majority of Veterans and Americans support it.”
But advocates and VA providers say that claim doesn’t hold up. Lindsay Church, a transgender Navy veteran and executive director of Minority Veterans of America, called Kasperowicz’s justification dishonest.
“VA has so far failed to produce any information about how much the department even spends on the treatment of gender dysphoria and therefore cannot redirect funding in this manner,” Church told The Advocate. “Furthermore, the provision of gender-affirming care transcends administrations, dating back to the first Trump administration. VA leadership is trying to deflect from their work gutting the department and the care veterans receive by targeting vulnerable veterans. Providers have voiced very real objection to the decision to rescind gender-affirming care — and to deny this is a lie.”
Clinicians say the damage has already been done inside the system. “Veterans — especially those who are transgender — now live in fear,” the letter reads. And staff do too.
For transgender veterans, the rollback of gender-affirming care feels like erasure — a political decision with life-or-death consequences. “How safe do I feel? Less than welcome,” retired Army Staff Sgt. Alleria Stanley recently toldThe Advocate. Stanley — a 20-year combat veteran who retired with full benefits after transitioning on active duty — said the message from the VA is clear.
“They just told transgender veterans, ‘You are not worthy,’” she said after the March announcement.
U.S. Rep. Mark Takano of California, ranking member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, praised the VA clinicians behind the letter and condemned the climate of fear emerging within the agency.
“I wholeheartedly support the views in this letter and deeply admire the courage of the VA clinicians who are putting the health care of veterans first by signing this letter,” Takano told The Advocate. “It’s not easy to step forward in the culture of fear of retaliation Secretary Collins is concocting across VA. Sharing truths, even uncomfortable truths, is an essential step in combating misinformation.”
Takano, who is also the chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, added, “I stand with our LGBTQ+ veteran community, especially those facing transphobia, and will continue to fight for quality care for all veterans.”
Clinicians say they’ve seen the lifesaving power of gender-affirming care — veterans pulled back from the brink of suicide after starting hormone therapy, suffering lifted after years in darkness. Dr. Mary Brinkmeyer, a psychologist who resigned from her position as an LGBTQ+ care coordinator at the VA hospital in Hampton, Virginia, out of protest in February, is one of those who have seen the benefits of care and who fear for those who are denied it after having earned the care they need.
These new directives, the letter says, “break this promise.” Veterans made sacrifices “in body and soul” for their country, it continues — but the government is failing them. “Many are afraid to seek care at all, terrified they’ll be targets of humiliation or violence,” the clinicians write. Despite the climate of fear, the letter calls on VA leadership and the federal government to reverse course. “Get out of our lane,” the clinicians demand. Leave medical decisions where they belong: between patients and their providers.
“Over the years, Veterans have fought hard for the medical care they need, from care for Agent Orange to military sexual trauma,” the clinicians write. “Thanks to their efforts, the VA has made strides on treating post-traumatic stress disorder, reducing Veteran suicide, managing toxic exposures, and providing reproductive and gender-affirming care. We must uphold these advancements for allVeterans.”
The letter ends not in despair — but in defiance.
Clinicians vow to continue honoring their oath to care for all veterans — regardless of who they are, how they served, or how they identify. “We will not forsake the oath we took to provide care regardless of religion, nationality, race, age, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities, party politics, or social standing,” they promise.
“To our Veterans: please know that we vehemently oppose these orders and that even in this darkness, there is resistance,” they write.
“We will continue to treat you with the respect and dignity you were promised when you sacrificed in service of our country,” the letter says. And they leave no doubt about their message to transgender veterans facing discrimination and fear inside the VA.
“Here, in our clinics and hospitals, you are welcome, and you are not alone,” they pledge.
HIV advocates and public health experts are raising alarms after the Trumpadministration moved to remove all members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS — a group that for three decades has provided critical guidance on federal HIV prevention, treatment, and care policy.
The decision, first reported by Reuters, comes amid sweeping cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including layoffs of 10,000 federal health employees and the closure of half of HHS’s regional offices. The Trump administration eliminated several offices within HHS dedicated to infectious disease prevention, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has cut five branches of its HIV prevention division, affecting about 150 staff.
The removal of PACHA members comes at a time when HIV remains a significant public health challenge in the U.S., particularly for Black and Latine Americans, gay and bisexual men, and people living in the South.
About 1.2 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV, and roughly 13 percent of them don’t know their status, according to HIV.gov. In 2022 alone, an estimated 31,800 people in the U.S. acquired HIV. Nearly 70 percent of new infections were among Black and Latine people, and the South accounted for roughly half of all new cases.
This shift comes after the Biden-Harris administration had significantly expanded the federal government’s HIV response. In 2024, the White House highlighted a 12 percent decrease in new HIV infections nationwide from 2018 to 2022, driven in part by a 30 percent decrease among people ages 13 to 24. Federal efforts also led to a 16 percent decline in new infections in the South during the same period — a region long hit hardest by the epidemic. The administration also proposed a $9.8 billion National PrEP Program to expand access to HIV prevention medications for uninsured and underinsured individuals.
Now, HIV advocates fear that progress could stall — or reverse.
Current PACHA members told The Advocate they had not received formal notice of their removal but learned of the administration’s plans through media reports.
“My initial reactions are sad and disappointed,” said Dr. Philip Chan, a PACHA member and infectious disease physician at Brown University. “PACHA has been vital to advising HHS on the HIV response here in the U.S. It was great to be able to address HIV care and prevention issues at the national level — and I think just sad to no longer be part of that group.”
Chan told The Advocate that beyond the removal of PACHA members, the administration’s broader cuts to HIV prevention programs and research are deeply concerning. He said the administration recently canceled two of his NIH research grants — including one focused on HIV prevention among Black gay men.
He described a recent patient encounter that illustrates the real-world impact of what’s at stake. Chan said he recently had to deliver an HIV diagnosis to a Black gay man in Rhode Island who had previously been taking PrEP but lost access to the medication after losing his health insurance. In the short time he was off PrEP, the patient contracted HIV.
“It breaks my heart that we’re still seeing preventable HIV cases,” Chan said. “We have all the tools to end HIV. It just makes me sad to see a lot of this infrastructure being systematically dismantled across the country.”
Dr. Jirair Ratevosian, a current PACHA member and associate research scientist at the Yale School of Nursing, echoed those concerns, telling The Advocate the move risks sidelining science and community voices at a critical time.
“Every member of this PACHA accepted the call to serve with a deep commitment to improving the health and well-being of all Americans — especially the communities affected by HIV,” Ratevosian said. “Disrupting this work risks sidelining science and community voices at a critical moment in the fight to end the epidemic, both in the U.S. and globally. There remains a readiness to work in partnership with this administration to ensure that progress is not lost.”
Adrian Shanker, a former PACHA member and former deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the Biden administration, said that removing the council members is “devastating.” He explained that while PACHA members serve at the pleasure of the HHS secretary, the council’s charter allows members to serve up to four years — with flexibility for the secretary to divide that into terms of varying lengths, such as two two-year terms or a three-year term followed by a one-year renewal.
“PACHA is not a partisan council — its members are scientists, prevention advocates, and people living with HIV,” Shanker said. “It would have been wise for the administration to talk to PACHA before making such drastic and dangerous decisions.”
Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute and a former PACHA co-chair, said he wasn’t surprised by the removal of PACHA members.
“The real question is how quickly will they appoint new members and who will they be?” Schmid said.
Schmid said he is concerned about the broader direction the administration is taking on HIV policy.
“So far, this administration has moved quickly in decimating many parts of our nation’s HIV response, and we are afraid that there will be more cuts on the way,” Schmid told The Advocate. “We understand they will be forming an HIV component of the new administration for a Healthy America that will combine HIV prevention and treatment programs. In doing so, they must reiterate a commitment to ending HIV and provide the proper leadership, funding, and community input — including a new PACHA.”
HHS did not respond to The Advocate’s request for comment. However, a spokesperson for the agency told Reuters that removing PACHA members is common practice when a new administration takes office. The spokesperson added that HHS intends to continue receiving advice and recommendations on HIV policy and said the administration believes a new streamlined structure will be better positioned to address the epidemic.
The shake-up comes as the Trump administration is also reportedly preparing to eliminate all federal funding for domestic HIV prevention programs — a move experts have described as “catastrophic” and potentially devastating for public health. As The Advocate previously reported, the plan shutters the CDC’s HIV prevention division entirely and halts federally funded prevention efforts across the country, undoing decades of progress and leaving uninsured and marginalized communities without access to testing, PrEP, and lifesaving care.
During Trump’s first term, the administration launched the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative, which contributed to a 12 percent decrease in new HIV infections between 2018 and 2022, according to HHS data. However, advocates fear that the latest actions could undo that progress.
“We are getting so close to ending the epidemic,” Chan said. “It would be sad to see us take a step back here when we’ve had so much good momentum and progress.”
The organizers of several of the country’s premier Pride celebrations told NBC News they have also lost funding from corporate sponsors this year, to the tune of $200,000 to $350,000 each. For some larger organizations — like those in New York City and San Francisco — the shortage makes up about 10% of their total Pride event budget, while for others, like St. Pete Pride in Florida, it could be about half.
Some organizers said past sponsors that are not returning or are reducing their sponsorship amounts this year have cited the political climate and the Trump administration’s hostility toward DEI and the LGBTQ community, while others have cited fear of an economic recession. Some didn’t provide any reasons at all, organizers said.
Bob Witeck, president of Witeck Communications, a firm specializing in LGBTQ marketing, said he isn’t surprised that corporations are reducing or withdrawing Pride sponsorships this year, because many of them are feeling vulnerable to “unfair and uninvited attacks.” He said publicly regulated businesses and those that work directly with federal agencies and under contracts “are more vulnerable to possible litigation as well as facing potential losses.”
Dykes on Bikes kicks off the annual San Francisco Pride march in 2019.Gabrielle Lurie / San Francisco Chronicle via AP file
Ford said several companies that had agreed to sponsor this year’s San Francisco Pride march had withdrawn: Anheuser-Busch, Comcast, Diageo and Nissan. Those sponsorships add up to about $300,000, Ford estimated.
The total budget for this year’s celebration, she said, is $3.2 million, and the nonprofit had hoped to raise about $2.3 million of that through corporate sponsorships, with the remainder coming from individual donations, beverage sales and other means. So far, corporate sponsors have committed $1.25 million, Ford said, adding that San Francisco Pride is still waiting to hear back from several large companies that have sponsored in the past.
Lloryn Love-Carter, a spokesperson for Nissan, said the company is “currently reviewing all marketing and sales spending, including auto shows, sports properties and other entertainment activations, to maximize both efficiency and breakthrough effectiveness.” Love-Carter added that “Nissan remains committed to promoting an inclusive culture for employees, consumers, dealers and other key stakeholders.”
A spokesperson for Diageo said there were some changes to the company’s sponsorships budget in California, but that the company was still going to be active around San Francisco for Pride Month in June and would be involved in Pride events around the country through its Smirnoff vodka brand.
A spokesperson for Comcast, which owns NBC Universal, the parent company of NBC News, declined to comment on why the company isn’t sponsoring San Francisco Pride this year. The spokesperson said local teams make their own sponsorship decisions and noted the company’s California team is sponsoring other Pride celebrations in the state including Silicon Valley Pride, Oakland Pride and events associated with San Francisco Pride that are hosted by other nonprofits.
Navigating a political and economic ‘tightrope’
Corporations began increasingly supporting Pride festivities in the years following the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in favor of same-sex marriage. A few years ago, large companies had become so ubiquitous at major Pride events — with their logos emblazoned on everything from floats to paper fans — that some revelers began to lament the so-called corporatization of Pride, or what became known as “rainbow capitalism.”
However, over the last two years — as dozens of states have passed legislation restricting LGBTQ rights and conservative influencers have targeted pro-LGBTQ companies — the landscape has shifted, and some companies are leaning away from publicly supporting the community.
President Donald Trump further fueled the corporate retreat from Pride initiatives with a series of executive orders from his first day in office. In one order, Trump declared DEI initiatives “illegal and immoral” and barred the government from funding them. In another, he prohibited federal funds from promoting “gender ideology,” which has become a right-wing term to refer to transgender people and their rights.
At the same time, many big corporations are facing economic headwinds, including the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce government spending and the implementation of tariffs that have roiled the markets.
Byron Green, the board president of St. Pete Pride in St. Petersburg, Florida, said no sponsors have officially pulled their support for the annual event, though he hasn’t yet heard from many of them. Some have had to significantly reduce their sponsorships, Green said, including one major donor who previously gave $40,000 to $60,000 and is only donating about $10,000 this year.
“They have all said, ‘We get government funding, and we have to be very careful, because we don’t know if that funding is going to go away,’” Green said, adding that companies are worried about being able to pay their staff.
In the past, the nonprofit has relied entirely on corporate sponsors to cover the $600,000-$700,000 budget for Pride events held throughout the month of June, including its annual parade, which draws hundreds of thousands of attendees. So far, the nonprofit has received about half of that, according to Green.
“We are navigating what feels like a tightrope,” he said. “How do we create the experience that is the largest Pride in the state of Florida and one of the largest in the Southeast and the pace of dollars coming in is drastically less than it has been in the past?”
Ryan Bos is the executive director of Capital Pride Alliance, which organizes annual Pride celebrations in Washington, D.C., and will host this year’s WorldPride, an international celebration that is held in a new location every two years. Bos said the nonprofit was in talks with Target — which sponsored WorldPride in New York City in 2019 and has sponsored D.C.’s Capital Pride march in the past — but the company ultimately decided to pass.
Bos said other sponsors, like Wegmans Food Markets, have recommitted and increased their support for the festivities, which will take place from May 23 to June 8.
Kevin Kilbride, the media marketing manager of NYC Pride, said the budget for the organization’s annual Pride events in June is usually between $3 million and $6 million. Last year’s budget was $4.6 million, and this year’s will be about $3.5 million, he said.
Kilbride said about two-thirds of the organization’s previous sponsors have reaffirmed their support for this year’s events, which include one of the largest LGBTQ Pride marches in the world. As of Thursday, he said, one-third of the organization’s total partners had either pulled, scaled back or not yet finalized their funding commitments. As a result, NYC Pride is looking at a $350,000 dip in sponsorship funding, he said.
“A lot of it still is in the air at this point,” he said. “Folks are just moving a little bit more strategically and slowly than usual … and I think it’s a combination of the political environment, folks not sure what the repercussions would be, if any, but also the economy as well.”
Target is still sponsoring New York City’s annual LGBTQ Pride march, Kilbride said, though he noted the company has “chosen to take a silent partnership role,” and as a result is not listed as a sponsor on its website.
Target declined to comment on its decision not to sponsor WorldPride and on its partnership with NYC Pride.
Some brands face a ‘chilly environment’
Several Pride organizers — including those in Seattle, Boston and Minnesota’s Twin Cities — said they are being more selective about which sponsors they work with to ensure the companies’ policies align with their values.
Philadelphia Pride made the decision in 2022 not to work with corporations at all as a response to the community conversation about rainbow capitalism.
Twin Cities Pride, whichdraws about half a million people to its annual parade, announced earlier this year that it would not be partnering with Target as a sponsor for this year’s events after the Minneapolis-based retailer told employees in January that it would roll back DEI initiatives.
Andi Otto, the executive director of Twin Cities Pride, said he chose to turn down the company’s $50,000 sponsorship because he didn’t like the message it was sending to the LGBTQ community and communities of color. After Twin Cities Pride announced it wouldn’t partner with Target, Otto said, he launched a fundraiser that ended up doubling Target’s planned sponsorship.
Target declined to comment on Otto rejecting the company’s sponsorship.
Witeck said he’s not surprised that some brands are “facing a chilly environment” this year, as some Pride organizers and LGBTQ advocates question the values and consistency of some of their past sponsors.
“Community leaders have long opposed forms of ‘rainbow-washing’ if it’s felt the company has demonstrated weak or faltering loyalty,” he said, using a term similar to rainbow capitalism.
Pride celebrations ‘not going away’
Pride organizers have said the effects of losing major sponsors could vary widely, though none of the organizers who spoke with NBC News said they are scaling back security — and many, in fact, have said they’re increasing it.
NYC’s Kilbride said that as a result of having fewer committed sponsors and a reduced budget this year, three dance parties will not return for this year’s NYC Pride slate.
“We just have fewer options with a lower budget as far as what we can do, what kind of spaces we can provide for this community at a time that it’s obviously, in my opinion, more important than ever for these spaces to exist,” Kilbride said.
Otto said Twin Cities Pride, which typically spends about $800,000 on its annual Pride festival, is currently short about $200,000. In addition to declining Target’s donation, Otto said the organization had one big sponsor back out of negotiations and has not heard from several of its past sponsors yet. As a result, he said, this year’s festival will feature three stages for performances instead of its usual four.
The organizers of San Francisco Pride, which hosts a concert, parade and street fair the last weekend of June, usually start planning the three-day event nearly a year in advance, Ford said. As a result, she said, any potential funding shortage won’t affect this year’s events.
While many Pride organizers are making due with fewer corporate sponsors and lower budgets this year, Keller said the important thing to remember is Pride is “not going away.”
“You’re going to see even more people show up and need to find a safe space and find community and find where they can be their authentic selves, and that’s going to be at the Pride parade,” she said.
The report, “Understanding the Role of Gender Congruence and Affirming Care in Trans Men’s Body Image and Quality of Life” published in the International Journal of Transgender Health, surveyed 166 trans men, measuring their physiological, psychological, social, and environmental quality of life.
“Most research involving TGD [trans and gender diverse] populations has focused on clinical mental health outcomes such as suicidality,” the report states. “While such outcomes are crucial to explore, it is equally important to examine the broader well-being of TGD people, including factors that contribute to their overall quality of life (QoL).”
The report found that improving trans men’s gender congruence — the sense of alignment between one’s gender identity, body, and others’ perceptions of them — “can have cascading benefits for other dimensions of well-being, including body satisfaction and [quality of life], by reducing dysphoria and promoting a more cohesive sense of self.” The report concluded that gender congruence can be improved through gender-affirming care.
Gender-affirming care encompasses several forms of therapies that are meant to validate a person’s gender identity, including talk therapy, hormone therapy, or surgical procedures. The report found that chest surgery was “associated with improved physiological, psychological, and environmental QoL,” while hormone replacement therapy “improved psychological and environmental QoL.”
The report noted that while “gender-affirming care may not directly alter how individuals perceive their bodies,” it instead “fosters a sense of alignment between physical appearance and gender identity, a key driver of body satisfaction.”
“Our results highlight that fostering positive gender congruence, which enhances body satisfaction, significantly improves physical and psychological functioning,” it concluded. “This finding underscores the critical role of addressing body satisfaction within gender-affirming care.”
Mass layoffs across the US Department of Health (HHS) could have “dangerous” effects on the prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), not-for-profit groups have warned.
More than 10,000 HHS positions have reportedly disappeared since Robert F Kennedy Jr, better-known as RFK Jr, became secretary of health. Among them are positions in the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/Aids Policy, as well as at the world-famous Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Other key areas affected include jobs in STI and HIV response teams, the dismantling of the PrEP Implementation Branch, and cutbacks on HIV awareness campaigns.
RFK Jr is notorious for his conspiratorial views on healthcare and medical treatment, especially when it comes to LGBTQ+ care. The vaccine sceptic once claimed that chemicals in the atmosphere could be turning children trans.
His latest move, which comes as part of a series of firings and cuts to federal funding by the Trump administration, was branded “irresponsible” by experts and civil rights groups, who warned that it was likely to have dangerous effects.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) urged the government to reconsider, arguing that the plans would have “devastating consequences” for public health, particularly in the LGBTQ+ community, which have been “historically side-lined” when it comes to healthcare.
The advocacy group warned that actions such as further dismantling PrEP distribution branches would reduce access to vital information and resources about the preventative drug, which, it claimed, could risk “higher HIV rates”.
The cuts to the CDC would potentially cause vital data on HIV treatment to disappear and significantly delay “access to newer, more-effective treatments, particularly for marginalised groups”.
Matthew Rose, a social-justice advocate at HRC, branded the HHS cutbacks “irresponsible and dangerous” and risked more than just people’s jobs.
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“[The layoffs] are a direct blow to the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ communities around the nation,” he said. “Without vital surveillance, prevention programmes that expand access to PrEP, and data collection, we risk undoing years of progress in the fight against HIV and STIs.”
US could lose ability to ‘prevent HIV cases’
Elsewhere, the HIV+ Hepatitis Policy Institute warned that the US risked losing its ability to prevent further cases “in just a couple days”.
The organisation’s executive director, Carl Schmid, told the Washington Blade: “The expertise of the staff, along with their decades of leadership, has now been destroyed and cannot be replaced. We will feel the impacts of these decisions for years to come and it will certainly translate into an increase in new HIV infections and higher medical costs.”
Analysis of international HIV aid cuts in the US, France, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands showed that global cases could increase by 10 million by 2030, while HIV-related deaths might rise by 2.9 million by the start of the next decade.
Researchers at the Burnet Institute, in Australia, have cautioned that global infection rates could rocket if further cuts are made.
Anne Aslett, the chief executive of the Elton John Aids Foundation, said that if HIV funding was cut further, “millions more people will get sick, and health budgets will simply not be able to cope.”
According to Nature, several National Institute of Health (NIH) employees who wish to remain anonymous confirmed that the White House is instructing the biomedical agency to study the negative effects of gender transitioning. This directive was issued after nearly every research project on transgender health was defunded by the NIH.
Since Donald Trump was sworn in on January 20th, he has been on a crusade to cut “unnecessary spending within government agencies” and heavily limit the rights and public presence of trans people in society.
The NIH, the world’s largest financial contributor to biomedical research, was not spared from the ire of the Trump administration. According to this data sheet by the HHS, more than 270 NIH grants totaling $125 million were canceled. The number is believed to be far greater, with Nature reporting that more than $180 million in grants for research on transgender health were upended.
During this time, Matthew Memoli was the interim director of the NIH after being appointed by Trump, while Trump’s nominated choice, Jay Bhattacharya, awaited confirmation from the Senate. During Memoli’s last two weeks, he sent emails to the directors of various NIH institutes informing them that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was directed to fund research on studies relating to transgender people who regret transitioning to align their bodies with their gender identity and what it calls “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children and adults.
Though no studies have been published as of this moment, many people reacting to the news on social media are comparing this to the Cass Review, a report on gender-affirming care for transgender youth released by the National Health Service in England. The Cass Review was heavily criticized for misrepresenting data to promote transphobic bias and is scoffed at by academic researchers and institutions globally.
Gillian Branstetter of the ACLU wrote in a post on Bluesky, “This is functionally what the Cass Review was in the UK and lots of people in prestige media swallowed it whole while accusing trans people ourselves of ‘politicizing science’ by pointing that out,” in reference to the NIH directive.
The legitimacy of the NIH’s findings will no doubt face similar criticism due to the Trump administration’s bias against funding medical research into trans lives.
YouTube quietly scrubbed the phrase “gender identity and expression” from its public-facing hate speech policy earlier this year, prompting concern fromLGBTQ+ advocates who warn the change removes clarity around protections for transgender and nonbinary users. According to the company, there’s no change in policy.
However, the altered language occurred between January 29 and February 6, according to archived versions of the policy reviewed by The Advocate via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. On January 29, the platform’s hate speech policy explicitly barred content that promotes violence or hatred based on “gender identity and expression.” By February 6, the next time a snapshot of the page was stored in the archive, that language was no longer listed. Instead, the revised version grouped “Sex, Gender, or Sexual Orientation” as protected categories, omitting any reference to gender identity.
A YouTube spokesperson told journalist Taylor Lorenz’s Substack newsletter User Mag, which first reported the change, that the update was part of routine “copy edits” and claimed enforcement of hate speech policies remains unchanged. However, the platform has not explained why it chose to remove an explicit reference to gender identity, a term that is foundational to many users’ lived experiences and protections under civil rights law in several jurisdictions.
YouTube reiterated its position in a statement to The Advocate. “Our hate speech policies haven’t changed,” a YouTube spokesperson said. They also said that “as we told the reporter,” the User Mag story mischaracterized the copy edits made to YouTube’s Help Center.
The change comes as the Trump administration moves aggressively to erase federal recognition of transgender and nonbinary people. Just hours after returning to office on January 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring that the U.S. government would only recognize two sexes — male and female — determined at birth. The order requires federal agencies to remove references to “gender identity” from policies, identification documents, healthcare programs, and nondiscrimination protections.
Advocacy groups and LGBTQ+ creators say the revision is more than cosmetic — it’s a dangerous rollback at a time when transgender people face escalating attacks both online and offline.
“The larger implications of YouTube’s actions should concern everyone,” a spokesperson for GLAAD told The Advocate. “When a company, or political leaders, decide that certain groups of people are to be seen as less than others — it too often results in real-world harm. YouTube and other platforms should be protecting LGBTQ creators and users during a time when right-wing extremists and others are seeking to harm them.”
Longtime trans YouTube creator Samantha Lux told User Mag she’d noticed a rise in hateful rhetoric on the platform. “The right-wing creators have gotten a lot more brave about how they talk about trans issues,” Lux said. “If you say that you’re protecting against gender, it’s more like you can’t discriminate against somebody for being a woman. But gender identity really zones in on the trans aspect of it.”
The update comes amid broader cultural and political efforts to erase references to gender identity. Just weeks ago, Iowa became the first state to eliminate “gender identity” from its civil rights protections. At the federal level, the Trump administration has moved to eliminate mentions of gender identity in agency communications. Project 2025, a sweeping conservative policy roadmap, calls for deleting the terms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” from government and public discourse.
In GLAAD’s 2024 Social Media Safety Index, YouTube scored 58 out of 100. The platform was credited for launching a pronoun display option for creators but criticized for falling short in key areas. YouTube is the only major platform evaluated as lacking a clear policy protecting users — including public figures — from targeted misgendering and deadnaming. The company also provides little transparency on addressing wrongful demonetization, filtering, and removing LGBTQ content from ad services.
“YouTube quietly removing ‘gender identity and expression’ from its list of protected groups is a major radical shift away from best practices in the field of trust and safety and content moderation,” a GLAAD spokesperson told User Mag. “Like Meta’s recent dangerous rollbacks of hate speech protections for transgender and nonbinary people, the removal of these specific words appears to be a responsive alignment with the anti-LGBTQ agenda of Project 2025.”
A transgender college student declared “I am here to break the law” before entering a women’s restroom at the Florida State Capitol and being led out in handcuffs by police. Civil rights attorneys say the arrest of Marcy Rheintgen last month is the first they know of for violating transgender bathroom restrictions passed by numerous state legislatures across the country.
Capitol police had been alerted and were waiting for Rheintgen, 20, when she entered the building in Tallahassee March 19. They told her she would receive a trespass warning once she entered the women’s restroom to wash her hands and pray the rosary, but she was later placed under arrest when she refused to leave, according to an arrest affidavit.
Rheintgen faces a misdemeanor trespassing charge punishable by up to 60 days in jail and is due to appear in court in May.
“I wanted people to see the absurdity of this law in practice,” Rheintgen told The Associated Press. “If I’m a criminal, it’s going to be so hard for me to live a normal life, all because I washed my hands. Like, that’s so insane.”
At least 14 states have adopted laws barring transgender women from entering women’s bathrooms at public schools and, in some cases, other government buildings. Only two — Florida and Utah — criminalize the act. A judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked Montana’s new bathroom law.
Rheintgen’s arrest in Florida is the first that American Civil Liberties Union attorneys are aware of in any state with a criminal ban, senior staff attorney Jon Davidson said.
Rheintgen was in town visiting her grandparents when she decided to pen a letter to each of Florida’s 160 state lawmakers informing them of her plan to enter a public restroom inconsistent with her sex assigned at birth. The Illinois resident said her act of civil disobedience was fueled by anger at seeing a place she loves and visits regularly grow hostile toward trans people.
“I know that you know in your heart that this law is wrong and unjust,” she wrote in her letter to lawmakers. “I know that you know in your heart that transgender people are human too, and that you can’t arrest us away. I know that you know that I have dignity. That’s why I know that you won’t arrest me.”
Her arrest comes as many Republican-led states that have enacted restroom restrictions grapple with how to enforce them. Laws in Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky and North Dakota do not spell out any enforcement mechanism, and even the state laws that do largely rely on private individuals to report violations.
In Utah, activists flooded a tip line created to alert state officials to possible violations of its bathroom law with thousands of hoax reports in an effort to shield transgender residents and their allies from any legitimate complaints that could lead to an investigation.
The Republican sponsors of the Florida bathroom law, Rep. Rachel Plakon and Sen. Erin Grall, did not immediately respond Thursday to phone messages, emails and visits to their offices to seek comment on Rheintgen’s arrest. They have said the restrictions are needed to protect women and girls in single-sex spaces.
Opponents of the law such as Nadine Smith, executive director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Florida, said it creates dangerous situations for all by giving people license to police others’ bodies in bathrooms.
“The arrest of Marcy Rheintgen is not about safety,” Smith said. “It’s about cruelty, humiliation and the deliberate erosion of human dignity. Transgender people have been using restrooms aligned with their gender for generations without incident. What’s changed is not their presence — it’s a wave of laws designed to intimidate them out of public life.”
If Rheintgen is convicted, she worries she could be jailed with men, forced to cut her long hair and prevented temporarily from taking gender-affirming hormones.
“People are telling me it’s a legal test, like this is the first case that’s being brought,” she said. “It’s how they test the law. But I didn’t do this to test the law. I did it because I was upset. I can’t have any expectations for what’s going to happen because this has never been prosecuted before. I’m horrified and scared.”
Ts Madison, a reality TV personality and LGBTQ advocate, opened a re-entry house in Atlanta this week for formerly incarcerated Black transgender women.
“This is about providing not only shelter but access to opportunities they’ve been denied,” Madison told NBC News.
The TS Madison Starter House debuted Monday on Transgender Day of Visibility and will host a cohort of five residents participating in a 90-day program designed to support their reentry into society. Organizers said the program will offer stable housing, gender-affirming health care, job assistance, GED support, life-skills training, nutrition education and individualized therapy.
The Ts Madison Starter House opened in Atlanta on Monday, which was Transgender Day of Visibility. Courtesy Ts Madison Starter House
Madison, known for her reality series “The Ts Madison Experience” on We TV, has long advocated for trans rights. She has also openly discussed overcoming homelessness and survival sex work.
“I wanted to make space for these girls,” she said. “I wanted to teach them how to be successful without relying on their bodies but on their other gifts.”
Transgender people — especially Black trans women — experience homelessness at disproportionately high rates. A study published in 2020 by the Williams Institute at UCLA Law found 8% of trans adults reported recent homelessness, compared to 1% of cisgender straight adults. The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality (now Advocates for Trans Equality), found that 42% of Black trans adults have experienced homelessness in their lifetime.
Survival sex work is also common among trans people experiencing homelessness, with the National Alliance to End Homelessness reporting that 98% of unsheltered trans people have engaged in high-risk behaviors, including sex work, to survive.
Dominique Morgan, executive director of Black and Pink, a national nonprofit supporting LGBTQ people affected by incarceration, collaborated with Madison on the house’s creation. Morgan, who spent nearly a decade in prison, said she knows firsthand the barriers trans people face post-release, and she praised Morgan’s vision.
“This project isn’t just about housing — it’s about creating a space where Black trans women can thrive, not just survive,” she said.
The house, Morgan added, offers more than just a short-term stay.
“After 90 days, when they graduate, they’re not being thrown out into the world alone,” she said. “They have a network, a community and a group of people who are there to support them.”
Madison also partnered with NAESM, Inc., a nonprofit providing health care and HIV/AIDS services to Atlanta’s LGBTQ communities. Actress and activist Monroe Alise, who works closely with NAESM, applauded the partnership.
“Through this, we’re ensuring Black trans women have the tools to move beyond survival and into stability,” Alise said.
Morgan said the intake process and the programming are “extremely robust.”
“We don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all model. Some residents might need job prep. Others may need mental health support or to learn how to cook healthy meals,” she said.
The Ts Madison Starter House is not reliant on government funding, according to Madison, and she said this is especially important given the current rollback of transgender rights.
“This is funded by the people, for the people,” she said. “Even with the government cutting funding, we don’t need them. We have each other. It’s kind of like an underground railroad.”
Madison said she’s documenting the journey of Starter House and its residents and hopes the program becomes a model for other similar efforts. She said the forthcoming docuseries is already in production and vowed it will showcase transformation, not trauma.
“We’re not doing it like a ‘Baddies,’” Madison said, referring to a reality show known for its drama-filled portrayals of women. “No, these are the girls overcoming. These are the triumphs.”
She added, “This is about possibility and transformation, not exploitation.”
As for Morgan, when asked about the docuseries component of the Starter House project, she said visibility is key: “Historically, queer people who are most accepted are the ones the public sees. That’s why this matters.”
