As vaping’s popularity endures, a report issued by the surgeon general’s office Tuesday shows that LGBTQ Americans are among those helping to keep smoke shops in business.
The surgeon general’s 837-page report on tobacco use found that 37.8% of gay, lesbian and bisexual U.S. adults have tried electronic cigarettes, compared with just 16.5% of their straight counterparts. Electronic cigarettes, also known as e-cigarettes, include e-cigars, e-pipes, e-hookahs, vaping pens and hookah pens.
When broken down further, the data, collected from 2019 to 2021, found nearly half of bisexual adults have tried e-cigarettes, compared with 31.8% of gay men and 26.7% of lesbians. The authors noted that figures on transgender Americans’ tobacco use were not widely available for analysis in all areas of the report.
The report found similar disparities exist among the nation’s youths and young adults: Over 42% of young adults and 56% of high school students who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual reported trying e-cigarettes, compared with 30.3% and 49.8% of their straight counterparts.
“Tobacco use is a singular health threat to LGBTQAI+ communities,” said Kristy Marynak, a senior science adviser at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a co-editor of the report. “This report finds that nearly 1 in 5 of all deaths in the United States are caused by tobacco, and it shines a light on the disproportionate burden borne by certain communities, including LGBTQAI+ communities.”
Marynak noted that the study — and the federal government more broadly — considers products containing nicotine, including e-cigarettes, to be tobacco products. The exceptions, she said, are therapeutic products, like nicotine gum and patches.
Long-term research on the health outcomes of e-cigarettes is not available because the products are relatively new. However, there is clear scientific consensus concerning the adverse effects of some of the chemicals commonly found in e-cigarettes.
E-cigarettes produce a number of dangerous chemicals — including acetaldehyde, acrolein and formaldehyde — that can cause lung and heart disease, according to the American Lung Association.
Nicotine is also commonly found in e-cigarettes. Not only is nicotine addictive and likely to fuel anxiety or depression, it also can harm brain development, which occurs until age 25, according to the CDC.
Dr. Scott Hadland, the chief of adolescent and young adult medicine at Mass General for Children and Harvard Medical School, said he’s observed greater e-cigarette use among gay, lesbian and bisexual youths. He said that LGBTQ people use tobacco products at higher rates largely because of “long-standing stigma” within health care settings.
“LGBTQ+ people might be afraid to present for care to help support their quit attempts,” Hadland said. “They might be afraid to talk to their doctor about it because they’re afraid to go to the doctor in general.”
LGBTQ adults are twice as likely as their non-LGBTQ counterparts to report having had negative health care experiences over the last three years, according to a report published this year by KFF, a health care research nonprofit formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Hadland also attributed higher e-cigarette use among LGBTQ Americans to marketing tactics, as is noted in the report.
Tobacco companies marketed directly to the LGBTQ community in the mid-1990s, including through “Project Scum,” which advertised Camel and Red Kamel cigarettes to “consumer subcultures” in San Francisco, according to the study.
Today, tobacco companies advertise in queer magazines and donate to organizations focused on promoting LGBTQ rights and Pride events, the report noted.
In 1964, the surgeon general’s office released its first report on the hazards of smoking and has since then dedicated vast resources to combat cigarette use. The new report shows that those efforts have largely been successful, as only 11.5% of U.S. adults reported being cigarette smokers in 2021, compared with 42.4% in 1965.
Still, 36 million U.S. adults and 760,000 middle and high school students smoke tobacco products, according to the report. Since 2014, the most commonly used tobacco product among U.S. youths and young adults is e-cigarettes.
“These and other noncombustible tobacco products such as nicotine pouches have the potential to undermine overall progress in preventing and reducing young people’s use of tobacco products,” the authors stated.
In June, the Justice Department and Food and Drug Administration announcedthey will create a federal multiagency task force to combat the illegal distribution and sale of e-cigarettes.
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, has introduced a bill to deny transgender identity.
Marshall Wednesday introduced the Defining Male and Female Act of 2024, which a press release from his office calls “a bill to codify legal definitions of male, female, and sex to ensure they are based on biology rather than ideology.”
It would write a binary definition of sex into federal law. “In human beings, there are two — and only two — sexes: male and female, which refer to the two body structures (phenotypes) that, in normal development, correspond to one or the other gamete — sperm for males and ova for females,” the legislation says.
“Every individual is either male or female” and “an individual’s sex can be observed or clinically verified at or before birth,” it continues. “Rare disorders of sexual development are not exceptions to the binary nature of sex. In no case is an individual’s sex determined by stipulation or self-identification.” Gender should not be used as a synonym for sex or shorthand for gender identity or expression, the bill says.
Separate restrooms, locker rooms, and other single-sex facilities according to sex assigned at birth, plus separate sports teams and leagues organized in this fashion, “do not constitute unequal treatment under the law,” it goes on.
Marshall pointed to his experience as a medical doctor as justification for the bill. “As a physician who has delivered over 5,000 babies, I can confidently say that politicizing children’s gender to use them as pawns in their radical woke agenda is not only wrong, it is extremely dangerous,” he said in the press release. “I didn’t think we would need legislation to tell us that there are only two sexes: male and female, but here we are. We must codify the legal definition of sex to be based on science rather than feelings. With our legislation, we can fight back against the Biden–Harris Administration’s assault on our children.”
Actually, transgender identity is recognized as real by major medical and mental health organizations.
Marshall’s bill will likely go nowhere in the Senate, as Democrats still control the chamber until January. U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, an Illinois Republican, introduced a similar bill in the House of Representatives in July. It was referred to the House Judiciary Committee, and there has been no further action. However, such legislation may be a harbinger of what’s to come in the new Congress, with Republican majorities in both chambers under Donald Trump’s presidency. Marshall’s bill has the backing of right-wing groups Heritage Action for America (a sister organization of the Heritage Foundation, the group behind the anti-LGBTQ+ Project 2025), Concerned Women for America, the Family Research Council, and the Alliance Defending Freedom.
This is not Marshall’s first attack on trans people or LGBTQ+ people in general. In 2023, he introduced a bill to ban gender-affirming care for trans minors nationwide and one to ban federal funding for such care for trans people of all ages. Neither bill passed. He put out similar, equally unsuccessful, bills in 2021. In 2022, he led an effort to police LGBTQ+ content in children’s TV programs, which also went nowhere, as did his plan the same year to block school meal funding in protest of the Biden administration’s support for LGBTQ+ rights.
The introduction of his latest bill came on Transgender Day of Remembrance, an annual observance that commemorates trans people lost to violence.
West Virginia advocate Ash Orr said he’s rushing to legally change his name and update the gender marker on his passport.North Carolina lawyer Katie Jenifer is trying to prepare one year’s worth of estrogen for her transgender daughter. Oregon comedian and writer Mx. Dahlia Belle is focused on advocating for immigrants and people with disabilities.
This trio is among nearly a dozen transgender Americans, plus the parent of a trans teen, who talked to NBC News about how they’re readying themselves for the second administration of a president-elect who has promised to restrict their ability to modify identity documents, receive transition-related health care, enlist in the military and participate on sports teams, among other things.
Though trans people told NBC News they have a variety of concerns about President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promises regarding trans people, nearly all shared a similar message: They are better prepared than they were eight years ago.
Heron Greenesmith, the deputy director of policy at the Transgender Law Center, who uses they/them pronouns, said they felt “clear-eyed” the day after the election, whereas in 2016 they were crying and felt devastated by the election results and the effect that Trump’s policies would have on marginalized communities, including trans people.
“This time around is not going to be any different,” Greenesmith said, “but this time around, I know what to do.”
Even though trans people had their rights targeted under the first Trump administration, Greenesmith added, “we also thrived.”
“We provided safety for ourselves and mutual aid, we defended ourselves from criminalization and got ourselves out of jail when we needed to — and provided health care for folks who needed it.” said Greenesmith, who is based in Massachusetts. “We’ll do the same thing again. We got us.”
Day 1 promises
During his campaign, Trump and his supporters spent nearly $60 million on eight anti-trans network-TV ads, one of them in Spanish, between Sept. 19 and Nov. 1, according to AdImpact, a firm that tracks political ad spending.
He has supported a number of policies targeting transgender people, who make up less than 1% of adults in the U.S. At campaign rallies over the summer, he promised to take at least two actions regarding the trans community on his first day in office: undo Biden administration Title IX protections that allowed trans students to use the school bathrooms that align with their gender identities, and cut federal funding for schools “pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content onto the lives of our children.”
Trump also promised to reinstate a policy enacted during his first term that barred trans people from enlisting in the military and to institute a new policy barring transition-related care for minors nationwide. The agenda on his websitesays he would declare that any hospital or clinician that provides transgender care to minors would “no longer meet federal health and safety standards for Medicaid and Medicare — and will be terminated from the program immediately.”
The president-elect’s agenda also includes issuing guidance to federal agencies to define sex only as one’s sex assigned at birth, which would make it harder for trans people to change the gender markers on federal documents such as passports.
Plans for IDs, moving and medical care
The State Department began offering the gender-neutral “X” marker on passports, in addition to the standard “M” or “F,” in April 2022, but a new federal definition of sex could end that policy, legal experts say. If the Trump administration still allows trans people to change the gender marker on their passport, Greenesmith said, it might require them to provide proof of gender-reassignment surgery, putting gender-marker changes out of reach for the majority of trans people.
As for those who already have a passport with an “X” gender marker, if the Trump administration discontinues issuing new “X” passports, the future of those existing identity documents is unclear, according to both Greenesmith and Sasha Buchert, the director of the nonbinary and transgender rights project at Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ legal advocacy organization. There is no existing policy that would allow the government to require people to turn in “X” passports, for example.
“In response to what needs to be done in this moment, now is always a good time to update any identity documents that you need to update,” Buchert said.
A person fills out a passport application with an X gender marker at their home in Virginia in 2022.Stefani Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images
Ash Orr, who lives in Morgantown, West Virginia, and is the press relations manager for Advocates for Trans Equality, the nation’s largest trans rights organization, said the election prompted him to legally change his name. His name-change hearing is scheduled for Jan. 15, and he plans to apply to update his passport as soon as his name change is complete.
He also plans to leave his home state by the spring as a result of the election, and because West Virginia’s state politics have become increasingly conservative in recent years. He declined to share the state he and his partner are moving to due to safety concerns, noting he has received an increasing number of threats over the past two years.
“West Virginia is my home, and it has always been my home, and I’ve had to come to the realization that your home isn’t always a place where you can thrive,” Orr said, adding that he’s struggled with the feeling that he’s abandoning his community and the trans people in the state who can’t afford to leave.
Finn Franklin, a 20-year-old who is finishing his associate’s degree at Rogue Community College in Grants Pass, Oregon, said the election has affected where he plans to apply to finish a four-year degree.
“I was looking at some rural schools because I like the smaller school size,” Franklin said. But after the election, “I’m not going to be applying to schools outside of the West Coast because I don’t want to live somewhere that is not Washington, Oregon or California for the next four years. I think I want to be in a metro area because of the typical politics difference between urban and rural areas, and access to health care.”
Finn Franklin, 20, said the election has affected where he plans to apply to finish a four-year college degree.Courtesy Finn Franklin
Franklin said he receives his testosterone through telehealth offered by Oregon Health & Science University Hospital, which is in Portland, about five hours north. He’s worried about how the incoming administration could affect that treatment, as well as a top-surgery consultation he has scheduled in October 2026, because he receives health care through the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program. OHSU Hospital, which has a program that provides gender-affirming services to children and teens, could be affected if Trump follows through on his promise to cut Medicaid funding for hospitals that provide transition-related care to minors.
“If the funding for those kinds of things goes away, then it kind of becomes utterly inaccessible, and that’s definitely very scary,” Franklin said.
North Carolina lawyer Katie Jenifer said she is trying to secure a year’s worth of estrogen for her 17-year-old daughter, Maddie, in case Trump does issue federal restrictions that could curtail access to transition-related care for minors nationwide. Her daughter’s doctor prescribed her enough medication for a year, but their insurance will only cover one month at a time. Out of pocket, the medication costs $109 a month, but Jenifer received a coupon from the pharmacy that brings the cost down to $49 per month.
Katie Jenifer and her transgender daughter, Maddie, at the White House for a Pride Month celebration in June.Courtesy Katie Jenifer
Jenifer previously told NBC News that she had plans to move with Maddie out of the state or out of the country depending on the election outcome.
“If I can get enough medication on hand to get Maddie to 18, then we will try to stay through high school graduation in June and continue to monitor and make plans to exit soon after or before if necessary,” Jenifer said Tuesday. “If we cannot get the needed meds, then we will probably try to leave mid- to late January. Where we go will depend on my job search.”
Advocates say the election is already having an effect on LGBTQ young people, in particular. The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, saw a 700% increase in crisis contacts in the 24 hours after the election compared to weeks prior. About one-third (30%) of the contacts identified as LGBTQ young people who are Black, Indigenous or people of color, and more than 40% were trans or nonbinary young people, a spokesperson told NBC News.
Organizing within community
Some trans people told NBC News that after the election, they immediately started organizing with local community groups.
Orr, for example, said he planned to volunteer with Holler Health Justice, a reproductive health organization led by queer people of color, to deliver emergency contraception and other reproductive health supplies across West Virginia.
Bennett Kaspar-Williams, an entertainment lawyer based in Los Angeles who is skilled in martial arts, said he is working with other local activists to organize self-defense classes for LGBTQ people and women in response to increased fears of violence given Trump’s rhetoric about trans people.
Bennett Kaspar-Williams is organizing self-defense classes for LGBTQ people and women in Los Angeles.Courtesy Bennett Kaspar-Williams
Ahead of the 2020 election, he said, he volunteered for Democrats because at the time he was pregnant, and, as a trans man, he was afraid of what the future would look like for his child if Trump were re-elected.
“If you had told me that in four years he’s going to win again, I definitely would not have believed you,” he said. “I feel really scared for the generation of people who were waiting until they were old enough to be able to start a medical transition, who are now facing the possibility of never being able to do that at all, and what that means for them.”
Many trans people also mentioned giving directly to mutual aid groups, specifically those that support trans people of color.
Aldita Gallardo is the the director of the Action for Transformation Fund, a partnership between the Transgender Law Center and the Emergent Fund, a national rapid response fund that supports groups led by LGBTQ people of color. The $1 million Action for Transformation Fund was a pilot effort to move funds directly to trans activists working within their local communities. Gallardo noted that foundations that provide money to LGBTQ communities allocated less than 4 cents per $100 of their total giving to U.S. trans communities and issues, according to a 2021 report by Funders for LGBTQ Issues.
Gallardo, who is based in Oakland, California, said the Action for Transformation Fund, which launched in September and just made its first round of grants, wasn’t previously thinking about long-term fundraising, but that changed after the election.
“Now we see it as an opportunity to bring more dollars for the increasing amount of need,” Gallardo said. “We know that things will escalate in the four years of the administration.”
Some of the groups that were supported by the fund’s first round of grants include House of Tulip, which provides housing to trans people of color in Louisiana; Transgender Advocates Knowledgeable Empowering, or TAKE, which provides services to trans people of color in Birmingham, Alabama; and the Unspoken Treasure Society, a Black, trans-led organization in Jacksonville, Florida.
Mx. Dahlia Belle, a comedian and writer based in Portland, Oregon, who also works as a peer support operator for a trans nonprofit, encouraged trans people to support those outside of their immediate community as a second Trump administration begins. She fears her job with the trans nonprofit could “cease to exist” if Congress passes a bill that would allow Trump to target nonprofits’ tax-exempt status. If that were to happen, she could lose access to health care. Still, she said she still feels comparatively safe and privileged.
Mx. Dahlia Belle said she’s focused on advocating for immigrants and people with disabilities.Courtesy Dahlia Belle
“We as a community are facing a very real existential threat,” Belle said. However, she added, “in the grand scheme of things, the threat we are facing pales in comparison to the immediacy and severity that will be faced by immigrants and people with disabilities and people who may be in need of reproductive care.”
She acknowledged that trans people and LGBTQ people more broadly fit into all of these categories and said it’s “those intersections of identity where I feel our advocacy is most needed and needs to be focused.”
Donald Trump is reportedly planning to reinstate his trans military ban through executive order on his first day in office. Reports say the president-elect will not only bar trans people from joining but also that he plans to medically discharge the 15,000 trans personnel who are currently serving.
If carried out this way, the ban will be significantly harsher than the first time he banned trans people from the military in 2017, when trans people already serving were allowed to remain in their positions. Because the military is already experiencing recruitment issues, experts are worried the policy will significantly impair military readiness.
“These people will be forced out at a time when the military can’t recruit enough people,” an anonymous source told The Times.“Only the Marine Corps is hitting its numbers for recruitment and some people who will be affected are in very senior positions.”
“Should a trans ban be implemented from day one of the Trump administration, it would undermine the readiness of the military and create an even greater recruitment and retention crisis,” added Rachel Branaman, executive director of Modern Military Association of America, “not to mention signaling vulnerability to America’s adversaries.”
“Abruptly discharging 15,000-plus service members, especially given that the military’s recruiting targets fell short by 41,000 recruits last year, adds administrative burdens to war fighting units, harms unit cohesion, and aggravates critical skill gaps,” she continued. “There would be a significant financial cost, as well as a loss of experience and leadership that will take possibly 20 years and billions of dollars to replace.”
A trans officer in the U.S. Air Force who also chose to remain anonymous expressed worry about filling highly skilled positions. “There are very few members of my career field with this experience, and in the event of a large-scale contingency, it would be difficult to replace the level of experience that I bring to the table.”
Trump-Vance transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt denied that Trump has any concrete plans to ban trans military members. “These unnamed sources are speculating and have no idea what they are actually talking about. No decisions on this issue have been made. No policy should ever be deemed official unless it comes directly from President Trump or his authorized spokespeople.”
The Obama administration opened up military service to transgender people in 2016, but in 2017, Trump announced a trans military ban via tweet. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” Trump declared.
How the ban would be implemented was unclear, since Trump had given the Pentagon no heads up that his tweet was coming.
Trump consulted no military experts before announcing the ban. Though he claimed that trans healthcare was too expensive for the military, it was revealed that the military spends $41.6 million annually on the erectile dysfunction medication Viagra, around five to 20 times what it costs to fund trans-related healthcare.
President Joe Biden reversed the ban when he took office in 2021.
The majority of transgender employees, 82%, reported experiencing workplace discrimination or harassment because of their gender identity or sexual orientation at some point in their lives, according to a new survey.
The survey, conducted by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, an LGBTQ research think tank, defined “discrimination and harassment” as being fired, not hired, not promoted, or verbally, sexually or physically harassed. Trans employees were more likely to report such experiences than cisgender lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer employees, at 45%, and nonbinary employees, at 59%.
“Transgender people are a particularly vulnerable and marginalized group in the workplace,” Brad Sears, lead author of the report and founding executive director at the Williams Institute, said in a statement. “Many are not bringing their full selves to work and face unsupportive workplace environments, which makes them less likely to fully invest in their current employer and job.”
Previous research from the Williams Institute has estimated that there are about 1.3 million trans adults in the U.S. The new report surveyed 1,902 LGBTQ adults in the workforce, including 86 trans adults, in the summer of 2023, and compared the experiences of trans adults to their cisgender lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer peers.
Half of the trans adults surveyed were people of color and 6 in 10 were making less than $50,000 a year. Of the trans respondents who reported having experienced workplace discrimination or harassment at some point in their lives, 65% reported experiencing verbal harassment, 34% reported experiencing physical harassment and 42% reported experiencing sexual harassment.
Many of the trans respondents provided examples of being persistently misgendered or deadnamed, referring to someone intentionally using the incorrect pronouns or their previous name, and reported that colleagues asked invasive questions about their body or transition, among other types of verbal harassment.
The report includes quotes from respondents who described some of their experiences. For example, one trans employee from Massachusetts said their boss, supervisor and co-workers all asked them too many personal questions “about how I do things as a trans person,” including how they get dressed and wear a binder to flatten their chest and how their sexuality changed when they transitioned.
Trans employees who reported experiencing discrimination were two tofour times more likely than cisgender LGBQ employees to report being fired (12% vs. 5%), not being hired (20% vs 5%) or not being given career advancement opportunities (15% vs 5%), based on their gender identity or sexual orientation in the past year.
Trans people attempted to mitigate workplace discrimination and harassment by concealing their gender identity at work or by looking for another job, according to the report. More than 1 in 3 trans respondents, or 36%, said they are not out as trans to their current supervisor; 13% said they are not out as trans to any of their co-workers; 71% said they’ve engaged in behaviors to cover up their gender identity, such as changing their voice or mannerisms while at work; and 67% said they had left a job because of how they were treated based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
Users of Elon Musk‘s X/Twitter are looking for a new social media platform on which to connect and share their thoughts – and Bluesky might be the answer.
Bluesky has been the talk of the internet for some time now, and last week it became the top free app in the Apple App Store in the UK, as users looked for an alternative to Musk’s platform where LGBTQ+ hate appears free to continue unabated.
Having launched in 2022, Bluesky has been steadily gaining numbers, especially in the wake of the recent US presidential election and with Musk co-leading the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency. This month, the platform’s audience hit 19 million, with 700,000 new members in just one week.
So, is the grass really greener – or maybe bluer – elsewhere? Here is everything you need to know about the up and coming social media platform.
Is Bluesky free?
Yes.
Bluesky started as an internal project by former Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey in 2019. In 2021, it became an independent company with Jay Graber taking the reins.
Previously, new users were only able to migrate to the site if they received an invitation from an existing user. That policy has been scrapped and anyone can join. Visit bsky.app and click the sign-up button to begin.
What is the difference between X and Bluesky?
At first look, X/ and Bluesky seem similar, both are scrollable social media platforms but when you look closer the new alternative solves a lot of problems that users have been having with Musk’s adopted child recently.
People using Bluesky can post, comment, repost and like their favourite things using the home page, notifications and search functions.
Bluesky prides itself on being a network that prioritises user control, a stark contrast to X’s algorithm-driven feeds that had become increasingly populated by bots. Being decentralised is an essential difference because users can host their data on their own servers rather than those owned by the company.
However, most people are unlikely to use this feature and will simply join with a “.bsky.social” at the end of their username.
Toxic algorithms and right-wing hate are driving people to Bludsky. (Mario Tama/Getty)
Why is everyone going to Bluesky?
It’s no coincidence that following Trump’s re-election, the number of new users on Bluesky shot up.
Elon Musk backed Trump’s presidential campaign both vocally and financially and has now been nominated for a position in the incoming administration. With political division on the platform being felt by all, some are leaving X as a protest.
Other X users have grown fed up with the platform’s toxic algorithmic feeds and the South-African-born billionaire’s failed promises to end the bot problem.
Also, since Musk took over, X seems to have been increasingly prioritising right-wing/MAGA attitudes.
The platform has also become increasingly hostile for LGBTQ+ users. Musk – whose own trans daughter has cut him out of her life – rolled back anti-hate protection policies on the social media platform after he took it over, such as those against misgendering and deadnaming.
The policy which prohibited “targeted harassment, including repeated slurs, tropes” or content intended to dehumanise protected categories, had been in effect since 2018 – prior to Musk’s acquisition of the platform – but was dropped last year.
A Texas city infamous for placing a $10,000 bounty on trans people who use bathrooms and locker rooms that do not align with their sex assigned at birth has voted to make its policy even more strict.
On Tuesday, the Odessa City Council voted 5-1 to maintain its bathroom ban and allow individual citizens (whether or not they are Odessa or even Texas residents) to sue a trans person for a minimum of $10,000 in damages if they violate it (there is no cap on how large the bounty can be). It also approved an expansion of the law. Once applied only to public facilities, it will now apply to private ones as well.
“You are putting a target on the queer community’s back by offering a reward and taking money out of their pockets,” Odessa resident and business owner Bradley Burke told the council during public comments, as reported by Lonestar Live.
“The trans community is not a threat to Odessa or anyone in the bathroom,” added Matilda Mann-Morales, president of local LGBTQ+ group Out in West Texas. “We’re just trying to live out our lives. I don’t want the government in the bathroom.”
Speakers also argued that trans people have not historically posed any risk to people in the bathroom and are instead statistically far more at risk of being abused or harassed while trying to use facilities. Lonestar Live reported that Odessa police have not received any report about public restrooms in three years, and police in several states have said they have been unable to identify any cases of trans people harassing anyone in a public bathroom.
A letter from the ACLU of Texas to the Odessa City Council and Mayor Javier Joven, pointed out that the last-minute addition of private facilities in the legislation is a likely violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act because the city did not “provide adequate notice to business owners and Odessa residents that the local government was exposing them to immense liability on private property.”
The letter also pointed out that “the proposal to place a bounty of $10,000 per occurrence on anyone using a restroom on private property could bankrupt many businesses and Odessa residents, as well as flood the courts with frivolous lawsuits.”
The organization also urged the city council to reject the ordinance because it is discriminatory and does not “reflect the values” of Odessa: “Transgender people are part of the fabric of our community, our families, our workplaces, and our neighborhoods. Like everyone else, they are small business owners and homeowners and should be allowed to use their private property without undue government interference. But the sweeping proposed changes affixed to your upcoming council agenda trample on their rights and threaten to create a gender-policing witch hunt on both public and private property across the City.”
In addition to granting the right to sue, the ordinance also invokes criminal penalties for individuals who use bathrooms that align with their gender identity. The provision states that a “person violating the provisions of this ordinance shall be deemed guilty of a Class C misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine not to exceed five hundred dollars” and that anyone who refuses to use a bathroom aligned with what the city perceives as their biological sex, even after being asked to leave by a building owner, may be guilty of misdemeanor trespassing.
The bounty defines biological sex based on birth certificates, either at the time of birth or corrected if there was a clerical error. This means that any transgender individual who gets their birth certificate updated to reflect their gender identity would still be violating the law if they used bathrooms that align with their gender.
This ban lacks any exceptions for disabled people who may be accompanied by a person of a different gender and may open the door to lawsuits targeting anyone who is gender non-conforming.
Many of us have watched with alarm as trans people have been increasingly targeted by extremists – culminating in Donald Trump’s hateful presidential campaign. Trans people deserve full, authentic, and healthy lives, not to be attacked by anti-trans politicians who are trying to distract and divide us.
Now, we are entering a new chapter of resistance, and we are ready. Having already lived through a Trump presidency, we know firsthand the devastating impact a second term could have on our rights, our safety, and our future. Many in the LGBTQ+ community, particularly trans people and their families, are understandably feeling fear and uncertainty about what lies ahead.
However, we want to make it clear: you are not alone. We are in this together. As a community, we stand united in this fight. Earlier this year, two trans-led organizations, the National Center for Trans Equality and the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, merged to form Advocates for Trans Equality (A4TE), a unified force dedicated to building the power, strength, and resilience we need for the long haul.
Our vision for an inclusive and hopeful future for all trans people is unwavering. The pursuit of equality will continue. No matter the obstacles we face, we will care for each other.
Our team of experts is working hard to protect our trans community, and we’re in close communication with our allies in Congress and state legislatures across the country. Allied politicians who stand with us are deeply committed to upholding human dignity, ensuring equitable healthcare access, and fighting against discrimination. They understand that the trans community deserves the same rights as everyone else, and that access to gender-affirming care, supported by strong legal protections, is essential for the well-being and safety of trans individuals.
In times like these, it’s crucial to acknowledge that grief and stress affect everyone differently. Some may need time to step back and process; others may throw themselves into work to regain a sense of control. Some may experience both. All of these reactions are valid. We encourage you to take a moment to reflect on where you are and check in with yourself. Above all, we urge patience, empathy, and kindness — both toward yourself and others. Grief is a process, and it’s okay to feel anger, fear, or sadness. There is no rush to find “closure” or make big decisions.
But even in the face of difficulty, it is essential to remember our wins. This year, Sarah McBride (D-DE) made history as the first openly trans member of Congress. Emma Curtis, an A4TE-endorsed candidate, became the first openly trans elected official in Kentucky when voters selected her for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council. Out lesbian Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) secured re-election to the Senate. For the first time, two Black women — Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) — will serve together in the Senate. In New York, Prop 1 passed, enshrining gender identity and sexual orientation protections along with abortion rights. And across several states — including Arizona, Missouri, and Montana — abortion rights have been enshrined in state constitutions.
These victories are proof that even in the face of challenges, we are part of a movement that is growing stronger, more united, and more determined. This is why A4TE merged: to build the power necessary to weather storms like this one. We’ve prepared for this possibility. We’ve developed contingency plans. We will adapt our programs as needed, and we will continue our work with renewed urgency.
As we look to the future, we also recognize the ongoing battle we face. Anti-trans politicians continue to push harmful, unfounded rhetoric about our community. This rhetoric is both completely false and very dangerous. Transition-related healthcare has been studied for over four decades and is supported by every leading medical association. And the research is clear: the harmful narratives being pushed are taking a direct toll on the physical, mental, and emotional health of trans people.
By targeting the trans community and denying us the right to live safe, healthy, and authentic lives, these politicians are distracting from the real issues facing all Americans — issues like underfunded schools, rising costs of living, and the climate crisis. Every person, including trans people, deserves the opportunity to live authentically, to be healthy, and to be supported in their identity.
Our mission has never been more vital. Not only for trans people but for the broader LGBTQ+ community. The stakes are higher than ever before. We will fight. We will organize, testify, march, and protect each other. We’ve faced repression before when regressive forces tried to control us. But each generation has fought back — and now, it’s our turn to pick up the baton. We will stand firm for our freedoms, for our families, and for our futures.
The arc of history is long, and a second Trump presidency is just one chapter in that story. It is not the whole book. Together, we will continue to write the next chapters, and we will ensure that the future we create is one of equality, safety, and justice for all.
On Wednesday, Ohio’s legislature became the first in the country to pass an anti-transgender law post-2024 election. The bill, SB104, originally aimed to help dual-enrolled high school students earn college credits, but a provision was added to bar transgender people from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity on college campuses. Now, Ohio’s legislature has passed the bill on the first day of a lame-duck session. With this move, Ohio joins a small number of states in passing a transgender bathroom ban that includes adults—following a $215 million anti-trans ad campaign, many of whose ads ran heavily in the state, targeting transgender rights.
The bill declares that “no institution of higher education shall knowingly permit” transgender people to use bathrooms aligned with their gender identity. Originally passed in June, the bill’s future looked uncertain leading up to the 2024 election. But after the election, primary sponsor Adam Bird signaled that targeting trans and queer communities would be a top priority for Ohio’s legislature, calling for state investigations into official diversity initiatives and drag shows. Now, his bill is set to be one of the nation’s most restrictive toward transgender people.
While most states with bathroom bans restrict them to grade school settings, only nine states currently bar transgender adults from some public bathrooms—Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Texas (Odessa), Utah, and now Ohio will become the tenth. Notably, this ban extends to private colleges as well as public ones, making it one of the first adult bathroom bans in the U.S. to apply to private institutions.
Maria Bruno of No Extremism Ohio noted in a Twitter post, “Ohio Senate Repubs just passed a bill that requires all Ohio schools, public and private, including PRIVATE COLLEGES to adopt & enforce an anti-trans bathroom policy. [It] includes schools like CCAD & Antioch, private colleges [with] a majority LGBTQstudent body.”
Indeed, the bill would apply to colleges like Antioch, of which 82% of studentsidentify as LGBTQ+ and 16% identify as transgender. Some private colleges are known for being safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people and thus attract a student body that seeks them for safety. Now, even private colleges like Antioch will be forced to ban transgender girls from girls’ restrooms in the state of Ohio.
Kaleidoscope Youth Center, an LGBTQ+ youth advocacy group, called the bill’s passage undemocratic and malicious, stating, “We are extremely disgusted by the passage of Senate bill 104. The “Protect All Students Act” being added to the unrelated topic of the College Credit Plus Program is a demonstration of underhanded and dishonest leadership. The bathroom ban’s maliciously expedited and undemocratic movement through the legislature lacks transparency. This policy is not only dangerous and unnecessary, it is a blatant display of discrimination,” and followed up with a call for Ohio voters to contact Governor Mike DeWine’s office.
Anti-trans bathroom bans, gender-affirming care bans, and similar restrictions have a profound impact on young people’s mental health. A CDC study found that 25% of young transgender people attempted suicide in the past year. Another study, published in Nature Human Behavior, showed that such laws can lead to an up to 72% increase in suicide attempt rates. Following the recent election, LGBTQ+ crisis hotlines reported a 700% surge in calls as transgender individuals brace for harsh crackdowns in the aftermath of the election. Ohio’s latest legislation has brought those fears to reality.
Many transgender people are watching closely to see what their state legislatures will do next. Ohio could be an early indicator of what to expect from Republican-controlled states emboldened by what they interpret as a mandate to target transgender rights through laws that restrict public life. With several state prefiling deadlines approaching, the coming weeks will reveal more about what the landscape holds for transgender people at the state level. This latest Ohio bill now heads to Governor DeWine’s desk—though he has vetoed anti-trans bills in the past, those vetoes were ultimately overridden.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced a resolution Monday that would ban transgender women from using female bathrooms in the Capitol just weeks before Democratic Rep.-elect Sarah McBride of Delaware is set to become the first out transgender member of Congress.
The measure would prohibit any lawmakers and House employees from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.”
Asked by reporters whether her resolution was meant to target a marginalized person, Mace said, “Sarah McBride doesn’t get a say in this.”
“This is a biological man trying to force himself into women’s spaces, and I’m not going to tolerate it,” she added.
McBride, who won the race for Delaware’s lone House seat this month, slammed the measure Monday.
“This is a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing. We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars,” she said in a statement.
“Every day Americans go to work with people who have life journeys different than their own and engage with them respectfully, I hope members of Congress can muster that same kindness,” she said on X.
Mace told reporters that her resolution is about “women’s rights” and protecting them in “private spaces,” arguing that the “radical left” was trying to erase those rights.
A spokesperson for McBride told NBC News that Mace did not reach out before she introduced the measure and that McBride found out about it in the media.
Mace’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The House sergeant-at-arms would be tasked with enforcing the resolution if it passes. The measure would not require passage by the Senate or a signature from the president.
Mace said Monday that she plans to reintroduce the measure in the next Congress, when Republicans will retain control of the House.
Republicans spent more than $200 million on network television ads targeting trans people this year, according to data shared with NBC News this month by AdImpact, a firm that tracks political ad spending.
The Republican Party platform this year leaned heavily into anti-trans rhetoric, calling for banning trans people from competing in sports that align with their gender identities, proposing undoing Title IX protections for LGBTQ people and calling for barring the use of taxpayer dollars for funding gender-affirming surgery.
In the days following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, some Democrats blamed their party’s position on transgender rights as contributing to Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat.
Those Democratic lawmakers said the party went too far and pandered to what they called “the far left” while trying not to offend anyone.
The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, said Monday that Mace was cruel and discriminating against her incoming colleague, calling the resolution a “political charade by a grown-up bully.”
“It is also another warning sign that the incoming anti-equality House majority will continue to focus on targeting LGBTQ+ people rather than the cost of living, price gouging or any of the problems the American people elected them to solve,” spokesperson Laurel Powell said in a statement.
