A memorial to the long-ignored gay victims of the Nazi regime and to all LGBTQ people persecuted throughout history has been unveiled in Paris on Saturday.
The monument, a massive steel star designed by French artist Jean-Luc Verna, is located at the heart of Paris, in public gardens close to the Bastille Plaza. It aims to fulfill a duty to remember and to fight discrimination, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said.
“Historical recognition means saying ‘this happened’ and ‘we don’t want it to happen again,’” Hidalgo said.
Describing the sculpture that looks like a big star wand lying on the ground, Verna, a visual artist who also is a LGBTQ rights activist, said: “There’s a black side in front of us, forcing us to remember. … At certain times of the day, it casts a long shadow on the ground, evoking the dangers looming over, sadly.”
The other side of the star, silvery, reflects the sky. It represents “the color of time passing, with the Paris sky moving as quickly as public opinion, which can change at any moment,” Verna said.
Historians estimate between 5,000 and 15,000 people were deported throughout Europe by the Nazi regime during World War II because they were gay.
Jacques Chirac in 2005 was the first president in France to recognize these crimes, acknowledging LGBTQ people have been “hunted down, arrested and deported.”
Verna speaking next to Paris’ mayor Anne Hidalgo on Saturday.Kiran Ridley / AFP – Getty Images
Jean-Luc Roméro, deputy mayor of Paris and a longtime LGBTQ rights activist, said “we didn’t know, unfortunately, that this monument would be inaugurated at one of the worst moments we’re going through right now.”
In Europe, Hungary’s parliament passed this year an amendment to the constitution that allows the government to ban public events by LGBTQ+ communities, a decision that legal scholars and critics have called another step toward authoritarianism by the populist government.
A festival featuring the works of playwrights from countries where LGBTQ+ rights are suppressed is turning to fundraising after President Donald Trump’s National Endowment for the Arts cut its grant to the group. The National Queer Theater said they have created a GoFundMe page where the community can support the Criminal Queerness Festival taking place during NYC Pride 2025, NBC Newsreports.
The Criminal Queerness Festival takes place at the HERE Art Center in NYC on June 11-28. According to its website, the festival “showcases the works of international LGBTQ+ playwrights from countries where queer identities are criminalized or censored.” This year’s festival features plays reflecting queer life in Cuba, Indonesia, and Uganda.
The festival, which was created during WorldPride 2019, is the creation of Brooklyn’s National Queer Theater. The group depended upon a $20,000 grant from the NEA to fund the festival, which represented 20 percent of the festival’s budget for 2025.
The group was notified via email on Friday that their grants no longer aligned with Trump’s priorities, and the request for this year’s grant was denied.
“It’s devastating and upsetting, because we’re a very small organization,” Jess Ducey, co-chair of the company’s board, told NBC News. “That grant is absolutely integral to the funding.”
While the news was devastating, Ducey and the National Queer Theater do not view it as fatal. The group has created a GoFundMe page (@national-queer-theater) to help cover the lost grant. So far, the page has raised over $8,000 of its $20,000 goal.
The three plays to be performed this year reflect a mix of queer identities set in places hostile to the LGBTQ+ communities, both in foreign countries and the U.S.
Tomorrow Never Came by Jedidiah Mugarura is set in Uganda and tells the story of a gay man in a heterosexual marriage and also a same-sex love affair. What Are You to Me by Dena Igusti is about a lesbian romance in Indonesia cut short by the Jakarta riots and crackdown in 1998. The story is discovered years later by an “emerging zine writer in Queens” looking to share their story. frikiNATIONby Krystal Ortiz explores the lives of young punks in Cuba of the early 1990s who injected themselves with tainted blood to acquire HIV, knowing they would live better lives isolated in state-run sanitariums than trying to survive under Fidel Castro’s oppressive, homophobic regime.
The National Theatre Group is party to the suit, Rhode Island Latino Arts v. National Endowment for the Arts, filed by the ACLU in a Rhode Island federal district court. The suit has unsuccessfully sought to reinstate funding cut from the NEA by Trump.
The Pentagon issued a memo directing all military leaders and commands to pull and review books that address anti-racism, diversity, or gender issues from libraries operated by branches of the military. He initially focused on removing any so-called pro-DEI reading material from libraries within DOD-run schools.
The memo is perhaps the Department of Defense’s (DOD) broadest and most detailed directive so far in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s campaign to rid the military of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and materials.
The Associated Press (AP)obtained a copy of a memo which, signed Friday by Performing the Duties of Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Timothy Dill.
The memo on the latest library purge states educational materials at base operated libraries “promoting divisive concepts and gender ideology are incompatible with the Department’s core mission.” The memo directs department leaders to “promptly identify” books that are incompatible with these guidelines and sequester them by May 21.
The memo doesn’t mention what will happen to these books or whether they will be stored or destroyed, only stating that additional guidance will be provided on how to cull the initial list and determine what should be removed.
The memo indicates that the DOD will set up a temporary library committee to provide information on the reviews of and decisions upon reading material. The committee will set up a list of search terms to identify which works should be pulled for review.
These search terms include: affirmative action, anti-racism, critical race theory, discrimination, diversity, gender dysphoria, gender identity and transition, transgender, transsexual, and white privilege.
Books being purged include Maya Angelou’s autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which explores Angelou’s experience as a black youth living in the southern United States during Jim Crow-era segregation.
Other books in this purge detailing the experiences of African American women in the 19th and 20th century include Half American, about African Americans in World War II; A Respectable Woman, about the public roles of African American women in 19th century New York.
Additionally books about the Holocaust written by survivors trying to make sense of their trauma or those memoralizing the victims of the horrific event where purged including Memorializing the Holocaust.
Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — representing 12 plaintiffs from U.S. military schools —brought up a lawsuit against Pete Hegseth in his official capacity as Defense Secretary for ordering the removal of over 400 books from DOD school libraries. The plaintiffs argue that removing these books violates students’ First Amendment rights and denies these students the same educational opportunities as students in public schools.
On the same day that Dill issued his memo, Hegseth released a memo ordering military academies to admit students solely based on merit with “no consideration of race, ethnicity, or sex”, underlining the word “no.”
For over a decade, the organization I founded, Gays With Kids, has proudly stood as a beacon of support, education, and visibility for gay men on the path to fatherhood. From the beginning, our mission has been rooted in a singular belief: Every person, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, deserves the opportunity to create and raise a family. That belief hasn’t changed. But the world around us has.
Over the past year, we’ve watched with growing alarm as the movement against DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) has moved from fringe rhetoric to mainstream policy. Politicians and influencers alike have declared open season on the very principles that helped us inch closer to equality, principles that affirmed our right not just to live openly, but to love, marry, and parent with dignity.
These attacks have consequences.
When laws are passed to defund DEI initiatives, or when universities are forced to shutter offices that serve LGBTQ+ students, or when healthcare providers are threatened for offering gender-affirming care, the ripple effect is felt across every aspect of LGBTQ+ life, including family building.
Surrogacy, adoption, foster care, and fertility access are already complex and costly journeys. For LGBTQ+ people, they’re even more so, compounded by legal roadblocks, discriminatory policies, and social stigma.
DEI frameworks were never about “special rights”; they were about leveling the playing field, ensuring that our families had the same opportunities, protections, and support systems as any other. Without these systems in place, the path to parenthood becomes steeper, narrower, and more uncertain.
That’s why I’m thrilled that the GWK Academy is officially expanding its services beyond gay men to support all LGBTQ+ people with their family-building needs. In doing so, we are transitioning into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization—a move that allows us to provide free, vital educational resources, advocacy, and community to anyone in our community hoping to become a parent.
This expansion comes at a critical moment. As anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric becomes more emboldened, as rights and resources are rolled back in state after state, and as disinformation spreads regarding what it means to be an LGBTQ+ parent, we are doubling down on our commitment to serve the entire community: gay dads, lesbian moms, queer parents, transgender and nonbinary people, bisexual parents, and anyone who needs a trusted, affirming guide to help navigate the journey to parenthood.
We are doing this not just because it is right, but because it is necessary.
Let’s be clear: The current wave of efforts against DEI is not just a political maneuver. It is a targeted attempt to silence, erase, and disempower marginalized communities, including LGBTQ+ families. These policies don’t just remove language from mission statements; they remove critical support from the real people who need it. For LGBTQ+ prospective parents, that can mean losing access to affirming healthcare providers, adoption agencies, legal protections, and financial resources.
By becoming a nonprofit, GWK Academy is taking a bold step to insulate our work from these attacks. We are building partnerships with LGBTQ+ affirming clinics, agencies, and legal experts to ensure our community can access accurate, inclusive, and life-changing information. We are creating new educational programs tailored to all family-building paths, from IVF to foster care, from co-parenting to adoption. And we are advocating — loudly and proudly — for a world where LGBTQ+ parents and their children are not just accepted but celebrated.
This is a deeply personal mission. Like so many LGBTQ+ people, I grew up believing that being gay meant I would never be a dad. And yet, here I am — a proud father, raising children in a loving and supportive home. I know the joy that comes from becoming a parent. I also know the fear, the confusion, and the heartbreak that can come with navigating a system that wasn’t built for us.
GWK Academy exists to change that.
To every LGBTQ+ person out there wondering if parenthood is possible for you: Yes, it is. And we are here to walk that journey with you, every step of the way. Whether you’re just beginning to explore your options, deep into the legal paperwork, or already a parent looking to connect with community, we’ve got your back.
When you think about Bible study, images might pop into your head of kids learning principles like forgiveness or loving thy neighbor, and that’s just what LifeWise Academy advertises on its website: “A supportive and inclusive atmosphere where everyone feels valued.”
But for many parents and LGBTQ kids in at least 591 American public schools with LifeWise programs, that’s far from the truth.
One parent says their daughter was “mercilessly bullied by LifeWise kids for ‘looking like a Lesbian who is going to burn in hell.’” Another had to remove their transgender son from school after he was bullied following the presidential election, with the school fearing LifeWise staff and students would make things worse.
And a third parent—a queer mom—says, “As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, my children’s safety in the public school setting is compromised when students are permitted to be removed from the school… to be taught discriminatory and harmful things about my family.”
For an hour a week, students from kindergarten through 12th grade learn about religious concepts rooted—in part—in homophobia and transphobia. For example, students are taught that anything other than a nuclear family, with one mom and one dad who are married, is wrong and that there is no such thing as being transgender.
LifeWise even requiresitsemployees to agree to their worldview statement, which says, “God’s design for the gift of sex is for it to be exercised and enjoyed exclusively within the covenant relationship of marriage between one man and one woman. Additionally, a person’s sex has been given as a gift from God and should not be altered.”
“This is not just learning about a religion,” says Sloan Okrey Anderson, an assistant professor of social work at St. Catherine University who researches LGBTQ populations and Christianity. “The content is from a very specific, hyper-conservative, white American evangelical perspective, a very specific white nationalist-adjacent version of Christianity.”
Since its inception seven years ago, LifeWise has grown massively with 50,000 students projected to attend LifeWise classes across 29 states. The organization was founded in Ohio, which has at least 197 programs, and it has a disproportionate presence in the Midwest.
LifeWise’s growth in the U.S. reflects a trend of politicians and lawmakers attempting to incorporate Christianity in public schools and minimize LGBTQ representation. Last year, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public education announced all schools in the state would be required to teach students about the Bible—a decision which came shortly after Louisiana attempted to mandate that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom. This is all occurring as the Supreme Court seems poised to side with Maryland parents who want to remove their kids from classes that are teaching LGBTQ-themed books.
How LifeWise Is Allowed to Operate
Since American public schools aren’t allowed to promote any one religion, LifeWise uses what’s known as Released Time Religious Instruction (RTRI), a precedent set in a 1952 Supreme Court case that allows public school students with parental consent to receive religious education off school property during the school day, although it was only meant to be used by individual families, not a nationwide organization.
RTRI prohibits public funds from being used to facilitate the program and schools from promoting it, but LifeWise gets around this by having children recruit their peers and bribing them with sweet treats. For example, LifeWise in Wauseon, Ohio, has provided children with “student business cards” to hand out to friends and has said, “If you [can] get 90 kids to come, [we’ll] give you an ice cream party.”
LifeWise Academy Wauseon, OH. Student business cards | Screenshot: Wauseon Character Academy on YouTube
Curriculum
LifeWise teaches elementary and middle school students a variety of Christian principles. But embedded in the core curriculum are more insidious, anti-LGBTQ teachings. In a sixth grade lesson plan obtained by Uncloseted Media, LifeWise teaches 11– to 12-year-olds that “God created people as ‘male and female’” and “God designed two separate, distinct genders to complement one another in relationship.”
But high school is where the curriculum really sinks its teeth into issues related to LGBTQ identities. LifeWise’s high school curriculum uses the “Foundations” series that starts with “Understanding the Times,” based on a book by the same name.
The original book was written in 2006 by Jeff Myers and David Noebel, two conservative evangelicals, and contains a plethora of harmful and untrue homophobic, transphobic and even Islamophobic teachings.
On page 324, they write, “Being raised by parents who have been involved in same-sex relationships is correlated with several negative social outcomes, including crime, substance abuse, and forced sexual encounters.”
And on page 409, they critique people who disavow heteronormative power structures: “This way of thinking continues to creep into judicial decisions, most recently … through the decision of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy to overthrow the Defense of Marriage Act because he viewed it as oppressive to people experiencing same-sex attraction.”
Okrey Anderson says that reducing LGBTQ identities down to worldviews is a distinct form of othering. “You’re granting permission to and empowering these kids to go out and see people’s identities and lived experiences as a worldview to be debated and you’re othering them. … Every scrap of misinformation that you spread about trans people translates directly into violence against trans people.”
Beyond the curriculum, LifeWise has a rulebook that gives instructors—who are not required to have teaching certifications from the Department of Education—guidance on how to answer “difficult questions from students.”
Excerpt from Lifewise’s Difficult Questions from Students document. | screenshot
The document explains that anyone who is experiencing gender dysphoria or is attracted to someone of the same sex should deny those feelings. If a child asks, “What would God think if I changed my gender?” LifeWise teachers are instructed to deny that trans, gender diverse and intersex people exist, and to explain that “God made us male or female. No matter how we feel, or how confused we are, we should trust and respect God’s perfect design and how He created us.”
If a kid asks about same-sex relationships, LifeWise instructs teachers to explain that “God designed the first man and woman to have a loving relationship with one another in marriage” and “anything different from this kind of romantic relationship between a husband and a wife is sin.”
“It’s grotesque,” says Olivia Murray, a professor at Portland State University whose research focuses on education. “From a child, youth and adolescent perspective, how does this build critical thinkers?”
Murray says social and emotional learning should teach children to “call out and question what we know and think deeper into the how and the why of knowledge.” She says a better approach might be to ask a question in return like, “What do you think of your friend who was presumed male at birth that uses female pronouns?” or “What’s your interpretation of the Bible and how might that impact your religion and relationships in the world?”
Policies and Staff
LifeWise operates with little diversity. According to its website, all of its senior leadership boast nuclear families, and three-quarters are men.
Staff are expected to remain abstinent, with the only exception being for those in heterosexual marriages.
Excerpt from LifeWise’s team member conduct policy. | screenshot
Christopher Elder was a volunteer at LifeWise’s chapter in Paulding Village, Ohio, until he was terminated shortly after he started dating his boyfriend.
“My identity in Christ, to me, looks like loving and supporting my boyfriend and everyone in the LGBTQ community,” Elder, 25, told Uncloseted Media. But when he told his director he had a boyfriend and asked if he could continue to volunteer, he was surprised by the answer. His director said, “Since the LifeWise Worldview Statement is that God’s design is for marriage to be between one man and one woman and your current choice doesn’t align with that stance, I think it’s best that you not volunteer at this time.”
Christopher Elder {right} and his boyfriend [left} | Photo courtesy of Elder
The director at LifeWise’s Paulding Village, Ohio chapter did not respond to Uncloseted Media’s request for comment.
“I thought that as long as Jason and I are abstinent, then I [could] still volunteer,” says Elder. “I’m not killing anybody, I’m not blatantly opposing the Bible, it’s just this one thing. … It’s unfair and unjust because my biggest passion is serving Christ.”
Murray says this discrimination creates an awful learning environment for teachers and students alike. “From an educator perspective, we need to teach with integrity and oftentimes that means adhering to our identity,” she says. “To teach in ways that are closeted or against our lived experiences or desires can be disingenuous and students can feel that.”
LifeWise’s repressive policies extend as far as using the bathroom. Their policy manual states that “team members and students attending LifeWise will use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender identified on their birth certificates.” If staff don’t abide, they will face disciplinary action. If students don’t follow, they’ll be outed to their parents.
“It’s always gonna be based on passing,” says Okrey Anderson. “Even cis kids who are maybe ambiguous-looking—they’re going to be targeted specifically by leadership for a conversation where they’re told ‘Hey, you need to dress more femininely’ or whatever it may be.”
LifeWise did not respond to Uncloseted Media’s request for comment.
Concerned Parents
As the program infiltrates public schools across the country, some school districts are deciding not to allow LifeWise to operate. Last year, at a Board of Education meeting in Westerville, Ohio, one mom explained to the Board why she and her wife decided not to opt their daughter into LifeWise.
“LifeWise has a clearly stated anti-LGBTQIA policy,” she said. “My daughter has explained on numerous occasions [that] she has been confronted by peers in LifeWise. She’s been asked to explain why she does not attend and pressed about if she believes in Christ, in God, in religion. … All of this seems incredibly counterproductive for a school district that otherwise is so clearly committed to diversity, equity, inclusion and student safety and wellbeing.”
But parents are pushing back beyond School Board meetings. Revere City Schools—also in Ohio—have been under pressure from Revere Citizens Against LifeWise Academy, a group fighting to keep the program out of their community.
“Public education is literally the cornerstone of our democracy and it is just one more thing that is being threatened along with book bans and teachers,” Gaines told Uncloseted Media, adding that they have upward of 14,000 group members on Facebook. “We wanted to bring awareness to that, and the more we looked into it, the more nefarious it became.”
Since 2023, Parrish and Gaines’ group has amassed a massive collection of documents and knowledge on LifeWise and its operations, most of which would likely still be kept behind closed doors if it wasn’t for their work. Their website contains resources to help parents make an informed decision about whether to opt their children in, as well as testimony from concerned parents.
Among their findings are 140 internal policy documents, information about LifeWise’s funding—which includes over $3.4 million in grants, including some from the notoriously anti-LGBTQ National Christian Foundation—and details about how LifeWise conducts background checks and trains its educators.
In one shocking discovery, they found that an Ohio teacher, who was previously fired from a public school for sexting with a student, was subsequently hired to be a local program director at LifeWise.
Their methods for obtaining this information landed Parrish a lawsuit from LifeWise last year that ended in a settlement agreement.
Despite pushback efforts, LifeWise has forged a clear path for growth. In at least 11 states, school districts are required to have a policy that greenlights programs like LifeWise, leaving communities with no mechanism to keep the Academy out.
LifeWise’s ultimate goal is for conservative Christian teachings to be embedded in public schools across America.
And in select schools, this is already happening. Starting later this year, the LifeWise chapter in Liberty Center, Ohio, will begin offering a for-credit class for high school students. If LifeWise has their way, this could spread across the country thanks to model legislation provided by the Released Time Resource Institute, a LifeWise-founded think tank that provides resources for legislators and educators.
“A lot of people from conservative backgrounds often fear the recruitment of queer and trans folks recruiting other people in, and I feel like it’s really flipped on its head here,” says Murray. “This grooming that’s occurring here … is incredibly damaging.”
Okrey Anderson agrees. “By exposing kids to this type of theology—whether that’s queer kids or not—you are potentially robbing those kids of a future spiritual life. … You could be poisoning them forever to have a meaningful relationship to deity in a way that feels safe and comfortable for them.”
This story was originally published in Uncloseted Media. For all their LGBTQ-focused journalism, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber at UnclosetedMedia.com.
The mayor of Salisbury, Maryland has announced that three Pride flag crosswalks located in his city’s downtown area will be painted over in order to “maintain neutrality in public spaces.” The city is now soliciting artists to propose designs that “[embody] the character, history, or artistic vibrancy of the city,” WMDT reported.
One LGBTQ Nation reader has accused the mayor of “erasing” the local LGBTQ+ community amid Republican efforts to remove LGBTQ+ visibility and inclusion in public life.
“Our city is home to a diverse and vibrant community, and we want our public spaces to be welcoming to all. However, we also have a responsibility to ensure that government property remains neutral and does not promote any particular movement or cause,” Salisbury Mayor Randy Taylor said. “By moving forward with a neutral design, we are ensuring that city property remains a place where every individual, regardless of background or belief, feels they belong.”
The city has launched the Crosswalk Canvas offering artists a $3,000 stipend for a design that “aligns with the city’s commitment to keeping public spaces free of political or ideological influence while ensuring they remain welcoming and inclusive for all residents.”
The city will choose the winning design by July 14; the decision will be made by panel of city officials and community representatives from the Public Art Committee. The winning artist will begin repainting the crosswalks on July 15, and finish by mid-September. The new designs will remain for up to two years.
The city’s first rainbow crosswalk was painted in 2018 by over 60 Salisbury PFLAG volunteers who donated paint and materials. It was the state’s first rainbow crosswalk, and volunteers traveled from as far as three hours away to help paint it, according to the Salisbury chapter of PFLAG.
The second and third crosswalks — bearing images of the transgender and Progress Pride flags — were painted in 2021 and annually touched up with paint each October starting in 2022 in observation of LGBTQ+ History Month.
“This is grassroots visibility being erased by government policy—and it’s happening in a place where the LGBTQ+ community already faces hostility,” one reader wrote LGBTQ Nation. “The crosswalk was approved by a prior [mayoral] administration … The new administration’s push for ‘neutrality’ is really about erasure.”
Republican- and conservative-led political bodies have tried to outlaw the display of Pride flags as well as various public acknowledgements of LGBTQ+ identities under policies opposing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
On January 20, the day that President Trump again took the oath of office, Monique “Muffie” Mousseau got a slew of emails and phone calls.
“Homophobic people were saying the most horrific things,” she recalled. Two men threatened to kill her, and a woman said she wouldn’t exist any longer: “That I’m a virus to the United States.”
Mousseau is the executive director of Uniting Resilience, a grassroots organization based in Rapids City, South Dakota, that has advocated for LGBTQ+ Native youth since 2019. Following the inauguration, Mousseau and her wife, Felipa De Leon, made the difficult decision to stop posting about their organization’s events and resources on social media. They have become more guarded about their physical space, which has started to house other LGBTQ+ organizations that have been displaced by threats of violence and loss of funding in the new administration. Safety, lately, means keeping a lower profile.
“But we want the public to understand … we do exist and we are helping,” said Mousseau, a member of Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe.
The stakes for Mousseau’s community could not be higher. Queer Indigenous youth — often referred to under the umbrella term of “two-spirit,” which recognizes sexual and gender diversity across many Native tribes — face some of the highest rates of discrimination, harassment, violence and suicide of any group in the LGBTQ+ community.
That is especially true in South Dakota. Native Americans represent over 8 percent of the population, making it the third largest Native population by percentage of any state. In 2022, the LGBTQ+ youth nonprofit The Trevor Project found in a survey that 53 percent of queer youth in South Dakota had seriously contemplated suicide, well above the national average of 37 percent.
For years, South Dakota has been the launchpad for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. As Mousseau and De Leon watch the Trump administration chip away at LGBTQ+ rights nationally, they worry about the consequences at home.
A report released last month by the Human Rights Campaign and Uniting Resilience details the extreme challenges facing South Dakota’s two-spirit youth in everything from schools to housing to law enforcement. The two-year snapshot found that many students who reported facing bullying in school over their gender identity were removed from their classes and forced to learn remotely.
Challenges faced by South Dakota’s Native people are numerous. According to the report, Native South Dakotans are 2.5 times more likely to experience violent crimes and twice as likely be sexually assaulted or raped. The overwhelming majority (93 percent) of the state’s hate crimes were related to a person’s race, ethnicity or LGBTQ+ identity, the report noted.
Ami Patel, senior litigation counsel at the Human Rights Campaign, said the recent report on South Dakota’s two-spirit youth exposed deep disparities facing kids that its organization would not have captured without a collaboration with Uniting Resilience.
“Our hope is to continue to engage with Uniting Resilience on the ground in South Dakota, to continue this work over many more years to come, and also continue to raise awareness,” Patel said.
Increasingly, LGBTQ+ youth, both Indigenous and White, have been seeking out the group for support as the climate in Rapids City grows hostile toward them. The kids have pleaded for help getting support at school. Uniting Resilience knew that tribal histories could offer an example to the youth, an untapped narrative in which they were reflected. Uniting Resilience has helped connect kids and their parents to that history throughout the state, two-spirit youth, allies and even adversaries.
In 2015, the Supreme Court declared that LGBTQ+ couples could marry in every state. But the ruling had no jurisdiction over tribal traditions. As a consequence, De Leon, Mousseau and many other queer indigenous couples went years without being recognized as married in their own communities.
Mousseau and De Leon reviewed the cultural teachings of their tribe to gain clarity on the roles of LGBTQ+ people historically. There were many examples of people assigned male who dressed as women, took care of the chickens and cooked the food. There were female-assigned people who loaded up the horses and prepared the sweat lodge for ceremonies, tasks typically assigned to men.
“And nobody is making fun of them, nobody’s saying anything, just calling them by their name and doing what has to be done,” Mousseau said.
In May 2019, De Leon and Mousseau began to push the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe to recognize marriages like theirs. On July 8 of that year, the tribe passed an ordinance that did just that. That September, the tribe became the first to pass trans-inclusive hate crime protections, punishable by jail time, fines or restitution.
The following winter, South Dakota found itself in the middle of a national debate about health care for transgender minors. But as national press descended upon the capitol, lawmakers were greeted by the sight of two horseback riders with a transgender pride flag. The Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe and others from across the state had shown up en masse to oppose the bill. The bill failed in committee, but perhaps more importantly, the state’s Indigenous leaders had sent a message to lawmakers.
“Homophobia isn’t traditional,” said Mousseau in the HRC report. “That’s a colonized way of thinking.”
The group holds biweekly sweat lodges, weekly youth groups and meetings. Over the past two years, they have hosted more than 500 people at their annual pow-wow. As anti-trans advocates argue that transgender identity is new, Uniting Resilience teaches its youth that they are connected to a long line of other gender diverse people and deeply woven into the state’s history.
“I just want you to know I’m the richest person in this continent because I know our home and our ways and our ceremonies,” Mousseau said. “I don’t judge anybody, and I don’t consider anybody a gender.”
De Leon and Mousseau speak about their work in terms of “flashing lights.” They liken everything they do for LGBTQ+ youth to a crisis response, and they are first responders.
De Leon recalls that in 2016, she learned her own niece had died by suicide. Her niece had been holding hands with another girl, which her teachers said she couldn’t do. De Leon hadn’t even known her niece was LGBTQ+ because family members didn’t tell her. The fact that teachers and family could talk to her niece in such a way still haunts her.
“[Her uncle was] saying we already have a carpet muncher in the family,” De Leon said. “We don’t need another one.”
The realities facing two-spirit youth in South Dakota are only getting harder, said Mousseau. Within two days of Trump’s inauguration, three other LGBTQ+ organizations in the state called Uniting Resilience, asking for office space. They had been ejected from their own. Uniting Resilience made room, even for groups that didn’t represent Native LGBTQ+ people.
But in late April, the group made the excruciating decision to close their office altogether. Mousseau references threats of violence to the organization, murders near the office and displays of white supremacist symbols in town.
“I don’t want any of our LGBTQ+ groups to even experience any kind of violence … and the board knows that too,” she said. “It makes my stomach turn just talking with you about it, but it’s real, and I want you to know that, from my mouth, reality sucks right now with this administration. It’s very bad for somebody like me and my wife, 20 years together, having to navigate if we should hold hands or not.”
Uniting Resilience will continue to meet and hold youth groups, but won’t advertise those meetings widely. They have yet to decide if it’s safe to hold their annual pow-wow.
But Mousseau and De Leon say they are not discouraged. They’re working to educate law enforcement on issues facing two-spirit youth. They’re dreaming big — hoping someone can connect them with Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift.
“I just want you to know that we’re very active in not just our community, not just our state, but nationally,” Mousseau said. “You know, if a millionaire needs to donate money, send ‘em our way.”
The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art has postponed an exhibition of works by LGBTQ+ African Artists, which was originally scheduled to open in late May to coincide with WorldPride, being held in Washington, D.C., this year.
Officials at the museum, which is in D.C., said the rescheduling was due to budget constraints and not because of Donald Trump’s orders banning federal funding for so-called woke content, The Washington Post reports.
“This exhibition was on a very ambitious schedule to meet WorldPride and we did not have enough time to secure all the private sector funds we had hoped to due to shifts in the fundraising environment,” museum spokeswoman Jennifer Mitchell told the Post.
“In late April, the show’s opening date was removed from the museum’s and the Smithsonian’s websites and replaced with ‘2025 – TBD,’” the paper reports. Now it is listed as opening in the early winter of 2026. August 20, 2026, remains the exhibition’s closing date, and therefore “work that initially would have been on display for a year and three months will now be on display for no more than eight months,” according to the Post.
A former museum researcher, speaking anonymously, told the Post that preparations for the show were well under way, with artwork on loan and the space being readied.
The exhibition is titled “Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art.” Artists to be featured in the show include Toyin Ojih Odutola, Zanele Muholi, Paul Emmanuel, Sabelo Mlangeni, and Meriem Bennani.
“Artists across Africa and the diaspora whose artworks connect to their identities and experiences as LGBTQ+ people are featured as the first continental and diasporic survey of its scale and scope outside of Africa,” the museum’s websitesays. “The show assembles artists whose work has implicitly or explicitly challenged local and global legacies of homophobia and bigotry, offering imaginings of alternative futures as well as celebrations of intimacy, faith, family and joy.”
Trump issued an executive order March 27 titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” It said the federal government will “restore the Smithsonian Institution to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness” by banning “expenditure on exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy.”
Kevin Gover, undersecretary for museums and culture at the Smithsonian, had already reviewed the exhibition’s content, and the call for postponement did not come from Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III or the museum’s board of regents, Mitchell told the Post. Instead, it was “an internal museum decision made by our leadership team,” she said.
The board of regents includes Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, Vice President JD Vance, three U.S. senators and three U.S. representatives — a mix of Democrats and Republicans — and nine members of the public.
The executive order directed Vance “to effectuate the policies of this order through his role.” In a memo to staff, Bunch “acknowledged the executive order while emphasizing the institution’s commitment to scholarly independence,” according to Diverse Education.
“We will continue to showcase world-class exhibits, collections, and objects, rooted in expertise and accuracy,” he wrote. “We will continue to employ our internal review processes which keep us accountable to the public. When we err, we adjust, pivot, and learn as needed.”
Salt Lake City adopted three new city flags Tuesday, an effort to circumvent a new Utah law that effectively banned flying LGBTQ Pride and other flags at public buildings in the state. Mayor Erin Mendenhall, a Democrat, presented the proposal to the City Council, which adopted it at its meeting Tuesday night. It incorporates the city’s flag into designs celebrating Juneteenth, LGBTQ rights and trans rights.
One of the proposed flags, dubbed the Sego Belonging Flag, is intended to honor the city’s LGBTQ residents, while another, which officials called the Sego Visibility Flag, is intended to recognize the city’s trans community. The third proposed flag, dubbed the Sego Celebration Flag, is intended to honor the city’s Black residents, as well as the history surrounding the Juneteenth holiday.
Steve Deace, the host of an eponymousshow on the rightwing platform Blaze Media, has built a brand around his brash and provocative personality. Deace has entertained his 52,000 YouTube viewers and 274,000 X followers by calling for violence against drag queens and LGBTQ people and ranting that the Democratic party is controlled by Satan. Those comments fit right in with those of thesome of theguests his show hosts, who regularly dabble in antisemitism and argue that women shouldn’t be allowed to vote.
But just this week, Deace’s track record of extremist rhetoric and guests did not stop Vice President JD Vance from posing for a photo with him. The circumstances of the picture were unclear; Deace posted it on X with the comment, “Had to make a quick stop by the West Wing this morning.”
The extremism watchdog groupRight Wing Watch has helpfully rounded up some of Deace’s most colorful and violent statements from his last decade-plus of broadcasting. In February, he announced his intention to “punch Pride Month right in the balls. Hard.” In 2023, he called for the execution of drag queens, saying “pedo-groomers should be executed, by the way. After a fair trial, of course.” In 2022, he called the Democratic Party “a demonic construct, a satanically-influenced entity, and a death cult” and asserted that Democrats were “voting for dudes teabagging their hairy sacks on children at public libraries and public schools.” In 2020, he said, “I want to see antifa members hanging from gallows in Trump ties. That’s what I would like to see.”
Deace‘s track record of extremist rhetoric did not stop the vice president.
Deace’s regular guests include the TheoBros, members of a network of mostly millennial, ultra-conservative men, many of whom proudly call themselves Christian nationalists. Among the tenets of their tributary of Reformed Protestant Christianity is the idea that the United States should be subject to biblical law.
Joel Webbon, a Texas TheoBro pastor who believes the 19th amendment should be repealed and regularly posts about his conviction that Judaism is evil, has appeared on Deace’s show several times. In a March episode, Webbon explained that his antisemitic statements were justified because the Bible called for “hating the enemies of God.” He added, “I do not hate Jews, I wish them a very pleasant conversion to Christianity.” In an August 2024 episode, Webbon told Deace that he was an abortion “abolitionist,” which is to say that abortion should be penalized as murder.
Another regular guest is Doug Wilson, a Moscow, Idaho, pastor and the patriarch of the TheoBro movement. In the past, Wilson has argued that the master-slave dynamic was “a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence” and called male dominance over women “an erotic necessity.” On a Deace episode last July, Wilson mourned the loss of unapologetically Christian nations, including the United States. In January, Wilson told Deace he believed that senators questioning US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth were putting him in the “longhouse,” a reference to a rightwing internet meme about how modern social norms emasculate men. “The only thing worse than the patriarchy will be the matriarchy, I can promise you that!” quipped Deace. Wilson giggled appreciatively. (Hegseth, too, has strong ties to the TheoBros world.)
The photo with Deace isn’t the first time Vance has dipped a toe into the world of the TheoBros. As I wrote last year:
Bucks County Beacon reporter Jennifer Cohn revealed venture capitalist Chris Buskirk was listed as the editor and publisher of TheoBro online magazine American Reformer. (The publication’s cofounder, Nate Fischer, later clarified to Mother Jones that Buskirk’s listing in the filing had been a clerical error, and that he was actually a board member of American Reformer.) In 2022, Buskirk co-founded the Rockbridge Network, a collection of powerful Trump donors including Catholic judicial kingmaker Leonard Leo and Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel. Another co-founder of the Rockbridge Network? None other than JD Vance.
Cohn also surfaced this photo of Vance posing with a bunch of TheoBros in 2023.
A photo of JD Vance posing with TheoBros. | Twitter screenshot
Vance isn’t the only politician hobnobbing with Deace. Last month, Deace devoted an entire episode of his show to an interview with TheoBro and Republican Oklahoma State Senator Dusty Deevers, who has said he believes America should be a Christian nation and wants to end no-fault divorce.
Deevers told Deace that he hoped more Christians would soon be in public office, explaining that politicians “can actually be strong convictional Christians,” Deevers went on, who“lead according to the scriptures, and not be in violation of God’s word, and actually stand before him on Judgment Day and [have] him still say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’”
