A new report estimates that roughly 266,000 LGBTQ+ young people and their families have uprooted their lives and left a state because of anti-LGBTQ politics or laws. It is also detailing in stark relief the positive outcomes on the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ youth that state lawmakers can have when enacting policy.
The eight-page research brief being released Wednesday by LGBTQ youth advocacy nonprofit The Trevor Project and the Movement Advancement Project used data sets from both organizations to draw its conclusions.
It is the first time the two groups have utilized their data in such a way. One of the key findings in the brief is that an overwhelming 90% of LGBTQ+ young people cited “recent politics” as having impacted their well-being.
Virginia is poised to take a historic step toward enshrining marriage equality in its state Constitution, as the House of Delegates approved a measure to repeal the state’s ban on same-sex marriage on Tuesday. While marriage equality is federally protected under the 2015 Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges and the 2022 Respect for Marriage Act signed by President Joe Biden, the move addresses concerns about potential threats to LGBTQ+ rights, given the U.S Supreme Court’s increasingly conservative stance.
The amendment would strike down the outdated language in Virginia’s Constitution that prohibits same-sex marriage. The language was added in 2006, during a time of widespread opposition to LGBTQ+ rights in the commonwealth. The move to repeal it reflects a significant shift in public opinion. A 2021 poll from the Public Religion Research Institute found that 71 percent of Virginians support the right of same-sex couples to marry. Nationally, 69 percent of Americans backed marriage equality in a 2024 Gallup poll.
Virginia’s political landscape has been a critical factor in advancing this amendment. Democrats currently hold slim majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly—51-49 in the House and 21-19 in the Senate—following closely contested elections. These majorities were retained in special elections earlier this year, blocking Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s ability to pursue a conservative legislative agenda, including potential restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights.
The Associated Press reports that the proposed amendment is part of a broader effort to codify protections for marriage equality, reproductive rights, and voting rights in Virginia’s Constitution. The process requires approval from both chambers this year and again in 2026, followed by a statewide referendum. If successful, Virginia will join other states to proactively safeguard rights increasingly viewed as vulnerable in the current political climate.
According to the Movement Advancement Project, 25 states still have both unenforceable statutes and constitutional amendments banning marriage for same-sex couples, while five others have either statutes or amendments prohibiting it.
Congresswoman Sarah McBride (DE-AL) announced that she was named a House Democratic Deputy Whip for Policy, a role focused on strategic, long-term planning and coordination on policy priorities across the House Democratic Caucus. This position is appointed by Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, the number two Democrat in the House of Representatives.
“My number one priority in Congress is helping to lower costs facing Delawareans and American families,” said Congresswoman McBride. “We can do this by guaranteeing paid family and medical leave, lowering the cost of childcare and restoring the child tax credit. I look forward to working alongside my Democratic colleagues to prioritize common sense solutions to making it more affordable to raise a family. I’m grateful to Democratic Whip Katherine Clark for this opportunity and for her steadfast leadership and mentorship.”
“Since arriving to Congress, Rep. McBride has quickly proven to be an effective advocate for Delawareans and all working families,” said Democratic Whip Katherine Clark.“I’m thrilled she will serve as a Deputy Whip for Policy in the 119th Congress to help lead our fight to lower everyday costs, create good paying jobs, and grow the economy by growing the middle class.”
As President Donald Trump delivered his second inaugural address on Monday, LGBTQ+ youth across the nation turned to crisis hotlines in record numbers, according to the Rainbow Youth Project USA Foundation. The nonprofit group reported over 1,400 calls to its national hotline by early afternoon—a significant surge that coincided with Trump’s speech and the anti-LGBTQ+ policies he outlined.
In his half-hour-long inaugural address, Trump targeted transgender and nonbinary Americans, declaring, “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.” The announcement is part of a broader agenda to eliminate federal recognition of gender identity, ban gender-affirming care, and rescind Title IX protections for LGBTQ+ youth.
“Our hotline serves as a critical lifeline for LGBTQ+ youth grappling with the challenges of bullying, social stigmatization, and the looming threat of institutionalized discrimination,” said Kristen Johnston, case manager and crisis team leader at the Rainbow Youth Project USA Foundation. “The data we’re seeing is alarming, and it underscores the urgent need for advocacy, community support, and immediate action to protect our youth.”
According to the Williams Institute at UCLA’s Law School, 1.3 million Americans identify as transgender, including 300,000 youth. These individuals are particularly vulnerable to mental health challenges and systemic discrimination, and advocates fear the administration’s policies will only exacerbate these issues.
The Rainbow Youth Project says it typically handles around 3,765 calls per month, but that number more than doubled in November and December after Trump’s election victory, exceeding 8,000 calls monthly. In January, the hotline fielded 3,925 calls in just 19 days, the group wrote in a press release. According to the Rainbow Youth Project, Monday’s record-breaking call volume highlights the growing fears within the LGBTQ+ community about the administration’s plans.
According to the statement, parents and guardians who contacted the hotline described feelings of fear, hopelessness, and confusion about what the new policies could mean.
Trump’s speech included the promise of executive orders to roll back the government’s recognition of trans and nonbinary identities and redefine federal standards for gender recognition. Trump framed these changes as part of a broader effort to restore “common sense governance.”
If you or someone you know needs mental health resources and support, please call, text, or chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or visit988lifeline.org for 24/7 access to free and confidential services. Trans Lifeline, designed for transgender or gender-nonconforming people, can be reached at (877) 565-8860. The lifeline also provides resources to help with other crises, such as domestic violence situations. The Trevor Project Lifeline, for LGBTQ+ youth (ages 24 and younger), can be reached at (866) 488-7386. Users can also access chat services at TheTrevorProject.org/Help or text START to 678678.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed the State Department on Wednesday to suspend all passport applications seeking to change a sex marker and all applications requesting an “X” sex marker, according to a memo reviewed by NBC News.
The memo references an executive order issued by President Trump hours after his inauguration, declaring that the U.S. government will recognize only two sexes, male and female, and that “these sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
“The executive order specifies government-issued identification documents shall refer to an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female,” Rubio’s memo states. “In agency documents ‘sex’ and not ‘gender’ shall be used. Further, it is specified that the policy of the United States is that an individual’s sex is not changeable.”
As a result, the memo continues, the State Department will no longer issue “X” sex markers for U.S. passports or birth records for U.S. citizens with children born abroad. It directs employees to suspend all applications requesting an “X” sex marker or a sex marker change, adding that employees should “not take any further action” on those applications “pending additional guidance from the Department.”
The memo applies to all applications currently in progress and any future applications, the memo states, adding that guidance on existing passports containing an “X” sex marker “will come via other channels.”
In an email to NBC News, the State Department confirmed that it is “no longer issuing U.S. passports with X markers” and that it has “suspended processing of all applications seeking a different sex marker than that defined by the terms” of Trump’s executive order pertaining to gender.
The spokesperson did not answer questions regarding whether passports that currently have an “X” marker are still valid or what will happen if people travel with them but said updates are forthcoming and would be shared as soon as possible the department’s travel website.
The uncertainty surrounding how Trump’s executive order would affect passports has caused fear and confusion among some transgender people who have shared on social media that they have passport renewal applications in process with the State Department.
Amy, who has a transgender son and asked to go by her first name to protect her family’s privacy, said she submitted an application to correct the sex marker on her teenage son’s passport, and it was delivered Tuesday, according to postal service tracking. She said she’s called every day since to check on its status, and that, as of Friday afternoon, all of the employees she’s spoken with have told her that they are processing requests to update gender markers as usual. However, after hearing news of Rubio’s memo, she said she’s “devastated.”
She’s concerned her son’s passport application will be suspended and that his valid passport, which has his previous legal name and sex marker and was sent as part of his application, will be held in the processing center at least until the State Department issues new guidance.
“We put these forms in so that everyone in our family would have a valid passport, because that seemed suddenly very necessary,” she said, noting that access to gender-affirming care for minors is changing rapidly across the country. “We didn’t know if we would need to leave the country to get medical care, and for our son’s valid passport to be held with no indication of when we might get that back feels not legal and terrifying.”
A day after Trump — who has promised to ban gender-affirming care for minors nationally — issued the executive order pertaining to gender, the department removed a page from its website titled “Selecting your gender marker.” The page, which still appears in Google search results, said that people applying for or updating a passport could select male (M), female (F), unspecified or another gender identity (X) as the gender marker on their U.S. passport books and cards.
“We promote the freedom, dignity, and equality of all people — including LGBTQI+ individuals,” the page said. “We are demonstrating this commitment to better serve all U.S. citizens, regardless of gender identity.”
The since-removed page also provided information about traveling as an LGBTQ person and cautioned that those with “X” gender markers might not be able to travel to all countries. As of Tuesday afternoon, the page redirected to a general passport information page.
Trump’s executive order regarding gender and identity documents reverses two policies the Biden administration rolled out: one that allowed transgender people to change the gender on their passports without providing proof of their transitions, and another that allowed applicants who are intersex or identify as neither male nor female to select an “X” gender marker.
President Donald Trump’s return to the White House marked an immediate and sweeping rollback of Biden-era policies, targeting LGBTQ+ protections, environmental commitments, and federal workforce initiatives. The actions, signed throughout the day and capped by a theatrical ceremony at Washington, D.C.’s Capital One Arena Monday evening where he signed nine orders, set a combative tone for Trump’s second term.
Trump first signed a rescission of 78 executive orders and actions from the Biden administration. These included protections for LGBTQ+ Americans, diversity and equity programs, climate measures, and pandemic-related policies.
Among Trump’s most damaging measures was the rescission of former President Joe Biden’sExecutive Order 14075, which had advanced protections for LGBTQ+ Americans. The directive, signed in June 2022, had expanded access to gender-affirming care, banned conversion therapy, and ensured safe environments for LGBTQ+ youth in schools, foster care, and homeless shelters.
The order was a cornerstone of Biden’s agenda to combat systemic discrimination, requiring federal agencies to promote equitable access to gender-affirming healthcare, particularly for transgender youth who already face significant barriers to medically necessary care. By revoking this directive, Trump dismantled federal initiatives that supported millions of LGBTQ+ people, leaving them more vulnerable to discrimination in states hostile to transgender rights. The rollback also eliminated federal efforts to address conversion therapy, a widely discredited and harmful practice shown to increase depression and suicidal ideation among LGBTQ+ youth.
Biden’s order had also strengthened safeguards for LGBTQ+ youth in schools, foster care, and homeless shelters. It directed federal agencies to address the overrepresentation of LGBTQ+ youth in foster care, protect them from discrimination and abuse, and provide guidance to reduce homelessness among this already at-risk population. Trump’s rescission strips away these vital federal resources and guidance, leaving some of the nation’s most vulnerable young people exposed to greater risks in environments that are often hostile or unsafe. Trump also revoked initiatives promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion across federal agencies. The administration dismissed these programs, which address systemic inequities faced by marginalized communities, as “radical” and “divisive.”
Trump also withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, reversing Biden’s recommitment to global climate action. The move, framed as a rejection of “climate extremism,” halts U.S. participation in international efforts to reduce emissions and combat the worsening climate crisis.
The decision undermines years of progress and signals a stark departure from global cooperation, leaving the U.S. isolated as other nations continue to tackle the climate emergency.
In a sharp pivot on workplace policy, Trump ordered all federal employees to return to in-person work, ending remote work flexibility implemented during the pandemic. He also imposed a hiring freeze across federal agencies and halted new federal regulations, part of a broader effort to reshape the federal workforce and governance.
Thousands of supporters gathered at the arena to celebrate Trump’s return. In a moment emblematic of his administration’s tone, Trump tossed commemorative pens into the crowd, drawing cheers from his audience as the policies were finalized. Trump said he would sign more executive orders from the Oval Office later in the evening.
Facing a financial deficit and a shortage of dues owed by local chapters, the National Stonewall Democratic Federation, founded by retired out Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) in 1998 to unite Stonewall Democratic clubs across the U.S., closed the doors at its Washington office in 2013 to go on an indefinite “hiatus.” They never reopened.
Now, in the face of an openly anti-LGBTQ+ second Trump administration, the group has been revived under a new banner, the National Federation of Stonewall Democrats.
“The challenges facing LGBTQ+ Americans today underscore the need for a bold and unapologetically progressive action, especially given the uncertainty we face with the incoming Trump administration,” said President Jeremy Comeau in an announcement of the new group’s formation on Friday, just days before Trump’s inauguration. “We are united in our mission and we are unapologetically committed to that work.”
The new federation “aims to amplify the voices of the 19 million LGBTQ+ Americans and drive progress within the Democratic Party and across the nation,” the statement read.
Founding organizations include local Stonewall Democratic clubs and LGBTQ+ Democratic Party caucuses from 21 states. Out members of Congress Robert Garcia (D-CA) and Sarah McBride (D-DE) praised the group’s mission.
“Together, we’re going to build on our work to create a Democracy big enough for all of us,” said McBride.
Comeau told Politico the federation’s priority will be holding Democratic electeds and candidates accountable for their votes and advocacy for LGBTQ+ people.
“Our job is to continue to push for the Democrats who are elected to make sure that they’re speaking up,” said Comeau, a Democratic activist from Massachusetts. “If they just let the Republicans steamroll these issues through the Congress without providing the words of support for the community … we’re doomed.”
Democrats face a Republican trifecta in the White House and Congress that’s outwardly hostile to LGBTQ+ rights. After a Republican campaign that spent $215 million attacking transgender people, Trump reiterated his commitment to undermining those rights in a speech in December.
“With the stroke of my pen on Day One, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” Trump told an audience of MAGA faithful in Phoenix. “And I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military, and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools.”
Trump also claimed he would make it “the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders — male and female” through executive orders.
Keeping Democrats united in the face of those challenges includes addressing those who have blamed the party’s losses in November on its support for LGBTQ+ rights, among them Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA).
“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” Moulton said after Democrats lost control of the White House and Congress. The rep said he didn’t want his own daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”
“The congressman is absolutely out of his mind if he thinks that that’s the reason why we lost the election,” said Comeau.
The new group will “call out Democrats when they are using our community as a reason that we lose elections,” he added.
One way they’ll do that is by taking a page from the MAGA playbook, primarying candidates they believe are backsliding on LGBTQ+ rights. The group has formed an independent political action committee dedicated to recruiting and raising money to field a new generation of out Democratic leaders.
Arienne Childrey, the first out transgender person on any city council in Ohio, wants her constituents to know she can serve her town’s needs as well as anyone else.
Her presence “means the same thing as having any other type of person on the city council,” Childrey, who was sworn in Monday as a member of the St. Marys City Council, tells The Advocate. “This is about good local government.”
But she’s also eager to stand up for trans people and show that “we’re just your neighbors,” she adds. “I think it’s incredibly important to be on the council and show our LGBT community, our trans community, that we can make a difference,” she notes.
“I want people outside our community to see the inspiration that we can make change,” she says.
Childrey was appointed to the Fourth Ward seat on the council to replace Robin Willoughby, who resigned for health reasons. The Auglaize County Democratic Party Central Committee chose her for the seat, which was and remains the only one held by a Democrat. The way the appointments work is that each party gets to choose who will replace a council member who steps down. Childrey will serve the remainder of Willoughby’s term, which goes until the end of the year, and if she wants to continue on the council, she will have to run to be elected for a full term — which she intends to do.
This isn’t Childrey’s first venture into electoral politics. Last year, she ran for state representative from Ohio’s 84th District but lost to Republican incumbent Angie King. Childrey, however, survived a challenge to her candidacy over not using her deadname on her qualifying petitions, under an obscure Ohio law that was enforced unevenly. She’s also a veteran activist, having founded Rainbow Advocacy Network, an LGBTQ+ rights group. And she’s a member of the Ohio Democratic Party Pride Caucus Steering Committee.
Childrey says she’s excited to get started on the council and appreciative of the welcome that the body extended to her and another new member, Republican David Lunz. She plans to be accessible to her constituents and make sure the city serves them.
“It’s really about the everyday things,” she says of the council’s duty. Those include fixing streets and alleys, maintaining public parks — St. Marys has beautiful ones, she says — and attract and keep businesses.
St. Marys is a small town — its population is a little more than 8,000 — in northwestern Ohio near the Indiana border. It’s a heavily Republican area. Childrey, who worked for 20 years in retail management, moved there for work. She’s a native of what she calls “a quaint coal town” in Virginia.
“I am a coal miner’s daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter,” she says.
She first moved to Ohio as a teenager, then went back home for about 10 years, and has now been in St. Marys for about a decade. When she was in retail, “where the promotion was, that’s where I went,” she explains. She’s now devoting herself to politics full-time.
She came out as trans during 2016 election cycle, perhaps “not a great time to be doing it,” she observes. She transitioned on the job as manager of over 200 employees.
“It definitely led to some estrangement from family,” she recalls, adding, “My transition was a last resort, but I couldn’t stand waking up anymore — transition was truly lifesaving.”
She worried at one point that she would “spend life alone in the shadows,” but then she met the man to whom she’s now been married for six years — he’s a union construction worker — and other friends and allies. Transition gave her confidence and “opportunity to be my best self,” she says.
Childrey is continuing her activism with the Rainbow Advocacy Network. Much of that work involves public speaking, often countering misinformation about gender-affirming care for trans youth, which has been outlawed in Ohio. “I will never stop fighting on civil rights front,” she says. She also doesn’t shy away from criticizing her own party, such as the Democrats who voted for the National Defense Authorization Act even though it denied gender-affirming care to minors under the military’s insurance plan.
During the 2024 election campaign, “every day, here in Ohio, I was watching vile anti-trans ads coming across the TV,” she says. She even heard one on the radio while she was being interviewed.
“I encourage our trans community to refuse to back down,” Childrey says. That’s why getting involved in politics is important: “If they’re going to make laws about us, we need to have a seat at the table.”
All the anti-trans rhetoric and legislation, she adds, not only hurts trans people but takes attention away from the real problems facing Americans — food insecurity, housing insecurity, underfunding of schools. “We need politicians at all levels who are focused more on who they can help than who they can hurt,” she says. “This is a distraction technique being used by Republicans … because they got nothin’.”
At the same time, as the council’s “Democratic caucus of one,” she’s ready to work with its Republican members. Having been in retail, “I know about struggling financially and forming teams from varied backgrounds,” she notes. She’s used to dealing with people who have different perspectives and finding consensus.
She also is planning to run for state representative again in 2026, a different election cycle than her race for a full term on the council. “I am used to a very hectic, busy schedule,” she says. “I can do the work for people of St. Marys and ensure we have good representative at the state House of Representatives.”
Childrey would be Ohio’s first out trans state representative. The only other trans public official in the state is Dion Manley, a trans man who was elected to the Gahanna-Jefferson City School District board in the suburbs of Columbus in 2021 and was sworn in the following year.
The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, which supports out candidates for office, celebrated Childrey’s appointment to the St. Marys council. “LGBTQ+ Victory Fund congratulates Arienne Childrey on her historic appointment to the St. Marys City Council, trailblazing a path of representation for transgender women in city government in Ohio,” said a statement from the group. “Arienne is a fighter and will be an important voice for her constituents in championing civic pride, jobs, and economic development for her city and region. At a time when LGBTQ+ and specifically transgender rights are under attack, including direct attacks on her, the news of Arienne’s appointment is a bright light that demonstrates that trans people are here and ready to serve their communities. We look forward to her service and are confident she will continue to be a changemaker for her city and all Ohioans.”
“My presence at the inauguration will be my way of saying ‘I see you and I know what you’re about. And I won’t be intimidated by you,’” Balint wrote a Friday commentary piece for Courier, a news service. “It will be a way to show Americans and viewers across the world that I respect the vote of the people, unlike Trump himself. Four years on, he’s still lying about the 2020 Election. And Republican leaders in both the House and the Senate are not just complicit in these lies; they facilitated them, and they are now trapped by them.”
“I will be sitting with other members of Congress to watch as Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States,” she wrote. “I won’t enjoy it. In fact, I fully expect the taste of bile to linger in my mouth. But I feel I need to be there.” But, she said, her presence and that of other Democrats will be an embodiment of these words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Trump didn’t attend President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021 because he refused to acknowledge that Biden won the election, she noted. “I will be there as a reminder that in our democracy we don’t only attend the peaceful transfer of power when our candidate wins,” she said.
She is aware of the threat Trump poses to democracy, and she will oppose Trump-backed policies that are bad for Americans, such as “massive tax giveaways to billionaires,” she continued. “I will face the next four years with clarity, a clear conscience, and a deep commitment to doing whatever I can, whenever and wherever I can, to shore up our delicate, ailing democracy,” she concluded. “And to do meaningful, consequential work on behalf of my constituents to make life better for them and for Americans across the nation.”
Several people living with HIV told NBC News they have been turned away from military service or have faced roadblocks to enlistment, despite a federal judge’s ruling in August that found prohibiting healthy HIV-positive recruits is unconstitutional.
Now, as Joe Biden’s presidency reaches its final days, advocates for people with HIV are increasingly concerned that his administration will not fully implement the judge’s ruling, punting it to the incoming Trump administration.
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 has barred employment discrimination based on HIV status for decades. The Defense Department, which employs nearly 3 million people, has remained the one exception, given the military does not fall under the purview of the ADA.
Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., told NBC News he found the White House’s lack of initiative in the matter “very disappointing. The opportunity was handed to this administration on a silver platter.”
On Aug. 20, a federal district court judge struck down the military’s prohibition on letting people with HIV enlist, ruling that it violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution. The judge found that excluding those who maintain undetectable HIV viral loads and are asymptomatic thanks to effective treatment was “irrational, arbitrary and capricious.”
The Defense Department on Oct. 18 instructed its branches in an internal memo, which NBC News has reviewed, to adhere to the legal decision, imposing a “temporary” yet open-ended “exception” to the long-standing enlistment prohibition. The same day, the Justice Department filed initial paperwork to appeal the August ruling with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, though the judge’s ruling remains in effect.
Multiple sources said military recruiters have, at least in several cases, not followed the Defense Department’s directive.
NBC News spoke with three men with HIV who described their recent experiences trying to enlist. One said the military told him he was permanently disqualified, and two others said they remained in bureaucratic limbo because of their HIV statuses.
One of the latter two men said a recruiter told him as recently as Tuesday that his HIV status prompted a medical disqualification in his application that would have to be removed before he could move forward. Each of the men spoke under the condition that their names would not be published to protect their medical privacy.
Scott Schoettes is one of the attorneys representing the three HIV-positive plaintiffs who successfully sued to overturn the military enlistment policy. He said he and his colleagues are concerned that, with only days left in the Biden administration and the matter unresolved, Donald Trump’s Justice Department will wind up inheriting the legal baton and will carry out the appeal of the judge’s decision.
Army Lt. Nick Harrison — the plaintiff in a previous federal lawsuit about the potential roles of currently serving HIV-positive service members — is a first lieutenant in the Washington, D.C., Army National Guard who works as a defense attorney for service members. Harrison said he has been in direct contact with two of the HIV-positive men who spoke with NBC News, and he said at least eight other people with HIV have recently reported encountering obstacles to enlistment in a private Facebook group about HIV-related matters in the military (Harrison declined to provide screenshots of the posts, citing the posters’ medical privacy).
Army Lt. Nick Harrison was a plaintiff in a previous federal lawsuit about the potential roles of currently serving HIV-positive service members. Lambda Legal
Harrison, who noted that he was not speaking on behalf of the National Guard, said that based on what he has heard from HIV-positive recruits, both directly and through the private Facebook group, it appears there is a lack of clear guidance about the HIV enlistment policy making its way to at least some military recruiters. He described that as a “failure of the higher command, because they should be pushing it down” the chain of command. He said he had raised the issue with an assistant secretary in the Defense Department and urged this person to act to resolve the bureaucratic quagmire.
“The assistant secretary didn’t do anything,” Harrison said.
He noted that the Biden Justice Department could have closed the door on Trump’s opportunity to appeal the August ruling. First it would have had to alert Congress at least 30 days before the end of Biden’s term that it intended to withdraw the appeal. Without unlikely intervention by Congress, that would have meant he department could have completed the withdrawal process before Biden left office.
“It’s a little too late for that now,” Harrison said.
Dallas Ducar, an executive overseeing policy at Fenway Health, a leading LGBTQ health center in Boston, said the Biden administration’s “inaction contradicts the administration’s stated commitment to equity and public health.”
The White House did not reply to requests for comment. The Defense Department said it could not comment on ongoing litigation, and the Justice Department declined to comment. The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment, including a question regarding whether the forthcoming administration intended to carry through with the appeal.
‘Permanently disqualified’
An HIV-positive man told NBC News that after he heard about the August ruling, he sought in September to enlist in the National Guard through a recruitment office in South Carolina. The man said he disclosed upfront to the recruiters that he had HIV and said they assured him that it would be no impediment.
But when he then attended an informational slideshow presentation at a Military Entrance Processing Station, he said, the text on one slide stood out: “Absolutely no HIV.” Ultimately, he said, a recruiter who had looked into the matter told him that having the virus did, in fact, preclude him from enlisting, writing in an email reviewed by NBC News that he was “permanently disqualified.”
“There was some communications that led me to believe HIV positive still might have a chance to join so I am sorry I got your hopes up,” the recruiter wrote.
The HIV-positive man, who was not a part of the lawsuit that prompted the injunction against the ban, told NBC News: “I just want the opportunity to give back and serve my country. It’s just the values that were instilled in me by my parents and grandparents.”
Asked about the reported experience of the HIV-positive man, Maj. Karla Evans, a public affairs representative for the South Carolina National Guard, confirmed that the “information you were given by the person you spoke with is correct.” She said, “In September 2024, he would not have met the standards of medical fitness.”
Despite having been told that the HIV-positive man received his final rejection email from the recruiter the first week of December, Evans pointed to the bureaucratic process that, under the October memorandum, would hear requests for entry by people with HIV.
Schoettes said that because the district court’s permanent injunction against the exclusionary HIV enlistment policy has been in effect since August, the military would be violating the injunction if it forbade the South Carolina man from enlistment based on his HIV status.
Fit to serve with HIV
For nearly three decades, HIV has been treatable with antiretroviral medications. Today, most people with the virus require only a single daily pill. People on effective HIV treatment are considered essentially healthy and have a life expectancy approaching normal. Robust research has indicated that when HIV is well suppressed by treatment, it is essentially impossible to transmit.
On Sept. 13, Quigley and 22 other Democratic House members sent a letter urging Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to direct the Defense Department to update its enlistment policy to allow entry to people with HIV.
Calling the ruling “long overdue,” the letter echoes the judge’s words by saying the enlistment ban is “not grounded in modern science, and it perpetuates unjust stigma against people with HIV.” It says thousands of people with HIV serve in the U.S. armed forces without incident.
“There is no evidence that these service members have faced complications from their disease, nor that there is any risk of battlefield transmission,” it says. It further asserts that rejecting HIV-positive recruits “diminishes the strength of the U.S. military.”
While enlistment across the armed services branches increased by 12.5% from 2023 to 2024, from 200,000 to 225,000, the military still failed to meet its recruitment goals for the past two years.
In April 2022, a federal judge struck down a Defense Department policy that forbade people who had contracted HIV after they entered the military from deployment or being commissioned as officers. Austin then directed the military to comply with the ruling, and, in contrast to the current scenario, the Justice Department withdrew its appeal.
HIV advocates had hoped the Biden administration would observe a similar pattern following the August judgment about enlistments. That, however, has not been the case. The Justice Department requested an extension for its first brief in the appeal, which moved the deadline back from Dec. 23 to Feb. 21, a month after Trump’s inauguration.
Asked how she believed the Trump administration might handle the appeal, Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., who signed the letter to Austin, said: “We know that Donald Trump is going to take aim at the LGBTQ+ community, and in fact, has even said part of his day one agenda was a trans military ban.”
The ban on HIV-positive recruits affects gay and bisexual men in particular, given they are about two-thirds of the approximately 1.24 million people in the United States living with HIV.
“Hopefully, in the closing days and hours, the administration can get this done,” said Quigley, referring to his hope for more exacting guidance on how military recruiters should implement a policy permitting enlistment by people with HIV and the withdrawal of the appeal. “But obviously, it’s not looking good at this point in time,” Quigley said. “To those who want to serve, my message to them is: Thank you. Don’t give up. We’re not going to give up.”
