President Donald Trump used an anti-trans slur against Democratic South Carolina Senate candidate Annie Andrews on Monday as he sought to rally support for Republicans in the state’s Senate race.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump attacked Andrews three times, referring to her as “trannie” while promoting U.S. Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.)’s campaign.

Andrews is running against Graham for a Senate seat in the solidly Republican state.

Earlier this year, Graham was specially appointed to the seat following the death of her brother, Lindsey Graham, who represented South Carolina in the Senate from 2003 to 2026.

Andrews, the Democratic nominee from the state, is a pediatrician that lives in Charleston with her three children. She told NBC News that she will “work with anyone to put South Carolina first.”

“As a mom and a pediatrician, I’m in this race to fight for my patients, my three kids, and South Carolina,” Andrews said, adding that “lowering costs and making life better for families across our state is going to take all of us working together.”

Andrews used the attention from the president’s attack to emphasize what she described as a focus on policy issues rather than the culture wars that have dominated much of the political debate.

“If you care more about your bills than the politics in Washington, this campaign is for you,” she added.

Trump’s remarks have drawn criticism from leaders on both sides of the aisle.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) condemned Trump’s words Monday night on social media, calling his attacks on Andrews “despicable.”

“Annie Andrews is a mom and pediatrician who’s always put her community first — and she’s exactly who South Carolina needs representing them in the Senate,” Schumer said on X.

Former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley, a Republican, also criticized the president’s attack on Andrews, urging voters to “reject politics based on division and hate.”

“This is abhorrent. Elections don’t have to be about cruelty and lies. South Carolina deserves better,” Beasley wrote Monday night on X.

South Carolina has not elected a Democratic senator in nearly three decades.

Andrews’s campaign website does not mention her positions on LGBTQ+ issues.

The Los Angeles Blade reached out to Andrews’s campaign for comment on Trump’s attack and her positions on transgender rights but did not hear back by time of publication.

Michael Kearns is one of those friends who, even after a decade of distance, was always just a phone call away.

Michael died on Monday night, Oct. 5. He was 76. No details or cause of death have been released, but apparently Michael had not been in the best of health.

In a condolence note to the LGBTQ+ community on Facebook, Celebration Theatre posted: “At Celebration, Michael is perhaps most remembered for his production of Robert Chesley’s JERKER. In fact, Michael was due to appear this Sunday (National Coming Out Day) in our Circa: Queer Histories Festival event “Art in the Revolution: Queer Theatre in 1982 and Today”—where he was to reprise selections from the play alongside his longtime friend and colleague Joe Gill.”

Today, a stunned gay theatre and AIDS activism world is mourning the loss of the ubiquitous and creative artist who helped so many, literally touched so many, and probably died not knowing how beloved he really was.

I met Michael Kearns in late 1989. I was a new nobody freelancer at Frontiers Magazine, and Michael called because apparently no one was interested in this new play he’d written. Someone warned me that it was probably all about gay sex and I might not like it. But it was also about AIDS, and that had become my life since 1984. So, I went to his show. Intimacies changed my life.

I don’t remember the location or what happened before or after. What I remember is watching Michael Kearns standing onstage, twirling this red scarf like a magical matador ushering us into his world of six characters as Darien Martus’ score quietly seeped into my bloodstream. These were not people from my world – and yet, their poverty of the soul, their angry loneliness, their reality-shy desperation for love and recognition felt like my world, too, even though I professed to myself that I was none of these things. And, given my pre-sobriety shenanigans, I was gratefully HIV-negative.

I went backstage and confessed I was too mesmerized to talk then. So we met for lunch at the French Market Place in West Hollywood and laughed and swooned with sudden enlightenment and shared story after story for hours. We were both born in January, 16 days apart – he was older. We were both in a 12 Step program. He liked to gossip; I was an old-school journalist. We really fell for each other through our mutual commitment to do what we could to fight AIDS.

Michael confessed that he wasn’t really the Happy Hustler, though he played one in real life – and I had no idea what the hell he was talking about. I knew people in AA and people with AIDS had their own language, but as someone who came out late, I had no idea what gay and lesbian-speak was.

I confess that even though I’d heard enough gay sex stories through AA 9^th Steps, I blushed as he explained Jerker and Dream Man – which Mark S. King says is really based on him and interviews he gave Michael’s theatrical partner, playwright James Carroll Pickett.

That’s when things got intensely intellectual and nuanced, as in Queen of Angels, which was luckily staged at Highways Performance Space – headed up by the brilliant and lovely Tim Miller – where I could go outside and catch my breath trying to figure out the Hero’s Journey.

But as extraordinary as Michael’s writing was and as riveted as I was by his acting – I still have the T-shirt featuring his performance in Charles Ludlam‘s Camille at Highways – I was a political reporter, so I had to find ways to cover him for his activism, as well as his art. Cue Artists Confronting AIDS, which Michael co-founded with Jim Pickett.

“The initial concept of AIDS/US was truly shocking: putting people who had the disease, many of whom were not well, on stage—live—to tell their stories. There were audience members who feared catching the disease from the performers,” Michael said.

Michael became a major source for journalists when explosive stories hit the news – like the death of actor Brad Davis. The 41-year-old star of the film Midnight Express died of AIDS on Sept. 8, 1991. He kept his health conditions secret for six years so he could continue to work and support his wife and child.

Two days after his death, his widow, casting director Susan Bluestein, gave the Los Angeles Times Davis’ book proposal about his struggle to work in Hollywood while secretly having AIDS. The proposal turned into an open letter charging the industry with hypocrisy, homophobia, and AIDSphobia.

Michael felt the crisis would be cathartic, serving as a “real turning point” that could yield jobs. And it served as an opportunity for him to come out as being HIV/positive.

On Sept. 16, Michael told NBC correspondent Faith Daniels that he was HIV positive.

“I felt that not one more HIV-infected actor or anyone else should die in shame,” Michael told me for an article in the Sept. 19, 1991 issue of the Bay Area Reporter. “I’m doing this for all people with HIV. HIV is nothing to be ashamed of. For me to remain silent indicates shame or fear on some level. Taking my cue from Brad Davis, I couldn’t remain silent.”

He added: “This is really revolutionary what’s going on. There’s no way I can’t be a part of it.”

And he was. “There seems to be this expectation that Hollywood should be more evolved than the rest of the world. But Hollywood is less evolved. They focus on the lowest common denominator, particularly in television, which assumes the viewer is homophobic, racist, sexist, and stupid.”

Michael blamed “the relative invisibility of gay themes in Hollywood’s film and TV product, as well as the lack of openly gay actors, let alone openly HIV-positive ones–on ‘self-hatred’ by gays in the industry who are ‘closeted,’” The Times reported.

Michael eventually came out about his 1983 unprotected sexual encounter with actor Rock Hudson, which he was certain resulted in him contracting HIV/AIDS. And, of course, that resulted in another play about homophobia and art.

“Rock was a classic victim,” Michael, tagged as “the only openly gay actor in Hollywood,” told the LA Times in 1992. “He was a victim of this town, of alcohol, of his looks, of the system, of his own publicity. In many ways he was the opposite of me.”

Michael also noted how little had changed after Brad Davis’ AIDS death. “I felt a deep kinship with Brad,” he said of disclosing his own HIV status. “Then the media comes to me, and I’m saying the same things I said six years ago with Rock. Nothing’s changed. There’s been fund-raising and consciousness-raising by heterosexual female stars, but the more subtle, insidious fear has increased.”

Being HIV positive, Michael said in 1992, before the miracle drugs, “makes me prioritize things. And I’ve never been low on the passion scale. Has it made me more passionate to know that my days may be numbered, that there may not be many more opening nights? Of course! So, yes, part of it is good. It’s no different than anyone who has an incredible obstacle and makes something beautiful out of it.”

But Hollywood is still “a scalding cauldron of collusion,” Michael told me.

“What’s troubling is that a number of Hollywood powerbrokers treat homosexuality as a ‘sin’ or ‘immoral’ or an ‘abnormality’ that somehow is to be hidden; they categorize it as a career killer which could result in a loss of box office billing or revenue,” he said. “But they have skin in the game (usually financial), so they collude. They lie, betray, falsify; they are the immoral ones.”

When actor Kevin Spacey was “trolling the halls at Burke Williams, camouflaging himself by putting the hood of his bathrobe up over his head, he was not exactly embracing his gayness,” Michael said. “And when he got in the massage room, alone with the masseur, Spacey insisted on positioning himself for something other than a ‘legit massage.’ Is that harassment? It occurred enough times, according to my very reliable source, that he was thrown out of the West Hollywood location and relegated to Santa Monica (where there were more issues reported). Even in this case, Spacey was being protected by moving him rather than really confronting this issue. Collusion.”

There’s so much more to consider about Michael Kearns – like his love for Philip Juwig. I attended their casual wedding and went to Sherman Oaks Medical Center with Michael before Philip died in 1992.

And I talked with him a lot about his desire to be a father. A lot of his friends, including me, thought it would be virtually impossible for a single, gay, HIV positive man to be “allowed” to adopt. But he did. And he was so happy with his little baby Tia that he brought her to Paul Monette’s memorial at the Directors Guild to show her off. It was close to a spiritual full-circle moment.

Over the years, I became a news editor and had my own blog – LGBT POV – and always tried to make space for Michael’s contributions. One about his daughter Tia – who renamed herself Katherine – is the essay “Bloodless but not Loveless,” which is part of a larger collection entitled What I Would Tell Her: 28 Devoted Dads on Bringing Up, Holding On To, and Letting Go of Their Daughters, edited by Andrea N. Richesin.

“You are my family,” Tia/Katherine says. She reminds me of the many individuals—gay, straight, young, old, black, white, rich, poor—who have helped me raise her since she and I embarked on this journey together.”

This is what I’ll remember: for Michael Kearns, it’s always been about love. And a good laugh.

This is a cross-post from Karen’s LGBTQ+ Freedom Fighters Substack.

Two women sit on a bed, a Pride flag hanging behind them. One is nervous; the other tells her to be calm and that she’ll do “all the work.” The music swells. The two hold hands and —  fill out a ballot voting for Steve Hilton? 

This is the new advertisement from the Hilton Gubernatorial campaign that is drawing rebuke from both sides of the aisle, but for very different reasons. 

Jorge Reyes Salinas, the communications director at Equality California, said the ad was an insult to the queer community.  “This ad is a disgusting attempt to exploit lesbian intimacy for political attention,” he said. The advertisement plays on media tropes that Salinas says “reduce lesbian and bisexual women… to sexual entertainment,” rather than showing them as well-rounded characters. “Any group of the LGBTQ+ community deserves the same dignity and respect as everyone else,” he said. 

The ad is truly hyper-sexualized. It ends with one woman telling the other, “Now lick it.” The two pause and stare before she reveals an envelope to send the ballot, and large text pops up saying, “Just try it!”  

Salinas characterized the ad as a desperate attempt to get attention from a candidate who is trailing far behind in the polls in heavily Democratic California. The Democratic Candidate Xavier Becerra, who is endorsed by Equality California, holds a 25-point lead over Hilton according to recent polling by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies. 

Conservatives have also criticized the ad. Influential evangelical Pastor Jack Hibbs thought the ad was distasteful and said, “lesbianism among college girls and some high school girls that right now is an actual pandemic of social ill.” Republican AG candidate Michael Gates said it undermines “the sanctity of the relationship between parents and their children.” This criticism is rather confusing because although the ad features two relatively young women, they both appear to be adults, not minors. 

“The comments from Pastor Jack Hibbs should be criticized because there is nothing wrong with two women being attracted to each other,” Salinas said. “We’re calling out the ad’s stereotypes, while also rejecting the homophobia in the response to it … by other Republicans.” 

The backlash from Hilton’s own party and supporters shows that an advertisement full of queer innuendo was ill-considered, considering the national GOP’s attacks on LGBTQ people in recent years. Hilton himself has been campaigning against transgender girls and women competing in school sports and using locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity. This context might be why Hilton’s political base responded to the ad just as poorly as the liberal voters he was attempting to court. 

Hilton says the ad is part of a new series rolling out before Election Day, showing stereotypical California liberal archetypes voting for Hilton. He claims these ads are authentically filmed with real actors, as opposed to being A.I. generated, like many of his previous ads. One other advertisement has been released so far by the campaign showing a man at a spiritual retreat also being swayed to vote for Hilton, although it is notably absent of sexual innuendo.

Caleb Kaufman is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent participated in an interview in which he said his sexuality had no impact on the president’s selection of him.

On Sunday, Axios co-founder Mike Allen interviewed Secretary Bessent, the 79th person to lead the Treasury Department, in the “Cash Room” in the Treasury building. The two talked for more than 40 minutes about issues related to the current administration’s efforts for Axios’s YouTube channel.

Bessent has been something of an anomaly during this administration, breaking what many consider the “gay glass ceiling.” He is the first openly gay person to lead the U.S. Treasury Department, the first openly gay Senate-confirmed Cabinet member in a Republican administration, and the highest-ranking LGBTQ+ government official in U.S. history.

The two covered various ground — about the state of the U.S. economy, the various AI approaches by the Trump-Vance administration, and the war in Iran. All things that have made President Donald Trump’s constant appraisal of the U.S. economy difficult to sell to the American people as the affordability crisis has worsened.

Toward the end of the interview, Allen asked Bessent about deciding not to attend the U.S. Naval Academy, knowing his sexuality would be a hindrance, and instead attending Yale University. Allen asked if his choice to attend the Ivy League school held him back in life.

“I don’t think it did at all, and it’s very difficult to talk about the counterfactual … but I don’t think going to Yale held me back,” Bessent said. “Maybe some people at other schools would think it might. But I think it makes you aware, and I’ve openly spoken about it before, too. I think maybe some of my career choices were influenced by it.”

The U.S. Naval Academy only began allowing openly LGBTQ+ students to apply — and be open about their sexuality — following the 2011 repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Prior to the policy’s removal, students could be removed from the school for violating the rules, including rules related to their sexuality.

“You said President Trump chose me because he believes I’m the best candidate, not because of my sexual preference or your green eyes … ,” Allen said.

“Exactly,” Bessent replied. “And I think that’s one of the reasons we have such a great team. The president makes his decisions all the time. You know, he’ll occasionally tell me, ‘You’re breaking my friends’ hearts.’ They see you on TV and they want an intro, and we have to break the news to them.”

Bessent has been married to former New York prosecutor John Freeman since 2011, and they have lived together in South Carolina. There, they had two children through surrogacy.

Despite being a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Bessent has publicly supported Trump’s policies, including some that have drawn criticism from LGBTQ+ advocates and organizations. These include reductions to PEPFAR funding, policies removing transgender service members from the military, recognizing only two sexes, removing LGBTQ+ protections from Title IX, and other policies that LGBTQ+ advocates argue come at the cost of LGBTQ+ safety and protections.

The Los Angeles Blade has reached out to the Treasury Department and Secretary Bessent’s team for comment and responses to these questions, including questions about how he views his identity and sexuality in relation to — and potentially at odds with — the policies and mission of the current administration. The Blade did not receive a response by publication time.

The 42nd annual AIDS Walk Los Angeles will take place on Sunday, October 18th at West Hollywood Park. Participants are set to march a two-mile loop around West Hollywood and hear speeches from organizers and HIV/AIDS advocates.

The Los Angeles Blade spoke with Craig E. Thompson, CEO of APLA Health, the event’s organizer, about the continued importance of the fundraising event and the challenges facing AIDS research, healthcare, and advocacy.

“The idea that HIV is over is the most dangerous myth out there,” Thompson said in a written statement. According to Thompson, increased options for HIV treatment and prevention have created a public perception that AIDS is no longer a pressing issue and have led to a decrease in participation and fundraising at AIDS Walk LA. “HIV fundraisers across the country are seeing this decline,” he said. 

But recent federal cuts and policy changes have created new obstacles to ending the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Congress has proposed cuts that would strip away nearly one billion dollars in HIV funding, mainly impacting prevention and outreach. And earlier this year, the Trump-Vance administration ended nearly 100 community organizations’ HIV-prevention grants, opting instead to direct the money to state and local health departments. 

These funding cuts have been felt by APLA Health, which last year was one of the California HIV prevention groups impacted by a 20 million dollar funding freeze. The freeze was eventually overturned, but Thompson still fears future cuts from the federal administration. “Over the past year we took cuts to our food pantry program, PrEP navigation, housing, and more,” he said. “Thanks to relentless advocacy and partners at the state and county who stepped up, much of that funding has been restored,” adding, “but restored is not the same as safe.”

Craig E. Thompson speaks at AIDS Walk Los Angeles 2025. (Photo courtesy of Craig Allyn)

Thompson fears that continued divestment from HIV healthcare and prevention could harm vulnerable communities. “The burden once again lands on the shoulders of those with the least power and the least access to care,” he said. “New infections fall hardest on people of color, transgender women, and those in low-income communities. Every one of those diagnoses could have been prevented.”

Non-HIV-specific federal policies also pose harm to APLA Health’s clients, the biggest of which is cuts and decreased eligibility for Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. “Medi-Cal is how a huge share of our patients get care, and the federal cuts will hit hard,” Thompson said. “California is covering much of the cost through next summer, … but a patch is not a plan,” he added. And a new policy starting in 2027 will mean that some Medi-Cal recipients will soon have to recertify their coverage twice a year instead of once. “That’s a mountain of paperwork,” Thompson said. “It’s a way of quietly cutting people off without having to say it out loud.”

Despite these current challenges, Thompson sees this year’s AIDS Walk LA as an effective way to help those living with HIV and AIDS at a time when they need support the most. “Funds raised by AIDS Walk LA stay in Los Angeles County and pay for wraparound HIV care and prevention,” he said. This includes funding medical care, PrEP prevention, housing, food pantries, and more. “These programs form the safety net that keeps our community healthy, and the Walk helps hold it together,” Thompson said. Last year, the walk raised over a million dollars for APLA Health to fund its services.

“Fighting back works.” Thompson said. “Come angry, come joyful, come exactly as you are. We’ll celebrate our progress and turn that energy into action. Then [we’ll] carry it to the polls 16 days later.”

Registration for the walk is still open.

Caleb Kaufman is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.

Promover, proteger y defender los derechos humanos de las personas LGBTQ+ en Centroamérica es el propósito del proyecto “Alianza para la Inclusión: hacia la promoción de derechos LGBTIQ+ en Centroamérica”, una iniciativa subvencionada por la Unión Europea, Global Gateway, Oikos Cooperação e Desenvolvimento y Camões — Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, que articula esfuerzos en Guatemala, El Salvador y Honduras.

El proyecto, cuya implementación se desarrolla entre 2025 y 2028, busca fortalecer a organizaciones, liderazgos comunitarios y redes regionales frente a contextos marcados por la discriminación, la violencia y la reducción del espacio cívico.

A través de procesos de formación, atención integral, protección, fortalecimiento organizativo, incidencia y articulación regional, la iniciativa procura generar condiciones más seguras y dignas para que las personas LGBTQ+ puedan ejercer plenamente sus derechos.

Formación y fortalecimiento de liderazgos

Durante los primeros 18 meses de ejecución, el proyecto ha desarrollado acciones de formación y acompañamiento, otorgado subvenciones a colectivos comunitarios, impulsado estrategias de seguridad integral y respaldado procesos regionales de articulación e incidencia.

Uno de los resultados reportados es la participación de 489 personas LGBTQ+ de Guatemala, El Salvador y Honduras en procesos formativos relacionados con la desnaturalización de la violencia, organización e incidencia. Asimismo, 41 personas líderes LGBTQ+ de El Salvador y Guatemala fortalecieron sus capacidades para la formulación de proyectos.

Para Pedro Campos, coordinador de Oikos — Cooperação e Desenvolvimento en El Salvador, estos procesos tienen una dimensión que trasciende lo técnico.

“Desde hoy estamos cada día más convencidas y convencidos de que la gestión de proyectos más que técnica o administrativa es esencialmente humana. Nunca debemos olvidar que la persona en toda su diversidad es el centro de nuestro quehacer. Y si un día la empatía y el amor nos abandonan, habremos perdido la esencia de nuestro trabajo”.

La formación también ha significado una oportunidad para fortalecer liderazgos comunitarios. Josh Hernández, persona no binaria y codirectore de Espacios Seguros El Salvador, destaca el impacto que tuvo su participación.

“Esta experiencia me ha fortalecido como activista y como parte de una organización comunitaria, y me ha permitido ampliar mi visión y soñar con nuevas actividades que contribuyan a construir una cultura de paz en nuestra sociedad salvadoreña”, comenta Hernández.

Atención integral para personas LGBTQ+ en situación de vulnerabilidad

En El Salvador, uno de los componentes del proyecto se ha enfocado en brindar atención integral a personas que enfrentan situaciones de violencia, discriminación o vulnerabilidad.

A través de COMCAVIS TRANS, el proyecto permitió atender a 128 personas, mediante servicios psicosociales, legales y de resguardo temporal en su albergue.

La atención incluyó orientación para activar mecanismos de denuncia y medidas de protección, además de contención emocional, manejo de crisis y acompañamiento para la estabilización de condiciones básicas.

La experiencia también se ha extendido a Honduras. Loren López, directora ejecutiva de la Asociación de Mujeres Lesbianas y Bisexuales LITOS, resaltó el valor de generar espacios seguros para mujeres lesbianas, bisexuales y personas LTBQ (lesbianas, trans, bisexuales y queer).

“Me quedo con la satisfacción de haber contribuido a crear espacios donde una mujer LTBQ+ pueda sentirse segura, escuchada y reconocida, sin tener que esconder quién es. Esta experiencia fortaleció a LITOS y nos dejó nuevas herramientas y posibilidades para seguir trabajando por los derechos y la eliminación de la discriminación”, agrega López. 

La seguridad integral como herramienta de protección

En contextos donde quienes defienden derechos pueden enfrentar diferentes tipos de riesgos, el proyecto ha incorporado la seguridad integral como un componente fundamental.

Durante 2026, 140 personas LGBTQ+ pertenecientes a seis organizaciones participaron en procesos de formación sobre seguridad integral, abordando dimensiones físicas, digitales y emocionales.

Como resultado, seis organizaciones elaboraron y consolidaron sus propios planes de seguridad integral, incorporando medidas de prevención y respuesta ante riesgos físicos y digitales, con especial énfasis en la protección de información sensible, el uso seguro de plataformas digitales y la gestión de incidentes en entornos virtuales.

Incidencia para transformar políticas y garantizar derechos

La iniciativa también ha acompañado procesos de incidencia y litigio estratégico en Guatemala.

La Asociación LAMBDA, junto con la Comisión Presidencial por la Paz y los Derechos Humanos (COPADEH), acompañó una consulta nacional con personas LGBTQ+ para contribuir a la elaboración de una Estrategia Nacional para las personas LGBTQ+, cuyo proceso se encontraba en elaboración y cuya aprobación se esperaba para finales de 2026.

Asimismo, en julio de 2026 fue presentada ante la Corte Constitucional de Guatemala una acción de inconstitucionalidad como parte de una estrategia nacional de litigio estratégico orientada a la aprobación del matrimonio igualitario. Al cierre de la actualización de resultados de este año, el proceso permanecía pendiente de resolución.

El acompañamiento jurídico también ha permitido apoyar procesos individuales relacionados con el reconocimiento de la identidad.

Uno de estos casos es el de Paula Escobar, mujer trans guatemalteca acompañada por LAMBDA en el proceso de cambio de nombre en sus documentos de identidad.

“Ha sido el paso más grande de mi vida, pues me libró de momentos incómodos y de dar explicaciones para ser reconocida como la mujer que soy”.

De acuerdo con el testimonio, la organización se encargó de la gestión legal y aproximadamente seis meses después obtuvo una respuesta favorable.

Redes regionales para ampliar el alcance de la defensa de derechos

La articulación regional constituye otro de los componentes del proyecto. La iniciativa ha apoyado a redes latinoamericanas que buscan fortalecer y posicionar el trabajo de organizaciones LGBTQ+.

Entre ellas se encuentra la Alianza Centroamericana y del Caribe de Hombres Trans, que articula organizaciones y personas transmasculinas de Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica y Panamá.

Durante su primer año, ALICAHT desarrolló su Plan Estratégico y Reglamento Interno 2025-2030, además de su identidad gráfica y sitio web.

Otro proceso regional respaldado fue el III Congreso Regional de CORPORA en Libertad, realizado en Guatemala en diciembre de 2025. El encuentro reunió esfuerzos orientados a fortalecer la defensa, promoción y garantía de los derechos humanos de las personas LGBTQ+ privadas y exprivadas de libertad en América Latina y el Caribe.

El espacio permitió fortalecer la articulación regional y compartir experiencias y estrategias frente a los desafíos que enfrentan las personas LGBTQ+ dentro y fuera de los sistemas penitenciarios.

Ari Vera, fundadora de CORPORA, ha destacado la importancia del trabajo en red como una herramienta para generar transformaciones y fortalecer las capacidades colectivas.

Inclusión más allá de las palabras

Durante el Foro “El Impacto de Incluir”, uno de los planteamientos centrales fue que la inclusión requiere transformaciones concretas y no únicamente el uso de conceptos o siglas.

Jason García, técnico PMA de Monitoreo, Evaluación y Aprendizaje para Oikos El Salvador, señaló una de las barreras que persisten en los proyectos. “Una de las barreras en los proyectos es que son binarios y no se reconocen las otras identidades”.

Desde esta perspectiva, un proyecto inclusivo no se limita a utilizar la palabra inclusión o incorporar las siglas LGBTQ+, sino que requiere revisar prácticas, metodologías, mecanismos de participación y formas de reconocer la diversidad.

Como parte de este proceso también se preparó una guía práctica que sistematiza instrumentos y mecanismos del Sistema Internacional de Derechos Humanos, destacando su importancia histórica en la ampliación y protección de derechos.

La compilación fue presentada en la X Conferencia de la Red ILGA LAC y en el 18º Encuentro de la Red Centroamericana de Intercambio Académico en Derechos Internacionales, realizado en la Universidad de El Salvador.

Cooperación centrada en las personas

Los resultados alcanzados durante los primeros 18 meses reflejan una estrategia que combina formación, atención directa, protección, fortalecimiento institucional, incidencia y construcción de redes.

Para la Unión Europea, colocar a las personas en el centro constituye un elemento fundamental de la cooperación. Duccio Bandini, embajador de la Unión Europea en El Salvador, expresó “Desde la Unión Europea seguiremos apostando para una cooperación que pone en el centro a las personas. Porque el verdadero impacto de influir se mide en vidas transformadas, en derechos conquistados y en sociedades que celebran con orgullo su diversidad”.

Con una implementación prevista hasta 2028, la Alianza para la Inclusión continúa articulando organizaciones nacionales y redes latinoamericanas para fortalecer capacidades y generar herramientas que permitan a las personas y organizaciones LGBTQ+ enfrentar los desafíos de sus contextos y avanzar en la promoción, protección y defensa de los derechos humanos.

Más allá de las cifras y los productos alcanzados, el proyecto coloca en el centro una premisa: la inclusión se construye cuando las personas pueden participar, organizarse, defender sus derechos y vivir su identidad con dignidad y seguridad.

Uncloseted Media published this story on Oct. 6.

This story was reported in partnership with The 19th, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy.

By ORION RUMMLER | Bentley Hudgins is a 33-year-old democratic socialist who spent the past three years advocating for LGBTQ+ rights in the Georgia statehouse.

Bella Bautista is 10 years younger, the first transgender woman to win a legislative primary in Georgia and head of a nonprofit distributing supplies to at-risk young adults.

Both are running for a spot in the Georgia House of Representatives, part of a cohort of Democrats who hope to shrink or end Republicans’ hold on the chamber. Both would make history as the first trans members of the body. Neither wants to discuss identity politics or pronouns — they want to talk about data centers, the price of groceries and healthcare.

But their districts are very different: Hudgins is running in a liberal stronghold in Atlanta with no serious Republican opposition and is all but certain to win in November. Bautista’s district is rural and deeply conservative; it hasn’t elected a Democratic state representative since 1996, and she’s the first to run for this seat since 2010. But Hudgins’s and Bautista’s bets are the same: Voters are looking for someone to fight for them. In Hudgins and Bautista’s view, something in the country is broken and no one else will fix it. So they stepped up.

“People around here just hate the government, and that’s why I’m running,” Bautista told Uncloseted Media and The 19th. “People have lost faith in the system as a whole.”

Hudgins’ mind is on the big picture: getting as many Democrats, especially progressives, in the statehouse as possible. Without that, they believe the future — especially for LGBTQ+ people and immigrants — isn’t certain.

“At the end of the day, we have to have the numbers,” Hudgins told Uncloseted Media and The 19th.

A deep red district in rural Ga.

In the hourlong drive from Atlanta to Cartersville, where Bautista grew up, suburbs fade away and the land expands into RV lots, farms, and houses on the edge of the woods. Bautista launched her campaign in this small town, at Noble & Main Coffee Co., across the street from a butcher shop that offers deer processing.

“It’s one of those hidden gems,” she says. “They’re friendly toward Democrats.”

It’s also not in the statehouse district she wants to represent. She’s running for office in the more rural side of the county, an area that’s about 80 percent white, mostly older and mostly conservative. And it’s been a challenge. Most people here vote Republican. Her opponent, the GOP incumbent Mitchell Scoggins, has not run against anyone since he first won a special election in 2018.

Lack of change is what spurred Bautista to run. And it’s not just Scoggins sailing unopposed to reelection every two years. Bartow County is one of a small handful of counties in Georgia with only one commissioner, who single-handedly decides the fate of everything from data center construction to new roads. The current commissioner has held the position for 14 years.

The issues facing her hometown can’t be left to one man, Bautista says. She wants to pass legislation for locals to vote on a board of commissioners, regulate Flock cameras, shield locals from data center pollution, conserve farmland and expand rural mental healthcare. She thinks these stances will appeal to voters who may otherwise vote Republican. But it’s still an uphill battle — and a lonely one.

“This is not a story about pride. It’s not a story about visibility,” she says. “It’s a story about challenges, difficulty. I don’t want to be the fucking first to do it, but I have no choice but to be the first.”

But Bautista says she’s struggling. This campaign has cost her privacy and peace, which doesn’t impact just her: She lives in her family home as the primary caretaker for her mom.

In May, during the primaries, someone came to her house twice, she says: once to put up a sign supporting President Donald Trump next to her own campaign sign in the front yard, and later to take down her sign.

“I literally live in the middle of nowhere,” she says. “That sent chills down my back, because I’m like, OK, that means someone physically went to my home, got out of their car, went up the hill, put up a Trump sign.”

Her neighbors, who she’s known her whole life and are Trump voters, assured her that they weren’t involved. But that fear hasn’t left her. Since then, more signs have gone missing: A few weeks after we met, hundreds of her campaign signs were taken down across the district. Those cost money to replace — money the campaign doesn’t have.

As a trans Latina, she belongs in Bartow County just as much as anyone else, she says. This is the only home she’s known. But campaigning in this district feels like being thrown into the ocean, she says. Online, people mock her and misgender her. It hurts. Often, they’re the same people she’s fighting for.

At one point during an interview at Noble & Main Coffee Co., Bautista started crying. Keeping her head above water means she doesn’t often take time to think about why she’s doing this.

“You’re just having to swim, swim, swim, swim and you never get any chance to look back and think, oh my gosh, why am I doing this, what does this mean to other people?”

Dramatically different districts

Hudgins launched their campaign at Joe’s Coffeehouse in East Atlanta Village, roughly 50 miles from Bautista’s district. This place, a local indie fixture, holds personal history for them: When they became homeless in 2017, it became a refuge as they couchsurfed and lived in their car. It took a year to find stable housing.

This neighborhood is where they got back on their feet after being kicked out of their apartment, something they know is common for queer people in the U.S., as well as in their own circles.

“Most of the queer electeds that I’m really close with are people who have experienced homelessness,” they say. “It just goes to show how prevalent this is for queer Southerners.”

And, years later, this same neighborhood is where they fell back in love with politics.

Being here makes Hudgins think about how the city is changing as people get priced out. Gay bars are closing and, as a former drag performer, they know of only three places still putting on shows. It’s all getting too expensive. Midtown isn’t the bustling queer neighborhood it used to be, they say, but the queers are still here: They’re just moving further into DeKalb County, East Point and southeast Atlanta, all in search of affordability.

That’s part of the problem. Hudgins sees solutions, though: raising the state minimum wage to $20 an hour or creating a state earned income tax credit to give money to lower-income families. Previous Democrat-sponsored bills to enact those policies have been blocked in the statehouse, and it’s those stalemates that are driving voters to push for something different, Hudgins says. Decades of Republican control have left people disillusioned.

“People’s political will and spirit has kind of been chipped away at,” they say. “Life can be better.”

The first time Hudgins ran for this seat in 2022, they were 28 and single, and the pandemic was still fresh. The previous year, Atlanta spa shootings targeting Asian women had taken place, and “Cop City,” the massive training ground for local police in DeKalb County, was formally proposed amid national protests against police brutality. Joe Biden was president, and from where Hudgins sat, the Democratic establishment was clamping down on progressive dissent.

They were angry — but that anger didn’t resonate with voters, they say.

“It was such a more agitated time in a lot of different ways, and this strong leftist point of view wasn’t as appreciated,” they say. “At that time, I was also angry. I was mad. And I think it came through.”

Their opener in their 2022 race was, “To be frank, I’m tired of my friends dying,” they say. They had lost friends to police violence, addiction, hunger and mental illness. One of their friends was left permanently disabled from a hate crime, they say. Hudgins had begun to get severe cluster headaches and was managing that while running their first campaign.

After losing that race, they reassessed if they wanted to do politics at all. They were broken-hearted, they say. A friend helped them get a job at a Laotian pop-up restaurant in East Atlanta Village, only a short walk from Joe’s Coffeehouse. But what they thought would be an escape from politics became a reeducation in why it mattered, they say. Surrounded by other Asian Americans, they learned about U.S. bombing campaigns in Laos and connected with their new friends’ working-class struggles.

“I really got to understand more about how my Southeast Asian neighbors and friends have experienced American identity,” they say.

If elected, Hudgins would be Georgia’s first Japanese American lawmaker. To them, it feels like that usually gets left out of their story as people instead focus on their gender identity.

They weren’t planning on running for office this year. Their wedding is in November. Until recently, they were lobbying against anti-LGBTQ+ bills as Georgia state director for Human Rights Campaign, a major LGBTQ+ advocacy group. But Saira Draper, who beat Hudgins in 2022 to represent House District 90, is running for the state Senate. That left the House seat open. And it left the door open for Hudgins to run again.

When three other Democrat contenders dropped out in the primary, Hudgins became the front-runner. Their opponent, Samantha Boston, received only about 500 votes in the Republican primary. Hudgins got over 7,000 in the Democratic contest.

Fearless advocates

On a muggy September night, Hudgins and Bautista were in full glam at the College Park Woman’s Club in Atlanta, gathered alongside activists, volunteers and political candidates at a fundraising gala for LGBTQ+ youth.

At her table, Bautista prepared to present a “fearless youth advocate” award to state Rep. Akbar Ali, sworn in last year at 21 as the youngest lawmaker in Georgia. Bautista won this same award last year for the work she does at her nonprofit, which primarily supports transgender and immigrant young adults. Seated with Ali and friends running for office in Bartow County, she read over her notes.

Democrats in the room buzzed with the possibility of reshaping the statehouse, and with nerves that Republicans’ now abandoned redistricting effort will resurface.

On stage, Bautista looked to a different future — one where trans visibility in politics is not a rarity in Georgia.

“To all my transsexual girls in the building, just know that I’m fighting for you, and that in two years it’s going to be one of y’all,” she said. “It’s going to be one of y’all running for governor. It’s going to be one of y’all running for state senator. It’s going to be one of y’all running for commissioner.”

But she knows that history recognizes the victors, people who make it past the finish line, regardless of how much work they put into the race.

“I stand before you in the middle of history, not on the other side of it,” she said on stage. “I keep going not because the water is calm, but because someone on the other side is waiting for proof that a person like them survived it.”

Hudgins watched from the front of the room. They sat next to Sam Park, the Georgia House minority whip, a longtime mentor.

“I’m incredibly proud of Bella’s leadership and her courage for stepping up,” Park told Uncloseted Media and The 19th in an interview a few days later. “Bella is giving her voters, her fellow neighbors, an option, a real choice to say enough is enough.”

Rural Democrats are craving someone willing to fight for them, says Courtney Bruder, chair of the Democratic committee of Cherokee County, where Bautista’s district also touches. But complacency has gotten in the way, she says.

“It’s been difficult to try to get someone to be willing to fight for a seat that’s going to be hard,” she told Uncloseted Media and The 19th. “It’s been a slow change to get Democrats in this area to run.”

Bautista hasn’t felt supported by the Georgia Democrats, she says. She has allies in the statehouse and in others running for office, but she still feels like the subliminal message from the party is that she just isn’t electable. She feels like she isn’t taken seriously because she’s not white, doesn’t have wealthy donors and isn’t running in a safe district for Democrats.

Democrats in leadership say she’s changed the game, though, and see her candidacy as a sign of a changing tide in Georgia.

A blue wave may be brewing in the Peach State. Georgia saw record-breaking engagement in the primaries, and an NBC analysis found that Democrats turned out in unusually high numbers across the state. But in Bartow County, where Bautista lives, Democrats make up just one-third of the vote in the gubernatorial primary, according to data from the Georgia Secretary of State’s elections office.

Bautista is positioning herself as an anti-establishment candidate first, and a Democrat second, to appeal to people who aren’t engaged in politics, she says.

It may not be enough to win. But for the past 16 years in this district, no one was willing to step into the ring at all. She still sees victory in that, and in the ways her campaign has gotten neighbors to care about what’s happening in their backyard.

‘I’m going to be who I am’

If elected, Hudgins would become the state’s first nonbinary lawmaker. But they don’t care if voters understand their gender or use the correct pronouns; they just want voters to understand the issues.

“I realized if I led with my identity, it would distract people from understanding what I had to say,” Hudgins says.

One moment in particular on the campaign trail, at Israel Missionary Baptist Church in April, changed their perspective on this.

“The deacon lays his hands on me. He’s like, ‘God, help her, help this person, help him, just help them be victorious.’ I wanted to laugh, but then I was really touched. This guy I’ve never met before … was just trying to be respectful,” they say.

If they win, a whole new set of challenges awaits them at the Georgia statehouse. The dress code is gendered; men must wear a coat and tie, while women are allowed a more nebulous “dignified dress.” But it’s not just the clothes; they would be joining an institution built around a gender binary they don’t adhere to.

Lawmakers are used to referring to each other as “Mr.,” “Mrs.” or “Miss,” per the rules. Although there are more formal options that could allow for a loophole, those are gendered too — members may identify each other by the district “he or she” represents or by the city of “his or her” residence. The bathroom is its own ordeal: if there is a gender-neutral bathroom, Hudgins has yet to find it. As a gender nonconforming person, if Hudgins takes office, they would be walking into a system designed to exclude them. And there are fines associated with breaking these rules.

They are still weighing how to respond to it. They want to be taken seriously as a legislator and build relationships that move bills, but if they don’t stand up for themselves, it sends a poor message, they say.

“I have a pesky knack for maintaining who I am regardless of what the rules say,” they say with a laugh. “If we have a Democratic majority, we can change the rules. If there is a Republican majority, I’m going to be who I am and I’m going to dress how I think is appropriate. And their problems, we’ll address them as well.”

SÃO PAULO — Voters in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Norte state on Sunday elected a transgender woman to the country’s Chamber of Deputies.

Natal Municipal Councilwoman Thabatta Pimenta, who is a member of the Green Party, won with 92,743 votes. She is the first trans woman from northeast Brazil elected to the country’s Congress.

Pimenta became emotional when she was speaking to her supporters after she won. Her brother Ryan, who has cerebral palsy, was by her side.

“This victory belongs to the people of Rio Grande do Norte,” she said. “It is a victory built from the ground up … the people themselves rose up, and you saw the result: today they elected the first female travesti federal deputy from northeast Brazil.”

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Pimenta will join Erika Hilton, a travesti member of the leftist Socialism and Liberty (PSOL) party who was a sex worker before her election to the São Paulo Municipal Council, and Duda Salabert, a trans woman and fellow PSOL member from Minas Gerais state, in the Chamber of Deputies.

Hilton on Sunday won re-election with 1,596,472 votes, the most any female member of Congress has received in Brazilian history. Dudabert also won re-election with 215,192 votes.

“Thank you Minas Gerais,” said Dudabert on social media after she won re-election.

❤️ REELEITA!!! Obrigada Minas Gerais! Com muito trabalho, aumentamos nossa votação! Muito orgulho em ser, pela segunda eleição consecutiva, a terceira candidatura mais votada de Minas Gerais para o cargo de deputada federal. E mostramos novamente que é possível fazer uma campanha “lixo zero”- sem imprimir santinhos, bandeiras ou adesivos. Muito feliz! Obrigada Minas ! Obrigada Brasil

— Duda Salabert 5️⃣0️⃣5️⃣0️⃣ (@DudaSalabert) October 5, 2026

Five openly bisexual Chamber of Deputies candidates also won their races on Sunday.

• Guilherme Cortez, a PSOL member in São Paulo state

• Dandara Tonatzin, a member of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party in Minas Gerais

• Anielle Franco, a Workers’ Party member in Rio de Janeiro state

• Maria Marighella, a Workers’ Party member in Bahia state

• Giovana Mondardo, a Brazilian Communist Party member in Santa Catalina state

Fabio Félix, a gay PSOL member of the Chamber of Deputies who represents the Federal District in which Brasília, the country’s capital, is located won re-election with 224,224 votes. Rick Azevedo, a gay PSOL member from Rio de Janeiro state, won his Chamber of Deputies race.

Daiana Santos, a lesbian Brazilian Communist Party member who represents Rio Grande do Sul state in the Chamber of Deputies, won re-election with 114,315 votes.

Two lesbian women won their Chamber of Deputies campaigns.

• Rosa Amorin, a Workers’ Party member from Pernambuco state

• Bella Gonçalves, a Workers’ Party member from Minas Gerais who is a member of the Belo Horizonte Municipal Council

Samanda de Lula, a lesbian Workers’ Party member, will represent Rio Grande do Norte in the Brazilian Senate.

Rio de Janeiro Municipal Councilwoman Mônica Benício, who is a PSOL member, came up short in her bid for the Senate. Her then-partner, Rio de Janeiro Municipal Councilwoman Marielle Franco, and her driver, Anderson Gomes, were assassinated on March 14, 2018.

Fabiano Contarato, a gay senator from Espíritu Santo who is a member of the Workers’ Party, also lost his re-election bid.

“I receive the election results with respect and serenity,” he said on social media. “The popular will is sovereign, and democracy must always be respected.”

Jean Wyllys is a gay former member of the Chamber of Deputies who previously represented Rio de Janeiro state. He resigned in 2019 and fled Brazil after he received death threats. Wyllys this year ran to represent São Paulo state in the Chamber of Deputies, but he did not win his race.

VoteLGBT, an organization that seeks to increase LGBTQ+ representation in Brazilian politics, noted 529 openly LGBTQ+ candidates ran in the election. The group on Sunday more than 30 of them won their races across the country.

Natasha Ferreira, a Workers’ Party member, became the first travesti elected to public office in Rio Grande do Sul when she won a seat in the state’s Legislative Assembly. Voters in other states across the country also elected more than 20 LGBTQ candidates to their respective Legislative Assemblies.

• Keka Bagno, a bisexual PSOL member, was elected to the Federal District Legislative Chamber

• Açucena, a lesbian Workers’ Party member, was elected to the Espíritu Santo Legislative Assembly

• Fabricio Rosa, a gay Workers’ Party member, was elected to the Goiás Legislative Assembly

• Iza Lourença, a bisexual PSOL member, was elected to the Minas Gerais Legislative Assembly

• Tiago Botelho, a gay Workers’ Party member, was elected to the Minas Gerais Legislative Assembly

• Flávio Brasileiro, a gay Workers’ Party member, was elected to the Paraíba Legislative Assembly

• Dani Balbi, a trans Brazilian Communist Party member, was elected to the Rio de Janeiro Legislative Assembly

• Verônica Lima, a lesbian Workers’ Party member, was elected to the Rio de Janeiro Legislative Assembly

• Dani Monteiro, a bisexual PSOL member, was elected to the Rio de Janeiro Legislative Assembly

• Jean Volpato, a gay Workers’ Party member, was elected to the Santa Catarina Legislative Assembly

• Linda Brasil, a trans PSOL member, was elected to the Sergipe Legislative Assembly

• Sofia Favero, a trans PSOL member, was elected to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly

• Paula Nunes dos Santos, a bisexual PSOL member, was elected to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly

• Ediane Maria, a bisexual PSOL member, was elected to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly

• Monica das Pretas, a bisexual PSOL member, was elected to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly

• Duda Hidalgo, a bisexual Workers’ Party member, was elected to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly

• Rodrigo Mar, a bisexual Workers’ Party member, was elected to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly

• Thainara Faria, a bisexual Workers’ Party member, was elected to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly

• Keit Lima, a bisexual PSOL member, was elected to the São Paulo Legislative Assembly

Lula and Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, whose father is former President Jair Bolsonaro, will face off in the presidential election’s second round on Oct. 25.

SÃO PAULO — President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will face off against Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro in the second round of Brazil’s presidential election on Oct. 25 after neither man received more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round that took place on Sunday.

Bolsonaro was ahead of Lula by a 47.03-45.16 percent margin with 100 percent of the vote counted.

Lula in 2022 defeated Bolsonaro’s father, then-President Jair Bolsonaro, in that year’s presidential election.

The Brazilian Supreme Court last year sentenced Bolsonaro — who repeatedly targeted LGBTQ+ Brazilians and other groups while in office — to more than 27 years in prison for his role in an attempted coup that saw thousands of his supporters storm the Congress, presidential palace, and the Supreme Court itself on Jan. 8, 2023. Bolsonaro is currently serving his sentence at his home in Brasília, the country’s capital, because of his poor health. His son has pledged to pardon him if he becomes the country’s next president.

Lula, who leads Brazil’s leftist Workers’ Party, was Brazil’s president from 2003-2010.

Sergio Moro, a judge who Jair Bolsonaro later tapped as his government’s Justice and Public Security Minister, in 2017 sentenced Lula to 9 1/2 years in prison after his conviction on money laundering and corruption charges that stemmed from Operation Car Wash. 

The Supreme Court in November 2019 ordered Lula’s release.

VoteLGBT, an organization that seeks to increase LGBTQ+ representation in Brazilian politics, noted 529 openly LGBTQ+ candidates ran in this year’s election. More than 100 of them are either transgender or travesti.

The Los Angeles Blade will cover the results of these races when they become available.

The lifesaving 988 call-in number to help people experiencing mental health crises or suicidal thoughts has once again restored its specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth.

The lifeline, which used to have the option to “press 3” to be directly sent to specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth facing mental health crises or suicidal thoughts, was returned on Wednesday following an over-year-long battle with the Trump-Vance administration, which removed the service in May 2025.

The Press 3 option rolled out as a pilot program in 2022 through a government contract with the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ people.

Then, in June 2025, the federal government announced that the lifeline would be eliminated within a month. By July 2025, 988 Lifeline’s “Press 3” services were terminated.

Openly gay U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) helped lead Congress in reversing the removal of the lifesaving resource from American phones. As a member of the Senatw Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, she started the process of securing $535 million for 988 — a $15 million increase — as well as dedicated funding for LGBTQ+ youth specialized services.

Then, in September 2025, Baldwin, along with U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), introduced bipartisan legislation in the Senate, the 988 LGBTQ+ Youth Access Act, to codify the 988 Lifeline’s specialized services for LGBTQ+ young people.

At the same time, U.S. Rep Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) introduced the legislation in the House of Representatives alongside U.S. Reps. Michael Lawler (R-N.Y.) Sharice Davids (D-Kan.) Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Seth Moulton (D-Mass.)

The Senate passed Baldwin’s bipartisan funding bill in January 2026, funding the Department of Health and Human Services with explicit language mandating the return of 988’s LGBTQ+ youth specialized services.

In February 2026, Congress passed legislation mandating that the previously eliminated “Press 3” specialized services be restored and funded with $33,100,000 — but it was unclear if the Press 3 option would still be allowed under current executive orders, namely Executive Order 14168, or “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

Despite the securing of federal funding for the Press 3 resource, the battle to get the 988 LGBTQ+ Youth Access Act through Congress is ongoing — and would provide codafied protection from this removal ever happening again.

According to data on the Trevor Project’s website, LGBTQ+ young people are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers.

Baldwin’s office touts the immense help the lifeline provides to LGBTQ+ people in their moments of greatest need. The press release on the reinstatement of Press 3 highlighted the continued demand for the service:

“The volume of calls, texts, and chats 15 percent higher than a year earlier and nearly 50 percent higher than two years ago. Since the lifeline launched, it has received over 27 million contacts, including over 18 million calls, 4 million texts, and 3 million chats.”

Advocates for LGBTQ+ rights and mental health awareness have agreed with the increasing numbers and hailed the return as a win for everyone.

“Suicide and mental health struggles touch every community across our state, and that’s why creating the 988 crisis lifeline to make sure help is there for everyone is one of my proudest accomplishments,” said Baldwin said in a statement. “But, last year, the Trump administration decided to make these real struggles a political football and ripped away the specialized line that helped LGBTQ children. This was a deliberate choice. The Trump administration chose to put children’s lives on the line to score some political points.”

“I’ve fought tooth and nail to restore this lifesaving resource. When I realized the Trump administration was not going to do it on their own, I wrote it into federal law to require them to restore the Press 3 option,” the Wisconsin senator said. “This lifesaving resource never should have gone away in the first place, but I am glad the lifesaving support Press 3 provides is once again there for people who need it.”

“I’m proud that we secured the funding to restore this lifesaving LGBTQ+ crisis line and successfully pressured the Trump administration to bring the program back,” Krishnamoorthi said. “When an LGBTQ+ young person reaches out for help in a moment of crisis, they deserve to reach a counselor trained to understand and support them. This program should never have been taken away, and now we need to make sure it stays available for every young person who needs it. I’m grateful to the Trevor Project, NAMI Chicago, Equality Illinois, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and all the advocates and young people who worked alongside us to bring these services back.”

Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project who works with the SAMHSA, in their press three operations celebrated the return of the resource. 

“We are grateful to see that the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s ‘Press 3’ specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth have been restored. Resuming this national resource will be critical in addressing the public health crisis of suicide among LGBTQ+ young people, and supporting the estimated more than 1.8 million LGBTQ+ youth who seriously consider attempting suicide in the U.S. each year,” Black said via a statement. “We are thankful for the large coalition of bipartisan lawmakers, mental health advocates, allies, and supporters who fought tirelessly for this restoration. We will monitor the launch and usage of these important services to ensure all LGBTQ+ youth are supported with clinically best standards.”

If you or someone you know needs mental health resources and support, please call, text, or chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or visit 988lifeline.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.