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Sanders, Biden and other Super Tuesday wins in California

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There was something very California about it. Former Vice President Joe Biden was in Baldwin Hills delivering his victory speech live on TV after having won 10 out of 14 Super Tuesday states when a protester dashed onstage with a “Let Dairy Die” sign. Dr. Jill Biden protected her husband and a security guard quickly wrangled her away.

But another young woman jumped onstage, pursued by Biden spokesperson Symone D. Sanders who wrapped an arm around the protester and hauled her off as numerous women, surrounded the candidate.

The video of the incident went viral, with tweets nicknaming Sanders after Wakanda warrior General Okoye, among other superlatives. Sanders responded with a kind of snarky Lizzo brush-off moment of her own: “I broke a nail. #SuperTuesday,” she tweeted.

But the moment is an interesting Hollywood-ish metaphor for the turn of events in the race to be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. The 31-year-old political operative – who was a spokesperson for Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016 before she abruptly quit – literally took an opponent off the field.

The young black millennial represents politicos and voters willing to set aside ideological purity to beat Trump. “My politics are not tied to Bernie Sanders and they are not tied to Joe Biden,” Sanders told Politico for a magazine profile last year.

“I have great respect for Senator Sanders and I have great respect and admiration for Vice President Biden. If I didn’t, I would not be working for him right now. But he does not define me.”

Sanders added that she has “never agreed 100 percent with anybody I’ve gone to work for” and she has “obviously” disagreed with Biden and even donated $250 to Pete Buttigieg. But, she told Politico, she believes Biden can win over black voters “and the Rust Belt workers who went for Trump in 2016.” She wants to tell her niece and nephew that she was “actively out there working” to get Trump out of office.

Biden’s “Joe-Mentum” started in South Carolina where the deflated once-inevitable candidate was resurrected after embarrassing defeats in Iowa, New Hampshire and a Sanders blowout in Nevada. Forty-seven percent of South Carolina voters waited for, then acted upon the Feb. 28 endorsement by House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, the highest-ranking African American in Congress.

“I know Joe Biden. I know his character, his heart, and his record. Joe Biden has stood for the hard-working people of South Carolina. We know Joe. But more importantly, he knows us,” Clyburn tweeted. “In South Carolina, we choose presidents. I’m calling on you to stand with @JoeBiden.”

“I know where this country is: We are at an inflection point,” Clyburn said at a news conference, saying he was “fearful” for the future of this country. “It is time for us to restore this country’s dignity, this country’s respect.”

“Today people are talking about a revolution,” Biden said at that news conference. “What the country’s looking for are results. What they’re looking for is security. What they’re looking for is to be able to sustain and maintain their dignity.”

Biden won big in South Carolina but Sanders’s win in Nevada frightened many politicos worried about close down-ballot races after democratic socialist Sanders doubled down in praising the late Cuba dictator Fidel Castro, freaking out voters in Florida. Tom Steyer dropped out, as did Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar who soon endorsed Biden. Joe-Mentum before Super Tuesday was building.

And that seems to be the motivating factor that helped Biden win in Oklahoma, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Maine and Texas where Bernie Sanders was expected to do well. A huge percentage of voters said the late endorsements helped make up their minds. That seemed even more evident when, without money or organization or a grassroots ground game, Biden also swept the South with wins in Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee, thanks in large part to the huge turnout from black and women voters.

Meanwhile, Trump wasn’t waiting on Russian bots to sow discord among Democratic voters. He hugged the American flag after speaking at a CPAC conference, uttering “I love you, baby.” And he constantly tweeted about how the Establishment was stealing the nomination from Sanders, as it had in 2016, he asserted. He also tweeted at billionaire Mike Bloomberg who spent $660 million in ubiquitous ads around the country banking on a Super Tuesday strategy – with only a win in American Samoa to show for it.

Billionaires Bloomberg and Styer dropping out proved that money can’t buy the Democratic presidential nomination. California has experience with that – in 1998 when relatively moneyless Gray Davis, with strategy by Eric Bauman and the grassroots Stonewall Democratic Club, pulled out a win against millionaires Jane Harmon and Al Checchi in the June 1998 gubernatorial primary.

Voters in line at the Laurel Elementary School on Hayworth in West Hollywood (Photo by Karen Ocamb)

More than 1.3 million California voters turned their ballots in early by mail. But like many other regions on Super Tuesday, in-person voters in West Hollywood and around Los Angeles County experienced long lines, long wait-times and major problems with the new $300 million voting machines. When asked how long she’d been standing in line at the Laurel Elementary School on Hayworth in West Hollywood, one woman voter in her mid-30s told the Los Angeles Blade, “Since I was 21.” One of two poll workers checking in voters said the turnout had been heavy but operating the new machines was “messy.” And while the line of prospective voters snaked around the corner, the auditorium itself was empty and the machines lifeless. LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn has called for an immediate investigation into what happened.

By Thursday morning, the California Sec. of State’s office reported that of the 20,660,465 registered voters in California, only 5,521,744 ballots had been cast/counted yielding a statewide turnout of 26%. In Los Angeles, the numbers were 5,546,785 registered voters, with 1,249,137 ballots cast/counted for 22% of the vote.  All the counties have until April 3 to turn in their final vote tallies.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in Los Angeles. (Photo courtesy AHF)

Sanders, registered as an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, has been campaigning in California since losing the 2016 primary to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He missed the CNN LGBTQ Town Hall in LA while recuperating from his heart attack but he was the first and only presidential candidate to tour LA’s Skid Row with AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, talking about the homeless and housing crisis at AHF’s refurbished Madison Hotel on Aug. 6, 2019. He has also been a big hit with Latinos.

So it was no surprise to LA politicos that the Associated Press and other media outlets called California in Sanders’s favor, especially in anticipation of early progressive vote-by-mail results. But after Nevada and South Carolina and the moderate Buttigieg and Klobuchar endorsements – supposedly to halt Sanders from securing an insurmountable delegate count — the question became: How many delegates would the two men split going into the convention?

By mid-day March 4, the day after Super Tuesday, of the 1,991 delegates needed to win nomination, 1,215 delegates have been declared. Biden had 566 delegates; Sanders had 501. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Bloomberg, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar had an additional 147 delegates among them. Tulsi Gabbard, who is inexplicably still in the race, had one delegate.

But by Thursday morning, March 5, it was apparent there were probably still millions of votes yet to be counted with, as Politico reported, at least a third of the total in Los Angeles alone, with 573,000 ballots still out there, plus however many mail ballots were submitted on Election Day.” And it is still a long way until the July 13-16 Democratic Party Convention in Milwaukee, Wis.

Meanwhile, Super Tuesday in California yielded a number of successful down-ballot primary races. LGBTQ ally Assemblymember Christy Smith left snarky Young Turks sexist homophobe Cenk Uygur in the dust in the CA-25 district race to fill the congressional seat vacated by bisexual Rep. Katie Hill. Longtime anti-LGBTQ former Rep. Steve Knight, who Hill defeated, clawed his way to second place behind GOP Mike Garcia in trying to challenge Smith in both a special May 12 runoff to fill six months left on Hill’s time and in the November general election for the seat outright. Former Trump staffer George Papadopoulos barely made a mark.

In another much-watched contest in the CA-50 district, Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar, who was maliciously reviled in his previous race against disgraced (now convicted) Rep. Duncan Hunter, is sitting back watching gay San Diego talk show host Carl DeMaio slug it out with anti-LGBTQ former Rep. Darrel Issa in the who-is-best-for-Trump Republican match.

In a nail-biting state legislative race, with thousands of ballots still to be counted in the highly contested Senate District 5 race, it looks like out Assemblymember Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) is in first place ahead of Republican Jim Ridenour and will advance to the November general election. The sweet spin is that the lesbian beat anti-LGBTQ Democrat Mani Grewal.

“If Eggman wins in November, she will make history as the first openly LGBTQ+ woman of color to serve in the California Senate — potentially alongside Abigail Medina, who is running in Senate District 23,” says a press release from Equality California.

“Susan Talamantes Eggman is the champion that Central Valley Voters want and deserve fighting for them in Sacramento. We are proud to support Susan’s campaign because we know she’ll roll up her sleeves and tackle homelessness, veterans’ issues and LGBTQ+ civil rights,” says Equality California Executive Director Rick Chavez Zbur. “We’re confident Susan will win in November, and we’ll be with her every step of the way.”

In the San Diego area race for the CA-53, it looks like lesbian Georgette Gomez, who could become the first openly LGBTQ Latinx member of Congress, will be in a run-off with longtime LGBTQ ally Sara Jacobs. There is still a 30-day window before all the votes are tallied but the two women are the top vote-getters in a crowded field of 15 candidates.

And it looks like out Assemblymember Todd Gloria is likely to become the next Mayor of San Diego.

On the local LA County level, it looks like a run-off between LA City Council President Herb Wesson and State Sen. Holly Mitchell for the 2nd Supervisor seat being vacated by Mark Ridley-Thomas, who appears to have won his City Council race in the 10th district. As did longtime LGBTQ ally Kevin De Leon in the 14th district.  Longtime out LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS activist Eddie Martinez has made the run-off for Huntington Park City Council. 

And incumbent District Attorney Jackie Lacey is just over 50%, which, if it holds, means that she’s defeated an intense effort by progressive prosecutors George Gascon and Rachel Rossi to oust her and institute deeper judicial reforms.

Two very special races of note: longtime LGBTQ politico Jackie Goldberg won her reelection bid to the LA Unified School Board, despite vicious attacks by her charter school-supporting opponents. And lesbian Deputy DA Sherry Powell won her totally grassroots contest for Superior Court Judge Office No. 97 outright – beating rich attorney Timothy Reuben 64% to 36%.

The primaries aren’t over yet, of course, and there are ample opportunities for Biden to stumble, Sanders to recover and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to play a major role after her withdrawal on Thursday. 

And, as Washington Blade Political Correspondent Chris Johnson described in his report, there is still plenty of room for LGBTQ voters to have an even bigger impact.

“Hopefully her historic candidacy will get the attention and credibility it deserves,” longtime out Latina politico Ari Guttierez tells the Los Angeles Blade after she and her 9-year old daughter Emma Arámbula met Warren in the heart of East Los Angeles.

And what role will former Mayor Pete Buttigieg play after Biden wistfully compared him to his own late son Bo Biden, the former Attorney General for Delaware.

“We sent a message,” Buttigieg, 38, said, “to every kid out there wondering if whatever marks them out as different means they are somehow destined to be less than, to see that someone who once felt that exact same way can become a leading American presidential candidate with his husband at his side.”

Chad Griffin, former president of the Human Rights Campaign, cast his ballot for Biden, a man he has long known. “America needs a leader in the White House who can help us navigate the tremendous challenges we’re facing on all front – someone who has a tested record of success, and an enlightened vision for the future to guide this nation back onto the path of progress,” Griffin said in a statement posted to Twitter. “I’m proud to endorse him and will fight like hell to get him elected.”

It was Griffin who enlightened Biden about marriage equality.

Anti-gay marriage Prop 8 was on everyone’s mind as President Barack Obama faced reelection in 2012. Obama campaign advisors David Axelrod and David Plouffe reached out to gay GOP strategist Ken Mehlman, former chair of the Republican National Committee who engineered President George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004, for advice since Mehlman was part a Griffin-created federal challenge to Prop 8. But while almost everyone was on board with Obama coming out in favor of marriage equality before the election, including Michelle Obama, nothing happened.

As Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times investigative reporter Jo Becker put it in her monumental book on Prop 8, Forcing the Spring: Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality, Griffin felt bans like Prop 8 “sent a signal that there was something inherently wrong with gay men and lesbians” and permitted state sanctioned bullying and anti-LGBTQ laws. He’d asked Obama if there was anything he could do to help him “evolve” more quickly – especially since the pro-Prop 8 side wanted to use Obama’s opposition to their advantage. But the president put him off.

Then, on April 19, 2012, Griffin attended a gay Democratic fundraiser he’d helped put together at Obama’s request at the home of Michael Lombardo, an HBO executive, and his husband, Sonny Ward, an architect. He wanted to ask Biden, the guest of honor, directly about marriage equality but he knew the answer.

Vice President Joe Biden with Johnny and Josie Ward-Lombardo at a party at the home of their parents, Sonny Ward and Michael Lombardo, in 2012. (Photo courtesy Michael Lombardo)

“But as he watched the hosts’ two children, ages 5 and 7, press flowers and a note into Biden’s hand, he changed his mind,” Becker writes in an excerpt for the New York Times. “They were in the home of two married men and their family. The Obama campaign wanted the support of the gay people in this room. The vice president should have to answer to them. When it was Griffin’s turn to speak, he said: ‘When you came in tonight, you met Michael and Sonny and their two beautiful kids. And I wonder if you can just sort of talk in a frank, honest way about your own personal views as it relates to equality, but specifically as it relates to marriage equality.’”

Biden was clearly uncomfortable – he had sided with Obama in the issue. But then he totally surprised everyone.

“’I look at those two beautiful kids,’ Biden began,” Becker reports. “‘I wish everybody could see this. All you got to do is look in the eyes of those kids. And no one can wonder, no one can wonder whether or not they are cared for and nurtured and loved and reinforced. And folks, what’s happening is, everybody is beginning to see it.

‘Things are changing so rapidly, it’s going to become a political liability in the near term for an individual to say, ‘I oppose gay marriage.’ Mark my words.’”

Apparently, a dam had broken because Biden didn’t stop, asking aloud, what’s the problem?

“’And my job — our job — is to keep this momentum rolling to the inevitable,’” Biden said, stunning everyone in the room.

And he did keep the momentum going, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and answering the question directly and authentically.

“I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men and women marrying one another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties,” Biden said, noting that Obama, not Biden, sets policy.

But the cosmos had changed and the Obama camp wasn’t happy. “He probably got out a little bit over his skis, but out of generosity of spirit,” Obama said, as if it was another Biden-ism. But shortly thereafter, Obama formally, if stiffly, came out in favor of marriage equality.

And in his Inaugural Address on Jan. 21, 2013, Becker reports, “Obama drew a straight line from the civil rights fights based on race and gender to the current struggle for marriage equality.

‘Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law,’ the president said, ‘for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.’”

On Thursday, Biden released an extensive plan on LGBTQ  rights. “Joe Biden is a man of uncommon decency and integrity and heart,” Michael Lombardo tells the Los Angeles Blade.

And perhaps, if Biden becomes the Democratic presidential nominee, he will use that decency as a tool in the 2020 election fight against profoundly indecent Donald Trump, with an assist from Wakanda coalition builder, Symone D. Sanders.

 

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National

House GOP seeks to cut all U.S. HIV prevention programs in 2026

‘A disastrous bill that will reignite HIV in the United States’

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President Trump’s own Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative is on the GOP chopping block. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

The Republican-controlled Appropriations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has released its Fiscal Year 2026 funding bill that calls for cutting funds for domestic HIV prevention, treatment, and care programs by at least $1.7 billion, which is an amount significantly greater than the AIDS budget cuts proposed by President Donald Trump.

Among other things, the bill, if passed by the full Congress, would eliminate federal funding for all HIV prevention programs in the U.S. as well as eliminate the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative program that Trump persuaded Congress to pass during his first term as president.

“This is not a bill for making America healthy again, but a disastrous bill that will reignite HIV in the United States,” said Carl Schmidt, executive director of the D.C. based HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute, in a Sept. 1 statement.

“We urge Congress to reject these reckless cuts,” Schmidt says in the statement.  “Eliminating all HIV prevention means the end of state and local testing and surveillance programs, educational programs, and linkage to lifesaving care and treatment, along with PrEP,” the statement continues. “It will translate into an increased number of new HIV infections, which will be costlier to treat in the long run.”

It adds, “At a time when we have the tools to prevent HIV, including new long-acting forms of PrEP, we must not abandon the bipartisan progress our nation has made in combating HIV.”

The proposed bill by the House Appropriations Committee, which has not yet taken a full committee vote on the bill, would also cut the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment Program by $525 million or 20 percent.

The bill would eliminate the entire $1 billion in prevention funding at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including $220 million allocated to President Trump’s Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) initiative.

Schmidt points out that nearly 90 percent of this funding “flows to state and local health departments, including those in the South that do not have dedicated state funding and carry over half of HIV cases in the country.”

The House committee proposal supports the president’s budget proposal to eliminate $43 million in dedicated funding for hepatitis prevention at the CDC and instead proposes a $353 million block grant to states that would also include STD and tuberculosis prevention. This is $53 million more than the president proposed but still represents a combined cut of $24 million, Schmidt says in his statement.

“Instead of decreasing and diluting funding for hepatitis, if the country is serious about addressing chronic health conditions,” added Schmid, “we should be increasing funding so that people with hepatitis can be identified through testing and linked to treatment, and in the case of hepatitis C, a cure.”

The proposal by the House Appropriations Committees follows the U.S. Senate’s release earlier this year of a bipartisan FY 2026 budget bill that would maintain current funding for domestic HIV programs. If the House committee passes its proposed budget bill the budget provisions would have to be reconciled with the Senate version, and a reconciled version must then be passed by the full Congress. 

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Doctor who led mpox response resigns from CDC, slams administration

‘Unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end’

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Dr. Demetre Daskalakis (Screen capture via Zoom)

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, resigned from his position on Wednesday in a scathing social media post.

“I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.” Daskalakis wrote in a resignation letter he posted to X. “Having worked in local and national public health for years, I have never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people.”

Daskalakis, who’s gay, was among three senior officials to resign following President Trump’s firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez. She is fighting her dismissal. 

In 2022, Daskalakis drew praise from the LGBTQ community while serving as White House National Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator. Daskalakis previously served as medical director for the New York-headquartered Mount Sinai Health System and then was made deputy commissioner for the Division of Disease Control at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. In late 2020, as the U.S. saw thousands of new covid fatalities each day, Daskalakis joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention.

In an exclusive interview with the Blade during the mpox crisis in 2022, he warned of the dangers of homophobic stigma. 

“Stigma is stigma, and homophobia is homophobia,” Daskalakis said, and while these problems are older, more intractable, and broader in scope than public health messaging around MPV, it is important to not “attach an infection to an identity.” 

“Stigmatizing a disease and creating stigma really creates rabbit holes that take people away from [figuring out] how to respond to an infectious disease — and the way that you respond to infectious diseases, the focus on community, the focus on knowledge, and the focus on data, which should act as a guidance” in getting messages to people, whether through online social platforms or other channels, he said.  

Dr. Monarez, who only served in her job for one month, said she refused “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives” and accused HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of “weaponizing public health.”

Dr. Monarez reportedly clashed with Kennedy over vaccines. The government announced earlier this week that healthy adults would not be eligible for a new COVID booster and instead only those 65 and older, children, and those with underlying medical conditions would be eligible for the new vaccine.

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CVS Health withholds coverage for new HIV prevention drug

AIDS activists criticize delay for acclaimed twice-yearly PrEP medication

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CVS Health, one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit manager companies that play a lead role in deciding which drugs are covered by health insurance plans, has initially decided not to approve coverage for the new HIV prevention drug Yeztugo

Developed and manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, Yeztugo was approved for use in June of this year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as an HIV prevention or PrEP medication that needs to be taken just twice a year by injection.

HIV prevention advocates hailed the new drug as a major breakthrough in the years long effort to curtail and end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by enabling far more people at risk for HIV infection to adhere to a prevention drug regimen that needed to be taken once every six months rather than daily pills or through bi-monthly injections.

But the same advocates warned that the benefits of Yeztugo, which tests showed is greater than 99 percent effective in preventing HIV infection, could not be realized if the cost of the drug is not covered by health insurance plans or other coverage programs.

At the time the FDA approved its drug, Gilead Sciences announced that the yearly retail price for Yeztugo without insurance coverage would be $26,218.

According to reports by Reuters and Bloomberg news publications, a CVS Health spokesperson disclosed on Aug. 21 that the company “for now” would not add Yeztugo to its commercial coverage plans.

“As is typical with new-to-market products, we undergo a careful review of clinical, financial, and regulatory considerations,” Bloomberg News quoted CVS spokesperson David Whitrap as saying. Bloomberg reports that Whitman added that Yeztugo hasn’t been added to CVS Caremark’s commercial drug plans or U.S. Affordable Care Act plans.

“The entire world is excited by this drug and its potential contribution to preventing and eventually ending HIV,” said Carl Schmid, executive director of the D.C.-based HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute. “However, a drug will only work if people can access it and right now CVS Health, which owns the largest pharmacy benefit manager in the country, is shamefully blocking people from taking it, unlike other payers,” Schmid said in a statement.

“We urge CVS, which has been committed to ending HIV in the past, to reconsider their decision immediately,” Schmid said. “Additionally, we call on federal and state regulators to ensure that plans are in compliance with the federal government’s PrEP coverage guidance and the many state laws that require coverage of all PrEP drugs.”

Gilead Sciences, meanwhile, has said it is “extremely pleased” with the progress it is making with other health insurance companies and  “payers” to arrange for coverage of Yeztugo, according to Reuters. “[T]he company said it is on track to secure 75 percent of U.S. insurer coverage of Yeztugo by year-end, and 90 percent coverage by June 2026,”  Reuters reports. 

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After targeting youth, state lawmakers now going after the rights of LGBTQ adults

Legislators are also teeing up challenges to same-sex marriage

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Georgia State Capitol Building (Washington Blade photo by Michael Lavers)

The proliferation of anti-LGBTQ bills proposed by state legislatures across the country, which ticked up dramatically in 2021 and has since increased year-over-year, looks different in 2025.

Efforts that once focused on school sports and pediatric gender care have now broadened, as many advocates warned they would, to target adult life and the legal scaffolding of hard-won freedoms like same-sex marriage.

LGBTQ issues remain fraught political battlegrounds, but the fight has shifted to driver’s licenses, hospital policies, state-worker speech rules, and even marriage licenses — exposing these communities to greater risk of civil-rights violations.

This shift comes at a moment when legal avenues for challenging discrimination by state governments or the Trump-Vance administration have narrowed significantly, even as rhetorical and political attacks intensify.

The new types of bills

By the numbers, this year is shaping up to be the worst in recent memory. The ACLU tracked 520 anti-LGBTQ bills in 2023, 533 in 2024, and by February the organization had already logged 339, an accelerated pace for 2025.

Predictably, these legislative efforts are clustered in conservative places like Texas, where state lawmakers teed up 32 anti-trans bills on the first day of pre-filing for 2025, as GLAAD noted.

At the same time, however, the group reports that the year kicked off with similar activity in far bluer statehouses located in places like Massachusetts, Colorado, and New York.

The new crop of bills share some distinguishing features. For instance, Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, and Illinois are considering (or have enacted, in Alabama’s case) proposals to adopt restrictive definitions of sex and gender.

Not only does the establishment of a legal definition for gender based on a fixed binary that must be determined by one’s sex at birth exclude the recognition of people who are trans or have other gender diverse identities, but it also carries significant downstream impacts.

President Donald Trump has already demonstrated how this can work. Issued on the first day of his second term, his Executive Order 14168 recast “sex” across all federal policy as a fixed category that is limited to “male” or “female,” defined at “conception,” and unchangeable.

Pursuant to the order, the administration mandated that agencies replace all mention of “gender” with “sex,” strip gender self-identification options from passports, and halt funding for anything deemed “gender ideology,” including gender‑affirming care.

With respect to restrictions on gender markers on passports and official documents, the consequences for Americans who are not cisgender are far-reaching, touching areas of their lives from housing to employment and travel.

Georgia, meanwhile, previewed how conservative lawmakers can restrict guideline-directed best practices medical interventions for not just transgender youth, but adults as well, with a bill introduced this year that would bar coverage by state employees’ health benefits plans.

Georgia has also enacted a law prohibiting all gender-affirming care (hormones, surgeries, and even personal funding of such care) for incarcerated individuals in state prisons, which came after Trump’s executive order requiring the Bureau of Prisons to halt funding for these treatments and move trans women inmates into men’s facilities.

Broadened healthcare restrictions did not necessarily start this year, however. Florida passed a law in 2023, for example, that requires trans adults to receive in-person, state-approved informed consent for gender-affirming care, while banning nurse practitioners and telehealth delivery of such treatments, thereby limiting access for patients.

Following years of conservative activism focused on censoring pro-LGBTQ speech from schools — banning books and other materials with gay or trans characters or themes; restricting classroom instruction on matters of sexual orientation and gender identity — some states have taken a new tack in 2025: protecting anti-LGBTQ speech.

Once again, the scope of these efforts now extends beyond educational institutions and their focus is broadened from youth to youth and adults.

Montana’s Free to Speak Act, enacted in May, protects students and public employees from being disciplined for refusing to use a person’s preferred name or pronouns, establishing a private right of action allowing affected individuals to sue for injunctive relief, monetary damages, and attorney fees.

Lawmakers in Florida are going even further with a proposal that would bar public employers from requiring the use of trans individuals’ preferred pronouns, remove “nonbinary” as an option on state job applications, and make LGBTQ+ cultural competence training optional rather than mandatory.

Marriage equality under fire

On Monday, news outlets around the world reported on the return of Kim Davis. The thrice divorced former Kentucky county clerk has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear her case, which seeks to overturn the High Court’s precedent setting ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that established marriage equality as the law of the land in 2015.

Some legal experts believe the gambit is a long shot. Others are less confident, pointing to the establishment of a 6-3 conservative supermajority in October 2020 and Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring statement in the 2022 decision overturning abortion rights, where he expressed interest in revisiting the marriage decision.

In what may be a harbinger of another battle over same-sex marriage, or a sign that the matter was never settled in the first place, five states this year have considered non-binding resolutions asking the justices to overturn Obergefell: South Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho, Michigan, and Montana.

Other measures have been more concrete. In Tennessee and several other states, lawmakers introduced “covenant marriage” bills defining marriage as a union between “one male and one female” with heightened divorce restrictions — a move that would effectively exclude same-sex couples from that marital track. While none have yet been passed or enacted, they illustrate how legislatures can reshape marriage law without directly challenging Obergefell.

Such bills raise a potential clash with the Respect for Marriage Act, legislation passed during the Biden-Harris administration that requires states to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere but does not require them to issue licenses.

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District of Columbia

Trump’s federal takeover of D.C. police sparks outrage among LGBTQ leaders

Move threatens marginalized communities and undermines city’s autonomy

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Protesters call out President Donald Trump's federal overreach of D.C. police system in Dupont Circle on Aug. 11, 2025. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

As President Donald Trump pushes forward with his takeover of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department using federal agents, local LGBTQ leaders are sounding the alarm.

Trump on Monday invoked Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act to “declare a crime emergency” in the District and began sending 800 National Guard troops to patrol the nation’s capital.

Multiple leaders in the District have criticized Trump for using misleading statistics to justify this power grab, one that will disproportionately impact Black, brown, and LGBTQ residents.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser initially tried to reframe Trump’s takeover as something that could benefit the District, saying to “make the most of the additional officer support that we have” during a Tuesday meeting with Attorney General Pam Bondi. She later began to backtrack on that statement.

“This is a time where community needs to jump in and we all need to, to do what we can in our space, in our lane, to protect our city and to protect our autonomy, to protect our Home Rule, and get to the other side of this guy, and make sure we elect a Democratic House so that we have a backstop to this authoritarian push,” Bowser said in a virtual meeting with local leaders later that day.

One of those local leaders, Ward 5 Council member Zachary Parker, called the Trump administration’s claims of “bloodthirsty criminals” and “roving mobs of wild youth” unsubstantiated and a distraction from “the bigger game in motion.”

In two separate Instagram posts, Parker — the District’s only openly LGBTQ Council member — called the move more about Trump “flexing” his power over a Democratic stronghold than fixing any issues of crime.

“The suggestion that crime is out of control is not supported by data,” Parker wrote Tuesday on his personal account, citing Department of Justice data from earlier this year showing the president’s claims are unsubstantiated. “Violent crime hit a 30-year low in 2024,” he continued, citing Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) data showing a 26% decrease in violent crime in the past year alone.

In another post, Parker called the tactic by the Trump administration a stark move that echoes the dictatorial takeovers of history.

“The raids today from those in power are derivatives of the instruments of power that have policed neighborhoods since the ’70s,” his second post said. “The ploy to seize capitals and collapse power traces back to colonial times and, more recently, Hungary and Turkey.”

The D.C. LGBTQ Budget Coalition, comprised of multiple organizations and advocates that fight for resources supporting LGBTQ residents — including trans people of color, low-income individuals, those with disabilities, and migrants — called this an “attack on D.C. autonomy.”

“This is a blatant violation of D.C.’s right to self-govern and a dangerous escalation rooted in political theater, not public safety,” the coalition’s official statement read. “We stand with local community leaders and other advocates fighting for D.C. to be free (including our evergreen fight for statehood), and all who reject this federal overreach… This move is not about safety, but about control and fear.”

The statement also echoed Council member Parker’s point that both federal and local data show a decline in violent crime despite massive budget cuts to the city prompted by Trump.

“Crime is down — the data is clear. And any attempts to combat the District’s issues were directly thwarted during the federal budget battles that forced our government to cut $1 billion from the local budget.”

The letter, sent to coalition members and supporters, explicitly called these actions anti-LGBTQ and anti-people of color.

“This kind of horrific federal overreach will inevitably cause the most irrevocable harm to our Black, brown, immigrant, and LGBTQ+ siblings — communities who already bear the brunt of systemic violence, over-policing, and underinvestment,” the email said.

“As LGBTQ+ advocates working to ensure equitable investment in our communities, we know that safety comes from housing, healthcare, and justice — and we will not demonize those most vulnerable in this city.”

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Texas

Democrats block anti-trans legislation by breaking quorum in Texas

Lawmakers flee state to halt GOP-backed redistricting and anti-trans policies

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Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signs the “Save Women’s Sports Act” on Aug. 7, 2023. (Photo courtesy of the Office of the Governor)

As Texas House Democrats fled the state to prevent Republicans from gerrymandering Democratic-held districts to flip seats, they also blocked anti-transgender legislation from being considered simply by not showing up.

More than 50 House Democrats left Texas on Sunday in an attempt to pause — if not kill — recent Republican-proposed and Trump-encouraged measures making their way through the state House.

This move by Democrats is called “breaking quorum,” and means the Texas House has fewer than the required minimum number of representatives present to conduct business. In total, the Texas House has 150 seats. Republicans hold only 88 seats — less than the 100 required to meet quorum — pausing the legislative session.

The Democratic legislators traveled to Illinois and New York, two Democratic strongholds with outspoken governors vowing to protect them and prevent Republicans from gaining an unfair advantage in the middle of the legislative calendar — at Trump’s behest.

The major issue Texas Democrats are drawing attention to is the recent redistricting plan, which would flip five Democratic U.S. House of Representatives seats to Republican ones through the use of gerrymandering, or strategic manipulation of district boundaries. This gerrymandering would likely result in Republicans retaining control of the U.S. House in the 2026 midterms.

In addition to redistricting, Republicans have proposed Senate Bill 7, also known as “The Trans Bathroom Ban.” This bill mandates that people use the bathroom in government buildings, schools, and women’s violence shelters that corresponds with their sex at birth, rather than their gender identity. The bill would also require incarcerated individuals to be placed in facilities that match their sex at birth.

Proponents of the bill, like Fran Rhodes, the president of True Texas Project — a hardline conservative group that opposes LGBTQ rights and immigration — argue that without SB 7, “we put women and girls at risk.”

This proposed legislation has been denounced by Equality Texas, which says it would not only put trans women at risk, but also cis women, who would be subject to “invasive gender inspections.” They argue this would undermine the Republicans’ stated intent of the bill by subjecting women to unnecessary scrutiny rather than protecting them.

Multiple cis women have come out in opposition to the bill, including Wendy Davis, a lawyer and former member of the Texas State Senate, who called the bill “a solution without a problem.”

Davis continued, saying that “Our trans sisters deserve to be safe in the restroom, just like we deserve to be safe in the restroom.”

Additionally, some Black Texans have sounded the alarm on this bill, likening it to Jim Crow-era segregation legislation — but instead of skin color, it uses gender identity to discriminate.

As the clock runs out on this 30-day special session ending Aug. 19, there is a chance Republican Gov. Greg Abbott could extend the session, as it is within his power as governor.

Texas Democrats hope this will pressure Republicans to work with them to reach a compromise on both redistricting and killing the anti-trans bill.

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National

Washington Blade among targets of hostile online scammers

Gay Parent Magazine’s Facebook page deleted in attack

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Online hackers attempted to delete the Washington Blade’s Facebook account.

Gay Parent Magazine and the Washington Blade have taken steps to alert LGBTQ media publications about what appears to be an organized scam operation that deleted Gay Parent Magazine’s Facebook page and attempted unsuccessfully to infiltrate the Blade’s Facebook page.

The action by the unidentified scammers targeting Gay Parent Magazine and the Blade appeared to be aimed at LGBTQ media outlets with the intent of harming or disabling LGBTQ supportive publications, according to Gay Parent Magazine editor and publisher Angeline Acain and Blade editor Kevin Naff.

“We have strong reason to believe our Facebook page hacking was politically motivated,” Acain said in a July 7 statement. “We were targeted by people who don’t support LGBTQ parents,” she said.

Both Acain and Naff said they were contacted via email by someone claiming to be podcaster Jennifer Welch, a pro-LGBTQ commentator, inviting them to appear as a guest on her podcast.

“When I accepted, she emailed to set up a Zoom call to review technical requirements because she conducts her interviews via Facebook Live,” Naff said. “When I connected to Zoom, she wasn’t on camera and a man’s voice then said he handles her technical support. He instructed me to log into the administrative page of the Blade’s Facebook account and to share my screen,” Naff said. “That’s when I became suspicious and declined the request and ended the call.”

Naff said he had not heard anything from them since that time.

Acain told the Blade she now regrets that she agreed to provide access information to her publication’s Facebook page when she too was invited to appear as a guest on a Jennifer Welch podcast.

“I did somehow give them access,” Acain said. “I don’t know exactly how they did it, but whatever I did, they knew what to do to gain access.”

In her July 7 statement, Acain said, “In this attack, bad actors posed as liberal podcast hosts and invited me to be a guest saying the podcast would be live streamed on their Facebook page. They then hacked into Gay Parent Magazine’s Facebook page and removed all of our followers. The next thing I knew our Facebook page was gone.”

She said the Facebook page had 30,000 followers before it was hacked. Since that time, she said, she and her team at Gay Parent Magazine have rebuilt the Facebook page and continue to take steps to rebuild its audience and followers.

Acain also says in her statement that her publication’s Facebook hacking took place about five months after the Facebook page was “attacked by trolls posting hateful comments at LGBTQ parents.” She said the barrage of hateful postings began shortly after Donald Trump took office as president.

“After weeks of reporting the hateful comments, blocking trolls, and limiting who could comment, the hateful rhetoric eventually stopped,” she said.

“In the 26 years since I’ve been publishing, this has never happened before,” she told the Blade. “Since Trump has been president all of this has been happening.” 

“This is clearly an organized right-wing effort targeting queer media outlets,” Naff said in his own statement. “I immediately reached out to contacts in LGBTQ media warning them of this scam,” he said, adding that his personal Facebook account was also targeted by someone who posted anti-gay slurs.

The anti-LGBTQ postings that Acain reports began to target Gay Parent Magazine’s Facebook page took place after two prominent LGBTQ advocacy organizations, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and GLAAD, issued strongly worded statements criticizing Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, the company that owns and operates Facebook and other social media outlets, for ending longstanding anti-LGBTQ hate speech polices.

In a Jan. 7 statement, GLAAD said the policy changes put in place by Meta “removed and adopted several sections of its Hateful Conduct Policy, rolling back safety guardrails for LGBTQ people, people of color, women, immigrants, and other protected groups.”

In its own statement released Jan. 15, HRC states, “When Mark Zuckerberg announced sweeping changes to Meta’s content moderation policies, he framed the move as a bold defense of free speech. But many, especially members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies, worry about what this means for safety on Meta’s platforms and fear this marks an open invitation for Meta users to engage in anti-LGBTQ+ abuse that will disempower and marginalize the community.”

Meta has said the policy change was aimed at increasing free speech and curtailing censorship on its social media platforms like Facebook.

The Blade couldn’t immediately confirm whether any other LGBTQ media outlets have been targeted by anti-LGBTQ scammers. 

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National

U.S. Olympics bans trans women athletes

Committees agree to enforce Trump executive order

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(Photo by Chaay_Tee/Bigstock)

In a move aimed at adhering to Trump administration anti-transgender policy — which at first slipped by unnoticed — the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee confirms it quietly changed eligibility rules this week, to prohibit transgender women from competing in women’s sporting events.  

On page 3 of the committee’s “Athlete Safety Policy,” a new paragraph now appears, stating: “The USOPC is committed to protecting opportunities for athletes participating in sport. The USOPC will continue to collaborate with various stakeholders with oversight responsibilities, e.g., IOC, IPC, NGBs, to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201 and the Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act.”

Executive Order 14201, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” was issued by President Donald Trump in February, as the Washington Blade reported. The contents and purpose of the E.O. are not mentioned in the policy addition, nor is there any instance of the word, “transgender.” There’s also no explanation as to how this ban will be enforced or whether it will be expanded to also apply to transgender male athletes or nonbinary athletes. 

The New York Times was first to report the change by the Colorado Springs-based committee, which the newspaper said was made on Monday and confirmed by the committee on Tuesday.  

That same day, the committee’s president, Gene Sykes, and CEO Sarah Hirshland sent a letter to the U.S. Olympic community, explaining that the change followed “a series of respectful and constructive conversations with federal officials,” sparked by Trump’s executive order.

“As a federally chartered organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations. The guidance we’ve received aligns with the Ted Stevens Act, reinforcing our mandated responsibility to promote athlete safety and competitive fairness,” the committee wrote. 

The Ted Stevens Act was signed into law by the late President Jimmy Carter in 1978 and provided the committee with its charter. 

This change in policy comes as Los Angeles prepares to host the Summer Olympic games in 2028.

The NCAA changed its transgender participation policy in February, one day after Trump signed his E.O., which threatened to “rescind all funds” from organizations that allow trans athletes to participate in women’s sports.

Just last month, the USOPC had said decisions on trans athlete participation were to be made based on “fairness,” and “real data and science-based evidence rather than ideology,” and would be decided by each individual sport’s governing body, of which there are 54 member organizations. 

The debate over transgender inclusion has ramped up significantly this year, fed largely by partisan political activity, despite the lack of rigorous scientific evidence showing trans athletes have any competitive advantage, as USA Today sports columnist Nancy Armour wrote last December. 

Even so, International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry announced last month that she was spearheading a task force to look into how to “protect the female category.”

On Friday, USA Fencing issued its new policy for transgender athletes. Starting Aug. 1, out trans women can only compete in the men’s category, and that same policy will also apply to nonbinary and intersex athletes, as well as trans men, according to The Times.

Both World Athletics and World Aquatics have already banned trans women who have gone through male puberty from competing. Bans also exist in swimming and track and field, and USA soccer is reviewing its eligibility rules for women, potentially to set limits on testosterone levels, according to the Los Angeles Times.

More than two-dozen states have laws on the books barring trans women and girls from participating in school sports. Courts across the country are reviewing those laws in lawsuits brought by advocates who call the policies discriminatory and cruel and say they unnecessarily target a statistically tiny number of athletes.

Although trans athletes have been able to compete since 2003, no out trans athletes qualified until the Tokyo 2020 games, held in 2021, according to out trans trailblazer and activist, Chris Mosier, whose website tracks trans and nonbinary athletes’ achievements and policies restricting their participation.

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National

FDA approves new twice-yearly HIV prevention drug

Experts say success could inhibit development of HIV vaccine

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New HIV prevention drug Lenacapavir replaces oral medicines with twice-yearly injections. (Photo by fet/Bigstock)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 18 approved a newly developed HIV/AIDS prevention drug that only needs to be taken by injection once every six months.

The new drug, lenacapavir, which is being sold under the brand name of Yeztugo by the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences that developed it, is being hailed by some AIDS activists as a major advancement in the years-long effort to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S. and worldwide.

Although HIV prevention drugs, known as pre-exposure prophylaxis medication or PrEP, have been available since 2012, they initially required taking one or more daily pills. More recently, another injectable PrEP drug was developed that required being administered once every two months.

Experts familiar with the PrEP programs noted that while earlier drugs were highly effective in preventing HIV infection – most were 99 percent effective – they could not be effective if those at risk for HIV who were on the drugs did not adhere to taking their daily pills or injections every two months. Experts also point out that large numbers of people at risk for HIV, especially members of minority communities, are not on PrEP and efforts to reach out to them should be expanded.

 “Today marks a monumental advance in HIV prevention,” said Carl Schmid, executive director of the D.C.-based HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute, in a statement released on the day the FDA announced its approval of lenacapavir.

“Congratulations to the many researchers who spent 19 years to get to today’s approval, backed up by the long-term investment needed to get the drug to market,” he said.

Schmid added, “Long-acting PrEP is now not only effective for up to six months but also improves adherence and will reduce HIV infections – if people are aware of it and payers, including private insurers, cover it without cost-sharing as a preventive service.”

Schmid and others monitoring the nation’s HIV/AIDS programs have warned that proposed large scale cuts in the budget for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by the administration of President Donald Trump could seriously harm HIV prevention programs, including PrEP-related efforts.

“Dismantling these programs means that there will be a weakened public health infrastructure and much less HIV testing, which is needed before a person can take PrEP,” Schmid said in his statement.

“Private insurers and employers must also immediately cover Yeztugo as a required preventive service, which means that PrEP users should not face any cost-sharing or utilization management barriers,” he said.

In response to a request by the Washington Blade for comment,  a spokesperson for Gilead Sciences released a statement saying the annual list price per person using Yeztugo in the U.S. is $28,218. But the statement says the company is working to ensure that its HIV prevention medication is accessible to all who need it through broad coverage from health insurance companies and some of its own support programs.

 “We’ve seen high insurance coverage for existing prevention options – for example, the vast majority of consumers have a $0 co-pay for Descovy for PrEP in the U.S. – and we are working to ensure broad coverage for lenacapavir [Yeztugo],” the statement says. It was referring to the earlier HIV prevention medication developed by Gilead Sciences, Descovy.

“Eligible insured people will get help with their copay,” the statement continues. “Gilead’s Advancing Access Copay Savings Program may reduce out-of-pocket costs to as little as zero dollars,” it says. “Then for people without insurance, lenacapavir may be available free of charge for those who are eligible, through Gilead’s Advancing Access Patient Assistance Program.”

Gilead Sciences has announced that in the two final trial tests for Yeztugo, which it describes as “the most intentionally inclusive HIV prevention clinical trial programs ever designed,” 99.9 percent of participants who received Yeztugo remained negative. Time magazine reports that among those who remained HIV negative at a rate of 100 percent were men who have sex with men. 

Time also reports that some HIV/AIDS researchers believe the success of the HIV prevention drugs like Gilead’s Yeztugo could complicate the so-far unsuccessful efforts to develop an effective HIV vaccine. 

To be able to test a potential vaccine two groups of test subjects must be used, one that receives the test vaccine and the other that receives a placebo with no drug in it. 

With highly effective HIV prevention drugs now available, it could be ethically difficult to ask a test group to take a placebo and continue to be at risk for HIV, according to some researchers. 

“This might take a bit of the wind out of the sails of vaccine research, because there is something so effective in preventing HIV infection,”  Time quoted Dr. David Ho, a professor of microbiology, immunology, and medicine at New York’s Columbia University as saying.

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District of Columbia

Creators on the Frontlines: Inside D.C.’s influencer conference

The conference empowers creators to drive political awareness and action, particularly among young voters whose turnout in recent elections has been alarmingly low

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The Trending Up Conference brought together influential digital voices, lawmakers, advocacy organizations and movement leaders to discuss how creators are redefining the political landscape. Last month, over 200 content creators gathered in the nation’s capital, not to chase likes or algorithmic trends, but to take meaningful action in shaping policy.

Through collaborative sessions on topics ranging from the economy and climate change to LGBTQ rights, immigration, reproductive rights, education and disability justice, the conference showcased the powerful role creators play in shaping public discourse. It also provided dedicated spaces for creators and policymakers to work side by side, building connections and strategizing for impactful change.

“The more we collaborate and work together, the more successful we will be in advocating for human rights for everyone,” said Barrett Pall, a life coach and influencer in the queer community.

Rep. Maxwell Frost (FL) the youngest member of Congress, discussed innovative strategies for civic engagement. He emphasized the importance of meeting young voters where they are — through culture, music, and storytelling — to combat political disengagement. Frost, a former organizer and musician himself, has long championed the use of creative platforms to mobilize underrepresented communities and inspire a new generation to participate in the democratic process.

His remarks aligned with a central goal of the conference: to empower creators to drive political awareness and action, particularly among young voters whose turnout in recent elections has been alarmingly low.

Warren emphasized the importance of creators in driving meaningful change.

“You are the people making America’s national conversation. What we’re trying to do here matters, and you’re part of that fight,” urged Sen. Warren, adding that they should recognize their power and responsibility. “If enough of us tell enough stories, we’ve got a real chance to build a country where every kid has a fighting chance.”

She continued by reinforcing the value of our voices.

“This moment is up to you to make the decision,” she said. Warren then asked the audience, “what are you going to do when your country is in real trouble?” Warren’s message was clear: creators are essential in this moment and our voices must be uplifted and leveraged in the fight to reshape the nation for the better. 

“We need to find ways to talk to each other across this nation and that conversation starts with all of you,” she said. 

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also emphasized the importance of reaching audiences across all platforms. 

“Whether it’s going on Fox or going on Flagrant, how can I blame somebody for not embracing the message that I believe in if they haven’t heard it? We’ve gotta be cross-cutting these platforms [or else] no one is persuading anybody,” said Buttigieg. 

He believes in meeting people where they are, spreading progressive messaging in language that resonates, and ensuring that those who might not typically hear his message have access to it.

“Democrats used to think that they were the ones who were digitally savvy,” he added. “The algorithm is not neutral.” A recent study revealed that TikTok’s algorithm during the 2024 presidential race disproportionately recommended conservative content — Republican posts received 11.8% more recommendations than Democratic content. This highlights how platforms themselves can skew the political narrative, further underscoring the necessity for creators to actively push back against these digital biases.

“What we build next has to be different from what we inherited,” Buttigieg said. “You are at the very heart of that — that’s why I’m here today.”

While Buttigieg advocates for engaging across platforms, California Governor Gavin Newsom’s approach has raised concerns. Instead of using his platform to meet a broad spectrum of voters, Newsom has recently chosen to amplify far-right voices. His decision to invite extremist figures like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon onto his podcast under the guise of creating a “middle ground” is deeply troubling. At the same time, Newsom — who once championed California as a sanctuary for transgender youth and a defender of inclusive education—has taken a stance against transgender women and girls competing in female sports, calling it “deeply unfair.”

“I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness, it’s deeply unfair. We’ve got to own that. We’ve got to acknowledge it,” he told Kirk. This capitulation to conservative talking points doesn’t just undermine his past work—it emboldens those who are trying to dismantle hard-won rights.

At Trending Up, creators pushed back against this political drift by meeting directly with California representatives to discuss urgent social issues — including threats to Medicaid, the pink tax, disability rights and the disproportionate impact of billionaire tax breaks. Across these conversations, one thing was clear: creators are not just influencers. We are educators, mobilizers and trusted voices in out communities, capable of translating policy into stories people care about.

Tiffany Yu reflected that Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove’s presence alone spoke volumes: “Her showing up to create content with us meant that she understood we as creators are more than just influencers — we’re mobilizers and educators.” Ashley Nicole echoed this sentiment after meeting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“When people know, they will resist — but they have to know about it,” said Nicole. That quote stuck with me because it highlights how important it is to get information in front of people in a way they can connect with.”

Loren Piretra emphasized the urgency of economic justice: “We talked about the billionaire tax breaks…and how most people don’t realize they’re closer to being unhoused than to being billionaires.” Meanwhile, Nikki Sapiro Vinckier described her conversation with Rep. Ami Bera as a rare moment of digital fluency from an elected official.

“His willingness to engage on camera signals that he sees value in creator-led political communication, which isn’t always the case.”

These interactions underscore the evolving role of content creators as vital conduits between policymakers and the public. By translating political complexity into accessible, engaging content, creators aren’t just informing their audiences — they’re mobilizing them toward meaningful civic engagement.

In a media landscape dominated by far-right outrage and rampant disinformation, creators using their platforms for good are a powerful counterforce—reclaiming truth and championing the issues that matter most. While extremist voices often dominate the conversation, the majority of Americans stand with the progressive causes creators at Trending Up are fighting for: reproductive rights, LGBTQ protections, and climate action. It’s time for elected officials to stop pandering to the far-right and start amplifying the voices of the people driving change.

This moment demands more than political compromise — it calls for bold leadership that empowers creators who are already shaping a better future. Uplifting these voices is not just strategic; it is crucial for protecting democracy and ensuring that progress, not division, is at the heart of our nation’s political discourse.

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