During an interview on “The Howard Stern Show” Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris discussed her early support for same-sex marriage and warned of the threats to LGBTQ rights that are likely to come if she loses to Donald Trump in November.

Conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was explicit, she said, in calling for the court to revisit precedent-setting decisions including those that established the nationwide constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

“I actually was proud to perform some of the first same-sex marriages as an elected official in 2004,” Harris said, a time when Americans opposed marriage equality by a margin of 60 to 31 percent, according to a Pew survey.

“A lot of people have evolved since then,” the vice president said, “but here’s how I think about it: We actually had laws that were treating people based on their sexual orientation differently.”

She continued, “So, if you’re a gay couple, you can’t get married. We were basically saying that you are a second-class citizen under the law, not entitled to the same rights as a [straight] couple.”

During his presidency, Trump appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court who, in short order, voted to overturn the abortion protections that were in place since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.

“The court that Donald Trump created,” Harris said, is “now talking about what else could be at risk — and understand, if Donald Trump were to get another term, most of the legal scholars think that there’s going to be maybe even two more seats” that he could fill.

“That means, think about it, not for the next four years [but] for the next 40 years, for the next four generations of your family,” Americans would live under the rule of a conservative supermajority “that is about restricting your rights versus expanding your rights,” she said.

With just four weeks until Election Day, Donald Trump and Republican candidates in key down-ballot races have spent more than $65 million on anti-trans television ads since the start of August, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The move signals that Republicans believe attacking the vice president and other Democratic candidates over their support for trans rights will be an effective strategy along with exploiting their opponents’ perceived weaknesses on issues of immigration and inflation.

However, as Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson told the Times, conservatives had tried using the transgender community as a cudgel to attack Democrats during the 2022 midterms and in the off-year elections in 2023. In most cases, they were unsuccessful.

The GOP’s decision to, nevertheless, revive anti-trans messaging in this election cycle “shows that Republicans are desperate right now,” she said. “Instead of articulating how they’re going to make the economy better or our schools safer, they’re focused on sowing fear and chaos.”

The Times said most Republican ads focus on issues where they believe their opponents are out of step with the views held by most Americans — for example, on access to taxpayer funded transition-related healthcare interventions for minors and incarcerated people.

At the same time, there is hardly a clear distinction between ads focusing on divisive policy disagreements and those designed to foment and exploit rank anti-trans bigotry.

For example, the Trump campaign’s most-aired ad about Harris in recent weeks targets her support for providing gender affirming care to inmates (per an interview in 2019, when she was attorney general of California, and a questionnaire from the ACLU that she completed in 2020 when running for president).

The ad “plays on anti-trans prejudices, inviting viewers to recoil from images of Ms. Harris alongside those of people who plainly do not conform to traditional gender norms, to try to portray Ms. Harris herself as out of the ordinary,” the Times wrote in an article last month analyzing the 30-second spot, which had run on television stations in Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

The Unique Women’s Coalition, Equality California and FLUX, a national division of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, will host their second annual voter education town hall today at the Connie Norman Transgender Empowerment Center in Los Angeles from 7PM to 9PM tonight. 

The organizations will present and discuss ballot propositions and measures that will appear on the November ballot and that affect the LGBTQ+ community in this part of the town hall series titled ‘The Issues.’  

“The trans and nonbinary community is taking its seat at the table, and we are taking the time and space to be informed and prepare the voter base,” said Queen Victoria Ortega, international president of FLUX.

The town hall will feature conversations through a Q&A followed by a reception for program participants, organizational partners and LGBTQ+ city and county officials. 

There will later be a third town hall before the election and The Connie Norman Transgender Empowerment Center will also become a voting location for anyone who feels like they need a safe space to vote, regardless of what voting district they are a part of. 

“Our community is really asking for a place to talk about what all of this actually means because although we live in a blue sphere, housing and other forms of discrimination are still a very real threat,” said Scottie Jeanette Madden, director of advocacy at The Connie Norman Transgender Empowerment Center. 

In practice, Prop 3 would not change who can marry, it would only change the language of the California Constitution that still only acknowledges marriage between a man and a woman. 

Approving the change of language would cement the legacy of progress that has allowed same-sex and interracial couples to marry.

In the Hollingsworth v. Perry Supreme Court case from 2010, United States District Court Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that Prop 8 was unconstitutional after a two-week trial. He then issued an order prohibiting the state and local officials named in the lawsuit, from enforcing the proposition – referred to as an injunction. 

Following that move, the proponents of Prop 8 challenged the decision by filing an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

The Ninth Circuit agreed with the district court, standing by the notion of its unconstitutionality, though they stated a different reason for their position on the issue. The proponents of Prop 8 then filed a petition to review the Ninth Circuit and the district court’s rulings. 

In 2013, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that the proponents of Prop 8 ‘lacked standing to appeal to the district court’s ruling that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.’

Instead of deciding whether Prop 8 was constitutional or not, the U.S Supreme Court decided only that the appeal from the district court’s ruling was ‘improper,’ and invalidated the Ninth Circuit’s ruling.

Judge Walker’s district court ruling that states Prop 8 is unconstitutional and the injunction he set, are the only rulings that remain intact from that ordeal. On June 28 2013, same-sex couples were able to resume the right to marry. 

It wasn’t until 2015, that the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal in all 50 states. 

Proposition 3 would add a constitutional amendment that states all people have a right to marry regardless of sex or race.  

If rejected, there would be no change to the ability for new couples to marry or reversal in the legitimacy of current marriages, but it would put same-sex marriage in possible danger for being challanged by the Supreme Court in future cases similar to Hollingsworth v. Perry. 

Proposition 3 enshrines same-sex marriage in the Constitution to match what the federal courts have said about who can marry, meaning that same-sex and interracial couples are federally protected and Prop 3 would simply back that up in California. 

If approved, there would be no change in revenues or costs to state and local governments. 

Prop 3 would replace the definitions of marriage set forth by the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, which states that defines marriage as ‘between one man and one woman, or husband and wife, and spouse as only a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife.’

DOMA further goes on to say that ‘no state, territory or possession of the United States or Indian tribe, shall be required to give effect to any marriage between persons of the same sex under the laws of any other such jurisdiction or to any right or claim arising from such relationship.’ 

In September, The Public Policy Institute of California found in a poll of 1,605 adults, that 68% of likely voters would vote yes on Prop 3. The poll found that a strong majority of Democrats and independents support the proposition. 

The poll also found that majorities across demographic groups in California support the proposition and that the support increases with higher educational attainment and income, while support decreases among those age 45 and older and remains stronger in those aged 18 to 44. 

Supporters of the proposition include Sierra Pacific Synod of The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Dolores Huerta Foundation and Equality California. 

Sam Alleman, national LGBTQ+ engagement director for the Harris-Walz 2024 campaign, talked with the Washington Blade last week for an exclusive interview about his work building and strengthening coalitions within the community in hopes of winning in November.

On the Democratic side, organizing LGBTQ voters for a presidential campaign goes back at least a decade, he said, to 2012 when Jamie Citron — currently the deputy assistant to the president and principal deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement — helped to lead these efforts on behalf of then-President Barack Obama’s reelection bid.

On Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Alleman said, it was Dominic Lowell working in close coordination with Sean Meloy, director of LGBT engagement for the Democratic National Committee, who now serves as vice president of political programs at the LGBTQ Victory Fund and Institute.

“Something that we’re very proud of as the little crew of folks who all are friends,” Alleman said, “is really building off each other’s work to continue scaling this and building out infrastructure to organize within the community.”

He added that in 2020, Reggie Greer, who led LGBTQ engagement for the Biden-Harris campaign and is now the State Department’s senior adviser to the U.S. Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons, “was dealt the very difficult hand of a global pandemic.”

He explained, despite the challenges, Greer and others managed to build “a wonderful program that’s very much virtual, put forward from folks that did this work and were online,” which has shaped efforts through to this day as the Harris-Walz campaign seeks to “really get people back in person” as they focus their push in, especially, the seven battleground states.

The goal, Alleman said, is “not losing the virtual component, but complementing it” to “get people back on board, back to the event, back to the rally, back to the business that is a presidential campaign in 2024.”

“That’s a question and a piece of this work that is not necessarily unique to the LGBTQ+ portfolio,” he said. “But then it’s been something that we’ve worked through, and I think getting that from 2020 and rebuilding and fleshing that out has been a top priority.”

“We have wonderful working relationships with Liam Kahn over at the DNC right now,” Alleman said, referring to the committee’s director of LGBTQ+ coalitions, “and then, of course, my counterpart in finance, James Conlon, we work hand in glove as a team to execute on all of this work,” together with “my deputy, oh my gosh, he just started, I’m so excited, Cesar Toledo — who is like an absolute force and really runs the day to day of the organizing program.”

For his part, Alleman’s career has taken him from organizing work as a college student for then-Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis to campaign work for Clinton to the center of the reproductive rights movement at Planned Parenthood to the White House and, now, the Harris-Walz 2024 race.

“I started on the campaign in April of 2024,” he said, working on behalf of what was then the Biden-Harris ticket, while before that, “I was at the DNC for two and a half years. So I started over there as the LGBTQ coalitions director in October of 2021 and helped to manage all their LGBTQ+ programming through the midterm elections.”

Alleman continued, “I was also the regional coalitions director for the Midwest. We affectionately called it the “snow belt,” but [it was] our Great Lakes and Northeast states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire in 2022 as well, working in that pod in tandem with all of our state programming.”

When transitioning into the new role, Alleman said “it was keenly important” for him to facilitate the continued investment in building “infrastructure for our community at the DNC” which is something the organization has shown is a priority focus.

“At the DNC, the work is very infrastructure focused,” he said, through the vehicle of coordinating with “our state parties” and “making sure that they have the resources to do this work to mobilize voters.”

Alleman added that a few dozen state Democratic parties have LGBTQ caucuses, so at the DNC he was working to “make sure that they were getting organized” in coordination “of course, with the partners, too.”

Asked to compare his experiences working in similar roles for the committee and then the presidential campaign, Alleman said “The party has a bigger responsibility, I should say, to think about the totality of the ticket” which means considering questions like “how are we getting resources to [down-ballot] races, like city council members and state reps and state senators?”

He noted “there are a lot of LGBTQ state reps and state senators with big names [who are doing] amazing work in this moment.”

By contrast, “when we’re here on the presidential [ticket] it’s a lot of the same strategies and tactics, but really homed in on our battleground states, really homed in on [the question of] ‘how are we building out capacity to talk to those voters where we know our pathway to victory is?'”

In between the Clinton campaign and the DNC was a long stint at Planned Parenthood, Alleman said, an opportunity that found him via a friend who reached out after Trump’s victory in 2016.

Packed into the Javits Center, where the Clinton team had organized what they — and most Americans — expected to be a victory party, Alleman said “everything changed from that point on” as “things that had felt so certain and so set in terms of what I was planning on doing, just sort of all changed.”

“I feel like it was that way for so many of us, both in terms of work, our personal lives, everything that happened in 2016,” he said. “And so I got a call from a friend — a good friend of mine who’s still one of my best friends, actually, I just officiated her wedding.”

The personal is political

“Everything really just sort of clicked there,” Alleman said, adding, “I worked at Planned Parenthood for five or six years, doing various jobs,” starting with the Metropolitan Washington affiliate where he worked to “plan the logistics and busses for the Women’s March” in 2017 to protest Donald Trump’s election.

Reproductive rights, he said, is “a big part of my story and why I’m in the work.”

Alleman is a Texas native. In college, he worked for the campaign of then-state senator Wendy Davis, who famously held a 13-hour-long filibuster in 2013 to block legislation that would have imposed harsher abortion restrictions.

“I’m originally from Plano,” he said. “By virtue of being from Texas, these things that feel like very big issues now have sort of always been litigated, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, in our state based off just conservative extremists,” adding, “we would call them MAGA Republicans now.”

While he was always supportive of reproductive rights, Alleman said that as a young man who was grappling with his sexuality and on his own coming out journey, he did not fully understand “the totality” of those freedoms and how they intersect with other core American values.

“A very important part of my story, and a big part of why I do this work, is my sister,” Alleman said. Just seven months after getting health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act, he said his sister was “diagnosed with breast cancer at a Planned Parenthood health center via a breast exam.”

While she “is now cancer free and in remission and doing very well,” Alleman said, “I don’t know what my family would have done if we had not been able to access health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.”

“It would have bankrupted my family,” he said, “and I would have dropped out of college. I wouldn’t be sitting here today, right? Like, nothing that happened would have happened, would have been possible. She very well may not be alive, you know?”

Alleman continued, “And so, the importance of healthcare and access to affordable healthcare, and then the ability for us to have bodily autonomy and then control of our own decisions and destinies, has always just been something that has been critically important for me.”

“We talk about all the accomplishments that we’ve seen from the Biden-Harris administration,” he said, like “the Affordable Care Act and what that means, but my story is an example of the impact of that, [of] what this actually means for people to have access to health care and health insurance, what this actually means for people to be able to go to their Planned Parenthood health center and feel safe in accessing reproductive health care in its totality, from abortion to breast exams.”

He described falling “in love” with the work at Planned Parenthood as well as with the movement for reproductive freedom. “I moved up to the national office about six or seven months after starting at the affiliate on their political team,” he said, “and ended as their national political manager before moving over to the DNC.”

From there, Alleman said, “I worked at the DNC for two and a half years managing the LGBTQ coalition work” during which time “we were really proud of the Biden-Harris administration, but it always felt [like] it was so clear where we would probably be in terms of who we were running against, right, where we are today in 2024.”

So the focus remained, he said, on “what was at stake, not only in the work that we needed to get done politically to, you know, get infrastructure done, get the Inflation Reduction Act done, make sure that we help the Senate and House as best we could in the midterms, so that we can continue achieving things like the Respect for Marriage Act — but as well, to put us in as best a position as possible to take on what was the looming threat to our democracy, and what is the looming threat to our democracy, that is Donald Trump.”

Alleman added, “And we see now” from “Project 2025” what “things will look like should he win — though we have, I think, a pretty good plan to keep that from happening.”

Storytelling and organizing go hand-in-hand

“I consider myself first and foremost an organizer, and there’s nothing more powerful for an individual than knowing your story and being able to tell that and stand in its truth and what that means for you and your power,” Alleman said.

He sees this as an important part of not just his work and career but also a focus of the campaign.

“So storytelling is absolutely, to me, one of the most fundamental things we do as organizers — it’s helping people find their voice and how they want to use that to benefit their communities, to turn out voters, and really just participate in our democracy,” he said.

Storytelling is also an important element of communicating about our intersectional identities, Alleman said. “We talk about these communities sometimes in such different lanes, but in reality, we’re all creatures of narrative.”

He added, “We’re all sort of experiencing life in that more qualitative, narrative way. And those stories are where people not only are able to sort of synthesize all the things that they are, but also provide the actual emotion and the human aspect of these issues in life.”

Far-right anti-LGBTQ North Carolina lieutenant governor and Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson enjoys transgender pornography, according to a report published by CNN on Thursday.

The controversial official has made deeply offensive and incendiary remarks about trans people, but privately on the message board of Nude Africa, an adult site, he said, “I like watching tranny on girl porn!”

Robinson denied the report, but CNN linked the anonymous account to Robinson via a slew of matching biographical details and a username and email address he has used in the past.

“This is not us. These are not our words. And this is not anything that is characteristic of me,” Robinson said. “I’m not going to get into the minutia of how somebody manufactured this, these salacious tabloid lies.”

The lieutenant governor, who is Black, also made racist comments on the forum. Responding to news of then-President Barack Obama’s dedication of the national monument to Martin Luther King, Jr., Robinson wrote, “Get that f*cking commie bastard off the National Mall!”

“I’m not in the KKK,” he added. “They don’t let blacks join. If I was in the KKK I would have called him Martin Lucifer Koon!”

Additionally, CNN reports, “Robinson also used homophobic slurs frequently, calling other users f*gs” and “in a largely positive forum discussion featuring a photo of two men kissing after one returned from a military deployment, Robinson wrote the sole negative comment.

‘That’s sum ole sick a** f*ggot bullsh*t!’ he wrote.”

Along with the Republican Party of North Carolina, Robinson’s uphill candidacy against Democratic state attorney general Josh Stein is supported by Donald Trump.

Delaware State Sen. Sarah McBride, who is favored to become the first transgender member of Congress after winning the Democratic primary this week, received a congratulatory call on Wednesday from a powerful friend and ally: President Joe Biden.

The president shared details about their conversation with the Washington Blade during an exclusive interview in the Oval Office on Thursday, which will be available to read online early next week.

“I called her and I said, ‘Sarah,’ I said, ‘Beau’s looking down from heaven, congratulating you,’” Biden said, referring to his late son, who had served as attorney general of Delaware before his death from cancer in 2015.

McBride had worked on Beau Biden’s campaign in 2006 and on his reelection campaign in 2010. Two years later, when she came out as transgender, the AG called to say, “I’m so proud of you. I love you, and you’re still a part of the Biden family.”

The president told the Blade that McBride welled with emotion — “she started to fill up” — as she responded that the “‘only reason I’m here is because of Beau. He had confidence in me.’”

When the two worked together, “[Beau] was getting the hell kicked out” of him because “he hired her,” Biden said, but “now she’s going to be the next congresswoman, the next congresswoman from Delaware.”

Later, when asked how he will remain involved in the struggle for LGBTQ rights after leaving office, the president again mentioned McBride. “Delaware used to be a pretty conservative state, and now we’re going to have — Sarah is going to be, I pray to God, a congresswoman.”

In the presidential debate hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris put Donald Trump on the defensive over issues from foreign policy and the ongoing criminal prosecutions against him to his record and moral character.

The 90-minute exchange featured no discussion of LGBTQ issues, apart from a baseless accusation by Trump that his opponent “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.”

The remark echoed statements Trump has made recently on the campaign trail, for example in Wisconsin on Monday where he said that children are, however implausibly, returning home from school having underwent sex change operations.

Similarly, during the debate the former president asserted without evidence that Democrats favor abortions up to and following delivery, which would amount to infanticide.

“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” interjected ABC News anchor Linsey Davis, a moderator, who then allowed Harris to respond.

“Well, as I said, you’re gonna hear a bunch of lies, and that’s not actually a surprising fact,” the vice president replied before addressing the question at hand, which concerned abortion.

While Harris did not address the matter of “transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison,” viewers on X were quick to mock the comment.

she was in the prison doing transgender operations on illegal aliens right before she died pic.twitter.com/sjDycEO3Mq

— soul nate (@MNateShyamalan) September 11, 2024

transgender operations on illegal aliens in prison pic.twitter.com/FNhKekSm1S

— Half-Shirt Radical (@EricShethar) September 11, 2024

You’re laughing. They’re doing transgender operations on illegal aliens who are in prison and you’re laughing.

— Cartoons Hate Her! (@CartoonsHateHer) September 11, 2024

Democrat Lisa Middleton is the first openly transgender person elected to a non-judicial office in California and is currently running to represent the 19th Senate District in a tight Inland Empire race.

She is one of more than 21 out LGBTQ candidates running for a U.S. congressional, state Senate or state Legislative seat in 2024.

As a longtime leader of the LGBTQ community, Middleton works to protect and advance civil rights. She serves on the Equality California Institute’s board of directors and would become the first openly trans person to serve in the California State Legislature.

Middleton began her transition 30 years ago, but her reputation in politics, fraud investigation and governance started long before. Middleton, 72, is the former mayor of Palm Springs after serving as mayor pro tempore from 2020 to 2021 and then becoming the first openly trans mayor in California, succeeding Christy Holstege in December 2021.

Middleton is the child of blue-collar union workers.

In addition to supporting LGBTQ rights, she also supports projects such as renewable energy using wind and solar, stating that these are win-win solutions that help labor workers and combat climate change.

Middleton is running against GOP Latina Rosilicie Bogh, 52, a former elementary school teacher, school board member, and realtor.

Bogh has publicly opposed bills that boost gender-affirming health care services and protect trans children and their families from being criminalized for seeking treatment in California.

Bogh has also abstained from voting on gay marriage rights in the state constitution and recognizing Pride Month.

She gained attention earlier this year when she stood up to oppose a law that protects educators and school staff from forcibly outing trans children to their families.

Assembly Bill 1955 went into effect earlier this summer after getting support from Gov. Gavin Newsom and backlash from Elon Musk, leading him to withdraw X and SpaceX from California.

The race for this seat is stimulated by newly redrawn district boundaries that now include thousands more registered Democrats.

The new 19th Senate District now spans from Coachella Valley to the San Bernardino Mountains and from the San Jacinto Valley to the High Desert, including highly visited places like Big Bear City, Joshua Tree, and Palm Springs.

The redrawn district includes San Bernardino County, which has Republican strongholds, but also includes the more liberal areas of Riverside County and Palm Springs, totaling around half a million voters.

A Report of Registration released earlier this summer shows that the district is now nearly even in terms of Republican and Democratic support, with 35 percent and 36 percent respectively.

In the March primary election, Bogh won 54 percent of the vote, while Middleton secured 46 percent.

In the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump won the district by a narrow margin.

Both candidates are trailblazers, so who will win over the majority vote in the upcoming election that is only 57 days away?

Both candidates say they’re avoiding culture war clashes to focus on bread-and-butter issues.

For Middleton, the bread-and-butter issues are protecting reproductive care, fixing roads, creating jobs, increasing neighborhood safety, demanding accountability for taxpayers, and building housing to address homelessness.

Middleton markets herself as a neighborhood advocate who provides “common-sense solutions” to the region’s challenges.

Her track record includes working as an auditor for California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund, working her way up to becoming senior vice president of internal affairs and serving as chair of California’s Fraud Assessment Commission.

Her goal in the Legislature is to eliminate wasteful spending of tax dollars.

As mayor of Palm Springs, Middleton led the city’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic by helping small businesses reopen and creating well-paying jobs.

Prior to that, Middleton was appointed to the Board of Administrators of the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), which aims to build health and retirement security for California’s state and local school employees. Currently, she serves as chair of the Finance and Administration Committee and vice chair of the Risk and Audit Committee.

Middleton married her wife Cheryl, a now-retired nurse, in 2013, shortly after moving to Palm Springs. Together they have two children who are educators.

Middleton was also included in the 2016 Pride Honors Award at Palm Springs Pride, receiving the Spirit of Stonewall Community Service Award.

Organizations like Planned Parenthood, Reproductive Freedom For All California, National Union of Healthcare Workers, California Women’s List, and others support Middleton.

A list of openly LGBTQ candidates on the California ballot can be found below:

U.S. House of Representatives:

• Congressional District 16: Evan Low
• Congressional District 23: Derek Marshall
• Congressional District 39: Mark Takano
• Congressional District 41: Will Rollins
• Congressional District 42: Robert Garcia

California Senate:

• Senate District 3: Christopher Cabaldon
• Senate District 11: Scott Wiener
• Senate District 17: John Laird
• Senate District 19: Lisa Middleton
• Senate District 25: Sasha Renee Perez
• Senate District 31: Sabrina Cervantes

California Assembly:

• Assembly District 24: Alex Lee
• Assembly District 47: Christy Holstege
• Assembly District 51: Rick Chavez Zbur
• Assembly District 54: Mark Gonzalez
• Assembly District 57: Sade Elhawary
• Assembly District 58: Clarissa Cervantes
• Assembly District 60: Corey Jackson
• Assembly District 62: José Solache
• Assembly District 72: Dom Jones
• Assembly District 78: Chris Ward

In an era of social and political uncertainty, the importance of LGBTQ representation in corporate leadership has never been more critical, according to diversity experts.

Despite increasing visibility, LGBTQ+ individuals continue to face discrimination and challenges in the workplace. A recent study by GLAAD found that 70% of non-LGBTQ adults believe in the importance of inclusive hiring practices. However, representation in top corporate positions remains inadequate.

“Having LGBTQ+ individuals in C-suite positions is more than an issue of fairness — it drives real cultural change,” said Aidan Currie, Executive Director of Reaching Out MBA.

According to Gallup data, 7.6% of all U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ, with the percentage rising to 22% among Gen Z adults. This demographic shift underscores the need for diverse leadership in corporate America.

The impact of LGBTQ+ representation extends beyond social progress. McKinsey & Company’s 2020 report found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity were 25% more likely to see higher profitability. Similar principles apply to LGBTQ+ representation.

However, challenges persist. The FBI reports a 19% increase in hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ people, highlighting ongoing societal issues.

To address these challenges, organizations like Reaching Out MBA (ROMBA) are working to increase LGBTQ+ influence in business. ROMBA’s annual conference brings together LGBTQ+ MBA students, recruiters, and business leaders.

This year, ROMBA is introducing PRIZM, a multi-day event for experienced, mid-career LGBTQ+ business professionals. The event aims to equip participants with skills needed to advance to C-suite roles.

“It’s incumbent upon us to make sure our community is prepared to lead, and it’s incumbent upon corporate leaders to stand behind their commitment to inclusion,” said Zeke Stokes, former Chief Programs Officer at GLAAD.

As the business landscape evolves, the push for greater LGBTQ+ representation in corporate leadership continues. Experts argue that this representation is not just a matter of equity, but a crucial factor in driving innovation, profitability, and positive societal change.

For more information on ROMBA and PRIZM, visit https://reachingoutmba.org/

Written By AIDAN CURRIE and ZEKE STOKES

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