Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing an impending impeachment vote as U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on Monday filed articles of impeachment.

The grounds for impeachment center on Hegseth’s handling of the Iran war, namely his disregard for congressional War Powers resolutions, along with other issues, including allegations of war crimes committed by the military in other regions of the world at Hegseth’s behest.

“By engaging in hostilities in Iran for more than 90 days without congressional authorization, Secretary Hegseth is breaking the law and must be held accountable,” Massie said.

“I’m doing this because it’s the right thing to do,” he added after discussing the articles with reporters.

According to the BBC, when asked by reporters about the impending resolution earlier Monday, Hegseth said: “We’re not worried about that,” adding that he would hold a news conference Tuesday morning “on that very topic.”

Impeaching a Cabinet secretary would be an extremely rare move for Congress, particularly given that Republicans maintain control of the House until the end of the current term in January of next year. No Cabinet member has ever been successfully impeached in U.S. history.

Under current House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)’s leadership, Massie told reporters that he remains unsure whether the measure will secure enough Republican votes, assuming all Democrats support his articles of impeachment.

Currently, there are 218 Republicans and 214 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The U.S. Senate requires a two-thirds vote to convict, a threshold that would be difficult to reach during the current congressional term.

Hegseth has been an adamant opponent of LGBTQ+ rights, both within the military and in broader civilian life. He has a military background, beginning his service in the Minnesota Army National Guard, where he served at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba and was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

After his stint in the military, Hegseth became a prominent far-right political pundit on Fox News.

Prior to his appointment to the Pentagon, where he was confirmed only after a deciding vote by Vice President JD Vance; Hegseth faced allegations of sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement, and excessive drinking.

Since taking one of the highest-ranking positions in the U.S. military, Hegseth has been at the center of a series of controversies and questionable policy decisions, including a leaked government group chat on Signal; alleged war crimes related to U.S. military strikes on alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea; unconstitutionally promoting Christianity within the military; using unmarked military planes for boat strikes; questions surrounding the use of force and rules of engagement in the 2026 Iran war; an unprecedented purge of admirals and generals; mandating testosterone screening for military personnel; and broadly removing military members with a history of gender dysphoria.

In September 2025, Hegseth directed military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico to dismantle Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) offices, identity months, and LGBTQ+ programs across the department, framing the shift as a return to a “warrior ethos.”

Many of his anti-LGBTQ+ policies come as a direct result of President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order, “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness” which bars transgender people, both current and future military personnel, from being affiliated with the Pentagon.

The impeachment effort comes days after Republicans suffered stunning losses in the midterm elections, with control of Congress set to return to Democrats. The results also mark a turning point for the Trump-Vance administration as Trump enters the “lame duck” period of his presidency, with two years remaining in his term and seemingly little support from a Democratic-controlled Congress beginning Jan. 3, 2027.

Johnson will have two days to either bring the articles to a vote, or vote to refer it to committee or to set it aside for future congressional leadership to deal with.

The Los Angeles Blade reached out to Johnson’s office and to SPARTA (Servicemembers, Partners, and Allies for Respect and Tolerance for All), a trans servicemember advocacy group, about the impending articles of impeachment for Hegseth, but did not receive a response by publication time.

This story will be updated as new details become available. 

Stephen Post has won the final seat on the West Hollywood City Council, joining Chelsea Byers and Helen Krieger as the winners of this election cycle. Post beat out candidates John Duran and Kyle Brazeal in the tight race for third. While ballots are still being counted, Post leads fourth place Duran by nearly 500 votes and his lead has been growing with each new vote count. Duran conceded to Post on Saturday morning. 

In Los Angeles County, younger and more progressive voters tend to cast their ballots closer to Election Day, meaning they often get counted later. This is what caused Post’s seeming comeback victory, although this is more a factor of California’s slow ballot counting process. 

Post ran a progressive campaign, focusing on an aggressive opposition to Flock cameras, which he said posed serious privacy concerns for WeHo residents, amounting to mass surveillance. He also supported the plan for bike lanes on Fountain Avenue and building more housing in WeHo, including in large apartment buildings. Post was the only candidate endorsed by the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, whose members vigorously canvassed for him and helped him reach voters. 

Post is a newcomer to politics as City Council will be his first time in elected office. He works as a business improvement district manager and previously was a non-profit advocate for criminal justice reform.  

These election results illustrate a progressive sweep of the Council, with Byers and Krieger supporting many of the same policies as Post. All winning candidates were endorsed by the Unite Here! Local 11 union, which has become a powerful player in Los Angeles campaigns, as they also backed the successful campaign of Mayor-elect Nithya Raman. More moderate candidates like Duran, Brazeal, and Larry Block all placed in fourth, fifth, and sixth place respectively. 

With Council member John Erickson staying on the Council after losing his state Senate election to Brian Goldsmith, progressives will have a 4-1 majority meaning they will be able to pass their agenda with relative ease. Vice Mayor Danny Hang is more moderate but has often collaborated with Erickson and Byers on a case-by-case basis. 

The voters have spoken and a progressive agenda is coming to West Hollywood. Younger and first time candidates have won out over experienced WeHo political figures. 

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

President Donald Trump has ousted Susie Wiles as his chief of staff, announcing that Stephen Miller, the current deputy chief of staff, will take her place on Monday.

Trump posted the message to his social media site Truth Social on Friday afternoon, informing the public of the change in leadership following the Republican Party’s devastating losses in Tuesday night’s midterm elections.

“I am pleased to announce that Mr. Stephen Miller, the current deputy chief of staff of the Trump administration, and one of my most trusted advisors, will become the chief of staff starting Monday, Nov. 9, 2026,” Trump posted. “Susie Wiles, who has done an outstanding job, will be moving over to the Trump Political Operation. I want to thank her for her service as chief of staff — She has done a great job!”

Miller, who has a long history of being closely intertwined with the 47th president, was a key voice in both of Trump’s presidential campaigns and served as one of his closest advisers. Prior to his tenure as deputy chief of staff, he served as a Homeland Security adviser beginning in 2025 and previously worked as a senior adviser and director of speechwriting during Trump’s first administration.

One of his biggest policy pushes while serving as Homeland Security adviser was the forced separation of migrant children from their parents or guardians, a policy that has led the Southern Poverty Law Center to consider him an extremist.

Miller founded the conservative legal organization America First Legal in 2021, which has acted as one of the strongest legal arms of the conservative movement in targeting LGBTQ+ rights and inclusive policies, including diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, across the country.

America First Legal has worked with the Trump-Vance administration to target federal civil rights protections in K-12 schools and universities, including those related to transgender-inclusive policies.

He is expected to continue pushing anti-inclusive measures while serving as the president’s right-hand man.

Shortly after the White House announcement, openly gay U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, posted a statement on social media warning Miller and other administration officials that, following the change of power in January, they will face investigations by the committee, with the possibility of charges being brought against them for “unconstitutional” actions taken while Republicans held power.

“Just days after the American people rejected his corrupt and lawless presidency, Donald Trump is doubling down. Stephen Miller is the architect of the unconstitutional ICE raids that have terrorized our communities and kidnapped and killed American citizens and immigrant families,” Garcia posted on Instagram.

“Oversight Democrats will continue to investigate Miller for his misconduct, and we will fight against his hateful policies in Congress and the courts. Stephen Miller should lawyer up.”

The Los Angeles Blade reached out to the White House press office regarding the change in leadership and whether Miller would continue to push anti-LGBTQ+ policies while serving as the highest-ranking aide to the president and was directed to a X post made by White House Direct of Communications Steven Cheung.

“Stephen Miller is a Trump OG, someone who has been with the President since the very beginning. There is no bigger advocate for the Trump agenda than Stephen, and he will help the administration deliver on monumental victories for the rest of this historic second term,” Cheung wrote.

Chelsea Byers and Helen Krieger have secured the first and second spots in the race for West Hollywood City Council. After an eventful campaign season, with 13 candidates running to fill the three seats up for grabs, Byers and Krieger have come out on top. Each holding a wide lead ahead of their challengers, they are all but guaranteed to each win a seat.

However, the race for third has shaped up to be an incredibly close contest among John Duran, Kyle Brazeal, and Stephen Post. Duran currently holds third, Brazeal fourth, and Post fifth, but they are all within 100 votes of each other, meaning their positions could easily swap as more ballots are counted. 

The Winners

Byers and Krieger both ran on progressive platforms, with focuses on building more housing, creating biking and transit infrastructure, and opposition to Flock cameras in the city. The two are also both housing advocates. Byers works at the non-profit Welcoming Neighbors Network which aims to end the U.S. housing shortage and Krieger helped build affordable housing in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. 

They were both backed by the progressive Unite Here! Local 11 union, which represents service worker employees around L.A. The union has become a major influence in West Hollywood elections in recent years, providing resources and support to many progressive candidates. 

Byers and Krieger have been friendly with each other on the campaign trail, and with other countywide progressives. Byers even earned a shoutout in L.A. Mayor-elect Nithya Raman’s election night speech. Their campaigns were also supported by former WeHo Mayor and current L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath. 

Byers was the only incumbent running for re-election, with Mayor John Heilman and Council member Lauren Meister term limited. Heilman and Meister supported the campaigns of Duran and Brazeal for Council, who are now battling each other and Post for the third and final seat. 

The Race for Third

California counts ballots slowly compared to other states and with the margins between third, fourth, and fifth so narrow, it may be a while before the race can be called conclusively. 

Duran and Brazeal’s campaigns focused on public safety, opposition to adding bike lanes on Fountain Avenue, and creating a Transit Oriented Development Alternative Plan in West Hollywood. Both argued that the city’s politics had become too ideological and called for a return to common sense decision making that they claimed was absent in new city leadership. 

Duran is a longtime civil rights attorney and West Hollywood politician, serving on the City Council between 2001 and 2020. Duran’s time in elected office ended in scandal as he was accused of multiple accounts of sexual harassment, first in 2016 and then again in 2019. He lost his re-election bid in 2020. 

Brazeal is a political newcomer, working in a career in finance before joining the Council race this year. His campaign was rattled by allegations of transphobia in a story reported by the Los Angeles Blade, with a transgender woman accusing him of calling her a slur in 2024. 

Post, currently in fifth, is a progressive backed by many of the same organizations as Byers and Krieger, and was the only candidate backed by the L.A. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. He made anti-flock policy a cornerstone of his campaign and argued that it compromised WeHo residents’ privacy and the city’s values. 

A Majority Voting Bloc

With the incoming Council members, and Erickson’s unsuccessful run for state Senate keeping him in his position, the Council is guaranteed to have at least a three-vote majority to pass progressive policies in line with Krieger and Byer’s campaign promises. This means Flock cameras are most likely coming down and the plan for bike lanes on Fountain Avenue will likely proceed unchanged, regardless of who wins the final seat.

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

Nithya Raman is the projected winner of the Los Angeles mayor’s race, beating out incumbent Karen Bass in a contentious campaign to lead the second largest city in the nation. Raman has won 52% of the vote with 75% of precincts reporting. 

Earlier in the year, City Council member Raman’s chances of pulling off a victory seemed slim. Mayor Bass won handily in the June mayoral primary, and Raman came in a distant second, inching out the bombastic former reality TV star Spencer Pratt to secure a spot in the runoff. 

Raman ran on a progressive platform that promised to address chronic issues in Los Angeles, like homelessness, affordability, and lack of housing supply. Raman made the case that the Bass administration had not confronted these challenges effectively and that Los Angeles needed new leadership that could. 

A newcomer to politics, Raman first ran for office in 2020 when she won a seat on the Los Angeles City Council, the first time a challenger had defeated an incumbent for a city council seat in nearly two decades. Her election was a shock to the L.A. political establishment and taught Raman how to effectively organize a grassroots campaign, a skill that would be invaluable to her 2026 mayoral victory. 

Despite lacking establishment backing, earning no endorsements from her fellow council members, Raman was supported by many progressive organizations and unions, including the L.A. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Unite Here! Local 11, and the Western States Carpenters union. They provided her with thousands of eager canvassing volunteers and organizers. These canvassing efforts helped sway public opinion and introduce Raman to voters who had likely never heard of her. 

Homelessness was a particular flashpoint in the election. In April, reporting by the L.A. Times showed 40% of the people who participated in Mayor Bass’s signature anti-homelessness program ended up back on the streets within a year, and overall homelessness levels increased across the city in the last year. Raman pointed to her district’s near 50% decline in unsheltered homelessness between 2025 and 2026 as proof she could confront the issue more effectively. But time will tell if she can translate this success city-wide. 

Mayor Bass served a hectic and tumultuous term as the first woman mayor of Los Angeles. In early 2025, she had to deal with the fallout of the Palisades fires, one of the most destructive wildfires the city has ever seen. Only a few months later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids shocked immigrant communities around L.A. and subsequent protests shut down the city. In response, President Trump deployed the National Guard to the streets in a move many saw as federal overreach, further inflaming tensions. 

These remarkable challenges ingrained anti-incumbent sentiment among some voters who believed Mayor Bass could have done more to help Angelenos in both instances. 

Raman spent her campaign painting the mayor as insufficiently proactive in countering the policies of the Trump-Vance administration. Raman has promised to protect L.A.’s queer community from federal actions that could harm them, especially emphasizing her support for the transgender community, which has been the target of numerous attacks from President Trump. 

The Mayor-elect said she would pressure Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to reevaluate its ending of gender-affirming care services. The hospital’s center for Transyouth Health closed in 2025 following federal pressure to end trans healthcare for minors, impacting more than 2,000 patients who were receiving care when the closure occurred. Despite federal threats, gender-affirming care remains legal in California. 

Speaking with the Blade last month, Raman said she would “reach out to [CHLA’s] board and speak to them about that decision and see how we can push them to do better [for] trans patients,” outreach she said had not happened under the Bass administration. 

In her election night speech to an energized crowd at the Greek Theater, Raman reiterated her support for the queer community, committing to “show up for our gay and trans siblings,” across Los Angeles. 

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

The U.S. Senate has flipped to Democratic control.

Democrats will control of the Senate after flipping the minimum four Republican-held seats, giving the party control of both chambers of Congress and a majority in the legislative branch, according to NBC.

The Senate, the upper legislative body, holds 100 seats, two for every state, and oversees several important functions of the federal government, including confirming judicial and Cabinet appointments.

There will now be two openly LGBTQ+ members of the Senate: freshly elected Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, who is gay, and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who is a lesbian.

With greater control over federal legislation, Democrats could have an opportunity to advance measures such as the Equality Act, which would expand federal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

During the campaign, President Donald Trump repeatedly referred to South Carolina Democratic Senator-elect Annie Andrews using the anti-transgender slur “Tranny Annie,” while emphasizing culture war issues, including trans participation in sports and gender-affirming care.

Democrats, meanwhile, have centered their campaigns on the growing affordability crisis as somatic issues, including the Ukrainian-Russian war, Palestinian-Israeli war, and the war in Iran. 

Just minutes after polls closing, Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra was named the projected winner of California’s governor’s race by the Associated Press, beating out the Republican Steve Hilton. Becerra has a long history in elected office, serving as a congressman representing parts of Los Angeles and East LA, then as California Attorney General, and most recently as the Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden. He also has a long history of supporting pro-LGBTQ policies. 

As a congressman, he voted against the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which banned same-sex marriage on the federal level. As California attorney general, he sued the Trump-Pence administration in 2017 over a policy that aimed to ban transgender people from serving in the military. As HHS Secretary, he publicly defended access to gender-affirming care for transgender patients, including for minors, noting that it has been shown to reduce suicidality among transgender youth. This is a major contrast to the current HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has since made the agency’s official policy that it “rejects gender ideology and condemns the harms it causes to children.”

In his campaign for governor, Becerra has continued to support gender-affirming care, saying in a statement on X that “as Governor, I will stand firm to secure California’s status as a sanctuary state for trans youth and their families,” and posting an image with the phrase “protect trans youth.” 

Becerra’s opponent Steve Hilton made LGBTQ issues a small but loud part of his campaign.

He opposed transgender participation in women’s sports, attending and speaking at a “Save Girl’s Sports” rally that called for a ban on transgender people playing in women’s sports in California. In an interview with the San Francisco Standard, Hilton was asked about his favorite girl’s sport, responding “I don’t follow girl’s sports,” and declined to make any commitments to further women’s competition in sports beyond calling for an end to transgender participation. 

Hilton came under further criticism from the LGBTQ community for releasing an innuendo-laced  campaign advertisement in October that appeared to show two women in an intimate setting before revealing that one is trying to convince the other to vote for Hilton. Jorge Reyes Salinas, communications director at Equality California, called the ad “a disgusting attempt to exploit lesbian intimacy for political attention” in an interview with the Blade. It was also unpopular among conservatives, with Evangelical Pastor Jack Hibbs stating that the ad was distasteful and that “lesbianism among college girls and some high school girls right now is an actual pandemic of social ill.”

Becerra’s victory in the governor’s race is no surprise in California where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans nearly 2:1. The real challenge was making it past the primary election. After former Congressman Eric Swalwell dropped out of the Democratic primary amid allegations of sexual misconduct, Becerra seized on the opportunity and became the frontrunner. He later beat out billionaire Tom Steyer in the June primary to become the Democratic nominee. 

In the general election, Becerra ran a quiet campaign for governor, counting on support from the overwhelmingly Democratic California electorate. As a result, Becerra has been sparse on many specific policy commitments on the campaign trail. However, his track record indicates that California’s next governor will likely support pro-LGBTQ policies.

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

The U.S. House of Representatives is projected to flip to Democratic control.

According to the Associated Press, Democrats are moving toward control of the House after defeating six Republicans in key battleground races.

While several major questions remain about how Democrats will lead beginning in 2027, their control of the chamber will expand their oversight powers, allowing them to pursue efforts to check an executive branch that has operated with little congressional oversight over the past two years.

With control of the House and expanded oversight powers, more LGBTQ Democrats could be positioned to take on leadership roles in the new Congress.

Incumbent Congressman Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) is poised to become chair of the House Oversight Committee, where he would have greater authority to investigate the Trump-Vance administration, subpoena officials and oversee federal agencies.

Garcia sent out a two word statement following the confirmation of the Democratic Party’s control: “Lawyer up.”

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) could gain a leadership position on the House Appropriations Committee, which has authority over government funding. Such a position could allow him to put roadblocks in the way of much of the Republican agenda, including many projects Trump has personally spearheaded while in the Oval Office.

Some political strategists, like those at Newsweek, have said a third Trump impeachment could be on the table. However, convicting President Donald Trump in a Senate trial would require a two-thirds majority, an outcome that remains uncertain.

These midterm elections have been rife with personal attacks, gerrymandering at the behest of Trump, and heightened political tensions across the country. Republicans have campaigned on the idea that voters are effectively voting for Trump, while also focusing heavily on transgender issues. Meanwhile, many Democrats have pushed back by centering their campaigns on the growing affordability crisis as the war with Iran continues.

The Los Angeles LGBT Center has seen the impact of fearmongering rhetoric about transgender people firsthand so it set out to change the narrative. 

The L.A. LGBT Center this year began a new deep canvassing initiative to combat misconceptions about transgender healthcare. The volunteer canvassers are encouraged not only to share facts and voting information, but also to connect with voters by using personal experiences to frame their political engagement. “The key components of deep canvassing involve getting vulnerable and curious with the voter and exchanging stories to show how political issues are tied to personal real lived experience,” said Maria Do, the community mobilization manager at the L.A. LGBT Center. 

The campaign focused on speaking to voters in the San Gabriel Valley, a working class and ethnically diverse area on the far east side of Los Angeles County. The deep canvassing campaign targeted the city of Monterey Park in particular, a neighborhood home to large Chinese, Vietnamese, and Cambodian immigrant populations. The goal was to connect with infrequent voters who may be uninformed or misinformed about LGBTQ issues. They focused mainly on informing voters about gender affirming care and then encouraging them to vote in the upcoming midterm elections. 

“There have been a lot of attacks and just a lot of misinformation around gender affirming care,” Do said. This campaign aimed to dispel misconceptions about transgender care and to treat it like any other kind of healthcare. “We’re trying to frame gender affirming care access as part of health care access for all,” Do said. 

Deep canvassing 

Deep canvassing at the LGBT Center has its origins in the political battle over the 2008 ballot proposition to ban gay marriage in the state of California. After the ballot proposition passed, the center organized volunteers to knock on doors and have conversations with voters who supported it. These conversations surprised advocates. 

“Concerns voters had about same-sex marriage weren’t rooted at all in lived experience, but were fed through media misinformation and their own biases,” Do said. This convinced organizers at the LGBT Center that having face-to-face interactions with voters would be the most productive way to combat narratives that dehumanized and politicized queer rights. This same technique is being utilized by the center today to target rising anti-trans sentiment and policy. 

Do says that many people are unaware of reduced access to gender affirming care and threats against health systems, patients, and providers from the federal government. Many did not know that Children’s Hospital Los Angeles shut down the largest gender affirming care clinic for trans youth in the country following pressure from the Trump-Vance administration. When canvassers inform people about these challenges, they often get into conversations about a voter’s own struggles with healthcare access. 

“They have shared a lot of stories about Medi-Cal access being cut,” Do said. Voters have also expressed concerns over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in their communities. These similar concerns over healthcare access and federal overreach can help build solidarity across demographic communities. “To share that attacks are also happening on the transgender community has allowed space to sort of see the through line between different efforts to help protect various marginalized communities,” Do said.

What’s on the ballot

The L.A. LGBT Center is non-partisan and has not officially endorsed any candidates on the ballot. But the organization still views this election as consequential for queer people across the state and decided to weigh in on six of the statewide ballot propositions, emphasizing an opposition to Proposition 44. 

The proposition would mandate that community health clinics spend 90% of their annual income on patient care. While proponents of the measure say that it would ensure that clinics are prioritizing services over profits, critics say that its definition of patient care is too narrow, that 90% is an unrealistic goal, and it would end up hurting patients more than helping them. 

LGBT Center officials have said that it would harm community clinics around the state, including others that specialize in queer healthcare. 

“Community clinics who fall short [of spending 90% of revenue on program expenses]… would face severe penalties, an estimated $1.7 billion in the first year alone. At a time when the federal government is seeking to strip people of healthcare, this measure will lead clinics to close and make matters worse,” the L.A. LGBT Center’s director of advocacy Joey Hernández said in a written statement. 

“It isn’t always going to be a win”

Ricardo Sebastiań has volunteered for two of the deep canvassing actions with the LGBT Center and said it is an effective way to change people’s minds. 

“Canvassing is a tried and true tactic for advocacy,” Sebastián said. 

They think that a face-to-face conversation with someone can humanize what can otherwise feel like abstract political issues. “Even if you’re meeting somebody who has a different worldview, there is an opportunity there to find middle ground, and that shifts people. You never know the type of impact you’re going to have on somebody when you’re having an open dialogue,” Sebastián said. 

Do said that volunteers have spoken with people who had never met a transgender person before and that these conversations around trans healthcare can drastically change these people’s perspectives. “Folks started to see themselves and started to empathize,” when they spoke about transgender healthcare with canvassers with the LGBT Center, Do said. 

When out knocking on doors, the most common response for canvassers is, well, nothing. Most of the time, knocks go unanswered and volunteers simply leave behind pamphlets provided by the LGBT Center. And even when canvassers get someone to the door, they can often be preoccupied and dismissive. But this doesn’t discourage volunteers like Sebastián. They feel like the productive conversations they have make it all worth it. 

“It isn’t always going to be a win,” Sebastián said. “There’s always going to be somebody who doesn’t want to talk to you or doesn’t care or is very staunch in opposing views. But you can’t let that discourage you from getting to the next door.”

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

Poll workers across the country are pulling out the ballots and “I voted” stickers, bracing for one of the most divisive and consequential midterm elections in modern times.

Few states have drawn as much media attention, fiery rhetoric, and last-minute political shake-ups as Michigan.

Tomorrow, Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed will face off against Republican nominee Mike Rogers for the Great Lakes State’s Senate seat.

In a state where LGBTQ+ adults make up nearly 11 percent of the population, it is important to understand where each candidate stands on issues affecting the community.

El-Sayed, a former public health official and politician, has a record of advocacy and healthcare policy experience related to the LGBTQ+ community.

He led Detroit’s Ryan White HIV program and partnered with LGBT Detroit to make public health services more open and affirming for LGBTQ+ residents. Drawing on his public health expertise, he has also committed to restoring federal HIV and PrEP funding gutted by the Trump-Vance administration. He refuses corporate PAC money, has been outspoken in his support for trans rights, and has vowed to be a “lion for LGBTQ+ rights” in the Senate.

Earlier this year, El-Sayed spoke to PrideSource, where he reaffirmed his support for the LGBTQ+ community, specifically the transgender community, which has faced the brunt of political attacks and hateful rhetoric.

“There’s a reason that if I’m asked, I always say that I support trans rights because I believe in all rights,” El-Sayed said. “I want folks to see their own rights in the plight of a trans person who’s being discriminated against.”

He continued, explaining that if he gets elected to the Senate, he will champion LGBTQ+ rights wherever he can.

“I want the community to know that I intend to be a lion for rights. When somebody’s coming for you, I intend to stand in the cut to protect you. We have to answer this broader question — do we want to live in the kind of America where we leave some of us behind, or do we want to live in the kind of America where we understand that government of the people, by the people, and for the people means all the people?

“My job as a public servant is to stand up for folks. It’s what motivated a lot of my efforts in Detroit and Wayne County to make sure that our services were deeply accessible and empowering of LGBTQ+ residents — and it’s why I take the idea of protecting all of our rights so seriously.”

Rogers, meanwhile, last served as a public servant in 2015, when he represented Michigan’s 8th Congressional District. Before entering politics, he worked as a special agent for the FBI from 1989 to 1994. He unsuccessfully ran for Congress again in 2024 and is now seeking a seat in the Senate.

Compared to El-Sayed, Rogers has a lengthy anti-LGBTQ+ record, according to the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD.

Rogers has called being gay a “lifestyle choice” saying he wouldn’t support his own child if they were gay, has a record of multiple votes against marriage equality, as well as opposition to the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the discriminatory military policy that led to LGBTQ+ service members being discharged for who they are or who they love.

Rogers also voted against the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded federal hate crime protections to people targeted because of their gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability, alongside existing protections based on race, color, religion, or national origin.

Additionally, he voted against a fully inclusive Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which sought to ensure survivors received protections and housing regardless of their gender or sexual orientation. He also voted against the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions, including LGBTQ+ patients.

His record has become a point of contention, which saw an unexpected political shake up that has started to dominate coverage. 

Just yesterday, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat who previously ran against El-Sayed for the party’s Senate nomination, withdrew her endorsement of him and instead endorsed Rogers, surprising her team and members of the Democratic Party.

Jeremy Moss, an LGBTQ+ state lawmaker who is also running for federal office in Michigan that the Blade interviewed earlier this election cycle, condemned Steven’s sudden about face in a statement on Instagram.

“I strongly disagree with Haley Stevens’ decision to endorse Mike Rogers.

Abdul and I have talked about our shared commitment to fighting MAGA extremism, dismantling ICE, and expanding affordable healthcare … But openly cheerleading Mike Rogers is unacceptable. He would be a rubberstamp for Donald Trump, from engaging in voter suppression and election denial, to continuing ICE’s cruel and unlawful operations, to defending disastrous tariffs, to slashing affordable healthcare, and more …

And Rogers, with his abysmal anti-LGBT record, would gleefully confirm Supreme Court justices who will rollback the rights that I have fought hard to protect.”

Despite himself not being a member of the LGBTQ community, HRC has become a vocal supporter of El-Sayed since he emerged as the Democratic nominee.

“I’m proud to have the Human Rights Campaign standing with us in this race,” said El-Sayed. “LGBTQ+ Michiganders deserve leaders who will have their backs when it matters most, not just when it’s politically convenient. That’s the commitment I’ve carried throughout my career in Detroit and Wayne County, and in the United States Senate, I’ll fight to ensure every Michigander can live without discrimination and never have to wonder whether their rights will still be there tomorrow.”

HRC President Kelley Robinson issued a statement today ahead of tomorrow’s election, urging Michigan voters to choose equality over discrimination.

“Mike Rogers voted for a constitutional ban on marriage equality — more than once. He opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. And he’s gone after trans kids. There’s only one pro-equality Senate candidate on the ballot in Michigan: Abdul El-Sayed. And he has HRC’s unequivocal support,” Robinson said in a statement. “We have boots on the ground in Michigan, and we’re seeing this thing through until the end.”

The Los Angeles Blade reached out to Rogers regarding his anti-LGBTQ+ policy record but did not receive a response by the time of publication.