Advocacy groups say the State Department’s 2024 human rights report that “erased” LGBTQ+ people will jeopardize the cases of those who are seeking asylum in the U.S.

Immigration Equality notes the report “serve as key evidence for asylum seekers, attorneys, judges, and advocates who rely on them to assess human rights conditions and protection claims worldwide.”

The 2024 report the State Department released on Aug. 12 did not include LGBTQ+-specific references. Immigration Equality Director of Law and Policy Bridget Crawford in a statement said country-specific reports within the larger report “should be accurate, fact-based, and reflect the lived reality of LGBTQ people — not ignore and actively hide it.”

“When adjudicators see less information in these reports than in prior years, they may wrongly assume conditions have improved,” said Crawford. “In truth, the absence of reporting is a purely political move, not based in fact or reality.”

Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration Executive Director Steve Roth in a statement condemned the Trump-Vance administration’s “deliberate erasure of LGBTIQ communities from the 2024 human rights report — an unprecedented move that violates international standards.”

“This is a targeted and malicious act that will directly endanger lives,” he said.

Roth, like Immigration Equality, noted courts “around the world rely on these reports to evaluate asylum claims.”

“Stripping out documentation of LGBTIQ persecution removes a vital tool in assessing claims for protection, jeopardizing the ability of LGBTIQ asylum seekers to access safety,” said Roth.

Congress requires the State Department to release a human rights report each year.

The State Department usually releases them in the spring, as opposed to August. Then-State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, who president Donald Trump has nominated to become deputy representative at the U.N., during her last press briefing on Aug. 12 defended the delay and the report itself.

“We weren’t going to release something compiled and written by the previous administration,” said Bruce. “It needed to change based on the point of view and the vision of the Trump administration, and so those changes were made.”

Asylum courts ‘will have less credible data to rely on’

Jessica Stern, the former special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ+ and intersex rights under the Biden-Harris administration, co-founded the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice with several other former State Department officials. 

The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice in response to the report said the U.S. has “betrayed the trust of human rights defenders who risked their safety to share the truth” and added “some (of them) are now less safe.”

“Asylum courts in the U.S. and globally will have less credible data to rely on,” said the group.

Human Rights Watch echoed the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice.

“The human rights report has been used in U.S. asylum court cases to show that an asylum seeker could not be returned to a country where similarly situated people were being persecuted,” said Human Rights Watch in response to the 2024 report. “That essential resource for keeping people safe is not only no longer reliable or helpful, but in some cases could put people at risk by denying abuses in places where the United States or other countries intend to deport asylum seekers and immigrants.”

En el corazón de Medellín hay una red que late con fuerza propia. No aparece en los grandes titulares, pero su presencia se percibe en el sonido de un tambor que marca el ritmo de un ensayo, en las manos que se manchan de colores para pintar un mural, en el aire tibio que entra por las ventanas abiertas y se mezcla con el eco de una risa, en los abrazos que cierran una jornada. Es la Red Popular Trans, una plataforma comunitaria que ha hecho del arte, la naturaleza, las espiritualidades y la organización social una herramienta de vida para cientos de personas trans, no binaries y cuir, un lugar donde la creatividad fluye como el agua, se expande como el viento y se enraíza como un árbol que crece en suelo fértil.

Allí, los sueños se tejen en colectivo y las puertas que antes parecían cerradas se abren para dejar pasar la luz. De ese trabajo nació el Festival Interdisciplinar de Artes Trans – Travar las Artes, organizado junto a la colectiva Pajarapintadanza y fundado con el impulso y liderazgo de Ale Álvarez, quien fue una de sus creadoras y principal representante durante los primeros cuatro años. Este festival no es un evento para la foto, es el primer festival de arte trans en Colombia dirigido por personas trans y para personas trans, un hecho histórico que ha marcado un antes y un después en la cultura del país.

No es un simple espacio de exhibición: es un laboratorio vivo de resistencia y cuidado donde la danza, el teatro, la música, la poesía y las artes visuales dialogan con la tierra, el cuerpo y la voz, devolviéndoles su poder y transformándolos en acto político y en celebración de la vida. Travar las Artes ha demostrado que la cultura también puede ser una trinchera de libertad, y que es posible resignificar tradiciones para abrir nuevos caminos. Basta recordar la reinterpretación del bullerengue, una danza tradicional colombiana, llevada a escena desde una mirada queer y desafiante. Poner a una travesti a bailar bullerengue no fue un simple acto estético, sino un gesto político que desafió estructuras hegemónicas y abrió posibilidades de representación que antes parecían impensables.

En este espacio no hay protagonistas únicos. Cada historia es un cauce que alimenta un mismo río: la joven que encontró en la danza un lenguaje para hablar de su identidad sin miedo, el actor que convirtió su transición en una obra de teatro que recorre barrios y escuelas, la cantante que lleva su voz a escenarios comunitarios porque sabe que allí también se construye país. Entre esas historias, una brilla con especial fuerza: la de Ale.

Ale llegó a la Red Popular Trans buscando un lugar seguro donde pudiera ser sin explicaciones ni condiciones. Lo encontró, y encontró también un espejo en el arte, una forma de reconocerse. Lo que empezó como curiosidad por la danza se volvió vocación y raíz. Hoy es licenciada en Danza, graduada con honores, y ha regresado a los mismos espacios que la vieron crecer para guiar a otres que, como ella, buscan un camino. En cada taller que facilita, Ale recuerda que antes de ser profesional fue una persona que necesitaba escuchar: “Aquí eres bienvenide”.

Esa frase resume la esencia de lo que aquí ocurre. La Red Popular Trans no solo impulsa el festival: organiza talleres permanentes, acompaña procesos de salud y bienestar, conecta artistas con oportunidades y teje redes de apoyo que se sostienen incluso fuera del escenario. Pajarapintadanza ha puesto el cuerpo, el movimiento y el espíritu al servicio de la pedagogía queer y decolonial, demostrando que el arte puede sanar, movilizar y transformar.

En estas redes, cada logro individual es una victoria colectiva. Cuando une bailarín trans pisa un escenario, cuando une pintore no binarie exhibe su obra, cuando une poeta cuir recita frente a su comunidad, toda la red respira con orgullo. El arte que nace aquí no es lujo, es necesidad; no solo inspira, sino que salva. Es viento que acaricia, raíz que sostiene, agua que fluye y fuego que enciende. El trabajo comunitario, constante y apasionado, convierte historias marcadas por el dolor en relatos de resiliencia y esperanza. Ale, la Red Popular Trans, Pajarapintadanza y Travar las Artes son prueba viva de ello, recordándonos que mientras haya cuerpos que bailen, voces que se alcen y manos que creen, siempre habrá un lugar para empezar de nuevo, y a veces, sin darnos cuenta, ese lugar se convierte en hogar.

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.

Advocacy groups on Tuesday sharply criticized the removal LGBTQ-specific references from the State Department’s 2024 human rights report.

The report, which the State Department released on Tuesday, does not reference Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Law and the impact it has had on the country’s LGBTQ community since President Yoweri Museveni signed it in 2023. The report, however, does note Ugandan government officials “reportedly committed acts of sexual violence.”

“NGOs reported police medical staff subjected at least 15 persons to forced anal examinations following their arrests,” it reads. “Opposition protesters stated security forces used or threatened to use forced anal examinations during interrogations.”

Uganda is among the dozens of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized. Authorities in the African country often use so-called anal tests to determine whether someone has engaged in homosexuality.

The report does not mention that Brazil has the highest number of reported murders of transgender people in the world. It does, however, note the President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2024 “undermined democratic debate by restricting access to online content deemed to ‘undermine democracy,’ disproportionately suppressing the speech of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro as well as journalists and elected politicians, often in secret proceedings that lacked due process guarantees.”

The report says there “were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses” in Hungary in 2024, even though Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government continued its anti-LGBTQ rights crackdown. The report does note Russian authorities last year “invoked a law prohibiting the distribution of ‘propaganda on nontraditional sexual relations’ to children.”

The State Department’s 2023 human rights report specifically notes a Russian law “prohibited gender transition procedures and gender-affirming care … and authorities used laws prohibiting the promotion of ‘non-traditional sexual relations’ to justify the arbitrary arrest of LGBTQI+ persons.” The 2023 report also cites reports that “state actors committed violence against LGBTQI+ individuals based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, particularly in Chechnya” and “government agents attacked, harassed, and threatened LGBTQI+ activists.”

“There were instances of non-state actor violence targeting LGBTQI+ persons and of police often failing to respond adequately to such incidents,” it adds.

The 2024 report does not mention Thai lawmakers last year approved a bill that extended marriage rights to same-sex couples. Gays and lesbians began to legally marry in the country in January.

Jessica Stern, the former special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights under the Biden-Harris administration who co-founded the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice, during a conference call with reporters on Tuesday said she and her colleagues “expected (the report) to be bad.”

“When we saw what the administration released, the truth is we were shocked and horrified,” said Stern.

Stern added the Trump-Vance administration “has erased or watered-down entire categories of abuse against people of African descent, indigenous people, Roma people, members of other marginalized racial and ethnic communities, workers, women and girls, and LGBTQI+ people.”

“It is deliberate erasure,” said Stern.

The Council for Global Equality in a statement condemned “the drastic restructuring and glaring omission of violence and abuse targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) persons in the U.S.”

“We denounce the Trump administration’s efforts to politicize the State Department’s annual human rights reports by stripping longstanding references to human rights abuses targeting LGBTQI+ and other marginalized groups,” said Mark Bromley, the group’s co-chair.

Gay U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), who chairs the Congressional Equality Caucus, echoed Bromley and Stern.

“Omitting the persecution of LGBTQI+ people from the human rights reports doesn’t erase the abuse, violence, and criminalization our community is facing around the world — it condones it,” said Takano in a statement.

“Erasing our community from these reports makes it that much harder for human rights advocates, the press, and the American people to be aware of the abuses LGBTQI+ people are facing worldwide,” he added.

Congress requires the State Department to release a human rights report each year. Foggy Bottom usually releases it in the spring. 

Politico in March reported the Trump-Vance administration planned to cut “sections about the rights of women, the disabled, the LGBTQ+ community, and more” from the human rights report. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, who President Donald Trump has nominated to become deputy representative at the U.N., on Tuesday during her last press briefing defended the report and the delay in releasing it.

“We weren’t going to release something compiled and written by the previous administration,” said Bruce. “It needed to change based on the point of view and the vision of the Trump administration, and so those changes were made.”

“It certainly promotes, as does our work, a respect for human rights around the globe,” added the former Fox News contributor who has described herself as a “gay woman.”

The Council for Global Equality and Democracy Forward has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. A press release notes it is “seeking the release of additional information … including any instructions provided by political appointees to strip references to abuses against LGBTQI+ persons from the reports.”

“The reports make LGBTQI+ persons and other minorities invisible and, in so doing, they undermine the human rights landscape that protects all of us,” said Bromley.

“Erasing our community from these reports makes it that much harder for human rights advocates, the press, and the American people to be aware of the abuses LGBTQI+ people are facing worldwide,” added Takano. “Failing to rectify this censorship will have real — and potentially deadly — consequences for LGBTQI+ people, including both for those who travel abroad from the U.S. and for LGBTQI+ people in countries whose leadership no longer need to worry about consequences for their human rights abuses. The State Department must reverse course and restore the LGBTQI+ section to these reports.”

A State Department spokesperson told the Washington Blade the “information included in the 2024 reports has been restructured and streamlined for better utility and accessibility, and to be more responsive to the legislative mandate for the (human rights report.)”

“The result directly addresses the reporting requirements as laid out in statute as well as being more streamlined, objective, universal, and accessible to the American public,” said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson did not comment on the FOIA lawsuit the Council for Global Equality and Democracy Forward has filed.

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.”

Wallis Annenberg, who passed away shortly after her 86th birthday on July 28th, left behind a legacy that few philanthropists of any era could hope to match. A passionate leader, cultural patron, and unapologetically generous force in Los Angeles, she spent her life championing creativity, compassion, and community. But what often went unsaid, sometimes politely ignored, was that Wallis was also a queer pioneer. In a world that didn’t always make room for women like her, she quietly yet courageously carved out space not just for herself, but for others on the margins, channeling her power and privilege into building a more inclusive world.

Born into one of America’s most influential media families, Wallis Annenberg was raised in Philadelphia with ink practically in her veins. Her father, Walter Annenberg, founded TV Guide and Seventeen, and built a philanthropic legacy as prominent as his publishing empire. After graduating from Pine Manor College in 1959, Wallis dipped a toe into the family business at TV Guide before eventually diving headfirst into the deeper waters of philanthropy. It wasn’t until her father’s death in 2002 that she properly took the reins, steering the Annenberg Foundation into its most impactful era as President and CEO from 2009 until her passing.

Under her leadership, the Foundation funneled a staggering $1.5 billion into a wildly diverse portfolio of causes, from arts and culture to environmental conservation, journalism to gerontology, and yes, even animal overpasses. Her imprint on Los Angeles is practically architectural – the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, GenSpace in Koreatown, PetSpace for animal lovers, the ambitious Wildlife Crossing set to open in 2026, and the science-sparking Annenberg Building at the California Science Center. Her boardroom resume reads like a cultural tour of LA and then some – USC, LACMA, MOCA, the Philharmonic, the Music Center, and Harlem Children’s Zone, to name just a few. In 2022, President Joe Biden awarded her the National Humanities Medal, sealing her place in history as part of the only three-generation family to earn such a distinction, further proof that giving back wasn’t just in the Annenberg bloodline but a full-fledged dynasty.

Most obituaries have captured her vast philanthropic footprint, her roles in the public sphere, and her institutional endowments quite accurately yet have almost entirely glossed over or minimized a central truth: Wallis Annenberg lived as a lesbian woman, and openly supported LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS causes with strategically courageous generosity.

To fully and properly honor Wallis is to acknowledge not only her generational wealth and philanthropic vision but also her very much so queer identity: a lesbian woman whose visibility was moderately limited by her time and place yet meaningful when and where it counted. Her sexuality and identity shaped her empathy toward marginalized people. 

Ignoring that part of her story perpetuates the ever-constant sanitization of queer public figures, simplifying them into neutered benefactors while erasing the very identity that informed the bulk of their charitable giving. Wallis’s lived experience as a lesbian deserves proper and public acknowledgment not merely as a footnote but as integral to her philanthropy, her community care, and her story – a story layered with courage, complexity, and an undertone of quiet and careful defiance.

Wallis faced addiction head-on, and the recovery journey didn’t just save her – it connected her to journalist Karen Ocamb, who became to Wallis a close companion and confidante. Wallis didn’t shy away from vulnerability and fueled that same vulnerable energy into generosity, building a philanthropic approach shaped by her experience rather than detachment. 

Among the many tributes after her passing, it was only Ocamb who celebrated and honored Wallis’ sexuality with clarity and care. In her heartfelt Substack tribute, Ocamb wrote, “Wallis never came out – but she lived out loud, fiercely loving women and channeling her passion into transformative giving.”

Back in 1985, when AIDS was still drenched in stigma and so many people, including health professionals, kept their distance, Wallis stepped forward to co-chair the Commitment to Life dinner. That decision was in no way a headline grab but most certainly was a risk on her part for the time. In a day and age when silence was safest when protecting one’s reputation, Wallis chose to speak out through action. Her courage didn’t need a spotlight. It simply showed up where it mattered most.

Navigating public life came with its own choreography. Wallis maintained what some might call “strategic privacy,” presenting a heteronormative front in certain circles while sharing her life, deeply and authentically, with women in more trusted spaces. It wasn’t about hiding but surviving the era she lived in, and, like so many others, choosing when and how to live freely.

Wallis brought that same intentional care to her philanthropy. While major media celebrated her support for the arts, education, and conservation, far less attention was paid to her contributions to LGBTQ+ elder communities. Initiatives like Gay and Lesbian Elder Housing made a genuine, tangible difference in people’s lives, even if her name wasn’t always highlighted in the coverage.

And through it all, there was Kris Levine—Wallis’s steadfast partner, legally acknowledged near the end of Wallis’s life but largely absent from obituaries. Their relationship, though rarely publicized, was integral. It stood as one more example of how much of Wallis’s real story lived just beneath the surface.

Wallis reshaped what philanthropy could look like. Her leadership turned the Annenberg Foundation toward place-based investments, inclusive community programs, aging and wellness initiatives, and bold infrastructure like GenSpace and the Wallis Center. Her vision made space not just for ideas, but for people too often overlooked. Her presence sent a message, whether spoken or not, that queer women, especially those of her generation, have always helped shape the culture, even when they weren’t given a slot up at the mic. 

Wallis Annenberg leaves behind more than just her sprawling physical legacy. She also leaves us with a moral legacy grounded in generosity extended to communities she truly and deeply cared for, in particular the queer community that she was very much so part of. Let us all remember Wallis not only as a philanthropist, but as a queer woman whose identity was at the epicenter of her compassion. Let this tribute stand as an acknowledgment that she was more than her institutions. She was human, nuanced, hidden, and honest. And let it serve as an invitation to future remembrances. I more than dare you to include the truth of sexuality, the courage of love, and the quiet acts of resistance that defined her.

Wallis Annenberg, may your spirit continue to guide all communities – arts, aging, wildlife, and LGBTQ+ – toward a world that you helped shape for the better. Your gifts were vast. Your love was real. And your full story deserves telling.

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.

Reportar sin Miedo es el socio mediático del Los Angeles Blade en Honduras. Esta nota salió en su sitio web el 30 de julio.

Por NAZARETH GÓMEZ | TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — En el marco del Examen Periódico Universal (EPU), mecanismo del Consejo de Derechos Humanos de la ONU, organizaciones de sociedad civil en Honduras presentaron informes alternativos para evidenciar el incumplimiento de compromisos en materia de derechos humanos. Las recomendaciones al Estado serán revisadas en noviembre de 2025, cuando Honduras enfrente su evaluación internacional.

Durante el evento se compartieron siete informes temáticos sobre mujeres, niñez, diversidad sexual, personas defensoras, tierra, discapacidad y radios comunitarias. Las organizaciones exigen que las recomendaciones se traduzcan en acciones reales.

Violencia contra las mujeres y retrocesos legales

La Plataforma EPU Mujeres denunció que entre 2020 y 2024 se registraron más de 1,500 muertes violentas de mujeres y más de 8,600 evaluaciones médicas por violencia sexual. Solo hay tres juzgados especializados y 72 fiscales para más de 100 mil denuncias anuales.

También alertaron que no se ha aprobado la Ley Integral contra la Violencia hacia las Mujeres ni la Ley de Violencia Política. Ciudad Mujer opera solo en seis ciudades, dejando sin cobertura al 42.8 por ciento de las mujeres. “Seguimos exigiendo voluntad política para avanzar”, afirmaron.

Niñez: pobreza, violencia y abandono estatal

Organizaciones como Coiproden expusieron que el 66.8 por ciento de la niñez vive en pobreza y que siete de cada diez están en situación de pobreza multidimensional. Aunque se ha creado la Secretaría de Niñez y se aprobó una política nacional, aún no hay presupuesto suficiente ni liderazgo institucional claro.

Entre 2020 y 2024, más de 270 niñas, niños y adolescentes murieron por violencia. También se reportaron más de 800,000 alertas de desaparición, de las cuales el 30 por ciento corresponde a niñez. Las organizaciones exigen actualizar la política de prevención de violencia y fortalecer el sistema de protección.

Diversidad sexual: impunidad y exclusión

Desde 2009, más de 400 personas LGBTQ+ han sido asesinadas en Honduras, con un 93 por ciento de impunidad. Las organizaciones denunciaron la falta de avance en la aprobación de la Ley de Identidad de Género, el reconocimiento legal del matrimonio igualitario y la adopción de políticas inclusivas.

“El Estado mantiene patrones de discriminación institucional. No basta con crear políticas si no hay voluntad para implementarlas”, señalaron. 

Solo existen seis fiscales a nivel nacional para investigar estos crímenes.

Territorio, pueblos indígenas y represión

El Centro de Estudios para la Democracia denunció que más de 1.8 millones de personas enfrentan inseguridad alimentaria grave. No se han hecho reformas para resolver la deuda agraria ni se han implementado sentencias a favor de comunidades garífunas.

También señalaron que, a pesar de existir un mecanismo de protección, Honduras sigue siendo uno de los países más peligrosos para las personas defensoras. “Se asesina, se criminaliza y no hay respuestas del Ministerio Público”, denunciaron.

Llamado urgente

Las organizaciones exigieron al Estado hondureño tomar con seriedad las recomendaciones del EPU.

Además, exigieron asumir compromisos reales con los sectores históricamente excluidos y garantizar el cumplimiento de los derechos humanos desde una visión integral y con enfoque de justicia. 

Los informes completos están disponibles para consulta pública.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Monday announced it will ensure “male aliens seeking immigration benefits aren’t coming to the U.S. to participate in women’s sports.”

The announcement notes USCIS “has clarified eligibility for certain visa categories: O-1A aliens of extraordinary ability, E11 aliens of extraordinary ability, E21 aliens of exceptional ability, and for national interest waivers (NIWs), to guarantee an even playing field for all women’s athletics in the United States.” The new policy comes roughly six months after President Donald Trump issued an executive order that bans transgender women and girls from female sports teams in the U.S.

“Men do not belong in women’s sports. USCIS is closing the loophole for foreign male athletes whose only chance at winning elite sports is to change their gender identity and leverage their biological advantages against women,” said USCIS spokesperson Matthew Tragesser. “It’s a matter of safety, fairness, respect, and truth that only female athletes receive a visa to come to the U.S. to participate in women’s sports.”

“The Trump administration is standing up for the silent majority who’ve long been victims of leftist policies that defy common sense,” added Tragesser.

USCIS in April announced it will only recognize “two biological sexes, male and female.” Trump shortly after he took office for a second time on Jan. 20 signed the “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” executive order.

The 2028 Summer Olympics will take place in Los Angeles.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee last month banned trans women from competing in women’s sporting events.

The Guardian earlier this year reported the State Department ordered consular officials “to deny visas to transgender athletes attempting to come to the U.S. for sports competitions, and to issue permanent visa bans against those who are deemed to misrepresent their birth sex on visa applications.”

Germany and Denmark are among the countries that have issued travel advisory for trans and nonbinary people who are planning to visit the U.S. The warnings specifically note the Trump-Vance administration has banned the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers.

“This policy update clarifies that USCIS considers the fact that a male athlete has been competing against women as a negative factor in determining whether the alien is among the small percentage at the very top of the field,” reads the USCIS announcement. “USCIS does not consider a male athlete who has gained acclaim in men’s sports and seeks to compete in women’s sports in the United States to be seeking to continue work in his area of extraordinary ability; male athletes seeking to enter the country to compete in women’s sports do not substantially benefit the United States; and it is not in the national interest to the United States to waive the job offer and, thus, the labor certification requirement for male athletes whose proposed endeavor is to compete in women’s sports.”

The new USCIS guidance takes effect immediately.

Tuesday marks one year since former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled Bangladesh, triggering a political crisis that unleashed widespread unrest. The country since her ouster has faced a surge in mob violence and lynchings, with the LGBTQ+ community at the epicenter.

The Los Angeles Blade reported in August 2024 the collapse of public order forced many in this marginalized group into hiding, seeking refuge in safe houses as vigilante attacks intensified. A year later, as the country grapples with ongoing instability and a weakened law enforcement system — marked by a 30 percent vacancy rate in police positions — the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community offer a stark measure of Bangladesh’s social and political recovery.

Tushar Kanti Baidya, program director of Inclusive Bangladesh, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, told the Blade the landscape for LGBTQ+ rights in Bangladesh has shifted since the 2024 political crisis. Unfortunately, Baidya said, this change has taken a deeply concerning direction.

“Over the past decade, we have worked hard to build positive visibility for LGBTQ individuals, particularly transgender persons. However, that progress is now under threat due to the increasing influence of right-wing political groups and their allies,” said Baidya. “These groups continue to deny the legitimacy of transgender identities and are actively engaged in coordinated campaigns against the broader LGBTQ community.” 

“The hostile environment has resulted in widespread discrimination, harassment, and violence. Transgender individuals, in particular, are being targeted, facing physical assault, bullying, and restrictions in continuing their traditional professions,” noted Baidya. “Even those who have contributed significantly to human rights efforts are not spared.” 

Baidya said Sanjiboni Sudha, the group’s executive director, was “consistently harassed and pressured to resign from her position” at BRAC bank, a financial institution affiliated with BRAC, a prominent NGO. 

“Despite reaching out to the bank’s general manager and BRAC’s executive director, Mr. Asif Saleh, we received no substantive response,” Baidya told the Blade. “The matter was ultimately dismissed as an ‘internal issue’ of the bank.”

Baidya said Sanjiboni lost her scholarship at the University of Dhaka after the sudden abolition of the trans quota, with no follow-up guidance to address the decision’s impact. Baidya added another colleague, Saraban Tahura, was denied a contract renewal at Walton Group, a private company, while her cisgender colleagues in similar roles were retained.

“Members of our community who openly supported a new political party were expelled from its committees once their sexual or gender identity became public,” Baidya told the Blade. “Incidents of blackmail, hate crimes, and even killings have escalated significantly.” 

“As a result of this widespread and systemic backlash, many members of the LGBTQ community in Bangladesh have been forced into silence, living in fear, and waiting for a safer and more inclusive future,” added Baidya.

Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, a gay man, was brutally murdered in Gazipur, a city just north of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, on July 19. 

The killing, described by JusticeMakers Bangladesh in France, a Paris-based human rights organization, as premeditated, has intensified fears among marginalized groups.

JusticeMakers Bangladesh in France’s 2024 report documents a sharp rise in violence against Bangladesh’s LGBTQ+ community. 

The report noted that following the fall of Hasina’s government and the formation of an interim administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, Islamist fundamentalist groups gained significant influence. Exploiting the ensuing political instability, these groups unleashed a wave of attacks on LGBTQ+ people, exacerbating the community’s vulnerability amid a deteriorating security landscape.

Baidya told the Blade that under Hasina’s administration, minority communities — religious, sexual, gender, and ethnic groups — benefited from inclusive policies and targeted social safety programs. Hasina’s government, he said, showed a clear commitment to supporting marginalized groups through institutional measures and public acknowledgment, fostering a more protective environment before the 2024 political upheaval.

“In contrast, the current interim government has yet to demonstrate any meaningful action to uphold or continue these protections.,” said Baidya. “There has been no clear initiative or policy commitment aimed at safeguarding the rights of minority groups, leaving these communities in a state of uncertainty and heightened vulnerability. This lack of proactive engagement from the present leadership is particularly concerning, as it signals a potential regression in the hard-won progress made toward equality and inclusion in Bangladesh.”

Hasina’s government from 2013-2021 enacted several trans-inclusive policies, notably granting legal recognition to the trans community as a third gender in 2013 for official documents, including passports and voter ID cards. These measures enabled trans people to apply for government jobs and vote under their recognized gender identity. 

Bangladesh also became one of the few South Asian countries to offer tax rebates to companies employing trans people, bolstering economic inclusion before Hasina’s government fell.

The Yunus-led interim government has not introduced any policies to advance LGBTQ+ inclusion, aligning instead with conservative and Islamist political groups, some known for actively opposing LGBTQ+ rights. The administration lifted a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami, a conservative Islamist party with a history of resisting LGBTQ+ protections.

“There have been widespread allegations suggesting that the recent anti-government protests were indirectly supported by foreign actors, particularly the United States,” noted Baidya. “Claims have emerged that USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development)-funded certain individuals and NGOs with the intention of promoting an agenda aimed at unseating the previous government.” 

“It is well-documented that Professor Muhammad Yunus, a central figure in the current political transition, has maintained strong ties with previous U.S.-aligned democratic administrations,” he added. “Given this context, it is unlikely that the current Republican-led U.S. government will significantly alter its position, especially if the current political arrangement serves broader strategic or geopolitical interests.”

Baidya told the Blade that Yunus’s government has persued policies that undermine LGBTQ+ peoples’ fundamental rights. Rather than fostering inclusion or dialogue, he said the current government has intensified measures that marginalize and dehumanize sexual and gender minorities, deepening their exclusion amid Bangladesh’s volatile political landscape.

“This inconsistency highlights a troubling double standard, where political rhetoric is used to gain power, but once in control, the same government disregards human rights and fails to protect the very communities it previously criticised others for engaging with,” said Baidya, who added women and trans activists in particular have become targets. 

“Many have been forced to relocate within the country after receiving credible threats of abduction, sexual violence, and even death,” he said. “These threats have created a climate of fear and forced many into silence or isolation.”

Baidya told the Blade that trans Bangladeshis are under increased pressure to conceal their gender identity. 

Prominent community members, once visible in public and advocacy spaces, have sharply curtailed their activities due to safety concerns. Those with resources or international connections, Baidya noted, are increasingly seeking to leave the country in pursuit of safety and dignity.

He said Inclusive Bangladesh receives up to 10 requests for support and relocation assistance each week. Baidya told the Blade that restrictive visa policies in the U.S. and European countries have left many LGBTQ+ Bangladeshis in limbo.

Neither Hasina nor her political party, the Bangladesh Awami League, have returned the Blade’s request for comment.

“Currently, no major political party has openly expressed support for LGBTIQ+ rights,” said Baidya. “In the absence of political backing, our only path forward is to persist through strategic advocacy, community engagement, and policy lobbying. We must continue working tirelessly to ensure that the rights of LGBTIQ+ people are eventually recognized, respected, and institutionalized.”