After years of failed attempts, the Texas House of Representatives passed a sweeping trans bathroom ban, according to Them. The House approved Senate Bill 8—alternatively known as the “Texas Women’s Privacy Act”—86-45 vote on Aug. 28. Because the House version of the bill was amended, it will return to the Texas Senate for a vote; if approved, it will go to Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk to be signed into law. State Rep. Steve Toth introduced a last-minute amendment raising the fine for government facilities found in violation of SB 8 to $25,000 on the first instance and $125,000 on the second instance.
Also in Texas, lawmakers voted to enact sweeping new restrictions on abortion pills mailed to the state, per The Advocate, citing The 19th. House Bill 7 lets private citizens sue health providers for mailing, prescribing or providing abortion medication to patients in Texas; providers sued under the bill could be fined at least $100,000. The bill now awaits Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s signature.
Equality Forum has named its 2025 LGBT History Icons, per a press release. Some of them include singer Billie Eilish, actor Colman Domingo, soccer icon Abby Wambach, trans-rights activist Cecilia Gentili, composer/Holocaust survivor Walter Arlen, singer Chappell Roan, actor Lily Gladstone, TV personality Andy Cohen and artist Ellsworth Kelly. Each day in October, a new queer icon is featured with a video, bio, downloadable images and other resources.
Lindsay Hecox—a 24-year-old transgender senior at Boise State University who was challenging Idaho’s ban on trans athletes—told the U.S. Supreme Court that she’s withdrawing her case, CNN reported. In an unusual move, she asked the justices to throw out a ruling from the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals that was decided in her favor, citing intense “negative public scrutiny” because of the litigation and a desire to focus on “academic and personal goals.”
Following a deadly mass shooting at a Catholic church school in Minneapolis, the U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly considering new regulations that could restrict gun ownership for trans people, according to The Advocate. CNN—citing officials familiar with the discussions—reported that the department is exploring if gender dysphoria could be classified as a mental-health condition that disqualifies someone from owning firearms. Most mass shooters are actually cisgender males.
In a press release, the National Center for LGBTQ Rights (NCLR) criticized the Supreme Court’s six-to-three decision to lift restrictions on federal immigration enforcement in Los Angeles. The organization warned that the ruling will place queer asylum seekers at unprecedented risk of discrimination, violence and deportation to countries where they face persecution or death. NCLR President Imani Rupert-Gordon stated, in part, “By green-lighting discriminatory profiling tactics, the Court has essentially given immigration agents a license to target the most vulnerable members of our community.”
A federal appeals court reversed a lower-court decision in ruling that the Mid Vermont Christian School must be allowed to participate in state athletics—two years after being banned for forfeiting against a team with a transgender player, VTDigger reported. The ruling comes after several years of litigation by the pre-K-12 private Christian school that’s located in Quechee. Last year, U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford denied the school’s request to be readmitted to the principals’ association.
The Justice Department has indicted Lambda Legal lawyer Carl Charles on a charge of making a false statement under oath—although Lambda calls the charge “unjustified,” The Advocate noted. The indictment—unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama— arose from an inquiry into whether lawyers were “judge-shopping” (looking for sympathetic judges) in a case challenging Alabama’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth.
Former Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney headlined a speech at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago—and she said she hopes Democrats take control of Congress in next year’s midterms, according to Politico Illinois Playbook. “It’s crucially important for the Democrats, as much as I disagree with a number of policies that the Democrats espouse,” Cheney— who was pushed out of GOP leadership after criticizing President Donald Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol—told the panel’s moderator, GCM Grosvenor’s Paul Meister.
The Stonewall Community Foundation—which funds LGBTQ+ community initiatives in New York City and across the country—extended grants to 10 organizations last month, Gay City News noted. The first batch of grants—which will eventually expand to support a total of 15 organizations—will initially amount to $825,000 in funding, with a focus on two main categories: community resilience, which supports direct services for queer individuals; and power building, which funds work intended to mobilize, organize and shift policies or systems to advance justice and equity. Some of the recipient organizations include Out My Closet, Chosen Family Law Center, the St. Louis Anti-Violence Project and the Queer Trans Project.
The International LGBTQ+ Travel Association (IGLTA) announced that the Palm Springs, California-based LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert will receive the 2025 Pathfinder Award, a press release noted. This recognition honors the center’s work supporting trans and gender diverse people and their families through safe, affirming spaces and essential services. The official presentation will take place Oct. 24 at IGLTA’s Global Convention in Palm Springs.
Actor Javier Muñoz, best known for starring as Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton, and RuPaul’s Drag Race runner-up Peppermint, the first out trans woman to originate a principal Broadway role (in Head Over Heels), met with GOP and Democratic legislators to persuade them not to vote for a budget they warned will “eviscerate” government programs dedicated to HIV, The Advocate noted. “This is not something that is outside of my existence or my life—this is my life, this is my health, this is my future,” Muñoz told The Advocate. “This is my ability to actually maintain breathing and living and access to my treatment on a daily basis.” The House Appropriations Committee recently released its FY26 funding bill; it would cut HIV treatment and prevention by $1.7 billion—cuts much steeper than even President Trump first proposed.
Roxane Gay is the winner of the 2025 Literarian Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Foundation, according to People. Most widely known for her essay collection Bad Feminist and her memoir Hunger, Gay is an award-winning writer, editor, publisher, professor and cultural critic. Gay is also the editor of Roxane Gay Books, an imprint of Grove Atlantic, which champions Black writers, writers of color, queer writers, writers with disabilities and from various economic backgrounds, and writers with intersectional identities. Gay will be presented with the honor at the 76th National Book Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner or Wed., Nov. 19; she will be awarded a $10,000 prize and a solid brass medal for her achievement.
Gay City News reported that Michael Seltzer, described as “a visionary in gay and HIV/AIDS philanthropy,” has died at 78. According to his close friend Richard Burns, Seltzer died suddenly of a heart attack on July 31 while “in the Thimble Islands [in the Long Island Sound in Connecticut] with [Seltzer’s] husband Ralph Tachuk and a group of their best friends.” Among other achievements, Seltzers co-founded Funders for LGBTQ Issues 43 years ago with Katherine Acey.
Author/essayist Malcolm Gladwell has changed positions when it comes to the issue of trans women in women’s sports, according to Them. He has claimed he was previously “cowed” into accepting transgender women in women’s sports—but recently stated on the podcast The Real Science of Sport that trans women “have no place” competing against their cisgender peers. The podcast’s hosts—scientist Ross Tucker and sports journalist Mike Finch—have criticized trans-inclusive sports on past episodes of the show, and Tucker himself was involved in World Rugby’s decision to ban trans women from matches years ago.
Mary Trump, President Donald Trump’s lesbian niece, has said that it’s definitely her uncle’s signature on an alleged raunchy birthday card sent to Jeffrey Epstein, The Advocate noted. “That’s definitely his signature. Just saying,” she posted on X. Trump allegedly sent the card to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003, The Wall Street Journal revealed; it includes a hand-drawn sketch of a naked woman with Trump’s signature placed along her pubic area to mimic hair.
Atlanta’s Emory University said it will close its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) offices, as well as discontinue related programs at the school, per Fox 5 Atlanta. The school’s new interim president, former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, announced the change in a written statement to the school’s community. “Closing offices or reimagining lawful programs is not, after all, the same as ending our unwavering commitment to fairness, belonging, and opportunity for all, values that are part of Emory’s DNA,” Sears claimed, adding that the changes are to comply with the Trump administration’s new laws.
Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has claimed that she has gotten blowback from the Trump Administration regarding a petition she signed to have the Epstein files released, per Yahoo! In a Sept. 3 interview with former Fox News host Eric Bolling, Greene said, among other things, “I got a lot of pushback. I got phone call after phone call last night. They didn’t want me to sign the discharge petition. They want to focus on the oversight investigation.” U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, spearheaded the petition, and the only Republicans who signed it were Greene, Massie, Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace.
Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda recently spoke with Out about the show’s decision not to perform at D.C.’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Miranda said, in part, “Morally, it was not complicated, because the Kennedy Center has historically been a bipartisan birthplace for the best of our nation’s arts. Trump’s administration politicized that when they fired the board and Trump named himself head of it.” After the decision to cancel the performances was made in March, the center’s new (and openly gay) president, Richard Grenell, criticized Manuel and the company behind Hamilton on X, writing in a since-deleted post that the move was a “a publicity stunt that will backfire.”
One Institute announced the full lineup of the 2025 Circa: Queer Histories Festival (which has the theme “Reclaiming Freedom”), per a press release. Taking place during LGBTQ+ History Month, Circa will run Oct. 1-31, and include more than 40 programs centering LGBTQ+ history, art and culture. Prominent participants will include ACLU lawyer/trans-rights activist Chase Strangio; best-selling author Tourmaline; former Trevor Project CEO and celebrated queer ally Abbe Land; Lambda Archives of San Diego’s Community Historian-in-Residence Dr. T.J. Tallie; Black trans leader/cultural worker Sydney Rogers, MSW (a.k.a. Miss Barbie-Q), poet/Minority AIDS Project founder Bobby Smith and more.
Former GOP U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn is reportedly preparing to run for Florida’s 19th Congressional District seat, per Axios. It’s speculated that if he is elected, he’d almost certainly create new headaches for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana). Cawthorn represented North Carolina’s 11th district during 2021–23 before losing his seat after a scandal-plagued first term. In 2022, an opposition group released a video of Cawthorn in bed with another man; Cawthorn said he was just “being crass with a friend” and “acting foolish,” CNN noted.
George Santos—the openly gay former New York congressman who lied about his past and was sentenced to 87 months behind bars for defrauding donors—is spending his days in prison complaining about the “erosion” of his “dignity,” per Yahoo! News. Since reporting to a federal lockup in New Jersey in late July, Santos has been delivering weekly bulletins to Long Island’s South Shore Press about his “rock-bottom” confinement, criticizing everything from the heat to the prison soap.