The Trump Administration has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to let it implement a policy that bans the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers, The Washington Blade reported.
Earlier this year, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the passport directive on behalf of seven trans and non-binary people. Since then, two federal judges have ruled against said directive.
In Michigan, Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill that would ban adults and minors from viewing pornography statewide, per WLNS. House Bill 4938 (aka the Anticorruption of Public Morals Act) would ban the distribution of material considered to “corrupt public morals.” This bill defines these acts as any real, animated, digitally generated, written or auditory depictions of sexual acts; it also targets circumvention tools such as VPNs and proxies. Penalties for distributing adult content would include felony charges with up to 20 years in prison or a $100,000 fine.
Openly gay U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said he plans to open an investigation into what he called “corrupt schemes and threats” designed to silence critics of President Donald Trump, The Advocate noted. His announcement came after ABC suddenly pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! from the air in response to pressure from the president’s allies and the Federal Communications Commission; the show returned Sept. 23.
GLAAD has introduced this year’s founding “GLAAD Ambassadors”—an exclusive philanthropic and programmatic membership initiative to promote and strengthen GLAAD’s work accelerating acceptance for LGBTQ people, per a press release. The founding GLAAD Ambassadors are Atsuko Okatsuka, Bobby Berk, Braunwyn Spinner, Chrishell Stause, Don Lemon, Isis King, Jonathan Bennett, Mal Glowenke and Mathilde Jourdan, Meredith Marks, Niecy Nash-Betts and Jessica Betts, Racquel Chevremont, RK Russell, Ronen Rubinstein, Ross Mathews, Sasheer Zamata, Scott Hoying and Mark Hoying, and Sherry Cola.
Former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris recently came under fire for admitting that she didn’t pick Buttigieg as her 2024 running mate, claiming the country wasn’t ready for both a Black woman and a gay man on the same ticket, Instinct noted. In a recent excerpt from her campaign memoir 107 Days, Harris explained the internal battle she faced in selecting her running mate. Buttigieg, she said, would’ve been perfect—but there was just one problem: He wasn’t a straight white man. “We were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man,” Harris wrote. Buttigieg has responded, saying that a ticket with him on it wouldn’t have been too risky, telling Politico that he’s for “giving Americans more credit” than that, according to The Advocate.
In Florida, as the state continues a literal erasure of rainbow street art, local governments and businesses are seeking new ways to honor the queer community, The Advocate noted. For example, in Delray Beach, city commissioners are devising new LGBTQ+ tributes that could include an entire Pride Street, murals on a city parking garage or light projects on a water tower. In Orlando—where the DeSantis administration blacked out a crosswalk honoring victims of the Pulse shooting and arrested people who chalked colors back in— private businesses have already started replacing the erased rainbows.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (a member of the LGBTQ+ community) and Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski have introduced a bill to write the 988 crisis line’s specialized services for queer youth into law, per The Advocate. If it passes, the measure will revive the line that the Trump Administration ended in July. Baldwin wrote the legislation to create the three-digit 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and fought to set up a pilot program for LGBTQ+ youth to address higher rates of suicide and mental-health challenges among this population; since the lifeline started, it has received more than 17.7 million contacts, including 12 million calls.
Days after NYC Mayor Eric Adams sparked widespread outrage by criticizing inclusive restroom policies in New York, he repeated his remarks—even while admitting he doesn’t have the power to change the laws himself, Gay City News reported. “If I did, I will change it,” he told PIX 11. “But I think this is a conversation we have to have. We’re losing mainstream Democrats because of the radical left that has really hijacked not only the narrative but have hijacked our party. And [there are] going to be long-term repercussions because of this.”
In Washington state, four people (including three teens) were arrested in connection with an alleged hate-crime attack on a transgender woman, ABC News noted. The incident occurred near a transit center in the Seattle suburb of Renton, following an argument the woman told officers she had with the group earlier that evening. The victim suffered multiple broken bones—including her nose, an occipital bone and an orbital bone—and lost consciousness during the attack.
Phoenix police detained Treven Michael Gokey, who was accused of threatening to shoot people at a local queer bar as revenge for the assassination of Charlie Kirk, per The Advocate. Gokey was arrested on two felony counts of making a terroristic threat and using a computer to threaten. Gokey reportedly told police during a welfare check at his apartment that “radical left violence breeds a far-right response,” citing Kirk’s murder and two shootings at schools in Tennessee and Minnesota; he also used anti-trans slurs.
California lawmakers have passed several measures aimed at improving HIV care and prevention in the state, per The Bay Area Reporter. For example, Assembly Bill 554 (aka the PrEPARE Act of 2025), authored by gay Assemblymember Mark González (D-Los Angeles), would prevent healthcare plans and insurance companies from requiring prior authorization or step therapy for antiretroviral drugs, devices or products approved by the FDA for PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, and PEP, or post-exposure prophylaxis—both of which prevent HIV transmission. Gov. Gavin Newsom will have until Oct. 12 to either sign them into law or veto them.
In Ohio, the Kaleidoscope Youth Center Housing Program—which helps LGBTQIA+ youth facing homelessness—is set to close due to funding cuts, leaving 10 young people in urgent need of relocation, WSYX noted. Since it began in 2019, the program has served more than 50 young individuals experiencing housing insecurity. The closure comes after the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) announced it would not renew funding for the 2025-26 fiscal year, which was communicated 45 days after the fiscal year began.
In California, queer software engineer and computer consultant Jason Byors is now seeking the Assembly District 47 seat held by Assemblymember Greg Wallis (R-Bermuda Dunes), The Bay Area Reporter noted. Previously, Byors had launched a campaign for the 41st Congressional District seat held by Congressmember Ken Calvert (R-Corona). Byors is one of several candidates who had planned to run against Calvert to now jump into a different race because of the possibility of seeing the Coachella Valley be redistricted into the 48th Congressional District if state voters pass Proposition 50 this November.
Gay Star Trek actor and GLAAD Award winner George Takei has been named honorary chair of Banned Books Week, which will take place Oct. 5-11, according to a GLAAD press release. Takei will be joined in leading the annual event by youth honorary chair Iris Mogul. Takei said, in part, “I’m proud to serve as honorary chair of Banned Books Week, because I remember all too well the lack of access to books and media that I needed growing up. First as a child in a barbed-wire prison camp, then as a gay young man in the closet, I felt confused and hungry for understanding about myself and the world around me.”
In Pennsylvania, the LGBT Center of Central PA is hosting the region’s first BIPOC-led LGBTQ+ conference on Sept. 26, per Philadelphia Gay News. The conference, “Radical Solidarity: Building Power Across Identities,” aims to create space for similar learning and collaboration about collective liberation. Executive Director Amber Barnes hopes to welcome about 100 attendees (of all races) to the one-day event, which will offer networking opportunities, workshops, entertainment and more.
Tampa Pride’s board announced it won’t hold its Tampa Pride Festival, Diversity Parade or any associated events next year—and would not renew the contract for the organization’s president, Carrie West, per The Advocate. A letter to West published on the Tampa Pride website read, “This pause is necessary for the organization to regroup, reassess our long-term strategy, and identify additional avenues of funding to secure the future stability of Tampa Pride events.” It also stated that “the current political and economic climate, including challenges with corporate sponsorships, reductions in county, state and federal grant funding, and the discontinuation of DEI programs under Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has made it increasingly difficult for our organization to sustain ongoing operations for 2026.”
Aid for AIDS of Nevada (AFAN) hosted its 39th Annual Black & White Party on Sept. 20 at KAOS Nightclub inside Palms Casino Resort—and raised more than $160,000 to support services for individuals living with and affected by HIV/AIDS in Southern Nevada, KSNV noted. This year’s theme, “Wild West,” set the tone for a night of Western-inspired fashion and interactive experiences. The event featured headline performances by Symone and Mirage of RuPaul’s Drag Race, American Idol alumnus David Hernandez, and the casts of Piranha and Gipsy Nightclub.
At Harvard University, two LGBTQ+ student groups—the Harvard Undergraduate Queer Advocates and the Queer Students Association—gathered in Cambridge Common to mourn the recently closed Office of BGLTQ Student Life, The Harvard Crimson noted. Harvard College closed the QuOffice (which had served as a resource center and community space in Thayer Hall’s basement for queer Harvard students since 2012) in July amid the Trump administration’s campaign to end DEI programs.
A Republican manufacturer running for Wisconsin governor as a conservative supporter of “family values” and President Trump followed numerous sexually explicit accounts online, including a non-binary porn performer, the AP noted. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Pindel Global Precision CEO Bill Berrien—one of two announced 2026 Republican candidates for governor—unfollowed several accounts in recent days after the newspaper asked about the matter. In a post on X, Berrien criticized the Journal Sentinel story as “garbage political hits.” He did not refute anything written in the story in comments to the AP or in his post on X.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, had planned to present scientific evidence in court that Brigitte is a cisgender woman, The Advocate noted. The evidence will come in a defamation suit the Macrons filed against far-right U.S. influencer Candace Owens, who has baselessly claimed that Brigitte Macron was born with male sex characteristics and is, therefore, transgender. They filed suit in July in Superior Court in Delaware over allegations that Owens has made since last year.