NOTE: This week’s column mentions abuse of children.
The San Francisco LGBT Center has tapped well-known community figure Jen Valles as its new executive director, The San Francisco Chronicle noted. Valles will officially replace Rebecca Rolfe, an 18-year veteran of the position who announced her retirement as executive director in the spring. “This is the moment I’ve been working [toward] and building [toward] without even necessarily knowing it,” said Valles. The San Francisco LGBT Center opened in 2002 in its purple building at 1800 Market St. It sees more than 100,000 visitors a year and provides direct services to almost 7,000 people—many of them transgender individuals, youth and immigrants.
NBC News cited a report that stated that over a two-year period, prosecutors in 16 states charged more than 400 people with pregnancy-related crimes—with most of the charges originating in states with near or total abortion bans. The prosecutions were initiated in the two years after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in the 2022 case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, according to Pregnancy Justice. Nearly half the cases were brought in Alabama.
The Girl Scouts of Western Ohio responded to a Windy City Times inquiry about the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and the Girl Scouts of Western Ohio renewing ties after a year apart, which WKRC noted. The archdiocese and the Girls Scouts originally dissolved its partnership over a difference in moral values regarding gender and sexuality, including the scouts’ Pride patch. Seemingly implying that a local (but not countrywide) change has taken place, Director of Marketing & Communications KayAnn Rutter told WCT, “Our national organization, Girl Scouts of the USA, offers an optional multicultural heritage patch series that does include activities for Girl Scouts to learn about LGBTQ+ Pride Month should they (with their caregiver’s approval) wish to learn more. That national programming remains unchanged.”
On the first day of the federal government shutdown, FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly fired a trainee agent after learning that the person had displayed a rainbow Pride flag at their desk during a prior assignment during the Biden administration, The Advocate noted. Patel informed the trainee: “You are being summarily dismissed from your position as a New Agent Trainee at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and removed from the federal service,” accusing the trainee of poor judgment. Out in National Security CEO/co-founder Luke Schleusener criticized the decision, calling it “a clear act of bias and a warning to public servants and allies who believe they should be free to show support for LGBTQIA+ Americans at work.”
In Pennsylvania, families of children who received gender-affirming care at two hospitals are fighting a U.S. Department of Justice effort to obtain medical records and personal information about transgender youth, The Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported. Philadelphia’s Public Interest Law Center at the law firm Ballard Spahr filed motions to quash subpoenas served on the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in June. They’re among more than 20 doctors and clinics across the country that provided transgender healthcare that have received demands for sensitive medical records and personal information from the DoJ.
GLAAD announced a star-studded auction in honor of #SpiritDay backed by artists including Barbra Streisand, Olivia Rodrigo, Sam Smith, Adam Lambert, KATSEYE, FLETCHER, Chelsea Handler, Jonathan Bennett, Sarah Jessica Parker and more, according to a press release. Running through Oct. 16 at www.eBay.com/glaad, shoppers can bid on one-of-a-kind items and experiences from celebrity GLAAD supporters. All auction items will start at 99 cents.
The National Black Justice Collective (NBJC) mourned the death of 37-year-old Black transgender woman Tiara Love Tori Jackson, a media released noted. On Sept. 26, Jackson was shot and killed in a hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina. Police have arrested a suspect, and he has been charged with murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. NBJC Director of Public Policy and Programs Victoria Kirby York said, “All Black women are under unprecedented attack in the workplace and by elected leaders, with women of transgender experience facing additional hurdles that too often leave them with few safe employment options to survive.”
Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate David Crowley called for the repeal of Wisconsin’s 2006 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, saying he wants to ensure marriage equality remains protected in Wisconsin, per Urban Milwaukee. Crowley noted that while federal law would continue to require Wisconsin to recognize marriages already performed, the consequences would still be severe, saying, “If this Court guts marriage equality, no new licenses would be issued to same-sex couples in Wisconsin. Couples who want to get married would be forced to leave Wisconsin, travel across state lines, and then pray the paperwork holds up back home.”
Ft. Lauderdale organization Stonewall National Museum, Archives, & Library (SNMAL) is highlighting the importance of intersectionality as well as the powerful stories of the civil-rights movement in its November exhibit built in partnership with the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, according to a press release. The “Bayard Rustin at the Crossroads” exhibit—launching Nov. 14 at the Hester and Ross Galleries and running until Jan. 2, 2026—will delve into Rustin’s story, how he overcame adversity attacking multiple parts of his identity, and the lessons people can take from his experiences.
In Utah, Republican state Rep. Trevor Lee said that he intends to file a bill that would rename Harvey Milk Boulevard in Salt Lake City and instead recognize Charlie Kirk, according to The Advocate. “From the vast majority of Utahns, they would say that Harvey Milk does not have any connection to Utah whatsoever,” Lee said. “But Charlie Kirk does now, especially after being assassinated in the state of Utah.” According to Axios, Lee was thinking about filing legislation to strip Milk’s name from the Utah street even before Kirk’s assassination, and that he considered drafting a bill after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth changed the name of the USNS Harvey Milk. Milk was also the victim of a politically motivated shooting, having been fatally shot by Dan White in 1978.
GLAAD announced a call for applications to Queer Emerging Developers, a new program from GLAAD Gaming, per a press release. The Queer Emerging Developers program, supported by Logitech, will select a small cohort of LGBTQ+ game developers to receive resources and mentorship to accelerate their careers in the video-game industry. The program will give queer developers the skills, platform and career velocity to successfully bring high-quality LGBTQ+ representation to larger audiences of players. Individuals can apply here; the deadline is Nov. 10.
Electronic Arts (EA) has been acquired by an investment consortium consisting of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners for $55 billion—but some gamers are worried about how the acquisition could impact the content in EA’s games, particularly LGBTQ+ material, according to Forbes. Among other games, EA has single-player and story-driven franchises like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Both games have LGBTQ+ followings because players can enter romantic relationships with certain characters, regardless of the player’s gender. A Reddit user recently asked, “Am I the only one who is scared by EA being purchased by people as conservative as Kushner and the Saudi Royal family?” Affinity Partners is owned by Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s husband.
This year’s Dinah celebration marked the end of an era for what many people have called “lesbian spring break,” per NBC News. Event founder Mariah Hanson announced in June that she would be stepping down after 34 years at the helm, making the 2025 celebration her last. Hanson was “just a little young pup promoter” in San Francisco when she got the idea to start a new lesbian party in Palm Springs, coinciding with a major women’s golf event that was then known as the Colgate Dinah Shore Golf Tournament; that was in 1991.
The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) removed the Pride-themed crosswalk on Miami Beach’s Ocean Drive, Yahoo! News noted. The crosswalk’s removal comes after FDOT ordered municipal governments—including Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Key West—to remove pavement art “associated with social, political or ideological messages,” or risk losing state funding. “It’s very emotional to see that our people and our pride is getting erased just like that. It’s very painful,” said drag queen CC Glitzer.
Paramount has announced the acquisition of conservative outlet The Free Press in a multi-million-dollar deal and has named right-leaning journalist Bari Weiss as the editor-in-chief of CBS News, according to PinkNews. Weiss is known for her criticism of so-called cancel culture and all things “woke,” and her gender-critical views have led her to offer a platform to anti-trans figures such as Harry Potter author JK Rowling. In 2021, Weiss founded The Free Press alongside her wife, tech journalist Nellie Bowles, as a newsletter under the name Common Sense, which was published on Substack.
Gay adult-film star Justin Heath Smith (aka Austin Wolf) was sentenced to 19 years in prison after pleading guilty to enticing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, according to Metro Weekly. The sentencing followed what prosecutors called a “pattern of activity involving prohibited sexual conduct” that included seeking sexual liaisons with minors and exchanging hundreds of child sexual-abuse videos. Prosecutors alleged the videos included at least 75 files showing victims believed to be infants or toddlers.
Also, Texas megachurch pastor Robert Morris—who built Gateway Church into one of the largest congregations in the country—pled guilty in Osage County District Court to charges that he sexually abused a girl in the 1980s, NBC News reported. Under a plea agreement, he was given a 10-year sentence, but he will only serve six months in county jail. He must also be registered as a sex offender and pay $250,000 in restitution. In 2017, he worked with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to pressure the Texas House to advance the anti-trans “bathroom bills,” per the AP.
Gay GOP Virginia lieutenant governor nominee John Reid is facing political pressure after a report connected him to a Tumblr blog that reposted Nazi-themed pornography and violent sexual content, The Advocate noted. An American Journal News report linked Reid to a now-deleted (but preserved) Tumblr account, “JRDeux,” that amplified content by another user who posted swastikas, white supremacist slogans and sexual violence. (Reid’s longtime partner, Alonzo Mable, is Black.) Among other things, Reid is against marriage equality.
A female anti-LGBTQ+ activist removed most of her clothing during a school board meeting in Northern California to protest the district’s policies on transgender students’ restroom and locker room access, per KTLA. Beth Bourne—a member of Moms for Liberty—began her demonstration at the podium during the public comment portion of the Sept. 18 Davis Joint Unified School District’s Board of Education meeting. The district’s policies allow trans students to choose the restroom and locker room of the gender they identify as.