NOTE: This week’s column contains a mention of rape.
Boston institution Fenway Health—one of the nation’s leading providers of healthcare to queer people—will stop offering hormones and puberty blockers to trans patients younger than 19 to avoid losing federal funding, The Advocate noted, citing The Boston Globe. The clinic must comply with U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration rules to continue being designated as a Federally Qualified Health Center. In January, President Trump issued an executive order directing federal health agencies to stop funding gender-affirming care for those under 19.
NBC News eliminated its teams dedicated to covering issues affecting Black, Asian American, Latino and LGBTQ+ groups as part of its layoffs of about 150 staffers recently—a significant reduction as the Peacock network separates from its sister news network, MSNBC, TheWrap reported. The cuts mean that the verticals NBC BLK, NBC Asian America, NBC Latino and NBC OUT will no longer have dedicated teams bolstering their coverage. The job losses came as the network no longer needed to support two news operations, as MSNBC has moved under the spun-off company Versant.
Out unveiled its latest OUT100 list—a compilation of the year’s most impactful and influential LGBTQ+ people, covering everything from politics to activism to entertainment. Among the people on this exclusive list were RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Onya Nurve; actor/activist/model Nyle DiMarco; Center on Halsted CEO Joli Angel Robinson; Kat Abughazaleh, who’s running to succeed U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky in Illinois; Stonewall National Museum, Archives, and Library CEO Robert Kesten; digital journalist Vitus “V” Spehar; actor Jeff Hiller; and married couple Olympic gold medalist Abby Wambach and best-selling author Glennon Doyle.
NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani publicly apologized to New York police for past comments calling the force “racist” and “anti-queer,” The Advocate noted. Talking with Fox News, the Democratic nominee apologized for remarks about the New York Police Department that date back to 2020 at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. (“We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety,” he posted on Twitter in June 2020.) In addition, Mamdani said that a properly funded police force can protect and represent all New Yorkers.
In recognition of the 30th anniversary of the Million Man March, the National Black Justice Collective (NBJC) released “Brothers in Conversation: Exploring the Radical Possibilities of Brotherhood,”—a new dialogue that confronts one of the March’s most enduring issues: the exclusion of Black LGBTQ+/same-gender loving (SGL) people, a press release noted. The conversation—moderated by NJBC CEO/Executive Director Dr. David J. Johns—features Rev. Mark Thompson (a co-organizer of the original march), Pastor Jamal Bryant and Destination Tomorrow founder/CEO Sean Coleman.
Thirteen people were arrested during an operation in West Hollywood’s Rainbow District, and the presence of unmarked vehicles and recent immigration raids in the area sparked concerns of a possible ICE raid, The L.A. Times reported. Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials confirmed that ICE agents did not take part in the arrests. Multiple social-media posts warned of ICE agents in the Rainbow District, particularly at the renowned gay bar the Abbey. Q Voice News noted that the raid at The Abbey was an undercover operation in response to “community reports about pickpocketing, narcotic sales, and other criminal activity,” officials said.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles ordered the Pentagon to restore nearly 600 books and reinstate lessons on race, gender and identity in schools serving military families, The Advocate noted. Giles concluded that the Department of Defense Education Activity removed books and altered curricula to deny certain viewpoints and deprived students of access to ideas about race and gender. She found that the department’s actions caused actual harm and were probably motivated by viewpoint discrimination.
Michael O’Loughlin—who was most recently the executive director of Outreach, the Catholic LGBTQ+ online resource founded by Fr. James Martin, SJ—has been named the executive editor of The National Catholic Reporter. In that most recent role, O’Loughlin led multimedia coverage from Rome of the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV, launched an inaugural endowment fund and increased registration at the organization’s national conference by more than 60%. O’Loughlin’s work has been honored with awards from the Catholic Media Association, the Religion News Association and the National LGBTQ Journalists Association.
Out gay California state Sen. Scott Weiner is preparing to run for Congress in a move that would set up a dramatic generational contest against Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, The Advocate noted. Pelosi has represented San Francisco in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1987. Weiner filed paperwork for a congressional committee in 2023 and has raised more than $1 million.
Trans fencer Dinah Yukich is suing USA Fencing and the U.S. Olympic Committee for banning her from competition, per The Advocate. Yukich hasn’t competed since 2022 but she said she had been preparing to compete this season; however, the sports organization changed policies in response to President Trump’s order barring trans females from competing in women’s sports. In April, the USA Fencing Board announced forthcoming changes to its athlete safety policy to comply with Trump’s guideline.
LGBTQ+-rights activists are criticizing an ad about Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee and former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s record on transgender rights, according to The Advocate. The 30-second spot—funded by the right-wing Restoration of America PAC—states with no factual basis, “Abigail Spanberger is as extreme as it gets. … She’d allow boys to play girls’ sports and shower in girls’ locker rooms naked. Worse? She’s apparently all in on horrifying gender mutilation. And irreversible sterilization of children.” GLAAD said the ad’s creators “dangerously undermine already vulnerable people and make everyone less safe,” adding that similar spots have repeatedly failed to sway elections in Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and more.”
Parents helped stage a student walkout at Oregon’s Roseburg High School to protest a transgender classmate’s ability to use facilities that match their gender identity, according to Them (citing The News Review). Parents said they helped the students plan the walkout after some expressed discomfort with their trans classmate’s presence in the locker room. Sophomore Layla Seal told the paper she believed it was “really disrespectful that trans people are preaching women’s rights and then disrespecting our privacy.” However, senior Donovan Loy-Steiner told the paper that he saw the protest as large-scale bullying.
Syracuse University’s Department of Public Safety is investigating racist and anti-LGBTQ+ slurs found in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, according to Syracuse.com. The messages were found written on a whiteboard attached to an office door inside the Newhouse building, Dean Mark Lodato said in an email. A student discovered the writing, alerted professors and filed a STOP Bias report, he said.
LGBTQ+ singer Rachael Sage and her longtime band The Sequins have released their new single “Nexus” from their upcoming studio album Canopy, out Oct. 24 via MPress Records, per a press release. All proceeds from the single will benefit the LGBTQ+ suicide prevention charity The Trevor Project. “I wrote ‘Nexus’ almost immediately after reading about non-binary student Nex Benedict, and the tragic story of their death after being violently beaten by their school peers,” Sage stated.
On Nov. 1-2, the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations will hold its 17th Annual Black People’s March on the White House in D.C., according to a press release. Among those slated to speak (among others) are African People’s Socialist Party Chair Omali Yeshitela, Black is Back Coalition Vice Chair Lisa Davis and Reparations United’s Kamm Howard. The coalition is composed of 17 Black-rights organizations and has developed a “National Black Political Agenda for Self-Determination” that formed the campaign platform for several candidates across the country.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff apologized for saying the National Guard should be deployed to San Francisco, backtracking from his remarks that ignited a week of intense controversy on the left, Politico reported. “Having listened closely to my fellow San Franciscans and our local officials, and after the largest and safest Dreamforce in our history, I do not believe the National Guard is needed to address safety in San Francisco,” he posted on X. Among other developments, the fallout from Benioff’s initial remarks prompted Silicon Valley angel investor Ron Conway to leave the board of Salesforce’s philanthropic foundation, condemning the CEO and saying he no longer recognized him. Benioff was honored with the Ric Weiland Award at the 2016 GLAAD Gala in San Francisco.
Some Republicans are upset that President Donald Trump commuted the seven-year prison sentence of gay former Rep. George Santos—even though right-wing U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was one of the biggest advocates for his release, LGBTQ Nation noted. However, in response to the commutation, U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) wrote, “George Santos is a convicted con artist. That will forever be his legacy, and I disagree with the commutation,” per The New York Times. Fellow U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) also posted his displeasure with the commutation.
Ibrar Nadeem—an unpaid adviser to Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican nominee for governor of New Jersey—advocated for a ban on same-sex marriage and insisted he personally isn’t “taking money from Jews,” per Politico. After a 20-minute speech, Nadeem invited Ciattarelli, who can be seen on video sitting in the audience, on stage around a minute later. During his own speech, Ciattarelli (who said he supported same-sex marriage in a post-event statement) praised Nadeem. Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, Ciattarelli’s opponent, urged him to “denounce these comments, fire the individual responsible, and apologize for praising him right after he made these antisemitic and homophobic statements.”
In Alabama, the owner of Rockford queer bar Crossroads Bar and Grill, filed a lawsuit against the city after being denied liquor and entertainment licenses, per The Advocate. Thomas Fuller has claimed that Rockford “effectively singled [him] out because of his sexual orientation, deprived him of equal protection under the law, and forced him to close his business.” Recently, Fuller scheduled a drag show at the bar and advertised it. Rockford’s town council then issued him a cease-and-desist letter, claiming that such an event was “in violation of any license Crossroads obtained” and forcing him to cancel the show. At the August meeting, the council denied his liquor license.
The Demuth Museum—a gay historic site in Lancaster, Pennsylvania—was selected for a competitive grant that will assist it in its effort to continue to upgrade its property and expand public access to it, per The Bay Area Reporter. The venue is the home of gay painter Charles Demuth, who died in 1935 at age 51. The Demuth Foundation that oversees the 1760 brick row house and its five rooms, including his studio, received $10,000 from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The privately funded, nonprofit organization based in D.C. selected the Demuth as one of its Johanna Favrot Fund for Historic Preservation 2025 grantees.
Paul Ingrassia—a 30-year-old attorney and White House liaison at the Department of Homeland Security—is embroiled in controversy after Politico obtained messages with him privately boasting about having “a Nazi streak,” per The Advocate. In other messages with GOP operatives, he mocked Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday that should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell,” used slurs against Asian and Indigenous people, and called for holidays tied to Black history, such as Juneteenth, to be “eviscerated.” Ingrassia later said he was withdrawing from consideration because he did not have enough Republican support, NBC News noted.
An episode of South Park skewered gay Republican billionaire Peter Thiel, according to Them. The episode, “Twisted Christian,” featured Thiel visiting South Park’s elementary school to combat the “Satanic numerology shit” taking root there, as evidenced by them taking part in the viral “6-7” meme. “I’m Peter Thiel and I know about the Antichrist,” he sang at an assembly.
Tom of Finland Foundation is holding an exhibition of “Arrest This Image” by artist-in-residence Sweatmother in LA through Oct. 30, according to a release. The statement said, “Through photography, moving image and performance Sweatmother complicates the structures of masculinity, moving beyond the biological, reconstructing presentation and desire from alternative masculinities.” Sweatmother stated, “My project will explore leather as history and legacy, rooted in a distinct trans-masculine desire.”
Silas Shelton—the pastor of Blanchester Community Church in Ohio—was arrested on four felony charges, including rape, sexual battery, unlawful sexual contact with a minor and gross sexual imposition, per The Advocate. In 2023, Shelton condemned the inclusion of the Alice Oseman work Heartstopper (which includes queer characters/romance) in a book fair at his 12-year-old daughter’s school, saying “it isn’t a religion matter … It’s a health risk. It’s mental health.” Shelton pled not guilty as the investigation remains ongoing, and he was being held on a $2 million bond in a Clinton County jail.