NOTE: This week’s column mentions suicide. If you or someone you know needs mental health resources and support, please call, text, or chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or visit 988lifeline.org for 24/7 access to free and confidential services.
In Vermont, authorities confirmed the death of 21-year-old trans student Lia Smith, according to Them. Smith’s father reported his daughter—a double major in computer science and statistics at Middlebury College—missing on Oct. 19. Four days later, Vermont State Police announced in a release that its search-and-rescue team had found a body in the town of Cornwall near The Knoll, Middlebury College’s organic farm. The Vermont Chief Medical Examiner’s Office =confirmed the body to be Smith and determined that she died by suicide.
CVS Caremark Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michelle Guardine recently emailed PrEP4All, an organization working on PrEP access, that has demanded the pharmacy chain cover the new HIV-prevention drug Yeztugo, also known as lenacapavir, The Advocate noted. She said the reason CVS refused to cover the highly effective pharmaceutical was a concern over costs. Guardine stated that Gilead has priced Yeztugo at $28,000 within the United States, even though generic versions of lenacapavir will be sold in other countries for $40.
Ft. Lauderdale’s Stonewall National Museum, Archives, & Library (SNMAL) is kicking off November with a visit from LGBTQ+ athlete/author/motivational speaker Diana Nyad, who’s best known for her historic swim from Cuba to Key West, a press release noted. Nyad will be the featured guest at a dinner on Nov. 5, when she, alongside SNMAL, will announce a new project celebrating LGBTQ+ athletes, sports history and culture with the new national Nyad LGBTQ+ Sports Archive. The new archive will include contributions from leading professional and amateur sports figures; these items will be part of a new national touring exhibition that will travel the United States in 2026.
In another development with Stonewall National Museum, Archives & Library (SNMAL), it recently hosted its third Annual Back to the Drive Celebration, a separate release announced. The event brought a diverse group together in support of SNMAL’s long-standing national education initiatives. The night’s key guest was MSNBC Senior Washington Correspondent and The Weekend co-host Eugene Daniels. The celebration also featured Christian De La Rosa, a reporter from WPLG Local 10 whose past coverage of SNMAL’s work and struggles with modest government funding inspired national coverage ahead of this year’s gala.
Also in Florida, Palm Beach County and Boca Raton were ordered to pay $884,374 in attorney fees and $659 in costs to counselors Robert Otto and Julie Hamilton after a judge struck down its ban against so-called “conversion therapy” for minors, The Advocate noted. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in their favor in 2022, voiding the ban and any like it in the state. Conversion therapy, also referred to as “reparative therapy,” has been denounced by almost every national medical organization, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association.
At the University of Pennsylvania, a University Council meeting included the introduction of a proposed amendment to rename the group’s Committee on Diversity and Equity, as well as a report on Penn Dining, per The Daily Pennsylvanian. The agenda for the Oct. 22 meeting in Houston Hall included the proposed renaming of the “Committee on Diversity and Equity” to the “Committee on Belonging,” which would require a change to the council bylaws. Student reps vehemently opposed the committee renaming; sophomore Kaison Wills, who is the political chair for Penn’s Association for Gender Equity, said that “removing diversity and equity from the committee’s name is not a neutral act.”
Graham Platner, a 41-year-old oyster farmer/Marine and Army veteran running to represent Maine as a Democrat in the U.S. Senate, is under scrutiny for anti-LGBTQ+ comments he once posted on Reddit, The Advocate noted. Platner confessed to the news outlet that he wrote Reddit comments (between 2016 and 2021) that include homophobic slurs, anti-LGBTQ+ jokes and sexually explicit stories denigrating gay men. “I have no reason to deny [that the posts are mine],” Platner said in a Zoom interview. “I made a lot of comments over the years and talked a lot of shit on the internet. I have no reason to doubt that at some point I used language that I would not be using today.” Platner (who has also said he’s covered a tattoo with Nazi imagery) attributed his change in perspective to friendships with LGBTQ+ people that deepened after he returned to Maine.
In Illinois, openly gay Democratic Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison—who’s running for Congress in Illinois’ 8th Congressional District—has been endorsed by Republican-turned-Democrat Joe Walsh, Politico noted. Walsh (as a member of the GOP) represented the district from 2011 to 2013 after defeating former Congresswoman Melissa Bean, who’s now competing for the seat once again. The congressional seat is currently held by Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, who’s running for the U.S. Senate.
Alabama state Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, refiled a bill, HB 23, that would extend the state’s prohibition on discussions of gender identity from grades K-5 to all public school grades, AL.com reported. Butler recently said that the measure is meant to help public schools focus on educating students and baselessly claimed that the recent enrollment decline partially comes from parents who are dissatisfied with LGBTQ+ content in schools. Butler introduced a similar version of the bill in the 2025 legislative session last spring, but the state Senate did not pass the bill.
Several trans celebrities have spoken out against President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14168, which has hindered transgender residents’ ability to get passports that accurately reflect their gender, LGBTQ Nation noted. They include actresses Angelica Ross (American Horror Story; Pose) and Hunter Schafer (Euphoria), influencer/activist Zaya Perysian, singer/songwriter Sasha Allen and RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Aja. In an Instagram video, Ross opened the envelope containing her new passport in July. She characterized the moment as “the gender reveal party I didn’t ask for,” and remained defiant when she learned on camera that the document listed her as “male.”
Minneapolis spot Fletcher’s Ice Cream and Café, known for its rainbow flags, was hit by two separate Molotov cocktail attacks—on the night of Oct. 19 and the following afternoon, Instinct noted. According to KSTP News, the alleged arsonist is 30-year-old Firomsa Ahmed Umar. Both attacks caused property damage but no one was injured. While investigators have not released an official motive, café owner Jason Fletcher believed the attacks may have been motivated by hate.
In Virginia, employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Hampton Medical Center said they were warned during the week of Oct. 13 that they could be fired or disciplined for wearing or displaying rainbow-themed items, including lanyards, according to The Advocate. Communications with the outlet indicated that the directive—which employees say came from local leadership—cited an “executive order.” Internal VA documents that The Advocate reviewed in March showed that signage for bathrooms and residential units was changed to “male,” “female,” or “unisex,” and that materials using the term “gender” now say “sex.”
In Michigan, the capital of Lansing is an LGBTQ Welcoming City after City Council members voted unanimously to pass a resolution expressing support for the LGBTQ+ community, WKAR noted. However, that designation stops short of the LGBTQ+ Sanctuary City designation some advocates had requested during a hearing on transgender safety. Lansing’s welcoming city status is largely symbolic but calls for City Council members to develop pro-LGBTQ+ policies, ensure that city programs are inclusive and appoint LGBTQ community members to city boards.
Google’s deletion of years of Women Techmakers’ work was a big shock to its members, CNN noted. Earlier in October, the tech giant ended the key career resource program for supporting women in tech and severed its integration within the company; the decision was communicated to members in a short email with little explanation. “The message it sends to women in tech, and really women in general, is that we cannot count on unwavering support from big corporations,” Vassiliki Dalakiari, a former Women Techmakers ambassador as well as a AI research and development manager in Greece, told CNN.
Harvard Medical School eliminated a course after a conservative media outlet questioned fee waivers for trans students, The Advocate noted. The three-day online class, “Advancing Excellence in Transgender Health: A Core Course for the Whole Care Team,” had originally been scheduled to take place Oct. 31-Nov. 2, but it was postponed after the National Review contacted the university and questioned how it could legally waive $650 fees for transgender and gender-diverse participants.
RU5H—which promotes “all-gay, all-male” expeditions—will announce its inaugural “high-voltage, all-gay big-ship getaway” in mid-December, according to Out. At San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair—the world’s largest leather and fetish gathering—the brand announced its launch and upcoming inaugural cruise with a playground activation. (Note: Rush recently added that it “welcomes gay, bi, and pan men and male-identifying adventurers ready to explore their desires on their own terms.”)
Tryst Hospitality has joined the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association (IGLTA) as its newest global partner, according to a press release. The business was founded by entrepreneur/hotelier Tristan Schukraft, who has a growing portfolio that spans The Abbey Food & Bar in West Hollywood; The Tryst Hotels in Puerto Vallarta, Fire Island Pines and San Juan; DS Tequila in Chicago; and upcoming locations in Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro. As an IGLTA global partner, the brand will collaborate with other international leaders to promote inclusive travel, support LGBTQ+ economic empowerment, and spotlight destinations where everyone can be seen, celebrated, and completely themselves.
Democrats criticized openly gay Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent after he associated himself with soybean farmers impacted by the pain of recent sale losses to China amid the Trump administration’s trade war, The Hill noted. “You’re a hedge fund manager who rents farmland to soybean farmers. You’re profiting off their hard work while sipping champagne with billionaire elites & kissing Donald Trump’s boots,” U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) wrote on X. On ABC, Bessent had said, “In case you don’t know it, I’m actually a soybean farmer. So I have felt this pain, too.”
Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that conservative activist Riley Gaines should “get a real job” instead of attacking transgender people, according to The Advocate. The former college swimmer posted a picture of Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders at a recent rally for New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Gaines claimed in the post’s caption that “we’re being destroyed from within,” leading to Ocasio-Cortez’s response. Gaines has built her platform on opposing trans inclusion in sports after tying for fifth place with trans woman Lia Thomas at the 2022 NCAA championships—but she’s never mentioned the four cis women who beat Thomas and her.
The Trump administration took aim at Netflix’s queer military show Boots by calling it “woke garbage,” according to Them. Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson criticized the coming-of-age series in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. “Under President Trump and Secretary Pete Hegseth, the U.S. military is getting back to restoring the warrior ethos,” according to Wilson’s statement. “Our standards across the board are elite, uniform, and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man, a woman, gay or straight.”
On Nov. 8, 4-6 p.m PT, at Hamburger Mary’s Long Beach, Q Voice News will host “Long Beach’s Unknown Queer History: You’re Under Arrest,” a newsletter noted. Long Beach has a reputation as a gay-friendly city, but for more than a century, the city’s police department targeted gay men for entrapment related to alleged lewd conduct.
The practice is suspected to have stopped in 2016 when resident Rory Moroney—who was arrested in one of the discriminatory undercover sting operations—fought back and had his day in court, in People v. Moroney; Judge Halim Dhanidina dismissed the case, calling out the police department for its tactics. Moroney and Dhanidina will be two of the panelists at the Nov. 8 event.