Allswell—a mental-health provider focused on LGBTQ+ patients—has raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding, according to Fierce Healthcare. Amboy Street Ventures has led the effort, with participation from Seae Ventures’ Unseen Capital, Techstars and others. The funding will support the startup’s expansion into more states, deepen its digital and clinical offerings and grow its therapist network.
The Texas Supreme Court ruled that state judges may decline to perform weddings, including same-sex marriages, based on religious belief, The Advocate reported.
The order—signed by all nine justices of the all-Republican court—added a single line to Canon 4 of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct:
“It is not a violation of these canons for a judge to publicly refrain from performing a wedding ceremony based upon a sincerely held religious belief.” Some civil-rights advocates worry that the ruling undermines the guarantees of Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that made marriage equality the law of the land.
A new report from the Indianapolis-based Rainbow Youth Project suggests the resignation of Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters may be helping queer youth across the state, per The Advocate. The organization stated that calls from Oklahoma dropped sharply since Walters announced his departure on Sept. 24 and officially left office the following week. Before he departed, almost two-thirds of Oklahoma callers identified Walters—whose tenure was marked by relentless anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and policies—as a source of distress.
U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, a staunch LGBTQ+ will not seek re-election after representing San Francisco for almost four decades, per Yahoo! News. In a video address, Pelosi said she would finish her final year in office, adding, “My message to the city I love is this: San Francisco, know your power. We have made history. We have made progress. We have always led the way.” Pelosi’s not-unexpected announcement added her to a seasoned generation of political leaders that’s stepping aside ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
Vandals targeted multiple LGBTQ+-friendly organizations in Denver, but it’s not clear whether the separate incidents are linked, according to Colorado Politics. A person with a rock smashed several windows at The Center on Colfax, the largest LGBTQ+ community center in the Rocky Mountain region; Parasol Patrol reported that in addition to The Center, five other businesses were vandalized.
Before his NYC mayoral win, Queens Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani—the Democratic nominee running against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa—tried to reassure LGBTQ+ voters that his administration would fight for trans rights and the broader queer community, Gay City News reported. “It is critically important that New York City show what it means to be an alternative to the Trump administration’s politics and policies of hatred and division,” Mamdani told the outlet on Oct. 29. “Trans New Yorkers, especially trans youth, are incredibly vulnerable right now and under attack by this federal administration.” Mamdani also made a late-night stop at the gay bar Papi Juice, The Advocate noted.
The Minnesota Supreme Court determined that USA Powerlifting (USAPL) discriminated against transgender woman JayCee Cooper by banning her from women’s competitions, The Advocate noted. Chief Justice Natalie Hudson wrote that USAPL is “not permitted to deny Cooper the full and equal enjoyment of its place of public accommodation because of her transgender status nor engage in business discrimination as to Cooper because of her transgender status.” The legal process for Cooper began in 2019, when she filed charges with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights after she was denied entry into USAPL women’s competitions; in 2021, she filed a suit against USAPL, accusing the body of discrimination.
Among other Nov. 4 electoral developments, LGBTQ+ ally Jacob Frey was elected to a third term as mayor of Minneapolis, Axios noted. Frey won a deep-blue city on a moderate platform, defeating a field led by a Democratic socialist, Minnesota state Sen. Omar Fateh. Frey is now Minneapolis’ third three-term mayor since 1982, when the city’s chief executives began serving four-year stints.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to reappoint trans Latina activist Jessy Ruiz Navarro to the Immigrant Rights Commission, The Bay Area Reporter noted. The body made its move days after President Donald Trump backed down from his earlier plans to send federal immigration agents to the city. Ruiz Navarro was one of two people to apply to the commission, on which she is already serving, for a term ending June 6, 2026. Gay Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman said that it’s important she continue serving at “a time trans folks and people from Latin America in particular are experiencing extreme hate and oppression in this country … from the federal government.”
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina)—who’s now running for governor and who has touted her previous votes for marriage equality—recently posted something very different on X: “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” The Advocate noted. In a statement to The Advocate, Mace’s campaign press secretary Piper Gifford said, “As the loudest and proudest transphobe in Congress, Nancy Mace will never stop pointing out the fact that there are only TWO genders.” Mace’s 2022 vote for the Respect for Marriage Act was once praised as a sign of bipartisan progress.
Per Sia—a Latina trans drag performer who is one of the founders of Drag Story Hour in San Francisco—was chosen by Mayor Daniel Lurie as the city’s second drag laureate, per The Bay Area Reporter. The announcement was made at the garden of Rooftop Elementary in San Francisco’s Twin Peaks neighborhood; Per Sia works there at an after-school arts program and wanted her students to share in the joy of the news.
Georgetown University awarded a grant to Jesuit Fr. Lucas Sharma to conduct research on queer Catholics, the school announced. Starting this fall, he will be a Jesuit pastoral associate in Georgetown’s LGBTQ Resource Center; minister to the campus community; and continue his studies on religion, gender and sexuality as part of his Ph.D. in sociology. Sharma’s work is part of Georgetown’s inaugural John Hayden Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, made possible through the estate of John T. Hayden.
Controversial right-wing Twitch streamer Asmongold (real name: Zack Hoyt)—known for his political commentary and gaming content—stunned his fans when he said that if he were to have a trans child, he would respect and support them, according to PinkNews. “Once they’re an adult, they would get to make adult choices and, at the end of the day, it would be more important for me to preserve the relationship that I have with my child than for me to uphold a viewpoint that is, to me, you know, really inconsequential,” he said. In April, Hoyt claimed that trans children are the “victim” of parents with “mental illness.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants a Turning Point USA chapter at every high school in the Sunshine State, per The Advocate. The Republican announced a partnership with the right-wing organization at an event where he renamed a debate prize for the late Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk. Kirk, before being shot at a Utah college holding one of his debate events, made several controversial comments about LGBTQ+ people—including immediately before his death when he said that “too many” mass shooters were transgender.