In Texas, the Arlington City Council voted five to four to suspend protections for its LGBTQ+ residents that are enshrined in the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance, per The Dallas Morning News.
Deputy Mayor Pro TemRaul Gonzalez and council members Mauricio Galante, Rebecca Boxall, Long Pham and Bowie Hogg voted against reinstatement of the protections while Arlington Mayor Jim Ross sided with Mayor Pro Tem Barbara Odom-Wesley and council members Nikkie Hunter and Andrew Piel in backing the protections. More than 60 speakers on both sides of the issue spoke to the council.
And as a result of the city council’s vote, the 2026 Arlington Pride event has been suspended, WFAA noted. The HELP Center for LGBTQ+ Health announced the suspension of the popular pride event, which had been set for June 13 at the Levitt Pavilion. Arlington Pride has become the largest Pride event in North Texas, attracting more than 30,000 attendees in its first three years.
Jim Donovan—who became Philadelphia’s first openly LGBTQ+ news anchor—is set to retire after 22 years working for CBS Philadelphia and nearly 40 in broadcast journalism, Philadelphia Gay News noted. His final broadcast is set to air Dec. 19. Donovan, who’s from Staten Island, initially worked as a writer and as a news producer, landing gigs in North Jersey and New York.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom claimed on a podcast that he’s signed more pro-transgender bills into law than any governor—and The Advocate stated that his statement is likely true, especially given the volume of such legislation in California. “I want to see trans kids,” Newsom said on The Ezra Klein Show. “I have a trans godson. There’s no governor who has signed more pro-trans legislation than I have. No one has been a stronger advocate for the LGBTQ community.” Newsom angered many trans people and their supporters, however, with his comments this year on a podcast with right-wing activist Charlie Kirk; the governor said letting trans girls and women compete in sports alongside cisgender females is “deeply unfair”—which he has repeated several times, including on Klein’s show.
The new president of Georgetown University, located in D.C., has a strong pro-LGBTQ+ record, per New Ways Ministry. Eduardo Peñalver, who was appointed president earlier this fall, will become the university’s first Latino president and the second lay person to serve in that role. (Georgetown is a Jesuit university.) The university’s publication, The Hoya, noted that Peñalver has been an outspoken proponent of LGBTQ+ rights since at least the mid-2000s, criticizing religious conservatives who opposed same-sex marriage and defending a gay teacher who was fired by a Catholic school. At Cornell, he slammed a policy from the first Trump administration restricting transgender military personnel.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has sued some prominent medical organizations for promoting the efficacy of gender-affirming care for youth, according to Them. The organizations being sued are the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which issues the Standards of Care for gender-affirming care, as well as the Endocrine Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The suit alleges that the defendants’ claims about gender-affirming care for youth “are false and misleading,” and cites the Cass Review—a debunked study on such care that the UK government commissioned in 2024.
Openly gay Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed that because of President Donald Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” an estimated $100 billion to $150 billion in tax refunds could hit working residents’ bank accounts in the first quarter of 2026, per Yahoo! Finance. So I think we’re going to see $100 to $150 billion of refunds, which could be between $1,000 and $2,000 per household,” he said. After that, once withholding levels are adjusted, workers could see what he described as a “real increase” in their wages.
A trans Afro-Latina woman is suing Hilton, claiming she was assaulted earlier this year by an employee of one of the hotel chain’s locations in Dallas, per LGBTQ Nation, citing The Dallas Voice. The lawsuit revealed that Nebraska resident Kimberly Barnett was staying at the Hilton Dallas Lincoln Centre in late June while attending LGBTQ+ Pride events in the city. Barnett was approached in the lobby by a hotel employee identified as Jeremy Morton; according to the lawsuit, Morton identified himself as hotel security and allegedly later assaulted her. The lawsuit notes that Barnett’s fear in the moment was exacerbated by the fact that she was unsure if Morton was aware that she was trans.
Texas Tech University has joined Texas A&M in imposing major restrictions on what can be taught regarding race and gender-related content, becoming the second university in the state to do so, Fox 4 noted. At Texas Tech, a memo bars six concepts from being taught in classes, including that one race or sex is inherently superior to another and that a meritocracy or a strong work ethic is racist, sexist or a construct of oppression. As of mid-November, professors at all 12 A&M system campuses are now banned from advocating “race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity” without first getting permission from a campus president.
Michigan father Sean Lechner has begun a crusade against trans women athletes after discovering his daughter played one volleyball game against a team with a trans player, LGBTQ Nation noted. The two teams had shared a locker room, and Lechner’s complaint with the U.S. Department of Education alleges that the school “knowingly forced female athletes to share… with a male athlete, violating privacy and Title IX protections.” The complaint claims Monroe High School’s athletic director knew about the trans player and that failing to notify parents and players “about the presence of a male athlete” was a violation of “privacy and bodily integrity” for the other girls.
Human-rights advocate/philanthropist Jon Stryker will be added to Stonewall National Museum, Archives & Library’s “Standing on the Shoulders of Heroes” Exhibition at the museum’s fourth annual fundraising gala on Feb. 21, 2026 at The Venue in Wilton Manors, Florida, a press release noted. Stryker will join other LGBTQ+ icons featured in the nationally traveling human-rights exhibit, including politician/advocate Harvey Milk, tennis legend Billie Jean King, Tony winner Larry Kramer, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan and more. Stryker founded the Arcus Foundation in 2000, contributing more than $700 million to social- and environmental-justice causes around the globe. In addition, Stryker and husband Slobodan Ranjelović have donated to causes such as the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project; Stryker’s endowment of the Audre Lorde Visiting Professorship at Spelman College, is the first-ever queer studies chair at a Historically Black College or University (HBCU).
LGBTQ+ Catholic ministry Outreach appointed Conor Reidy as its next executive director, per a press release. Reidy—who has an extensive background in Catholic campus ministry and Ignatian spirituality—will lead Outreach beginning in January as the ministry marks its fifth anniversary. Reidy succeeds Michael O’Loughlin, who recently was named executive editor of the National Catholic Reporter. Until recently, Reidy was director of mission and ministry for the University of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx.
Gilead Sciences said that its experimental HIV treatment was found to be statistically non-inferior to its top-selling drug, Biktarvy, in a late-stage trial, Reuters reported. The company stated that the experimental regimen could expand treatment options and help HIV-positive people maintain long-term control of the virus. In the study, a once-daily, single-tablet combination of bictegravir and lenacapavir was as effective as Biktarvy in patients whose virus was already suppressed. In 2024, Gilead recorded Biktarvy sales of $13.4 billion.
House Democrats released photos from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, including some of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and the former Prince Andrew, per Yahoo! News. The dozens of photos initially released by Democratic lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee were a small part of more than 95,000 they received from the estate of Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. The photo release also included images of right-wing figure Steve Bannon, billionaires Richard Branson and Bill Gates, filmmaker Woody Allen, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and law professor Alan Dershowitz, who have all denied any wrongdoing in their associations with Epstein.
In Florida, the City of St. Petersburg unveiled 11 Pride-themed bike racks to replace the rainbow crosswalks Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis forced officials to remove, according to LGBTQ Nation. Democratic St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch called the bike racks “a vibrant way to honor the Pride street murals that were removed earlier this year due to state requirements.” Folks celebrated the move in the comments, calling the new displays “amazing,” “clever,” “awesome,” “beautiful,” and “a smarter path forward.”
In Alaska, the house of an anti-trans medical professional arrested for possession of child porn has burned to the ground, PinkNews noted. Dr. Ryan McDonough was arrested recently and charged with 10 counts of possession of child sexual-abuse material. After he was released on bail, the Wasilla cardiologist’s home went up in flames. Also, McDonough was fired from his position as an interventional cardiologist with Mat-Su Medical Group and Mat-Su Regional following his arrest.
Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson apologized for saying the word “queer” when naming a childhood backyard game he attributed to his performance to his team’s win against the Tampa Buccaneers, WJAC noted. Robinson responded to a Richard Sherman comment by saying, “Smear the queer, that’s what we do. Smear the queer.” (The politically correct name is “Kill the carrier” for the game Sherman alluded to.) “Hey everyone I want to apologize for the insensitive comment I made in the broadcast, it was a football game we used to play as a kid but that’s not an excuse,” Robinson later wrote. “I recognize the mistake and make sure to do better in the future. It was not reflective of my beliefs and I am so sorry to those I offended seriously!
”Tashella Sheri Amore Dickerson—the head of a Black Lives Matter group in Oklahoma City—faces 25 counts of wire fraud and money laundering based on a federal grand jury indictment, The Washington Post reported. Authorities alleged that Dickerson, who was executive director of the group since at least 2016, embezzled funds for her own benefit, depositing at least several million dollars into personal accounts rather than into the organization’s accounts. “For each count of wire fraud, Dickerson faces up to 20 years in federal prison, and a fine of up to $250,000. For each count of money laundering, Dickerson faces up to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the amount of the criminally derived property involved in the transaction,” U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma Robert J. Troester said in a statement.