The Trevor Project—the leading suicide prevention and crisis organization for LGBTQ+ young people—announced a $1 million donation from Jeff Atwood, co-founder of Stack Overflow and Discourse, per a press release. Trevor Project CEO Jaymes Black said, “Our life-saving work would not be possible without the support and compassion from our donor community, and the Atwood family’s contribution will play a transformative role in advancing our mission to end suicide among LGBTQ+ young people. This donation comes at a critical time for our movement—in the face of anti-LGBTQ+ policies and rhetoric that directly harm our youth, it’s more crucial than ever that we keep fighting for a future where all LGBTQ+ young people can thrive.” In a separate release, the organization noted that it saw a 33% increase in volume on January 20, 2025 (the day of President Trump’s inauguration), compared to prior weeks.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) brought together more than 1,000 LGBTQ+ advocates and supporters from across the country for its annual Greater New York Dinner on Feb. 1, a press release announced. This year’s event honored LGBTQ+ figures such as Heartstopper and Agatha All Along actor Joe Locke, The Gilded Age actress Louisa Jacobson and social-media star RaeShanda Lias. Other special guests included U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride, Alex Edelman, Ashlyn Harris and Sophia Bush, Brita Filter, Dana Goldberg, David Archuleta, Denée Benton, Dylan Mulvaney, Kevin Aviance, Marti Gould Cummings and more. HRC President Kelley Robinson (who is expecting a second child with wife Becky George) spoke about the organization’s mission to push forward and fight for change at this time, when the community, country and world need it most.
However, news regarding The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has also been sobering, as The Advocate revealed that the organization is set to lay off approximately 20 percent of its workforce in a major restructuring effort. According to a senior HRC official, the layoffs—which will take effect on Feb. 12—will impact about 50 employees. By the start of its next fiscal year on April 1, HRC expects to have around 180 staff members. A decision to reinvest fundraising surpluses into expanded programming and operating costs has created a financial model that leadership views as unsustainable. The organization’s board directed its president, Kelley Robinson, to ensure a balanced budget in response to the shifting financial and political landscapes.
After three decades, DOJ Pride—an LGBTQ+ employee resource group at the Department of Justice—has shut down more than a week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to ban all DEI measures from the federal government, according to NBC News. “In this time of uncertainty and concern, we have taken the extraordinary measure of ceasing operations of DOJ Pride,” the group’s board emailed members. “We have made this decision in the interest and for the protection of all members.” DOJ Pride was founded in 1994—when marriage equality was illegal across the country and same-sex sexual relations were banned in more than a dozen states.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) erased a large amount of HIV-related content from the agency’s website as a part of President Donald Trump’s broader effort to wipe out DEI initiatives across the federal government, according to NBC News. The CDC’s main HIV page was down temporarily as the agency began removing all content related to gender identity; HIV-related pages were apparently caught up in that action. An executive order signed by Trump proclaims that the U.S. government will recognize only two sexes—male and female—and end what it characterizes as “radical and wasteful” DEI spending.
CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies and the Barnard Center for Research on Women announced the Inaugural Amber Hollibaugh Seminar in NYC, a six-week program exploring the transformative legacy of Amber Hollibaugh—a radical lesbian feminist, scholar, artist and lifelong activist for queer survival economies, per the CUNY Graduate Center website. A description reads, “Facilitated by interdisciplinary artist and educator Gili Rappaport, this seminar invites participants to dive into themes of queer survival, care, and community resilience in the face of economic hardship, criminalization and marginalization.” The actual seminar—“Queer Economies of Care: Community, Desire, and the Politics of Necessity”—will take place Wednesdays from March 5 through April 9, and it’s a strictly in-person experience. Hollibaugh passed away in 2023 at age 77.
Google has become the latest big U.S. company to pull back its DEI initiatives, according to the BBC and other media outlets. The decision came after the company carried out an annual review of its corporate policies—but it’s also citing President Donald Trump’s order to eliminate DEI policies in the federal government. Between 2021 and 2024, Google’s investor reports stated its commitment to make “diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we do”; that line is not in its latest report. Meta, Amazon, Pepsi, McDonald’s, Walmart, MolsonCoors and others have rolled back their DEI programs.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James and other political leaders urged action after at least two NYC-based providers of gender-affirming care halted appointments for young patients in light of the Trump administration’s executive order aiming to pull federal funding for institutions offering such care, Gay City News noted. Following the executive order, families told the New York Times that NYU Langone Health started canceling appointments for children who were scheduled to receive gender-affirming care; at the same time, City Councilmember and LGBTQIA+ Caucus Chair Tiffany Cabán stated that the Mount Sinai Hospital System also started canceling appointments. In response, James sent a letter to providers across New York State reminding them of their obligation under state law to provide services without discriminating on the basis of sex or gender identity.
In what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind event, Cardinal Wilton Gregory—who has served since 2019 as leader of the Catholic Archdiocese of D.C.—held a prayer service for members of the local LGBTQ+ Catholic organization Dignity Washington, The Washington Blade reported. Dignity Washington officials said the event happened after they met with Gregory at his diocesan office in September and he agreed to hold a religious service for the local LGBTQ+ community. “I apologize for my own failure to emulate Christ’s compassion,” Gregory stated during the event. “The way that we have treated our LGBTQ brothers and sisters has brought them tears and to many of us disgrace.” Jeannine Gramick, a Catholic nun and official with the LGBTQ+ Catholic group New Ways Ministry, said, “I think Cardinal Gregory’s remarks are a watershed moment in the relationship between the Archdiocese of Washington and the LGBTQ+ community.” Gregory retired on Jan. 6, 2025.
On the flip side in the area of religion, President Donald Trump’s executive order entitled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” was praised by Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, who’s the current chair of the Committee chair on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), according to New Ways Ministry. Barron lauded the order’s “aim to identify and develop research-based therapies to aid young people struggling with gender dysphoria,” adding that they deserve “care that heals rather than harms.” This was the second time in less than two weeks that a USCCB leader has backed Trump regarding executive orders that will have negative effects on transgender and non-binary people.
The Guardian and reporting partner WWL Louisiana revealed that high-level executives with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints football team and the NBA’s Pelicans basketball team had more of a role than previously thought in connection with a list of priests and deacons faced with credible allegations of child molestation while the clergymen worked with their city’s Roman Catholic archdiocese. According to highly sensitive emails, one top executive even described a conversation with the New Orleans district attorney at the time that allowed them to remove clergy names from the list—although the clubs deny their official participated in that discussion. The Saints’ nearness to the church prompted protests by clergy-abuse survivors in front of the team’s headquarters and at the offices of one of the oldest Catholic archdioceses in the United States; however, what remained hidden until now are more than 300 emails that showed the exact extent of the teams’ officials with some of the church’s operations.
A judge denied a request to stop enforcement of Michigan’s conversion-therapy ban, according to WWMT. The decision happened nearly a year after the ban went into effect in February 2024, and months after Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a brief in August to keep the law in place. Catholic Charities of Jackson, Lenawee and Hillsdale Counties—a nonprofit that “carries out the work of the Roman Catholic Church” in part through individual, family and marital therapy—filed a lawsuit last July claiming that Michigan’s conversion-therapy ban violated its due process, free speech and free exercise rights.
Family Equality—a national nonprofit dedicated to advancing equality for LGBTQ+ families—announced Darra Gordon as its new CEO, according to The Advocate. “Family Equality’s mission is so deeply personal to me,” Gordon told The Advocate. “I’m a proud member of the community. My wife and I are raising three children, and our oldest is nonbinary. The work we do at Family Equality is not just professional. It’s about protecting and uplifting families like mine.” She added, “This moment is pivotal—the attacks on our rights, the barriers to basic safety and inclusion. They are horrific. But we are addressing this head-on.”
Transgender Black Hawk pilot Jo Ellis had to share a “proof of life” video in response to rumors that she was helming the military helicopter involved in a mid-air collision with an American Airlines jet over the Potomac River that left no survivors, per The New York Daily News. In total, 67 people were killed in the Jan. 29 crash, including more than a dozen figure skaters. The Bombardier CRJ700 airplane was gearing up to land when a Black Hawk helicopter flew directly into its path of travel around 9 p.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration. In the wake of the crash, social-media users wrongfully identified Ellis as one of the three soldiers aboard the ill-fated military aircraft. Those rumors continued to gain traction, prompting Ellis to prove she is still alive.
The Honorable Judge Norma Jennings—New York State’s first Black lesbian civil court judge—was sworn in on Jan. 30 at Brooklyn Law School, Gay City News reported. Jennings rose to Kings County’s Sixth Municipal Court from the Housing Court circuit, most recently as a supervising judge in New York County; she ran for the district seat twice in the past before finally winning the vote. Following the induction, Jennings thanked the crowd and urged everyone to keep fighting for justice—especially in the face of anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders from President Donald Trump.
In Alabama, the Rev. Jennifer Sanders—a pioneering lesbian pastor in Birmingham who once officiated the same-sex wedding for a former Miss America—retired from her job as pastor after her Jan. 26 sermon, according to AL.com. Sanders was elected pastor of the 120-member Beloved Community Church in Avondale in 2016. Sanders officiated the 2018 wedding of Miss Alabama 2004/Miss America 2005 Deidre Downs Gunn and attorney Abbott Jones at the Birmingham Museum of Art. Sanders plans to work through her personal website: https://whattheheartholds.com.
In California, a man who worked as a journalist in LGBTQ+ media has been arrested and identified by authorities as a fugitive sex offender who police say had been living under an assumed identity since at least 2016, The Advocate reported. Police officials allege that George Paul Bishop, 66, had lived under the name “Brody Levesque” in Santa Cruz County; authorities said the alias matches a journalist who has written for LGBTQ+ news site LGBTQ Nation, and a Brody Levesque once even served as a top editor of the Los Angeles Blade. According to Virginia’s Fairfax County Circuit Court, a warrant for Bishop’s arrest has been active since June 14, 2016; police allege that Bishop failed to register as a sex offender, leading officials to classify him as a fugitive. According to court records and a 2005 report in The Connection, Bishop had been convicted in Fairfax County for manufacturing and possessing child pornography.
Adelante Magazine was the focus of an exhibit at the California State University-Fullerton from November 2024 through January 2025 in the lobby of the Pollak Library, according to the publication. Students and visitors could get a comprehensive view of the magazine, and understand its place in the history of queer publications. Adelante is the longest-running LGBTQ+ Latinx publication of its kind in the United States, documenting the history of the community from its perspective as a Southern California publication since 1988.
The ninth annual Blue Jacket Fashion Show—which promotes prostate-cancer awareness—kicked off New York Fashion Week on, fittingly, World Cancer Day (Feb. 4), according to a press release. Among the celebrities making appearances were Bill Nye, Mario Cantone, J. Harrison Ghee, Don Lemon, Jeezy, Nigel Barker, Phillip Bloch, Wilson Cruz, Tamron Hall, Alex Lundqvist, NYC Council Member Erik Bottcher and Meredith Marks. Additionally, community members, event participants and guests were invited to get screened for prostate cancer with a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test provided by NYC’s Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among cisgender U.S. men.
Ethan Felson—executive director of A Wider Bridge (AWB), a pro-Israel LGBTQ+ advocacy organization—is facing a criminal charge stemming from sexual-misconduct allegations by a Vermont museum employee, according to The Times of Israel. Felson has pleaded not guilty to the charge; he faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $300. In response to an inquiry, the board of A Wider Bridge said in a statement, “A Wider Bridge Executive Director Ethan Felson is currently on leave. Board Chair Daniel Hernandez and our professional team are keeping AWB programs and missions moving forward as usual.” A Montshire Museum of Science employee alleged that Felson (who was visiting with his family) followed the employee and grabbed his genital area over his pants; after the employee objected, Felson allegedly flashed him twice and continued trying to touch him.
Former University of California-Berkeley employee Sweven Waterman—charged in the killing of a gay Black man in Oakland two years ago—was sentenced to 11 years in prison, per The Bay Area Reporter. Waterman pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the killing of Curtis Marsh, a hairstylist also known as drag artist Touri Monroe. By accepting the plea agreement, Waterman avoids a trial on the charges; prior to that agreement, the case was headed to trial after Alameda County Superior Court Judge Rhonda Burgess oversaw a preliminary hearing.
Right-wing priest Calvin Robinson has reportedly been defrocked by the Anglican Catholic Church after mimicking Elon Musk’s controversial Nazi-like salute at a recent pro-life convention, PinkNews noted. Musk was heavily criticized for twice making the one-armed salute, which many compared to the Nazi salute used by fascists, during Donald Trump’s inauguration; Musk has denied it was a fascist gesture. As for his gesture, Robinson argued in a social-media post that what he did was a “joke” taken out of context by “hysterical liberals.”
San Francisco Pride Executive Director Suzanne Ford doesn’t expect social-media giant Meta will be participating in this year’s parade, The Bay Area Reporter noted. However, the reason is not because of the news over the company ending fact-checking and the removal of long-standing hate speech policies on its social-media platforms, Facebook and Instagram. Ford, a trans woman, emailed to the Reporter, “We stand with the community in recognizing these recent changes as the backsliding they are,” but she explained that Meta did not participate in 2024’s San Francisco parade. (Meta last marched in that particular parade in 2023.)
In Indiana, Ball State University canceled an upcoming LGBTQ+ staff training session, citing potential new laws in Indiana, according to FOX59. An employee develop.m.ent session titled “LGBTQ 101” was scheduled for staff members on April 16; it was part of the university’s annual Learning and Develop.m.ent sessions for “employee professional growth.” While Ball State leadership did not clarify what they were specifically concerned about, it is possible its inclusion office is referring to Senate Bill 235—a potential law limiting DEI initiatives throughout the state.
In California, a Cathedral City neighborhood is taking action against a woman who has been shouting anti-gay slurs using a bullhorn in a predominantly LGBTQ+ community, NBC Palm Springs noted. Residents organized a march through the neighborhood to protest the ongoing harassment, which they say has escalated in recent weeks. After marching past the woman’s home, demonstrators continued to Councilmember Rita Lamb’s residence, demanding action. While Lamb did not come outside, her husband addressed the crowd, asking, “Actually, what do you think she should do—go down there and kick that lady’s ass?” Authorities have been monitoring the situation, and sources suggest that Cathedral City Police may soon release findings from an investigation.
Federal officials approved a new type of pain drug designed to eliminate addiction and overdose risks associated with opioid medications like Vicodin and OxyContin, per the AP. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it approved Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ Journavx for short-term pain that often follows surgery or injuries—the first new pharmaceutical approach to treating pain in more than 20 years.