Dr. Demetre Daskalakis—a prominent out gay official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a former assistant commissioner of the New York City health department—suddenly resigned and criticized the Trump administration’s public health policies in a letter, Gay City News noted.
The letter coincided with several other resignations at the CDC amid growing frustration over the administration’s approach to vaccine policy and other issues. “I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health,” Daskalakis wrote, in part.
NOTE: The next items mentions sexual assault.
A transgender woman who was raped by her neighbor in the stairwell of their Manhattan apartment building three years ago faced her attacker at his sentencing hearing, LGBTQ Nation noted. Siobhan Ebert directed her anger at convicted rapist Nicholas Encarnacion before Judge Kathryn Paek sentenced him to 12 years in a New York state prison. Among other things, Ebert talked about how the attack changed her: “I hate you. You ruined my life.” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg praised Ebert for her bravery at trial, saying her public testimony was crucial to “ensure accountability for this defendant.”
After backing away from a logo rebrand loudly opposed by many right-wing influencers, Tennessee-based roadside restaurant chain Cracker Barrel also deleted a dedicated “Pride page” and erased references to employee resource groups—including its LGBTQ+ and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging groups—from another part of its website, CNN reported. “On behalf of Cracker Barrel’s LGBTQ+ Alliance & DEIB Team, we want to celebrate YOU for being YOU. It is our greatest Mission to ensure that Pleasing People means ‘all people,’” Cracker Barrel’s now-deleted Pride page read; the URL now sends users to the company’s “Culture and Belonging” page, which has also been changed.
Weeks before the start of the school year, the pastor who oversees Portland’s St. Agatha Catholic School revoked an offer of enrollment to the children of a same-sex couple, OregonLive.com noted. The decision by the Rev. Father Luan Tran, the pastor of the neighboring St. Agatha Catholic Church, incited an uproar in the close-knit community. Metro Weekly added that, in a brief note to families, Tran said the decision was made “solely under my pastoral authority and discernment, as pastor of both the parish and the school.” Anne Smeraglio, a St. Agatha parent, said she is considering pulling her children from the school—and knows at least eight other families debating the same—over what they see as discrimination against families headed by same-sex couples.
The National Black Justice Coalition issued a press release mourning the passing of Kasi Rhea—a 31-year-old Black transgender woman who was found dead from several gunshot wounds in Lynchburg, Virginia, on Aug. 18. Director of Public Policy and Programs Victoria Kirby York said, in part, “Support does not just look like providing condolences and mourning with the family. It also means advocating for policies that will protect our trans siblings. It means advocating for law enforcement to be culturally competent, which includes avoiding misgendering and deadnaming victims, and issuing corrections when they do. It means remembering those we lose are not just statistics in an ongoing epidemic of violence but whole and complex people with hopes, ambitions, and plans.” A suspect has been arrested and charged in Rhea’s death.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas as well as a group of LGBTQ+- and student-rights organizations are suing to block a new state law that would ban DEI initiatives in K-12 public schools, The Texas Tribune noted. Attorneys from the ACLU of Texas and Transgender Law Center argue that Senate Bill 12 violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments as well as the Equal Access Act; Gov. Greg Abbott signed the legislation last June, and it will go into effect Sept. 1. Authored by state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, the bill bans public school districts from considering race, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation in hiring decisions.
Openly gay U.S Rep. Mark Takano (D-California) compared civil-rights abuses that immigrant detainees face under the current presidential administration to the more than 125,000 Japanese-Americans forcibly relocated to internment camps during WWII, LGBTQ Nation noted. In a column for The Rafu Shimpo, Takano specifically wrote about “Alligator Alcatraz,” a recently closed immigrant detainment facility in the Florida Everglades. “There are distinctions between Japanese American incarceration of WWII and Alligator Alcatraz. But at its heart, there is not a wide gap between the two,” he wrote, adding that both groups were forcibly removed and placed in mass confinement.
Kim Kardashian has clashed with the White House over President Trump’s immigration raids, per The South China Morning Post. “In the news you hear, ‘Oh, it’s about people who have committed these crimes and [ICE is] trying to help out our country,’” Kardashian told reporters. “But then you hear about all of the people who have worked so hard to build our country, and so many people that are such a part of our country getting affected—people I know [and] people my friends know.” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, in a statement to TMZ, has since urged the reality star from speaking out in the future, suggesting she is not knowledgeable enough to address these issues.
Grindr posted its financial results for the quarter ended June 30 in a letter to shareholders—noting that the company experienced a second-quarter revenue growth of 27%, Business Wire noted. CEO George Arison said, “We are delivering on our performance objectives while continuing to execute at a high level on our product innovation and AI roadmaps. Grindr has a unique set of assets and capabilities that position us to build a leading AI-native consumer platform, which we believe allows us to maintain our competitive advantage and long-term shareholder value.”
In Texas, state troopers followed Democratic lawmakers’ every move to ensure they vote on redistricting—so one out lawmaker led police to a Dallas drag space, per The Advocate. Texas state Rep. Venton Jones recently met with fellow Democratic state Rep. Terry Meza at the Rose Room, a gay bar in Dallas’ Oak Lawn gayborhood. Police escorts were ordered after lawmakers (including Jones) left the state, denying a quorum to Republican legislative leaders for a time to thwart redistricting plans.
In Virginia, Winsome Earle-Sears, the state’s Black lieutenant governor and now the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee, is running alongside John Reid—a white, gay conservative radio host seeking the lieutenant governorship, The Advocate noted. The ticket is historic in its visibility, but it also highlights stark contradictions, as Earle-Sears has a long record of opposing the rights that Reid and his longtime partner, Alonzo Mable, embody as a couple.
Federal Election Commission records show that disco/gospel singer Gloria Gaynor donated nearly $22,000 to right-wing politicians and groups from August 2023 to June 2025, Yahoo! News Singapore noted. The records show Gaynor—under her birth name, Gloria Fowles—donated hundreds or thousands of dollars to the campaigns for Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn and Josh Hawley, among others. President Trump recently named Gaynor as one of this year’s Kennedy Center Honorees, alongside George Strait, Michael Crawford, KISS and Sylvester Stallone.
In Texas, Harris County gave an LGBTQ+ softball event nearly $500,000 after Gov. Greg Abbott’s office denied the money, ABC 13 noted. Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia offered the Gay Softball World Series nearly half a million tax dollars budgeted for tourism—and the commissioners approved it. “Looking forward to welcoming all of these thousands of visitors to Houston and Harris County, where they’re going to spend money on hotels and food,” Garcia said. The event will take place Sept. 21-27 in Houston.
Tom of Finland Foundation, Inc. (ToFF)—a nonprofit public charity that aims “to promote the cultural merits of art and in promoting healthier, more tolerant attitudes about sexuality”—announced the appointments of new officers on its board of directors, a newsletter noted. Joining curator and 501(c)(3) Coordinator Brooke Wise are Board Chair Robert Knox Hayes, Treasurer Terence McFarland and Secretary Nolan Feng. The foundation also recently announced the appointment of David Aldea as interim executive director as well as Richard Villani as director of global partnerships and exhibitions.
Brad Gaines—a former Vanderbilt University football player and the father of anti-trans political activist Riley Gaines—has filed to run for Congress in Tennessee, per WTVF. Riley Gaines is a former collegiate swimmer for the University of Kentucky who is known for campaigning against the participation of trans women in women’s sports. According to Yahoo!, Gaines filed his statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Aug. 25, and he’s now the fifth Republican candidate to vie for the seat in Congress that will be vacated by U.S. Rep. John Rose, R-Cookeville, who is running for governor.