by Joe Siegel

The Trump administration has dramatically impacted the lives of the LGBTQ community through a series of executive orders that reversed Biden-era policies, as well as appointments of ultra-conservative, anti-LGBTQ officials to cabinet positions.

And LGBTQ media have been kept busy keeping up with all the (mostly bad) news.

San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter (BAR) ran a March 12 story about the outrage over cuts to HIV prevention and treatment programs.

“A Save Our Sciences rally March 10 at the Yerba Buena Gardens in the city’s South of Market neighborhood — adjacent to the Moscone Center, where the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, or CROI, took place March 9 to 12 — attracted hundreds of attendees,” wrote BAR assistant news editor John Ferrannini. “One participant was Richard Jefferys, a gay man who is the basic science, vaccines and cure project director with the Treatment Action Group.”

In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter post-protest, “Jefferys explained how people who can no longer access antiretroviral medications due to the abrupt cuts in the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, are at risk.” Said Jeffreys, ”For someone with HIV, their load count would rebound and they’d be more susceptible to opportunistic infections.”

The Washington Blade ran a March 13 story about InterPride’s travel advisory for transgender and nonbinary people who want to travel to the United States for June’s WorldPride event in D.C.

“President Donald Trump’s anti-transgender executive orders have sparked growing concern among governments and advocacy groups around the world,” Blade international news editor Michael Lavers wrote. “Germany’s Federal Foreign Office last week issued a travel advisory for trans and nonbinary people who are planning to visit the U.S. It specifically notes Trump’s executive order that bans the State Department from issuing passports with ‘X’ gender markers.”

“The relevant gender identity of the applicant at the time of birth is the relevant one,” reads the advisory. “Travelers who have the ‘X’ gender marker or whose current gender entry differs from their gender identity at birth should contact the relevant U.S. diplomatic mission in Germany before entering the country and find out the applicable entry requirements.”

The Blade ran a February 28 story about the discharge of transgender members of the military. White House correspondent Christopher Kane wrote: “The White House directed the Pentagon to submit a formal policy detailing how the ban would be enforced via Trump’s January 27 executive order, ‘Prioritizing Military Readiness and Excellence.’ … Also per Trump’s directive, earlier this month the military announced it would discontinue providing gender affirming medical care and stop welcoming would-be enlistees who are trans.”

A March 17 story in the Philadelphia Gay News focused on DEI policies in schools.

“The ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Education Law Center of Pennsylvania have sent letters to school administrators throughout the state, urging them to retain their diversity, equity and inclusion programs despite threats from the Trump administration to end their federal funding if they don’t eliminate the programs,” wrote reporter Tim Cwiek. “On March 12, about 700 letters were emailed to all school districts, charter schools and regional education service agencies throughout the state. Both groups that sent the letters support LGBTQ+ rights and hold the position that DEI programs are legally permissible, despite assertions to the contrary from Trump administration officials.”

New York City’s Gay City News reported on a controversy involving the erasure of an LGBTQ rights pioneer.

Editor in chief Matt Tracy wrote: “The National Park Service (NPS), already under fire for intentionally scrubbing several pages about transgender individuals, appeared to mistakenly remove part of a web page about the former New York City home of the late out gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. The page was restored on March 12 after Gay City News brought it to the federal government’s attention.”

IN THE NEWS
Volume 27
Issue 2