by Joe Siegel

Last year was a tumultuous one for the United States and its LGBTQ community. State legislatures, emboldened by an right-wing populist presidential administration, launched a relentless attack on civl and human rights. The rollback of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies across all areas of the government and the virtual erasure of LGBTQ historical figures and events from government websites was a chilling sign of things to come.

LGBTQ books were removed from school libraries. Even the National Stonewall Monument’s website wasn’t safe from changes. Trump administration officials removed the T, Q, and +, leaving only LGB in its place.

The Washington Blade, in its review of the top LGBTQ news stories of 2025, highlighted the local LGBTQ community’s outrage over the presence of National Guard troops in the District of Columbia.

“LGBTQ rights advocates joined community leaders across the city in condemning President Donald Trump’s decision in August to take control of the D.C Metropolitan Police Department and deploy 800 National Guard troops to address what he called a crime wave caused by ‘bloodthirsty criminals’ and ‘roving mobs of wild youth,’” the Blade recounted. “A coalition of local LGBTQ advocacy organizations joined other community leaders, including gay D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), in calling Trump’s action a ‘power grab’ aimed at eliminating D.C.’s locally elected government that would adversely impact people of color, the LGBTQ and immigrant communities.”

At Fight Magazine in Los Angeles, managing editor Mark Ariel said one of the biggest stories in 2025 was the “untimely death” of Stanford Altamirano, the magazine’s founding publisher and editor in chief. Altamirano passed away on August 7, 2025. He had been battling adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare form of head and neck cancer, for the past three years. He was 51.

Ariel noted many tributes poured in following the news. For example, the Los Angeles LGBT Center posted that Altamirano “was more than just the founder and editor in chief of The Fight, a landmark LGBTQ+ publication, he was a cultural force. For over a decade, he uplifted queer voices and created space for our stories to be seen, felt, and celebrated.”

As for what he wants to accomplish in 2026, Ariel said simply: “Keep on fighting the good fight.”

In Dallas, the biggest local story was the erasure of rainbow crosswalks.

“I can say that our largest story in 2025 was the rainbow crosswalks and [Gov.] Greg Abbott’s order that that all ‘non-standard’ crosswalks be removed or cities could lose federal funds,” said Tammye Nash, managing editor of the Dallas Voice. “His comment about crosswalks making ‘ideological’ or ‘political’ statements made it glaringly clear he was targeting rainbow crosswalks in LGBTQ+ neighborhoods, although a lot of other non-standard designs have been removed, including student designed and painted artwork in crosswalks at two middle schools in Bedford, a smaller city between Dallas and Fort Worth. Abbott also claimed that nonstandard crosswalks are a safety hazards, but city officials in both Dallas and San Antonio have produced studies and data indicating that the rainbow crosswalks have improved safety.”

But the other big story in Dallas was that the local community fought back against the rainbow erasures.

“When Abbott issued his directive, the community began fighting back by making sure that there were rainbows everywhere along the Cedar Springs Strip, the main street in our gayborhood where the rainbow crosswalks are,” said Nash. “All kinds of businesses have painted rainbows on their exterior walls and windows. Cedar Springs Merchants Association is planning to install rainbow-colored bike racks, and [Dallas Voice publisher] Leo Cusimano went out one afternoon and hand painted rainbows on all the Dallas Voice distribution boxes on Cedar Springs.”

Looking ahead to 2026, Nash said Dallas Voice has had “an SEO specialist working to reorganize content on our website and show us how to tag and categorize each post to maximize our reach. I expect us to continue with that effort throughout 2026 because I think that while we have top quality content, we have not always promoted that content and our website as a whole in the most efficient manner.”

In terms of news coverage in Texas, “I think the big stories for us in 2026 will be about the elections,” said Nash. “The Trump-ordered redistricting has caused some real upheaval in what had been well-established political patterns in Texas. The whole idea behind the redistricting was to cut back on the number of Democrats Texas sends to Congress. But there are rumblings out there indicating it may backfire on the MAGA GOP. At least, I hope that what happens.”

In San Francisco, “I’d say our biggest story was President Trump and the administration,” said Cynthia Laird, news editor of Bay Area Reporter. “This includes localizing the effect of executive orders, lawsuits that local nonprofits filed, the stripping of Harvey Milk’s name from a Navy ship, [restrictions placed on] gender-affirming health care, and the gutting of the CDC.”

“Looking forward in 2026,” Laird added, “I see much of the same.”

IN THE NEWS
Volume 27
Issue 12