by the B.A.R. Editorial Board
(The following editorial originally appeared in the April 2, 2026, edition of the Bay Area Reporter and is reprinted here with permission.)

An independent LGBTQ newspaper like the Bay Area Reporter is more important than ever. And for 55 years, we have brought the news to the queer community in the Bay Area and beyond. This includes devastating periods like the AIDS epidemic, joyful times such as finally obtaining same-sex marriage rights, and all the moments in between. A quick look at the media landscape shows why independence matters. On the mainstream side, we recently witnessed the hollowing out of the venerable Washington Post, with hundreds of staff laid off and entire sections of the paper gutted beyond repair. On the LGBTQ side, it was reported that U.K.-based Pink News is moving to a “reporter-free newsroom,” which means it will rely on artificial intelligence as it sheds human journalists.

We live in dangerous times; this is especially true for members of the transgender community, and that’s another reason journalism matters. It’s critical that LGBTQ people remain informed. For over a year, we have seen Republican President Donald Trump and the unqualified members of his administration seek to erase trans people. This is being accomplished largely through Trump’s executive orders, which started on the first day of his second term last January. The order “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” has had wide-ranging ramifications, as the president has stated there are only two sexes, male and female. Other orders prohibit trans girls and women from playing on female sports teams and denying gender-affirming care to those under the age of 19. The latter order, “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” has resulted in numerous medical centers, including in the Bay Area, pausing or ending their own gender-affirming care, leaving patients and their families without access to care they’ve determined they need.

We’ve editorialized on these cruel policies since Trump returned to office. We’ve seen a Congress, controlled by Republicans, unwilling to assert itself in areas in which it has oversight, or in fiscal matters where it controls the government’s purse strings. This abdication of duty is leading the country down an authoritarian path, where what Trump says becomes the law of the land, even if there is no actual law on the books. Make no mistake, this is exactly what Trump wants.

The other branch of government, the courts, has been better, at least at the lower levels. There, we’ve seen judges, Republican and Democrat alike, push back on the administration’s most egregious matters, from immigration to federal workers to construction of Trump’s ballroom. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, is another matter entirely. Its conservative supermajority has expanded use of the “shadow docket,” whereby the justices rule without having heard oral arguments on any number of major issues. When the justices do hear oral arguments, it’s generally apparent that the conservative side or the administration will win, and that has mostly happened.

Just Tuesday, on Transgender Day of Visibility no less, the high court found that a Colorado law banning conversion therapy for minors violates free speech protections of the First Amendment. This is ludicrous. Conversion therapy, which attempts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of a person, has been debunked by every major medical association. More than 20 states and Washington, D.C., have such bans on the practice for minors. Yet, only one of the liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented. The majority in the 8-1 ruling, shockingly included liberals Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. The decision imperils California’s law, which was the first in the nation.

Also on trans visibility day, Trump issued a statement touting all of his anti-trans policies. It’s but another distraction from his decision to go to war in Iran without contemplating that Iranians would tie up the Strait of Hormuz, without getting congressional approval, and, of course, the release of the Epstein files.

All of this is to say that the B.A.R. will continue covering the hypocrisy, double standards, and outright lies Trump rattles off daily, because they affect so many members of our community in all sorts of ways. For example, the upcoming San Francisco budget negotiations portend cuts to services that LGBTQ people and those living with HIV/AIDS utilize. But the budget deficit is partly due to less federal money coming to San Francisco because of Trump’s policies.

We don’t have a billionaire owner-publisher who donated to the Trump inauguration (looking at you, Post owner Jeff Bezos). We do have an owner-publisher who is a gay man, a person of color, and is dedicated to news and arts coverage seen through an LGBTQ lens, whether it be the latest Trump fiasco or matters closer to home, like the San Francisco Ballet taking so long to cancel its performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts because Trump has taken it over and ruined it.

Even today, with LGBTQ issues regularly covered in the mainstream media, there is a need for LGBTQ publications like the B.A.R. because we strive to include queer voices and capture this first draft of history in all of its uncertainty. Yes, the B.A.R. is still here, 55 years later, and still calling out homophobia and transphobia, even as we salute innovative people and programs that are working to make the Bay Area a truly diverse and great place to live.

GUEST COMMENTARY
Volume 28
Issue 5