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Politics

In Politics, The Advocate presents the latest news about the political world. From Supreme Court rulings to state and federal laws, The Advocate reports on how politics shapes the day-to-day realities faced by members of the gay community. Read about LGBT leaders like Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin and their work to advance the causes of the LGBT rights movement in the United States and around the world. Find out about legislation related to same-sex marriage, adoption, and other issues in gay politics that will impact the lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans.
Barack Obama moderating 2024 Democracy Forum Chicago Illinois
Politics

Barack Obama explains why he thinks all men need queer people in their lives

The former president appeared on Michelle Obama's podcast and shared his thoughts on why men should embrace the queer community rather than push them away.

Donald Trump makeup on bruised hand 2025 alongside picture with Jeffrey Epstein at Maralago Florida 1997
Voices

From wives to the IRS, Trump has always been hiding. Will a bruised hand and Epstein finally give him away?

Opinion: MAGA’s turning on him. The makeup’s cracking. Is a WSJ story about an Epstein letter true? What happens when Trump runs out of places to hide? writes John Casey.
Senator Josh Hawley walks past reporters at the US Capitol Building June 2025 Washington DC
Voices

Waffler and coward Josh Hawley runs away — again — from a problem he helped create

Opinion: Hawley is running from his big beautiful bill vote the same way he sprinted away from insurrectionists on January 6, writes John Casey.

Mark Pocan Sharice Davids Mike Lawler
News

Lawmakers call out Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ‘unconscionable’ apathy on eve of LGBTQ+ 988 Lifeline shutdown

“It’s heartbreaking, scary, and deeply harmful,” Kansas Rep. Sharice Davids, who said the Department of Health and Human Services should keep the successful suicide prevention program intact, told The Advocate.

young queer couple worried about finances
Politics

What Medicaid and SNAP cuts mean for LGBTQ+ people

Trump's "one big, beautiful" tax and spending law is poised to make drastic cuts to Medicaid and SNAP — programs on which many LGBTQ+ Americans rely.

HIV AIDS Community Rehabilitation Program Nairobi Kenya Africa
Politics

PEPFAR likely to be exempt from spending cuts

The U.S. Senate and the Trump administration have agreed to exempt the global AIDS-fighting program.

Robert Garcia RFK JR
Politics

House Oversight Democrats demand records over RFK Jr.’s HIV program cuts

Robert Garcia and Raja Krishnamoorthi accuse HHS of dismantling life-saving HIV programs based on conspiracy theories and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.
queer person hiding in cubicle federal government worker
News

Federal HR office sets deadline for government-wide purge of transgender and nonbinary inclusion

The Office of Personnel Management has become the enforcement arm of Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.

Jaymes Black of Trevor Project speaks at a podium surrounded by a coalition of bipartisan lawmakers calling for the LGBTQ 988 lifeline to be reinstated
News

Why a bipartisan group of lawmakers is demanding Trump save the LGBTQ+ 988 crisis lifeline

One lawmaker called the administration's explanation for cutting the service “insufficient and dangerous.”

Mark Pocan Derrick Van Orden
Politics

Two Wisconsin congressmen clash in front of cameras during U.S. Capitol confrontation

"That's your a**hole buddy," gay Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan said about Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden.

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Richard Allen Grenell CECOT Marco Rubio
News

Ric Grenell’s rogue diplomacy stalls Marco Rubio’s Venezuela prisoner deal

The gay Trump loyalist and special envoy is ruffling feathers in Washington.

ICE Washington DC masked federal law enforcement partners including HSI FBI ATF arresting an Undocumented immigrant in Arlington Virginia Feb 2025
Voices

In baseball fields, gardens, birthday parties, and more, the increasing barbarism of masked ICE agents

Opinion: ICE expands into an authoritarian arm of the state, akin to Germany's Gestapo, going unchecked and unaccountable. and shattering lives , writes John Casey.

ERO police officer escorts potential deportees on enforcement bus headed to ICE detention facility in Chicago
News

Trump administration stops abuse protection for transgender detainees in ICE custody

Since 2015, detention facilities had to take into account the gender identity of trans migrants. Not any more.

california governor gavin newsom in ball cap and state logo fleece
News

Gavin Newsom agrees with anti-trans talking points on yet another MAGA podcast

The California governor spent more than four hours on the Shawn Ryan Show talking about, among other things, trans athletes, gender-affirming care, and "the whole 'pronoun' thing."

ken jennings UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation event May 2025 gavin newsom speaking at a press conference January 2025
Politics

'Jeopardy!'s Ken Jennings won't support Gavin Newsom for president due to trans kids stance

"Any candidate cynically 'triangulating' on trans kids is a non-starter, and now is the time to say so," Jennings says.

Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jeffrey Epstein
Politics

As Trump faces escalating Epstein scandal, Marjorie Taylor Green targets drag queens

After a report linked Donald Trump to a lewd Jeffrey Epstein note, the Georgia Republican tried to shift focus to drag queens, Pride, and trans people.

rainbow LGBTQIA pride flags fly at Rockefeller Center NYC June 2024
News

Trump admin forced to restore $6.2 million to LGBTQ+ and HIV groups

This comes after a court victory for nine organizations represented by Lambda Legal.

Jenniffer Gonzalez Colon
News

Breaking: Puerto Rico's governor just signed one of the harshest gender-affirming care laws yet

Here's what the law does.

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New Hampshire Republican governor Kelly Ayotte walks in Merrimack Independence Day parade July 2025
Politics

This Republican governor vetoed anti-LGBTQ+ book ban and bathroom bills

Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire went against her party on these and other issues.

studio portrait of six LGBTQIA queer people with diverse backgrounds building community
News

Donald Trump’s election triggered transgender people to contemplate DIY hormones & suicide: study

A new University of Vermont study found that 100 percent of respondents worried about their access to care after Donald Trump became president again.