02/20/25

Hi all,

📩 The Department of Justice, under President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, has sent a letter to gay California U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia demanding he clarify his criticism of billionaire Elon Musk and the Trump administration.

🕯️ We're taking a moment to honor the memory of Tahiry Broom, a trans woman killed in Michigan.

🗳️ U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who announced Thursday that he will not seek reelection in 2026, will leave with an egregiously anti-LGBTQ+ record. The Advocate's Trudy Ring broke it down.

🌈 The number of adults in the United States who identify as LGBTQ+ is higher than ever. About 9.3 percent of U.S. adults in 2024 said that they identify as "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or something other than heterosexual" in a new report from Gallup, up over one whole percentage point from the previous year. This is also nearly double the amount who identified as LGBTQ+ in 2020, and almost three times as many as those who did in 2012, when Gallup first began measuring it.

Onwards and upwards,

Alex Cooper

Editor-in-chief, Advocate.com

Robert Garcia ‘will not be silenced’ after Department of Justice U.S. attorney targets him for criticizing Elon Musk on TV

Al Drago/Getty Images

More adults than ever — including 23% of Gen-Z — identify as LGBTQ+

shutterstock creative

Why Donald Trump’s suits are a sign that he’s separating himself from his MAGA base

Phil Mistry/Shutterstock; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Out California firefighter stabbed to death; wife is lead suspect

photo courtesy Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Dept

Mitch McConnell will leave Senate with egregiously anti-LGBTQ+ record

Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Rachel Maddow & Pete Buttigieg skewer 'sloppy' Trump team for firing nuclear safety staff

MSNBC; Jeremy Bustin Photography/Shutterstock

Republicans strip Louisiana's only LGBTQ+ elected official of leadership role

Courtesy of Davante Lewis' campaign

Why Scouting America blazes a different trail

shutterstock creative

Marsha P. Johnson's family fights for trans legacy at Stonewall

The New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division; paikong/Shutterstock

Widower sues Long Island cemetery for denying husband’s burial in family plot, citing anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination

Eliyahu Yosef Parypa/Shutterstock

Black trans woman Tahiry Broom killed in Michigan