| | | 2025 PFLAG National Convention Registration is open! Get early bird rates now for Learning With Love: The 2025 PFLAG National Convention. Through workshops, panels, and presentations from PFLAG National staff, chapter leaders, organizers, and community leaders, we’ll provide insight, expertise, training, strategies, and best practices so that PFLAG friends, families, members, supporters, and leaders can work together to fulfill our organizational mission to create a caring, just, and affirming world for LGBTQ+ people and those who love them. Don't miss early-bird rates—visit pflag.org/2025convention/ now to get started. Federal Actions Tell your Senators to vote NO on the reconciliation bill! The Senate will be considering a budget package next week that makes many changes to Medicaid, including eliminating coverage for transgender youth and HIV coverage, and restricts SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits. The bill also removes transgender healthcare as an EHB (essential health benefit) for plans available on state exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. This bill would force millions of families to choose between paying for healthcare, food, or housing each month, impacting every family who relies on Medicaid for healthcare, from HIV prevention and treatment, to transgender healthcare, to general well-being. This bill must be stopped by the Senate. Contact your Senator and tell them to vote no NOW! State Actions Mainers LD 233, LD 868, and LD 1134 might reach the State House floor very soon. Those bills would keep trans kids from playing sports and ban them from bathrooms, locker rooms, and other school facilities. Tell your legislators to respect trans kids and vote NO on these bills! New Hampshirites SB 211, an anti-trans athlete and facilities ban, and HB 377, an anti-trans healthcare ban, have each passed one chamber of the state legislature. We need your help to stop these bills from getting to the Governor's desk. Tell your legislators to respect trans kids and vote NO on these bills! |
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|  | | Here is a sample of what’s going on around the country. You can share news from your state with [email protected] for possible inclusion in a future newsletter. California - Trump pressures state officials to prevent trans athlete from competing in girls’ state track and field finals. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that federal funding for the State of California would be “held back, maybe permanently” if officials did not obey his orders to block trans girls from competing in girls’ sports. The California Interscholastic Federation announced a pilot program for this year’s track and field finals allowing additional cis women and girls who did not initially qualify for state finals to compete. Michigan - State House passes two anti-trans athlete ban bills. The State House voted almost entirely along party lines to pass HB 4066 and HB 4469, both of which would amend the state’s civil rights law to ban trans girls from participating in girls’ sports. Tennessee - High school senior suspended, banned from graduation after coming out. The student announced she was in a relationship with another young woman on social media, and days later was suspended and banned from the graduation ceremony at her private Christian high school. The girl’s parents have sued the school in response. Texas - Legislature passes sex redefinition bill. The State Senate passed HB 229 late on the night of May 27th. Once signed into law, HB 229 will define “woman” as someone whose reproductive system developed to produce eggs and a “man” as someone whose reproductive system developed to produce sperm. This could have wide ranging consequences for sex-segregated spaces, state IDs and documents, and more. Utah - Utah study shows medically necessary care for trans and nonbinary youth is safe and effective. A 2023 law imposed a moratorium on gender-affirming care for minors and ordered the Utah health department to commission a systematic review of medical evidence around this care. The study has now been published, concluding, “The consensus of the evidence supports that the treatments are effective in terms of mental health, psychosocial outcomes, and the induction of body changes…The evidence also supports that the treatments are safe in terms of changes to bone density, cardiovascular risk factors, metabolic changes, and cancer.” Washington - School district votes to adopt anti-trans athlete ban, in contravention of state policy. The Quilcene School District in western Washington voted 3-2 to adopt the ban, following a tense meeting. West Virginia - Gov. Patrick Morrisey asks that scores for trans athlete be listed separately from other girls’ at West Virginia 2025 State Track and Field Meet. Though Becky Pepper-Jackson, who is trans, placed third in discus and eighth in shot put, with cis girls placing ahead of her in both categories, Governor Morrisey still insisted Pepper-Jackson’s scores should be kept separate from other girls’ scores. |
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| | | | In addition to other federal issues, this section includes ongoing activity regarding the executive orders (EOs) signed by President Trump since January 20, 2025. Please know that EOs do NOT override the United States Constitution, federal statutes, or established legal precedent. EOs are required by law to follow a process before changes can be implemented, and for many of these EOs, litigation is not only expected but is also already happening. To inform your activism, advocacy, and media work, please use our Executive Order explainers and resources web page, which is updated frequently as we gather information from our many trusted partners. Former New York Congressman Charlie Rangel dies at 94. Congressman Rangel represented his native Harlem for nearly 50 years. Over the course of his tenure in Congress, Rangel was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, the dean of the New York congressional delegation, and the first Black chair of the Ways and Means Committee. Rangel retired from Congress in 2016. |
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| | | Hungary - 17 E.U. countries accuse Hungary of violating E.U. law with Pride Ban. In a statement signed by Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden, the E.U.-member states called on Hungary to repeal its ban on Pride marches. The letter also asked the European Commission to take action against Hungary if the law is not repealed. Uganda - Human Rights Watch accuses government of “state bigotry” against LGBTQ+ people. In its report, Human Rights Watch states that the Ugandan government has “raided and suspended nongovernmental organisations, conducted arbitrary arrests and detentions, engaged in entrapment via social media and dating apps, and extorted money from LGBT people in exchange for releasing them from police custody.” |
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| | | Lawmakers and activists commemorate 100th birthday of Frank Kameny. A pioneer for LGBTQ+ civil rights, Kameny was fired from his position at the Army Map Service in 1957 because of his sexual orientation. He unsuccessfully challenged his termination in court, which launched a career of activism for LGBTQ+ rights, including picketing the White House for gay rights in 1965. PFLAG National CEO Brian Bond was one of the people asked to represent the core organizations that are considered leaders in the movement. Jason Collins marries longtime partner. Collins, who became the first openly gay player in the NBA in 2013, married Brunson Green in a ceremony in Austin, Texas. |
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