Michigan’s revamped hate-crimes law—which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed recently—will soon be expanded to protect sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability and more, according to MLive. The first overhaul to the law in about 36 years (which will take effect on April 2) will also stiffen the criminal and possible civil penalties for committing a hate crime and expand the definition of hate crimes. “Our state’s previous hate crime laws were inadequate to deter and properly prosecute those that target Michigan residents with fear and hatred, simply for who they are,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said. “Hate crimes are intended to send a message, an inherently violent message of intolerance, to vulnerable communities. At the Department of Attorney General, and particularly in our Hate Crimes unit, we know that stronger laws such as these can help us better protect Michigan residents from the scourge of hatred in our state.”
The Minnesota-based LGBTQ+ organization Twin Cities Pride has at least temporarily cut ties with Target, which is eliminating its DEI programs, The Minnesota Star Tribune reported. Target has been a longtime supporter of Pride events in Minneapolis and around the country, donating between $50,000 and $70,000 each year to the organization/event. Losing Target’s financial support could have affected this year’s festivities, which are scheduled for June 28-29 in Loring Park in Minneapolis, according to Twin Cities Pride Executive Director Andi Otto—but it turned out that the organization was able to quickly raise more than $70,000 through its fundraising effort. The company’s move comes as federal agencies roll back their diversity programs after sweeping orders from President Donald Trump.
On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump named Vince Micone, an openly gay man, as acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, The Washington Blade reported. Micone—who has worked in high-level positions in federal government agencies (including the departments of commerce, treasury and homeland security) for at least three decades—has served on the board of directors of D.C.’s Capital Pride Alliance, which organizes most of D.C.’s LGBTQ+ Pride events, for 15 years. However, Trump has nominated former Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to be the permanent secretary of labor; her nomination is expected to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate shortly.
And on a related note, the U.S. Senate confirmed gay billionaire Scott Bessent as treasury secretary by a vote of 68-29, per The Advocate. He’s the first out LGBTQ+ person in that particular U.S. Cabinet position, and one of only a few to ever hold a Cabinet or Cabinet-level position (including now-former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg). During his confirmation process, Bessent spoke of a “3-3-3” economic plan for the country; he plans to take the federal budget deficit down by 3 percent, reach three percent GDP and increase oil production to 3 million barrels more a day by 2028. Bessent and his husband, former New York City prosecutor John Freeman, have two children.
Regarding Pete Buttigieg, he is reportedly considering a U.S. Senate run in Michigan, The Advocate noted. This news follows the surprise announcement that Democratic Sen. Gary Peters will not seek a third term. Buttigieg (who is also seen as a potential contender for Michigan’s governorship, as current Gov. Gretchen Whitner will leave office because of term limits) and husband Chasten live in Traverse City, where they moved to raise their twin children after he was appointed transportation secretary in President Joe Biden’s administration.
In Minnesota, progressive St. Paul City Council President Mitra Jalali announced that she will step down next month—after one year leading the city’s first all-women council, and six years on the City Council, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. “I have made the difficult decision to prioritize my health and begin a transition out of City Hall,” Jalali wrote on Facebook. “I will be proud for the rest of my life to have been part of our Council, and I know my colleagues will carry the torch forward in their work ahead with the foundation we’ve built in our first year together.” Jalali’s last council meeting will be Feb. 5, after which she said she would begin a leave of absence and transition out of the City Council. The other six council members will appoint an interim Ward 4 representative until a special election will be held to finish Jalali’s term, which is set to end in 2028. The first Asian American woman to sit on the St. Paul City Council, Jalali was the only renter on the council when she took office and the first member to openly identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Sol Kersey said they’re ”tired of being tired” and of their “existence being political,” so the attorney/Equality Ohio Legal Clinic intake coordinator is running for Cincinnati City Council, The Enquirer noted. Kersey—the first openly transgender person to run for the city’s governing body—is doing it with the backing of LPAC, an organization that supports LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary candidates who support social justice and women’s equality. Last year many in the LGBTQ+ community were disappointed when Reggie Harris, who is openly gay, resigned from council and was replaced by a straight man—leaving the council with no queer representation for the first time since 2011.
A gay man who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection said that he is rejecting a pardon granted by Donald Trump because he wants to truly atone for his actions, per LGBTQ Nation. “It’s almost like he was trying to say it didn’t happen,” Navy veteran Jason Riddle told Vermont Public. “And it happened. I did those things, and they weren’t pardonable. I don’t want the pardon. And I also learned that I can reject the pardon.” Riddle stormed the Capitol, entering the Senate parliamentarian’s office and drinking a bottle of wine; eventually, he accepted a sentence of 90 days in jail and a fine of $750. Riddle added that, in prison, he was “treated like a celebrity” with guards telling him, “Lets go Brandon,” an anti-Joe Biden slogan.
An incarcerated trans woman is suing the Trump administration, challenging an executive order that requires the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to house transgender inmates according to their sex at birth and prevents prisoners from accessing gender-affirming medical care, The Hill reported. Plaintiff Maria Moe (a pseudonym) argues Trump’s executive order violates the Fifth and Eighth amendments of the Constitution and skirts necessary federal rulemaking processes. BOP revised its transgender offender manual in 2022, restoring guidelines first instituted under former President Barack Obama requiring federal prisons to consider the safety of transgender people regarding housing and pronoun usage.
One day after Bishop Mariann Budde asked President Donald Trump for understanding and acceptance of migrants, LGBTQ+ people and other vulnerable groups during a sermon, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB’s) president, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, criticized some of Trump’s executive orders—but agreed with him on an order that denies the existence of transgender and non-binary people, according to a statement from New Ways Ministry Executive Director Francis DeBernardo. The executive director added, in part, “Broglio’s fairly short and weakly worded criticism of policies affecting immigration, the death penalty, foreign aid and environmental degradation lacks the specifics and pointed rhetoric used in the Conference’s past statements opposing pro-LGBTQ+ initiatives. Where is the USCCB’s boldness on all these human-rights issues? Pope Francis has called President Trump’s mass deportation policy a ‘disgrace.’ Why doesn’t the USCCB president use the same powerful language?”
Federal prosecutors dropped the case against a Texas doctor who called himself a whistleblower on transgender care for minors and was accused of illegally obtaining private information on patients who weren’t under his care, The Canadian Press noted. The dismissal of the case against Dr. Eithan Haim in U.S. district court in Houston comes as the Trump administration has issued executive orders rolling back transgender rights, including in the military. Prosecutors had said that Haim took the information and shared it with a conservative activist with “intent to cause malicious harm” to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, one of the nation’s largest pediatric hospitals.
In NYC, a murder trial has started for three suspects charged with the killings of two gay men in a crime ring that terrorized New York City’s nightlife for more than a year, per Gay City News. New York’s Assistant District Attorney Emily Ching said that Jacob Barroso, Robert DeMaio and Jayqwan Hamilton employed a strategy of identifying and acquiring targets, befriending them, drugging them to incapacitate them and robbing them. Instead, the scheme led to the deaths of two gay men—social worker Julio Ramirez, 25, and Republican political consultant John Umberger, 33—whom the defendants allegedly left to die after drugging and robbing them. Barroso’s lawyer, David B. Krauss, denied Ching’s evidence, calling it “accusations,” not “evidence,” according to the New York Times.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced honorees, speakers and performers for this year’s HRC Greater New York Dinner, taking place Feb. 1, per a press release. HRC will honor Heartstopper and Agatha All Along actor Joe Locke with HRC’s Impact Award; actress Louisa Jacobson (The Gilded Age) with the HRC Visibility Award; and social-media star RaeShanda Lias with the HRC Influence Award. HRC President Kelley Robinson and transgender U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride will be among the speakers, while NYC nightclub personality, legendary drag queen and musical performer Kevin Aviance will provide the after-party entertainment.
A recent NHL game between Washington and Seattle became the first match-up between female coaches in the league’s history: Capitals video coach Emily Engel-Natzke and Kraken assistant coach Jessica Campbell, according to Outsports. When the Capitals promoted Engel-Natzke, who’s queer, to become their video coordinator in 2022, she became the first full-time female coach in NHL history. The first-time meeting was “ phenomenal,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said to Washington Post reporter Bailey Johnson. “It’s so impressive what they’ve accomplished in their careers. Em being the first coach at this level in the NHL and then Jessica being the first on-bench coach. It’s great.”
A report allegedly stated that CNN boss Mark Thompson told more than 100 journalists and top on-air talent—including Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper—that they should not “pre-judge” then-President-elect Donald Trump while cautioning them “against expressing any outrage of their own” during the inauguration, The New York Post noted. During a virtual editorial meeting, Thompson “made it clear that he did not want the coverage to relitigate the past,” according to Status reporter Oliver Darcy—alluding to CNN’s historically frosty relationship with Trump.
Vivian Jenna Wilson, Elon Musk’s estranged trans daughter, criticized her father for the fascist salute he made during a rally shortly after Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, according to Them. The right-wing South African billionaire CEO slapped his chest and extended his raised arm stiffly twice in a row, mirroring the fascist salute used by Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. “I’m just gonna say let’s call a spade a fucking spade,” Wilson wrote on Threads and Bluesky. “Especially if there were two spades done in succession based on the reaction of the first spade.” Manon Aubry, a leftist member of the French Parliament, called “the Nazi salute of Elon Musk … a threat to the whole of the European Union” in remarks, Politico noted.
The Viking Union Gallery at Western Washington University is currently displaying a collection of headlines from past issues published by the Seattle Gay News (SGN), according to The Front. On Jan. 14, the gallery hosted a reception with guest speaker and SGN publisher Renee Raketty, and the exhibit—honoring 50 years of SGN—is expected to run through at least Feb. 20. The idea to archive the print issues of the SGN came from a video on Seattle news station King5 that showed piles of past issues of the queer publication from former SGN owner George Bakan, who died in 2020.
California’s Imperial Valley LGBTQ Resource Center recently rebranded itself as the Donnelly Community Services Center, per The Desert Review. The original group’s name was The Abide LGBT Life Group and it ran from June 2014 until December 2015, when it became the Imperial Valley LGBTQ Resource Center. Retired Imperial County Superior Court Judge Donal Donnelly said he was “greatly humbled that my name will be used to promote the Resource Center. It is also a great honor and, as a supporter of the center, I will do everything that I can to support its mission and goals.”
With DEI initiatives under attack from the Trump administration, the Diversity Lab (which aims to create “inclusive and equitable workplaces,” per its website) has changed some of the language included on its Mansfield Certification website, according to Above the Law. The American Lawyer has noted several of these changes, including the removal of language referring to candidate pool quotas as well as the removal of words within the DEI acronym, replacing them with words like “equal” and “fairness.” Although this looks like a possible effort to de-emphasize the “divisiveness” of DEI, Diversity Lab founder/CEO Caren Ulrich Stacy said the changes were “normal website refinements.”
The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled a limited-edition Bernie Sanders 2025 Inauguration Day bobblehead featuring the U.S. senator with his arms crossed and scowling as he was shown during President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, a press release noted. The special-edition bobblehead is being produced by the Milwaukee-based National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum and joins the original Bernie Sanders Inauguration Day Bobblehead from President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021—which is currently the Museum’s second best seller of all time, behind the original Dr. Anthony Fauci Bobblehead. Two bobbleheads commemorating a pair of memorable moments from Sanders’ Democratic presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020 are also available.
Texas resident Hector Medina, who also used the alias “Michael Soto,” has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for trying to scam disgraced former Rep. George Santos and other well-known people, per LGBTQ Nation, citing Gothamist. Starting in 2023, Medina reportedly messaged Santos )who was then facing 23 criminal charges of fraud and other financial crimes related to his 2022 campaign); Medina claimed that he worked with prosecutors and judges across the country and could “cut a deal” for Santos. Santos now faces up to eight years in prison, with his sentencing hearing initially scheduled for Feb. 7.
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