Opinions
Supreme Court poised to roll back LGBTQ rights
Rebalance stolen court via expansion, term limits

LGBTQ advocates were rightly relieved when the Supreme Court handed down Bostock v. Clayton County this past June, a case that extended the prohibition against discrimination in employment to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. And with the most LGBTQ-friendly President-elect in U.S. history poised to take office in a matter of days, our community has even more reason to be hopeful.
Despite these positive developments, however, the Supreme Court poses a grave danger to the LGBTQ community. As the court ushers in a new era of conservative dominance—with anti-LGBTQ justices holding a 6-3 supermajority—the fragile judicial coalition on which the movement for equality has relied is at significant risk of being cast aside.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s recent confirmation to the court is deeply concerning. Justice Barrett has defended Justice Roberts’ dissent in Obergefell, indicating that the issue of marriage equality should belong to state legislatures. She has repeatedly used transphobic and homophobic language, and even argued that Title IX does not protect transgender people. Her extremist positions will embolden the anti-LGBTQ conservative justices on the court – Justices Kavanaugh and Alito recently held an inappropriate private meeting with an anti-gay activist who had filed briefs in pending cases — and other Trump-appointed judges, as well as state legislatures to take anti-LGBTQ stances. With equality hanging in the balance, the LGBTQ community cannot afford a Supreme Court that stands to crush any progress made.
Marriage equality: In October, the Supreme Court denied certiorari to a case involving Kentucky woman Kim Davis, who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. However, the denial of certiorari came with warning signs: Justices Alito and Thomas wrote a section that cast doubt on the constitutionality of Obergefell, the landmark Supreme Court case in which Justice Kennedy’s opinion that held that marriage is a fundamental right guaranteed to same-sex couples by the Constitution. In the certiorari denial, Justice Thomas wrote: “By choosing to privilege a novel constitutional right over the religious liberty interests explicitly protected in the First Amendment, and by doing so undemocratically, the Court has created a problem that only it can fix. Until then, Obergefell will continue to have ‘ruinous consequences for religious liberty.’” While broad majorities of the American people support marriage equality and opponents of it might not have the votes on the Supreme Court to overturn the precedent, it is nonetheless a troubling sign that two Justices would sign onto discrimination against our fellow citizens.
Discrimination: The currently pending case before the Supreme Court about discrimination is Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. The case emerged from circumstances in 2018: The city of Philadelphia had hired a number of agencies for foster care service. When the city learned that two agencies denied same-sex couples as foster parents, Philadelphia threatened to stop using the agencies unless they agreed to nondiscrimination requirements. While one of the agencies complied, the other, the Catholic Social Services (“CSS”), sued the city in federal district court. The federal district court found in Philadelphia’s favor, which the Third Circuit then unanimously affirmed. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court granted certiorari.
The CSS claims that because the city looks to several factors, including religious and racial factors, in spite of anti-discrimination law, it cannot at the same time prohibit the agency from considering the sexual orientation of foster parents under the guise of “religious belief.” If Philadelphia makes exceptions to its anti-discrimination laws in foster placement, it must also allow religious agencies an exception as well. If Philadelphia does not do so, it violates the First Amendment. The city claims that it can choose not to provide government contracts to organizations that do not adhere to its nondiscriminatory requirements. For the court to decide otherwise, it would mandate that the city discriminate.
The stakes are high, in part because a ruling against equality in Fulton could provide cover for undermining Bostock, which extended Title VII protections to LGBTQ employees. An expansion of the religious liberty to discriminate could eat away at Bostock. Even a 5-4 court with Justice Kennedy ruled against LGBTQ rights in Masterpiece Cakeshop. Now, with a 6-3 conservative supermajority, Fulton could strike a big blow against equality.
Health care and family: If the Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in California v. Texas, health care protections for the LGBTQ community would be eliminated. Section 1557 of the ACA is the law’s non-discrimination provision, which bans discrimination in health care on the basis of sex. The Obama administration’s rule interpreted Section 1557’s ban on sex discrimination to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. In addition to Section 1557, the ACA as a whole has been enormously important for the LGBTQ community. The uninsured rate for lesbian, gay and bisexual Americans fell dramatically due to the ACA and LGBTQ adults have become more likely to report having regular access to health care. For transgender Americans, who are more likely to live in poverty or be unemployed and to face enormous challenges and have negative experiences accessing health care, the ACA’s Medicaid expansion and provision of individual health insurance through the marketplaces are critical. The 6-3 conservative supermajority on the court makes the end of the ACA significantly more likely, with disastrous consequences that will disproportionately affect the LGBTQ community.
Lawsuits challenging the Obama administration’s interpretation of Section 1557, particularly in regard to its ban on discrimination on the basis of gender identity, have been percolating in the federal courts for years. The Trump administration has attempted to reverse those protections, but it is widely expected that the Biden administration will revert to the Obama-era rule. Even if the ACA survives, this line of litigation could undermine critical protections for transgender individuals in the health care system. While the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County last term interpreting similar language in Title VII (discrimination on the basis of sex) to cover gender identity should be definitive, the 6-3 conservative supermajority could decide to distinguish these cases and allow for discrimination against LGBTQ individuals in health care. Since so many of the nation’s hospitals are affiliated with religious organizations such as the Catholic Church, the court could seize on Justice Gorsuch’s language in Bostock suggesting that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) could trump Title VII to require broad religious exemptions from non-discrimination in health care.
Transgender rights: In addition to the massive blow that a gutted ACA could have for transgender rights, other cases about transgender rights percolating in the lower courts may someday make their way to the Supreme Court. In Saba v. Cuomo, for example, a transgender, nonbinary resident sued the state of New York for refusing to allow Mx. Saba to obtain a driver’s license that accords with Mx. Saba’s gender identity. In August, a lower court preliminarily enjoined Idaho’s law that barred transgender women from participating on women’s sports teams. That decision is currently being appealed.
Just this past year, the Fourth Circuit and the Eleventh Circuit considered whether school bathroom policies violated transgender students’ rights. Though both circuits ruled in favor of the students, the Grimm case briefly reached the Supreme Court in 2017 before being sent back to the lower court. In 2019, the Supreme Court rejected certiorari in a case involving transgender bathrooms, leaving a lower court’s trans-affirming decision in place. But it only takes four votes for the Court to take a case, and with a 6-3 supermajority now firmly in place, there is no telling the havoc it could wreak on transgender rights.
As we celebrate the end of the Trump era, and as we prepare to work with the incoming Biden administration to restore rights that have been destroyed over the past four years while advancing the case for equality, the LGBTQ community must pay attention to the danger posed by anti-LGBTQ justices, and we must advocate forcefully for judicial reforms such as court expansion and term limits that rebalance the stolen, illegitimate court.
Aaron Belkin is the director of the Palm Center and of Take Back the Court, and a political science professor at San Francisco State University.
Opinions
We’re all suffering in Trump’s alternate universe
We must throw MAGA sycophants out of Congress in 2026

We are all stuck for the moment, suffering in Trump’s alternate universe, where it’s OK to lie and insult foreign leaders who are your guests in the White House. Where it’s OK to lie and say you have a beautiful bill that won’t add to the deficit when it’s actually a disgusting bill that will add $4 trillion to the deficit. Where it’s OK to screw the poor and make the rich richer. Where you can scapegoat trans people and make their lives hell. Where you can invite racist South Africans into our country, and send legally here Venezuelans back home, to maybe face death. Where it is OK to take grift from Qatar in the form of a $400 million plane that will cost the American taxpayer over a billion dollars to retrofit for your sorry lying ass to use. That is the Trump alternate universe we all currently live in.
But as this alternate universe begins to unravel, I have a gut feeling the American people, or at least enough to make a difference, will wake up one morning and say ‘we’ve had it with you and your MAGA cult’ and finally rebel. My hope is they do it in time for the 2026 mid-term elections. By then there will be very few Americans who themselves, have a friend, or relative, who have not been negatively impacted from the actions taken in Trump’s alternate universe. They, or someone they know, will have lost their job. They will have lost their healthcare, or know someone who did, or find their rural hospital has closed. They or someone they know will have trouble applying for Social Security because their local office has been closed. They will know a veteran who can’t access their healthcare, because they were fired, or their VA hospital has fired so many care givers. They will see their grocery bill go up, and all the Christmas gifts they hoped to buy for their children become unaffordable because of Trump’s tariffs. They will see their rent rise, and have no recourse but to find the money to pay it, or lose their home. They will be told they can no longer get their annual flu or COVID vaccination, and even if they could, their health insurance will no longer pay for it, and that is if they still have health insurance. Their prayers for a cure for their own, a relative, or friends’ illness; cancer, Alzheimer’s, MS, or HIV/AIDS, will have been dashed, as in Trump’s alternative universe all the research looking for those cures has been defunded.
They will wake up one morning to a nightmare realizing Trump lied to them. That he has appointed the biggest collection of incompetent fools ever to run the government. They will finally understand it’s not the government that is bad, but rather Trump and his MAGA minions. They will see too late that in Trump’s alternate universes it was OK to fire the people at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) so we no longer get predictions of hurricanes and tornadoes, which allowed communities to get advance warning. Then when they hit and create havoc and death, people will find out in Trump’s alternate universe the Federal Emergency and Management Administration (FEMA) has been defunded, so there is no help for them to rebuild their lives.
I believe that one morning people will wake up to reality, and realize that yes, President Biden was diminished and should have said earlier he wouldn’t run for a second term. But their lives were still better and safer than they are now in Trump’s alternate universe. It is Trump who is diminished, and is diminishing them, while screwing them. They will recognize in Trump’s alternate universe the poor in the United States are expendable and don’t matter except as pawns in his desire to rule the world. He thinks it’s OK to screw the heroic people of Ukraine, and all of our allies in NATO, as he bows down and kisses Putin’s ass. That he can actually talk about displacing millions of Palestinians, so he can steal their homeland, and build a resort. That he can go to the Middle East, bow to their sheiks, and cut deals for his private company to build hotels and resorts.
So again, it is my hope and prayer, that before 2026 they will realize Trump never had a mandate from them, the people, to enter his alternate universe. Contrary to his rants, while he won the last election, the vote was split nearly evenly. So, it won’t take many voters to throw his MAGA sycophants out of Congress in 2026. It won’t take many to rise up and say, “We have had it with your alternate universe.” They will refuse to continue to live in Trump’s alternate universe, where we get hurt, and you and your friends get richer on our backs. They will say, “We are ready to reclaim our country, to bring back common decency. You will not continue to lie to us and we will not continue to be fooled. We finally see through you, and see who you really are. We will keep you from doing any more harm to us, and our country, in your last two years in office.” Then the people will cast Trump and his MAGA sycophants in Congress out. They will see to it that he ends up on the dust heap of history and ensure that one day his tombstone will read “Here lies the lying felon who tried to destroy our county, but we stopped him, and took it back.”
We the people, will eventually win against Trump’s alternate universe, because good does finally triumph over evil, and Donald Trump, you are proving to be pure evil.
Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist.
Opinions
A WorldPride call to action
Lavender Interfaith Collective united for justice, liberation, joy, and love

Across faiths, identities, and nations, we are united by one unshakable truth: every person is worthy, every voice sacred, every body divine. Our unity is not rooted in a single tradition but in a collective belief in the sacred worth of every person. We uphold the fundamental principle of religious freedom, recognizing that no faith should dictate the governance of our nation. We reject all attempts to impose religious values, symbols, or authority upon our shared civic life, united in our commitment to a society where all traditions — and those who follow none — are equally respected. In the face of forces that seek to divide, erase, and harm, we unite as one — rooted in justice, driven by love, and committed to a future where liberation is not just an ideal but a lived reality.
We call upon all to embrace joy as resistance — to dance, to celebrate, to laugh, to live loudly. In a world that weaponizes despair, joy is our defiance. It is our fuel, our sustenance, and our reminder that liberation is not just survival — it is thriving.
We call upon the LGBTIQ+ community to embrace the common ground that unites us in the fight for dignity and liberation. Though our experiences and identities vary, we share a sacred commitment to intersectional justice. We will not be divided by differences; instead, we will center solidarity, knowing that our shared struggle is our greatest strength.
We call upon people of faith across the globe to join in radical solidarity — not just in the United States, but across borders, traditions, and languages. Justice is not bound by geography; neither is our love, resistance, or advocacy. Let faith be the force that binds us together, not the tool that tears us apart.
We call upon faith communities to be places of compassion, healing, and activism — spaces that do not merely welcome but actively uplift, renew, and give witness to inclusion and intersectional justice. Let our faith be evident in the way we fight for each other, hold space for each other, and refuse to leave anyone behind.
We call upon faith leaders to unite in advocacy and pastoral care, challenging their communities to make visible the lives of those under attack, and providing education on trans and nonbinary realities, human sexuality, nonviolent social change, and the systems that increase vulnerabilities to harm and violence. Knowledge is power, understanding is liberation, and faith must never be a tool for harm — it must be a beacon of transformation.
We call upon faith leaders to amplify trans theologians. Their voices, wisdom, and spiritual insights must not remain in the shadows. Let pulpits, platforms, and sacred spaces be filled with trans-theological perspectives, ensuring that faith itself becomes a force of liberation. With care and consent, we commit to sharing their work, making sure their voices reach the wider faith community.
We call upon advocates to join in solidarity — bearing each other’s burdens not with judgment, but with grace. Intersectional justice demands action against homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, ableism, racism, white supremacy, any religious nationalism, and every system of oppression. We must reject policies that strip our communities of essential services, including gender affirming care, HIV, reproductive health, and other programs addressing public health, medical research, housing, education, and services for persons with disabilities. Justice is not selective; it is intersectional. We cannot be free until we all are.
We call upon all people of conscience to hold elected officials to account that they defend the Constitution, oppose self-dealing by public officials, resist transactional, market-driven approaches that dismantle collaborative spaces and institutions, and uphold the inherent dignity of every human being. No exceptions. No compromises. Let us rise up against the forces that weaken democracy and erode our shared humanity.
We call upon the world to reimagine love as revolutionary and decolonizing — to see faith, justice, and neighborliness through a lens that liberates rather than oppresses. Let us honor the activism, resistance, and resilience that drive change. And let us refuse narratives of powerlessness. We are not powerless. We are powerful beyond measure. It is an imperative to protect, uplift, and fight for our neighbors everywhere.
Above all, we call for self-care — for the nourishment that sustains movements, the rest that strengthens resistance, and the healing that ensures we do not lose ourselves in the fight for liberation.
This is the charge. This is the sacred work.
We are boldly, unapologetically, and unshakably committed to collective liberation. Together, unstoppable, and unafraid.
More information about the Lavender Interfaith Collective can be found here.
Lesotho
Lesotho is an example of the power of communities
People’s Matrix Association’s tangible policy reforms have changed lives

This year’s International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism, and Transphobia (IDAHOBiT) celebrates the diversity within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ+) communities, from grassroots movements to regional and global networks, by honoring our varied and intersecting backgrounds, identities, and experiences. The 2025 theme highlights how strength and resilience grow through collective solidarity and open dialogue. It recognizes the transformative power of conversations bridging differences, fostering understanding, and building alliances. Through these dialogues, activists, human rights defenders, civil society groups, allies, and governments are shaping narratives and advancing equal rights.
“Motho ke motho ka batho!” or “A person is a person through other people!”
While many countries have seen policy reforms related to LGBTIQ+ people after lengthy court battles, the LGBTIQ+ community in Lesotho has a different experience and has taken a different approach, which has opened the doors to transformation.
At the heart of this story is the People’s Matrix Association, whose strategic, community-rooted advocacy has led to tangible policy reforms that have changed lives and set a powerful example for the region. At the core of this, they have been using dialogue as one of their core values and strategies to achieve legislative and social reform.
The power of collectiveness
The Basotho people’s innate emphasis on mutual respect, conversation, and shared humanity laid a strong foundation for meaningful engagement. With this understanding, the People’s Matrix Association focuses on building strong bridges with government officials, police, teachers, parents, and traditional leaders. Although not a walk in the park, activists have significantly succeeded in engaging with and encouraging policymakers to see LGBTIQ+ people as deserving of fundamental rights, such as dignity and equality and not as political pawns for popular votes.
The power of Pride
Despite facing pushbacks, stigma, and violence, the community remains steadfast. They organize, mobilize, and build alliances with broader human rights movements for deeper inclusion and intersectionality. For example, the IDAHOBiT and Pride celebrations play a crucial role in reaffirming LGBTIQ+ existence and further strengthening and inspiring unity. They enable Basotho LGBTIQ+ people to claim and occupy spaces.
The power of resilience as a catalyst for change
In 2024, the parliament of Lesotho amended the Labor Act 2024 to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and HIV status. This bold move solidified Lesotho as one of the few countries in Southern Africa to protect LGBTIQ+ people in the workplace, after South Africa and Botswana. And all this happened without a court ruling. This amendment means that LGBTIQ+ people and people living with HIV have legal recourse against hate and discrimination in the workplace. A giant step towards dignity, affirmation, and economic inclusion.
Rights under attack
Early this year, Lesotho came under attack by the Trump administration. On March 4, 2025, Trump made a claim about the People’s Matrix Association receiving $8 million to promote LGBTIQ+ rights, adding that “nobody has ever heard of Lesotho.” This intentionally inaccurate disinformation has surprised many. Yet, during this moment of hostility, we witness the power of communities rallying in solidarity and using this moment to refute harmful narratives and the need to protect Lesotho’s values, which are: “U se ke ua re ho moroa, moroa tooe!” and “Motho ke motho ka batho!”
But it does not end there, in recent months, Lesotho has witnessed a rise in attacks towards LGBTIQ+ identifying individuals, fueled by an increase in misinformation, disinformation, discrimination and online hate. These threats and violence have put the community on edge. External forces, such as false sentiments, further make LGBTIQ+ people targets of hate.
Despite these challenges, LGBTIQ+ communities in Lesotho continue to organize, speak out, and build alliances to defend human rights. Now more than ever, the power of communities theme is important and relevant in protecting the gains made in advancing equal rights in Lesotho.
Tampose Mothopeng is a transgender human rights defender, publisher, and executive director of the People’s Matrix Association that championing the rights of LGBTIQ+ people. Bradley Fortuin is a consultant at the Southern Africa Litigation Center and a social justice activist.
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