Take Action

The 2025 PFLAG National Convention

The PFLAG National team is hard at work preparing a phenomenal weekend of learning at Learning With Love: The 2025 PFLAG National Convention. We are pleased to announce a few of the sessions from our Advocacy track:

• A Loving World Starts With A Loving Home. Learn how building affirming and loving homes can create transformative advocacy and change in the world at large. 
• Building Long Term Relationships with Legislative Offices. Calls, emails and visits are powerful advocacy actions—take that work to the next level by learning how to build long-term relationships with your legislators and their staff. 
• Creating a Safe Place: Parenting with Pride in a Political Storm. Take a deeper look at what it means to advocate as a parent in a red state. You’ll learn practical strategies and gain inspiration and renewed hope from the power of everyday people doing extraordinary things for the people they love.
• Generation Queer: Youth-Led Movements for Change. LGBTQ+ youth are boldly shaping the future. In this workshop, you’ll explore their stories and experiences, and learn more about the legacies and futures of LGBTQ+ youth organizing. 
• Grounding Ourselves In Solidarity. This workshop will explore the practice of taking action for collective liberation in community with others, both to create a more equitable world and as an act of self care. 

Be sure you have the opportunity to join us to grow your advocacy skills by registering for the 2025 PFLAG National Convention today!

State Matters

Here is a sample of what’s going on around the country. Please be kind to yourself and use your discretion while reading this section. You can share news from your state with [email protected] for possible inclusion in a future newsletter.

Record number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced this year. About 600 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in state legislatures this year, a new record. These bills disproportionately target trans and nonbinary youth. 

Over a quarter of the U.S. trans population lives in a state with an anti-trans facilities ban. 19 states have passed laws banning trans people from using bathrooms and other sex-segregated spaces which align with their gender identity. Depending on the state, these bans apply to schools, or even all government buildings. 

Kansas - Kansas State University closing campus LGBT Spectrum center. The Spectrum Center closed on July 31st due to SB 125, a new state law abolishing any “positions, policies, preferences, and activities pertaining to DEI.” The law also requires state employees, including staff at Kansas State University, to remove pronouns from their email signatures. 

New York - Columbia University reaches deal with the Trump Administration, agrees to pay $220 million. Under the terms of the agreement, Columbia will pay the federal government $220 million over three years in exchange for the government restoring research money which had been withheld from the school. Columbia also agreed to policy changes, including reviewing its Middle East curriculum, appointing new faculty to its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, and ending programs "that promote unlawful efforts to achieve race-based outcomes, quotas, diversity targets or similar efforts.” 

North Carolina - Sex redefinition bill becomes law after Governor’s veto overridden. HB 805 narrowly defines sex in the state code based on sex assigned at birth, requires that birth certificates of trans people include their sex assigned at birth, makes it easier to sue medical providers for providing medically necessary care for trans and nonbinary youth, among other provisions. 

Virginia - U.S. Department of Education finds that trans inclusive policies at five school districts violate Title IX. Public schools in Arlington County, Alexandria City, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County were all found to be violating the Administration’s interpretation of Title IX by allowing trans students to participate on sports teams and access facilities based on their gender identity. 

Wisconsin - Milwaukee LGBT Community Center loses $900k in federal funds. The Center lost funding from the Office of Violence Against Women and from the Victims of Crime Act following Trump’s executive order targeting DEI.

Court Matters

Democracy Forward, National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) sue Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for refusing to enforce anti-discrimination protections for trans workers. According to the suit, the EEOC stopped investigating discrimination complaints tied to sexual orientation and gender identity in January and then “moved to dismiss…its own employment discrimination lawsuits brought on behalf of transgender [plaintiffs]. Further, in April, the EEOC ordered that all charges of gender-identity discrimination be “categorically classified as meritless and suitable for dismissal.” The suit argues these moves violate Title VII, the Equal Protection Clause, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the precedent set in Bostock v. Clayton County.

Federal Matters

Trump Administration releases billions of dollars in impounded funds for schools. The Administration placed nearly $7 billion in funding for schools “under review” on June 30th, which meant the funds were not distributed. $1.3 billion was released the week of July 14th, and the remaining funds were released on July 25th. The Administration was sued for withholding the funds prior to the announcement that the “review” was completed and that the funds would be distributed. The money funds six grant programs related to English-language-learning programs, teacher training, support for children of migrant workers, and academic enrichment activities.

Department of Education pauses Income-Based Repayment (IBR) program for student loans. The IBR program sets a borrower’s monthly loan repayment amount to reflect their income and then allows the government to cancel the balance of student loan after the borrower makes payments for at least 20 years. Two million people enrolled in the IBR program under the Biden Administration. The Education Department says the pause is temporary to “comply with ongoing court injunctions.” Visit FreeStudentLoanAdvice.org, StudentAid.gov, or PublicServicePromise.org/resources for helpful information and guidance.

Global Matters

Cuba - Parliament simplifies process for trans Cubans to update their IDs. The new policy allows trans Cubans to change the gender marker on their IDs without the need for gender confirmation surgery. 

Hong Kong - High Court rules anti-trans bathroom ban unconstitutional. High Court Judge Russell Coleman ruled in favor of a trans man, finding that a statute requiring “segregation of the sexes” in public bathrooms violates Hong Kong’s constitutional guarantee of legal equality.

Saint Lucia - Court strikes down law criminalizing same-sex sexual relations. The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, which has jurisdiction over a number of Caribbean island nations, ruled that St. Lucia’s anti-sodomy law violated the country’s Bill of Rights. 

United Kingdom - Anglican Church elects first openly lesbian archbishop. Cherry Vann was elected archbishop of the Church in Wales, becoming the first openly lesbian woman to serve as archbishop in any Anglican church worldwide. In 1994, Vann also became one of the first women to be ordained as a priest in the Church of England.

Media Matters

Trans women barred from Olympic and Paralympic Games. The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) adopted a new policy, which cited Trump's executive order targeting trans athletes, which prevents trans women from competing in women’s events at the Olympics and Paralympics. 

PFLAG National
(202) 467-8180 | [email protected]

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