| | On Wednesday night, the PFLAG National Advocacy team hosted a webinar to share how our community can get involved in our new campaign, Fighting for Our Pride. If you missed it, you can watch the recording. Our first campaign action invites advocates to pledge to attend a local government meeting. Decisions made at the local level have a powerful impact on the daily lives of LGBTQ+ people—your participation can make a huge difference. You can explore all of the resources available as part of the campaign here. We are so excited for this campaign and can’t wait to see how our chapters, members, and supporters put these tools into action. |
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| | Massachusettsans Join PFLAG Greater Boston for Read with Love: A Banned Books Read OUT, a family-friendly evening of community, learning, and inspiration. Experience stories that some have sought to silence, brought to life by distinguished guest readers. New Jerseyans As PFLAG voters in New Jersey, let’s encourage our friends, family, and community members to head to the polls so that our LGBTQ+ loved ones have the freedom to be themselves, to thrive, and to learn. Join PFLAG National for a webinar on Sunday, October 26th at 3pm, where we’ll focus on the New Jersey election—discussing how to make a plan to vote, strategies to motivate others to cast their ballots, and ways to take direct action to ensure our friends and family do their civic duty this November. Texans Join our friends at TENT for their Know Your Rights Tour! TENT will be visiting cities across the state this fall, hosting community teach-ins and creative workshops for trans folks and their supporters. During each teach-in, TENT will review bills from this year’s legislative sessions, share tools to stay safe, and cultivate community. Sign up to attend a Know Your Rights event today! Virginians As PFLAG voters in Virginia, let’s encourage our friends, family, and community members to head to the polls so that our LGBTQ+ loved ones have the freedom to be themselves, to thrive, and to learn. Join PFLAG National for a webinar on Sunday, October 26th at 2pm, where we’ll focus on the Virginia election—discussing how to make a plan to vote, strategies to motivate others to cast their ballots, and ways to take direct action to ensure our friends and family do their civic duty this November. |
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|  | | Tampa Bay LGBTQ+ advocates to discuss future of Tampa Pride. Representatives from organizations, including PFLAG Tampa and Tampa Bay Black Lesbians, are inviting other local LGBTQ+ nonprofits, fiscal sponsors, and cultural leaders to discuss the future of Tampa Pride after the organization announced a one-year hiatus of its annual Pride festival and parade. |
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| | | | Supreme Court to hear challenge to Idaho, West Virginia anti-trans athlete bans. A former Boise State University student and a middle school student in West Virginia are challenging their respective state’s athlete bans in court. Conversion “therapy” survivors share their stories as Supreme Court considers constitutionality of banning conversion efforts. Members of the Conversion Therapy Survivor Network (CTSN), joined by PFLAG National, the Trevor Project, and others, gathered on the steps of the Supreme Court to demonstrate as the justices heard oral arguments in Chiles v. Salazar, a case challenging the constitutionality of Colorado’s ban on conversion efforts, also called conversion “therapy.” Following oral arguments, CTSN members held a vigil for those who did not survive their experience with conversion efforts and invited survivors to share their stories. Queer, transgender immigrants allege abuses at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Louisiana. Detainees at the South Louisiana Ice Processing Center have filed multiple legal complaints alleging they were forced to perform manual labor for as little as $1 per day and that an assistant warden at the facility stalked, harassed, and sexually assaulted queer detainees. Trump Administration guts Department of Education office responsible for overseeing special education programs. The Administration announced a reduction-in-force (RIF) on October 17th, laying off all staff in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), with the exception of a few of top officials and support staff. The office supports programs for students with disabilities. Trump Administration announces refugee plan favoring White South Africans. The President’s plan limits refugee admissions to 7,500 per year – compared to a refugee admissions cap of 125,000 under President Biden in 2024 – and reserving up to 7,000 of those spots for White South Africans, also known as Afrikaners. The President grants clemency to former Representative George Santos. Santos was fewer than 90 days into an 87-month sentence in federal prison for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft when the President announced he was commuting Santos’s sentence. Santos, who briefly represented New York’s 3rd Congressional District, was the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress. Vice President Vance swears in openly gay State Department official. Jacob Helberg was sworn in as Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment at the Department of State on October 17th. Pentagon makes statement bashing “Boots” TV series. The series is based on the real experiences of a closeted teenager who joins the military. The Pentagon released a statement on the series, saying “Under President Trump and Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, the U.S. military is getting back to restoring the warrior ethos…We will not compromise our standards to satisfy an ideological agenda, unlike Netflix whose leadership consistently produces and feeds woke garbage to their audience...” |
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