Trans musician Bells Larsen recorded half his new album with his pre-transition voice and the other half with his voice after transition.

THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED ON UNCLOSETED MEDIA A NEW INVESTIGATIVE LGBTQIA+ FOCUSSED NEWS PUBLICATION.

WORDS SHARLA STEINMAN

On “Blurring Time,” the title track to Bells Larsen’s latest album, listeners hear the song sway between a high, female-sounding voice, and a low, male-sounding voice. “It’s not as simple as either or. I am both and I’m more, most of all I’m unsure,” Larsen recites.

While the song may sound like it was recorded by two different artists, this isn’t a duet.

It’s entirely sung by Larsen, who uses his voice to tell the story of his sophomore album, released last month.

Larsen says the album serves as a farewell gift to his past self and a welcome home to his new life as a proud trans man. “I very much shaped my transition around this album,” the 27-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter told Uncloseted Media.

Larsen meticulously planned the album around his gender transition. He recorded half the album before going on testosterone and the other half after, hence the different-sounding voices throughout the nine songs.

He says marrying his two realities was important for him as a storyteller. “A lot of trans narratives focus on either the before or the after, and not a lot of holding the two together,” he says.

And a 2018 study in the Language and Linguistics Compass found that vocal cues are an important factor in categorising someone’s gender, “making the voice an enormously important aspect of gender presentation, particularly for those who are transitioning.”

“It was always something that was very important to me – having a voice that matches my body,” says Alaina Kupec, founder and President of GRACE, a trans-focused nonprofit. “As soon as I spoke, if the sound didn’t match the appearance, then the incongruence was very challenging,” she told Uncloseted Media.

Like Larsen, many trans men change their voice by taking testosterone, which causes a thickening of the vocal cords and creates a deeper-sounding voice.

But for transgender women, estrogen does not change their voice. That’s why there’s a growing industry of coaches who help people with this aspect of the transition.

Voice teacher Brittani Farrell compares relearning how to use your voice after a gender transition to “relearning how to walk with a prosthesis after having your leg amputated.”

Farrell, who has worked with many transgender clients, says gender-affirming voice lessons can be anywhere from a week-long to a lifelong commitment. She’s worked with clients who have a good ear, motor skills, and singing instincts and can make significant progress in a few sessions, while other clients may need upwards of 30 sessions.

“It has to do with somatic awareness,” Farrell told Uncloseted Media. “It can be helpful to have maintenance for years, just to have someone to check in with, but if you step away from it, you’ll lose some of the function.”

Farrell says gender-affirming voice lessons can be physically and mentally challenging for clients, adding that many trans people lack the needed connection to their bodies as they transition. She uses a variety of vocal exercises to help her clients with pitch, resonance and weight, which can all be used to modify the perceived gender of a voice.

“Sometimes it’s kind of trippy because I find that I can’t necessarily always use my voice in the way that I used to, or the way I want to.”

When going through her transition in 2013, Kupec worked with Colorado-based voice coach Kathe Perez to change the pitch of her voice. She took four, 60-minute private lessons. Outside of class, there was lots of homework, where she’d have to work on her pitch, frequency and intonation. She also had to learn how to emphasise certain words and phrases, and practise speaking from the top of her voice box instead of using her chest voice.

Kupec says the lessons were effective. “I’d say 90% of the time, nobody ever thinks of my voice as anything other than a female voice. … Occasionally, if I have a cold or if I’m just not focusing on it too much, it can get a little bit on the lower side,” she says, adding that she experiences the most difficulty keeping her pitch high.

Although Kupec is rarely misgendered, she worries about the physical safety of trans women when their voice doesn’t match their appearance.

“Especially in today’s horrible environment for the transgender community, I really worry for women who do get read because of their voices, and that it could put them at risk of physical danger.”

Transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime.

Although Kupec’s insurance covered her initial diagnostic lesson, she ended up paying $1,000 for her four sessions with Perez. For people who cannot afford a vocal coach, there are various free and low-cost resources available, such as follow-along videos. Olivia Flanigan, a San Francisco-based gender-affirming voice teacher, offers free lessons on YouTube where she explains, for example, different ways to relieve tension in the throat which can help clients feminize their voice with less strain.

Beyond voice lessons, transgender women can also opt for vocal feminisation surgery. One of the most successful vocal procedures is called Wendler glottoplasty, which reduces the vibrational surface of vocal cords, resulting in a slightly higher pitch.

More trans people are opting for these surgeries. Between 2016 and 2019, the number of gender-affirming surgeries performed in the U.S. nearly tripled.

Despite this growth, it’s expensive: Most insurance providers do not cover vocal feminisation surgery and the procedure can cost between $5,000 and $9,000.

In addition to taking testosterone, Bells Larsen also worked with a Toronto-based voice coach. Over the course of a year, they worked on his breathing, differentiating his head and chest voice and his singing range.

“Sometimes it’s kind of trippy because I find that I can’t necessarily always use my voice in the way that I used to, or the way I want to,” says Larsen, adding that he went from an alto to a baritone singer and that his voice dropped about an octave.

Larsen says during his vocal transition process, he found solace in remembering Justin Bieber’s post-puberty journey, where the pop phenom had to lean on a vocal coach to relearn how to use his new adult voice.

“Having my voice change so rapidly in a way that was kind of beyond my control, but simultaneously within my control really forced me to regard my voice as an instrument for potentially the first time in my life”

“I’m a big belieber,” Larsen says. “Justin was a great singer before, and I think he’s a great singer now. Why shouldn’t I be able to do the same?”

Larsen says that when he started posting snippets of his album on TikTok and Instagram, viewers were taken aback when they realised both voices were his. “I was so lost for a second… this is amazing!!” one user commented on TikTok, where Larsen has nearly 20,000 followers and over 300,000 likes, just enough to call himself “lowercase v viral.”

While many facets of the voice have to do with biology, social factors are also at play. Lal Zimman, the author of the 2018 study and a linguistics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, says the voice has many characteristics that can be perceived as feminine or masculine, much of which have “nothing to do with physiology.” He says many of the gendered voice stereotypes people make, such as gay men having a “lispy s,” are really just based on how people learn to speak and the voices they are surrounded by.

“It’s about how you learn to speak and how you continue to use what you’ve learned throughout your lifetime,” Zimman told Uncloseted Media. “When you look at the whole picture of a ‘female’ or ‘male’ voice, you’re really looking at a lot of different characteristics that can be combined in different ways.”

As for Larsen, he’s excited to start performing “Blurring Time” across Canada. He cancelled his U.S. tour last month after finding out he was no longer eligible to apply for a Visa because his changed passport matches his gender identity.

“The world in which I wrote and recorded this music, and the world in which I’m releasing it, are two completely different worlds,” Larsen told Uncloseted Media.

Despite the political turbulence, Larsen is ready to show off his new voice to the world. “Having my voice change so rapidly in a way that was kind of beyond my control, but simultaneously within my control really forced me to regard my voice as an instrument for potentially the first time in my life,” Larsen told Uncloseted Media.

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Eighty-three percent of queer women reported birthing complications. From systemic bias to outdated medical policies, lesbians face a maternal health system that was never designed with them in mind.

In January, a lesbian couple from New Jersey had a labor playlist picked out, electronic candles ready to go and an “atmosphere” they wanted to create while birthing their first child. They were eager and “not at all worried.”

But Amy and Jessica say their plans for a smooth birth went out the window when a routine check-up turned into a harrowing eight-day hospital stay. “It was awful. It was horrendous,” Amy, the birthing mother, told Uncloseted Media.

At 37 weeks pregnant following in vitro fertilization (IVF), the couple, who asked to use pseudonyms because they are considering litigation against the hospital, was told that the birthing mother needed to have her labour induced immediately due to high blood pressure. After three days of failed induction, doctors performed an emergency C-section during which she haemorrhaged and lost four litres of blood. The doctors eventually had to remove her uterus to “save her life.”

“We did research later and found out that induction medication and IVF both increase the risk of haemorrhage. It just felt like no one was listening to us or informing us,” says Jessica.

“If pregnancy were a men’s health field, this wouldn’t be happening,” Amy says. “You think of medicine now and it’s so modernised and there are so many technologies, but there is something so lacking in women’s health care.”

According to a 2022 study in the Association of American Medical Colleges, more than half of queer women reported that the quality of their experience with pregnancy, birth and postpartum care was impacted by bias or discrimination, compared to 35% of heterosexual people. In addition, 83% of queer women reported birthing complications compared to 63% of their heterosexual counterparts. Queer women also have higher rates of stillbirths, miscarriages and premature births.

“Female-bodied people have been ignored in medicine for so long, and taking on the queer identity makes it worse,” says Marea Goodman, midwife and founder of PregnantTogether, an LGBTQIA+ focused midwife practice. “Clinics arose out of a need to support heterosexual people who are experiencing infertility and for many years queer folks were barred from accessing fertility care. They’re just not for creative family structures.”

The American healthcare system was not built for queer women

While roughly 59% of bisexual women and 31% of lesbians give birth in their lifetime, bringing tens of thousands of babies into the world each year, the healthcare system is hard for them to navigate.

A 2022 study found that LGBTQIA+ couples are more afraid of childbirth than heterosexual couples. And it’s not just the pregnancy itself that is scary. According to Anna Malmquist, one of the authors of the study and a researcher at Sweden’s Linköping University, there are many concerns queer women face when walking into a hospital.

“‘What if they misgender me?’” she says. “‘What if they don’t recognise my partner as my partner? What if they don’t respect my pronouns? I cannot just go away and seek care somewhere else, because the baby has to come out.’ So the minority stress becomes a second layer added to these bodily fears.”

One reason queer women may face these concerns is that medical school curricula often fall short in teaching prospective physicians about LGBTQIA+ reproductive health.

One study reported that the median instructional time on all LGBTQIA+ topics was just 11 hours across four years, with many programs failing to address disparities faced by lesbian patients in accessing prenatal care and family planning services. In a 2021 study, half of OB-GYN residents reported feeling unprepared to care for lesbian or bisexual patients and 92% desired more education on how to provide healthcare to LGBTQIA+ patients.

This lack of education can result in queer women feeling out of place. “Walking down the halls of my clinic, all of the stock art of couples was white and heterosexual, nothing queer, and the literature all said ‘mom and dad,’” says Angela Thompson, a Verizon IT tech from Columbia, South Carolina.

Alyssa and Sam Darling delivered their first child in 2019 in Los Angeles.

When they went back to the delivery ward after the birth to do a routine check-up with their child, one of the nurses at the door stopped Alyssa, the non-birthing partner.

“She physically put her hand on my chest and stopped me, and said, ‘It’s parents only,’” she remembers. “The baby was my eggs, so biologically mine. … It was just so confusing. … We were exhausted, we just wanted to go home, and it was the last thing we wanted to deal with.”

“It’s like you’re having to come out time and time again,” Sam adds. “And for some people, that can be extremely triggering.”

Beyond that, Alyssa is listed as “father” on both of her children’s birth certificates because there wasn’t a place to write a second mother.

Since 2017, married same-sex parents in the U.S. have had the right to write both their names on their child’s birth certificate. However, the federal government’s standard birth certificate application form hasn’t been revised since 2003, leaving the sections as “mother” and “father.” To amend this, it’s on the respective hospital to file additional paperwork.

“I asked them what to do, and the nurse was like, ‘Well, you put the father’s information,’ and I was like, ‘We’re a two-mom couple, she doesn’t have a dad.’ And she’s like, ‘We’re gonna need dad’s information.’ And I’m like, ‘But there is no dad.’”

Alyssa circled the option at the bottom of the certificate to be listed as “parent” instead of father, but due to a clerical error, the certificate she received in the mail still says “Father: Alyssa Darling.”

The physical toll of discrimination and hate

“The experience of the mother during pregnancy directly impacts the health of the infant,” says Bethany Everett, adjunct associate professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Utah. “Tending to mothers is a critical period for public health interventions if we want to improve population health at large.”

While research around queer pregnancy is limited, a 2022 study found that lesbian women living in states with stronger legal protections for sexual minorities had better birth outcomes, including higher birth weights and lower rates of preterm births, compared to those in states without such protections. Conversely, the study found no significant difference in birth outcomes between heterosexual women in states with and without sexual minority protections.

“If you can be fired because you’re gay or you can’t be legally recognised in your partnership, those things impact your real quality of life,” says Everett. “And those forms of stigma and discrimination can negatively impact the health of the pregnant woman and translate to the health of the foetus.”

“Long-term exposure to distress and discrimination results in chronic inflammation and immune dysfunction,” she says. “It’s not about the person, it’s about the environment that they’re giving birth in.”

Angela Thompson remembers not holding hands with her wife when she was visibly pregnant. “We have felt uncomfortable in public, especially in more rural areas after the [Presidential] Election,” Thompson says. “Once, we were at a restaurant in Myrtle Beach, and we weren’t holding hands or sitting next to each other, but people still gave us dirty looks. It’s stressful.”

Unfortunately, providers aren’t always immune to stigma and homophobia. As of 2022, more than one in eight LGBTQIA+ people live in states where doctors, nurses and other health care professionals can legally refuse to treat them.

This translates to negative health outcomes for queer women in the delivery room.

According to a 2023 survey, LGBTQIA+ people were twice as likely to experience medical gaslighting compared to their cis and heterosexual counterparts. When asked to agree with the following statement, “My doctor listens to me when I express concerns about treatments and prescriptions,” 49% of queer respondents agreed compared to 61% of straight and cis respondents.

Thompson’s son was underweight at birth and two weeks early. After an emergency C-section, the baby didn’t cry, which was alarming to the nurses.

“There was not enough of the cord connected to the placenta which meant he wasn’t getting as much nutrients toward the end of the pregnancy, which is why he couldn’t tolerate labour,” she says. “They don’t know how they missed it. I had concerns about it and I told them to check it earlier but they either missed it [or didn’t check].”

“The whole process feels very disjointed,” says Amy, the birthing mother in New Jersey. “I wish I had been given more information about the risks because this is an IVF baby.”

The couple says that they found out later that IVF pregnancies are at higher risk of haemorrhaging, which also becomes a greater risk when under induction medication like Amy was.

The same care but more expensive: insurance exclusion

In addition to not feeling heard, the financial burden of IVF is another stressor that disproportionately affects queer women. A single cycle costs between $15,000 to $30,000, and only 21 states and D.C. have insurance laws that mandate coverage of fertility treatments. One study found that for two-thirds of patients, it takes six or more IVF cycles for a successful pregnancy. That means it can easily cost $100,000 for one pregnancy.

“Insurance coverage and IVF language is an example of just how heteronormative our family building infrastructure still is and how we throw up these barriers for queer folks,” says Abbie Goldberg, professor of psychology at Clark University, noting that only eight states have policies that are inclusive of LGBTQIA+ parents due to language of their policy and requirements for the definition of “infertile.”

Shanell Crymes-Lincoln had to switch employers to obtain insurance that would cover IVF for her and her wife.

“It was astronomical without insurance,” Crymes-Lincoln, who lives in Toledo, Ohio, told Uncloseted Media.

“It was between using our savings for a baby or a house, and we wanted to do everything possible to not have to pay out of pocket.”

Religion and race

Crymes-Lincoln is currently pregnant with her and her wife Nesi’s second child. While the couple’s first experience with an LGBTQIA+ friendly doctor was positive, with Nesi being able to catch the baby, they are nervous about their new provider who works out of a Catholic hospital.

“Everything went smoothly [with our first baby’s doctor] … But then my insurance carrier dropped that entire medical clinic altogether, and we only have two medical clinics in this area.”

Both women say they feel more on edge at their new clinic because it features “Mother Teresa statues, prayers and things that are exclusive to certain groups.”

“I feel like you’re going to judge me based on your religious thoughts. I don’t feel comfortable displaying affection with my wife, or even calling her my wife there,” says Crymes-Lincoln, who dreamed of “being a mom” as a kid. “We’re worried our birth plan won’t be respected here.”

At their first appointment, Crymes-Lincoln felt like her questions were being “brushed off.”

“It could be because of my race, it could be because of my sexual orientation,” she says. “I’m just worried about the birth, being a Black woman and being a lesbian, we tend to get overlooked.”

“Combined is a whammy,” she says, noting that Black women in the US are more than three times likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than their white counterparts.

Mothers just want to be heard

Above all, mothers just want providers who listen to them.

“Just don’t assume,” Sam Darling says. “There was one instance when I was pregnant where a nurse asked if my wife was my sister. It was really awkward. I think healthcare in general needs to do better for LGBTQIA+ community members. Have a pronoun section on intake forms, and ask about your [patient’s] sexual orientation.”

As a practitioner focused on LGBTQIA+ folks, Marea Goodman says representation is essential. “When you go into a fertility clinic and you don’t see any other families that look like yours, it can be a really isolating experience.”

In Goodman’s practice, there’s a strong emphasis on prioritising the parents’ emotional experience. For instance, Goodman allows the birthing mother’s partner to push the syringe during the insemination, an intentional choice to honour the grief that can arise from not being able to conceive privately at home.

Goodman suggests small changes in the system to make queer women feel more supported. “I don’t think it’s too hard to improve this. If there’s one photo in the office of a queer couple, that will make a difference. I think if everyone in the office, including front desk personnel, had training, it would go a long way.”

Goodman also suggests having a list of organisations where folks can connect with other LGBTQIA+ families looking to conceive.

“People feel alone. People feel isolated. People don’t see themselves reflected, and society doesn’t do that for us,” Goodman says. “We have to create spaces that do. That’s what changes everything.”

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The world’s richest man and Trump’s “First Buddy” is no ally to the LGBTQ community.

WORDS NICO DIALESANDRO

THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED ON UNCLOSETED MEDIA A NEW INVESTIGATIVE LGBTQIA+ FOCUSSED NEWS PUBLICATION.

​Elon Musk, the richest person in the world and the entrepreneur behind PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX and X, has become one of the most powerful – and polarising – figures in American politics. Since Trump took office, Musk has ascended to the (self-titled) position of “first buddy” and is now seen by many as the second person in charge of the nation.

While Musk still holds the title of senior advisor to Trump and the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Trump has recently told his inner circle that Musk will leave soon.

Despite this, Musk’s power and influence remain massive. Here’s his complete track record on LGBTQIA+ issues.

CEO Elon Musk

Oct. 19, 2017

Jorge Ferro, a former assembly line worker at Tesla, sues the company for wrongful termination. He alleges that the Musk-owned company ignored his reports of homophobic harassment at work and that his firing was retaliatory. Ferro says a manager told him to “watch [his] back” after telling him his clothing was “gay tight.”

After Ferro files a second harassment report, he says an HR representative took his badge, saying that he had “an injury” that prevented him from working and that there’s “no place for handicapped people at Tesla.” In response, Ferro’s attorney describes the decision as “revolting” and says that “this is classic ‘blame the victim.’”

Tesla asserts that third-party companies hired both Ferro and the manager involved and that Tesla took appropriate action to separate the two individuals.

During the same month, Tesla is sued by three Black former employees for racial harassment and discrimination. The three men claim their time at Tesla was like a “scene straight from the Jim Crow era.”

July 24, 2020

Elon Musk posts various tweets that mock the use of pronouns, writing, “Pronouns suck.” He follows this up on Dec. 14, 2020 by posting a meme that suggests people who post their pronouns in their bios are oppressive.

After receiving backlash to his posts, Musk tweets: “I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an esthetic [sic] nightmare.” He later reposts a Tesla tweet from 2020 that says the company is “Very proud to have scored 100/100 for the fourth year in a row in LGBTQ equality,” in reference to the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.

June 21, 2022

At 18 years old, Musk’s daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, files a petition with the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Santa Monica to change her name and receive a new birth certificate so that she may legally transition. At this time, she begins publicly distancing herself from Musk, saying she no longer wants to “be related to [her] biological father in any way, shape or form.”

Oct. 11, 2022

Musk blames his estrangement from Wilson on “neo-Marxist” influences from his daughter’s university. In an interview with the Financial Times, he says, “It’s full-on communism …  and a general sentiment that if you’re rich, you’re evil. … [The relationship] may change, but I have very good relationships with all the other [children]. Can’t win them all.”

Musk Buys Twitter

Nov. 1, 2022

Montclair State University publishes a study that compares hate speech on Twitter before and after Elon Musk buys it. In the week leading up to Musk’s acquisition of the company, tweets using hateful terms including insults on race, religion, ethnicity and sexual orientation never rise above 84 instances an hour. But in the first twelve hours after Musk acquires the company, these terms are posted nearly 400 times an hour.

Oct. 30, 2022

When Paul Pelosi, the husband of former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, suffers a fractured skull after being attacked in his San Francisco home by a hammer-wielding man, Musk tweets unfounded allegations about the incident to his 112 million followers. “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” he tweets, implying that Pelosi and the perpetrator are gay lovers. In the post, Musk cites the Santa Monica Observer, a far-right news outlet that regularly publishes false and misleading information. Musk has since deleted the post.

In an interview with CNN, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticises Musk’s rhetoric, saying, “It’s really sad for the country that people of [such] high visibility would separate themselves from the facts and the truth in such a blatant way. It is traumatising to those affected by it. They don’t care about that, obviously, but it’s destructive to the unity that we want to have in our country.”

Nov. 21, 2022

Musk reinstates X accounts previously banned for engaging in antisemitic, homophobic, transphobic and racist harassment campaigns. This includes Andrew Tate, a manfluencer who has compared gay people to invasive, poisonous aliens and said the only way to avoid the normalisation of trans people is a draft for WWIII. It also includes Alex Jones, who, in a now-deleted post from 2015, said that the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling “opens the door for pedo [sic] politicians.”

December 2022

Musk falsely suggests that Yoel Roth, a gay Jewish man who was Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, promoted pedophilia in his academic research.

These claims trigger a wave of homophobic harassment and threats against Roth. Fox News’s Laura Ingraham claims Roth stood “with the deviancy,” while Ben Shapiro falsely alleges Roth encouraged Grindr access for teens.

The harassment escalates to the point where Roth and his family flee and sell their home after the Daily Mail publishes that they live in San Francisco.

June 21, 2023

In a post on X, Musk labels “cis” and “cisgender” as slurs. He adds that “repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions.”

Shortly after Musk’s post, X begins restricting accounts attempting to post the terms and notifies them of the following: “This post contains language that may be considered a slur by X and could be used in a harmful manner in violation of our rules.”

July 22, 2024

In an interview with Jordan Peterson for the right-wing media outlet The Daily Wire, Musk deadnames and misgenders his transgender daughter, claiming he was “tricked” into letting her get gender-affirming medical care as a teenager and referring to her as “dead.”

He says this is why he “vows to destroy the woke mind virus.” In response, Wilson tells NBC News that Musk is lying about her upbringing and says he was an absent father who harassed her for being too feminine. “He was cold. He’s very quick to anger. He is uncaring and narcissistic. … I was in fourth grade. We went on this road trip … and he was constantly yelling at me viciously because my voice was too high. It was cruel.”

Special Government Employee and Trump’s “First Buddy”

Dec. 28, 2024

Musk writes an op-ed for the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, where he expresses support for the country’s far-right party, Alternative for Germany (AfD). The party is deeply anti-LGBTQIA+: opposing same-sex marriage and gender-affirming care for trans people; supporting abolishing the position of a federal government commissioner on queer rights; and voting for bans on the use of gender-neutral language in schools. “Only the AfD can save Germany,” Musk writes.

March 6, 2025

The Department of Government Efficiency, run by Musk, announces the termination of a handful of research grants by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), many of which fund scientific research related to gender-affirming healthcare, HIV prevention and studies focused on AIDS. One researcher is notified in an email from NIH that says the agency no longer supports “research based on gender identity.”

March 2025

In an interview with Teen Vogue, Wilson criticises her father for mischaracterising her in Walter Isaacson’s biography as being an angry, rebellious child influenced by Marxism.

She clarifies that she is not a Marxist, reveals she has not spoken to her father since 2020, and describes him as “a pathetic man-child.”

Musk indirectly responds to the Teen Vogue interview by baselessly and repeatedly claiming transgender people are violent due to hormone replacement therapy.

In direct response to Musk deadnaming her on X, Vivian uses a popular quote from RuPaul’s Drag Race, stating, “I look pretty good for a dead bitch.”

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Biblically responsible investing is a key factor driving American companies away from their DEI efforts.

WORDS TOM SAYERS AND SPENCER MACNAUGHTON

THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED ON UNCLOSETED MEDIA A NEW INVESTIGATIVE LGBTQIA+ FOCUSSED NEWS PUBLICATION.

On 7 January, Meta introduced a new and watered-down Hateful Conduct Policy, which now makes explicit exemptions for discrimination aimed at the LGBTQIA+ community. “We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality,” the policy states, using an offensive, loaded term that anti-trans activists frequently use. The LGBTQIA+ community and allies were outraged, with many boycotting Facebook and Instagram because of it.

But for Robert Netzly’s company, the new guidelines were a massive win: “Meta’s decision to end its censorship and divisive DEI policies represents a watershed moment for free expression, corporate responsibility, and faith-based investing,” wrote Netzly, the CEO of Inspire Investing, in a blog post a few days after the announcement.

“We had been engaged with Meta for about eight months … with a shareholder resolution centred on censorship,” Netzly, who describes himself as a “blood-bought believer by Jesus Christ,” told Uncloseted Media. “I applaud [Meta] for listening. I applaud them for engaging with us and I applaud them for making a good decision,” he says, adding in his blog post that Inspire’s shareholder engagement efforts “were instrumental in speaking biblical truth to corporate power and contributed to steering Meta toward a more inclusive, free and God-glorifying society.” Meta did not respond to Uncloseted Media’s request to view the shareholder resolution, and Inspire Investing declined to share a copy.

Inspire Investing, founded by Netzly in 2015, is one of several financial firms specialising in what’s known as biblically responsible investing (BRI) – a rapidly growing, socially conservative form of Christian faith-based investing that steers Christians, no matter how well-intentioned they may be, away from investing in companies that support or promote various LGBTQIA+ rights or inclusive policies for the community.

“The whole idea of biblically responsible investing is a relatively new concept that doesn’t get a lot of attention,” says Kent Saunders, a professor of economics and finance at Anderson University.

While BRI may be new, this form of investing is a key factor pushing companies to sprint away from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.

And the industry is booming. Netzly says his company has over $3.2 billion of assets under management, up from the $35 million they had eight years ago. “We’re growing like a weed. And not just us, but many others. So it really is just the beginning of the faith-based investment movement.”

How Biblically Responsible Investing Works

Inspire Investing and other BRI firms, like the Biblically Responsible Investing Institute (BRII) and the Timothy Plan, screen companies for various forms of support for the LGBTQIA+ community. Depending on the BRI firm, companies can get dinged for celebrating Pride Month, for offering benefits to same-sex couples, for having an LGBTQIA+ employee resource group and for covering top or bottom surgery for their trans employees.

“When you’re talking about a company that is comprised of thousands of people with various viewpoints, we can’t take sides in a social issue,” says Netzly. “Particularly in something so deeply important and impactful as marriage, sexuality, relationships [and] gender.”

Despite Meta’s new rules, even they aren’t BRI-safe. Among other violations, BRII downranked them because of a 2024 video posted to LinkedIn captioned, “This PRIDE month, we’re proud to amplify the voices and stories of our Meta employees who are shaping a more inclusive world.” And Meta isn’t alone: Amazon was down ranked for having an LGBTQ category on its marketplace. In fact, almost half of the S&P 500 is a no-go for Christian investors because of their so-called LGBTQIA+ activism.

“What they’re doing is demonising an entire community,” says Wendy Via, co-founder and president of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. “[BRI] creates this false equivalency for discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people and people of faith. It’s just not the same. The gay community has worked for years and years to get folks the rights and the protections that they have earned and deserve. And so a company shouldn’t be dinged for being inclusive.”

One of the most common reasons a company gets ruled out of BRI is when they have a high score on the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index – a survey that measures workplaces on their LGBTQ policies and practices that is widely recognised as the gold standard metric for whether a company treats their queer employees well.

But for Inspire Investing, companies who scored “an above-average employer rating” on the HRC’s Index are dinged and receive a bad score for their so-called LGBT activism. Meta, Pfizer, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Microsoft, Amazon and Apple all received the lowest score from Inspire Investing – a negative 100 – for “earning an above-average rating from HRC.”

Part of corporate America’s abandonment of DEI has involved no longer participating in the HRC’s survey. In the last six months, companies that announced they would no longer participate include Harley-Davidson and Lowe’s. And today, both companies hold positive scores from Inspire Investing, which is only possible when a company has no screening violations related to so-called LGBT activism or other categories they deem anti-Christian.

“There’s many things in the [Index] that are just frankly required legal mandates; you have to do certain things,” says Netzly, who says HRC has “encouraged hate-filled messages towards people of faith.” But when it comes to something like celebrating Pride, Netzly asks, “Has Apple sponsored a Focus on the Family parade? I don’t think they would do that [and] that’s an example of taking sides in an issue.” Focus on the Family is an organization that has advocated for conversion therapy. The Southern Poverty Law Center has described them as one of a “dozen major groups [which] help drive the religious right’s anti-gay crusade.”

In an email to Uncloseted Media, HRC Spokesperson Jared Todd challenged Netzly’s notion that being pro-LGBTQIA+ means you are anti-Christian. “Two things are true: Diversity and inclusion efforts are not a zero-sum issue; and LGBTQ+ people of all backgrounds hold jobs that are housed in workplaces across the country. That’s why policies and practices based in DEI, alongside active participation in surveys like the Corporate Equality Index, are so vital to a company’s long-term success in achieving their business goals and ensuring top talent attraction and retention,” he writes.

Despite the recent DEI exodus, Todd noted that this year, HRC surveyed a record-high 1,449 participants – nearly 5% growth from the previous year. Todd also pointed to data from 2024 that found 60% of people say an inclusive work culture with a well-supported diversity program is critical to attracting and retaining them as an employee – up 9 points from 2022.

“I think the real problem is how these companies are defining Christianity and biblically-based thinking,” Via told Uncloseted Media. “They are viewing Christianity and a biblical worldview in a very narrow way that the majority of Christians do not agree with,” she says.

The Origins of BRI

“Biblically responsible investing was sort of an evolution from the environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement,” says Saunders, who conducted a 2023 study exploring BRI. “This was a faith-based application of [it],” he says, adding that in recent years, BRI firms have separated themselves from ESG.

BRI was born in the 1990s when Arthur Ally founded the Timothy Plan. “At age 52, Mr. Ally was called by God … to launch America’s first pro-life/pro-family mutual fund,” reads a brochure on their website. When it launched, the firm screened for five core issues: abortion, pornography, alcohol, tobacco and casino gambling. It has since added additional screens aimed at the LGBTQIA+ community to “preserve innocence [by] filtering out companies engaged in anti-family activity” and exclude “companies actively profiting from and normalising the vulnerabilities of … sexual impurity, or attempting to redefine God’s Word.”

The Timothy Plan did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

When it comes to filters, the Biblically Responsible Investing Institute’s are the strictest, according to Saunders’ research. Their sprawling screens – 67 in total – are broken down into 13 categories, including abortion, alcohol, anti-family activity, contraceptives and non-married lifestyles.

“We do not hate any person who self-identifies as LGBT,” Stephen duBarry, president of BRII, told Uncloseted Media in an email. “We are taught by Christ that every human being is our neighbour, who we are to love as much as we love ourselves. At the same time, we also believe that LGBT behaviour is sinful, disordered and ultimately self-destructive. We are convinced this is what the Bible teaches, and this is also how a broad consensus of Christians have understood scripture for roughly two millennia. It is precisely because we love our neighbor that we seek to divest from the promotion of all forms of behavior that we believe to be harmful.”

Saunders’ research found the most commonly violated BRII screen is related to LGBTQ equality which is filed under “anti-family activity” and “non-married lifestyles.” Each filter carries a fixed “failure period,” ranging from 1 year to 100 years, designating the length of time a company is excluded from BRI investing.

For example, because Apple celebrated pride in 2023 and 2024, they are excluded from BRI for 54 months until at least September 2026. Since they were “one of the first [companies] to offer domestic partner benefits (medical benefits to an employee’s same gender partner),” Apple is excluded for 100 years, lasting from March 17, 2008 until March 2108. Yes, as in the 22nd century.

DuBarry notes these exclusions could be dropped if Apple were to “meaningfully address BRII’s concerns.”

The full list of Apple’s BRII violations is vast. The company received anti-family activity violations for promoting LGBTQIA+ themed podcasts, audiobooks, and TV shows on iTunes and AppleTV. They received a similar violation because of a post on X promoting an interview with Scissor Sisters gay pop icon Jake Shears and non-binary musicians Lava La Rue and I. Jordan.

“[BRI] tries to point out companies that violate human rights … [but] excludes or prevents companies that are trying to be activists in that area,” says Saunders. “It certainly could seem to be doing the opposite of what it intends to do in some areas.”

The Growth of the Industry

Since the Timothy Plan launched in 1994, at least six other Christian investment firms have joined the scene. Some of these firms, including Inspire Investing, have their own network of specialised financial advisors who target Christian investors and guide them on how to follow BRI practices. The ability to grow clientele and audience is supported by a media ecosystem that includes TV ads, podcasts, videos, daily livestream shows and books that explain why you, a good Christian, should join in.

One podcast, Christian Financial Perspectives, explains in an episode entitled “Voting Christian, But Investing Woke?” that “millions of conservative Christians are supporting woke agendas through their mutual funds or ETFs.” Host Bob Barber explains that “we [conservative Christians] want to have a voice not only in the nation, but we want to have a voice in our city, our state, and how our country [is] run.” The goal? Enough control of the country to fight “liberals” who “want a free reign for the LGBTQIA+.”

“It’s kind of like the whole poop in the brownie stories,” says co-host Shawn Peters, resorting to a crude metaphor for why Christians can’t simply take any faith-based approach and must follow BRI. “If somebody offers you a brownie and they say, ‘Oh, there’s a little bit of poop in there.’ Well, how much poop is okay in the brownies for you to still eat them? I think most people would say, ‘Now that I know there’s poop in the brownies, I don’t want to eat them,’” he says, explaining that no matter how small or indirect, a good Christian steward wouldn’t let their money touch companies that support LGBTQIA+ or other screening measures in any way.

BRI Penetrates All-American Institutions

Companies with BRI violations transcend all institutions in American society. UnitedHealth Group is ruled out for offering health insurance that covers gender-affirming care for trans people; JP Morgan Chase took a hit for its foundation’s contribution to LGBTQIA+ causes like the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance and the Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus; Starbucks was wrist slapped for sponsoring Seattle’s PrideFest in 2023; and even Electronic Arts – creator of The Sims – was dinged for including queer characters in its games.

Via sees parallels between the world of BRI in investing and the broader goals of right-wing Christianity. “The Christian nationalist movement in the US is very much trying to break that separation of church and state in our government and they are trying to influence entertainment and media. And now we’re looking at financial institutions. It is alarming that there is such a concentrated effort in all parts of society from a minority of a minority of Christianity,” she says.

Like most conservative Christian movements, the next biggest issue for BRI is abortion. Companies are ruled out of BRI for offering their employees benefits like insurance that covers abortion and abortion-related travel. For Target and Walmart – who have both recently ditched their DEI efforts – even simply selling the morning-after pill landed them a violation.

Real-World Impact

The world of BRI has a real-world impact on the policies of some of America’s largest companies.

Uncloseted Media has obtained four shareholder resolutions from Inspire Investing targeting efforts to curb hate speech and anti-discrimination guidelines dating as far back as 2023 – including one resolution that Apple shareholders rejected at their annual meeting on 25 February.

Uncloseted also obtained over 20 letters supporting similar resolutions submitted by Inspire Investing between March and May of last year to many companies that have since curbed their DEI policies, including Walmart, Amazon, Citibank, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase. “We’ve been in conversations with a number of [companies], you know? Tractor Supply, John Deere, kind of on down the list. Robby Starbuck is a part of our coalition,” says Netzly.

In a resolution submitted to Apple, Inspire Investing criticises the company’s policies, stating it supports “non-profits that are … actively attacking free speech and religious freedom.” This includes groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a nonprofit specialising in civil rights and well-known for its hatewatch list that flags companies that “monitor and expose the activities of the American radical right.”

Another resolution submitted to Verizon says companies that promote DEI initiatives “replace rich cultural and ideological diversity with a monolithic focus on group identity” and that terms like “microaggressions” and “hate speech” serve to “punish certain political and religious views.”

Where they can’t wield their own shareholder power, Inspire Investing assists outside partners, like the conservative think tanks National Center for Public Policy Research and Bowyer Research, by sending letters of support for resolutions that target DEI policies and so-called viewpoint restriction rules that limit hate speech against marginalised groups.

In the week leading up to the presidential election, Inspire worked with SPLC-designated anti-LGBTQIA+ hate groups like Alliance Defending Freedom – which has voiced support for conversion therapy and has been influential in anti-trans legislation. The two organisations, alongside “a group of influential investors with over $65 billion in assets under management,” worked together to send letters to Fortune 1000 companies “urging them to avoid or roll back their DEI policies” in response to members of Congress who were asking those companies to “defend” DEI values.

Alliance Defending Freedom did not respond to Uncloseted Media’s request for comment.

“DEI has become synonymous with taking sides, and particularly a leftist side, alienating and even oppressing those who have different viewpoints,” Netzly told Uncloseted Media. “Some call it reverse discrimination, call it what you will, but that’s what [it has become] in practice,” he adds.

The Trump Effect on BRI

Leaders in the BRI space believe the Trump administration will help their industry blossom. Netzly wrote in a blog post that “President Trump’s 2025 agenda has provided a rare and compelling alignment with the principles of biblically responsible investing.” In just six weeks, “New leadership at federal agencies … and other reforms created a legal environment where Christian businesses can flourish.”

John and David Schneider, hosts of the Queer Money Podcast, urge the LGBTQ community to leverage their own financial power. They say the whole goal of BRI is to suck investing dollars from companies that are positive for the community and wield those investments for their own political gains.

“One of the things that our community doesn’t have that the Christian right has is one thing they coalesce around, right? They coalesce around biblical values and understand how they apply that in their lives,” says David Schneider. “We’re exactly in the place that the Christian right wants us to be,” he says. “Stressed out, spread out and unorganised.”

When it comes to fighting back; “We have more power than we think we do. We have been trained to believe that we are powerless,” says John Schneider, urging queer people to think more strategically about their money. While the LGBTQIA+ community doesn’t agree on everything, we do have one thing in common: protecting our rights. And there are plenty of queer people with investments to leverage in support of that – be it a retirement plan, stocks or simply a college fund or, at the very least, how you spend your money.

As BRI continues to boom, Netzly believes companies like his will continue to have more influence to use shareholders to push corporate powers away from LGBTQIA+ inclusive social policies.

Wendy Via of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism says that as the BRI movement grows, intolerance towards the LGBTQIA+ community may increase as well.

“The idea that we’re going to take our society backward and use finances as a way to do it. I mean, I think it’s appalling,” she says.

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In January, Idaho introduced a resolution that is now one of at least 9 measures trying to chip away at same-sex marriage across the US. A notoriously anti-LGBTQIA+ group says they’re behind the push.

WORDS HOPE PISONI, IAN MAX STEVENSON AND SPENCER MACNAUGHTON
ADDITIONAL REPORTING SAM DONNDELINGER

THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED ON UNCLOSETED MEDIA A NEW INVESTIGATIVE LGBTQIA+ FOCUSSED NEWS PUBLICATION.

THIS STORY WAS PRODUCED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE IDAHO STATESMAN, A BOISE, IDAHO NEWSPAPER THAT HAS BEEN AROUND SINCE 1864.

Idaho lawmakers were met in late January by a House committee hearing room full of constituents stating their beliefs about the institution of marriage – and who it should extend to. After testimonies from nearly two dozen people, the last to speak joined the hearing remotely and thanked Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, for bringing forward a resolution to challenge the legality of same-sex marriages and ask the US Supreme Court to overturn the decade-old landmark ruling that granted it.

Arthur Schaper, field director for a group called MassResistance, told the committee that activists at his international organisation had brought forward similar resolutions in North Dakota, Montana, Michigan and Wyoming and that state lawmakers had been “taking it up.” As of this week, at least nine states have proposed measures to roll back same-sex marriage.

Schaper defended the resolution with discredited claims about homosexuality, which the country’s major medical organisations agree is a normal part of human sexuality.

“People are born Black, Hispanic, or otherwise,” Schaper said. “They are not born homosexual.”

Schaper declined Uncloseted Media’s request for an interview and did not respond to a list of questions sent via email.

A Three-Decade History of Fighting Against LGBTQIA+ Rights

The Idaho resolution was drafted by MassResistance, a far-right Christian organisation that has been fighting against LGBTQIA+ rights since it formed 30 years ago. The group is one of the most openly extreme anti-LGBTQIA+ groups among the far right, advertising itself as “engag[ing] in issues and events that most other conservative groups are afraid to touch” and boasting about writing resolutions like the one passed in the Idaho House.

“MassResistance has drafted text for state legislature resolutions that call on the US Supreme Court to reverse its infamous and illegitimate Obergefell ruling,” the group shared on its website in January, referencing Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark decision by the Supreme Court to legalise same-sex marriage.

It also has criticised Southern Poverty Law Center-designated anti-LGBTQIA+ hate groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Family Research Council for their “polite opposition to the latest left-wing lunacy” and stated that “rather than being truthful and confrontational, too many pro-family groups want to be seen as ‘reasonable’ and ‘not extreme.’” In addition to its anti-LGBTQIA+ activism on home turf, MassResistance works to roll back queer rights globally, with chapters in Africa, South America, the Caribbean and beyond.

Justin R. Ellis, a criminologist at the University of Newcastle in Australia who has written about anti-LGBTQIA+ movements and groups, including MassResistance, said that the successes of groups like ADF in rolling back some LGBTQIA+ rights is exactly what allows MassResistance to take the spotlight.

“Them coming out with their framing and their litigation and their hostility toward queer issues emboldens other groups like MassResistance to go, ‘Hang on, we’re gonna go bolder,’” Ellis said in a video interview.

MassResistance’s effort to overturn same-sex marriage is the latest in a long list of campaigns in which the group has worked to pass anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation, from book bans to gender-marker restrictions, in state and local governments across the country and even abroad.

How MassResistance Grew Beyond its Massachusetts Roots

MassResistance was founded in 1995 in Massachusetts under the name “Parents’ Rights Coalition” by local activist Brian Camenker. After getting his start in activism as an outspoken opponent of LGBTQIA+ inclusive sex education in schools, Camenker quickly led the group’s first major campaign: drafting and lobbying for state legislation that required schools to notify parents and allow them to opt out of sex education for their children. The group emphasised that doing so would allow parents to ensure their children don’t learn about “homosexuality” or so-called “transgenderism.” The campaign was successful, and the bill passed into state law in 1996.

After the Massachusetts Supreme Court made the state the first in the US to legalise same-sex marriage in 2004, the group shifted its focus to fighting that decision. The group temporarily changed its name to the Article 8 Alliance, referencing part of the Massachusetts Constitution that outlines the impeachment of judges. Under this new identity, the group filed state legislation to impeach all of the justices who supported Massachusetts’ pro-same-sex-marriage ruling and to outlaw the unions under state law. None of the bills the group wrote were successful.

Despite this, after rebranding back to MassResistance in 2006, the group continued to write legislation opposed to LGBTQIA+ inclusion until at least 2017. In one bill from 2011, the group sought to repeal an anti-bullying law because of its protections for LGBTQIA+ students.

During this period, the Southern Poverty Law Center designated MassResistance a hate group, in part because it labeled Boston Pride a “depraved” display that featured “a great deal of obviously disturbed, dysfunctional, and extremely self-centered people.”

In the mid-2010s, MassResistance expanded its focus to the national stage. Its first out-of-state chapter opened in 2014 in Virginia. In 2016, Schaper launched a chapter in California. And in 2020, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who MassResistance has said worked closely with members of its Georgia chapter, was elected to the US House of Representatives.

By 2022, the free speech advocacy group PEN America identified at least 16 MassResistance chapters in the US, with several more international chapters. PEN America also identified MassResistance as one of the most active groups in the national push to ban books with LGBTQIA+ content from schools and libraries.

The book ban efforts followed MassResistance publishing in 2017 its own book, The Health Hazards of Homosexuality, which claimed to compile scientific evidence that supported a ban on homosexuality. The 600-page book touts endorsements from various anti-LGBTQIA+ activists, including Michelle Cretella, former executive director of the American College of Pediatricians, a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group known for publishing and spreading specious science about LGBTQIA+ people.

The book rails against “the coarsening of our culture that has accompanied the normalisation of homosexuality” and makes numerous false or misleading scientific claims. For example, it cites statistics indicating higher rates of mental or physical illness among LGBTQIA+ people as evidence of innate risks despite many experts agreeing that discrimination and lack of resources are more accurate explanatory factors.

Where Does the Funding Come From?

According to IRS filings, MassResistance has received thousands of dollars from several donor-advised funds. They include the National Christian Foundation and Arthur G. Jaros Sr. and Dawn L. Jaros Charitable Trust – both of which financially support other far-right groups, including the ADF and the Heritage Foundation, the group behind Project 2025.

Uncloseted Media and the Idaho Statesman also identified IRS forms for the Parents Education Foundation, a group run by Camenker and listed as “related” to MassResistance. Despite little to no public presence, on its most recent IRS filing from 2023, the organisation reported revenue of $211,123, much of which was sourced via donations from large conservative donors and other mainstream donor-advised funds.

The Parents Education Foundation lists Dr. Paul Church as a director. Church is a urologist who was fired from a Boston hospital in 2015 for likening a Pride event to a chosen social agenda, Fox News reported. MassResistance supported Church in his fight against the hospital, and, in 2017, he provided an expert endorsement in The Health Hazards of Homosexuality.

MassResistance Makes Inroads Into Idaho

The current Idaho resolution is not the first instance where MassResistance has worked with the state’s legislators. In a collection of emails leaked by former conservative activist Elisa Rae Shupe, who died by suicide earlier this year, Uncloseted Media found correspondence from 2020 between Schaper and former Idaho state Rep. Julianne Young, R-Blackfoot, who testified in favour of the anti-Obergefell resolution. Young discussed developing an anti-trans bill that would forbid changing gender markers on state birth certificates. The bill became law in Idaho in 2020.

“We are still going after the governor, though, to make sure that he signs or at least allow[s] the bills to become law,” Schaper told Young in one email.

“MassResistance does send emails. They were looking for people to testify, but I did not make those arrangements with them deliberately. I let them know I would contact the bill’s sponsor,” Young told Uncloseted Media in reference to the 2025 anti-Obergefell resolution, which she says she supports. “It’s a correct principle to allow those decisions to be made by the states and not by a single unelected panel of judges.”

When asked if she takes issue with any of MassResistance’s stances on gay issues, Young said, “It’s probably not an issue that I have a relevant opinion on.”

Idaho has been home to some of MassResistance’s government targets. In 2023, activists from its state chapter and other anti-LGBTQA+ groups successfully campaigned to elect a majority of far-right candidates onto Kootenai County’s Community Library Network board. The board has since enacted multiple policies restricting minors’ access to LGBTQIA+ content and libraries in general.

At the 2023 Rexburg Pride Event in East Idaho, counter-protestors from Idaho MassResistance, led at the time by former Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, had physical confrontations with attendees. The spectacle caused police to heighten security and some organisations to pull out of the event the following year. MassResistance made a less conspicuous appearance in 2024. Nate did not respond to Uncloseted Media’s request for comment.

Ellis, the professor who writes about anti-LGBTQIA+ movements including MassResistance, said that coordinating these kinds of local attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community and other marginalised groups has become much easier with social media.

“One of the things that groups such as MassResistance can do is, through their online networks, coordinate protests against Drag Queen Story Time childhood literacy events, for example, and now same-sex marriage, and what they do is get people in other jurisdictions to go to those locations and protest in person,” he said. “Through social media, you can coordinate ideologically aligned individuals quickly and cheaply.”

MassResistance has taken credit on its website for the Idaho resolution carried by Rep. Scott. The group noted that an Idaho House member “offered to spearhead” the resolution this year but did not name the lawmaker.

In response to a public records request, Scott reported she had no communications with MassResistance, and she declined to respond to a question from a Statesman reporter about whether she worked with the group.

In an interview on The Ranch Podcast in early February, Scott said she was first approached about opposing same-sex marriage in the Legislature eight years ago. She said she was looking through a list of ideas for legislation over the summer and decided to “push [same-sex marriage] up to the top this year.”

Scott’s resolution states that the Obergefell decision is an “overreach” from the US Supreme Court, which should leave marriage laws to the states. However, it also asks the Supreme Court to “restore the natural definition of marriage, a union of one man and one woman.”

On the podcast, she underscored her perspective on gay marriage. “Don’t force me to say that that’s a marriage, because in my eyes that’s an abomination to God,” she said, noting that she would support creating a legal relationship between LGBTQIA+ couples that would provide them with the legal rights of marriage.

MassResistance’s International Footprint

MassResistance also advocates against LGBTQIA+ rights around the world. On its website, the group claims to have worked with activists from at least 24 countries and territories, including Mexico, Brazil, Croatia, Nigeria, Taiwan and Australia. Last year, the group started a new chapter in Kenya, where it reported on its website that it was holding trainings for youth to “resist the LGBT agenda” in schools.

In many of these countries, the group circulates a video by Camenker titled “What ‘gay marriage’ did to Massachusetts.” The video has been converted into booklets, which have been translated and circulated in Mexico, Costa Rica, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and more.

“Once same-sex marriage gets a foothold, society becomes more oppressive, hammering citizens with the force of law. The judicial system becomes more radical and arrogant, and politicians become more cowardly. And once that concept is institutionalised, other boundaries on sexual behaviours continue to fall,” Camenker says in the video. “The push for gay marriage is really about putting the legal stamp of approval on homosexuality and forcing its acceptance on otherwise unwilling citizens and on our social, commercial, and political institutions. To those of you where this is being threatened, do not wait – it is absolutely necessary for you to call, write, and even visit your elected officials. They must feel your outrage.”

Camenker did not respond to Uncloseted Media’s request for comment.

Some of MassResistence’s more noteworthy interventions abroad include helping keep anti-sodomy laws on the books in Sri Lanka and supporting propaganda campaigns against the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Taiwan. In the latter case, the group said that Schaper spoke directly with a representative of Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party and was invited to a party event in the US over the course of the campaign.

In Ghana, meanwhile, MassResistance has collaborated with Freedom International, an organisation that congratulated Uganda for its anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation that threatens life in prison for consensual same-sex relations, to start anti-LGBTQIA+ youth clubs in secondary schools.

“[Africa] is the land of opportunity when it comes to restricting LGBTQ rights,” Wendy Via, president and co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told Uncloseted Media. “There are a lot of huge worldwide groups with lots of money who are working on the same thing, and they also come at it from a Christian point of view.”

MassResistance’s Plans Span Far Beyond Idaho

The future of Scott’s resolution in Idaho is uncertain. It passed the Idaho House in a 46-24 vote in late January. Before a vote on the Senate floor, the legislation must advance out of a Senate committee. But the committee’s chairman, Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon, told the Statesman he is not sure whether he will allow a hearing.

“The public has weighed in, and it’s been pretty one-sided in terms of, ‘Why are we doing this?’” he said.

Guthrie said he expects to meet with Scott to discuss her resolution before deciding whether to hold a hearing, but he acknowledged his own concerns.

“The effect of it could be pretty harmful to a lot of people, making them feel for whatever reason that they don’t belong. … I just don’t see the benefit being greater than the hurt,” Guthrie added, noting that it could “tear people’s lives apart.”

Via said MassResistance’s goal is to overturn Obergefell and starting in deep-red pockets of the country is a trial run.

“The little, tiny resolution in Idaho, it’s like the butterfly wings,” she said.

Editor’s note: Dr. Paul Church could not be reached for comment.

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Republicans in Idaho have challenged marriage equality. Should we be concerned?

The post The push to overturn equal marriage, courtesy of MassResistance appeared first on GAY TIMES.

Harassment of LGBTQIA+ people is at an all-time high, and the New York City subway is the belly of the beast. But without clear guidelines from the NYPD, how and when should you intervene?

THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED ON UNCLOSETED MEDIA A NEW INVESTIGATIVE LGBTQIA+ FOCUSSED NEWS PUBLICATION.

WORDS SAM DONNDELINGER

On a summer afternoon in August 2021, Athena Schaffner scrolled the Chipotle menu as she rode the New York City C train.

When the train dipped into a tunnel, a man with baggy sweatpants and a disposable facemask stood up from the orange plastic seats and peered at the subway signs above Schaffner, a lesbian college student who was 20 at the time. As he loomed over Schaffner’s short, spiky hair, she got nervous and looked up. Before she could blink, the man punched her squarely in the forehead. “What?” he screamed. “You don’t want to sleep with me?”

After the subway creaked to a stop, the doors opened and the man ran off. Schaffner sat frozen, her head pulsing.

She looked at the other passengers for help. A woman stood with her earbuds in and her eyes focused on her phone. A man shifted his weight, holding on to the subway pole. No one made eye contact. No one said a word.

“I felt alone,” Schaffner told Uncloseted Media.

The New York City subway can feel like the belly of the beast when it comes to violence. In the last few months, a man nearly died after being pushed on the tracks in Chelsea, and a woman was killed after being lit on fire on a train in Brooklyn.

While the New York City Police Department (NYPD) says overall transit crime has decreased by 36.4% since last year, assaults, harassment and murder have increased since 2021.

Polls show that fear of crime is still the main reason people are hesitant to ride the subway. Only half of those who ride feel safe.

For LGBTQIA+ and queer-presenting people, the subway is even more dangerous. In recent years, attacks against the LGBTQIA+ community have surged, according to the FBI’s annual crime report. More than one-in-five hate crimes are motivated by anti-LGBTQ bias, an increase of 53% from last year. In the subway, trans women have been harassed, lost their legs after being pushed in front of the tracks, been sexually assaulted and been called slurs.

This fear is prompting scholars, activists and victims to ask: What role should bystanders play in intervening in this public violence?

The Bystander Dilemma: Should You Step In?

While the MTA declined to comment for this article, they directed Uncloseted Media to their hate crimes guidelines, where they instruct bystanders to report subway incidents and to “only intervene if you think that it is safe.” They also add, “Don’t try to handle it on your own. The situation could escalate.”

Given some stops span up to 3.5 miles where doors are shut for over five minutes, situations can escalate quickly. When victims have no escape, waiting for authorities may be unrealistic. And research shows that with the right tools, intervention may be more effective at keeping people safe than staying silent.

When bystanders intervene, 79% of victims of sexual harassment in public spaces say the situation improved, according to a 2019 survey. Another study, led by the United Kingdom’s Center for Research on Violence Against Women, found a greater than 50% reduction in sexual violence at schools that received bystander training.

Still, people in the U.S. only intervene 15% of the time.

“It all goes back to some basic psychological principles of the bystander effect,” says Annelise Mennicke, the associate director of research at the University of North Carolina Violence Prevention Center. “If there’s a group of people, there’s a diffusion of responsibility, and people feel unsure. Everybody looks at each other and says, ‘It’s not my job to do it.’ Well, whose job is it?”

Mennicke says lack of intervention creates a domino effect and makes standing by feel normal.

“Although we all imagine ourselves heroes, the fact is that many people refrain from helping in real life, especially when we are aware that other people are present at the scene,” according to social neuroscientist Ruud Hortensius’ research findings from a 2018 report in Current Directions in Psychological Science.

Uncloseted Media interviewed six New Yorkers outside the city’s F train. When asked about their own likelihood to intervene, one of the top reasons they provided for not stepping in is that they didn’t want to risk their own safety.

“You don’t know the scenario,” says Matt Birnholtz, a 26-year-old computer coder in Brooklyn. “You don’t want to put yourself in harm’s way. If you’re the only one who intervenes, you’re putting yourself in a situation you don’t understand and that’s scary.”

There are reasons to be more afraid to intervene in America, a country with the most firearms per capita in the world: 120.5 guns among 100 residents.

“There’s a lot of barriers to intervention related to fear of being wrong, fear of harming yourself or putting yourself in danger, fear of somebody getting mad at you. Bystander intervention training can help with all of those,” says Mennicke.

Amelia Prochaska, a bystander intervention facilitator, says that “Western culture” teaches us not to intervene. “We’re socialised to ignore things or to stay in our lane,” she says. “We’re taught to be more independent and less involved in our communities, which [conditions] us to be less reliant on each other.”

She says that if a stranger is being harassed and you don’t view them as part of your community, it’s hard to step in. “We’re not thinking about what’s at stake for that person,” she says.

Savannah Lynn, an assistant director for Diversity Inclusion at New York University School of Law, agrees. “Intervening is just not done,” she says. “Everybody ignores the situation. And that’s understandable. But there are situations where intervention is necessary, and it changes the trajectory.”

These incidents often start with verbal harassment or catcalling, which disproportionately affect queer people and women.

How Harassment Turns into Violence

In August 2023, a 22-year-old trans woman was waiting for the J train in Brooklyn when a man approached her, catcalled her, and made a sexually suggestive gesture. According to Brooklyn prosecutors, he then grabbed her butt and, when she confronted him verbally, he threatened her and called her a “faggot.”

After they entered the train, he hit her repeatedly, threw her to the floor and beat her until bystanders pulled him off. She ended up with a broken nose, and the man was charged with a hate crime.

Prochaska says it’s critical that bystanders intervene sooner when they see the beginnings of harassment. “Kissy noises, grunts, and unwelcome conversations contribute to the culture of disrespect,” she says. “If we don’t intervene here, then it can escalate to identity-based harassment. This is where we usually see slurs, hate, and physical violence.”

Mennicke says that perpetrators are often “testing the waters” by starting with verbal harassment. In the case of the woman and the man on the platform, she believes the witnesses on the platform had already committed to not intervening.

“By moving off the subway platform and onto the train, new people were involved and saw the severity of the situation without the slow escalation,’’ she says. “I wouldn’t be surprised if [it was] the new people who intervened because they suddenly saw a brand-new situation and couldn’t rationalise it to themselves.”

Who Gets Help? The Role of Identity in Bystander Intervention

“We tend to help people we perceive as less socially distant from ourselves or have more in common with us,” says Brenden Lance, director of the Hate Crime Research and Policy Institute at Florida State University.

Lance says political animus toward the LGBTQIA+ community is creating a climate that makes the public less willing to help. “People perceive themselves as different from [trans and queer people]. Legislation is just making that more concrete.”

Something as superficial as a t-shirt can influence whether a bystander will step in. A 2013 study found that football fans were more likely to verbally or physically intervene in an escalating incident of harassment when the victim was wearing the same jersey as the team they supported.

“Any level of connection can increase your likelihood of helping,” Proschaska says.

Alisa Nudar, a 17-year-old queer student, says she was “so relieved” when someone her age stepped in to help when she was being harassed.

Nudar remembers waiting for the train in Queens when she noticed a man getting closer to her.

“Hey Sweetheart,” he whispered. “How you doing?”

She shifted her weight, unsure whether to leave or respond and afraid the situation might become violent. “My first thought was, ‘Will he follow me home?’” Nudar told Uncloseted Media.

Suddenly, a woman her age approached and gently asked about her day. Nudar pretended to know her, and they boarded the train.

“I felt like I wasn’t alone,” Nudar says. “[A stranger] saying something, even something small, broke the situation and made me feel like I wasn’t crazy because someone else noticed it.”

This method of intervention is called Distract, according to Proschaska.

What Can You Do? Safe Ways to Intervene

Proschaska recommends methods of intervention that focus on supporting the person who’s experiencing the harassment rather than engaging with the perpetrator. In addition to Distract, techniques include Delegate, Document, Delay and Direct.

The 5-Ds, according to Right to Be, a bystander intervention training group, focus on de-escalation. Only one of them involves engagement with the perpetrator.

“Say you’re on the train, and someone’s getting yelled at. You can go and stand between them with headphones on,” says Proschaska, referring to Distract. “You’re creating physical distance [and] starting to diffuse the tension. You don’t even have to say anything.”

If that doesn’t feel safe, Prochaska says you can reach out to the person next to you and ask for their assistance. “Delegate really asks you to consider your positionality in terms of power, privilege, vulnerability, and safety,” she says. “We’re often waiting for someone else to say something without directly asking them to.”

If there’s no way to delegate or distract, taking video can help provide evidence if the situation does get out of hand.

Keith Lynch, who worked for the NYPD for eight years, says people should report harassment on the subway. “Not everyone is in a position to physically intervene,” he says. “But you can always report it.”

While there are emergency alert buttons on trains, phones in stations, and security cameras in trains, the NYPD does not have clear guidelines on what people should do if they see an incident on the subway. Uncloseted Media requested interviews with the NYPD multiple times and sent them a list of questions for comment. They declined an interview and did not respond to our questions.

Without a clear message from the police when it comes to bystander intervention, Proschaska says citizens on the subway have a duty to step in to help their fellow New Yorkers.

“When we start intervening, it helps us all,” she says. “Part of the power of giving people tools and plans for what to do if they see disrespect is acknowledging that it’s happening. The idea that it’s just the way it is is something to directly oppose. I believe that we deserve better than harassment, and we deserve people’s help.”

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Riley Gaines has become the darling of the far-right by using transphobia before science to make bank from attacking the community.

THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED ON UNCLOSETED MEDIA A NEW INVESTIGATIVE LGBTQIA+ FOCUSSED NEWS PUBLICATION.

WORDS HOPE PISONI
IMAGES GAGE SKIDMORE

At the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, Riley Gaines’ and Lia Thomas’ teammates cheered from the sidelines as they watched the 200-yard freestyle. Gaines, the team captain swimming for the University of Kentucky, and Thomas, swimming for the University of Pennsylvania, tied for fifth place, both finishing the race in just under one minute and 44 seconds.

“We were all standing there cheering for [Gaines] on the podium and she just looked so pissed off,” says one of Gaines’ former teammates. “I was looking at my teammate and I was like, ‘Dude, this is the worst thing that could have happened.’”

Thomas was fresh off of becoming the first trans athlete to earn an NCAA Division I title and had become the target of controversy throughout the season, with organisations like Save Women’s Sports and Concerned Women of America using her success as a rallying cry against trans women’s participation in sports. Gaines’ teammate, who asked to remain anonymous due to concerns about grad school applications, told Uncloseted Media that tensions had already been high prior to the competition but reached a boiling point when Gaines and Thomas tied.

“She, for months leading up to that, had this bias in her head, and I think that was the last straw that gave her the push to speak up about it,” says Gaines’ former teammate, adding that she could never have predicted that this would be the start of a lucrative career for her former captain.

Less than a week after the race, Gaines began skyrocketing to right-wing fame when she was profiled in an article by right-wing commentary website The Daily Wire, where she criticised the NCAA for awarding Thomas a trophy before her.

“The more I thought about it, the more it fired me up,” Gaines told the conservative media outlet founded by Ben Shapiro.

The next month, she would testify before the Kentucky senate in support of a bill that would ban trans women from women’s sports. By May 2023, she had appeared on Fox News 29 times and been hired as an official spokesperson for the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), a far-right organisation known for anti-trans activism.

Since the infamous race against Thomas, she’s sued the NCAA, headlined nationwide speaking tours and launched the Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute. This month, Gaines appeared at the signing of Donald Trump’s executive order banning trans women from women’s sports, where he personally congratulated her for her activism and for being “at the forefront” of the issue.

As Gaines’ star has risen, her former teammate says it’s become too much to stomach. “I haven’t followed her, and I’ve tried to distance myself from it,” she says. “It’s just been insane how she has changed this narrative … into ‘trans people shouldn’t compete in sports.’”

Gaines’ meteoric rise reflects a strategy that far-right groups, including the anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), use to prop up young, primarily white, cisgender women and girls as figureheads in their movement to ban trans girls and women from sports.

While research surrounding trans women in sports is ongoing, Gaines and other right-wingers rarely cite it when pushing for laws that rollback trans rights. Instead, their rhetoric is fuelled by transphobia and fear-mongering about how trans girls and women are jeopardising the safety of cis females.

This strategy seems to be working. Since 2020, 27 out of 50 states have banned trans students from competing on teams matching their gender identity.

“There’s a whole right-wing media machinery and money that started strategically using people like Riley Gaines to make these arguments around Title IX and [the idea] that trans athletes are ‘destroying’ women’s sports,” says Mia Fischer, a professor of communications and women & gender studies at University of Colorado Denver. “Anti-trans activism has made sports a key issue, and they’ve very effectively used it as a trojan horse to attack other trans rights.”

How Sports Became a Target

Openly trans athletes are exceedingly rare, with fewer than ten competing in the NCAA, according to the association’s president. Despite this, leaked emails show that, as early as 2014, ADF was coordinating with the American College of Pediatricians – another anti-LGBTQ hate group – to produce pseudoscientific studies.

In one email, ADF requests a report that “make[s] the point that interpreting Title IX to include protections for ‘gender identity’ will harm girls by allowing boys to displace girls on competitive sports teams.” This argument would form the backbone of their legal and rhetorical strategy for pushing trans sports bans.

Multiple trans athletes told Uncloseted Media that their presence in sports was, for a long time, mostly irrelevant. But Fischer says that began to change in 2017 when two Connecticut trans girls drew controversy after multiple first- and second-place wins in the state’s high school track competitions, and some parents raised concerns about fairness.

ADF – a group that has advocated for conversion therapy and against marriage equality – jumped on this opportunity and helped the families of three cisgender Connecticut runners file a lawsuit in 2020, arguing that allowing trans girls to compete on girls’ sports teams violates Title IX. The plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuit were quickly promoted by ADF and allied groups.

As with Gaines, they testified in favour of other states’ anti-trans legislation, published op-eds and appeared on Fox News. One plaintiff’s mother, who started a petition to change Connecticut’s policies around trans athletes, was featured on a panel with the Heritage Foundation – the organisation that penned Project 2025 – to discuss the importance of banning trans women from sports.

“That was a really scary time,” says Andraya Yearwood, one of the trans runners from Connecticut, adding that she received sustained harassment both online and from some parents. However, she said most teammates and competitors were supportive. “I knew people didn’t want me to run, but I didn’t know that it would reach such heights.”

Yearwood remembers online strangers telling her to quit running, calling her a cheater and sending her posts and videos that misgender her and call for her to be banned from her sport. At one track meet, she recalls hearing cheers from the crowd after she was removed from a race for a false start, and she says one woman verbally accosted her.

“I just stood there for a few seconds. I didn’t say anything,” Yearwood told Uncloseted Media. “I was too stunned to speak. Then I turned around and I kept walking. I just was like, ‘I’m not gonna pay you any mind. I have better things to worry about, like my race.’”

Riley Gaines’ Rise to Stardom

As ADF’s lawsuit moved through the courts, Gaines’ star rose. She successfully lobbied local governments for sports bans, was featured in campaign ads for Rand Paul and Ron DeSantis and landed a podcast called “Gaines for Girls” on Fox Nation. She also worked with International Chess Federation leadership to ensure trans women would be banned from their women’s events.

Gaines’ rhetoric wasn’t always so extreme. In her initial appearance in The Daily Wire, she consistently genders Lia Thomas correctly.

“I am in full support of her and full support of her transition and her swimming career,” Gaines told The Daily Wire, “because there’s no doubt that she works hard too, but she’s just abiding by the rules that the NCAA put in place, and that’s the issue.”

But as the far-right rewarded her, Gaines’ rhetoric became increasingly fueled by transphobia. Today, she misgenders trans people and laments watching Thomas “steal trophies from girls I’d known my whole life.”

“Lia Thomas is not a brave, courageous woman who EARNED a national title. He is an arrogant, cheat who STOLE a national title from a hardworking, deserving woman,” she tweeted in March 2023, almost exactly a year after her tying match.

This switch-up is not unique. Yearwood says prior to the Connecticut lawsuit, she had been friendly with Chelsea Mitchell, one of the plaintiffs. Weeks before the lawsuit was filed, Mitchell congratulated Yearwood in an Instagram message shared with Uncloseted Media.

“That really shocked me,” Yearwood says. “ [It] was a bit confusing.”

Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment.

“People become more ideologically indoctrinated,” says Fischer. “The influence of various anti-LGBTQ Christian conservative groups on these athletes becomes really clear, in that their views become more narrow, exclusionary, or even radical fundamentalist.”

There’s also a financial incentive for Gaines to lean into this rhetoric. Gaines was paid nearly $12,000 by Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign in 2023, and her centre was awarded $20,000 for collaborating on a “Real Women of America” pinup calendar with Conservative Dad’s Ultra Right Beer – which the founders describe as an “anti-woke” beer company.

Gaines has also participated in paid speaking engagements at over 50 college campuses, landed two separate book deals and has her own merch collection with the Leadership Institute, with “Save Women’s Sports” and “BOYcott” t-shirts selling for as much as $40.

“She’s developing her stance according to who’s supporting her,” says Gaines’ former teammate. “With her sponsorships and with the big people commenting saying ‘you’re doing great things,’ I think it was inevitable that it would have led to that.”

On Fox News, Gaines has even gone so far as to bully and misgender children, referring to an eighth-grade trans girl as a “mediocre man.”

Later in 2022, Gaines became an official spokeswoman for the IWF, an organisation founded in the 1990s by a group of conservative women who were working to defend then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas from allegations that he had persistently sexually harassed a former advisor. Over time, they grew into a broader conservative women’s group with the help of significant funding from right-wing donors. Recently, their primary focus has been anti-trans advocacy.

IWF is part of the Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition, a collection of organizations that sponsors Gaines’ “Take Back Title IX” college campus tours, where she gives speeches advocating against trans women in sports.

In one speech at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Gaines said that calling for trans women to be banned from women’s sports is “how anyone with any amount of brain activity would probably comprehend this information.”

The Leadership Institute and Manipulating the Narrative

In August 2023, Gaines launched the Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute with the goal of “protecting women’s sports.” The Leadership Institute, a member of Project 2025’s advisory board and funded by the Charles Koch Foundation, is known for training conservatives to be effective activists and politicians. Notable alumni include Mitch McConnell and Mike Pence.

Last summer, the centre launched an online training, where Gaines details how to use Title IX to “Defend Women’s Sports and Stand Against Gender Ideology.”

“Biological sex has been replaced in favour of transgenderism,” Gaines says in the video. “[People are] being silenced for believing in the biological reality that there are only two sexes.” Subsequent videos instruct viewers how Title IX can be used to “silence” or “censor” students who engage in harmful rhetoric, like misgendering or deadnaming trans folks, and how students can instead use it to push back against this “censorship.”

The center also has a roster of young female ambassadors who, like Gaines, have become influencers of the anti-trans movement. Among them are members of the Roanoke College Swim Team, who made headlines when they claimed they were pressured to accept a trans woman on their team. However, the College’s administration released a statement stating that the trans woman in question never joined the team and withdrew her request after receiving backlash.

Despite this, the team appeared on stage at one of Donald Trump’s final 2024 election campaign rallies, where the president praised them for their protest. “The brave members of the swim team stood up to the transgender fanatics,” Trump said.

Gaines herself also claims on her center’s website that she was forced to share a locker room with Thomas. “We weren’t even forewarned that we would be forced to undress in front of a 6’4” fully intact, 22-year-old male. As if that weren’t enough, we were effectively silenced by our universities with threats and intimidation.”

But Gaines’ former teammate says this is untrue. “NCAA gave us a heads-up that all the locker rooms were going to be gender-neutral, and there were three locker rooms that we could have used … So Riley’s villainising Lia with ‘I was changing in the locker room when Lia walked in and stripped down,’ and I’m like, ‘Riley, we knew this was a possibility.’ Riley shaped the narrative in her way.”

Uncloseted Media reached out to Gaines via the Riley Gaines Center with an interview request and a list of questions but received no response.

Cherrypicking White Cis Women

“There’s clearly a lot of media training that these people have received,” says Fischer, noting that the right-wing’s selection of white, traditionally feminine girls and young women is likely intentional. “If we think about traditional gender norms, they fulfill all these signifiers that we traditionally associate with feminine white athletes. I think this is also why media then attaches to certain people easier than to others and is able to create this celebrity status around them.”

Yearwood believes that anti-Black racism was an underlying element to the backlash she received, with many attacking her by playing on existing stereotypes of Black women as more masculine in contrast to their white counterparts.

“Because a lot of Black women in general are often hyper-masculinised in American culture, I think that also contributes to the scrutiny that we faced in high school,” says Yearwood. “They had really focused on our muscle definition as we were running, and some of the comments were comparing us to other famous black athletes like Lebron James.”

Yearwood says most of the hate she has received has been from older people. She believes that is why there’s so much focus by the right wing to find people like Gaines who can persuade younger generations to oppose trans women competing in sports.

“It’s funny when grown adults target teenagers, so I don’t think that would gain as much traction,” says Yearwood.

As Gaines’ star continues to rise, Trump’s recent executive order, which empowers federal agencies to enforce a trans-exclusionary definition of Title IX in any institution that receives federal funding, can now deny trans athletes all over the country the opportunity to compete in sports.

For Yearwood, the hate from the anti-trans movement and from influencers like Gaines was so intense that she chose not to continue running competitively in college.

“I spent months going back and forth about whether I wanted to do track, and after making the decision not to, it did feel like I was losing a part of me,” says Yearwood. “There’s still times that I do wish I could still run track, and still have that kind of camaraderie on a team.”

Editor’s note: Uncloseted Media reached out to ADF and IWF for comment but received no response.

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Black women make up 50% of new HIV diagnoses among women and are 10 times more likely to have an HIV diagnosis than their white counterparts. Why?

THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED ON UNCLOSETED MEDIA A NEW INVESTIGATIVE LGBTQIA+ FOCUSSED NEWS PUBLICATION.

WORDS SHARLA STEINMAN
COVER PHOTO TANZU TOPUZOGLU
COVER PHOTO DESIGN SAM DONNDELINGER

Kennedi Lowman thought it was another routine blood donation day. But in a single moment, her life was forever altered – shocked by an HIV-positive diagnosis she never saw coming.

“It was scary, heartbreaking, and shameful. Working in medicine and having my degrees, knowing what I knew about STIs. ‘Why me? How me?’” Lowman told Uncloseted Media.

Lowman, a 38-year-old Black woman in Atlanta, Georgia, was a medical technologist at the time of her 2016 diagnosis, which came as a total shock. “I was just crying day and night, I was crying driving to work, I cried in the shower,” she says, adding that the diagnosis pushed her into a “deep, dark depression” for two years.

Once she pushed past her depression, Lowman – who believes she contracted HIV from her friends-with-benefits partner – turned her pain into purpose and became an advocate in Georgia’s HIV community. She co-founded LOTUS, an Atlanta-based organisation that assists women living with HIV across the U.S.

Black women like Lowman make up 50% of new HIV diagnoses among women. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women are 10 times more likely to have an HIV diagnosis than their White counterparts and three times more likely to contract the virus than Latina women.

“What we have not seen is a significant financial investment into creating infrastructure and strategy that addresses the issues that position black women to be disproportionately impacted,” Leisha McKinley-Beach, founder and CEO of the Black Public Health Academy, told Uncloseted Media. “[These issues] include lack of education and awareness, as well the age-old foundation for poor health outcomes in Black communities as a whole [that’s fueled by] institutional racism within our public health infrastructure.”

One factor that may contribute to higher rates of HIV among Black women is that Black men are less likely than men of other racial groups to disclose their same-sex behaviours, which may contribute to a higher risk of contracting HIV.

“A woman may have one partner, and that’s one of her ways of staying safe, but if she doesn’t know the partner’s status, that places her at risk,” says Oni Blackstock, a primary care and HIV physician and founder of Health Justice, a consulting firm that teaches health organisations how to prioritise anti-racism.

Research from 2008 found that down-low (DL) culture, where men who identify as heterosexual hook up with guys in secret, may contribute to why Black women are disproportionately affected by HIV. However, Blackstock says this narrative is stigmatising and doesn’t tell the whole story.

“What it ends up doing is further othering and stigmatising Black, same-gender-loving men,” says Blackstock.

Mia Allison, a 58-year-old Black woman from Demopolis, Alabama, found out that she had HIV in 2017 after being hospitalized for a mild stroke.

“[The team at the hospital] came back in the room and told me that I was a smidgen from full-blown AIDS, but I was HIV positive, and that really changed my life,” Allison told Uncloseted Media.

After learning of her diagnosis, Allison later found out that a past hookup partner, who passed away in 2019, had been rumoured to be dating both men and women.

She remembers calling him before his passing after hearing he wasn’t doing well. He asked her if she was still experiencing headaches and suggested she see a doctor. “I do believe that he was trying to tell me [that I possibly had HIV], but just didn’t know how to say it,” says Allison.

Allison, who is a pastor at a non-denominational church in Atlanta, had already been helping HIV-positive people find care before her diagnosis. She says that her sermons focus on accepting everyone regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status. “When I speak at different conferences and when I say that I’m a pastor … I can see the expression on people’s faces change because [HIV] is not talked about [in the church],” she says.

“I thought God was mad with me and cast a spell on me, because I’m preaching, I’m teaching, I’m helping the sick, I’m feeding the poor, and now this happened to me. ‘Why me?’” says Allison.

Christianity and the Black Church have been found to play a significant role in the stigma surrounding HIV and homosexuality.

“DL culture is very strong in the church,” says Natalie Farrior, a 29-year-old Black woman with HIV from North Carolina. “[Many people believe that] you’re possessed by the devil if you’re gay.”

Farrior says that DL guys she’s hooked up with have told her that they aren’t out of the closet because of religion, gang activity, having a child, having a female partner or not wanting to be deemed as “not masculine.”

“That poses a risk for the health of not only Black men, but Black women as well, because now you have someone that has to hide their identity and their preferences, so they’re going to find it in whatever they can and practice a lot of unsafe activity,” Farrior says.

Marnina Miller, a 35-year-old Black woman with HIV from Benton Harbor, Michigan, says anti-LGBTQIA+ hate is a driving factor behind the high rates of HIV among Black women. “The harmful thing is the homophobia and transphobia in Black and Brown communities,” she says, adding that this hate is fueled by church leaders and policymakers that have prevented access to HIV prevention care and medicine.

In addition to stigma, Miller, who is also the co-executive director of the Positive Women’s Network, a national organization of women living with HIV, points to a lack of education about HIV in religious circles. She says that while growing up in the church, she was educated about some STIs and taught not to get pregnant, but she learned nothing about HIV.

Due to a history of systemic racism in America, Black people in the U.S. continue to be disproportionately affected by poverty. Data shows that the typical White household had 9.2 times as much wealth as a Black household in 2021.

A lack of access to economic and educational resources is linked to the practice of riskier health behaviors, such as substance abuse, which reduce the likelihood that someone will use a condom during sex. Homelessness and food insecurity can also lead to the exchange of sex for money, safety or housing.

In addition to all of this, Miller says there are high levels of medical distrust among Black and Brown women.

“After the Tuskegee family, a lot of people still don’t trust providers,” Lowman says.

The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in Black Men was an ethically unjustified study that was conducted from 1932 to 1972 and was supposed to look at the natural progression of untreated syphilis. However, researchers failed to collect informed consent from patients and did not offer treatment even after antibiotics were readily available.

The study is just one example of race-based malpractice over the last century. Black women were forcibly sterilised throughout the 1900s, and their cervical cells were harvested and studied without consent. Today, 55% of Black Americans believe non-consensual experiments are being conducted on Black people.

In addition, a 2024 Pew Research Center study found that a majority of Black Americans have had negative experiences with healthcare providers, including feeling like their pain was not taken seriously. One in five Black women say they’ve been treated unfairly by a healthcare provider because of their background.

“A lot of time we also have providers who are being gatekeepers and they’re bringing their biases and their racism and their sexism to these encounters,” says Blackstock.

A 2021 study found that providers who scored high on a racism measure were less willing to discuss and prescribe pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) – a medicine that reduces the risk of getting HIV by roughly 99% and is considered integral to ending the epidemic – to Black patients.

Allison remembers experiencing bad migraines before her diagnosis. Her doctor prescribed her narcotics and Percocets for the pain, but she was later hospitalized due to a stroke and didn’t find out she had HIV until after she had spent five months in the hospital.

Michael Fordham, program manager of the leading HIV clinic at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, says symptoms related to HIV can mimic the flu or hide under other illnesses, such as cancer or pneumonia. Because of this, testing is essential. “[Patients] could be going in because they’ve got a really high fever, chills, and they’re like, ‘I think I have the flu.’ Well, ironically, those are the same symptoms of what we call acute HIV infection,” says Fordham, adding that his hospital automatically tests patients for HIV unless they opt-out.

McKinley-Beach says that many clinicians are not bringing up PrEP to women. Instead, she says they recommend avoiding “high-risk” behaviours.

She says this is compounded by a lack of Black women featured in PrEP marketing campaigns. “Many of us are making medical decisions based on what we see on television,” she says. “Think about people who are flocking into their doctor’s office asking about Ozempic. Where did they first hear about it? They saw a commercial about it. And they saw women dancing and living their best lives. This [representation] is a key tool necessary for helping to raise awareness and scale up PrEP use among Black women.”

Despite the alarmingly high HIV rates among Black women in the US, prevention medication is more accessible than ever. Medicare, Medicaid and most private insurance companies cover some sort of HIV prevention medication. But for the many Black women in the US who don’t have free health insurance, it may be more difficult to access, Fordham says. He adds that pharmaceutical companies may cover the medication in full, but clinics may struggle to cover the cost of the regular blood work and visits needed to remain on the medication.

A new form of PrEP, Lenacapiver, has shown to be 100% effective for HIV prevention for cisgender women.

“It’s not yet commercially approved … But it’s got the potential to be a real game changer,” says Fordham, adding that a nurse-administered injectable may garner more interest from women because there isn’t a pill bottle that a husband or child may question.

In addition to prevention medication like PrEP, McKinley-Beach, a founding member of PrEP in Black America, says testing is essential. She says her home church, the Dream Center Church of Atlanta, conducts HIV testing on Mother’s Day.

“Having those discussions and hearing from our leaders is significant in how many of us choose to navigate things such as HIV testing,” says McKinley-Beach.

Fordham suggests implementing HIV testing into regular appointments, such as OBGYN visits for women, to avoid having to deal with the stigma around HIV. “[Women] don’t want to be seen in the HIV clinic because people might associate them with having [the virus],” he says.

Overall, new HIV diagnoses have largely declined worldwide as of 2023, with a 39% decrease since 2010 and a 60% decrease since HIV’s peak in 1995.

“Can it be scary? Yes. Can it be tiresome? Yes,” says Mia Allison, the pastor from rural Alabama who has been living with HIV since 2017. “But again, I tell anybody, you can live a vibrant and productive life.”

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As Donald Trump’s second administration takes shape, what have his picks done throughout their careers regarding LGBTQ issues? Here are complete track records for eight of his key players.

THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED ON UNCLOSETED MEDIA A NEW INVESTIGATIVE LGBTQIA+ FOCUSSED NEWS PUBLICATION.

WORDS NICO DIALESANDRO, BENJAMIN LAND AND SPENCER MACNAUGHTON

ADDITIONAL REPORTING SAM DONNDELINGER

Uncloseted Media is combing through the political records of some of the most powerful figures in US politics today, publishing analysis about where they stand on LGBTQIA+ issues and how their stance has evolved over time.

From President Trump to Vice President Vance, and now Trump’s starting lineup, it’s an evolving library of the full LGBTQIA+ track records of the second Trump administration. Keep reading below for the latest instalment.

2006

In an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat, Marco Rubio describes his opposition for gay adoption in Florida. “Kids should not be forced to be part of some social experiment,” he tells the paper.

United States Senator

March 2013

During a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Rubio tells the crowd, “Just because I believe that states should have the right to define marriage in the traditional way does not make me a bigot.”

December 2015

In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network during his presidential run, Rubio says – if elected – he would appoint anti-gay-marriage justices to the Supreme Court, roll back Obama-era executive actions that protect LGBTQIA+ people and undo laws that protect trans people’s right to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.

February 2016

At a campaign rally in New Hampshire, Rubio says, “Marriage should be between one man and one woman.”

August 2016

Rubio is under fire by LGBTQIA+ advocacy groups for speaking with the Anti-Gay Florida Renewal group.

August 2017

Two months after the Pulse nightclub shooting that left 49 people dead, Rubio asks evangelicals to show compassion to LGBTQIA+ people. “I want to be clear with you: Abandoning judgment and loving our LGBT neighbours is not a betrayal of what the Bible teaches. It is a fulfilment of it,” he says.

March 2022

Rubio defends Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which bans teachings of anything related to LGBTQIA+ issues in pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade classrooms. “Raising kids is the job of parents and families, not schools. And so that’s what that bill does,” he says.

June 2022

Ahead of a “Drag Queen Story Time” set to be hosted by the United States Air Force Base, Rubio sends a letter requesting its cancellation. “Decisions over children and their bodies should be left to moms and dads serving our nation, not mediated through publicly funded propaganda on U.S. Air Force bases … The last thing parents serving their nation overseas should be worried about … is whether their children are being exposed to sexually charged content.” The event is ultimately cancelled largely because of pressure from Rubio.

September 2022

An ad for Rubio’s Senate reelection campaign features a video of a drag performer reading to children, overlaid by Rubio saying, “The radical left will destroy children if we don’t stop them … They indoctrinate children, try to turn boys into girls.”

October 2022

Rubio receives a 0/100 score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard.

“Sen. Marco Rubio is one of the most anti-LGBTQ politicians in America and a threat to every LGBTQ person in Florida,” says Human Rights Campaign National Campaign Director Geoff Wetrosky.

November 2022

Rubio votes against the Respect for Marriage Act, a law that codifies same-sex marriages. The law was introduced by President Biden amid worries that the conservative majority on the Supreme Court that took away the right to abortion will target same-sex marriage in the future.

January 2025

Following an executive order signed by Trump that declares there are only two genders, newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio instructs his staff to freeze all passport applications with “X” sex markers and changes to gender identity. “The policy of the United States is that an individual’s sex is not changeable,” an email from the State Department read. “Sex and not gender shall be used” in official documents. The policy affects both current and future passport applications.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Trump Administration Position: Health and Human Services Secretary

Status: Not yet confirmed.

January 2011

RFK Jr. takes part in the Human Rights Campaign’s “New Yorkers for Marriage Equality” video series. RJK Jr. says, “This is the last vestige of institutionalised bigotry that’s left in this country, and we need to get rid of it.”

June 29, 2023

RFK Jr. defends his support for LGBTQIA+ rights at a town hall meeting in Charleston, South Carolina: “I don’t agree with anybody who says we shouldn’t respect gay rights,” he says. “If you’re an American, you have those rights, and everybody should respect them, and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure those are protected, and I always have, my whole life.”

June 2023

On right-wing media commentator Jordan Peterson’s podcast, RFK Jr. discusses endocrine disruptors in the water being the potential cause of young people becoming trans. “I think a lot of the problems we see in kids, and particularly boys, it’s probably under-appreciated how much of that is coming from chemical exposures, including a lot of sexual dysphoria … They’re swimming through a soup of toxic chemicals today. And many of those are endocrine disruptors.”

On Joe Rogan’s podcast, RFK Jr. suggests that poppers could be the cause of the transmission of AIDS. He promotes a Peter H. Duesberg theory, who is a prominent AIDS denialist. “HIV … was a kind of free rider that was also associated with overlapping lifestyle exposures,” RFK Jr. tells Rogan. In reference to Duesberg and other AIDS denialists, RFK Jr. says, “They argued that the initial signals of AIDS, Kaposi’s sarcoma and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, were both strongly linked to amyl nitrite – “poppers” – a popular drug among promiscuous gays.”

July 2023

RFK Jr. says in an interview with Fox Carolina News, “I think anyone who is transgender should be respected. … But I also think parents should have the final say.”

Democratic representative from Virginia, Gerald E. Connolly, holds a hearing to discuss RFK Jr.’s beliefs that are “vile, disgusting, racist, bigoted, antisemitic, anti-gay, anti-science and riddled with conspiracy theories. … By promoting Mr. Kennedy, Republicans are deliberately providing a platform to amplify hate speech.”

May 2024

At a campaign rally in Austin, Texas, RFK Jr. opposes gender-affirming care and backs a ban on certain treatments for minors, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy.

April 2002

While Pete Hegseth serves as publisher of Princeton’s conservative campus newspaper, The Princeton Tory, an editor’s note titled “The Rant” outlines the publication’s anti-gay views. “The movement to legitimize the homosexual lifestyle and homosexual marriages is strong and must be vigorously opposed … Homosexuals themselves should not be demonized; however, their lifestyle deserves absolutely no special legal status.”

September 2002

The Princeton Tory ranters express concerns about newspaper coverage of gay weddings. “At what point does the paper deem a ‘relationship’ unfit for publication? What if we ‘loved’ our sister and wanted to marry her? Or maybe two women at the same time? A 13-year-old? The family dog?”

Political Commentator for Fox News

June 4, 2024

In his book, The War on Warriors, Hegseth criticises the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” He also writes unfavourably about gay people serving in the military, arguing that their inclusion reflects a “Marxist agenda” that prioritises social justice over combat readiness: “Not because I have a newfound ax to grind with gay Americans … But because I naïvely believed that’s what ending Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was all about. Once again, our good faith was used against us. The Left never gives an inch and always takes a mile.”

Jan. 14, 2025

During Hegseth’s Senate confirmation hearing, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand grills him about his contentious views about gays serving in the military. Gillibrand also condemns Hegseth’s suggestion that addressing LGBTQIA+ inclusion undermines the military. “To denigrate LGBTQ service members is a mistake,” she says.

In response, Hegseth says, “Senator, as the President has stated, I don’t disagree with the overturn of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Pam Bondi

Trump Administration Position: Attorney General

Status: Not yet confirmed.

August 2010

At a forum sponsored by the anti-LGBTQIA+ Christian Family Coalition, Pam Bondi pledges to oppose gay marriage as attorney general of Florida. In an email to PolitiFact clarifying her position, Bondi says, “As Florida’s next attorney general, I will vigorously defend [the] law banning gay adoption in our state.”

Attorney General of Florida

May 2014

Bondi submits a request to a federal judge asking for a marriage equality case, which would allow same-sex Floridians the right to marry, to be thrown out. She says forcing Florida to recognise same-sex marriages would impose “public harm” and “create significant problems for the state’s pension and health insurance program.”

August 2014

Bondi files a motion to freeze an appeal by six same-sex couples challenging Florida’s ban on gay marriage.

December 2014

Tampa Bay Times, Florida’s largest daily newspaper, names Bondi “loser of the year” and compares her to a modern-day Anita Bryant because of her “relentless defense of Florida’s gay marriage ban.”

June 2016

Bondi oversees the investigation of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, where 49 people were murdered. In an interview with Anderson Cooper, Bondi says, “People right now who are partners, who aren’t married, officially, aren’t able to get information. So we are trying to assist them in getting information.” In response, Cooper challenges Bondi: “Had there been no gay marriage … you do realise that boyfriends and girlfriends of the dead would not be able to get information and would not be able to probably get a visit in the hospital here. Isn’t there a sick irony in that?”

October 2017

In an ideological pivot, Bondi backs the Florida Competitive Workforce Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. “I haven’t read the bill, but of course, it’s something that I would support,” she says. Three years later, the bill dies.

Private Citizen, Registered Foreign Agent and Lobbyist for the Qatari Embassy

August 2023

In a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, Bondi compares LGBTQ youth who are out at school but not to their parents to hiding that they were sexually abused or that they are struggling with heroin addiction.

US Attorney General Nominee

January 2025

During her Senate Confirmation hearing to become President Trump’s attorney general, Democratic Senator Adam Schiff asks Bondi if she will defend and respect marriage equality. “I will respect the law. Absolutely,” she says.

Kristi Noem

Trump Administration Position: Secretary of Homeland Security

Status: Confirmed, 25 January 2025

June 2015

In reaction to Hodges v Obergfell, Kristi Noem releases a statement saying she disagrees with the ruling and that she “believes marriage is a special bond between a man and a woman.” In 2022, she doubles down during a roundtable discussion with Young America’s Foundation. “[I have] never supported gay marriage. … A lot of my faith has to do with that.”

Governor of South Dakota

March 2021

Noem supports HB 1217, a bill that would bar transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams. However, she later vetoes the bill, fearing a legal battle with the NCAA. “The NCAA is a private association. That means they can do what they want to do. And even though I fundamentally disagree with them when it comes to this issue, if South Dakota passes a law that’s against their policy, they will likely take punitive action against us.”

In response to backlash from her veto, Noem signs two executive orders that ban transgender girls and women from participating on women’s sports teams in public high schools and colleges across South Dakota.

Also in March, Noem signs the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which allows discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people on the grounds of religious beliefs.

February 2022

Noem signs an anti-trans bill into law that effectively bans transgender students from playing on the sports team that matches their gender identity.

February 2023

Noem signs HB 1080, which bans age-appropriate and medically necessary gender-affirming care for youth in South Dakota, into law.

February 2024

The Transformation Project, a trans advocacy organisation that was working on a government project in South Dakota, comes to a legal settlement with Noem and her health secretary after the state had unfairly terminated a contract with them based on what they called “national politics.” South Dakota publicly apologises and pays $300,000 to the trans advocates.

WWE President and CEO

1980-2009

Linda McMahon, who co-founded the WWE with her husband Vince McMahon, pushes several homophobic and transphobic storylines on their programs, some of which include queer-coded fighters who perpetuate stereotypes that gay men are predatory and other wrestlers who shout transphobic slurs.

Senate Candidate

2010

While running to become a Republican senator in Connecticut, McMahon supports the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that denies same-sex couples the benefits and recognition given to heterosexual couples.

October 2012

On the campaign trail, McMahon flips and says, “I absolutely support America’s law for same-sex marriage.” She claims her position on the issue has “been evolving.”

PAC Leader

September 2021

McMahon serves as the head of the America First Policy Institute, which penned the America First Agenda, a competing version of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. On its site, the institute publishes articles denouncing trans rights, including one titled “Radical Gender Ideology is Transforming American Society, and AFPI is Fighting Back.”

March 2024

McMahon writes a Fox News Op-Ed criticising President Biden’s proposed diversity, equity and inclusion mandates.

US Secretary of Education Nominee

November 2024

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, GLSEN, releases a statement in response to McMahon’s nomination for Education Secretary: “McMahon’s lack of expertise in education, paired with Trump’s focus on so-called ‘parents’ rights’ and ‘school choice,’ signals a continued push to strip critical protections for LGBTQ+ students and historically marginalized communities.”

1995

At 17, Bessent wants to attend the US Naval Academy after his father faces financial hardship. However, Bessent is unwilling to lie about his sexual orientation, so he is not allowed to enrol in the program because it is still following “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” laws.

1990s-2000s

Bessent sits on the board of God’s Love We Deliver, a nonprofit founded in the 1980s that helps deliver meals to people with HIV/AIDS. (Exact dates not known)

Bessent openly supports the Elton John AIDS Foundation. (Exact dates not known)

US Treasury Department Nominee

Nov. 24, 2024

Trump nominates Bessent to lead the US Treasury Department, making him the first openly LGBTQIA+ person nominated for the position and putting him on track to make history as the nation’s highest-ever ranking LGBTQIA+ official.

Jan. 27, 2025

Bessent is confirmed as Treasury Secretary.

Susie Wiles

Trump Administration Position: Chief of Staff

Status: Assumed Office, 20 January, 2025 (not required to face confirmation)

1980

Susie Wiles works as a scheduler for Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign. The Reagan administration would go on to be hostile towards LGBTQIA+ people during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, in which 89,343 Americans died from the virus during his presidency.

2018

Wiles helps run Ron DeSantis’ gubernatorial campaign. The DeSantis administration would go on to pass a bevy of anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation, including the infamous so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law.

PAC Leader Wiles

September 2022

As CEO of Donald Trump’s Save America political action committee, Wiles oversees a $1 million donation to the America First Policy Institute, a group that has published numerous anti-trans articles and policy proposals.

2024

Former mayor of Jacksonville, John Delaney, says in an interview, “[Wiles] would be what I’d call left on LGBT+ issues, and I can’t believe she would necessarily agree naturally with Donald Trump on immigration, but that’s more me speculating.”

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Over one third of gay men in the US have tried poppers. But it’s not always clear what users are inhaling.

THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED ON UNCLOSETED MEDIA A NEW INVESTIGATIVE LGBTQIA+ FOCUSSED NEWS PUBLICATION.

WORDS JAKE ANGELO

When Patrick Wyatt uses poppers, he makes sure he has three hours handy before sitting down to masturbate with the drug.

“I usually have a variety of bottles next to me,” Wyatt says, describing his masturbation routine. “I kind of have a mix of things that I do during my sessions.”

The 57-year-old Colorado native has cycled through many different brands of poppers, including Super RUSH, RUSH ZERO, and French Premium Amyl.

He says his popper of choice is the Chicago-based Video Head Cleaner, a brand he describes as the “best and strongest” in the U.S. He also likes AM Maxx, a brand he orders on Etsy from Latvia that he says gives a “smooth hit.”

Poppers are a slang term referring to the recreational drug made with a chemical group of nitrites. The substance, typically inhaled, increases blood flow and offers a temporary euphoric feeling, lasting no longer than two minutes per hit. For over half a century, the drug has been most popular among men who have sex with men, in part because it is a muscle relaxant, which can make receiving anal sex easier and more pleasurable.

While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not regulate poppers, they released an article in 2021 titled “Ingesting or Inhaling Nitrite “Poppers” Can Cause Severe Injury or Death.”

“Make no mistake, ingesting or inhaling poppers seriously jeopardises your health,” Judy McMeekin, a Pharm. D., Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs, says in the article. She adds that poppers can damage the skin or other tissues they come in contact with, and they may cause difficulty breathing, extreme drops in blood pressure, decreases in blood oxygen levels, seizures, heart arrhythmia, coma and death. “Do not ingest or inhale under any circumstances,” states the FDA release.

Despite these warnings, use of poppers has become increasingly prevalent in pop culture and in mainstream media. Gay, Australian pop star Troye Sivan’s song “Rush” – a title inspired by the popular poppers brand of the same name – hit number 77 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023. A 2020 study found that 3.3% of adults in the U.S. have used poppers, with over one-third of gay men having tried the drug. Some companies have cashed out with poppers-themed products, like Pander Shirts’ slate of Rush-themed merchandise and Boy Smells “Citrush” candle.

Poppers – which are available in many bodegas, gas stations and smoke shops across the US, are only legally allowed to be sold as cosmetic products like nail polish remover. They remain unregulated by the FDA, making it not always clear as to what users are inhaling.

“There’s no real way, unless you’re testing the poppers bottle, to [tell what’s in them],” Perry Halkitis, the dean of the School of Public Health at Rutgers University, told Uncloseted Media.

Since there is no mandate when it comes to the ingredients in poppers, different brands contain varying forms of nitrites, including amyl nitrite, butyl nitrite or similar substances that lower blood pressure and raise heart rate when inhaled.

“I can tell subtleties between brands, how they smell, how they hit. Some hit a little lighter and last longer, and some hit like a freight train with great intensity,” Wyatt told Uncloseted Media.

“There are different manufacturers creating different products under different names and using different chemical ingredients and solvents,” says Halkitis. “The minute the manufacturing and distribution of drugs becomes non-regulated, then you get the situation you’re in.”

According to the 2021 note by the FDA, “manufacturers are packaging and labelling these products in a way that may mislead consumers into thinking the poppers are safe or intended to be inhaled or ingested by drinking.”

“These don’t come with ‘how to use’ instructions,” says Halkitis, adding that the shortage of guidance is leading some to drink the substance.

This lack of regulation has been compounded by misinformation surrounding the drug. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, has falsely claimed poppers may be linked to HIV and AIDS.

Poppers entered the party scene in the 1960s. The product was available over-the-counter as a treatment for angina, a form of chest pain often caused by coronary heart disease. Following its rise in recreational use, the drug’s manufacturer, Burroughs-Wellcome, asked the FDA in 1969 to take amyl nitrites off pharmacy shelves and instead opt for prescription-only access. Since then, you can only get regulated poppers from your doctor for angina or similar cardiovascular conditions.

Due to this prescription-only access, unregulated manufacturers of poppers filled the supply gap for consumers looking to use them recreationally.

“The problem nowadays is that there seems to be on the market some versions of poppers that are packed with other solvents,” says Halkitis. He says products like acetone and paint thinners – which can have serious health implications – have been found in some poppers bottles.

For Wyatt, this results in different aftereffects from the various strains he uses. “A lot of American brands that I started using were worse as far as coughing the next day,” he says in reference to his experience with popular poppers brands like Rush or Jungle Juice.

“[European brands] just don’t seem to have the side effects that a lot of American brands have,” he says.

In some European countries, poppers are legal for recreational use. Following a blanket ban on nitrites in France, poppers became legal in 2013. Other countries like the United Kingdom and Germany allow the sale of the drug as a cosmetic but not for consumption – similar to the legal framework in the U.S.

Some users may experience a headache, nausea or vomiting, eye damage and dermatitis upon use. Long-term use of poppers may cause bronchitis and brain damage.

Despite this, Halkitis says using poppers is still less harmful than other popular party drugs. “I’d rather see folks doing [poppers] than drugs like meth, K and G,” he says. K, or ketamine, and G, or GHB, are two drugs with high rates of use among gay and bisexual men, according to research on drug use in the LGBTQ community.

In rare instances, some users become dependent on poppers. There are an array of Reddit threads discussing the issue.

“I’ve poured them out many, many times saying ‘okay, no more. I’m done,’ only to buy more 2-3 days later,” one user on Reddit posted to the thread r/addiction.

“The side effects of poppers destroyed my health: wrecked immune system, permanent damage to my vision, tinnitus and the worst of all a deep depression, eternal fatigue and slow thinking and problems with concentration,” another user on r/popperpigs posted. “They are so addictive.”

Halkitis says the biggest health risk with poppers is for those who consume the drug in different, more dangerous ways. “If you’re going to be using a harm reduction perspective and don’t want to get sick, the danger for poppers that are cut with other solvents is really with huffing it.”

Some heavy poppers users, like Wyatt, have made a habit of huffing the drug for a stronger hit. “You put some cotton balls in poppers and put them in a Gatorade bottle and then inhale from the bottle,” he says. “Every hit I take, I have to huff and hold.”

Wyatt says that he only experiences negative symptoms from poppers when using very high doses. “Say I went three or four days in a row and long sessions with lots of huffing, then I would feel some irritation and some phlegm and a little bit of a cough too,” he says. “But it doesn’t seem to be as bad as when I was using those other [American] brands earlier on,” he says.

Halkitis says users should act with careful judgment when consuming the drug. “It’s like anything else in life,” he says. “It just has to be used carefully and in moderation. Using it is not a bad thing and [we] shouldn’t make it a bad thing. But overusing it and abusing it is when the problem occurs.”

Jay Sosa, associate professor of gender, sexuality and women’s studies at Bowdoin College, says a lack of regulations could have homophobic undertones. He says that there exists a large discrepancy in the public’s perception of sexual health and drugs that boost sexual performance. “Why is [Viagra] seen as therapeutic and kind of something to get men hard?” Sosa told Uncloseted Media. “But to have anal receptive sex is not considered something that is important to men’s normal sexuality.”

The FDA declined an interview with Uncloseted Media for this story and, in lieu of offering a comment, pointed us to their article from 2021.

Sosa says that regulations would create a market with safer poppers products. “The questions around safety are questions that the pharmaceutical industry could easily answer” if they decided to regulate the drug.

If objective, nonpartisan, rigorous, LGBTQ-focused journalism is important to you, please consider making a tax-deductible donation through our fiscal sponsor, Resource Impact, by clicking this button:

Donate to Uncloseted Media

The post Poppers have hit the mainstream. Why aren’t they regulated in the US? appeared first on GAY TIMES.