As local leaders raised _a new Pride flag_ at Stonewall Thursday afternoon, Kiki Ball-Change watched through sunglasses, bundled up in a matching fur coat. Replacing it was one piece of the puzzle, she said. More important was that hundreds of people rallied against the federal crackdown on LGBTQ civil liberties. “It’s bigger than a flag,” said the drag queen. “What we’re seeing now is the community coming together to say that, regardless of how you feel about the flag, we will not accept the constant chipping away of our rights.” President Donald Trump _recently banned_ Pride flags and other non-government symbols from being displayed on certain federal property. That included Stonewall National Monument, where riots against police raids in 1969 paved the way for the modern gay rights movement. Kiki Ball-Change poses outside Stonewall Inn on Feb. 12, 2026.Jack Walker for The Advocate Stonewall’s flag was _removed Tuesday_, but with swift blowback. Two days later, hundreds rallied at the site as local leaders unveiled a new Pride flag. **Related:**_**Hundreds fill the streets near Stonewall as NYC community members reraised Pride flag Trump ordered removed**_ Like Kiki Ball-Change, several LGBTQ activists told __The Advocate__ Thursday they would double down on organizing against Trump, with the flag’s removal symbolizing the stakes for the LGBTQ community. “This is sacred ground,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “This is a fight that people aren’t giving up. It reminds me that we got us. If the government’s going to fail us, we are going to fill the gap. That’s always been the role of queer and trans folks.” Robinson said her group has advocated against anti-LGBTQ policies from the federal government, and provides resources to educators, families and others to promote LGBTQ inclusion. The group will also be urging people to vote in November’s midterm election, she said. Leaders carry the LGBTQ+ Pride flag to be reraised at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City. Jack Walker for The Advocate The upcoming elections were a focal point for other organizers, too. That included Tyler Hack, who is executive director of the _Christopher Street Project_ — a political action committee founded in 2025 to elect pro-trans officials to Congress. “We also want to make sure that we do the work to flip those seats in November,” they said. To “ensure that we have a majority in Congress that is not beholden to the Trump administration and their anti-trans crusade.” In the meantime, Hack said the group is promoting pro-trans legislation like the _Transgender Bill of Rights_ and a 988 _suicide prevention act_ for LGBTQ+ youth. **Related:**_**What can we expect in American politics in 2026?**_ Beyond policy change, other community leaders called for renewed focus on the material needs of LGBTQ people. Im Lynde, executive director of New York City Pride, said his organization engages in year-round advocacy for the LGBTQ community. The group conducts fundraising and each year offers grants to local LGBTQ-serving nonprofits, according to its _website_. “It's a 365-day movement,” Lynde said. “It's not just something that happens in June and then we disappear.” Onlookers rally outside Stonewall Inn as a new Pride flag is raised. Jack Walker for The Advocate Councilmember Chi Ossé _sponsored a resolution_ opposing the flag removal that passed the New York City Council Thursday. At city hall on Thursday, he contextualized the fight to uphold LGBTQ rights in a broader effort to protect personal freedoms and quality of life. “What we should be doing as queer members of the city council, and as a city council as a whole, is making sure that we’re actually protecting the bodies of our neighbors,” Ossé said. “Making sure they have gender-affirming care. … Protecting most especially our trans siblings, and ensuring that they have affordable housing.” Kei Williams is executive director of the _NEW Pride Agenda_, a New York-based LGBTQ advocacy group. At Thursday’s protest, they said that their group has been rallying against anti-LGBTQ federal policies more broadly, like removing mentions of trans identity from historical sites and government websites. “It's super important that at this point in time we stand for our values, but we also show up visibly,” Williams said. “If you have hundreds of folks who are out here on a chillier day, I understand that this moment really matters to our community.” __This article was written as part of the Future of Queer Media fellowship program at The Advocate, which is underwritten by a generous gift from__ ___Morrison Media Group___ __. The program helps support the next generation of LGBTQ+ journalists.__

As conservatives push to overturn marriage equality, LGBTQ+ couples are uniting to show that their love is stronger. A new campaign from GLAAD aims to spotlight queer married couples, asking for submissions from those whose lives have been made better by having the legal right to marry. GLAAD I Found You uplifts "married queer couples finding each other and celebrating joy, the same as any other couple who decides to make this life-changing commitment." "Like any good love story, some have meet-cutes, some have meet-laters. Some overcome incredible odds to be together. Some felt a spark that still burns decades later," Darian Aaron, GLAAD Senior Director of News, U.S. South, told _The Advocate_. "In the 11th year since marriage equality was legalized, we are still discovering that love is love, that all couples who marry want the same thing - to be a family, to be there for each other. Accurate LGBTQ storytelling demystifies and humanizes everything, including our marriages and relationships, bridging any divides others try to build." One of the couples featured is Brandon Davis and Davie Roberts, two business owners from Asheville, North Carolina whose cafe and bar was destroyed by Hurricane Helene just 31 days after it opened. The couple wasn't expecting to go viral, but the donations came pouring in, and the two were able to open a new space twice as big just four months later. “GLAAD has always been a source of guidance for me when I've felt lost,” Davis says. “They represent love, grace and humanity. This organization has always spotlighted those who are doing the work to create queer community and I am highly honored our bar DayTrip has been noticed by them.” Another couple featured is the TikTok "Rainbow Aunties" Marilyn Johnson Jordan and Wilma J. Scales, both 61, who have been together since they were 20. Jordan left her husband to follow Scales to New Orleans after the former had enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard. In an era of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," even their young children knew them as "mom" and "auntie" until Scales left in 1998. The two got married as soon as the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark ruling in 2014. "We were going to live as out loud as we could because we had been silent and suffocating for so many years," Jordan told GLAAD. Also featured are Matty Maggiacomo and Evan Feeley, who met on Grindr just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. They kept in touch while socially distanced, speaking every night on the phone or FaceTime, and mailing each other handwritten letters. The two moved in together in 2021, and the rest is history. "We hope the GLAAD I Found You campaign will not only serve as a source of inspiration and representation but will showcase the beautiful diversity within our community, especially during a time when DEI is wrongly considered a weakness," Aaron continued. "The stories featured in 'GLAAD I Found You' are not merely sidebar or niche features; they are front-page worthy." _To read the couples' full stories, and the stories of other LGBTQ+ married couples, clickhere. __To submit your love story for publishing consideration on GLAAD platforms, click_ _here_ _._

_This story is part of_ _History is Queer_ _, an_ Advocate _series examining key LGBTQ+ moments, events, and people in history and their ongoing impact. Is there a piece of LGBTQ+ history we should write about? Email us at history@advocate.com._ New Orleans is a city that knows how to have a good time — after all, its unofficial motto is “Laissez les bons temps rouler,” which translates to “Let the good times roll.” The LGBTQ+ community knows how to have a good time too, and queer people have long played a key role in the Big Easy's biggest party of the year, Mardi Gras, which falls next Tuesday. Other cities celebrate Mardi Gras, of course; the most famous event outside of New Orleans is the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Australia, running from now until March 1. But in the U.S., New Orleans is the number 1 city for the celebration, and its history is deeply intertwined with that of the queer community. **Related:** 18 Beautifully Queer Images From New Orleans's Mardi Gras 2023 Mardi Gras — Fat Tuesday — marks the end of the Carnival season, which begins January 6, a day observed by Christians as Epiphany, marking the arrival of the three wise men bringing gifts to the infant Jesus. There is a religious connection to Mardi Gras; the next day is Ash Wednesday, a day of penitence and the beginning of Lent, a 40-day period of fasting and prayer for Catholics and some other Christian denominations that lasts until Easter. The Carnival season and its culmination in Mardi Gras represent a chance to cut loose and party hearty before settling down for Lent. But you can be a member of any faith or none at all and still enjoy Mardi Gras, as thousands do, even though its roots are in Catholicism. Mardi Gras celebrations date to medieval Europe, and French people colonizing North America brought the tradition with them. New Orleans was founded in 1718, and the earliest Mardi Gras observances were in the 1730s, according to the official Mardi Gras New Orleans website. At that time, the festivities were high-society balls. By the 1830s, the general population could join in the fun, as there were torchlight street processions through the city, and a few decades later, the parades began, with the elaborate floats that mark Mardi Gras today. There are multiple parades on Mardi Gras and the days leading up to it. In an era when gay sex was criminalized — and so was cross-dressing — Carnival and Mardi Gras provided a brief time of liberation. It was a time to dress in drag without consequences. “You can’t arrest someone because they’re in costume on Mardi Gras Day, and so they gayed it up,” Howard Phillips Smith, author of _Unveiling the Muse: The Lost History of Gay Carnival in New Orleans,t_old public radio station WWNO in 2018. It wasn’t just men in drag — it was women too. As far back as the 1850s, women sex workers would impersonate their clients, dressing in suits and top hats, Quinn L. Bishop of Queer Underground Tours explained in an Instagram video. They would smoke cigars and make catcalls to men, she noted. But gender politics being what they were, the women were often arrested, with the authorities saying their conduct went beyond what could be allowed even on Mardi Gras. Of course, not all the women were queer, but some were certainly comfortable in male drag. One, Mina Brown, told police she “made a good fellow” and got sentenced to 60 days in a workhouse. Despite the police harassment, however, the tradition carried on for years. > See on Instagram In 1979, with Mardi Gras cancelled due to a police strike, a group of lesbians decided to stage their own parade, Bishop reported. They costumed themselves as cowboys and flamboyant sex workers and marched into the French Quarter. The police called off their strike long enough to shut the women’s parade down, but the next year several women from the group formed the Krewe of Ishtar, the first lesbian krewe. “Krewes,” or social clubs, are the organizers of Mardi Gras parades and balls. There were undoubtedly LGBTQ+ people in the krewes for decades, but the first all-gay krewe, the Krewe of Yuga, formed in 1958. It was a refuge for queer people during the conservative 1950s, when the Lavender Scare had seen them purged from the federal government, gay sex remained a crime, and discrimination was rampant. The Krewe of Yuga didn’t participate in a parade, but it held balls in members’ homes for its first two years. Attendance was so large that the krewe needed a larger venue, so it “bounced around for the next couple years, and then landed a spot in Metairie,” a New Orleans suburb, WWNO notes. “And that sort of worked for a couple of years. But then they had the raid,” Smith told the station. Police on horseback and with dogs raided the 1962 Krewe of Yuga ball, and they arrested nearly 100 people. The names of those arrested appeared in news articles. Many of them lost their jobs, and the krewe disbanded. **Related:**10 of the Queerest Mardi Gras Houses in New Orleans But another gay krewe, the Krewe of Petronius, founded around the same time, carried on. It found a home for its balls in the town of Chalmette, just downriver from New Orleans. Chalmette is known for conservatism, “but legend has it that somebody had dirt on somebody, and so Petronius was able to blackmail, and pay, their way in, in 1960,” according to the WWNO report. “And once they got their foot in the door, more krewes emerged, knowing there was a safe space for their balls ... and everybody went to everybody’s balls.” Many of them featured elaborate costumes. The number of LGBTQ+ krewes grew to more than 20 by the 1980s, but then AIDS devastated the community. After the disease caused the death of so many gay and bisexual men, along with transgender women, the number of LGBTQ+ krewes shrunk to a handful. Mardi Gras festivities are now generally inclusive of LGBTQ+ people, but those involved in the remaining queer krewes say there’s a place for their organizations. New Orleans is home to the only leather-oriented krewe in the U.S. and possibly the world, the Mystic Mardi Gras Krewe of the Lords of Leather. It will hold its annual Bal Masque Sunday. The oldest krewe, Petronius, has been trying to attract younger members, for one thing allowing less expensive and less elaborate ball costumes. The krewe is still very much a part of the scene, having held its 64th Bal Masque February 7. Wayne Phillips, curator of Carnival collections at the Louisiana State Museum, commented on the perseverance of LGBTQ+ krewes to NOLA.com in 2024. “There’s a lot of time and effort that is made to keep it going because the last thing that any of the long-standing gay krewes want to do is fold,” he said. “They want to keep going and bring in new young membership, but they’ve also learned that they have to evolve in their reasons for being and what they bring to the community.” A gay Carnival ball, he added, “still is one of the best ways that you can be in the community or be accepted into the community and enjoy the fun and flamboyance and unashamed showmanship that you'll only ever see at a gay ball.” There will also be plenty of fun and flamboyance at an event to be held Tuesday afternoon. The Bourbon Street Awards costume contest will take place from noon to 5 p.m. at the corner of St. Ann and Dauphine Streets. There will be competitions for Best Drag, Best Leather, Best Group, and Best of Show, with first-, second-, and third-place prizes. Varla Jean Merman and Fatsy Cline will host. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

"Ope, sorry. Let me scoot past you there." It still slips out of me all these years later as I turn sideways to pass other people—my wife in our hallway, a stranger in the grocery store. It doesn't really matter who. It isn't politeness so much as reflex: a small bodily acknowledgment that someone else is here. A respect for shared space. I learned that reflex in Minnesota. The Twin Cities were the closest big city to the small town where I went to college, and the first place I tested my independence. The skyways in winter held back cold so intense it physically hurt exposed skin. There were countless cups of Caribou Coffee's Mint Condition, weeks rehearsing and performing Mozart's __Requiem__ with Luther College's Nordic Choir and the Minnesota Orchestra, and a life-changing encounter with a special exhibit of Käthe Kollwitz at the Art Institute, where grief was carved into lines so honest it stole my breath. This is a place that formed how I experience the world. A city where people checked in on a college kid who must have looked lost with her printed-out MapQuest directions, long before GPS allowed us all to pretend we never needed help. Invariably, someone would stop, tilt their head, and ask, __Are you okay?,__ and genuinely want to know the answer. The echo of those words has felt devastating lately. This is a place of unassuming care. People show up with food when someone has died or been born, is sick, or has been diagnosed with a disease. The responses aren't that different. People show up and quietly do what is needed. Not out of performative heroism, but out of resilience. You don't survive that far north without learning how to take care of one another. When winter is that real, care isn't a vague gesture. You help push a stranger's car out of the snow because you understand something elemental: at some point, it will be your car stuck there in thirty below. This is why it feels like a profound miscalculation to mistake this gentleness for weakness. This is the wrong place to confuse care with compliance, or kindness with fragility. Community here is not passive but a living ecosystem. And lately, that instinct for neighborly care has begun to be treated as something dangerous. Renée Nicole Good lived that ethic. She was a poet, a mother, and a wife. On the morning she was killed, she dropped her child off at school and moved through the same choreography of backpacks and goodbyes and yes-you-have-to-wear-a-coat-in-January that I know well. Then she and her wife, Becca, noticed something unfolding on a Minneapolis street that didn't sit right. They stopped to support their neighbors, bear witness, and warn people to seek shelter. They stood close enough to help if something went wrong. Renée responded the way many women have learned to respond when confronted by force, trying to soften the moment. Video shows her smiling, her voice calm and reassuring. Renee was also queer. She and Becca were living an ordinary queer family life, from school drop-offs and shared errands to showing up for neighbors. Queer people learn early to read a room and stay calm when authority enters, suspicion already attached. De-escalation is not submission; it is a survival skill. Renée's gentleness that morning was not naïveté. It was practiced care. Becca stood beside her, steady and unflinching. Where Renee's instinct was to soften, Becca's was to stay rooted and to bear witness without apology. She did not retreat. She refused to disappear. There is a kind of care that looks like reassurance, and another that looks like staying put. And in that moment—when community care became visible—it was treated as a threat. The encounter crossed a line it could not return from. Renée Nicole Good was shot three times and would never return home to her son, whose stuffed animals still resided in her glove compartment. What followed mattered. A neighbor screamed. A physician stepped forward, only to be repeatedly turned away. Medical care was promised and did not arrive for far too long. And still, the people who had come to bear witness stayed. What happened to Renée did not erase the ethic she lived by. It revealed how dangerous care has become to systems that rely on silence and speed to operate. Because when care is treated as a threat once, it rarely stays contained. Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse, trained to notice when something is off and move toward distress rather than away from it. I've worked alongside ICU nurses. Their work is often quiet and constant. It requires steadiness when everything else is unstable, and the ability to maintain that calm when a crisis could arise at any moment. Witnesses say Alex's last words were not a command or a warning, but a question: "Are you okay?" A poet and a mother. An ICU nurse and teacher. Two people shaped by different lives, responding to danger with the same ethic: stay human, stay present, don't leave someone alone. After Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, I keep thinking about __The Crucible__. About John Proctor not being a hero, but as a warning light. There is a moment in that story when a community begins to mistake its own conscience for the enemy. When people who refuse to escalate, who will not perform fear, who will not surrender their humanity, become suspect simply for remaining visible. Minneapolis feels like that moment now. Not because it is perfect or innocent, but because if people whose instincts are to calm, tend, and stay are being treated as threats, then we are no longer talking about isolated acts of violence. We are talking about a society that has begun to see care itself as subversive. Still, this community responds the only way it knows how. People stay and bear witness. They refuse to let care disappear just because it has been punished. For all the grief I carry for this place I love, I believe more than ever in that unassuming, stubborn, ordinary love. This is how people survive that far north: not by hardening, but by staying human. I am not willing to let it be mistaken for weakness. This place was built by people who understood that survival is shared and refused to look away. Care is how Minnesota endures. And just like it will outlast any blizzard that nature can throw its way, it will continue to outlast those who mistake community care for a threat. _**Dr. Kate Wilder** is a psychologist and writer whose work examines queerness, survival, and the long afterlife of shame. _ _**Voices** is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Visit _Advocate.com/submit_ to learn more about submission guidelines. We welcome your thoughts and feedback on any of our stories. Email us at voices@equalpride.com. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists, and editors, and do not directly represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride._

➡️ Ben & Jerry’s co-founder and LGBTQ+ ally Ben Cohen is asking the community for help to save the beloved ice cream brand from its corporate owners, following disputes over its support of progressive causes. “The Magnum Corporation is trying to rip the heart out of Ben & Jerry’s,” he tells _The Advocate_. “We need everybody's help to prevent that from happening.” We also hear from a trans street medic who was arrested among dozens of other protesters outside a Minneapolis hotel housing ICE agents, California has obtained a restraining order against the Trump administration over the forced outing of trans students, and there are two major updates to journalist Don Lemon’s arrest. _The Advocate_ will be observing President’s Day this weekend, so we’ll be back in your inbox on Tuesday. Have a good weekend, **Christine Linnell** Social media manager, _The Advocate_ ### Ben & Jerry's co-founder needs your help to 'prevent the destruction' of beloved ice cream brand Ben & Jerry's co-founder, an LGBTQ+ ally, talks to _The Advocate_ about DEI, marriage equality, Trump's ICE raids, and the fate of the company. ### This trans street medic was among 67 protesters arrested at Minneapolis hotel hosting ICE agents University of Minnesota police arrested 67 protestors outside a hotel where ICE agents were staying. ### California sues Trump admin over its demand to forcibly out trans students, obtains restraining order The federal government is threatening to withhold funding totaling $4.9 billion annually if the state doesn't allow forced outing. California has obtained an order temporarily blocking this action. ### Defiant Don Lemon says ‘the process is the punishment’ after lawyers reveal feds took his phone “I will fight these baseless charges, and I will not be silenced,” the gay journalist said. ### Don Lemon faces judge who rejected DOJ’s previous attempt to charge him with a crime The Trump Justice Department is testing whether courts will find that journalism is a crime. ### Can we count on you to support LGBTQ+ journalism? Your valued gift will help continue our legacy — at a critical time in our history. ### Get Out / The Advocate in your physical mailbox too! Get a year's subscription of _The Advocate_ and _Out Magazine_ for just $9.95.

**Updated** : Don Lemon faces judge who rejected DOJ’s previous attempt to charge him with a crime Don Lemon walked out of federal court Friday and described the day’s proceedings as something larger than a calendar entry on a criminal docket. Thanking supporters clustered near the courthouse entrance, the gay Black former CNN anchor turned independent journalist said the case “isn’t just about me,” calling the First Amendment “the bedrock of our democracy. He vowed to fight what he described as baseless charges and said he would not be intimidated. **Keep up with the latest inLGBTQ+ news and politics. ****Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.** Inside the courtroom, Lemon’s lawyers revealed a detail that gave those words a sharper edge: the Department of Homeland Security is in possession of his phone. The defense told the judge the events at issue are narrowly time-limited and said they are working to prevent the government from accessing information unrelated to the case, such as materials journalists keep on their devices to protect sources and do their work. **Related** : Pam Bondi's mad after judge rejects charging Don Lemon over his Minnesota church reporting **Related** : Don Lemon at HRC dinner: 'When the First Amendment becomes optional, democracy becomes hollow' **Related** : White House celebrates Don Lemon’s arrest with meme as press freedom groups and Dems outraged That dispute is not incidental. In contemporary reporting, a phone is less a tool than an archive: years of notes, source lists, drafts, and communications that often have nothing to do with any single assignment. Lemon’s attorneys argued that unfettered access risks exposing confidential sources and unrelated reporting, effectively turning a criminal case into a back-door search of a journalist’s professional life. The concern is as old as reporters’ privilege and as new as cloud backups: if sources believe their communications can be swept into an investigation, they are less likely to speak at all. Journalist Don Lemon leaves with his legal team after an arraignment hearing at the Warren E. Burger Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse on February 13, 2026 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images Lemon’s remarks outside the court translated legal anxiety into civic anxiety. With his attorneys and husband, Tim Malone, by his side, Lemon said he has spent more than three decades working under the protection of the First Amendment and suggested that pressure applied through the legal proceedings can deter reporting long before any verdict is reached. He warned that “the process is the punishment.” The case rests on the Trump Justice Department’s displeasure with Lemon’s coverage of a protest inside a Minnesota church last month. Demonstrators disrupted a worship service in St. Paul after learning that one of the church’s pastors was serving as an acting director of an ICE field office. Lemon interviewed protesters, congregants, and a pastor and livestreamed portions of the scene. > Prosecutors claim that this conduct, along with his knowledge of the protest before it happened, makes his coverage criminal. Lemon and his legal team counter that he was performing the regular functions of reporting, including observing, recording, and asking questions, and that criminalizing those acts threatens press freedom. **Related** : The racist, homophobic, and frightening arrest of Don Lemon **Related** : Don Lemon defiant in first remarks after arrest and release from federal custody **Related** : What to know about Don Lemon, the gay journalist arrested by the Trump administration The prosecution’s path has been unusually circuitous. Before a grand jury returned an indictment, judges declined to greenlight the government’s initial effort to proceed, forcing prosecutors to change course and seek charges through a different route. The case also swept in another journalist, Georgia Fort, who serves in leadership of the local National Association of Black Journalists chapter. Her arrest intensified concern among media organizations that the line between documenting a protest and being accused of joining it is being dangerously blurred. Press freedom groups, including the International Women’s Media Foundation, the National Association of Black Journalists, and NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists, have warned that the case risks chilling coverage of protests and other politically charged events. A person close to Lemon told The Advocate that he plans to continue hosting his regular online show and reporting as the situation progresses. Lemon told reporters after the hearing, “I will fight these baseless charges, and I will not be silenced.”

Don Lemon arrived at the Warren E. Burger Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse flanked by his attorneys and husband. His arraignment on Friday unfolded before U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas L. Micko, the same judge who weeks earlier had rejected the Trump Department of Justice’s attempt to move forward with criminal charges against the journalist. He pleaded "not guilty." The circumstances surrounding the case have turned it into a national test of press freedom. ****Keep up with the latest in********LGBTQ********+ news and politics.********Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.**** Lemon, a former CNN anchor who now works independently, appeared in federal court in St. Paul and entered a not guilty plea to federal civil rights and conspiracy charges tied to his coverage of a protest at a Minnesota church in January. The hearing brought him back before Micko after the judge’s earlier refusal to approve the government’s initial bid to proceed. That decision forced prosecutors to change course and seek a grand jury indictment. Outside the courthouse, a large media contingent and protesters assembled as Lemon’s second court appearance in this case took place. “Free country, free press!” supporters shouted. Chants of “Drop the charges, protect the press” began as onlookers anticipated Lemon and his legal team. “Protect free speech!" ******Related** : Pam Bondi's mad after judge rejects charging Don Lemon over his Minnesota church reporting **Related** : Don Lemon at HRC dinner: 'When the First Amendment becomes optional, democracy becomes hollow' **Related** : White House celebrates Don Lemon’s arrest with meme as press freedom groups and Dems outraged Before a grand jury ultimately returned the indictment that led to Friday’s arraignment, the Justice Department had been rebuffed by multiple judges in its initial efforts to charge Lemon and others. After Micko declined to approve a proposed criminal complaint for insufficient probable cause, and after the government sought to compel a lower court to issue arrest warrants, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit also declined to intervene. The case was brought by the Trump administration’s Justice Department under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a 1994 law most often used to protect access to abortion clinics and religious worship, making its application to a journalist’s protest coverage highly unusual. First-time offenders can face up to a year in prison under the statute. Lemon had interviewed protesters, congregants, and a pastor during the demonstration, which erupted after activists learned that one of the church’s pastors was serving as the acting director of an ICE field office. Lemon was subsequently arrested by federal agents in his Los Angeles hotel on January 31, as the gay journalist was preparing to cover the Grammys. After a federal judge released him without the bail or travel restrictions the DOJ had sought, supporters, including actress Jane Fonda, gathered at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles to show solidarity with the award-winning news fixture. Hand in hand with his husband, Tim Malone, Lemon greeted supporters and a throng of cameras and reporters, thanking them for their support. Lemon and his attorneys have insisted that he was doing what journalists do: documenting a newsworthy event, livestreaming, and interviewing participants. Lemon, fellow journalists, and press freedom groups have described this as a regular function of journalism. In public remarks after his arrest, Lemon has said the case represents an effort to criminalize basic newsgathering and to blur the line between witnessing a protest and being accused of joining it. Lemon made that argument in a surprise address at the Human Rights Campaign’s Greater New York Dinner on February 7, where he told the audience that press freedom cannot be optional in a democracy. He described the First Amendment as fundamental to holding power to account and urged advocates to see attacks on the press as part of a broader fight for democratic rights, according to coverage of the event. **Related** : The racist, homophobic, and frightening arrest of Don Lemon **Related** : Don Lemon defiant in first remarks after arrest and release from federal custody **Related** : What to know about Don Lemon, the gay journalist arrested by the Trump administration His defense team is taking the fight seriously. Lemon is represented by high-profile defense attorney Abbe David Lowell and Joseph Thompson, a former federal prosecutor in Minnesota who resigned amid disputes with Justice Department leadership after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good, a queer mother of three who was trying to drive away on January 7. A person close to Lemon told The Advocate that, even as the case moves forward, he plans to continue his work as an independent journalist, including hosting his regular online show and reporting on national politics and civil rights. The person said Lemon views the prosecution as separate from his obligation to keep working—and, in his view, as further proof of why independent journalism remains necessary. Lemon was not the only journalist charged. Independent reporter Georgia Fort was also arrested in connection with coverage of the same protest, which advocacy groups say underscores how easily reporters can become targets when they are documenting state power and public dissent. The case has drawn broad condemnation from press freedom and journalism organizations. The International Women’s Media Foundation, the National Association of Black Journalists, and NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists have all warned that the prosecution risks chilling coverage of protests and other politically charged events, especially for independent reporters working without the backing of large news organizations. **Related** : Journalist Don Lemon arrested by federal agents after his coverage of Minneapolis protests **Related** : Don Lemon's arrest prompts Jane Fonda and LGBTQ+ rights group to rally for press freedom Prosecutors have said the case is about conduct, not credentials, arguing that laws protecting civil rights and access to religious services apply regardless of profession. But Lemon’s defenders say the government is testing a dangerous theory, one that could make the simple act of showing up with a camera and a notebook a legal risk. The arraignment itself was a procedural step that usually draws little notice. But in this case, its significance lay in the setting. For journalists and press freedom advocates watching closely, the question now is whether judges’ earlier skepticism will shape what comes next and what the case will mean for the future of journalism.

French gay ice dancer Guillaume Cizeron and his partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry have been mired in scandal and controversy since the pair entered the Olympics, but things went into overdrive this week when accusations that a French judge showed favoritism started swirling. Cizeron and Beaudry took the podium and had gold medals placed around their necks after a free dance competition performance with multiple flaws, while American couple Madison Chock and Evan Bates, whose performance was described as “nearly perfect” by __CNN Sports__, only scored a silver medal. The French team beat out the Americans by nearly a full point, with an overall score of 225.82 points to 224.39. This upset ignited an immediate backlash and was widely criticized by fans since Cizeron made visible errors in their twizzle sequences in both the Rhythm and Free Dances. Accusations that there was alleged nationalism from the French judge started after it was made public that the judge not only gave Chock and Bates the lowest score awarded by the nine-judge panel, but gave them a score 5.20 points below the average score posted by the remaining eight judges, __Forbes__ reports. With this win, Cizeron became the first ice dancer to win back-to-back gold medals after he also captured gold in 2022 with former partner Gabriella Papadakis. Cizeron and Beaudry have only been skating together for a year after both of their former partnerships fell apart because of multiple scandals. Papadakis left after their gold medal win and accused Cizeron of being “controlling, demanding, and critical,” and Beaudry’s former partner and current boyfriend, Nikolaj Sorensen, was suspended for six years after sexual assault allegations came to light. His suspension has since been overturned pending review, but Beaudry has continued to publicly support him, and he was in the Olympic arena on Wednesday, cheering them on. Fans immediately clocked that the judging seemed inconsistent with the performances and were outraged that the team with multiple accusations against them won gold. The International Skating Union, the sports governing body, responded to the controversy by standing behind its judges. "It is normal for there to be a range of scores given by different judges in any panel, and a number of mechanisms are used to mitigate these variations,” an ISU _spokesperson said, via NBC_. “The ISU has full confidence in the scores given and remains completely committed to fairness.”

Despite creating one of the most successful (and delicious) brands of all time, Ben Cohen has never thought of himself as a businessman. That rings true as the Ben & Jerry's founder Zooms in from his vacation home in Florida — not a mansion like the two houses on either side of him, but a trailer he bought with his wife. Their time at the beach is meant to be relaxing, providing a much-needed break from the stress of current events and corporate developments. Social justice weighs heavily on Cohen's mind now. It's always been part of Ben & Jerry's mission, but political turmoil is testing him. Not testing his resolve — he stands firm in that — but testing just how large his reach is. Ben & Jerry's was one of the first companies to support marriage equality, renaming its signature Chubby Hubby flavor to "Hubby Hubby" at its Vermont shops after same-sex couples were granted the right to legally marry in the state in 2009. Today, it is one of the major brands that has stood by its diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, saying on its website that "instead of dismantling the programs designed to create equity across our society we should be dismantling white supremacy." **Related:****Why Ben & Jerry's Honored Marriage Equality ** It's been a difficult past few years for Ben & Jerry's, though that's not based on sales. The ice cream company had been at odds with its former owner, packaged goods company Unilever, ever since it was purchased by the corporation for $326 million in 2000. Under the merger agreement, the Ben & Jerry's board of directors still retained some authority over the brand's public statements and donations — at least, it was supposed to. Years of disagreements led Ben & Jerry's to file a lawsuit against Unilever in November 2024, accusing the company of violating its agreement by silencing its social media posts about Black Lives Matter and Palestine, firing the then-CEO David Stever for his posts, and blocking company donations to groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and the Council on American Islamic Relations. Then, in 2025, the Magnum Ice Cream Company broke off from Unilever, retaining control of Ben & Jerry's while keeping the short leash on its board. Magnum has refused to sell the brand, despite insistence from its founders and offers from other investors. The conflict prompted Jerry Greenfield, Cohen's cofounder and lifelong friend, to resign in September. **Related:****Ben& Jerry's founder Jerry Greenfield resigns, says he's 'been silenced' over LGBTQ+ rights** Cohen stayed. And while he and Greenfield will always be friends, many days it feels like he's fighting alone. That's why he's calling on their customers and ice cream lovers everywhere to help save Ben & Jerry's. The conversation below has been edited for clarity. ******_The Advocate_****: Y****ou've supported progressive causes for a very****long time, even****when other businesses won't throw their weight behind them.****What's****personally motivated you to speak out****?** _Cohen:_ For one, Jerry and I never planned on becoming businessmen. We thought we'd be ice cream men. You know, shop owners. We started in a homemade ice cream shop in an old converted gas station on an investment of $12,000. Did all the renovations ourselves. I think a lot of business guys, they go to business school, they plan on being business guys. I think most of them are motivated by money. They chose to go into that line of work because there's money to be made. Most of them are not really entrepreneurs. Before Ben & Jerry's, I was a crafts teacher at a school for disturbed teenagers. I guess personally, I'm more of a human services guy who happened to end up in business. When Jerry and I first started the business, we said we want to run our business the way the average person on the street would like to see a business run. The reality is that people buy products from corporations in spite of what the corporation stands for, in spite of the values of the corporation. For Ben & Jerry's, that's not the situation. Yes, it's really good ice cream and you gotta have a great product, but people feel good about buying it because they agree with the values of the corporation. **Ben and Jerry's is also one of the few companies that has stood by diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. Why is DEI important to your business?** I actually gave this a bunch of thought when Trump came into office this time around, and all these corporations just started folding, bending at the knee. ... Ben & Jerry's has a formal three-part mission, which includes the social mission, a product mission, and a financial mission. They're all equal and interrelated. Most corporations, they only have one mission, which is to maximize short-term profits. If that's your mission, and the guy in the White House says, "Do this or I'm gonna fuck with you," it's an easy decision. You're asking why, and I'm saying, why not? In terms of the diversity and inclusion part, it's the idea that people who look different or people who have different gender identities or whatever else should be treated the same as other people. That's just the DNA of the company. As for the equity part, how our country has mistreated and discriminated against Black people has been horrible. And it's been in black and white — it's based on laws that the country passed, and rules and regulations like redlining that essentially made it so that Black people were disadvantaged in terms of building equity. I think about my own family, and their equity started with their house, and they were able to buy a house using a low-interest government loan that was specifically not available to Black people. So, I personally believe in affirmatively trying to remediate that. **You've always been ahead of the curb on things like that.** So was Jesus. It's unbelievable to me what's currently ****happening, the immigration thing. "I was a stranger and you welcomed me." That's what the dude said. "What you do to the least of these, you do to me." I don't get it. **Does that also fuel your support of other causes, like marriage equality?****You celebrated****Vermont legalizing it by releasing the Hubby Hubby flavor all the way back****in 2009.** Ben & Jerry's was also one of the first companies to give benefits to same-sex couples. We just believe that, in terms of what freedom is, my understanding is that the definition of freedom is that you can do anything you want to do as long as it's not harming other people. If hubbies want to marry other hubbies, fine with me. **Speaking about Jerry, it was pretty big news when he resigned last year. You said then that while you share his frustrations, you feel like you can do more good from within. Could you elaborate on that?** Jerry and I continue to be really good friends, and have been since we were 13. We both came to the conclusion that under the current ownership of Unilever, now Magnum, there is no possibility that the social mission of Ben & Jerry's will survive. So Jerry resigned in protest of how those owners were illegally ignoring the authority of the independent board of directors, who has legal authority based on the documents signed when Ben & Jerry's was acquired in the year 2000. They have legal authority over the social mission, the quality of the product, and a few other things, but they're ignoring them. I decided to stay on and work towards Ben & Jerry's being owned by investors that are aligned with the mission of the company. Jerry is an amazing guy, a great guy, but he is extremely conflict adverse. He does not do well with conflict. I decided to stay on and engage in this fight to free Ben & Jerry's, and allow the values and the social mission to thrive. **You're pushing Magnum to sell Ben & Jerry's. What are you ultimately hoping comes from that?** What happened was that about two years ago, Unilever announced that they want to divest from their entire ice cream division. Jerry and I went to them and said, as long as you're looking to get rid of your whole ice cream operation, why don't you just carve out Ben & Jerry's and sell it separately to a group of investors that support the social mission? And they refused to do that. We publicly called for socially aligned investors to make an offer, and over the course of time, a bunch of those investors have appeared. So the problem is we have these investors that are ready to buy the company, and Magnum Ice Cream Company says they have no interest selling. The Free Ben & Jerry's campaign is designed to pressure the Magnum Ice Cream Company into being willing to sell Ben & Jerry's. There's a website, freebenandjerrys.com, and there's a social media campaign that people can get to by going to @yobencohen. **It's like what you were talking about earlier,****where because of what you've done so far with the business, you have these loyal customers who will stand beside you.** That's certainly the hope. The reality is, that it's really in the hands of our customers and supporters. If they put enough pressure on Magnum, Magnum will agree to sell the company. If they don't, they won't. The Magnum Corporation is trying to rip the heart out of Ben & Jerry's. We need everybody's help to prevent that from happening. The power is in the people's hands. I personally don't have enough power to prevent the destruction of the values of Ben & Jerry's, but I do believe that there's enough supporters. If they can get involved and make their views known, they can save Ben & Jerry's. I think it's an important voice, an important force for justice in general. I've thought about different places where I can put the remnants of energy that I have now at the age of 75, and what the most powerful or effective things I can do for the cause of justice are. I'm personally not looking to be involved as an investor. I'm not looking to make money off of Ben & Jerry's. I'm looking for the values to survive because I think that this is a tremendously powerful force for justice in all sorts of ways going into the future. Ben & Jerry's wanted to call for a ceasefire in Gaza at the height of the war. Unilever Magnum would not allow them to do that. Now, with what's happening in Minneapolis, Ben & Jerry's might have made a statement that they really shouldn't have killed Renee [Good]. I made a statement that ICE must be defunded and disbanded. In the old days, Ben & Jerry's would have made that statement.

Police at the University of Minnesota arrested 67 protestors two weeks ago during a demonstration outside a hotel where ICE agents were staying, among them a street medic, a volunteer who is trained to assist protesters related to medical matters, who was there to "make sure that nobody got hurt." Eli Purdy, 22, was one of the several dozen people charged with unlawful assembly for the rally at the Graduate Hotel in Minneapolis on January 29. He says that the protestors were making noise outside the hotel around midnight when "a cruiser came up, and I could not understand what he was saying through the megaphone." "They were saying that the sidewalk we were on was now private property. So then we moved back, and then they said that where we were is also private property," Purdy tells _The Advocate_. "While we were trying to leave and get to our cars, they started kettling. They got at the end of the opposite street and then at the end of the other street, and slowly walked forward so we couldn't really leave. Then they said everyone on that block was under arrest." **Related:****Here are Minnesota groups that need your help organizing against ICE and DHS operations** The Trump administration has deployed nearly 3,000 federal agents in the state since the beginning of the year as part of an aggressive crackdown on supposed fraud, dubbing the endeavor "Operation Metro Surge." Raids by ICE and the DHS resulted in the fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old poet and mother of three, and Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old VA nurse. Purdy, an out transgender man who is in his last semester studying illustration at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, has been involved in local grassroots activism for the past four months through MN50501. He says he attended the protest that night because he was the only street medic available. "I've been doing a lot of training as a street medic, and that night no one else in the group I'm with was able to go," Purdy explains. "So, I went to make sure that nobody got hurt, or if they did, I'd have the supplies to help out. And thankfully no one did get hurt." The U of M Public Relations team confirmed the arrests in an email sent out later that day, obtained by Kare11, but insisted "the University and UMPD, as part of our mission, support the right to engage in peaceful protest and are committed to the safety of our campus community." Gregory Bovino, former commander-at-large for Border Patrol, was ordered out of Minnesota last month alongside about 700 agents, seemingly in response to Good and Pretti's extrajudicial killings and the massive protests that followed. His replacement, so-called "Border Czar" Tom Homan, announced during a press conference on Thursday that "Operation Metro Surge" is ending, and that the federal government will begin withdrawing agents. Despite the killings of American citizens, Homan claimed that the Twin Cities will be "much safer" because of what ICE and the DHS have done. He clarified that "a small footprint of personnel will remain for a period of time to close out and transition full command and control back to the field office." **Related:****Border Czar Tom Homan announces end to Minneapolis immigration operation, claiming success** Whether or not the agents actually leave remains to be seen, but Purdy says he's "not so sure about that." As of right now, local activists "haven't seen anything to say that there's a decrease" in the arrests being made daily. While Homan said that agents have arrested around 4,000 people, the groups believe it to be a much larger number, as Purdy estimates there have been about "180 to 200 arrests per day." "I honestly don't believe it," Purdy says. "Even after, hypothetically, if they do leave, I feel like a lot of people are still going to be afraid of leaving their house just because it's not a definitive thing. They could still come back, and a lot of those people are still vulnerable." Instead of pleading guilty and paying the fine, Purdy intends to fight the charge against him. He does not yet have a court date, but is represented by James Cook of Burris, Nisenbaum, Curry & Lacy (BNCL). The Minnesota native is offering his services pro bono to protestors and undocumented people whose civil rights have been violated amid the immigration crackdown. "It isn't dying down. Not just ICE presence, but resistance to it," Purdy adds. "Protests are still happening. People are still working against it. Just because the media has kind of pulled back on some of the massive protests that have happened, doesn't mean people aren't still doing it. Everyone's looking out for each other."

➡️ More than 1,000 people protested in Manhattan’s Christopher Park today after the Trump administration ordered the Pride flag removed from the nearby Stonewall National Monument. _The Advocate_ was on the ground talking to local activists who brought Pride colors back to the site. Meanwhile, the NYC Council officially advanced a resolution urging Congress to protect LGBTQ history at the monument. We also cover backlash against the transgender community after a Canadian school shooting suspect’s identity was revealed, the Trump administration being ordered to return detainees sent to El Salvador, and the _Minnesota Reformer_ ’s reporting on a rollback of immigration operations in Minneapolis. Until tomorrow, **Christine Linnell** Social media manager, _The Advocate_ ### Hundreds fill the streets near Stonewall as NYC community members reraised Pride flag Trump ordered removed “They’ve come for our books, our existence, and even pulled down our flag two days ago,” Kelley Robinson of the Human Rights Campaign said. “Two days is too long for the flag to be down, so we came out, and we put it back up ourselves.” ### New York City Council advances resolution opposing Stonewall Pride flag removal The cultural affairs committee advanced the resolution Wednesday. ### Canadian school shooting sparks anti-trans uproar after shooter identified Authorities have identified the shooter that killed eight people as an 18-year-old local resident. ### Trump administration must facilitate return of men sent to El Salvador’s CECOT back to the U.S., judge rules “By any measure, the detainees surely fell victim to constitutionally inadequate process," Chief Judge James E. Boasberg ruled. ### Border Czar Tom Homan announces end to Minneapolis immigration operation, claiming success The federal incursion led to two deaths and sparked massive protests in Minnesota and across the country. ### Can we count on you to support LGBTQ+ journalism? Your valued gift will help continue our legacy — at a critical time in our history. ### Get Out / The Advocate in your physical mailbox too! Get a year's subscription of _The Advocate_ and _Out Magazine_ for just $9.95.

The Pride flag is flying at Stonewall again. More than 1,000 people formed a sea of rainbow and transgender flags and handmade signs, flooding the area surrounding Lower Manhattan’s Christopher Park in Greenwich Village on Thursday after the Trump administration ordered the Pride flag removed from the Stonewall National Monument earlier this week. **_Keep up with the latest inLGBTQ+ news and politics. _****_Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter._** **__**Stonewall, the site of the June 1969 uprising against a police raid that helped ignite the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, has always been more than a landmark. Designated a national monument by PresidentBarack Obama in 2016, it has become a site where history is not only remembered but actively contested. Leaders carry the LGBTQ+ Pride flag to be reraised at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City.Jack Walker for The Advocate **Related** : Mamdani, Schumer & NYC Council demand National Park Service return Pride flag to Stonewall National Monument **Related** : Protest set at NYC’s Stonewall after Trump administration removes Pride flag from national LGBTQ+ monument The gathering followed days of condemnation from city, state, and federal leaders who denounced the removal, which the National Park Service said on Tuesday was done to comply with longstanding federal flag policy, as an attempt to erase LGBTQ+ history from the nation’s capital for queer memory. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the removal “deeply outrageous” and said that “no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history.” He added that the city has a “duty not just to honor this legacy, but to live up to it” and vowed to continue fighting for LGBTQ+ dignity and protection. Activists put up an LGBTQ+ Pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument after the Trump administration had the National Park Service remove it earlier in the week on February 12, 2026, in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images By late afternoon, the park was packed. People lined its perimeter and spilled onto nearby streets and sidewalks, some bearing rainbow and transgender pride flags and handmade signs. One sign read, “Honey, Stonewall was the warning.” Chants rippled through the crowd like a rising tide of frustration and resolve. A phalanx of New York elected officials, including gay State Sen. Erik Bottcher, U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, and movement leaders like Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson, had gathered to raise the Pride flag inside Christopher Park in defiance of the administration’s decision, but they were quickly pushed to the margins by a fired-up crowd that wanted more than symbolism. It wanted sovereignty over the meaning of Stonewall itself. Jay W. Walker raises his fist in solidarity as people put up an LGBTQ+ Pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument after the Trump administration had the National Park Service remove it earlier in the week on February 12, 2026, in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images Shortly after 4 p.m., officials and advocacy leaders carried a Gilbert Baker rainbow flag toward the flagpole, where a U.S. flag had been placed after the original Pride flag was taken down. They attached a make-shift pole to the permanent one and tried to fly the Pride flag, though it appeared lower and not properly attached. But the crowd was not satisfied with shared symbolism. As Robinson began speaking, the crowd pushed back. “This is our flag! This is our flag!” voices roared. Others chanted, “Raise our flag,” and “Our flag only,” demanding that the Pride flag stand alone. “F*ck Trump,” chants broke out from different parts of the park. The crowd first tried to pull down the American flag. **Related** : New Yorkers rally in solidarity with LGBTQ+ community after Trump ordered Stonewall Pride flag removed **Related** : Trump erased trans & queer history from Stonewall. Lawmakers are fighting to get it back Attempts to raise the Pride flag on its own initially faltered; at one point, it fluttered only at half-mast. The temporary attachment looked flimsy next to the larger Stars and Stripes. Eventually, the crowd succeeded in binding the rainbow flag to the U.S. flag so that both flew together. Supporters re-raised the LGBTQ+ Pride flat at the Stonewall National Monument on Thursday, February 12, 2026.Jack Walker for The Advocate “Take it down! Take it down!” the crowd shouted, at times turning their anger toward the politicians nearby: “Cowards! Cowards!” By 4:20 p.m., one onlooker breached a fence near the flagpole, yanked down the temporary Pride flag, and cut it off its pole with a knife. A second person joined them. As the crowd surged and shouted, someone began a chant: “This is what democracy looks like.” The call-and-response echoed across the park, reverberating off the trees, the monument, and the bar across the street that still bears the weight of history. Jay W. Walker, a longtime local activist, joined the two people struggling with the flags and helped secure the Pride flag to the same pole as the American flag. Both flags were left flying side by side in a vigorous wind, as onlookers cheered. For a moment, it was impossible to tell where the ceremony ended, and the protest began, or whether that distinction still mattered. A supporter at Stonewall National Monument with a sign that reads "Honey, Stonewall was the warning."Jack Walker for The Advocate The tension was not simply about flags. It was about presence, power, and the meaning of Stonewall itself. Many in the crowd saw the newly hoisted U.S. flag, one that had not flown there before this week, not as an addition but as an intrusion, transforming a space long associated with queer liberation into something that felt narrower and managed from afar. Robinson told _The Advocate_ that the crowd’s size and urgency reflected a sense that waiting was no longer an option. She said hundreds of people showed up to “put our flag back up” after the Trump administration removed it earlier in the week, arguing that the attack on the symbol fit a broader pattern. “They’ve come for our books, our existence, and even pulled down our flag two days ago,” Robinson said. “Two days is too long for the flag to be down, so we came out, and we put it back up ourselves.” Robinson placed the moment in the context of what she described as a sustained, nationwide fight over LGBTQ+ lives and visibility, pointing to federal and state actions targeting transgender service members, access to gender-affirming care, and protections at work and in schools. The flag’s return, she said, was both symbolic and practical: a reminder that the community often has to fill the gaps when government fails to protect it. Standing at Stonewall, she added, carried particular weight. U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman (in the black coat above) looks on as HRC President Kelley Robinson helps guide the LGBTQ+ Pride flag at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City.Jack Walker for The Advocate “This is sacred ground,” Robinson said. “I wasn’t there in 1969. But to be here in 2026 and say, definitively, you are not going to erase us — that’s powerful.” Kei Williams, executive director of the New Pride Agenda, said the re-raising was about more than restoring a symbol, calling it a necessary show of visible solidarity after what they described as deliberate provocation. Williams said the community had returned to the site repeatedly, on Tuesday night, again Wednesday morning, and again Thursday, because the moment demanded it, and argued the flag’s removal should be understood as part of a strategic pattern rather than an isolated incident. Marti Gould Cummings, a state Democratic committee member representing Assembly District 75, placed the confrontation in a longer historical frame, saying Stonewall “started as a riot” and remains part of an unfinished struggle. With trans rights under sustained attack, Cummings said, the fight over a flag is inseparable from broader efforts to erase history, pointing to what they described as similar rollbacks involving slavery and Indigenous history at other national parks. A flag, Cummings said, may be dismissed as just a symbol, but taking it down signals something larger: “a long list of erasure.” Queer people, they added, are resilient and “not going anywhere.” Ahead of the assembly, Tyler Hack, founder and executive director of the Christopher Street Project, a pro-trans PAC, described the flag’s removal as part of a broader political campaign against LGBTQ+ visibility and rights. “This event is symbolic of Trump’s war on the queer community,” Hack said before the crowd assembled, describing the episode as “a visual manifestation of the ways in which the Trump administration has chipped away at our rights and freedoms.” They said the response was meant to show that the community would not quietly absorb another erasure. “This is a fight that they have picked with our community, and we will fight that fight.” A trans pride flag is flown at the Stonewall National Monument.Jack Walker for The Advocate In the crowd was Lynn Paltrow, who told _The Advocate_ that she came to stand with friends, family, and neighbors, and because she wanted to live “in a country that’s an inclusive democracy for everybody.” She described the episode as deliberate provocation meant to insult and provoke, and said the demonstration was a peaceful objection to removing “the symbol of this community, the symbol of a very important piece of our progress towards being a truly egalitarian democracy.” Nearby stood Jamie Leo. “I’m a 71-year-old American. I fought to be here, and I’m not going away,” Leo told The Advocate. “The people who want to … tear it to pieces bit by bit … are not going to do well with us, because we’ve already been beaten, and we’ve already triumphed.”

The state of California has sued the U.S. Department of Education and the entire federal government over their threat to withhold funds totaling $4.9 billion annually because of the state law against forced outing of transgender students. California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. It challenges the Department of Education’s findings that the California Department of Education “facilitated and promoted the adoption of policies and practices that violate” the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. He also filed a request for a temporary restraining order keeping the federal government from withholding funds, and U.S. District Judge Noël Wise granted it the same day, with action blocked until the merits of the case are resolved. FERPA, a federal law enacted more than 50 years ago, requires states to disclose students’ education records to their parents upon request and bars them from disclosing those records to third parties without prior parental consent. But the law “does not require schools to affirmatively disclose a student’s gender identity or preferred name or pronouns to parents, nor does it mention gender identity,” says a press release from Bonta’s office. **Related:** Conservative Californians ask SCOTUS to allow forced outing of transgender students The U.S. DOE sent a letter to the California DOE last March, saying it was initiating an investigation into whether local educational agencies were violating FERPA. The investigation came at the behest of the California Justice Center, a nonprofit group that bills its mission as fighting government “overreach.” The investigation “focuses on a select set of education records for just one group of students — transgender students — and specifically records about their gender identity,” the lawsuit says. “This singular focus appears, like so many of Defendants’ actions, to be motivated by discriminatory animus against transgender people, including transgender students.” The California DOE has made it clear that parents have the right to request to inspect and review their children’s education records under FERPA, even if those records contain information related to a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, the press release says. The agency sent a letter to the U.S. DOE stating that the California law, Assembly Bill 1955, “only prohibits schools and school districts from compelling staff to affirmatively disclose without a student’s consent,” the lawsuit notes. **Related:** California defies Trump, won't ban trans athletes from school sports AB 1955, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in 2024, made California the first state to ban forced outing of trans and other LGBTQ+ students. The law is designed to protect students whose parents or guardians are not supportive of their identity. But one of the defendants, U.S. DOE official Frank Miller, claims the law recognizes “a nonexistent right of privacy in minors from their parents regarding a child’s gender identity at school,” using the same language as the California Justice Center. Last month, the U.S. DOE sent a letter to the California DOE demanding that it take six “corrective actions,” including an assurance that school districts will be allowed to employ “pro-parental notification approaches,” the suit says. If the state does not comply, it will lose all federal funding, according to the U.S. DOE. But California is not “out of substantial compliance with FERPA,” the suit says. “Indeed, Defendants have failed to demonstrate even a single violation of FERPA: they do not cite even one instance in which any [local educational agency] failed to disclose education records that state a student’s gender identity — or any other record — in response to a valid parental request under FERPA.” What’s more, “he loss of all $4.9 billion in funding would have a catastrophic impact for California’s education system,” the lawsuit states. The defendants are exceeding their legal authority by seeking to force disclosure of “education records related to a student’s gender identity to a student’s parents where the parents have not made any request for education records,” “information, materials, or documents related to gender identity that fall outside of an ‘education record’” as defined by FERPA,” and “records related to a student’s gender identity in response to an inquiry from parents that does not constitute a valid request under FERPA,” according to the suit. It asks the court to declare that the “corrective actions” demanded are not supported by law and to issue preliminary and permanent injunctions keeping the federal government from withholding funds or making similar demands. Named as defendants are the U.S. DOE; Secretary of Education Linda McMahon; Miller, who is director of the student privacy policy office of the U.S. DOE; and all U.S. executive agencies and departments. Donald Trump claimed last year that he would shut down the U.S. DOE, something conservatives have wanted ever since the department was established, but it's still very much in operation, at least as far as being weaponized against trans-inclusive policies. “This is a flagrant attempt by the U.S. Department of Education to intimidate the California Department of Education and California’s local education agencies under the guise of enforcing FERPA,” Bonta said in the press release. “The Trump Administration has produced no evidence that CDE is out of substantial compliance with FERPA, or even a single instance where a school has failed to honor a parent’s request for student records. We will not stand by as U.S. ED uses baseless claims to attack crucial education funding. We will continue to fight to protect California’s schools and students from unfair attacks and work to ensure a discrimination-free educational environment for all students.” In a later release announcing the restraining order, Bonta said, “The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has granted our request for a temporary restraining order, ensuring the U.S. Department of Education cannot wrongfully withhold crucial funding from the California Department of Education while our lawsuit proceeds**. ...** We look forward to making our case in court to secure injunctive relief, ensuring U.S. ED’s flagrant attempt to target transgender individuals and law-abiding local education agencies is fully shut down. We are committed to protecting California schools and securing a discrimination-free educational environment for all students.”

After repeatedly misgendering a transgender skier during a livestream at the Milano Cortina Olympics, NBC has issued an apology. Commentators for NBC’s Olympic coverage on Peacock repeatedly referred to Elis Lundholm, who made history this week as the first trans man to compete in the Winter Games, as “she” during his first run in the women’s moguls qualifying round on February 10. Lundholm’s performance on the slopes was overshadowed during a livestream of the qualifiers when one of the commentators repeatedly used incorrect pronouns while describing the Team Sweden athlete. Despite Lundholm using he/him pronouns, one of the commentators repeatedly referred the Olympics as “she” during the livestream, although the announcer at the actual moguls event used the correct pronouns. “Getting off course here though… oh she just skids out of that gate,” the unidentified member of the commentary team said. “She’s going to hop up and go around to make sure she does not DNF [Did Not Finish] as she continues down the line here.” In a statement to __Outsports__, which was the first outlet to report on Lundholm being misgendered, an NBCUniversal representative apologized for the mistake. “NBC Sports takes this matter seriously,” NBC said. “Today we streamed an international feed with non-NBCUniversal commentators who misgendered Olympian Elis Lundholm. We apologize to Elis and our viewers, and we have removed the replay of that feed.” ### > See on Instagram The trailblazing athlete is competing in the women’s category because the International Ski Federation regulations require that trans athletes participate in events corresponding to their “registered sex” and because Lundholm “has not started a masculinizing hormone replacement therapy regiment,” _Outsports_ reports. This isn’t the first time NBC has made a mistake like this. The network also had to issue an apology after the network repeatedly misgendered nonbinary skateboarder Alana Smith at the 2021 Olympics. International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry has signaled that she plans to _ban trans women from women’s competitions_ in the future, and is likely to re-adopt sex testing after the practice was phased out close to three decades ago. Lundholm told the Swedish outlet __Aftonbladet__ last month that he wasn’t going to let the backlash trans athletes face affect him. “Of course it’s something I thought about,” he said. “You can hear the voices out there. But then, I do my thing and don’t give a damn.”

Ts Madison has obtained a temporary restraining order against a content creator who filmed himself driving by her Georgia home while shouting threats of violence, according to Madison and court documents. The court order against Naquan Palmer, also known as the DL Whisperer, comes after months of online commentary that devolved from verbal abuse online to in-person stalking, Madison says. In an exclusive interview with __Out__ , Madison describes the escalating threats as terrifying, exhausting, and emblematic of the particular vulnerability Black trans women face when visibility collides with unchecked hostility. Palmer “strongly” denies these allegations, he said in a statement to __Out__. "This is so dumb," Madison says early in the conversation about the situation, frustration already bubbling over. "This kind of shit is dumb and a waste of time." In her telling, what began as white noise quickly metastasized into something else entirely. Madison traces the origin of the situation to June 5, 2025, the day her now-viral interview with Nene Leakes was released, and "the entirety of the planet shook," she recalls. During that exchange, the __Real Housewives of Atlanta__ alum stated that men who date trans women aren’t straight, with Madison challenging that notion. "TMZ was reaching out…everybody was reaching out. Everybody, the interview went crazy," Madison says. The interview ignited widespread commentary, think pieces, and reaction videos across platforms. Amid the noise, Madison noticed a man she had never encountered before on social media. "I don't know who this gentleman is. I've never seen this man before," she recalls thinking at the time. Palmer had posted a response to Madison’s video replying to another content creator, the Spiritual Whistleblower, who had made two videos following the Nene Leakes interview claiming Madison was being a “narcissist and a misogynist.” But with a busy schedule, Madison did not engage with him directly. “Madison posts and goes,” says her friend, _Dominique Morgan_. It was Morgan who first noticed how Palmer’s content took a turn. As the DL Whisperer, he built his brand in a niche part of the social media world, providing insight into how down-low or "DL" men navigate their double lives. But as Morgan asserts, his tune gradually changed. "He slowly started to massage his rhetoric around trans women, specifically Black trans women," Dominique alleges. "And when he wasn't really getting a response from his followers with the average…trans girl with like, 300 followers, it was Madison. And then when Madison did not respond to him, then it was _Cherry_ [Rogers, a Black trans podcaster & personality], and then it was me.” Madison, accustomed to public criticism, never responded. "Girl, who gives a fuck about somebody having some shit to say about me?" she says. That refusal to engage later became central to her survival strategy. And the first moment Madison realized the situation had crossed a line was not subtle. Madison alleges the content creator began posting threats to fight her. "It was like, 'Bitch, I want to fight __you__!’" she exclaims. "That's what made me notice it. Like, who the fuck is this?" Madison annually hosts a Halloween party in October to celebrate her birthday, with her 2025 event being a masked party. Friends checked in with her prior to this celebration after seeing posts from Palmer alleging he would attack her there. "People started messaging me and was like, 'Madison, please be careful, because this man is saying that he's about to come to your party and attack you,'" Madison claims. The threat was allegedly explicit. "And he said, 'Thank God it's a mask party, because I can come there and attack that bitch anytime I get ready.'" For Madison, this was no longer theoretical. Though she continued to ignore Palmer directly, behind the scenes, she mobilized. "I made a video explaining to the dolls to protect themselves," she says. "I said the dolls should be armed, because in this climate that we're in, no one is protecting us. We need to protect ourselves." But, she recalls, the situation reached its most dangerous point on January 23, 2026. A screengrab of a now-deleted post on Naquan Palmer's official DL Whisperer page. Provided to Out "The gentleman said that he was coming to my motherfucking house," Madison recounts, her voice shifting. A _video_ from what appears to be the DL Whisperer's backup account confirms the threat at the 13-minute mark. "He was going to beat me until I had an aneurysm, and he wanted to watch me take my last breath," Madison says. In that clip, Palmer is seen livestreaming a two-hour drive from Glimer County to DeKalb County, where Madison lives. A screen recording from that same date was provided to __Out__ , showing the content creator screaming as he drives past her house. "Screaming out of the window…telling his followers that he was going to beat me until the breath left my body,” Madison says. Despite the severity of the threats, Madison remained publicly silent. "Ts Madison ain't saying nothing," she explains. "Because I knew the moment that I breathe on it, it's gonna become wildfire… just because I'm in silence don't mean I don't know what's going on.” Madison describes meticulously compiling evidence: videos, screenshots, timestamps, and platform reports, some shared with __Out__. When she finally sought legal protection, the response was swift. On February 3, the Superior Court of Gilmer County granted Madison a temporary protective order against Palmer. "The judge was like, 'Oh my God," Madison recalls. "That was the judge's exact word." Additionally, Madison is seeking a criminal arrest warrant for stalking and “terroristic threats and acts,” according to legal papers shown to __Out__. The hearing is set for March. Madison is pursuing criminal charges and plans to see the case through. Morgan received a similar protection order on February 10 and plans to file similar charges shortly. Meanwhile, Palmer is raising funds through GoFundMe to support his legal defense and "safe relocation." Although GoFundMe prohibits fundraisers for the legal defense of “financial and violent crimes,” a spokesperson for GoFundMe responded, "This fundraiser remains within our Terms of Service at this time." "If I was Gigi Gorgeous… he'd have been under the jail a long time ago," Madison claims. "He could never pull up on no white girl like that." She insists the increasingly incendiary attack on her, and others like her, is rooted in dehumanization. "They've stripped our humanity from us," she says. "Whatever we get, we deserve." __Out__ reached out to Palmer for a comment, who provided the following statement: > Due to the ongoing nature of this legal matter, I have to be mindful about discussing specific details publicly. I strongly deny the allegations made against me and am prepared to present my evidence through the proper legal process. This situation has had a significant impact on both my personal life and my professional brand. > > I also want to emphasize that I have experienced ongoing harassment and reputational harm, which will be addressed through the appropriate legal channels. > > Out of respect for the court process, my focus is on handling this matter legally rather than litigating it in the media. I appreciate your interest and will consider providing further comment once the case is resolved. The alleged harassment against Madison is not an isolated incident; there's a growing hostility against transgender people in the United States. From 2024 to 2025, GLAAD's ALERT Desk _tracked 932 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents_, with nearly 52 percent of these incidents targeting transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals. Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign _recorded 27 fatal attacks_ on transgender individuals last year; since they began recording in 2013, nearly 400 deaths have been recorded, with the majority being trans people of color.

### Netflix's _Boots_ , a beloved gay TV show set in the U.S. Marine Corps that was canceled after just one season, was perhaps the most confusing cancelation of any LGBTQ-centric TV show in 2025. Despite being the last project from the late, great Norman Lear and outperforming the viewership of other shows renewed for new seasons, _Boots_ season 2 was not greenlit. Now, co-CEO Ted Sarandos has broken his silence about the show being canceled. "There was some talk about _Boots_ being canceled," _Variety_ 's Marc Malkin asked Sarandos while covering the Annual DGA Awards red carpet. "People were surprised it didn't get a second season, and people assumed it was because the Department of War went after it. Did that have anything to do with that decision?" "Absolutely not," Sarandos replied. "These are all business decisions based on audience relative to the cost of the show. Do the people who push play watch it till the end? Do they give it a couple of thumbs up? Does it keep growing? All of those things. That decision is made every day." The Netflix CEO added, "The beauty of why people get upset when you cancel a show is because they love them. That's the best part about our business, it's that people really love the product. And it's heartbreaking to cancel any show, ever, particularly a show that Norman Lear brought to me. It was his last show." Malkin remarked, "I loved that show." "I'm a fan," Sarandos agreed. ### > See on Instagram _Variety_ 's question about politics playing a role in the cancelation of _Boots_ stems from a statement issued by Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson calling the series "woke garbage." Based on the memoir _The Pink Marine_ by Greg Cope White, _Boots_ featured an exceptional cast of five out gay actors performing at their highest level — namely, Miles Heizer, Max Parker, Sachin Bhatt, Angus O'Brien, and Jack Cameron Kay. Behind the scenes, the series was also filled with queer creators such as showrunner Andy Parker, writer Dominic Cólon, and director Peter Hoar, among others. Alas, two months after premiering on Netflix and becoming a viral sensation, the streaming service announced that it wouldn't renew _Boots_ for a second season. The choice was not only upsetting to fans, but also confusing, given how much social media buzz and engagement the show had created. **_Boots_ is streaming on Netflix.__**

The New York City Council has advanced a resolution urging Congress to protect LGBTQ history at Stonewall National Monument after the Trump administration ordered Pride flags to be _removed from the site_. _Resolution 1255_ passed the council’s cultural affairs committee 6-0 on Wednesday morning, and now awaits consideration from the full chamber. Lead sponsor Chi Ossé told __The Advocate__ that the resolution marks a step toward combating President Donald Trump’s anti-LGBTQ agenda. “These attacks that we’re seeing on LGBTQ history [are] ... a distraction from the actual enemies we have at hand, which are Donald Trump [and] the fascist right-wing government,” said Councilmember Ossé, a Democrat who represents the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bedford–Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. The Trump administration issued a _federal directive_ last month that prohibited national parks from flying banners other than the U.S. flag, with few exceptions. Similar orders have restricted what flags can be flown at U.S. _embassies_ and _military outposts_. The orders seem to be a crackdown on symbols like the Pride flag and _Black Lives Matter_ slogan from appearing at government buildings, which Trump has _previously criticized_. But _hundreds of protesters_ who have convened outside Stonewall argue the Pride flag is integral to commemorating LGBTQ history at the site. “They’re trying to erase anything that accurately conveys the history of struggle of marginalized communities in this country,” Jay W. Walker, a New York City activist, told __The Advocate__ _at a protest Tuesday_. Patrons of the Stonewall Inn fought back during a June 1969 police raid and helped set in motion a national movement for LGBTQ+ rights. Stonewall is widely regarded as one of the most important sites of LGBTQ history in the United States, and was designated a _national monument_ by President Barack Obama in 2016. The resolution “goes beyond just a flag,” said Councilmember Justin Sanchez, a co-sponsor, during Wednesday’s committee meeting. “What removing a flag or desecrating any of our park space does is remove the places and the spaces where we get to see and be ourselves.” Stonewall’s status as federal property means the federal government, and Trump, have jurisdiction over the site. But local officials, including Ossé, members of city council and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, have promised to push back against the Pride flag removal. “I am outraged by the removal of the Rainbow Pride Flag from Stonewall National Monument,” Mamdani posted on the _social media platform X_ Tuesday. “New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history.” __This article was written as part of the Future of Queer Media fellowship program at The Advocate, which is underwritten by a generous gift from__ ___Morrison Media Group___ __. The program helps support the next generation of LGBTQ+ journalists.__

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return to the United States of people it deported to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, ruling that the government violated their due process rights and must now begin to remedy the consequences of those removals. **Keep up with the latest inLGBTQ+ news and politics. ****Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.** The order, issued by D.C. U.S. District Chief Judge James E. Boasberg, arises from a class action brought by Venezuelan migrants who were deported in March 2025 under a presidential proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act. In earlier rulings, Boasberg concluded that the deportations were unlawful, writing that “by any measure, the detainees surely fell victim to constitutionally inadequate process.” **Related** : Andry Hernández Romero on surviving CECOT: 'They told us we would die there' **Related** : Gay Venezuelan asylum-seeker ‘disappeared’ to Salvadoran mega-prison under Trump order, Maddow reveals **Related** : Gay asylum-seeker's lawyer worries for the makeup artist's safety in Salvadoran ‘hellhole’ prison In his latest opinion, the judge addressed what the government must do to remedy that violation. Citing recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent, he wrote that when people are unlawfully removed, the government must “ensure that [their] case is handled as it would have been had [they] not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” He rejected the administration’s argument that there was no feasible way to allow the plaintiffs to proceed, warning that otherwise the government could remove people without due process and then deny them any meaningful chance to be heard simply because they are no longer in the United States. Under the order, the government must offer “boarding letters” to plaintiffs in third countries who seek commercial air travel back to the U.S. and, in some cases, cover the cost of that travel. Boasberg noted that the situation would not exist had the government “simply afforded Plaintiffs their constitutional rights before initially deporting them.” Those who return would be taken into U.S. custody while their cases proceed and could still face deportation if their legal challenges fail. **Related** : Democratic lawmakers fly to El Salvador and demand action on gay man Trump sent to CECOT prison **Related** : Robert Garcia demands answers in case of gay Venezuelan migrant deported to El Salvador prison **Related** : Hundreds rallying at Supreme Court demand Trump return disappeared gay asylum-seeker Andry Hernández Romero The case involves 137 Venezuelans who were deported to CECOT. Some were later released to Venezuela as part of a prisoner exchange, but several now seek to continue pressing habeas corpus claims, arguing that the proclamation was unlawfully applied to them or that they were wrongly identified as members of the Tren de Aragua gang. At a remedies hearing this week, the government said facilitating returns could harm U.S. foreign policy interests. Boasberg said the court would “tread lightly” in matters of foreign affairs but refused to let plaintiffs “languish in the solution-less mire Defendants propose.” The ruling has drawn renewed attention because of conditions inside CECOT and the experiences of people sent there from the United States. One of the most closely followed cases is that of Andry Hernández Romero, a Venezuelan gay makeup artist without a criminal record, who sought asylum in the U.S. and passed a credible fear screening before being deported. **Related** : Kristi Noem won’t say if gay asylum-seeker deported to El Salvador’s ‘hellhole’ prison is still alive **Related** : Andry Hernández Romero, gay asylum seeker disappeared by Trump, part of prisoner swap **Related** : Inside the movement that freed gay makeup artist Andry Hernández Romero from a hellhole In an interview with _The Advocate_ after his release, Hernández Romero described being detained in CECOT, suffering abuse by guards, and being held incommunicado without communication with the outside world. He was released after about four months as part of a prisoner exchange and sent to Venezuela, not returned to the United States. “I want the world to know that being Venezuelan is not a crime," Hernández Romero told _The Advocate._ **Related** : CECOT survivor Andry Hernández Romero, gay Venezuelan makeup artist, and his lawyer named to Out100 **Related** : Andry Hernández Romero explains how he survived CECOT after the U.S. government disappeared him **Related** : Jon Lovett and Tim Miller team up to ‘raise hell’ over gay asylum-seeker vanished to El Salvador by Trump Advocates argue his case illustrates broader concerns that people were labeled gang members based on thin or questionable evidence and removed without a meaningful opportunity to contest those claims. Boasberg’s order does not resolve those underlying disputes, but it does require the government to provide a path for at least some plaintiffs to return and pursue them in court. _The Advocate_ contacted Hernández Romero’s legal team for comment on the ruling, but did not immediately receive a response.

Canadian authorities have identified the shooter who killed eight people — mostly children — at a school in British Columbia on Tuesday. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have named Jesse Van Rootselaar, an 18-year-old resident of Tumbler Ridge, as a suspect, believing she died by suicide after fatally shooting her 39-year-old mother, 11-year-old stepbrother, a 39-year-old teacher, three 12-year-old girls, and two boys ages 12 and 13. **Related:****No, transgender and nonbinary people are not frequently mass shooters** Police had responded to multiple wellness checks that involved weapons at Rootselaar's home over the past several years, Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said at a press conference Wednesday, including one incident two years ago where they confiscated firearms from her. She was detained on more than one occasion for assessment and follow-up under the nation's Mental Health Act, and did not have any firearms registered to her at the time of the shooting. Rootselaar was assigned male at birth but had began transitioning six years ago, according to McDonald. RCMP is not identifying her as transgender, as officials identify suspects as "they chose to be identified in public and in social media," and Rootselaar identified as female "both socially and publicly." Rootselaar's identity has been used to vilify the trans community, though conservative figures were blaming trans people for the tragedy even before a suspect was named. Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Tara Armstrong said in a post that there's a supposed "epidemic of transgender violence spreading across the West," while using the opportunity to attack gender-affirming care by falsely claiming "affirming delusions is neglect, not care." The U.S. Secret Service Threat Assessment Center’s review of 172 mass attacks from 2016 to 2020 found that 96 percent of perpetrators were cisgender men. __The Advocate__ has previously reported that out of more than 4,600 mass shootings between 2014 and 2024, at most six involved transgender suspects — just 0.128 percent. As trans people account for only one percent of the U.S. population, they are significantly less likely to be mass shooters than the overall population. **Related:****When shooters are MAGA and anti-LGBTQ+, the right suddenly loses its appetite for conspiracy theories** Trans people are also more likely to be the victim of violence than their LGB peers, and are significantly more likely to be the victim of violence than the perpetrator. "Our thoughts are with the families, loved ones, and all those impacted by this tragic incident," Superintendent Ken Floyd, North District Commander, said in a statement. "This has been an incredibly difficult and emotional day for our community, and we are grateful for the cooperation shown as officers continue their work to advance the investigation."

Ahead of a Thursday confirmation hearing, two former senior U.S. officials in the Biden administration are warning that President Donald Trump’s nominee to oversee U.S. engagement with the United Nations could use the post to weaken global human rights protections, particularly for LGBTQ+ people and communities of color. **_Keep up with the latest inLGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter._** Desirée Cormier Smith, the former State Department special representative for racial equity and justice, and Jessica Stern, the former U.S. special envoy to advance the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons, told _The Advocate_ that Jeremy Carl’s public record and ideological commitments make his nomination to serve as assistant secretary of state for international organizations uniquely dangerous. **Related** : Activists stack coffins in front of State Department to protest PEPFAR cuts (in photos) **Related** : Marco Rubio's State Department won't issue passports with X gender markers Smith described the job as obscure to most Americans but enormously influential inside the U.S. government. “The Assistant Secretary for International Organizations is an obscure post to folks who are not familiar with the State Department, but it’s actually quite a powerful one,” she said, noting that the position is responsible for U.S. engagement with the United Nations and its agencies and for representing the United States inside those bodies. “He would be, if confirmed, the senior-most diplomat under the Secretary of State really responsible for our engagement with the United Nations and all of its agencies,” Smith said. That reach, she argued, renders Carl’s prior statements on race and demographics incompatible with the role. Smith cited his promotion of the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory and rhetoric about “anti-white racism,” asking how someone with those views could credibly represent the United States to most of the world. The "Great Replacement" is a far-right, white nationalist conspiracy theory that falsely claims white populations in countries are being replaced by non-white immigrants. Carl, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank the Claremont Institute, has come under scrutiny following a CNN KFile investigation that reported he attempted to delete thousands of social media posts ahead of his confirmation process. Among the statements flagged were calls for the execution of the head of the American Federation of Teachers, claims that January 6 defendants were treated worse than Black Americans during Jim Crow, and repeated references to the “Great Replacement” theory, according to the outlet. CNN also reported that Carl referred to Juneteenth as a “race hustling and white-shaming” holiday and wrote in 2021, “If you’re a white person celebrating Juneteenth, you’ve already surrendered.” In subsequent posts and commentary, he criticized Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as “unqualified,” arguing she was chosen “solely because of her race and gender,” and wrote that institutions he accused of promoting “anti-white racism” must be “reformed completely … or else destroyed." **Related** : State Dept. omitting anti-LGBTQ+ actions from foreign human rights reports **Related** : Trump appoints gay tech executive who previously supported Pete Buttigieg to State Department role Smith said senators should confront Carl directly with that record. She urged lawmakers to ask him about “the thousands of tweets that he deleted” and to press him on how those views square with representing the United States on human rights, immigration, and “basic human dignity.” She also said senators should review Carl’s podcast appearances and writing. “I just wish that senators in his upcoming hearing would just use his own words and make him explain what he meant by that,” Smith said. Stern focused on what Carl’s record could mean for LGBTQ+ people who depend on international institutions for protection. “Jeremy Carl is not only racist and antisemitic,” she said. “He is violently anti-trans, and he’s gone so far as to say that there are no transgender kids and that ‘transgenderism,’ according to him, is a spiritual violation.” “At the global scale, what this means is he would be leading the U.S. government to strip the multilateral system of protections from transgender people and potentially actively target them,” Stern said. She pointed to a recent fight at the United Nations over a disability rights resolution that was expanded at the committee level to include sexual orientation and gender identity, language recognizing that LGBTQ+ people with disabilities face heightened risks. According to Stern, the U.S. government under Trump then intervened to force a new vote and worked with governments she described as “the most homophobic and transphobic states in the world” to remove that language. “So that’s what the U.S. is already saying is its new approach to multilateralism,” Stern said. “It’s only going to get worse if this guy is confirmed.” Both Smith and Stern stressed that the United Nations remains a critical backstop for LGBTQ+ people in countries where being gay or transgender is criminalized. Stern said that in more than 60 countries with sodomy laws and in others that criminalize gender expression, “there is no chance at justice at the domestic level,” making access to international mechanisms essential. “The UN is a place of refuge for people who are desperate, and Jeremy Carl wants to destroy that refuge,” Stern said. “When he promotes this worldview, what he’s really saying is that people who have been marginalized should have nowhere to turn.” The warning from the former diplomats comes amid escalating opposition on Capitol Hill. On Monday, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer took to the Senate floor to urge colleagues to reject Carl’s nomination, citing what he described as a record of racist and antisemitic rhetoric. In his remarks, Schumer pointed to Carl’s past comments about Juneteenth, Jews, and the Holocaust, arguing that they show a lack of judgment and basic fitness for a senior diplomatic post. Schumer said no one who has suggested Jews should “get over” the Holocaust or who has trafficked in what he called pernicious stereotypes should represent the United States abroad. Stern argued that beyond ideology, there is a more basic question senators should ask. “Why would you want this position?” she said. “You clearly don’t believe in respect for other nations, and you have no interest in supporting institutions of global government. Why do you want this position?” Smith said the nomination also fits a broader pattern in which loyalty and ideology are rewarded over expertise. She described the trend as a warning sign for democratic governance, citing other recent appointments in which officials appeared more focused on serving a political leader than on advancing U.S. interests abroad. “If nominees like Jeremy Carl become the norm in U.S. foreign policy, the U.S. will be guaranteeing its own obsolescence,” Stern said, adding that human rights advocates and foreign officials increasingly tell her, “We used to believe in the United States, and now we feel betrayed.”

➡️ Attorney General Pam Bondi led the headlines today during a hearing about the Epstein files, in which she got into an explosive back and forth with Vermont Rep. Becca Balint. _The Advocate_ spoke to Balint afterwards. We also heard from the organizers of a protest held outside the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan after Trump had a Pride flag removed from the site, and we cover Indiana banning trans residents from changing gender markers on their IDs. Plus, we say goodbye to _Dawson’s Creek_ star James Van Der Beek, and a legendary queer women’s music festival is back with new leadership. Until tomorrow, **Christine Linnell** Social media manager, _The Advocate_ ### Pam Bondi suggests Jewish lesbian lawmaker is anti-Semitic in explosive hearing Vermont Rep. Becca Balint left the room after the head of the Department of Justice was disrespectful and combative as she deflected questions about the Epstein files. ### New Yorkers rally in solidarity with LGBTQ+ community after Trump ordered Stonewall Pride flag removed Organizers say the turnout shows the community will not accept erasure, as officials plan to re-raise flag. ### Indiana quietly bans trans residents from changing gender markers on IDs Indiana will no longer accept court orders or medical documentations recognizing transgender residents' gender changes. ### Actor James Van Der Beek has died at age 48 The actor is survived by his wife and six children. ### A new 'dream team' takes the helm at legendary queer women's event The Dinah BellaRose Productions, a partnership of two longtime Dinah team members, has acquired the event from Mariah Hanson. ### Can we count on you to support LGBTQ+ journalism? Your valued gift will help continue our legacy — at a critical time in our history. ### Get Out / The Advocate in your physical mailbox too! Get a year's subscription of _The Advocate_ and _Out Magazine_ for just $9.95.

_Don Lemon’s_ defense team has a new addition: a former prosecutor for the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota. Joseph H. Thompson worked for the office from 2014 to 2026 and was named its lead prosecutor by President Donald Trump from _June_ to _October 2025_. But he was among six prosecutors who resigned last month over the Justice Department’s effort to investigate Becca Good, the wife of _Renée Good_. Now Thompson will take on his former office in court as he represents Lemon, the veteran journalist _arrested last month_ in relation to his coverage of an anti-deportation protest inside a St. Paul church. Thompson was brought on the case because he is licensed to practice law in Minnesota, where Lemon is being tried, and has expertise on the state’s court system, a representative for the legal team told __The Advocate__ Wednesday. The defense is being led by _Abbe Lowell_. **Related:**_**What to know about Don Lemon, the gay journalist arrested by the Trump administration**_ Lemon, who is gay, worked for CNN for 17 years until he was fired in 2023. Since January 2024, he has hosted __The Don Lemon Show__ on YouTube and online streaming platforms. Journalist Don Lemon addresses reporters after he was released from federal custody in Los Angeles on January 30, 2026. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images On January 18, Lemon covered a protest inside Cities Church in St. Paul. Protesters alleged that its pastor was an immigration enforcement agent. Lemon was later arrested at a hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 29. He was _charged with_ conspiracy to deprive rights and interference with religious freedoms. Independent journalist _Georgia Fort_ was also arrested after covering the protest. Press freedom groups condemned the arrests. Thompson is not the only member of Lemon’s defense who was hired for their regional expertise, the representative for the defense said. Marilyn Bednarski, another member of the defense team, is based in California, where Lemon was taken into custody. “Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lemon’s lead attorney, Abbe Lowell, _previously told_ __The Advocate__. “The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.” __This article was written as part of the Future of Queer Media fellowship program at The Advocate, which is underwritten by a generous gift from__ ___Morrison Media Group___ __. The program helps support the next generation of LGBTQ+ journalists.__

A House Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General Pam Bondi descended into chaos Wednesday afternoon, resulting in out U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, a Vermont Democrat, storming out after Bondi accused her of fueling what she called an “anti-Semitic culture,” capping a day of bitter, partisan clashes over the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Balint is Jewish. **Keep up with the latest inLGBTQ+ news and politics. ****Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.** The blowup came at the end of a hearing that had already simmered for hours, as Democrats accused Bondi of stonewalling rather than answering their questions directly. Bondi, for her part, repeatedly deflected, shifted blame to previous administrations, and counterattacked, turning what was billed as an oversight session into a running political brawl steeped in disrespect. **Related** : Pam Bondi wants FBI to offer bounties for ‘radical gender ideology’ groups, leaked memo shows **Related** : Who is Pam Bondi? Trump's attorney general pick has a mixed history on LGBTQ+ issues When Balint’s time expired, and the out lawmaker yielded back, Bondi asked for a moment to respond, and used it to go on the offensive: “You didn’t ask Merrick Garland anything about Epstein,” she said. Balint shot back: “Weak sauce.” Bondi then escalated: “And with this anti-Semitic culture right now, she voted against a resolution ...” Balint cut her off: “Oh, really? Do you want to go there, attorney general?” she said. “Talking about anti-Semitism to a woman who lost her grandfather in the Holocaust?” The lawmaker then got up and left the room. The confrontation capped a day in which Democrats pointed to survivors seated behind Bondi and urged her to meet with them directly. Republicans defended Bondi and accused Democrats of political theater. From the outset, Democrats framed the hearing as an indictment of Bondi’s leadership and priorities. Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland opened by accusing Bondi of a “cover-up” and a “betrayal of the principle of justice for all,” blasting the department’s handling of the Epstein files, including extensive redactions, absence of engagement with survivors, and a persistent lack of clarity about who has or has not been questioned. “The American people are rightfully worried that the Department of Justice is protecting the powerful and letting the vulnerable languish,” Raskin said. > That frustration boiled over in Balint’s exchange with Bondi, whose questioning cut to the core of Democrats’ demands: whether the Justice Department has meaningfully scrutinized powerful officials whose names appear in newly released, unredacted Epstein files. **Related** : Pam Bondi's mad after judge rejects charging Don Lemon over his Minnesota church reporting Balint described the controversy as evidence of a “two-tiered system of justice,” in which survivors are left waiting while the well-connected remain insulated. She pressed Bondi on whether the department had questioned Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Navy Secretary John Phelan, or Deputy Defense Secretary Steven Feinberg about any ties to Epstein. Scrutiny of Lutnick, in particular, has become a flashpoint. Documents show he maintained contact with Epstein years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from a minor, including arranging a visit to Epstein’s private island in 2012 — a timeline that appears to conflict with his earlier claims that he severed ties much earlier. Those revelations have fueled calls for accountability. **Related** : Trump AG Pam Bondi falsely compares gender-affirming care for minors as the same as female genital mutilation **Related** : Pam Bondi promises to 'respect the law' on marriage equality in Senate confirmation hearing Lutnick said in an October interview that he never spent time with Epstein after 2005, when the two were neighbors in New York. However, on Tuesday, Lutnick admitted, after his name was found in the disclosures, that in 2012 he, his wife, their children, and nannies did travel to the convicted sex offender’s private Caribbean island, for “lunch.” Bondi declined to give clear yes-or-no answers. She said Lutnick had “addressed those ties himself,” said she did not know whether Phelan had, and bristled when asked about Feinberg. Chairman Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, repeatedly intervened to manage time and decorum. Bondi struggled to justify her own role in pushing for the release of Epstein materials amid broader political pressure. Republicans invoked the released documents to criticize Democrats, while Democrats say the selective disclosure and extensive redactions have undermined public confidence and shielded powerful figures. In an interview with _The Advocate_ after the hearing, Balint said Democrats had anticipated Bondi would avoid their questions. “We knew she was going to come out swinging and that she wasn’t going to be prepared to answer our questions,” Balint said, calling it “really heartbreaking” because survivors had met with lawmakers “both yesterday and this morning in preparation for the hearing” and were “really hopeful that they would get some answers.” Instead, she said, Bondi arrived with “a big binder full of insults for all of us,” adding, “I think Americans deserve so much better than that.” Balint also criticized what she described as the attorney general’s political posture. “She’s our top cop. She is supposed to be independent from the president,” Balint said. “And what we saw was somebody just in lockstep with the president and doing his bidding.” She said survivors in the room were hurt when Bondi suggested they could simply “call 1-800-FBI if you have a tip,” a response Balint said left many feeling dismissed. Balint said that when Bondi accused her of being anti-Semitic, it was her breaking point. She described Bondi’s attack as “weaponizing anti-Semitism” and said it echoed tactics her own family had faced in 20th century Europe. “She is using the fascist authoritarian playbook in the same way that my family was on the receiving end of those same tactics and strategies during the Nazi era,” Balint said, adding that she walked out because her time had expired but returned to the room afterward. “I came back in for the survivors, and I stayed to the very end because they deserve that," Balint said. _Editor’s note: This story has been updated with Rep. Becca Balint's interview with_ The Advocate.

James Van Der Beek has died following a diagnosis of colorectal cancer. He was 48. The actor was best known for his role as a teen heartthrob in _Varsity Blues_ and _Dawson’s Creek_ , which had a history-making gay kiss between his costar Kerr Smith and Adam Kaufman at a time when two men had never kissed on U.S. network television before. Van Der Beek’s death was announced on his official Instagram page Wednesday alongside a photo of the actor, captioned, ”Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning. The statement continued, "He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity and the sacredness of time. Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend.” ### > See on Instagram Van Der Beek was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer in August 2023 and went public with his health struggles in November 2024. After playing Dawson Leery in _Dawson’s Creek_ , Van Der Beek went on to star in _Don't Trust the B---- In Apartment 23_ , appeared in the first season of _Pose,_ and last year was in two episodes of _Overcompensating._ Fans will have one more opportunity to see the actor on their screen in his final role in the highly anticipated _Legally Blonde_ prequel TV series called _Elle_.' He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, whom he married in 2010, and their six children.

By the time dusk settled over Christopher Park in New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood on Tuesday, the narrow triangle of green across from the Stonewall Inn had become a small, loud commons. Rainbow flags were draped over shoulders. Chants rose and fell between the park’s statues. Attendees estimated that 500 to 750 people attended the protest against the National Park Service’s removal of the Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument, a memorial dedicated to LGBTQ+ history. **Keep up with the latest inLGBTQ+ news and politics. ****Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.** Jay W. Walker, 58, a longtime New York City resident and activist, organized the rally on short notice after word spread that the flag had been taken down. In an interview with _The Advocate_ Wednesday morning, Walker said he had heard some elected officials were planning an action later in the week but decided the community needed to respond immediately. “I said, ‘No, we need to do something in the community right now,’” he recalled. **Related** : Mamdani, Schumer & NYC Council demand National Park Service return Pride flag to Stonewall National Monument **Related** : After trans people, Trump now erases bisexual people from Stonewall National Monument Walker said he went “onto Canva, made a flyer, sent it out,” and shared it through social media and community networks before noon. By early evening, the response had snowballed. “Within six hours, we’d gotten about 500 people out into the park,” he said. The speed of the turnout, he added, showed that “our community just won’t stand for attacks against us.” LGBTQ+ activists gathered at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City to protest the Trump administration's removal of the Pride flag.Cathy Renna For Walker, the protest was never only about fabric on a pole. He described it as a defense of what he called Stonewall’s “living history,” the idea that the monument is not merely a curated site but a place still claimed and maintained by the community that made it historic. The rally, he said, was about “us saying, no, we’re not going to stand for this and getting our community out.” He added, “It’s just the first.” Walker also drew a line back to 1969, arguing that the Stonewall uprising itself followed “years of constant micro and macro aggressions against queer people.” Today, he said, the response is faster and more organized. “We don’t wait for things to build up,” he said. “We act immediately.” **Related** : Trump erased trans & queer history from Stonewall. Lawmakers are fighting to get it back **Related** : National Park Service removes pages for transgender activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera That sense of accumulation, of small changes adding up to something larger, has been a constant in the debate over the monument since President Donald Trump took office for a second time. Last year, the National Park Service revised its public-facing Stonewall materials, including its website, to remove references to transgender people and changed “LGBTQ+” to “LGB,” an erasure that drew protests and condemnation from activists and Democratic lawmakers. Advocates have also criticized federal descriptions of the site for omitting bisexual and pansexual identities from the story of the uprising. Walker said those earlier edits are part of why this week’s decision hit a nerve. “They’re going to keep doing these actions against our community,” he said, “and we’re not going to take it lightly.” **Related** : Protest set at NYC’s Stonewall after Trump administration removes Pride flag from national LGBTQ+ monument The National Park Service has said the decision reflects long-standing federal rules limiting which flags may fly on NPS-managed flagpoles, with only narrow exceptions. Interior Department officials claimed that Stonewall’s history will continue to be interpreted through exhibits and programs. > See on Instagram Walker disputes that reading of the policy and argues that Stonewall already fits within the exceptions. “The limited exception was made at the moment that the monument was dedicated as a national monument,” he said. “That flagpole did not exist before it was made a national monument. … The only reason that flagpole is there is to fly the rainbow flag.” He added that the Pride flag removed this week was not federal property but one purchased and maintained by the park’s volunteer caretaker, saying the Park Service “clearly doesn’t know the history of that particular designation.” Jay W. Walker addresses the crowd and reporters at a rally opposing the Trump administration's removal of the Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument in Lower Manhattan.Spencer Platt/Getty Images Christopher Park is small. Walker described it as having “one sort of open sitting area that can only fit about 500 people,” and it filled quickly, with others clustering along the entrances and spilling onto the sidewalks of Seventh Avenue. As speakers prepared to begin, park rangers briefly attempted to close the gates, citing posted hours, according to Walker. “He starts saying, ‘Park’s closing, park’s closing,’” Walker recalled. “And I was like, ‘No, it’s not.’” He said community members pressed against the gates and chanted “Whose park? Our park,” until New York Police Department community affairs officers arrived and told organizers that “the park is staying open” and the rally could continue. “The ranger didn’t apologize to anybody,” Walker said. “He just reopened those gates and got the hell out of Dodge.” **Related** : What you need to know about the Stonewall uprising, which began 55 years ago Walker praised the NYPD under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who expressed outrage at the Pride flag’s removal. Walker said that since the new mayor took office, the city has seen a marked shift in the NYPD’s posture toward protesters. “It’s now Zohran’s NYPD. It is amazing the difference we have seen in the NYPD in activist and advocacy settings since Mayor Mamdani took office. It’s like night and day,” Walker said. “The word has clearly come down from the top that they’re going to respect people’s freedom of assembly and people’s freedom of speech and not be antagonistic to people that are exercising those rights peacefully.” By the end of the evening, the park had thinned, but the argument had not. Across the street, the privately owned Stonewall Inn’s flags continued to ripple in the cold air. The LGBTQ+ community came together at the Stonewall National Monument in Lower Manhattan to protest the Trump administration's removal of the Pride flag from the historic site.Kena Betancur / AFP via Getty Images) Elected officials and national advocates have increasingly joined the dispute. U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York, who is gay, told _The Advocate_ through a spokesperson Tuesday evening that “Stonewall is sacred ground and the Pride flag belongs at the birthplace of the LGBTQ+ rights movement,” adding that taking it down “sends a message that the White House seeks to erase and minimize our history.” “We will fight to protect the legacy of Stonewall and the community that made it possible,” Torres said. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul told ___The Recount_ that she thinks the removal was "disgusting." She added, "I'll do whatever I can. Maybe I have to go out there and put my own Pride flag right back up." - YouTube www.youtube.com Mamdani has called the removal an act of erasure, and the New York City Council has formally urged the National Park Service to restore the flag in a letter to Acting Director Jessica Bowron. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has demanded the decision be reversed, and Rep. Mark Takano, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, has argued the move reflects a broader federal agenda to curtail LGBTQ+ visibility. Advocacy groups, including GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign, and the NEW Pride Agenda, described the episode as part of a pattern. Walker placed Tuesday’s rally in that broader arc during his Wednesday morning interview, arguing that what’s happening at Stonewall is part of a wider effort to sanitize history at federal sites. Officials, he said, are “actively trying to erase our history,” not only at Stonewall but at places connected to Black, Indigenous, immigrant, queer, and trans histories. “They’re trying to erase anything that accurately conveys the history of struggle of marginalized communities in this country,” he said. **Related** : Kamala Harris Makes Historic Visit to Stonewall Inn, Vows to Fight Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate **Related** : No LGB without the T — queer community protests Trump's transgender erasure at Stonewall Last March, Trump issued an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which directs federal agencies to review monuments, memorials, and exhibits to remove what the administration calls “improper ideology” and to emphasize a more “patriotic” account of the past. Critics argue the order has helped set the stage for actions like the flag’s removal at Stonewall, part of a broader effort to narrow how LGBTQ+ history is presented on federal land. Cathy Renna Walker said he does not expect Tuesday’s rally to be the last gathering. “They’re going to keep doing things like this. We’re going to keep responding,” he said. “It’s our city. It’s not Donald Trump’s city. We’re not going to let him keep bullying us.” That response will carry forward on Thursday at 4 p.m., when New York officials and community leaders plan to raise the Pride flag again at the Stonewall National Monument in a show of solidarity and resolve. A flyer circulating on social media lists U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, state Sens. Erik Bottcher and Brian Kavanagh, and Assembly Members Deborah Glick and Tony Simone as participants. The message on the invitation notes, “They tried to take it down. We’re raising it back up.” Walker said he expects Mamdani to attend as well, and described the planned re-raising as both a celebration and a statement of ownership over the site’s meaning.