Former President Barack Obama campaigning for President-elect Joe Biden — Photo by Chuck Kennedy / Biden for President
Former President Barack Obama has criticized Republican-led efforts to push legislation nationwide restricting the rights and equality of transgender Americans.
In an interview with the Advocate, Obama was asked about the more than 100 anti-trans bills that have been introduced in legislatures across the country, which have led to a number of states criminalizing healthcare access for transgender youth or banning trans people from competing in sports according to their gender identity.
“For many years now, we’ve seen some Republicans seek political advantage by pitting us against one another, often by going after certain groups of people who just want equal treatment,” Obama responded.
“These bills are doing real harm — especially to young people — whether they end up passing or not. Growing up is hard enough, and at some point we all struggle to find our place in the world,” he continued. “I can’t imagine how difficult it is for young people to know that some leaders — including people who are supposed to be representing you — don’t think they deserve equal rights.”
He added: “It breaks my heart. This is not who we are. America has always been at its best when we open our arms wider and help more people feel like they belong — not treat them like second-class citizens because they’re different.”
Transgender people are under assault from Republican lawmakers across the country, who continue to push and pass bans anti-trans and broader anti-LGBTQ legislation.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis celebrated the start of Pride Month by signing a transgender sports ban into law, making the state the seventh so far this year to restrict athletes to competing based on the sex on their birth certificate.
The Human Rights Campaign has promised to sue the state over the ban, with the organization’s president, Alphonso David, saying they would ensure there are “legal consequences to pay for being on the wrong side of history.”
West Virginia faces a similar lawsuit over its recently passed ban on transgender athletes, with multiple state agencies included in a suit on behalf of Becky Pepper-Jackson, a transgender 11-year-old who is banned from trying out for the girls’ cross-country team at her middle school.
Arkansas also faces a lawsuit for its recently passed law barring health care professionals from providing gender-affirming care to transgender minors. The ACLU said the law is “devastating to trans youth and their families, forcing many to uproot their lives and leave the state to access the gender-affirming care they need.”
Amid the ongoing assault on trans rights, President Joe Biden, Obama’s former vice president, reiterated a message of support for the trans community during Pride Month.
“To transgender Americans across the country — especially the young people who are so brave — I want you to know your President has your back,” Biden wrote. “During Pride Month — and all the time.”
Elsewhere in his interview, former President Obama touched on his LGBTQ legacy, which includes the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, as well as the ending of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.
Obama said that he would “love” for his LGBTQ legacy to be “overshadowed,” as it would “mean another president was doing even more to protect LGBTQ rights.”
“It’s why I was so happy to see President Biden sign an executive order on his first day in office directing federal agencies to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” Obama continued. “He also rolled back the previous administration’s ban on transgender Americans serving in the military, and took other steps to support and protect LGBTQ communities here around the world.”
Obama added: “We obviously have more work to do. We need to do even more to guarantee basic rights and protections for every American. My hope is that whatever success we had while I was president proves that progress is possible.”
The city of St. Petersburg has installed 11 rainbow-colored bike racks in response to the removal of several street murals -- including a Pride-themed mural -- by the Florida Department of Transportation.
The racks were installed in the Grand Central District at Central Avenue and 25th Street, the former location of one of five murals removed at the direction of federal and state authorities.
The mural at Central Avenue and 25th Street featured colored stripes representing the progressive Pride flag and was located just steps from Ride'em Cowboy, one of the city’s best-known LGBTQ nightclubs and a "safe space" for the community, according to Florida Politics.
Documentaries generally don't need an onscreen host. The camera can play host, and real-life stories can tell themselves, with offscreen prompting from research and production, and shrewd direction and editing providing context.
If a filmmaker wants to put the prompting onscreen, there's a delicate art to inserting themselves or an on-camera host into the story without stealing the spotlight from their subject.
Ryan Ashley Lowery, director and creator of the LGBTQ doc Light Up, is anything but delicate in inserting himself and two on-camera host-interviewers -- Michael Mixx and Maurice Eckstein -- into the film's still-compelling portrait of Atlanta's "community of Black same gender loving men and trans women."
The year's nearly out. Sometimes that calls for taking sweet stock of the past months' wonderful events. Coming to the end of 2025, on the other hand, is more like getting to that denouement in the action movie where the survivors take a breath and pat each other on the back for having made it out alive. At this stage, we are Newt getting tucked-in to her Sulaco hibernation tube.
With some effort and a pinch of luck, may we all fare better in 2026 than poor Newt's end at the start of Alien 3.
Why such a shitty year? So much of it, obviously, can be laid at the feet of Lame Duck Donald. Not that he hasn't had loads of assistance in his evil efforts to erase our transgender family and friends, colleagues, and leaders during 2025. The purge, as promised, began right out of the gate on Inauguration Day.
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