GLAAD has released new data showing that 1,042 anti-LGBTQ incidents were reported across 47 states and the District of Columbia in 2025 — a 5% increase over the previous year, according to the organization’s ALERT Desk Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker.
Anti-LGBTQ incidents were defined as “an act of harassment, threat(s), vandalism, and/or assault against an individual, group, and/or organization,” with explicit evidence of anti-LGBTQ bias as a motivating factor.
The incidents included 128 acts of hateful vandalism, 76 violent assaults, 22 threats of mass violence, and 15 arson attempts.
The states with the highest number of reported anti-LGBTQ bias-motivated incidents in 2025 were California, with 198 incidents, followed by New Hampshire (72), Texas (66), Ohio (50), Washington State (50), New York (49), Pennsylvania (45), Colorado (44), Florida (38), and Illinois (37).
North Dakota and Mississippi reported the fewest anti-LGBTQ incidents, with one each, followed by Alabama, New Mexico, and Delaware (two incidents each); Rhode Island, Oklahoma, and Arkansas (three each); and Vermont and South Carolina (four each).
Locally, the District of Columbia recorded 30 anti-LGBTQ incidents in 2025, including threats, assaults, vandalism, the distribution of anti-LGBTQ propaganda, and protests or rallies targeting the LGBTQ community. Virginia reported 14 incidents — primarily verbal or written threats and protests or rallies — while Maryland reported 11, largely involving threats, protests, and vandalism.
GLAAD also found that incidents targeting transgender and gender-nonconforming people increased in 2025 compared to 2024, with more than half of all tracked incidents targeting those communities — a 10% rise.
Pride Month saw a sharp increase in anti-LGBTQ incidents, with the ALERT Desk tracking 268 incidents in June 2025 — a 400% increase over the 54 incidents reported in 2022, when GLAAD first began collecting the data.
“Americans should refuse to accept a country where our neighbors fear for their safety,” Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “With the ALERT Desk data showing an increase in violence against LGBTQ people, especially transgender Americans, we must join together in a united call against the violence and harassment that too many LGBTQ Americans face. Instead of growing divides that lead to this violence, politicians should recognize that all Americans deserve freedom, fairness and safety.”
A year ago, the National LGBTQ Task Force was girding to "hold the line," in a sense. Donald J. Trump had just won the presidential election with a plurality -- 49.8% -- of the popular vote, setting the stage for a January inauguration that would install an administration expected to be oppressively hostile to the country's LGBTQ community, particularly the Transgender community, as well as efforts promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The sweeping scope of that hostility, from discharging all Trans service members from the U.S. military to the pettiness of erasing rainbow crosswalks, transpired at breakneck speed.
Federal lawmakers have passed the annual National Defense Authorization Act, a sweeping defense policy bill that includes a new federal ban on transgender women competing on female-designated sports teams at U.S. military service academies.
The ban on transgender athletes was folded into the 3,086-page bill, which authorizes approximately $900 billion in military and national security spending for 2026, according to Mother Jones. The House of Representatives passed the measure by a 312-112 vote, with 94 Democrats and 18 Republicans opposed. The Senate followed with a 75-22 vote, and the bill now heads to President Donald Trump for his signature.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday signaled it may uphold state bans barring transgender girls and women from competing on female-designated sports teams during oral arguments in two closely watched cases.
Lower courts previously ruled in favor of the two transgender athletes, who challenged bans in Idaho and West Virginia -- two of the 27 states that have enacted laws banning people assigned male at birth from competing on female sports teams.
Proponents of restricting transgender participation argue that people who are assigned male at birth and undergo male puberty prior to transitioning retain physiological advantages that give them an unfair edge over cisgender female competitors.
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