More openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people were elected Tuesday night than in any previous election, signaling a shift in cultural attitudes even as the Trump administration has chipped away at L.G.B.T. rights.

The results are still rolling in, but at least 153 have won so far, said Elliot Imse, a spokesman for the Victory Fund, a nonpartisan political action committee devoted to electing L.G.B.T. candidates. The group endorsed 225 candidates in this election cycle, nearly all of whom were Democrats.

ICYMI! 

A terrifying New York Times article today announced that the Trump administration is considering “narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth,” a measure that would essentially eliminate any and all recognition of transgender and nonbinary people and, therefore, their civil rights. 

The memo from the Department of Health and Human Services claims officials need a clearer definition of gender. Their proposed definition “would define sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with, according to a draft reviewed by The Times. Any dispute about one’s sex would have to be clarified using genetic testing.”

“Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” the department proposed in the memo, which was drafted and has been circulating since last spring. “The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”

The new definition would essentially eradicate federal recognition of the estimated 1.4 million Americans who have opted to recognize themselves — surgically or otherwise — as a gender other than the one they were born into.

“This takes a position that what the medical community understands about their patients — what people understand about themselves — is irrelevant because the government disagrees,” said Catherine E. Lhamon, who led the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights in the Obama administration and helped write transgender guidance that is being undone.

Let me be perfectly clear: Being transgender is not something you can believe or not believe in, support or not support. It’s a reality. Trans people exist. Always have, always will. What this will do is make it infinitely *more* difficult than it already is to be trans in America. Violence, poverty, inaccessible healthcare, and a slew of other already-persistent problems will worsen. New generations of trans kids will be silenced in ways that date back decades, if not longer. 

We cannot under any circumstances allow this to happen. Vote. Protest. Cis folks, donate to trans-led organizations and trans individuals’ GoFundMe pages for medical care. Talk to your transphobic (or trans-ignorant) friends and family about what a policy like this would mean. And if you’re trans and need support today, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860.

Trans friends: I see you and I love you. We will not let them erase you. We will fight this with you. 

More news from the hellfire known as the Trump administration:

Last week, the Senate confirmed lawyer Eric Dreiband as Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Dreiband will now be in charge of enforcing civil rights laws as they related to race discrimination, sex discrimination, and other protected classes.

Unfortunately, he’s got a terrible track record on LGBTQ rights and other civil rights issues. 

LGBTQ groups, in particular, have been concerned about Dreiband’s decision to represent the University of North Carolina in a lawsuit challenging the university’s decision to enforce HB 2, the anti-LGBTQ state law that restricted restroom access for transgender people and nullified local ordinances prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

They also expressed concerns over his work for nonprofit organizations seeking religious exemptions from having to provide insurance coverage for contraception under the Affordable Care Act.

Recently, a mortgage company based out of Colorado has utilized a similar argument, citing its religious objections as justification for yanking spousal health care benefits from employees in same-sex marriages.

When Dreiband’s nomination was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee along with three other anti-gay judges, the Human Rights Campaign called all four a “threat to the rights and safety of LGBTQ people.”

I am extremely ready for this administration’s reign to cease. 

Barack Obama announced his official endorsements for candidates running in November’s midterm elections — a list that included 22 openly LGBTQ+ candidates, reflecting the former president’s quiet push back against the hostility of the Trump administration towards the community.

“Today, I’m proud to endorse even more Democratic candidates who aren’t just running against something,” wrote Obama on Twitter, “but for something — to expand opportunity for all of us and to restore dignity, honor, and compassion to public service. They deserve your vote.”

Hey, have you registered to vote?

The United States has announced that it will now be much harder for LGBTQ diplomats to get visas for their same-sex partners.  

Beginning this week, diplomats and workers for international organizations will only be able to get visa benefits for their partners if they are married. The problem is that marriage equality isn’t legal in a lot of UN countries – marriage equality is allowed in only 12% of member states, actually – and getting married at home for visa benefits could put a lot of people at risk.

Alfonso Nam, the president of U.N. Globe, a gay rights advocacy organization for United Nations employees, said the policy would raise concerns among future United Nations employees, particularly those from countries hostile to gay, lesbian and transgender people.

“For same-sex couples serving the U.N., the U.S. is usually a desired destination for work,” Mr. Nam said. “It’s a place where you are able to bring your legal partner and get a visa.”

“Whether that will continue to remain the same is to be seen,” he added.

This is the danger of thinking too narrowly about LGBTQ rights in the world (and of having Trump for a president, but you knew that already). This will affect at least 100 families right off the bat and could affect the way these folks pursue their careers and their lives in the future. Bad, bad call. 

This week, California Gov. Jerry Brown made history by signing a bill that guarantees transition-related healthcare for youth in foster care.

Assembly Bill 2119 “guarantees that both minors and nonminors in foster care can receive ‘medically necessary health care that respects the gender identity of the patient, as experienced and defined by the patient,’ including but not limited to puberty blockers, surgery, and appropriate mental health services.” 

Children and young adults in foster care are covered by California’s Medicaid program. Under the new law, the state Department of Social Services will develop a plan to support foster youth with their transition-related needs.

“Once again, Governor Brown has taken decisive action to protect LGBTQ youth in foster care,” Equality California executive director Rick Zbur said in Gloria’s press release. “No young Californian should be denied gender-affirming health care simply because of who they are. Thanks to Assemblymember Gloria’s AB 2119, our transgender and gender-nonconforming youth in foster care will now have life-saving — and historic — protections.”

The bill’s signing comes the same day the American Academy of Pediatrics announced the issuance of a policy statement calling on its members to assure that transgender and gender-nonconforming youth “have access to comprehensive, gender-affirming, and developmentally appropriate health care that is provided in a safe and inclusive clinical space.”

This is truly phenomenal. Well done, California. 

Yesterday, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan signed into law the Youth Mental Health Protection Act, making anti-LGBTQ conversion therapy for minors illegal. 

With the new law, child care providers or health practitioners will be disciplined if they are found trying to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Countless medical organizations agree that conversion therapy doesn’t work, and worse, can inflict lifelong trauma on those who experience it.

Young people who are rejected by their families over their sexual orientation or gender identity are more than eight times more likely to attempt suicide than youth from accepting families, according to the Trevor Project, a pro-LGBTQ advocacy group that is working to ban conversion therapy across the U.S.

Maryland joins a growing number of states that have adopted similar legislation to protect LGBTQ youth. Connecticut, California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, Vermont, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Washington state and the District of Columbia have all banned conversion therapy; New Hampshire and Hawaii recently passed protections that are awaiting approval from their governors.

This is so important. Congratulations, Maryland. 

Yesterday was the National Day of Prayer, and our hate-thy-neighbor-ing president marked the occasion by issuing an executive order that could end up hurting LGBTQ people. 

The White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative, to be led by a yet-to-be-named White House adviser, will “provide recommendations on the Administration’s policy agenda affecting faith-based and community programs; provide recommendations on programs and policies where faith-based and community organizations may partner and/or deliver more effective solutions to poverty; apprise the Administration of any failures of the executive branch to comply with religious liberty protections under law; and reduce the burdens on the exercise of free religion,” according to a White House press release.

The initiative will “help ensure that faith-based organizations have equal access to government funding and equal right to exercise their deeply held beliefs,” Trump said at the White House Rose Garden ceremony this morning, CBS reports. This could perhaps mean that religious groups could evade antidiscrimination law and continue to hold government contracts even if they demonstrate bias against LGBT people, members of other faiths, or any other group.

Sigh. We cannot catch a break. 

This week, legislators in New Hampshire passed a bill that will protect transgender people from discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. It received bipartisan support and the Republican governor is expected to sign it – no small feat in Trump’s America. 

The bill is “the first proactive victory on LGBTQ rights in any state since 2016,” according to advocacy group Freedom New Hampshire, which backed the legislation. The bill would make New Hampshire the 20th state with civil rights protections that cover trans people. It was the last state in New England without such protections in place. …

“In a national landscape where transgender people are too often attacked for who they are, New Hampshire is a shining example for other states across the country,” Linds Jakows, campaign manager for Freedom New Hampshire, said in a statement. “We look forward to the day Gov. Sununu seals New Hampshire’s motto of Live Free or Die with his signature.”

These state level victories matter more than ever. Well done, New Hampshire.

Last week in Oklahoma, state legislators passed a disgusting bill that would allow adoption and foster care agencies to reject LGBTQ people as potential parents on the basis of religion.

The measure, S.B. 1140, states that “no private child-placing agency shall be required to perform, assist, counsel, recommend, consent to, refer, or participate in any placement of a child for foster care or adoption when the proposed placement would violate the agency’s written religious or moral convictions or policies.”

That means that adoption and foster care agencies could turn down same-sex couples, single mothers and inter-faith couples if an agency claims that approving such applications would violate its religious or moral convictions.

The bill was approved by the Oklahoma state Senate last month and now heads to Gov. Mary Fallin’s ® desk.

There are 9,600 children in Oklahoma who need homes, and plenty of LGBTQ families who will no longer be able to help them. This is horrid.