August 18 2025, 08:15 
Two male college students were caught kissing and hugging in Indonesia. They were sentenced to 80 lashes.
What they’re accused of: The judge recognized that these two college students hugged and kissed and didn’t actually engage in gay sex, but decided that they still violated Islamic law.
Why it matters: Homosexuality remains illegal in large parts of the world and some areas, like Aceh in Indonesia, are cracking down harder on LGBTQ+ people as other parts of the world become more accepting.
Two men will be hit with a cane 80 times each for hugging & kissing in private
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LGBTQ+ health, research, and arts initiatives across the country are being defunded. The cost will be staggering.
Key quote: “You’re cutting funds from the most underserved, your most vulnerable, your most marginalized population. You were telling the folks and community members who have the least that they should be silent and should have even less. It’s extremely disheartening.”
Why it matters: One of the most massive anti-LGBTQ+ attacks from the current administration will be how they cut funding to many programs that help LGBTQ+ people. This will harm people’s health and make communities less accepting.
Donald Trump is reducing funding for LGBTQ+ health, research & arts programs: “It’s unconscionable”
Arkansas was the first state to ban trans health care in 2021, but a court blocked it. It was just allowed to go into effect.
It was the start: Arkansas was the first state to ban trans health care for minors in 2021 as the GOP looked for a new issue after its losses in 2020, and the state’s Republican governor vetoed it. Now, over half of the states have such a ban.
Why it matters: After the Supreme Court’s decision in Skrmetti that affirmed Tennessee’s trans health care ban, other states that were blocked by courts from enforcing their bans will likely be allowed to go forward with them.
Federal court allows Arkansas to enforce its ban on trans health care citing Skrmetti decision
Tammy Bruce, the lesbian former Fox News host known for her bonkers conspiracy theories, will represent the U.S. at the United Nations
What I will always remember Tammy Bruce for: “Chimeric research is Pandora’s box, that’s obviously from hell, that should not be opened. But the scientific community, spurred on by their own hubris, may very well open it, using American taxpayer dollars. And if that happens the Democrats will have blood on their hands for not joining the GOP and stopping it when they had a chance,” she said in 2021 while reporting on Democrats creating “human-animal hybrids.”
Why it matters: Tammy Bruce is one of the more outlandish personalities in Trump’s orbit, and now she’s going to be representing the United States to the world.
Trump taps lesbian conspiracy theorist & Fox News personality to serve at United Nations
JK Rowling has been attacking Nicola Sturgeon for supporting trans rights for years. She just came out.
J.K. Rowling hates her: Nicola Sturgeon, as first minister of Scotland, championed an initiative to make it easier for trans people to update the gender markers on their personal documents. Rowling called her a “destroyer of women’s rights” for her efforts.
Why it matters: Rowling claims to support cis queer people even as she devotes her life to attacking transgender people, even though she has been accused of speaking for lesbians in the past who did not want her to. Rowling promised to “review” Sturgeon’s memoir in which she came out but requested that the publisher of that review not “edit out the swear words.” We’ll find out if she’s joking when that review comes out.
JK Rowling’s pro-trans nemesis Nicola Sturgeon just came out as queer
Here’s a picture
In late July, the Transgender House in Topeka, Kansas, was seriously damaged in a shoot-out with police when a suspect barricaded himself inside. In this photograph, crime scene investigators go enter the house.
And here are some interesting queer and trans reads.
LGBTQ Nation editor Daniel Villarreal talked to a nonbinary person whose gender journey was started by medication they took to treat cancer.
Former Advocates for Trans Equality leader Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen wrote about embracing all of himself, no matter what gender stereotypes certain aspects of personality were associated with.
I found myself as a trans man when I embraced the flamboyance of camp and glitter
LGBTQ Nation columnist John Gallagher wrote about how, while Trump himself isn’t talking much about attacking marriage equality, his judicial nominees should be raising some alarms.
Trump’s nominees to the federal bench are gunning for same-sex marriage
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