The newly inaugurated administration has vowed to continue targeting the LGBTQIA+ community across the country. In conversations with the Amsterdam News, a community advocate and local politician shared messages of hope and resistance with queer folks living in New York City and the nation.
Jesse Havea, also known as Brita Filter, is a popular drag queen, as well as a community and LGBTQ+ rights advocate. Havea serves as National Co-Chair of Drag Out the Vote, a nonprofit organization that works with drag performers to encourage participation in democracy.
In 2024, Havea canvassed, traveled across several swing states, and volunteered at phone banks in hopes of electing Kamala Harris as the first Black female president of the United States, all while being in full drag. “This is the most involved I’ve been with an election specifically. I totally believed in Harris and Walz’s campaign.”
Brita Filter became the first drag queen of Polynesian descent to compete in RuPaul’s Drag Race (season 12). Havea explained how getting involved with politics helped them overcome “severe depression” after leaving the show. “I think it is a gift to … have this platform that Drag Race gave me, so it feels natural for me to use it to give back to the LGBTQ community.” It took them two weeks to fully process the results of the election, but their experience was not unique.
According to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization aimed at supporting mental health and preventing suicide among young LGBTQ+ people, nine out of 10 young LGBTQ+ people feel that recent politics have negatively impacted their well-being. The same study reveals that transgender and nonbinary youth experienced a negative impact to a greater degree (94%). The organization’s crisis hotline saw a 700% call spike after the 2024 presidential election results were announced.
“It honestly feels like, for a lot of us, we are taking a step back into the first Trump presidency and you know, it has a lot of us feeling really depressed,” Havea said. They expressed concerns that policies from Trump’s first administration could come back, such as “excluding transgender individuals from serving in the military.”
They were right to be concerned: On Monday, Jan. 27, Trump signed an executive order barring transgender people from serving in the military, expanding on a series of measures targeting transgender and nonbinary Americans.
“It is really important that we pay attention to these local elections,” Havea asserted, emphasizing that people — especially LGBTQ+ individuals — must stay engaged with the democratic process at the local level, arguing the real change starts there. “I am so happy that we have someone like Sarah Mcbride in office who will be fighting for us. It is awful to see all the anti-trans rhetoric that is going on.”
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2024 State Equality Index report revealed that last year, 489 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in state legislatures, of which 46 were signed into law. The same report found that 37 pro-LGBTQ+ bills were also adopted by states.
Crystal Hudson, who became the first openly gay Black woman to serve on New York’s City Council, has a clear message for the LGBTQ+ community and fellow elected officials on Trump’s return to the White House: “We know that this presidential administration and this president do not give equal value to each and every life. I think it is our responsibility as elected officials to make sure we are continuing to fight for the rights and protections that this president is actively trying to tear down.”
According to the same report by the Human Rights Campaign, 21 states are in the highest-rated category of LGBTQ+ policies and legislation that are “Working Toward Innovative Equality.” Although New York is one of them, the state could still be subjected to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation coming directly from the federal government.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Dec. 17, 2024, NCAA president Charlie Baker revealed that out of “510,000” athletes in U.S. NCAA schools, “less than 10” are transgender. Despite the NCAA president’s comments, however, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives introduced the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act for a second time. It passed the chamber with 218 votes, with two Democrats joining the measure. The bill would restrict transgender students from competing in team sports that align with their gender identity.
Congress’s passage of H.R 734 establishes that “a recipient of federal education funding violates Title IX’s prohibition against sex discrimination if the recipient operates, sponsors, or facilitates athletic programs or activities and allows a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls.”
The bill is set to face some challenges to achieve the 60 votes needed to pass in the Senate, but it exemplifies how federal funding could be withheld from schools that refuse to comply with the mandate.
“Folks living here in New York are protected,” said Hudson. “While Trump may have been elected president in the recent election. New Yorkers across the state also voted for Prop. 1, a ballot amendment to change the Constitution to include protections for everybody based on ethnicity, national origin, sex (including sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression), folks who are pregnant, and reproductive healthcare. We are protected here in New York and that’s exactly what New Yorkers voted for.”
Crystal Hudson, co-chair of the council’s Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus, and co-author of “The Marsha & Sylvia Plan,” highlighted the importance of representation in government, saying “It’s been women who’ve led the fight for Prop. 1 and reproductive rights. It’s been queer elected officials who’ve led the charge for LGBTQIA+ rights and legislative wins in budget investments in our communities. And It’s been immigrants and the children of immigrants, the grandchildren of immigrants who have fought fiercely for immigrant rights. When you have that full representation, you get those protections, you get those rights.”
On Jan. 21, Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-based Opportunity” that revoked the Equal Employment Opportunity law signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. In Section 2 of the Executive Order, Trump commanded federal agencies to fight against diversity, equality, and inclusion. “I further order all agencies to enforce our longstanding civil-rights laws and to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities,” he wrote.
In response to Trump’s Executive Orders, Hudson told the AmNews, “The thing that I take solace in knowing is that we have been here before — our communities, our ancestors, our people have been through this before and they got through it. And we are here only because of what they were able to accomplish, and achieve, and withstand.”