As election results trickled in late into the night on November 5, Alexis Mercedes Rinck watched with bated breath.

A Wider Bridge, a group that "advocates for justice, counters LGBTQphobia, and fights anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred," months earlier had invited us to participate in one of its missions to Israel. It was my first time in the country.

Typically, at this time of year, I would write about the Transgender Day of Remembrance and the dozens of Transgender people who have been killed at the hand of anti-Transgender violence. It's an issue that has driven much of my work since 1998.

Donald Trump has been elected by the American people to be the 47th president of the United States. Now, many members of the LGBTQ+ community are wondering: What will a second Trump presidency look like for us?

Despite the anti-LGBTQ+ vitriol many on the right used to evoke fear in voters, several Queer and Trans candidates emerged victorious, especially in Southern states.

Across Seattle, voters gathered to watch the results. As the vote counts rolled in on November 5, 2024, Kamala Harris's supporters quickly lost hope.

The US. Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr -the first openly Transgender person elected to the state's legislature -was a featured speaker at the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund's party in September in Seattle.

Before he became one of San Francisco's premier press agents, Lee Houskeeper was just another twentysomething in New York City. It was there, in the sweltering humidity of the lower Manhattan summer of 1969, that he witnessed the Stonewall Riots.

This history of what a seemingly benign president and an ideologue of a senator can do to threaten, terrorize, and even lead to the deaths of marginalized people is a lesson worth reviewing, one that continues to have ripples into the present day.

King will make history again as the first female athlete to be awarded a Congressional Gold Medal after the House passed bipartisan legislation in favor of granting her that honor on Sept. 17.