“Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears and her conservative allies have gone all in on anti-trans messaging in the Virginia governor’s race, launching more frequent attacks — and taking those attacks further — than Donald Trump’s campaign did in 2024,” NOTUS reports.

“It won’t be a one-off escalation.”

“Earle-Sears’ increased focus on transgender issues is a preview of the Republican Party’s message in the 2026 midterm election, according to political strategists in both parties. They describe the Virginia contest as a model for Republicans in key congressional and statewide races, with candidates prioritizing transgender issues more than they did in 2024, even at the expense of longtime conservative causes like crime, immigration and even the economy.”

“The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to let it limit passport sex markers for transgender and nonbinary individuals, its latest effort to get the justices to intervene in a fight over restrictive policies targeting LGBTQ+ Americans,” CNN reports.

“I’m not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching, because according to our president there’s only two genders… and I don’t want to promote something that is against our president’s laws as well as against my religious beliefs.”

— A Texas A&M student, quoted by KBTX, objecting to LGBTQ content in a university course in a viral video that led to the removals of a dean and department head and the firing of a professor.

Virginia gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears (R) expressed strong opposition to a series of LGBTQ+ rights in a candidate questionnaire completed when she unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2004, the Virginia Mercury reports.

She responded “yes” to questions about whether she would vote to block same-sex couples from adopting children and oppose workplace protections for gay people, and she indicated that she believed homosexuality is an “immoral lifestyle choice.”

New York Times: “The dilemma is reflective of the Democratic Party’s broader struggles with identity politics as it dissects its losses in 2024. Recovering its standing with voters, many in the party believe, requires coming to terms with the party’s transformation during the Obama and first Trump presidencies, when American liberals broadly embraced what had previously been vanguard positions on a range of social and cultural issues, including gender and race, immigration and policing.”

“The Trump administration on Wednesday sued California’s Education Department and the entity that oversees the state’s high school sports, accusing them of violating federal laws against sex-based discrimination by allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports,” the New York Times reports.

“Several longtime corporate sponsors of San Francisco’s Pride celebrations are pulling their funding for the festivities, leaving Pride organizers searching for another way to raise $300,000,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

A Texas state bill could charge transgender people with “gender identity fraud,” making it illegal to identify as trans on official documents and potentially leading to jail time, NBC News reports.

“California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a pioneer for LGBTQ+ rights who decades ago upset leaders in his own party when he defied state law and issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples, suggested Democrats were in the wrong in allowing transgender athletes to participate in female college and youth sports,” Politico reports.

Said Newsom: “I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness — it’s deeply unfair.”

“The National Park Service has removed references to transgender and queer people on its web page for the Stonewall National Monument, which marks the site of the New York City inn where LGBTQ rioters – including now-legendary transgender activists – galvanized a movement for LGBTQ rights,” CNN reports.

“On the NPS web page, the term ‘LGBTQ+’ was also shortened to ‘LGB,’ according to an archived version of the page.”

“Government agencies are moving with lightning speed to implement President Trump’s directives to roll back transgender rights, prompting a series of lawsuits unfolding by the day,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Axios: All of the anti-trans executive orders Trump has signed.