Up Front, Summer 2025

The LGBTQ+ business community isn’t just changing hearts and minds — it’s powering the economy.  More than 1.4 million LGBTQ+-owned small businesses across America are creating jobs, driving innovation, and reshaping industries, while also serving as a powerful voice for policies that lift up all entrepreneurs.

According to new data from small business software company Gusto, one in three LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs say their top reason for launching a business is to make a positive impact on their community. And that commitment is paying off: LGBTQ+-owned businesses contribute an impressive $1.7 trillion to the U.S. economy.

The momentum is only growing. In 2024, LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs launched 10% of all new businesses — a 50% jump from 2023 — bringing representation in entrepreneurship in line with the general population for the first time.

Jonathan Lovitz, HRC’s senior vice president of campaigns and communication, said that starting new businesses in the midst of anti-inclusion attacks and dangerous tariff policies shows how resilient LGBTQ+ business owners are.

“They’re already good at sticking it out through the tough times,” Lovitz told CNBC. “The pendulum swings back and forth on government and corporate support, but these companies are thriving, because they’re great companies.”

What’s your happy place? For many travelers, it’s Provincetown, Massachusetts — one of the best-known East Coast resort vacation destinations for LGBTQ+ travelers, and home to the Human Rights Campaign Store. This summer, if you visit the HRC Store on Commercial Street, you can take a selfie in front of the new “My Happy Place” mural, a collaboration with artist Joshua Wilmoth.

“It feels wonderful and necessary to bring some cheerfully gay energy to the world,” Wilmoth said.

First, Wilmoth transformed the exterior of the P’town storefront by adding a rainbow-paneled frame, or portal, around the doorway, creating a loud, proud and welcoming vibe to passersby. The mural, the largest part of the installment, includes 847 rainbow shingles.

The seasonal Provincetown store can be found at 205 Commercial Street and is open daily from April through October each year. 

Did you know: local school boards have some of the most direct impact on the day-to-day lives of students and their families, like driving policies on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, yet most school board elections are decided by just 5-10% of voters?

We also know that school boards and school board elections have increasingly become a flash point for extremism, harmful rhetoric and attacks on the LGBTQ+ community and our students. That is why the Human Rights Campaign Foundation is giving you School Boards Matter: A Guide to Effectively Advocating at the School Board Level, co-developed by the School Board Integrity Project.

Whether you are a parent, teacher or staff member, concerned community member or a student, we hope you will use the information and tools within this guide to help you advocate for inclusive policies for LGBTQ+ and all students, organize and build power within your communities, and hold your school board members and candidates to a higher standard. 

Learn more about School Boards Matter.

Despite political pressure on corporations, and continued widespread attacks on LGBTQ+ rights in legislatures and courts, Pride 2025 proved that the fight for equality — and the celebration of who we are — is unstoppable. Across the country, millions took to the streets to show solidarity, joy and unshakable resilience, often in record numbers.

From the largest Pride in the history of Anchorage, Alaska, to crowds that set attendance records in St. Petersburg, Florida, big gatherings were seen in every corner of the country. States where LGBTQ+ rights are seeing ongoing attacks had record-breaking Prides, such as in San Antonio, Texas; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Cincinnati, Ohio.

It just wasn’t major cities: small towns and suburbs, such as Carmel, Indiana; Muskegon, Michigan; and the Nashville suburb of Franklin also had record-setting Prides. And despite the Trump administration's efforts to intimidate the LGBTQ community, towns including Decatur, Indiana, and Huntersville, North Carolina, showed their support by holding their first-ever Pride events.

HRC has attended over 100 Pride events throughout the country so far this Pride season. We’ll continue to uplift LGBTQ+ people everywhere, all year, and continue to fight for advancement and protection of our rights — without exception.