This winter arrived with a call to action.

Across this issue of Equality magazine, you’ll see the truth of the moment we’re living in: Our community is under pressure, our rights are being tested and the forces working to push LGBTQ+ people out of public life are louder than they’ve been in years. But you’ll also see something else — the resilience, courage and clarity that have always carried this movement forward.

You’ll meet trans service members whose military careers were cut short by policies that treat their identity as incompatible with service. Patriotic heroes who put their lives on the line for this country — only to be told that their country would not stand by them in return. Their stories remind us that the fight for dignity does not stop at the courtroom door or the gates of a military base. It lives in the lives of real people who deserve better from the institutions they served.

You’ll read about the launch of our new Community Insights work — because in a time when this administration is rolling back data collection on LGBTQ+ lives, we refuse to let our stories be erased. For decades, HRC has stepped into the gaps when government failed to measure equality, safety and opportunity. Community Insights is part of that legacy: a commitment to listening to our people, naming what is happening in their lives and using that truth to drive change where we live, work and learn.

You’ll also learn more about our fight in court to protect federal workers and their families from being denied medically necessary care. The FEHB lawsuit is about whether trans people can access the health care they need to survive. It is about whether the federal government will be allowed to use medical care as a weapon to push people out of their jobs and back into the shadows. We are pursuing this case because discrimination is not policy — it is injustice. And we will keep fighting until every federal employee and their family is treated with dignity.

This issue also reflects on one year into the second Trump administration — and one year out from the 2026 midterms. The “One Year In” recap documents the real-world impacts of policies designed to shrink LGBTQ+ people out of public life: less safety, less visibility, less stability. Naming that reality matters. But so does what comes next.

That’s why you’ll also find our “One Year Out” recap and playbook in these pages — because our movement does not exist just to document harm. We exist to change outcomes. We know from history that silence has never protected our community. We know that retreat has never stopped bullies. And we know that clarity, courage, and coalition-building are how progress has always been won. The year ahead demands leadership that is willing to stand in its values, refuse distraction politics, and speak to the real lives people are living.

If there is one throughline across every story in this issue, it is this: Our movement has faced moments like this before. We lived through the height of the AIDS epidemic when the government turned away. We fought “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” until it fell. We organized for marriage equality when people told us it would never happen. We did not win those fights because the moment was easy. We won because people showed up anyway — in courtrooms, in communities, in workplaces, in the streets.

Winter can feel like a season of waiting. The winter of 2026 was a season of action — and a reminder of who we are. But this movement has never waited quietly for justice to arrive. We build it. Policy by policy. Workplace by workplace. Story by story. Election by election.

Thank you for being part of that work. Thank you for refusing silence. Thank you for choosing courage in a moment that asks it of us.

With gratitude and resolve,