The A.M. READ

The A.M. READ newsletter is a news tipsheet highlighting LGBTQ+ news and HRC updates. It covers a wide range of topics from breaking news to politics to LGBTQ+ pop culture to sports and everything in between.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

TRUMP ADMITS WHAT WE ALL KNOW – ANTI-TRANS ATTACKS ARE A SAD, TIRED CAMPAIGN TRICK: At the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Trump dropped the pretense and told the thin audience that attacks on trans people is a political tool he deploys “about a week before the election.” It’s all a gimmick to distract from his corruption and failed policies. Read more in the Advocate here. 

TRUMP’S AID CUTS ARE GUTTING LGBTQ+ ORGS WORLDWIDE – THE DAMAGE MAY BE IRREVERSIBLE: A new Outright International report finds that 9 in 10 LGBTQ+ organizations across 94 countries have lost funding since Trump returned to office. Forty percent are at risk of closure with the year. Forty-five percent have had to cut HIV prevention, care, or treatment. The human cost to these cuts is staggering: safe houses freezing intake, peer educators laid off overnight, communities losing the only affirming services they had. “When international funding abruptly stops,” wrote one advocate, “it means a 19-year-old transgender woman evicted by her family has no place to sleep.” 

OP-ED: LGBTQ+ STUDENTS AND FAMILIES FACE A HARDER SCHOOL YEAR AFTER DISSAPOINTING SUPREME COURT RULINGS: An op-ed in the Advocate by Family Equality’s Nikhil Vashee discusses the additional hurdles to inclusion LGBTQ+ students and families are facing after disappointing Supreme Court decisions in Mahmoud v. Taylor, West Virginia v. BPJ and Little v. Hecox. Despite these setbacks, Vashee offers concrete ways parents can advocate for their children in classrooms, calling for the continued fight for progress in education. 

SPOTLIGHT STORY

THEM — SEEING STARS AND SHOWING PRIDE: After the Dallas Stars dropped Pride Night from their 2026–27 promotional schedule for the first time in five years, fan Tori Copeland decided to create one herself. She is organizing an unofficial Pride Night to give queer sports fans the community celebration the team eliminated. Copeland called the omission “super disappointing,” particularly because the schedule retained other affinity events, including Women in Sports Night. The Stars’ previous Pride Nights supported LGBTQ+ organizations and communities across North Texas. “I’m a woman in sports; I understand the need for that, but we can do that alongside Pride Night, too. I don’t see the reason why we can’t do both,” said Copeland. Read the story here.