Der Widerstandsbrief: Relief, Grief, and the Road Ahead 

Blog von Ricardo Martinez (er/ihn), Geschäftsführer

The day after the election, my phone lit up with a text from a mother I met in Texas during my years as CEO of Equality Texas. Her daughter is transgender. 

“Today, I was finally able to tell my daughter that the bad guys aren’t in charge anymore.” 

I read it twice, and then I cried. 

I know this mom. I watched her walk into the Texas Capitol again and again, session after session, as state legislators, the governor, and the attorney general pushed some of the harshest policies in the country targeting transgender kids. She sat through hearings that ran past midnight. She waited her turn to testify, then stood before lawmakers to defend her child’s humanity, her worth, and her inherent dignity. She’s a parent, fueled by love, doing what parents do: protecting her kid. 

For her family, election night brought something they hadn’t felt in a long time. Relief. Room to breathe. 

Many of us, LGBTQ+ people, parents, young and old, felt relief last week. Despite a record amount being spent on ads attacking our community, and particularly transgender people, voters across the country rejected that division. Yet not everyone got to share that same relief.  

In some states, voters passed anti-trans ballot questions. For families who live where these measures passed, the days after the election brought anger and grief, and a hard reminder of how much work remains. 

To transgender young people and your families: we know the cruelty of these campaigns hurts. It is exhausting to have your existence debated on ballots, in legislatures, and in political ads. You are not alone, you are not a political issue, and we will not stop fighting for you. 

Why won’t we stop? Because every one of these kids deserves to grow up knowing they belong, and because we’ve seen how this story can end. After GLAD Law won Goodridge and same-sex couples began marrying in Massachusetts in 2004, opponents launched campaigns to amend state constitutions to ban marriage for same-sex couples. That year, voters in 13 states approved them. By 2008, nearly 30 states had followed. But just four years later, voters approved ballot measures in support of marriage equality in three states. And by 2015, we won marriage equality nationwide. 

This year echoed that history, with one difference: we didn’t lose every ballot fight. Perhaps anti-trans forces overestimated the power of their cruelty. Anti-trans measures were kept off the ballot in Maine and Nevada. Missouri voters rejected one outright. In Colorado, the margins were narrow. And in Washington state, voters rejected a measure that would have undermined students’ privacy at school. 

And it happened against enormous headwinds. This cycle, nearly $400 million was poured into ads targeting transgender people: vilifying them, spreading disinformation, and using them as political pawns. With that much money aimed at our community, what stands out isn’t where those campaigns won. It’s how many voters refused to go along. 

That money was meant to distract voters from the issues weighing on their households: affordability, corruption, and the safety and wellbeing of their families and neighbors. In many places, it didn’t work. Many Americans were unwilling to scapegoat trans people. 

People are seeing it plainly. A trans kid is not the reason groceries cost more. A trans woman did not raise the price of gas. When families sit down at the kitchen table to talk about what keeps them up at night, it’s rent, medical bills, and their kids’ futures, not their neighbor’s child. 

That shift didn’t happen by accident. It happened because parents like the mom who texted me told their stories, over and over, to anyone who would listen. 

Across the country, voters chose dignity. In Vermont, they approved Proposal 4, explicitly protecting sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in the state constitution. In Virginia, they repealed the constitutional amendment that banned marriage for same-sex couples. 

LGBTQ+ candidates won, too, bringing their lives and their communities into the rooms where decisions get made. In New Hampshire, Chris Pappas became the first openly gay man elected to the U.S. Senate. In Delaware, Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender member of Congress, was reelected. In the states, Bentley Hudgens became the first out transgender lawmaker in Georgia’s history, and Allison Montgomery the first in Alabama. Kim Ahern was elected Rhode Island’s attorney general, the first out LGBTQ+ person to hold statewide executive office there. 

That representation is visible, and it matters. When a trans kid in Georgia or Alabama sees someone like them in the statehouse, they can picture a future for themselves. And when LGBTQ+ people help write the laws, our families are no longer an afterthought. 

Elections don’t end attacks on our community. They change the terrain. A new balance of power brings more oversight of those who try to use their power to target the vulnerable and evade the law, shifts more of the fight to the states, and may draw pushback from leaders who don’t welcome being checked. Whatever comes, GLAD Law’s commitments hold steady. 

We will keep defending. We will continue our mission-critical litigation to block laws and policies that harm LGBTQ+ people and people with HIV. And we will continue to meet any threat to marriage equality head on. 

We will keep building. This moment opens space to press forward on securing every child’s connection to their parents. A patchwork of outdated laws still leaves LGBTQ+ parents and their children, and all families formed through assisted reproduction, vulnerable. GLAD Law has led the work to update those laws for decades, and it remains a top priority. 

We will keep talking to change hearts and minds. We’ll keep sharing the real lives of transgender people and the stories of LGBTQ+ families, because stories like that mom’s are how hearts change. And we’ll keep reaching people who are still conflicted, finding new ways to meet them where they are. 

We keep going toward a country where everyone has a fair shot at a good life, regardless of race, immigration status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or ability. 

We’re building a world where every LGBTQ+ person and every person with HIV can live openly and fully, free from legal and social barriers, in every part of life, everywhere. That means equal justice under law. Real economic and life opportunities. Freedom from harm and violence. The health care we need. And the freedom to build families with legal ties that bind. 

I think often about that mother at the Texas Capitol, and about her daughter, who got to hear some good news last week. I think of so many other families and LGBTQ+ advocates who have walked alongside me to champion justice. They’re who this work is for. To every parent, advocate, and young person who keeps showing up: thank you. We’re with you, and we’re not going anywhere. 

Was Sie wissen und tun müssen:

• Betrachten: Ricardo’s remarks, “When the Fog Lifts,” at the 2026 Spirit of Justice Award Dinner.
• Betrachten: Master Sergeant Logan Irland served more than 15 years in the US Air Force. Now, we’re fighting alongside him to receive the retirement benefits he and his family earned as a transgender veteran. 
• Read: Stories of transgender servicemembers challenging the Trump-Hegseth military ban, and the latest in our case defending their right to serve. 
• Read: Our Fall Newsletter, the GLAD Law Briefs, for the latest updates on our work and the path forward for 2027 and beyond. 
• Attend: “The Dads,” a documentary that follows fathers as they build a movement to support their transgender kids, is having its theatrical premiere in Los Angeles! Get your tickets. Not in LA? Find or host a screening in Ihrer Nähe. 
• Read: GLAD Law’s Jennifer Levi was recognized as one of this year’s Out 100. 
• Read: Ricardo spoke to the Washington Blade on what a new Congress could mean for LGBTQ+ people.
• Betrachten: GLAD Law’s Ben Marcus breaks down the US Supreme Court case St. Mary v. Roy. 
• Observe: Transgender Awareness Week and Transgender Day of Remembrance are coming up next week. Find an event in your area and check out GLAD Law’s social media next week for more. 

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