Holding the Line for LGBTQ+ Youth: Community, Care, and Resistance

A child holds up a sign at a Pride gathering that reads Defend + Protect Queer Kids. — Credit: Denin Lawley on Unsplash

Notes from the Frontlines highlights the stories, needs, and solidarity of organizations on the frontlines in the struggle for a multiracial and equitable democracy in the United States. Each installment will explore how organizations are responding to the current political landscape—and what the entire nonprofit and philanthropic ecosystem can do to support them.

“When the state says you don’t exist, how do you still practice your freedom? Or hold on to your dignity?” These are the questions J. Gia Loving, coexecutive director of Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network (GSA), posed in the middle of our conversation about the role of LGBTQ+ organizations in the current political climate.

They’re not rhetorical questions. As of this writing, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has tracked 597 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in state legislatures, many directly targeting the dignity and freedom of young people. Framed as efforts to “protect” parental rights or religious freedom, these measures in reality seek to ban gender-affirming care, restrict educational materials in schools, penalize educators who recognize students’ gender pronouns, and prohibit trans youth from participating in sports.

The federal government is keeping pace. Within the first 100 days of taking office, the Donald Trump administration issued a barrage of executive orders and policy changes to infringe upon the rights of LGBTQ+ community members. For example, Executive Order 14168 rescinds the recognition of gender identity across federal agencies, bans federal funding for gender-affirming care, and imposes a male/female binary definition of gender.

“We are rooted in resistance, and we are rooted in care. Whether liberation comes tomorrow, or in ten years, it will come, and our community will be ready.”

Federal agencies have been ordered to remove acknowledgments of nonbinary or transgender identities in official documents, including passports. Schools receiving federal funds have also been targeted, compounding the many book bans targeting LGBTQ+ stories and authors. Executive Order 14190, for example, seeks to eliminate resources in K–12 schools for any curriculum, instruction, programs, or activities labeled as “radical indoctrination…including based on gender ideology.”

LGBTQ+ youth are on the frontlines of these assaults on identity, care, and rights. Rebecca York, the director of youth development and community engagement at SMYAL, a nonprofit based in Washington, DC, serving LGBTQ+ youth with transitional housing programs and mental health services, put it bluntly: “Children are in crisis—pretty much across the board,” they said in an interview with NPQ. “And at the same time, vital services that young people need are at risk.”

York highlighted the cascading effects of federal budget cuts, especially for housing. “When a young kid comes out, there is a very high likelihood that they will end up unhoused,” explained York and added that federal and state funding cuts are shrinking the pipeline of safe housing options. While nonprofits are stepping in to alleviate the impact—SMYAL is increasing street outreach and buttressing transitional housing, for example—the need for additional resources cannot be understated, as more and more LGBTQ+ youth may find themselves without adequate, safe, and supportive housing options.

Other services under threat are mental health programs that serve as lifelines for queer youth. According to the Trevor Project, which provides suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ youth, the current political climate has caused a spike in those seeking support. In the Trevor Project’s 2024 survey, 90 percent of LGBTQ+ youth reported that their wellbeing had been “negatively impacted due to recent politics.” On the day after the 2024 national election, the organization saw a record-breaking 700 percent increase in engagement with its crisis lines.

Yet these very services are in the crosshairs of the federal government. In early June, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed eliminating funding for hotlines that serve LGBTQ+ youth in crisis; a few weeks later the Trevor Project announced that it had received a stop work order from the Trump administration, officially ordering the closure of its national LGBTQ+ youth suicide lifeline in 30 days.

State Governments Are Emboldened to Attack Trans Rights

One of the most pressing issues for trans youth is access to gender-affirming care—including hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and surgery—which is being blocked and targeted at the state and national levels. According to the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, 146,300 young people have already lost or are at risk of losing access to gender-affirming care.

In June, the US Supreme Court rendered a devastating blow in a closely watched case called United States v. Skrmetti that upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth.

Supporting and resourcing organizations and efforts led by young people is a key strategy in the current climate.

In response, the Transgender Law Center’s Director of Policy and Programs Mariah Moore shared, in an interview with NPQ, that the courts are not the arbiters of collective liberation. “We are rooted in resistance, and we are rooted in care. Whether liberation comes tomorrow, or in ten years, it will come, and our community will be ready,” Moore said and urged funders to give boldly and invest in both “rapid-response and long-term interventions.” Moore also encouraged allies to check in on trans people and show up at community actions around the country.

The current climate is also influencing how transgender youth and their families are expressing their identities. Aruna Rao, the parent of a transgender child and founder of Desi Rainbow Parents and Allies, which supports South Asian American LGBTQ+ people and their families, shared an alarming trend among South Asian youth and family members to “go stealth.”

As Rao explained in an interview with NPQ, “Children are worried about having their trans identities revealed in school or community settings and parents are stepping away from publicly acknowledging their child’s identity.” This is further compounded by the reversal of school and state-level policies that were intended to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ youth.

For example, in New Jersey, the Edison Township Board of Education recently rescinded a policy that protected transgender students from being outed to families by educators and school administrators. For South Asian LGBTQ+ youth—who are already navigating cultural stigma—these changes can be dangerous. In its public statement to the Edison Board of Education, the leadership of Desi Rainbow recalled the tragic story of Shiv Kulkarni, a 14-year-old Indian American boy who identified as gay and died by suicide in 2021. “Through Shiv’s short life,” the statement read, “we saw how even a seemingly thriving, intelligent, socially successful youth could silently struggle with identity and acceptance.”

Community Is the Balm

Maya LaFlamme and J. Gia Loving, coexecutive directors of GSA Network, know that community has always been a balm for queer and trans youth. Founded in 1999, Genders and Sexualities Alliances or GSAs are youth-run organizations that bring LGBTQ+ and allied youth together in safe spaces, while also nurturing political education and social change.

In response to intersecting crises—from COVID-19 to legislative attacks—GSAs have adapted to meet the moment. This includes an emphasis on the needs of youth with multiple identities under attack, particularly LGBTQ+ youth of color, and those who are immigrants or undocumented. “We want to support young people in understanding themselves as a powerful movement-centering gathering force,” LaFlamme shared in an interview.

“We feel that it is important now more than ever to move funds out to our folks, to move it out faster, more frequently, and with a hands-off approach.”

This approach reflects what Loving called the four pillars of GSA’s vision, which include homecoming, truth telling, spirit sustaining, and stargazing. These values inform how GSA supports youth organizers and educators around the country.

“We look to organizations that are really practiced in mutual aid and have already taken steps back from the state, or those in parts of the world that aren’t normally funded but have still found ways to create a structured and organized way to move forward and stay in the fight,” Loving explained.

York at SMYAL sees a similar energy emerging among youth at the local level. “What we are seeing is young people who are incredibly motivated to dig into local community issues, and learning and absorbing what’s happening politically. Our work is to give them the space of being educated and engaged—while also helping them hold on to the unencumbered joy that young people generally have.”

An Urgent Role for Allies and Philanthropy

Supporting and resourcing organizations and efforts led by young people is a key strategy in the current climate, especially for allies and philanthropic institutions. Yet the LGBTQ+ movement suffers from the same funding lapses as many other vulnerable communities. According to the 2022 Resource Tracking Report from Funders for LGBTQ Issues, US foundations allocated $258.1 million to LGBTQ+ causes in 2022, and while that number was higher than recent years, for every $100 awarded by US foundations in general, only 25 cents specifically supported LGBTQ+ communities and issues.

LaFlamme at GSA Network framed the need for sustainable solidarity and long-term funding this way: “What level of covenant can adult allies and funders make with our future generations—and for our posterity? Funding freedom means a 10-year strategy. Our ask for funders is to live in the same timelines that we are living in.”

One funder already doing so is the Trans Justice Funding Project (TJFP), founded in 2012. “We couldn’t wait any longer for philanthropy to ‘get it’ while our siblings, and especially our Black and Brown trans sisters and femmes are being targeted by violence, murder, and being further oppressed by anti-trans infrastructures,” Ola Osaze, TJFP’s coexecutive director, told NPQ.

TJFP’s emergence has shifted giving to trans-led groups in particular. Structured as a noncharitable trust, TJFP gives unrestricted grants to grassroots, trans-led organizations with budgets of less than $250,000.

“Starting in 2025, we moved from one grant cycle per year to having three grant cycles per year,” Osaze said. “We feel that it is important now more than ever to move funds out to our folks, to move it out faster, more frequently, and with a hands-off approach.”

TJFP is also experimenting with alternative ways of giving. For example, to expand the trans justice movement, TJFP resources groups that are not typically within the confines of the state or incorporated status.

Osaze reinforces the point that supporting the struggle of trans people for autonomy and self-determination is in itself a solidarity strategy. “If we live in a world where trans folks at various intersections have bodily autonomy and liberty, every person can live safely and freely,” Osaze said.

Around the country—from school clubs to national networks—queer and trans youth, along with their caregivers and allies, are forging powerful visions for how we exist with agency and joy in the face of escalating threats. Their creativity, courage, and deep commitment to community remind us what is possible when we center care, dignity, and collective action, especially for the most vulnerable.

As a reminder of LGBTQ+ history, resilience, and legacy, Gia Loving of the GSA Network asked in our conversation: “What else have queer and trans people done but make something out of nothing?”

The real question now is not whether LGBTQ+ youth will continue to fight for their freedom and dignity—they already are. The question is: Will the rest of us show up with the same urgency, imagination, and solidarity?