LGBTQ Equality in 2025: Despite Fears, "Victory Is Within Reach"

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ANN ARBOR, MI — In addition to being the LGBTQ liaison to the Ann Arbor mayor’s office, Naomi Goldberg serves as executive director of the Movement Advancement Project.

In that role, she spends a lot of time tracking progress and setbacks when it comes to LGBTQ rights and equality in Michigan and across the United States.

“There’s a lot happening right now, a lot of fear and concern,” she said.

But there’s also been a lot of wins, she said.

Goldberg, who lives in Ann Arbor with her wife and son, offered a data-based assessment of the state of equality for LGBTQ Michiganders and Americans during a ”State of Equality” talk at the downtown Ann Arbor library Thursday night, June 5.

She discussed everything from state laws to what’s happening federally under the Trump administration.

There’s been a sharp rise in anti-LGBTQ policies across the U.S. in recent years with LGBTQ school curriculum censored in 19 states as of January 2025, medically necessary care for transgender youth banned in 27 states and transgender youth participation in sports banned in 28 states, she said.

Michigan is not among those, but it is among the majority seeing anti-DEI efforts to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Goldberg said.

“We’ve seen offices on campuses devoted to supporting Black students, queer students, shut down, particularly at state universities,” she said.

University of Michigan decision to curb DEI is sharp turn after decade of work

She also mentioned states where there are now bans on transgender bathroom access and other gender regulation laws to not recognize transgender people, saying more than half of states have enacted at least one of four anti-trans policies.

“None of these laws existed before 2020, so you can see how fast we have gotten to the place that we are,” she said, noting a lot of it is focused on trans youth and education.

“That’s banning what books can be in school libraries, that’s ‘don’t say gay’ laws,” she said.

She also mentioned a rise in “forced outing” bills, such as requiring teachers to report to parents if a student wants to use a different gender pronoun at school.

“And it’s really taking away the sort of safety that kids feel at school,” she said.

But Michigan has made good recent progress, modernizing and updating its nondiscrimination, parentage, identity document and hate crime laws and banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth by licensed mental health practitioners, Goldberg said, giving the state an overall “medium” score of 30 out of 49 when it comes to LGBTQ policies, 13.5 out of 23 for sexual-orientation policies and 16.5 out of 26 for gender-identity policies.

There’s still more work to do in Michigan around second-parent adoption, anti-bullying laws, LGBTQ-inclusive school curriculum, inclusive family leave and healthcare shield laws, and fertility coverage under insurance laws, Goldberg said.

About 4% of Michigan’s population identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and about 27% of them are raising children, according to statistics Goldberg cited.

“Here in Washtenaw County, we actually have one of the highest rates of same-sex couples among the state of Michigan,” she said, saying there are nine per 1,000 households and about 21% of them are raising children.

“So, these are our friends, our neighbors, they’re part of our communities, and so I think these issues matter to all of us for different reasons,” she said.

Attendees at Thursday’s event took turns saying why it matters to them, with one saying she and her spouse got married 11 years ago when it became legal in Michigan and now they’re worried about “being unmarried against our will.”

Goldberg said the last four and a half months since Trump took office have been a whirlwind for her LGBTQ organization, with the slew of executive orders and legal challenges. Congress also has tried to get in on the action, but the Senate has been stopping the worst from happening, she said.

States, meanwhile, are moving farther apart on LGBTQ issues, going toward polar extremes, Goldberg said.

“We’re seeing good states do good things and bad states continuing to do bad things,” she said.

There are still wins happening, including in some surprising places, she said, saying 92% of anti-LGBTQ bills in state legislatures have been defeated over the last 15 years and 91% were defeated in 2024.

“Winning is happening, but what winning looks like might look different in this moment,” she said.

Positive developments seen in various states, she said, include removing bans on same-sex marriage, modernizing parental recognition laws to be inclusive of LGBTQ families, protections and expansions of health care, including trans-related and fertility coverage, and access to ID documents.

In several states, including Florida, all anti-LGBTQ bills have been defeated this year, she said, saying Florida did a lot of horrible things in the last few years so she doesn’t give the state too much credit, but it’s still a win to see no anti-LGBTQ bills become state law there this year.

There’s definitely a lot of interplay between what’s happening under the Trump administration and what’s happening in states, Goldberg said, calling it troubling.

“We are seeing an all-out attack by the federal government particularly against trans people, basically arguing that trans people don’t exist and that this is all gender ideology,” she said, noting there are legal challenges and fights happening in courts and she hopes the wins continue.

She noted the Supreme Court is expected to rule any day on a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming medical treatment for transgender youth, and the court is going to hear oral arguments this fall on the matter of gay conversion therapy.

In terms of the rapid rise in policies against transgender youth in sports, Goldberg accuses anti-LGBTQ opponents of drumming up fear and misinformation.

“Trans girls are not winning every category of sport across the country,” she said. “Here in Michigan, the Michigan Athletic Association said that there were no trans students playing sports this current school year, so this is not something that there’s a huge issue that we need to be addressing.”

As more bills get introduced, advocates are working behind the scenes to sway lawmakers, Goldberg said.

“We are currently tracking about 700 anti-LGBTQ bills that have been introduced this year,” she said. “Most of those will never make it out of a committee and that is because of the hard work of our movement.”

The Ann Arbor District Library has more events coming up to celebrate Pride Month, including drag bingo June 7, pride salt painting June 12, a talk with “Becoming a Queen” author Dan Clay June 22 and a block printing workshop with trans and queer Anishinaabe and Korean-American artist Jamie John on June 28.

AADL also has several “Big Gay Read” events planned throughout July.

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