GLAAD Tracks Decrease in Anti-LGBTQ+ Incidents
The media advocacy organization’s anti-LGBTQ+ incident tracker was released on Monday, revealing surprising and invaluable data.
by Alyssa Steinsiek
On Monday, the GLAAD ALERT Desk (the media advocacy organization’s anti-LGBTQ+ extremism reporting tracker) released their third annual report, revealing that between May 1st of 2024 and May 1st of 2025, 932 anti-LGBTQ+ “incidents” were tracked in 49 states and the District of Columbia. This averages out to 2.5 incidents per day.
The exact definition of an “incident” is exactly as broad as it sounds. The ALERT Desk describes tracked incidents as “both criminal and non-criminal expressions of hate – from protests at drag shows, to sprees of vandalism targeting Pride flags, to bomb threats against health care providers of transgender patients.”
This year’s report, in terms of violent incidents, counted 84 injuries and 10 deaths.
GLAAD says these reports are important because stories of anti-LGBTQ+ hatred often go unreported by the media and uninvestigated by law enforcement, and that this year’s report is particularly vital because of the Trump administration’s defunding of resources meant to monitor and protect the rights of LGBTQ+, and particularly transgender, Americans.
“This year, rollbacks in LGBTQ visibility and challenges to our rights are coupled with a sharp rise in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and disinformation across social media and political campaigns,” said GLAAD President and CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis in a press release. “The result is a divisive cultural climate that comes at a cost. Data from GLAAD’s ALERT Desk shows the need for an urgent response. 90% of non-LGBTQ Americans believe that the LGBTQ community deserves to live free from violence and discrimination. It’s only through awareness, collective action, and community that we can turn the tide toward greater safety and acceptance.”
Key findings from the report include the fact that 52% of all reported incidents targeted transgender or gender non-conforming people, which is no surprise given the president’s anti-trans agenda and the hateful rhetoric he and his supporters promote. The report also tracked 181 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents targeting state and local government between 2024 and 2025, which is up 57% from the 2023-2024 report’s data; they say this coincides with the 575 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the 2025 state legislative session.
Despite how scary the numbers look, it’s heartening to know that this year’s report indicates a 20% decline in incidents from the 2023-2024 report. Nonetheless, it’s important that we keep fighting against the tide of anti-LGBTQ+ hatred, because our community continues to regularly endure violent hatred from outsiders.
Just last November, two transgender women were violently attacked in Minneapolis, one of the safest cities for queer Americans in a state with explicit protective laws for transgender people. Nobody came to their rescue. Nobody protected them.
The epidemic of violence against our community is global, and more often than not, it’s brown and Black LGBTQ+ people who bear the brunt of that violence. In February of this year, a Black transgender man from Minnesota was murdered in New York state. His name was Sam Nordquist, and prosecutors are refusing to prosecute his murderers for a hate crime.
On Sunday, beloved voice actor and gay indigenous man Jonathan Joss, was murdered in San Antonio, Texas, by a man who was reported to be screaming homophobic slurs at him and his transgender husband. The murder followed an alleged pattern of harassment from neighbors and law enforcement that had been ongoing for months or years. The police claim that this was not a hate crime.
These violent attacks against our community, and the minority communities that intersect ours, are heartbreaking and unforgivable. The work to track and report these crimes is invaluable. We can only hope that we’ll continue to see significant decreases in the number of incidents the ALERT Desk tracks in the years to come.
Alyssa Steinsiek is a trans woman journalist who reports on news relevant to the queer community and occasionally posts on BlueSky.
