This year at least five red states are trying to erase Pride month, renaming June to celebrate the heterosexual family—as if it’s not celebrated every day in American life.The homophobic MAGA GOP Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee—one of the aforementioned red states—this week posted on X that “homosexuality has no place in America,” wishing his followers a “Happy Nuclear Family Month.” After much outrage he deleted it, blaming it on a “staffer,” though we’ve heard no news of the staffer facing dismissal or any punishment. Ogles, let’s not forget, is a hardcore bigot, who also posted earlier this year that “Muslims have no place in American society.” Gallup released a poll this week showing a sharp drop in support for marriage equality, as anti-LGBTQ sentiment rose dramatically within the Republican Party. And attacks on trans rights have escalated in states across the country as Donald Trump has grotesquely vilified trans people, including kids, pushing to make them invisible—literally removing their gender markers from passports and replacing them with those of their “biological sex”—and putting their lives in danger as he promotes the kind of rhetoric that fosters violence.This is where we stand in 2026 as we mark Pride month, and it’s important to see that MAGA, which has itself taken over the GOP, has enacted a full-blown assault on LGBTQ rights, meant to strip those rights entirely.According to Economist/YouGov polling, in 2022 only 38% of the GOP identified as MAGA. Today 62% of the party identifies as MAGA, a nearly two-thirds takeover of the party within a few short years. (In the larger population, Americans who identify as MAGA rose from 11% to 19%.)The new Gallup poll on marriage equality eerily mirrors this shift. Support for same-sex marriage is down a whopping 18 percentage points within the Republican Party since 2022—from a 55% majority supporting marriage equality to a minority, at 37%. This brings support for same-sex marriage down 6% among all Americans, the lowest in years, to 65% from its peak of 71% in 2022. Christian nationalists, in addition to the increasingly visible white supremacist extremists within the MAGA base, see ending marriage equality within reach: Clarence Thomas, in his concurring opinion in the 2022 Dobbs decision, infamously pointed to both the Obergefell marriage equality decision and Lawrence v. Texas—which banned sodomy laws—as needing to be revisited now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned.Red states, as always, are leading the charge. MAGA-ified Tennessee, which has been among the states passing bathroom bills and bans on gender-affirming care for youth, passed a bill last year that began a trend, rebranding June as “Nuclear Family Month.” Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas this year issued a proclamation naming June “Fidelity Month,” attempting to blunt Pride and celebrate “fidelity to God, family, community, and country.” (The absurdity of the former press secretary to the adulterous Donald Trump equating heterosexuality with fidelity should not be lost on any of us). Utah’s Governor Spencer Cox followed suit this week, proclaiming June “Fidelity Month,” while Indiana’s Governor Mike Braun joined Tennessee on “Nuclear Family Month.” Governor Kay Ivey of Alabama went with “Strong Families Month.” The Gallup poll also showed a startling drop in support for trans rights, as gender identity is generally more misunderstood by Americans than sexual orientation, which has been part of the public discussion for a much longer time. And again, the drop appears to have been driven by the MAGA movement within the GOP. Only 5% of Republicans say transitioning as a trans person is acceptable, while 42% of independents find it acceptable, as do 60% of Democrats. Gallup first asked the question in 2022, when 22% of Republicans accepted gender transition. Democrats’ and independents’ support stayed relatively stable while Republicans’ support plummeted. This comes as we’ve seen anti-trans laws passed across the country by the GOP, as Trump and the Republicans have cruelly targeted trans kids. A well-funded anti-LGBTQ legal movement led by Christian nationalist groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom has made progress at the far-right Supreme Court, which has increasingly allowed states to discriminate against trans people, including trans youth. Some gay, lesbian, and bisexual people might be tempted to believe that the backlash against their rights is because of the animus toward trans rights, something they might call a spillover effect. And we’ve seen the small band of GOP Republicans—gay MAGA—scurrilously join in the demonization of trans people, with some even calling for taking the “T” out of LGBTQ. But recent research debunks the notion that negative attitudes about trans rights somehow caused a drop in support for the rights of the rest of the community.Earlier in the year I interviewed Tessa E.S.
