Nearly half of LGBTQ+ Americans are less out now than they were a year ago.
That’s not vibes—that’s data. The Human Rights Campaign just dropped its annual survey, and the picture is bleak: 47.5% of queer adults report hiding more of themselves somewhere in their lives over the past 12 months.
At work. At the doctor. At their kids’ schools. In public.
This is what happens when the federal government decides you’re the enemy.
THE RECEIPTS: HRC surveyed over 15,000 adults, including nearly 10,000 who identify as LGBTQ+. The findings:
- 26.5% are less out at work
- 25.4% are less out in healthcare settings
- 28.3% are less out in public spaces
- 40.1% of LGBTQ+ parents are less visible at their kids’ schools
- Two-thirds of trans and nonbinary Americans report difficulty accessing healthcare
And the economic hit is just as brutal—LGBTQ+ adults are nearly twice as likely as straight people to say their financial situation got worse this year. Over a third say federal policies have made it harder to find a job.
SHOCKING NO ONE: The administration has signed 225 executive orders in 2025 alone—many targeting queer people directly.
We’re talking official policy that only two sexes exist. Trans military bans. Restrictions on gender-affirming care for anyone under 19. A full-scale assault on DEI programs across government and the private sector.
The corporate dominoes fell accordingly. Walmart, Target, Ford, Harley-Davidson, Jack Daniel’s—all gutted their diversity policies after MAGA activist Robby Starbuck came knocking.
(And wouldn’t you know it: workers at companies that rolled back DEI were more than twice as likely to report experiencing bias and discrimination. Truly no one could have seen this coming.)
HOWEVER COMMA: Republicans want you to believe this is what America wants.
It’s not.
HRC’s polling found that in no state—not one—do more than 18% of voters believe being transgender should be illegal. That means over four in five Americans reject the GOP’s project to legislate trans people out of existence.
Recent elections back this up. Pro-equality candidates won decisively in Virginia, New Jersey, and Nebraska. Turns out voters care more about potholes than policing bathrooms.
THE BOTTOM LINE: “These are harrowing times,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said Thursday. “The emergency that we warned about is no longer a warning. It is the reality that we are living inside.”
But HRC isn’t just releasing reports. They’re mobilizing 75 million “Equality Voters” for the 2026 midterms with a new messaging playbook designed to help pro-equality candidates stop playing defense.
As Robinson put it: “Every day that you show up being exactly who you are is as much resistance as you’ve got to have.”
The cruelty is the point. So is the fight back.
