A decade after Pulse massacre, here’s what’s changed for LGBTQ+ Americans

She told me, through sobs, that just a few hours earlier, dozens of mostly Latine LGBTQ+ people had been murdered in Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. She was about to catch a flight to Orlando, Florida, to cover what was then the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, for The Advocate, where she was an editor.

As I listened to Sunnivie speak, tears streamed down my face and onto the tiled floor, upon which I had collapsed. I spent the train ride home scrolling Twitter and mourning this immense tragedy with LGBTQ+ people across the United States and around the world.

Pushback has grown and public acceptance has declined

Credit: Lambda Legal

Credit: Lambda Legal

Looking back on the decade since that June morning, many things have changed for the LGBTQ+ community.

We have faced unprecedented legislative, judicial and political backlash at the state and federal levels.

Between 2022 and 2023, state legislatures introduced three times the number of anti-LGBTQ bills, jumping from 150 to 650, with more than a third targeting transgender youth and adults.

Between 2020 and 2024, the six-justice conservative majority on the Supreme Court ruled in favor of parties asserting anti-LGBTQ “religious freedom” almost every time, including in cases seeking:

After two decades of year-over-year increases in public support for marriage equality and queer rights, a 2026 Gallup poll found that this year was the first time acceptance of marriage equality and queer relationships did not increase. Among Republicans, acceptance decreased.

This is unsurprising, given the second Trump campaign and subsequent Trump administration’s relentless attacks on transgender people’s rights and existence in public life. As a result of these polices, LGBTQ+ people have been made less safe in our neighborhoods, in schools, at work and again, devastatingly, in our gathering places.

There were also wins in visibility and self-acceptance

Many things have also not changed in the last 10 years. Most importantly, LGBTQ+ people continue to show incredible resilience in withstanding discrimination and political attacks. During the first Trump administration, efforts to enshrine anti-LGBTQ+ laws and policies largely failed, including attempts to dismantle anti-discrimination protections in the Affordable Care Act and the Civil Rights Act and to eject transgender people from the military.

In 2020, in the case Bostock v. Clayton County, the Supreme Court ruled that impermissible workplace discrimination based on sex includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that majority opinion. In 2022, Congress passed the Respect for Marriage Act, providing federal protection and statutory support for marriage equality.

LGBTQ+ people’s visibility in media and pop culture increased exponentially as people — and broadcast platforms — saw the value in telling our stories truthfully and widely. According to GLAAD’s “Where We Are on TV Report” for 2024-2025, there were 489 LGBTQ characters across primetime scripted TV and cable, and scripted streaming original series — nearly twice as many characters as the same report found in 2017.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Progress toward societal inclusion of LGBTQ+ people marches on like so many Pride parades in cities across the country this month. Perhaps most significantly, record numbers of young people are feeling freer and more open to identify as LGBTQ+ — over 23% of Gen Z adults identify as LGBTQ+, more than double their Millennial counterparts.

Finally, despite what many recent headlines might suggest, a new report by the Movement Advancement Project and Advocates for Transgender Equality demonstrates that transgender people are widely supported by their families, workplaces, school peers, and faith communities.

In the years following the Pulse massacre, survivors were resolute that they would not fearfully disappear but would strengthen their connections and community. Despite setbacks and opposition, we continue to honor those we lost at Pulse by following in the footsteps of our LGBTQ+ ancestors who taught us through their love, resilience and stubborn refusal to hide that we belong in this world, and we must fight for it.

Carl Charles is an attorney with Lambda Legal, which has been at the forefront of the fight for legal and lived equality for the LGBTQ+ community and everyone living with HIV. He is based in Atlanta.