As we enter 2025, the landscape for LGBTQ+ individuals in the United States remains complex, challenging, and rapidly evolving. Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation continues to rise at record-breaking levels, while safe physical spaces for community, advocacy, and affirmation are diminishing.
Amid these challenges, digital spaces have become essential lifelines to education, healthcare, employment, advocacy, and social connection. Yet these spaces are increasingly at risk, facing systemic inequities, discriminatory policies, and threats to safety and visibility—mirroring many of the struggles faced by the community offline.
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The re-election of President Donald Trump and a unified Republican government signal significant shifts in federal policy, particularly in technology regulation, online speech, and privacy protections—changes that will profoundly impact LGBTQ+ individuals and their access to critical digital resources. While federal policies set the tone, state governments wield significant influence over the daily realities of their LGBTQ+ citizens, able to introduce and implement policies that either support their online and offline identities or strip them of access to those life-saving experiences all together.
In this pivotal moment, our second iteration of Beyond Binary: LGBTQ+ Rights in the Digital Landscape offers a timely examination of how technology policy in 2025 intersects with the lives and needs of LGBTQ+ individuals. Beyond Binary delves into the challenges and opportunities shaping the 2025 digital landscape, ultimately calling for systemic solutions to protect LGBTQ+ voices and foster inclusivity and equity in an increasingly connected world.
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In 2025, the stakes are higher than ever, but so are the opportunities to create meaningful change. Technology remains both a lifeline and a battleground for marginalized communities, and the actions we take now will determine whether digital spaces remain tools of connection and empowerment—or become sources of exclusion and harm.
Beyond Binary challenges policymakers, industry leaders, and advocates to work collaboratively toward a future where every LGBTQ+ individual can thrive in the digital age.
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