June is LGBTQ Pride Month, a time for both celebration of how far we have come and acknowledgment of progress yet to be made. This year, however, LGBTQ people find themselves in an increasingly hostile environment.
More Americans identify as LGBTQ than ever recorded — 1 in 10 adults overall and 1 in 5 adults who are Gen Z, currently in their 20s. Despite this rise, our community has recently experienced a decline in social and political acceptance.
National challenges are often in the news: Hundreds of anti-LGBTQ legislative efforts across the country, exclusion of LGBTQ people from data and research, restrictions on transgender people’s legal recognition and access to care, and a decrease in governmental and philanthropic support for the most vulnerable LGBTQ communities.
Resulting harm for LGBTQ people includes increased mental health concerns, reduced access to healthcare and more poverty and economic insecurity, compared to non-LGBTQ people.
And even though the Chicago region is often seen as an affirming place for LGBTQ or queer people, national headwinds are making their way to our local communities.
The LGBTQ Community Fund at the Chicago Community Trust supports organizations that serve LGBTQ people across the Chicago region. Recently, we convened leaders of those organizations, and we repeatedly heard these five challenges from our stakeholders:
- The increasingly anti-LGBTQ climate has led organizations to make changes for safety (such as scrubbing addresses and phone numbers from websites) and to identify more need for mental health support for LGBTQ community members and staff.
- Less governmental and philanthropic funding for organizations has led to cuts in services and programming, increasing food and housing instability, and reducing access to medical services for communities.
- Our most vulnerable populations are now even more vulnerable: transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming people; youth; seniors; Black, Indigenous, and people of color; immigrants; and people living with disabilities.
- Immigration enforcement actions are inhibiting access to resources, not just for undocumented people, but also for immigrants, their allies and those who may look like immigrants.
- The work required to adapt to current circumstances — new collaborations, new programs, new fundraising strategies and sources — is challenging to pursue while in crisis.
Bishop Howard, director of the Broadway Youth Center at Howard Brown Health, which serves LGBTQ youth in Chicago, puts it this way: “These days, collecting data on LGBTQ youth runs a higher risk of being used against them, which in turn hurts the accuracy of our reporting and thus limits our impact and funding. Despite this, we continue to reinvent how we support each other in our work.”
What can LGBTQ allies do to support our community?
- Speak to LGBTQ people in your life to learn about their experiences and what they need right now. Beyond tolerance or acceptance, we ask for your commitment.
- Give to organizations that serve LGBTQ people in the Chicago region.
- Stay informed about LGBTQ policy issues and consider how your civic engagement can support dignity and inclusion for all.
We are surprised to be writing about the basic rights and needs of LGBTQ people in 2026, but as writer and activist Audre Lorde said, “Sometimes we are blessed with being able to choose the time, and the arena, and the manner of our revolution, but more usually we must do battle where we are standing.”
And for us all — LGBTQ or allied — we are reminded that our society is only as healthy as our most vulnerable.
Raymond E. Crossman, Ph.D., and Justin Ian Sia, juris doctor, are members of the steering committee for the Chicago Community Trust LGBTQ Community Fund.