Running for office while LGBTQ+ increasingly means preparing for violence

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

Running for office while LGBTQ+ increasingly means preparing for violence

https://www.advocate.com/politics/national/lgbtq-candidates-face-political-violence 🔗

Christopher Wiggins (25 May 2026)

After years of escalating anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in American politics, a new national report suggests the consequences are no longer confined to campaign ads, legislative fights, or online outrage. For many LGBTQ+ candidates, the threats have become intensely personal and increasingly physical.

The threats arrive in direct messages, voicemail inboxes, comment sections, and late-night emails. Sometimes they follow candidates home.

One LGBTQ+ candidate reported that a neighbor shot at their house after they advocated for transgender rights. Another described being shoved off a porch while canvassing. Others said strangers photographed their homes, stalked their families online, or threatened sexual violence against their children.

For a growing number of LGBTQ+ candidates across the United States, political campaigning increasingly resembles threat management.

A new report released by the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute found that harassment, intimidation, and political violence have become a defining feature of modern LGBTQ+ campaigns, reshaping not only how candidates run for office but also whether they choose to run at all.

[AlisonM]

One LGBTQ+ candidate reported that a neighbor shot at their house after they advocated for transgender rights. Another described being shoved off a porch while canvassing. Others said strangers photographed their homes, stalked their families online, or threatened sexual violence against their children.

This sickens me... how can they call themselves moral people when they do these types of actions... I mean, really!, threatening violence, even sexual violence against children... are they that afraid that they have to stoop that low?? And all because we want to live as our authentic selves???

[Lori Dee ✅]

This sickens me... how can they call themselves moral people when they do these types of actions... I mean, really!, threatening violence, even sexual violence against children... are they that afraid that they have to stoop that low?? And all because we want to live as our authentic selves???

Some people have such low self-esteem that the only way they can feel important is to attack others—typical Bully Syndrome. Then there are others whose lives are so boring that they have to lash out at others for some sense of "doing something". Most have never met a transgender person before, and they know nothing about us. They are also too lazy to educate themselves on the subject.

It is very sad just how shallow their lives are, but we cannot judge them. Any change must come from them. Until they see the error of their ways, they have no reason to change.

[AlisonM]

I will say this... from my experience, I would sooner trust a transgender person waaaayy before I would trust one of them... just sayin'...  I agree with your statement of how shallow their lives are.  I do not hate them but rather feel sorrow for their willing blindness to the truth of the matter!

[Valerie.Val]

In an insecure world, too many people prefer following those who spread hate, because their lives are so much easier when you have a group you can hold responsible for everything wrong, instead of actually trying to understand and improve things.