The first openly lesbian Latine judge in Texas, Denise Hernández, was awarded the Bettie Naylor Award by the Human Rights Campaign last month for her outstanding dedication to LGBTQ+ rights and for paving the way for better regulations in courtrooms. The award was created in honor of Bettie Naylor, a lesbian Texan activist and founding member of the Human Rights Campaign.
In 2022, Travis County, Texas — which has a population of over 76 percent white residents and a male majority — made history by electing Hernández. And over the last three years, she has made it her mission to change the system.
Hernández, 38 (she/they), says that while growing up, she often acted as a court document translator for her migrant farm worker family as they navigated a justice system that regularly dehumanized and oppressed them.
A tireless advocate for social justice, Hernández holds various titles, including presiding judge of County Court at Law #6 and adjunct professor at Huston-Tillotson University and St. Edward’s University. They’re also the presiding judge of the Transformative Youth Justice Program, a community-centered diversion program for at-risk, system-impacted youth. Their work and dedication have been recognized locally and nationally, and their impact extends far beyond the courtroom.
“I have that firsthand experience of watching the dehumanization that happens in courtrooms … and that shaped my lived experience around how I see systems and how to bring humanity to the courtroom,” Hernández tells The Advocate.
Those experiences have not only shaped her perspective as a system-impacted person, but it now drives her passion as a professional who influences the law and runs a courtroom — one of the youngest to do so in Texas.
“It’s really what sparked the beginning of my passion for the law, because I wanted to be someone who could fight for my parents, and that eventually shifted into ‘I want to become someone who will fight for my community.’ I carry that with me every day,” they say.
Since 2023, Hernández has been running the courtroom in her district and creating opportunities for youth to get their records expunged, while also ensuring that every room she enters knows that she is unapologetically and undoubtedly herself.
“Ever since I stepped into this role, [I have been determined] to ensure that my work helps create fair access and true equality in the courtroom,” Hernández says. “Meaning, that anybody, no matter their gender expression, their gender identity, or sexual orientation — feels safe in the courtroom and that they feel and know that they are receiving justice in the courtroom.”
Achieving true justice and equality in the courtroom starts with acknowledging people’s humanity, by respecting their chosen pronouns, and addressing them by their chosen or preferred names rather than dead names, according to Hernandez.
As part of her work to protect and advocate for marriage equality, Hernández officiates LGBTQ+ marriages for free every June.
“When the Texas Supreme Court changed some of the judicial rules around allowing judges to decline to perform marriage ceremonies for LGBTQ couples, I immediately knew that there was something that we needed to do to create safety for queer couples in Texas — to let them know that no matter what, there are safe judges here,” says Hernandez. “So, I’ve been doing free weddings every Pride month for the past four years.”
Hernández celebrates love and thrives on creating safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people and communities of color, to ensure they're treated with respect and dignity when dealing with the justice system in the conservative state.
“I’m the youngest judge in Travis County, so it’s hard navigating these systems as it is, but looking the way I do — being a queer person of color who is masc-presenting in Texas — I get undermined quite a bit,” they add. “But I have a fight in me that no one can ever take away, and I’m constantly fighting.”
This article was written as part of the Future of Queer Media fellowship program at our sister publication, The Advocate, which is underwritten by a generous gift fromMorrison Media Group. The program helps support the next generation of LGBTQ+ journalists.
Susan Breindel, an activist with New York City's Downtown Nasty Women Social Group, poses outside Stonewall Inn on Feb. 12, 2026.
Jack Walker for The Advocate
As local leaders raised a new Pride flag at Stonewall last Thursday, Kiki Ball-Change watched through sunglasses, bundled up in a matching fur coat. Replacing it was one piece of the puzzle, she said. More important was that hundreds of people rallied against the federal crackdown on LGBTQ civil liberties.
“It’s bigger than a flag,” said the drag queen. “What we’re seeing now is the community coming together to say that, regardless of how you feel about the flag, we will not accept the constant chipping away of our rights.”
President Donald Trump recently banned Pride flags and other non-government symbols from being displayed on certain federal property. That included Stonewall National Monument, where riots against police raids in 1969 paved the way for the modern gay rights movement.
Kiki Ball-Change poses outside Stonewall Inn on Feb. 12, 2026.Jack Walker for The Advocate
Stonewall’s flag was removed Tuesday, but with swift blowback. Two days later, hundreds rallied at the site as local leaders unveiled a new Pride flag.
Like Kiki Ball-Change, several LGBTQ activists told The Advocate they would double down on organizing against Trump, with the flag’s removal symbolizing the stakes for the LGBTQ community.
“This is sacred ground,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “This is a fight that people aren’t giving up. It reminds me that we got us. If the government’s going to fail us, we are going to fill the gap. That’s always been the role of queer and trans folks.”
Robinson said her group has advocated against anti-LGBTQ policies from the federal government, and provides resources to educators, families and others to promote LGBTQ inclusion. The group will also be urging people to vote in November’s midterm election, she said.
Leaders carry the LGBTQ+ Pride flag to be reraised at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City. Jack Walker for The Advocate
The upcoming elections were a focal point for other organizers, too. That included Tyler Hack, who is executive director of the Christopher Street Project — a political action committee founded in 2025 to elect pro-trans officials to Congress.
“We also want to make sure that we do the work to flip those seats in November,” they said. To “ensure that we have a majority in Congress that is not beholden to the Trump administration and their anti-trans crusade.”
Beyond policy change, other community leaders called for renewed focus on the material needs of LGBTQ people. Im Lynde, executive director of New York City Pride, said his organization engages in year-round advocacy for the LGBTQ community. The group conducts fundraising and each year offers grants to local LGBTQ-serving nonprofits, according to its website.
“It's a 365-day movement,” Lynde said. “It's not just something that happens in June and then we disappear.”
Onlookers rally outside Stonewall Inn as a new Pride flag is raised. Jack Walker for The Advocate
Councilmember Chi Ossé sponsored a resolution opposing the flag removal that passed the New York City Council Thursday. At city hall on Thursday, he contextualized the fight to uphold LGBTQ rights in a broader effort to protect personal freedoms and quality of life.
“What we should be doing as queer members of the city council, and as a city council as a whole, is making sure that we’re actually protecting the bodies of our neighbors,” Ossé said. “Making sure they have gender-affirming care. … Protecting most especially our trans siblings, and ensuring that they have affordable housing.”
Kei Williams is executive director of the NEW Pride Agenda, a New York-based LGBTQ advocacy group. At last Thursday’s protest, they said that their group has been rallying against anti-LGBTQ federal policies more broadly, like removing mentions of trans identity from historical sites and government websites.
“It's super important that at this point in time we stand for our values, but we also show up visibly,” Williams said. “If you have hundreds of folks who are out here on a chillier day, I understand that this moment really matters to our community.”
This article was written as part of the Future of Queer Media fellowship program at The Advocate, which is underwritten by a generous gift from Morrison Media Group. The program helps support the next generation of LGBTQ+ journalists.
Former Donald Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, now a cohost on Fox News Channel’sThe Five, says those who hate Trump need someone to love them. “You need a hug or a husband or a hobby or a dog,” she said on the show’s Tuesday broadcast.
That apparently includes lesbian comedian Rosie O’Donnell, who has been married twice to women. In the episode, Conway and her colleagues lambasted O’Donnell for her anti-Trump statements, such as those in a recent TikTok video in which O’Donnell called for Trump to be removed from office via the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment, among other things, provides for the removal of a president who cannot perform the duties of the office.
Kellyanne Conway: She moved to Ireland, but she never moved on | Fox News Video www.foxnews.com
“We gotta do it soon, before the November elections,” O’Donnell said. “Because you know he’s going to do anything he can to start a war and then declare no elections because of that war. He needs to be stopped.”
To Conway and her cohosts, that’s a sign of “Trump derangement syndrome,” an illogical hatred of the president. They claimed — falsely — that he has had a very successful first year in office in his second term.
O’Donnell “moved to Ireland but never moved on,” Conway said. She also blasted O’Donnell for terming Trump a “nameless blob of negative energy,” saying it was a case of “a slob calling someone a blob.”
Conway herself may need someone to love her. She is divorced from George Conway, a lawyer and former Republican who has become a sharp critic of Trump. Conway has filed paperwork to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in the Democratic primary in New York’s 12th Congressional District, although he hasn't made an official announcement. If he does, he'd be one of numerous candidates seeking to succeed longtime U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, a Dem who is retiring.
Mamdani announced Tuesday at a press conference that he has appointed Lillian Bonsignore, a 56-year-old out lesbian and decorated first responder, to lead the FDNY once he is inaugurated on January 1. In response to the news, the billionaire and Tesla CEO took to social media over the weekend to attack Bonsignore, fallaciously claiming that "people will die because of this."
“Proven experience matters when lives are at stake,” Musk wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, which he owns.
Musk's implication that Bonsignore is inexperienced is completely false, as Mamdani was quick to point out. He wrote in post directly replying to Musk, “Experience does matter, which is why I appointed the person who spent more than 30 years at EMS. You know, the workforce that addresses at least 70% of all calls coming into FDNY?”
Bonsignore joined the FDNY in 1991 as an emergency medical technician, serving 31 years before her retirement in 2022. She was named chief of the FDNY’s Emergency Medical Services division in 2019, becoming the first woman to head the division and first uniformed woman to be a four-star chief in the department. Her tenure included working as a first responder in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and leading the EMS division during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bonsignore's appointment makes her the second woman and first out gay person to serve as FDNY chief. It also marks the first time women have led both the city's fire and police departments, as Jessica Tisch is expected to stay in her post as police commissioner when Mamdani takes office.
“Bonsignore’s calm, decisive leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic — when EMS professionals were more vital than ever — is exactly the kind of leadership our city needs in moments of uncertainty,” Mamdani said in a statement to City & State New Yorkbefore the announcement.
Meanwhile, Musk's experience includes heading the failed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which shut down within just ten months after failing to meet its goals. The department was responsible for firing about 300,000 federal workers, including 2,000 staff members of USAID in the complete dissolution of the U.S. humanitarian department. Data models by Boston University epidemiologist Brooke Nichols estimate that as of June, over 640,000 people globally have died due to losing USAID support, at least two-thirds of them children.
Kiki Ball-Change poses outside Stonewall Inn on Feb. 12, 2026.Jack Walker for The Advocate 
Leaders carry the LGBTQ+ Pride flag to be reraised at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City. Jack Walker for The Advocate 
Onlookers rally outside Stonewall Inn as a new Pride flag is raised. Jack Walker for The Advocate 
Kellyanne Conway: She moved to Ireland, but she never moved on | Fox News Video 