As Thailand's long-awaited equal marriage law comes into effect on Thursday, the United States seem to be taking a step back. On his first day in office, 47th President of the United States Donald Trump, signed a series of executive orders, including one that has raised significant concern among the LGBTQ+ community. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day he passed an order declaring that the United States now only recognises two sexes saying, “policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female”. The statement effectively denied trans and nonbinary identities, threatening their legal protections; the order explicitly also stripped transgender individuals of protections within federal prisons. “Each agency and all Federal employees shall enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations to protect men and women as biologically distinct sexes,” the directive stated — one of many signed on that day. The move sparked immediate backlash from LGBTQ+ advocates and allies alike.
Among the prominent voices speaking out against this systemic suppression was pop star Ariana Grande, who has been in the spotlight this award season for her standout performance in Wicked (2024), a musical adaptation of The Wizard of Oz based on the book of the same name. Grande shared a message on her Instagram Stories from the nonprofit organization Advocates for Trans Equality, which read, “Today is a tough day for our community. The incoming administration campaigned on attacking trans people’s lives, healthcare, and dignity,” said the statement, referencing the millions spent by the Trump campaign on anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ television ads. “We’re bracing ourselves for what these extremists will try to do next. No matter what comes, we will protect each other. The incoming Trump administration, and the Project 2025 extremists who staff it, are reacting to decades of progress made by our LGBTQI+ community by trying to drag us backward. But we have fought even harder battles before—and won. We’ll do it again,” it further said.
Grande has long been a vocal ally of the LGBTQ+ community. In a 2018 “love letter to the LGBTQ+ community” published in Billboard, she wrote, “There is nothing more infectious than the joy and love that the LGBTQ community exudes. I grew up with a gay brother whose every move I would emulate. I idolised him. Everything Frankie did, I would do. I can’t remember a difference between Frankie before he came out and Frankie after he came out. He’s always just been Frankie. Sexuality and gender were never topics my family and I were afraid to discuss.”
{{/usCountry}}Grande has long been a vocal ally of the LGBTQ+ community. In a 2018 “love letter to the LGBTQ+ community” published in Billboard, she wrote, “There is nothing more infectious than the joy and love that the LGBTQ community exudes. I grew up with a gay brother whose every move I would emulate. I idolised him. Everything Frankie did, I would do. I can’t remember a difference between Frankie before he came out and Frankie after he came out. He’s always just been Frankie. Sexuality and gender were never topics my family and I were afraid to discuss.”
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