Are we there yet? 2025 in Review, Part 2

By Nancy Ford

So, what do you think? Are we there yet?

“Are we where?” you might ask.

That’s a good question. I still ask that question almost every day, despite everyone having a palm-size device that not only tells us where we were going, but also the exact time of our arrival.

Even with the benefit of location tracking magic, we all we’re not “there” yet. Truth be told, judging from various events of the past year, I don’t expect we’ll be “there” for at least another three years.

Meanwhile, as promised in last month’s column, here’s an overview of some of 2025’s more notable remarks made that caught our collective ear.

Have a safe and happy holiday season! And thanks for your support of Montrose Star; it means a lot.
Let’s do it again next year.

JULY

Former U.S. President Barack Obama at the 2025 Presidential Inaugural Ceremony/LGBTQNation.com

“I had a gay professor in college at a time when openly gay folks still weren’t out a lot, who became one of my favorite professors and was a great guy, and would call me out when I started saying stuff that was ignorant. You need that, to show empathy and kindness. He was the first openly gay professor that I had ever come in contact with, or openly gay person of authority that I had come in contact with. He wasn’t proselytizing all the time, but just his comfort in his own skin and the friendship we developed helped to educate me on a number of these issues. He went out of his way to advise lesbian, gay, and transgender students at Occidental, and keep in mind, this was 1978. That took a lot of courage, a lot of confidence in who you are and what you stand for.”
—Former U.S. President Barack Obama / Via LGBTQNation.com

AUGUST

Peppermint, TS Madison, Joslyn De Freece, Mila Jam, and Laverne Cox on ‘Celebrity Family Feud’ Peppermint, TS Madison, Joslyn De Freece, Mila Jam, and Laverne Cox on ‘Celebrity Family Feud.’ Via Disney/Wilford Harewood

“Hallelujah, honey. We’re gonna have some fun, we’re gonna make some money for charity, and we’re gonna look good doing it! This was a beautiful moment of chosen family and sisterhood. We need each other now more than ever. We are all we have.”

—Laverne Cox on an all-star line-up of trans luminaries competing on Celebrity Family Feud as the ABC game show’s first-ever all-trans team. The team donated winnings to Atlanta, Georgia’s TS Madison Starter House, a re-entry house for system-impacted trans women/LGBTQNation.com

SEPTEMBER

“It’s hard to hear, with you running as you’re the first woman elected vice president, you’re a Black woman and a South Asian woman elected to that high office, very nearly elected president, to say that he couldn’t be on the ticket effectively because he was gay. It’s hard to hear.”
—MSNBC’s (now MSNOW) Rachel Maddow confronting former U.S. Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris about why she did not choose Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as her running mate in 2024, despite writing in her book that he was her “first choice.”

OCTOBER

Strawberry Shortcake’s Banoffee at the Mint Gala/Via StrawberryShortcake.Fandom.com

“This is disgusting. It’s why Congress needs to pass my Protect Children’s Innocence Act. My bill will make it a felony to perform child gender ‘transitions’ in all 50 states. Children are not trans. Grooming them into a dangerous mental illness is not compassion. It’s child abuse!”
—Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said in a post on X, sharing a clip posted by anti-LGBTQ+ activist Chaya Raichik (who posts as “Libs of TikTok”). Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City introduces Banoffee, the show’s first explicitly trans character (or “trans berry,” as she calls herself). In the clip, two of the main characters gush over her dress for the Mint Gala, parts of which are in the colors of the trans flag. Having resigned from Congress in November, the only thing Green will be passing any time soon is gas/LGBTQNation.com

NOVEMBER

“The fact that same-sex marriage was challenged here in the United States shows that equality is never something we can take for granted. LGBTQ+ people here at home and around the world continue to face escalating violence, discrimination, and rollbacks of their rights, and we must act now. This bill will stand up for LGBTQ+ communities at home and abroad and show the world that our nation can be a leader when it comes to protecting dignity and human rights once again. We must recommit the United States to the defense of human rights and the promotion of equality and justice around the world…. I will continue to fight alongside LGBTQ+ individuals for a world that recognizes that LGBTQ+ rights are human rights.”
— Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), reintroducing the International Human Rights Defense Act, a bill that seeks to require the State Department to defend LGBTQ+ rights worldwide. Currently, 64 countries criminalize same-sex relations, and 12 countries include jurisdictions that allow the death penalty for private, consensual same-sex relations. The bill is cosponsored by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA). This is the fourth time the bill has come before Congress/LGBTQNation.com

DECEMBER

“Nope, we’re definitely skipping the White House this year. Every-
one in there is on the naughty list. And where the hell is the East Wing?”
—Santa Claus, flying over Washington DC

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