Southern Queer Newsroom
2026 has been off to a shaky start, to put it mildly. Yesterday, ICE agents shot and killed an activist and legal observer during immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, Minnesota, sparking vigils and protests across the nation. On January 3, most of us woke up to news that the Trump administration had bombed Venezuela and kidnapped—sorry, "arrested"—President Maduro in a "law enforcement operation" that for some reason included American special forces.
This special military operation also includes the U.S. directly taking control of the Venezulean government and looting its natural resources to fund American oil companies. The administration's talking heads have also been pushing for an invasion and seizure of Greenland from Denmark. Just today, the Trump administration announced it will withdraw from 66 international legal and humanitarian bodies, including those meant to combat violence against children. And that's ignoring Musk's Grok AI becoming the largest producer and distributor of nonconsenual pornography on the Web.
While trans rights have not been at the forefront this year yet, that is set to change in Georgia.
Legislative Session
The second session of the Georgia General Assembly is set to begin on January 12, and if last year is anything to judge by, it will be another whirlwind. In 2025, Governor Brian Kemp heavily pushed a "tort reform" law, Senate Bill 68, that capped the amount individuals could use insurance companies for. Even though truly large payouts are rare, and Republicans could give no proof that premiums would not skyrocket like they did in Florida after a similar law, the governor muscled it through.
The big fight this year appears to be whether to abolish the state's income tax. Pitched on affordability, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee (which writes the state's budget) Blake Tillery was in charge of the special committee that passed the proposal. It proposes waiving income taxes on the first $50,000 an individual makes in a year, or the first $100,000 a household makes in a year. The House is instead focusing on lowering property taxes. Both of these moves would severely cut into the surplus Democrats have demanded be spent on full Medicaid expansion and would require cutting other services to pay for.
Trans rights are also unfortunately likely to be a major focus of Republican animus. Bills from the previous session are still live. Senate Bill 30, Senate Bill 39, and Senate Bill 74 are three major bills that have passed the Senate and have not yet been voted on by the House. With the federal government's continued persecution of transgender, intersex, and gender-nonconforming Americans in the wake of repeated electoral failures, it seems unlikely that Georgia Republicans will stop trying to punish trans people for existing in public. It will be part of SQN's mission to report on this and new legislation that would harm trans Georgians as swiftly as possible.
Who's in and who's out?
The session will open with several new faces and empty seats. Former State Senator Brandon Beach, having been tapped to run the U.S. Treasury, resigned from his seat in Senate District 35. This led to an energetic race in a special election, where in the runoff, Democratic candidate Debra Shigley got 40% of the vote in a district that went 70% to Trump just one year before.
Shelly Hutchinson, a Democratic House representative from Gwinnett County, was absent all of 2025 to care for an ailing family member, and resigned in September 2025. The House District 106 race became a three-way jungle election between one Republican and two Democrats, with both Democrats advancing to the runoff. Muhammad Akbar Ali, a 21-year-old graphic designer and activist, won on a platform explicitly defending trans rights and Medicaid expansion. He is the youngest state legislator in state history.
In Athens, Democratic contender Eric Gisler managed to flip a seat previously held by a Republican, gaining over 11 points within a year. His win puts the number of Republican representatives in the House at 99, which is the lowest it has been since the GOP won control of the state legislature in 2002.
In the past month, two Black Democratic lawmakers – Sharon Henderson of Covington and Karen Bennett of Stone Mountain – have been charged with unemployment fraud during the COVID pandemic. Bennett has resigned and so far there has not been a date set for the special election, leaving the seat vacant for most of session. Henderson does not appear to have resigned.
Other new faces include Dem. Senator Jaha Howard, who fills Dem. Jason Esteves' previous seat after he stepped down to focus on his gubernatorial campaign, and Bill Fincher, a Republican holding a previously Republican House seat in Cherokee County. Other seats, like former Senator John F. Kennedy's Senate District 15, remain open.
New Faces on Atlanta City Council
On January 5, the new Atlanta City Council was sworn in to begin their terms. Marci Overstreet is the new Atlanta City Council President, determining committee assignments and leading the Council. Below her are 12 district councilmembers and three at-large postholders each representing four of the districts.
Nonbinary councilmember Liliana Bakhtiari from District 5 was reelected for a second term and is part of the progressive wing of the Council. Newly elected Kelsea Bond, a nonbinary democratic socialist for District 2, joins her. Having campaigned on Beltline Rail and affordable housing, they won with a staggering 64% of the vote on November 4. Their platform also includes defending trans Atlantans from the federal government, hosting free name-change clinics, and introducing a Worker's Bill of Rights.
Bakhtiari and Bond are set to serve together on the City Utilities, Zoning, and Community Development / Human Services (CDHS) Committees. Notably, Bond is not serving on the Transportation Committee, which would handle implementation of Beltline Rail. However, CDHS does handle "housing related programs" according to their website, meaning the new councilmember will be able to work on at least some of their campaign promises.
A Genocide in the Making
The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention has issued several Red Flag Warnings for the United States across 2025: seven relating to the Trump administration's treatment of Latin Americans, two relating to the persecution of trans youth, and one relating to a proposed autism registry by the HHS. Most recently, an article titled "Experts Warn U.S. in Early Stages of Genocide Against Trans American", two former presidents of the International Association of Genocide Scholars make the case that the attacks against trans Americans are indicative of genocidal intent.
This has been something talked about in trans circles online and offline for several years now. Erin in the Morning has made several allusions to Nazi Germany. Trans News Network put out a piece by Mady Castigan on trans genocide after the killing of Charlie Kirk. I have talked several times about "extermination" rather than "genocide," although I have been worried about one since at least 2022. However, the shift from trans people talking about it to genocide scholars talking about it seems very notable, and not in a good way.
On the one hand, it's getting bad enough for scholars to start taking note, which can prompt more research, activism, and resilience building among trans communities across the country. On the other hand, it's getting bad enough for scholars to take note, meaning trans Americans are far enough down the Ten Stages of Genocide for patterns to made been made and noticed. Survival is becoming increasingly difficult. While trans people are going to exist after the violence is over, the question for many is how many are going to make it to see that.