Growing up, I didn’t have a positive role model. I didn’t have someone to look up to that looked like me—brown, queer, trans, unapologetically themselves. As a teenager, I made a commitment to myself that I would become that role model. I promised myself I would take up space in places that were never built with people like me in mind.
As a young adult, I eventually started to find community and step into LGBTQIA2S+ advocacy spaces. I saw firsthand how often leadership roles were dominated by white straight men. This is not a secret, but a pattern. And I knew I wanted to help change that. I want to make room for people like me who never see themselves reflected in the decisions shaping their lives. Today, I chair the Council on LGBTQIA2S+ Minnesotans (MNQT), and I do this work proudly as a transmasculine, first-generation Mexican American. Claiming a seat at the table is one of the most meaningful choices I’ve made.
MNQT was established in 2023 to advise the governor and legislature in working toward economic, social, legal, and political equality for LGBTQIA2S+ Minnesotans. When I was appointed to this council, we were a brand-new government entity, building from the ground up. Something I learned early on was to have patience when doing anything within government. As a new council, it was important to better understand the experiences and needs of LGBTQIA2S+ Minnesotans, especially from underrepresented demographics. We wanted to be intentional about how we used our resources, and after multiple meetings and feedback sessions, the Minnesota LGBTQIA2S+ Community Needs Assessment became the council’s first major effort to really understand what the community was experiencing and hear their stories.
From March to December 2025, you might have seen our colorful survey flyers scattered around Minnesota, from coffee shop bulletin boards to your local queer bar’s bathroom; met a council or staff member at a community event; or found us through any of our dozens of community organization partners. One of my favorite moments during this time was getting to connect with so many queer folks, hearing their stories, and listening to their concerns. It was a validating time for me, because for so long, I had felt alone in struggles—like a lot of our community does. Trans folks were, and still are, facing thousands of bill introductions targeting us around the United States, and the president was issuing executive orders and federal actions targeting our existence. We aren’t alone, though. No matter what they try to erase, they can’t erase our experiences.
This assessment is proof that our community is paying attention, participating, and refusing to be erased.
The Community Needs Assessment had three components: the community needs survey (for adults and parents/caregivers), community conversations, and an organization and provider survey. We received a combined 7,304 survey responses, the largest and most comprehensive LGBTQIA2S+ survey in Minnesota history. In August 2026, we released the first summary report of survey data. The survey asked people to share their lived experiences, including demographic information, disabilities, housing, health and wellness, education, employment, safety, legal services, access, and connections to community. I must note that this doesn’t represent all LGBTQIA2S+ Minnesotans, but it does give us a better understanding of what some are experiencing.
So now what?
For many of us, the summary could seem obvious, as though the report is confirming disparities we’ve been pointing out for years, long before they were written in this report. And that’s real and true. For many of us, we experience these gaps every day—in our healthcare, in our workspaces, in our access to community, and in our safety, or lack of it. Seeing data in pie charts and bar graphs doesn’t fix the problem, but it does something important. It gives us language. It gives us a shared starting point. That matters, especially heading into the elections this November, when so many of us feel tired, disconnected, or convinced that “no one is doing anything.” I hear that. I feel that.
But the truth is, people are doing something. Community members are standing up by the thousands to tell us what they’re facing. Organizations continue to open their doors. Parents and caregivers are speaking honestly about their fears and hopes for their children. Trans and queer Minnesotans are trusting us with their stories in one of the most hostile political climates in history.
The question now is how we use what we’ve learned. Data doesn’t change policy on its own. People do. Community does. Collective action does. This November, this information becomes a tool we can carry with us to advocate, to organize, to show up for one another, and to remind decision makers that our lives are not theoretical. They are lived, daily, in every corner of Minnesota.
The needs are clear. The disparities are documented. The stories are real. So now what? Now we take what we know and move it forward, together, and with intention.
See it for yourself. Hopefully you’ll see yourself in it, too. You can find the LGBTQIA2S+ Council and The 2025 Minnesota LGBTQIA2S+ Community Needs Assessment Summary Report at: mn.gov/lgbtqia2s/community-needs-assessment/
