Photo Credit: Danny Greene

Welcome to Insider NJ’s 8th Annual OUT 100 LGBT Power List, a tribute to politically influential LGBT voices in New Jersey Politics.

The day after Trump got re-elected in 2024, I began rationing my HIV meds until I had a two-month stash. On some level, I knew his administration would make it harder for certain kinds of people to access healthcare and that’s exactly what happened.

Trump already came for reproductive health care in his first term. And one of Trump’s initial 2nd term priorities was to slash programs like PEPFAR, a Bush-era initiative to provide HIV meds to Africa that’s credited with saving 28,000,000 lives. Closer to home, the day we went to war with Iran, nearly 20,000 HIV+ Floridians lost access to their meds because of MAGA budget priorities. Likewise, in 20 states, MAGA lawmakers are keen to limit access to the meds that prevent HIV transmission!

Trump wants to 1) control the outcome of every pregnancy in America 2) remove the tools that prevent/treat HIV and 3) deprive transgender Americans access to healthcare altogether. So, if it feels like we’re going backwards on LGBT rights in America, it’s because we are.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey it feels like we’ve been going in circles. While the landscape in NJ is certainly less dire for LGBTs than what Trump envisions, still it’s complicated. In retrospect, it feels like after gay marriage arrived, many got drunk on our own success and lost the urgency that this moment requires.

Selfies with the Governor became more important than getting legislation to the Governor.

Guess who didn’t stop fighting? Opponents of LGBT rights, that’s who.

But here’s the good news: organizations old and new are stepping up to advance the cause of LGBT liberty in NJ, and also defend and preserve our hard-earned gains.

The political action we’ve been waiting for (lobbying, campaigning, a PAC) has arrived and the folks at Pride Action Fund are already raising money and building the networks to protect NJ’s LGBT population. The Trans Rights Coalition of NJ was co- founded by Louise Walpin and they’re eager to remind you that the T in LGBT will never be silent. TRC NJ led the charge to protect trans people (and their families) who come to NJ from red states to access reproductive or gender-affirming healthcare.

Organizations like the Atlantic County Queer Alliance, an organization dedicated to nurturing “community among South Jersey’s LGBTQIA+ organizations and individuals” is doing the work in South Jersey. HiTOPS and the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice are both Princeton- based, but doing amazing work to affirm the entire region’s LGBT community. There is the Pride Center of New Jersey in Highland Park and so many more! The 100 (or so) names below are doing the work to protect LGBT liberty, and I hope you enjoy getting to know them and the organizations they represent!

“I think our community is in one of the largest fights we’ve ever been in, and what we do as a community of queer people is stand up and band together and join a movement,” said Liz Schedl, Pride Action Fund co-founder.

We couldn’t agree more.

To make room for new faces, we won’t be including former #1’s this year. Babs Siperstein (RIP) sat atop the inaugural OUT 100 Power List back in 2018. Subsequent #1’s include Reed Gusciora (twice), Jeannine LaRue, Andrew Bruck Rebecca Williams, and Nancy Solomon. To borrow a sports metaphor, their jerseys have been retired and raised to the rafters of the Power List Hall of Fame.

Download Insider NJ's 2026 OUT 100: LGBT Power List or view it below: