Log Cabin Republicans of Washington, D.C., the local chapter of the national LGBTQ Republican organization, has emerged as the only known local LGBTQ group to endorse President Donald Trump’s controversial action earlier this month to federalize the D.C. police department.

Several other local and national D.C.-based LGBTQ political groups have released statements expressing strong opposition to the Trump action, which involves sending in National Guard troops to patrol D.C. streets to fight what the president has called an out-of-control crime wave in the nation’s capital.

“The Log Cabin Republicans of Washington, D.C. commend the President’s decisive leadership in taking control of a crisis that local officials have failed to address,” the group says in a statement. “For decades, Washington, D.C. has suffered under the de facto one-party rule of Democratic leadership,” it says.

“The result has been a steady rise in crime, a decline in public safety, and a culture of complacency toward lawlessness,” the statement continues, adding that D.C. leaders have shown a “blatant unwillingness” to address the issue.

“We thank President Trump for stepping in where local leadership has failed,” D.C. Log Cabin President Andrew Minik says in the statement. “This bold action sends a clear message: the safety of Americans in our nation’s capital is non-negotiable.”

Among the local LGBTQ political groups that have expressed strong opposition to the Trump action and the position of Log Cabin Republicans is the Capital Stonewall Democrats.

“This is nothing more than a political stunt designed to distract and divide,” said Capital Stonewall Democrats President Howard Garrett in a joint statement released with the National Stonewall Democrats organization. “Flooding our neighborhoods with federal forces and seizing control of our police department will not make us safer – it will undermine trust, escalate tensions, and strip away D.C.’s right to govern itself,” he said.

The joint statement by the two LGBTQ Democratic groups also challenges Trump’s claims that crime in D.C. is at an all-time high. 

“This is not about safety, it’s about control,” the statement says. “The facts are clear: Violent crime in D.C. is down 26 percent from last year. Robberies are down 22 percent, and homicides have fallen 18 percent,” the statement continues. “These numbers tell the truth – not the fear-driven narrative being pushed from the White House to justify militarizing our streets and commandeering our local police force.”

GLAA D.C., formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, expressed the organization’s opposition to the Trump action in a statement.

“This unprecedented show of force is theater designed to strike fear into our hearts,” the GLAA statement says. “Donald Trump is making reckless power plays while D.C.’s community is experiencing lasting harm. Donald Trump must be stopped by a mass movement of people who recognize the danger he poses to the freedoms we all cherish.”

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest national LGBTQ advocacy organization based in D.C., believes the Trump effort to take over the D.C. police force and to send in National Guard troops will  have a negative impact on the LGBTQ community, according to Jarred Keller, the HRC Senior Press Secretary.

“By injecting shameful attacks on the LGBTQ+ community alongside threats of occupation in other major American cities, it’s clear this attempted takeover is about much more than the streets of D.C.,” Keller said in a statement to the Washington Blade

“It’s about control and intimidation,” he said. “His actions endanger all families and threaten all our freedoms. We call on all D.C. residents, and all Americans, to stand united in rejecting this blatant abuse of power.”

Kierra Johnson, president of the D.C.-based National LGBTQ Task Force, added her voice to the opposition to the Trump D.C. law enforcement federalization action.

“What is happening is an outrageous targeting of those who live, work in and love the Nation’s Capital,” Johnson said in a statement. “The Trump administration’s actions, taking control of the Metropolitan Police Department and deploying untrained military and government agency armed forces is beyond reprehensible,” Johnson said.

“The National LGBTQ Task Force, whose headquarters has been in D.C. for decades, understands this for what it is – an attack on our city, our people, and our democracy,” she says in the statement. “What we are experiencing now is nothing less than an attempt to occupy our streets and terrorize our residents.”

The D.C. LGBTQ Budget Coalition, which consists  of multiple organizations that advocate for resources supporting LGBTQ residents, called the Trump action an “attack on D.C. autonomy.”

“This is a blatant violation of D.C.’s right to self-govern and a dangerous escalation rooted in political theater, not public safety,” the coalition said in a statement. “We stand with local community leaders and other advocates fighting for D.C. to be free.”

The National LGBTQ Task Force on Tuesday announced the theme of its 2026 Creating Change conference that will take place in D.C. in January will be “We Are Unstoppable.”

The conference is scheduled to take place in Washington from Jan. 21-25.

Jan. 20 will mark a year since the Trump-Vance administration took office. The White House’s decision to once again ban transgender service members, to target DEI programs, and to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department are among the myriad issues that advocacy groups have condemned.

“Creating Change is not a conference,” said Task Force Executive Director Kierra Johnson on Tuesday during a reception in D.C. “It is a homecoming.”

Creating Change took place in Washington in 2018. Baltimore hosted the annual conference in 2012.

Last year’s Creating Change took place in Las Vegas.

More than 200 people gathered in front of the old Frank Reeves Municipal Center on Monday to protest the Trump administration’s federal takeover of the District of Columbia and MPD.

Free D.C. — a nonprofit whose mission is securing self-determination for the District — hosted the event at 14th and U streets, N.W. Speakers from several community organizations addressed the crowd, arguing that the takeover harms the city more than it helps.

Keya Chatterjee, executive director of Free D.C., was among the first to speak. She said the administration’s actions represent a blatant overreach of federal power, motivated by partisanship rather than public safety.

“Since last week, Trump has sent federal law enforcement agents into our neighborhoods, made our police start turning people over to ICE, sent in our local National Guard and attempted to put our local police department under federal control,” Chatterjee told reporters and protesters. “Today, he has sent in armed National Guard from three additional states.”

By Tuesday morning, six states had pledged to send troops. All are governed by Republicans, contributing anywhere from 150 to 400 National Guard members each. Together, more than 1,000 out-of-state troops are now expected to patrol the District.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry pledged 150 troops; West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said he would send between 300 and 400; South Carolina Gov. Henry Dargan McMaster pledged 200; Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said his state would send 150; Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee committed about 160; and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves pledged 200.

Chatterjee was not alone in criticizing the presence of non-D.C. officers. Jesse Rabinowitz of the National Homelessness Law Center said the money spent deploying troops could instead be used to house people experiencing homelessness — many of whom, he argued, the administration is targeting for removal.

“According to estimates, it costs over $420,000 a day to deploy the D.C. Guard,” Rabinowitz said. “That number does not factor in the Guard troops now invading from West Virginia, Ohio and South Carolina. But just using this D.C. cost — $420,000 a day — tells an important story. It costs $47,000 a year to get somebody off the street and into housing for one year. For one day of D.C. Guard activation, we could solve homelessness for nine people.”

He added that the clearances are designed for optics, not solutions.

“On Thursday night, over 30 federal police officers from the FBI, Secret Service and Homeland Security gathered near a few tents in Foggy Bottom. They didn’t come offering housing or support. They came with their guns and lights flashing.”

“The solution to homelessness is housing,” he continued. “The solution to authoritarianism is solidarity.”

Kelsye Adams, director of D.C. Vote and Long Live Go-Go, also condemned the use of the U Street corridor as a staging ground for federal forces.

“For the first time in history, a president seized control of our local government,” Adams told the crowd, which booed loudly in response. “He stripped away local authority unlawfully as our AG got out there and filled our streets with over 800 National Guard troops from other states, federal agents, including ICE, FBI … And where did they land? Right here on U Street, on Black Broadway in the middle of our door.”

“They call it public safety, but here’s the truth: crime is down in D.C.,” she continued, citing Department of Justice data ignored by the administration. “This is the lowest that violent crime has been in D.C. in the past 30 years … If crime is down, why all the troops? Why ICE? Why remove the unhoused? Why checkpoints and why say this is about safety? Let’s be real. This is a fascist takeover.”

Adams stressed that Black and brown children living around U Street are bearing the brunt of the militarization.

“Children should not feel like suspects for simply living; our young people deserve joy, safety and dignity, not militarization.”

Nee Nee Taylor, organizing director of Free D.C., echoed that message, pointing to the long history of police targeting youth of color.

“Black and brown people, we are not safe,” Taylor said. “We are in a state of emergency right now. We are being watched. We are being targeted, and it’s not safe to walk alone.”

“They want to drag us back to the days of Emmett Till and Jim Crow, but hear me clearly — we’re going to resist. We’re going to show up. We’re going to take up space, we’re not going to comply, and we’re going to send joy while we’re doing it.”

“Safety cannot be manufactured through fear. Let me say that again: safety cannot be manufactured.”

A representative from Colectivo Familias Migrantes, a civil society group focused on human rights and democratic rule of law in the Americas, told the crowd that incidents of undocumented people being scooped up in unmarked cars by masked agents are part of a broader plan to continue policing Black and brown people in D.C. — regardless of their immigration status.

“These are not coincidences. These are strategically placed and targeted to bring fear and panic, all while building a disgusting narrative that continues to criminalize our bodies every single day.”

“We demand that all federal forces leave now,” she added.

Rach “Coach” Pike, co-owner of the queer bar As You Are in Southeast D.C., told the Blade they attended the event to show solidarity and to stress the importance of LGBTQ awareness.

“I think it has more to do with location and who they’re targeting, which are Black and brown communities, communities that are unhoused. So I think it’s more about that than queer people — at least for now. Queers aren’t the focus yet.”

As a business owner, Pike said their priority is supporting those being directly targeted by the administration — and encouraging other businesses to do the same.

“I just encourage business owners, mostly to be on the street, help with the resources they can communicate and get information out to people, and push people toward our amazing D.C. organizers, because they’re the ones we need to follow right now.”

“Being out here with our people and amongst like-mindedness is really important to kind of get your energy up,” Pike added. “I wouldn’t say I feel any better — it’s all bullshit — but I feel surrounded, wrapped up, covered. Like I’m getting more information to help cover other people. You know, we got to keep us safe.”