Running for office while LGBTQ+ increasingly means preparing for violence

After years of escalating anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in American politics, a new national report suggests the consequences are no longer confined to campaign ads, legislative fights, or online outrage. For many LGBTQ+ candidates, the threats have become intensely personal and increasingly physical.The threats arrive in direct messages, voicemail inboxes, comment sections, and late-night emails. Sometimes they follow candidates home.One LGBTQ+ candidate reported that a neighbor shot at their house after they advocated for transgender rights. Another described being shoved off a porch while canvassing. Others said strangers photographed their homes, stalked their families online, or threatened sexual violence against their children.For a growing number of LGBTQ+ candidates across the United States, political campaigning increasingly resembles threat management.A new report released by the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute found that harassment, intimidation, and political violence have become a defining feature of modern LGBTQ+ campaigns, reshaping not only how candidates run for office but also whether they choose to run at all.Related: How LGBTQ+ people are stepping up to run for school board seats on the front lines of America’s culture warsThe authors of “Threats on the Trail: Experiences With Political Violence Among LGBTQ+ Candidates in the USA,” surveyed 215 LGBTQ+ candidates who ran for office between 2023 and 2025 across 42 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C.Researchers found nearly nine in 10 candidates worried that running as out LGBTQ+ people would increase their risk of harassment or attack, while four in five feared physical violence.Those fears were often realized. Nearly two-thirds of respondents experienced in-person harassment during campaigns. Almost eight in 10 encountered online abuse. One in three candidates reported receiving online death threats.Political violence has increasingly become a feature of American public life, touching judges, lawmaker