We know you’re still recovering from all that holiday champagne, but you’re probably also feeling anxious after reading headlines about what’s at stake for our community, our state, and our country in 2025. For progressive movements, including the fight for queer and trans liberation here in New Mexico, it’s a time for regrouping and agenda-setting. EQNM is working closely with our partner organizations to identify all the ways we can protect New Mexicans from the incoming Trump administration while maintaining the priorities we’ve always championed at home. Let’s be clear: This is our job, and we are well prepared for it. Much has not changed. We’ve always known what LGBTQ New Mexicans need, and we aren’t giving up all our priorities just because of one election result.
Our first opportunity to make an impact will come mid-January, when our state representatives will come together in Santa Fe for a 60-day legislative session. While we don’t yet know which specific bills are on the docket, we can expect the session to focus on a mix of policies that will safeguard against and absorb any hits we might take at the federal level, as well as revisiting some of New Mexico’s ongoing high-priority issues, like public safety. EQNM will be posted up at the roundhouse for the duration of the session, advocating for LGBTQ New Mexicans and reporting critical developments back to you. We may need to call on you to contact your representatives and let them know where you stand, so if you want to use your voice sign up here.
Since the election, we’ve heard from a lot of you that you’re concerned about protecting your access to healthcare and other essential services. We anticipate that healthcare, including abortion and gender-affirming care, will be a high priority this session. Specifically we will be working to ensure that budgets are not slashed so much that accessing services, even if they are still legal, is effectively impossible. We will also advocate against allowing the federal government to identify and prosecute New Mexicans for securing these services. Our data belongs to us, and our privacy is a human right. That applies outside the healthcare system, too, around issues like immigration, incarceration, and asserting dissenting opinions in public. While we cannot protect New Mexicans against every federal attack, we feel confident that short of an act of Congress (those move slowly, if at all), we will be able to safeguard most New Mexicans’ right to access the life-saving reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare we deserve.
Fortunately, this year we voted to maintain a progressive majority in the legislature, and Governor Michelle Lujan-Grisham has demonstrated a commitment to these core values. In fact all of our statewide elected officals are ready to throw down for LGBTQ New Mexicans—from the Land Comissioner and Secretary of State to the Attorney General and Governor! Holding those progressive majorities in our state legislature is a crucial win for our communities.
This past summer, many of you contacted your representatives about public safety during the governor’s special legislative session. EQNM, along with 40 other community groups, sent a letter to the governor asking for the session to be canceled. We argued that the approaches to public safety being proposed were not designed to address the root issues of the problems, and would have negative consequences for the LGBTQ community and all New Mexicans. In the upcoming legislative session, our coalition is ready to share a broad, proactive public safety agenda that offers solutions for problems like access to affordable housing, drug addiction treatment, improved support for mental and behavioral health, and criminal legal reforms that include building pathways back to community and reducing the odds that folks will return to prison. In addition to public safety, you’ll also see us advocating for policies we have long supported, such as changing the voting age to 16, paid family and medical leave, and generally ensuring that state agencies and public systems fully engage with and respond to the intersectional needs of LGBTQ constituents.
EQNM has had a number of community conversations and collaborations with fellow queer and trans organizations in advance of the legislative session; if you have something to say that we need to hear, please reach out to us. E-mail Marshall or Narthan at info@eqnm.org to share your insights.