It has been an especially tumultuous year for the LGBTQ+ community, and we are so proud of the LGBTQ Nation team for covering 2025s events with finesse, poignancy, and intellect.While breaking news often dominates our coverage, we take every opportunity we can to explore the issues that matter to our community in depth. As the year wraps up, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate some of the outstanding long-form work our writers did on everything from trans rights to family building to political violence. Related These 5 amazing good news stories from 2025 will warm your heart & give you hope Here are six of the best long-form LGBTQ Nation pieces published this year.Conservatives want to separate trans & reproductive rights. Trans men are uniting the movements. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Photo by Ale Pedraza BuenahoraZane McNeills moving piece for our summer issue on the lessons trans men teach us about masculinity spotlights the challenges trans men face navigating a medical system that has made little effort to understand their needs, especially when it comes to reproductive health care.McNeill also writes that the attacks on trans and reproductive rights are inexorably connected, quoting one expert who declares, These fights are deeply connected and intertwined. When abortion access is under attack, so are trans people. What the sperm banks wont tell you: Inside the shocking world of donor conceptionKyle Neal In this riveting and at times haunting piece, LGBTQ Nation Deputy Editor Molly Sprayregen exposes sperm donation as a shockingly corrupt and unregulated industry that often takes advantage of desperate families who feel they have nowhere else to turn to make their dreams of parenthood come true.The piece also spotlights the activists in the space who are fighting tooth and nail for stricter regulations and greater transparency. No, I wont be shedding any tears for Charlie Kirk BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesThis poignant piece by LGBTQ Nation senior editor Daniel Villarreal became one of our sites most read pieces ever in the aftermath of Charlie Kirks shocking murder. Villarreal expertly taps into the emotional turmoil so many LGBTQ+ people felt as they watched mourners paint Kirk an ardent LGBTQ+ extremist as a symbol of compassion while Republicans called for those who said otherwise to have their livelihoods destroyed. With nuance, the piece masterfully gives readers space to both condemn Kirks killing (alongside other forms of political violence) while still abhorring the man he was and the hate he spewed. Phones, COVID, & fascism have pulled us apart. The growing queer bar scene could reconnect us.LGBTQ NationGreg Owens cover story for our March issue expertly addresses the loneliness crisis plaguing the queer community and explores the reemergence of the gay bar as the center of LGBTQ+ life (though reimagined as a more inclusive space and primed for protest, he writes).Owen expertly taps into the isolation so many queer folks have felt since the pandemic ripped apart our social lives, as well as the role technology has played in limiting our ability to authentically connect with one another. But Owen writes that the anti-LGBTQ+ tensions in the country are forcing queer people back out to find community that loves them. As one club king put it, No one parties like the oppressed. Grief mixed with sunshine: A trans kid & her family fled the U.S. to find hope & home in UruguayShutterstockIn this touching piece, Faefyx Collington describes what life has been like for a family with a trans child that fled the United States after Donald Trump was elected to a second term. Collington flawlessly hits on the familys conflicting feelings of grief for the lives they gave up and also their happiness at building a new one in a welcoming community that feels so much safer.Collingtons piece beautifully highlights the unending resolve of the parents of trans kids to do whatever it takes to keep their children not only safe, but happy amidst the administrations crusade against their very existence. Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.