New Report - Beyond Binary: LGBTQ+ Rights in the 2026 Digital Landscape

Today, LGBT Tech is releasing Beyond Binary, our annual report examining how technology policy and digital systems are shaping the lives and rights of LGBTQ+ people in the United States.

This iteration of Beyond Binary arrives at a moment of extraordinary pressure for members of the LGBTQ+ community. Following one of the most difficult political years for LGBTQ+ people in decades, federal rollbacks, shifting state priorities, and more have left many increasingly reliant on digital systems for basic safety and stability.

This year’s report examines that reality across five interconnected landscapes:

The Community Landscape grounds the analysis in the size and diversity of LGBTQ+ people, while looking back at the policy actions of 2025 that reshaped the environment heading into 2026.

The Access Landscape focuses on who can get online and stay online safely, examining broadband deployment, affordability, devices, spectrum, and digital literacy at a time when federal digital equity investments are being rolled back.

The Platform Landscape explores current legislative efforts with the potential to impact LGBTQ+ access to online community and connection, including youth safety regulation, age verification, content moderation, platform liability, and harassment.

The Privacy Landscape examines our continued absence of comprehensive data protections, the rise of data brokerage and surveillance, risks to sensitive health and location data, and the growing pressure to weaken encryption, all of which carry disproportionate consequences for LGBTQ+ safety and autonomy.

Finally, the AI Landscape focuses on how artificial intelligence is being deployed across employment, healthcare, government services, and online platforms, raising urgent questions about bias, civil rights, transparency, and a growing reliance on AI systems for mental health and support.

Taken together, in 2026, Beyond Binary documents a digital ecosystem under strain and a community that continues to adapt, organize, and push back. As technology becomes even more central to daily life, the choices made by policymakers, industry, and civil society in the year ahead will determine whether digital spaces remain lifelines or become new sites of exclusion.