National
Obama administration requests stay of ‘Don’t Ask’ injunction
Request made with California district court
The Obama administration on Thursday requested a stay with a California federal court against a recently issued injunction prohibiting enforcement of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” according to documents obtained by the Blade.
In the notices, the U.S. Justice Department seeks a stay from U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Phillips, who issued the injunction on Tuesday, under the presumption that the Obama administration will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Defendants request that the Court issue an order to stay pending appeal of its Order, dated October 12, 2010 (Doc. 252), permanently enjoining enforcement of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ (DADT) statute, 10 U.S.C. § 654, and implementing regulations,” one notice states.
The Justice Department asks that the district court issue a stay before Monday. If a stay is not yet entered by that time, the administration says it will seek such action from the Ninth Circuit.
On Tuesday, Phillips issued an injunction prohibiting the U.S. government from enforcing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the wake of her court decision last month striking down the law. The Justice Department had 60 days from the time the injunction was issued to make an appeal to a higher court.
In a statement, Christian Berle, deputy executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, said he isn’t surprised the Obama administration is seeking a stay against the injunction. In 2004, his organization filed the lawsuit that led to the order.
“After years of fighting this lawsuit, Log Cabin Republicans expected that the Obama administration would continue to pull out all the stops to defend ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’” Berle said. “Log Cabin Republicans will continue to advocate on behalf of the American servicemembers who everyday sacrifice in defense of our nation and our Constitution. If this stay is granted, justice will be delayed, but it will not be denied.”
Dan Woods, an attorney with White & Case LLP, which represented Log Cabin in court, swore to fight against the stay to ensure open service in the U.S. military.
“Now that the government has filed a request for a stay, we will oppose it vigorously because brave, patriotic homosexuals are serving in our Armed Forces to fight for all of our constitutional rights while the government is denying them theirs,” Woods said.
One of the notices offers a litany of reasons why the injunction against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” should be stayed. Some arguments are the injunction will “irreparably harm the public interest in a strong and effective military” and will require “a precipitous change in policy that threatens the public interest in a strong military.”
“The injunction forces the executive to immediately cease enforcing a statute enacted by Congress regarding military affairs, which alone creates harm justifying a stay,” the notice states. “The injunction also requires an immediate and dramatic change in policy without allowing time to do so in an orderly and comprehensive way.”
A footnote in the notice states that although President Obama opposes “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the administration feels compelled to defend the 1993 statute because it’s federal law.
“As the President has stated previously, the Administration does not support the [‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’] statute as a matter of policy and strongly supports its repeal,” the notices states. “However, the Department of Justice has long followed the practice of defending federal statutes as long as reasonable arguments can be made in support of their constitutionality, even if the Administration disagrees with a particular statute as a policy matter, as it does here.”
In a press conference Thursday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs reiterated Obama’s opposition to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” but said Congress should be responsible for ending the statute.
“The president believes that this is a policy that undermines our national security, discriminates against those who would sacrifice their lives for their country, and is unjust; that the policy needs to be changed and should be changed,” Gibbs said. “His hope is that the Senate will take up the legislation pending before them to do just that, as the House of Representatives has already done.”
Officials in the Obama administration publicly expressed concern about the injunction against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” this week.
According to the Associated Press, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters Wednesday that abruptly ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would have “enormous consequences” for U.S. service members. A Pentagon working group is examining the way to implement repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and is expected to deliver a report to Gates by Dec. 1.
A co-founder of OutServe, a network for active duty LGBT service members, called Gates’ remarks”a direct attack against gay and lesbian military personnel” and denied there would be “enormous consequences” after lifting the ban on open service.
“The reality is unit cohesion is destroyed by directly making military members lie about themselves and that is a proven fact,” said the co-founder, who goes by the alias J.D. Smith because he currently serves in the U.S. military.
“By saying we would create ‘enormous consequences’ he [is] attacking us,” Smith continued. “No other group of currently serving military personnel would be attacked like this.”
In response to Gates’ comments, the Palm Center, a think tank on gays in the military at the University of California, Santa Barbara, issued a statement calling on Gates to identify the “enormous consequences” of ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” enforcement.
“Secretary Gates’ suggestion that ‘enormous consequences’ await any immediate implementation of openly gay service stands in stark contrast to the evidence from other foreign militaries,” said Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center. “Swift change and strong leadership were identified as the two key elements to this process. America is unique but we will not be the first nation to allow openly gay service, we will be the twenty-sixth.”
South Carolina
Man faces first S.C. ‘hate intimidation’ charge
Timothy Truett allegedly shot at gay club in Myrtle Beach on April 1
A South Carolina man remains in custody on a more than $300,000 bond after he allegedly opened fire at a Myrtle Beach nightclub on April 1, according to WMBF.
Reports say 37-year-old Timothy James Truett Jr., of Clover, S.C., was detained by the Myrtle Beach Police Department after the April 1 incident outside Pulse Ultra Club. He was later arrested and charged with possession of a weapon during a violent crime, discharging a firearm into a dwelling, discharging a firearm within city limits, malicious injury to real property valued over $5,000, and assault or intimidation due to political opinions or the exercise of civil rights.
At 10:57 a.m. on April 1, officers responded to a call about a possible shooting at Pulse Ultra Club, located in the 2700 block of South Kings Highway.
In an affidavit released later, the club’s owner, Ken Phillips, said he was doing paperwork that morning when he heard “five or six” gunshots. He went outside and found a window and the windshield of his SUV shattered by bullets. An SUV with blue plastic covering one window was left at the scene.
Police later reviewed footage that showed a silver vehicle stopping in the middle of the road. The video appeared to capture muzzle flashes coming from the passenger-side window.
According to the affidavit, an officer later pulled over a vehicle driven by Truett and found spent shell casings in the back seat, along with a gun.
Documents do not detail why Truett was ultimately charged under the state law covering assault or intimidation tied to political opinions or the exercise of civil rights.
As of April 1, records show Truett is being held in Horry County on a combined bond of more than $312,000.
WMBF spoke with Phillips after the incident and asked whether there was any prior conflict that might have led to the shooting.
“I don’t know if it’s personal, I don’t know if it’s related to being gay, I don’t know if it’s related to the bar issues,” Phillips told WMBF. “Anybody with a mindset of pulling out a weapon in broad daylight is not right.”
“My primary concern has and always will be the safety of my community and my customers,” he added. “It’s given me great concern … as to how far people will go.”
WMBF also spoke with Adam Hayes, vice chair of Myrtle Beach’s Human Rights Coalition, who was involved in pushing for the ordinance. He said that while the incident itself is troubling, it shows the policy is being put to use.
The ordinance is intended to deter “crimes that are motivated by bias or hate towards any person or persons, in whole or in part, because of the actual or perceived” identity, in the absence of a statewide hate crime law.
“It’s nice to see that something we put into policy is not just a piece of paper, that it’s actually being used,” said Hayes.
He said the shooting underscores the need for a statewide hate crime law in South Carolina and added that the incident has left the local LGBTQ community shaken.
South Carolina and Wyoming are the only two states in the U.S. without a comprehensive statewide hate crime law.
Truett remains in jail as of publication.
The White House
Trump budget would codify expanded global gag rule
Funding for LGBTQ health programs around the world would also be cut
The Trump-Vance administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget would codify the expanded global gag rule and eliminate funding for LGBTQ-specific programs in global health initiatives.
“The budget would ensure no funding supports abortion, unfettered access to birth control, and also eliminates funding for circumcision and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer services to better focus funds on life-saving assistance,” reads the proposed budget the White House released on April 3. “The United States should not pay for the world’s birth control and therapy.”
The proposed budget includes four examples of “eliminated activities.”
- In the last administration, PEPFAR funded health workers who performed over 21 abortions in Mozambique
- Promoting reproductive health education and access to birth control and other harmful programs couched under ‘family planning’ in Ghana
- A supply chain “control tower” to provide a “holistic commercial of the shelf solution” on the Office of Population and Reproductive Health (PRH)
- Promoting health equity and providing condoms and contraception in Kenya.
President Ronald Reagan in 1985 implemented the global gag rule, also known as the “Mexico City” policy, which bans U.S. foreign aid for groups that support abortion and/or offer abortion-related services.
Trump reinstated the rule during his first administration. The Biden-Harris administration shortly after it took office in January 2021 rescinded it.
The Trump-Vance White House earlier this year expanded the global gag rule to ban U.S. foreign aid for groups that promote “gender ideology.” The expansion took effect on Feb. 26.
US funding cuts have devastated global LGBTQ rights movement
The Trump-Vance administration after it took office in January 2025 moved to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, which funded LGBTQ and intersex rights groups around the world. USAID officially shut down on July 1, 2025.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio in March 2025 announced the State Department would administer the 17 percent of USAID contracts that had not been cancelled. Rubio issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the U.S. foreign aid freeze the White House announced shortly after it took office.
The global LGBTQ and intersex rights movement has lost more than an estimated $50 million in funding because of these cuts. The Washington Blade has previously reported PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to suspend services and even shut down.
The Trump-Vance administration has signed healthcare-specific agreements with Kenya, Uganda, and other African countries through its American First Global Health Strategy. Advocacy groups with whom the Blade has spoken have expressed concern these partnerships will result in further exclusion and government-sanctioned discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The proposed fiscal year 2027 budget includes $5.1 billion for “global health to end the previous administration’s abuse of these programs and to execute (the State Department’s) newly released America First Global Health Strategy.” This figure represents a $4.3 billion cut from the previous year.
“The president’s new vision of bilateral health assistance eliminates bloated Beltway Bandit contracts, does more with fewer dollars, and transitions recipient countries to self-reliance,” reads the proposed budget. “The budget would also eliminate disease-specific accounts and provide the department crucial agility to address the actual needs of each recipient country — across HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and polio — to strengthen global health security and protect Americans from disease.”
“The budget would focus on new compacts that unify funding, achieving economies of scale in both implementation and oversight,” it adds. “Under the prior administration, only about 40 percent of PEPFAR funds supported actual service delivery, including medications, testing, commodities, and health workers, with the remaining 60 percent wasted on duplicative administrative costs, unwieldy supply chains, and layers of endless bureaucracy. The new AFGHS (America First Global Health Strategy) compacts would improve efficiency, cut red tape, and dismantle the bloated ecosystem of foreign assistance profiteers.”
The Council for Global Equality on April 3 reiterated its criticism of the expanded global gag rule, and urged Congress to reject the proposed budget.
“We won’t mince words: people are dying because of this policy,” said the Council for Global Equality in a statement. “Making this policy permanent will only ensure that U.S. foreign assistance discriminates against those who need services the most, all while forcing people around the world to adhere to the Trump administration’s extremist, ideological agenda that denies the very existence of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex persons.”
“We will not be silent as Trump threatens to upend decades of bipartisan foreign assistance programs to appease his extremist base,” added the group. “We call on Congress to immediately reject this budget and block implementation of the expanded global gag rules.”
Vice President JD Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, will visit Hungary next week.
An announcement the White House released on Thursday said the Vances will be in Budapest, the Hungarian capital, from April 7-8.
JD Vance “will hold bilateral meetings with” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The announcement further indicates the vice president “will also deliver remarks on the rich partnership between the United States and Hungary.”
The Vances will travel to Hungary less than a week before the country’s parliamentary elections take place on April 12.
Orbán, who has been in office since 2010, and his Fidesz-KDNP coalition government have faced widespread criticism over its anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
The Associated Press notes polls indicate Orbán is trailing Péter Magyar and his center-right Tisza party.
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