National
Baldwin for Senate?
LGBT advocates push lesbian lawmaker to run
Rep. Tammy Baldwin is reportedly considering a Senate run (Blade file photo by Michael Key)
The opportunity for Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) to become a U.S. senator in the wake of an announcement that a Senate seat will be open in 2012 to represent Wisconsin has LGBT advocates pushing her to pursue higher office.
Baldwin, who has been serving in the U.S. House since 1999 as the only out lesbian in Congress, is likely to pursue a run for the seat, according to the Rothberg Political Report. The Wisconsin lawmaker’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request to comment on the reporting.
In a statement, Chuck Wolfe, president of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, said Baldwin’s run for U.S. Senate would be a “top priority” for his organization.
“This would be a remarkable milestone for LGBT Americans,” Wolfe said. “Congresswoman Baldwin is one of the most admired public officials I know. She would have the strong support of those who want to see our economy work for all Americans, and who believe that all voices deserve a place at the table.”
Katie Belanger, executive director of Fair Wisconsin, said an official announcement from Baldwin that she’d pursue a Senate seat would be “an exciting day for Wisconsin.”
“Tammy has a few things,” Belanger said. “First of all, she is a tireless advocate for progressive values and she is a very, very strong leader who’s willing to stand up for what she believes in. At the same time, she’s also very willing to dialogue with people on both sides of the aisle and willing to come up with solutions that bring people together.”
The opportunity for Baldwin to become a U.S. senator — and the first person in the U.S. Senate to identify as LGBT — became apparent Friday when four-term Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) announced he wouldn’t seek re-election.
Pursuing a run for Senate would be more challenging for Baldwin than previous runs because she’d no longer be an incumbent and she’d have to win majority support among the electorate in her entire state as opposed to her own Democratic-leaning House district.
The news of Kohl’s retirement prompted the Rothberg Political Report to move the Senate seat in the 2012 election temporarily from “Safe Democrat” to “Lean Democrat” until more potential candidates become known.
Despite the challenge that Baldwin could face, recent events in Wisconsin could tilt the odds of winning a Senate seat in her favor.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) agenda, which has included a restriction on collective bargaining rights of state workers, has energized Democrats in Wisconsin. Baldwin was vocal in her support for the union rights during the debate and could capitalize on her visibility during the often heated discussion in her pursuit of higher office.
Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, said forecasting whether Baldwin could win in the race is difficult at this point because the 2012 election is still more than a year away.
“It is so early that it’s hard to handicap the race without knowing the nominees, or how well or poorly President Obama is running for reelection in the fall of 2012,” Sabato said. “This may be yet another Senate contest decided by the results of the presidential contest in the state.”
Still, Belanger said she thinks Baldwin would be an “incredibly viable” candidate in a race for a Senate seat because of the lawmaker’s history of success in her House district.
“It’s about a third urban, a third rural and a third suburban — and in the last election cycle, she won overwhelmingly in a year that was really difficult and tough for Democrats all across the country,” Belanger said. “I think that really demonstrates that she’s able to go into traditionally difficult parts of the state for Democrats and for progressives and really build a strong base of support.”
Exactly who Baldwin would face during her potential run remains in question. On the Democratic side, Russ Feingold, who lost his U.S. Senate seat in the 2010 election, has been named as a potential contender for the Democratic nomination.
Sabato said other potential Democratic candidates — including Baldwin — would yield if Feingold threw his hat in the race.
“The right of first refusal for the Democratic nomination almost certainly goes to Russ Feingold,” Sabato said. “It’s hard to imagine Tammy Baldwin or other major Democrats standing in the way of Feingold’s attempt to return to the Senate, should he choose to do so. Feingold retains great popularity among Democrats in Wisconsin and around the nation.”
Other potential Democratic candidates that have been named include Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and Steve Kagan, a former House member who was ousted during the Republican wave in the 2010 election.
Republican contenders who could run include Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus, who stated opposition to same-sex marriage in his bid to become head of the Republican Party before taking the position.
Another GOP contender is House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who gained notoriety after he introduced a controversial alternative budget to President Obama’s plan for fiscal year 2012. Ryan’s measure, which was approved by on the House floor last month, would have eliminated the stimulus package approved in 2009 and defunded Medicare.
Federal Government
RFK Jr.’s HHS report pushes therapy, not medical interventions, for trans youth
‘Discredited junk science’ — GLAAD
A 409-page report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services challenges the ethics of medical interventions for youth experiencing gender dysphoria, the treatments that are often collectively called gender-affirming care, instead advocating for psychotherapy alone.
The document comes in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order barring the federal government from supporting gender transitions for anyone younger than 19.
“Our duty is to protect our nation’s children — not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions,” National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement. “We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas.”
While the report does not constitute clinical guidance, its findings nevertheless conflict with not just the recommendations of LGBTQ advocacy groups but also those issued by organizations with relevant expertise in science and medicine.
The American Medical Association, for instance, notes that “empirical evidence has demonstrated that trans and non-binary gender identities are normal variations of human identity and expression.”
Gender-affirming care for transgender youth under standards widely used in the U.S. includes supportive talk therapy along with — in some but not all cases — puberty blockers or hormone treatment.
“The suggestion that someone’s authentic self and who they are can be ‘changed’ is discredited junk science,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “This so-called guidance is grossly misleading and in direct contrast to the recommendation of every leading health authority in the world. This report amounts to nothing more than forcing the same discredited idea of conversion therapy that ripped families apart and harmed gay, lesbian, and bisexual young people for decades.”
GLAAD further notes that the “government has not released the names of those involved in consulting or authoring this report.”
Janelle Perez, executive director of LPAC, said, “For decades, every major medical association–including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics–have affirmed that medical care is the only safe and effective treatment for transgender youth experiencing gender dysphoria.
“This report is simply promoting conversion therapy by a different name – and the American people know better. We know that conversion therapy isn’t actually therapy – it isolates and harms kids, scapegoats parents, and divides families through blame and rejection. These tactics have been used against gay kids for decades, and now the same people want to use them against transgender youth and their families.
“The end result here will be a devastating denial of essential health care for transgender youth, replaced by a dangerous practice that every major U.S. medical and mental health association agree promotes anxiety, depression, and increased risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts.
“Like being gay or lesbian, being transgender is not a choice, and no amount of pressure can force someone to change who they are. We also know that 98% of people who receive transition-related health care continue to receive that health care throughout their lifetime. Trans health care is health care.”
“Today’s report seeks to erase decades of research and learning, replacing it with propaganda. The claims in today’s report would rip health care away from kids and take decision-making out of the hands of parents,” said Shannon Minter, legal director of NCLR. “It promotes the same kind of conversion therapy long used to shame LGBTQ+ people into hating themselves for being unable to change something they can’t change.”
“Like being gay or lesbian, being transgender is not a choice—it’s rooted in biology and genetics,” Minter said. “No amount or talk or pressure will change that.”
Human Rights Campaign Chief of Staff Jay Brown released a statement: “Trans people are who we are. We’re born this way. And we deserve to live our best lives and have a fair shot and equal opportunity at living a good life.
“This report misrepresents the science that has led all mainstream American medical and mental health professionals to declare healthcare for transgender youth to be best practice and instead follows a script predetermined not by experts but by Sec. Kennedy and anti-equality politicians.”
The White House
Trump nominates Mike Waltz to become next UN ambassador
Former Fla. congressman had been national security advisor
President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he will nominate Mike Waltz to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
Waltz, a former Florida congressman, had been the national security advisor.
Trump announced the nomination amid reports that Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, were going to leave the administration after Waltz in March added a journalist to a Signal chat in which he, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other officials discussed plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States ambassador to the United Nations,” said Trump in a Truth Social post that announced Waltz’s nomination. “From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role.”
Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as interim national security advisor, “while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department.”
“Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to make America, and the world, safe again,” said Trump.
Trump shortly after his election nominated U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Trump in March withdrew her nomination in order to ensure Republicans maintained their narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Federal Courts
Second federal lawsuit filed against White House passport policy
Two of seven plaintiffs live in Md.
Lambda Legal on April 25 filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of seven transgender and nonbinary people who are challenging the Trump-Vance administration’s passport policy.
The lawsuit, which Lambda Legal filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Baltimore, alleges the policy that bans the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers “has caused and is causing grave and immediate harm to transgender people like plaintiffs, in violation of their constitutional rights to equal protection.”
Two of the seven plaintiffs — Jill Tran and Peter Poe — live in Maryland. The State Department, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the federal government are defendants.
“The discriminatory passport policy exposes transgender U.S. citizens to harassment, abuse, and discrimination, in some cases endangering them abroad or preventing them from traveling, by forcing them to use identification documents that share private information against their wishes,” said Lambda Legal in a press release.
Zander Schlacter, a New York-based textile artist and designer, is the lead plaintiff.
The lawsuit notes he legally changed his name and gender in New York.
Schlacter less than a week before President Donald Trump’s inauguration “sent an expedited application to update his legal name on his passport, using form DS-5504.”
Trump once he took office signed an executive order that banned the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers. The lawsuit notes Schlacter received his new passport in February.
“The passport has his correct legal name, but now has an incorrect sex marker of ‘F’ or ‘female,'” notes the lawsuit. “Mr. Schlacter also received a letter from the State Department notifying him that ‘the date of birth, place of birth, name, or sex was corrected on your passport application,’ with ‘sex’ circled in red. The stated reason was ‘to correct your information to show your biological sex at birth.'”
“I, like many transgender people, experience fear of harassment or violence when moving through public spaces, especially where a photo ID is required,” said Schlacter in the press release that announced the lawsuit. “My safety is further at risk because of my inaccurate passport. I am unwilling to subject myself and my family to the threat of harassment and discrimination at the hands of border officials or anyone who views my passport.”
Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June 2021 announced the State Department would begin to issue gender-neutral passports and documents for American citizens who were born overseas.
Dana Zzyym, an intersex U.S. Navy veteran who identifies as nonbinary, in 2015 filed a federal lawsuit against the State Department after it denied their application for a passport with an “X” gender marker. Zzyym in October 2021 received the first gender-neutral American passport.
Lambda Legal represented Zzyym.
The State Department policy took effect on April 11, 2022.
Trump signed his executive order shortly after he took office in January. Germany, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands are among the countries that have issued travel advisories for trans and nonbinary people who plan to visit the U.S.
A federal judge in Boston earlier this month issued a preliminary injunction against the executive order. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of seven trans and nonbinary people.
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