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RNC 2012: LGBT protesters demonstrate at convention

Undeterred by rain, activists rail against Republican Party

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Juan Rodriguez (left), Nelina Stamp (center) and Felipe Sousa-Rodriguez at an anti-GOP rally (Blade photo by Michael Key)

TAMPA, Fla. — A major demonstration on the first day of the Republican National Convention included a handful of LGBT protesters who decried the GOP for supporting anti-gay policies.

On Monday, nearly 500 demonstrators gathered in Tampa’s Perry Harvey, Sr., Park for the “March on the RNC” — braving inclement weather — to speak out against the “agenda of the one percent” before marching for about a mile to the city’s convention center. Activists affiliated with GetEQUAL were among those in the LGBT part of the coalition.

Jarrod Scarbrough, a gay Tampa, Fla., resident and co-state leader of GetEQUAL Florida, was among those addressing the audience, saying the policies adopted by the Republican Party as part of the draft version of its platform would harm both him and his partner of 18 years as well as his daughter.

“We are a family, but this week, the Republicans will try to add language to their platform to continue to discriminate against families like mine,” Scarbrough said. “They also want to give an unborn fetus full rights, yet if that fetus grows up to be LGBTQ, 88 percent of those rights will be ripped away. That’s right, as a gay man, I have 12 percent of the rights as heterosexuals. This is wrong, especially when the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution affirms that all men are created equal.”

Scarbrough was among the activists at the White House Easter Egg Roll who intended to ask President Obama to issue an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT workers. The White House later said Obama wouldn’t issue the order at this time, but the action did lead to mainstream media asking White House Press Secretary Jay Carney about the possible directive at the daily news briefing on the same day.

Felipe Sousa-Rodriguez, national field director for GetEQUAL, was alongside Scarbrough onstage — donning a rainbow Pride flag as if it were a poncho — and translated his fellow activist’s remarks into Spanish.

Sousa-Rodriguez, who’s also done work as a DREAM activist, later the told the Washington Blade he wanted to serve as translator to “make sure that everybody could understand the march.”

“Basically what we’re doing is telling that the Republican Party is actually advocating for more rights for a fetus than for an LGBT person — an American person who pays taxes, who fully contributes to their community,” Sousa-Rodriguez said. “They don’t want to extend the Fourteenth Amendment rights to people like us, and yet give it fetuses before they were born. Basically, what they are saying is they want to give more before we are than after we are born.”

The rainy weather impacted the number of people who attended the march. According to Sousa-Rodriguez, about 5,000 demonstrators were expected as well as about a dozen LGBT people, but buses that were scheduled to deliver protesters to the rally were cancelled because of Hurricane Isaac and only a fraction of that number appeared.

A number of activists who attended the march held signs criticizing the policies of the Republican Party and its presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney. One held up a sign saying, “Abort Shit Romney & his Taliban Party,” while another sign read, “MIsTrusT,” with letters making up Romney’s first name in capital letters.

But protests were directed at the Democrats as well as Republicans. Others on stage denounced policies keeping the United States at war in Afghanistan and harming undocumented immigrants in the United States. Protesters affiliated with the socialist Workers World Party held up a sign reading “RNC/DNC = Tool of the 1%: Fight Capitalist Rule.”

Green Party Vice Presidential Nominee Cheri Honkala, a single mother who was once homeless along with her nine-year-old son, was among those who spoke and called on participants to “occupy” the polls in November and call for more voices in the upcoming two-party presidential debates.

“If they don’t let other viewpoints into the debate, we’ve got to occupy the debate,” Honkala said. “Don’t vote for the lesser of two evils: vote courage.”

After the march concluded, Scarbrough said demonstrators experienced no hostility from Republicans or others opposed to the protesters’ views and the police arrested no one affiliated with the march. According to ABC News, police did arrest one protester, 20-year-old Dominick Delarosa, when he refused to remove a mask at the request of police.

Nelina Stamp, a 24-year-old queer activist who recently moved to Miami, said she wanted to participate in the march as a visible LGBT person because of LGBT members of her family who live in her home state of New York.

“My mother is a lesbian, and for so long, I had to see her not be able to get married, not have the same equality, be able to get fired from her workplace and live in these circumstances that are just not fair, right?” Stamp said. “Thankfully, New York passed marriage equality just last year, which is great, but still on the federal level, the LGBT community doesn’t have that many rights, and I’m here because it’s not on the Republicans’ agenda.”

Stamp is also a leader with the group Dream Defenders, which seeks to advance the DREAM Act and issues related to undocumented immigrants as well as mass incarceration in the prison pipeline.

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U.S. Supreme Court

Supreme Court to consider bans on trans athletes in school sports

27 states have passed laws limiting participation in athletics programs

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U.S. Supreme Court (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear two cases involving transgender youth challenging bans prohibiting them from participating in school sports.

In Little v. Hecox, plaintiffs represented by the ACLU, Legal Voice, and the law firm Cooley are challenging Idaho’s 2020 ban, which requires sex testing to adjudicate questions of an athlete’s eligibility.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals described the process in a 2023 decision halting the policy’s enforcement pending an outcome in the litigation. The “sex dispute verification process, whereby any individual can ‘dispute’ the sex of any female student athlete in the state of Idaho,” the court wrote, would “require her to undergo intrusive medical procedures to verify her sex, including gynecological exams.”

In West Virginia v. B.P.J., Lambda Legal, the ACLU, the ACLU of West Virginia, and Cooley are representing a trans middle school student challenging the Mountain State’s 2021 ban on trans athletes.

The plaintiff was participating in cross country when the law was passed, taking puberty blockers that would have significantly reduced the chances that she could have a physiological advantage over cisgender peers.

“Like any other educational program, school athletic programs should be accessible for everyone regardless of their sex or transgender status,” said Joshua Block, senior counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ and HIV Project. “Trans kids play sports for the same reasons their peers do — to learn perseverance, dedication, teamwork, and to simply have fun with their friends,” Block said.

He added, “Categorically excluding kids from school sports just because they are transgender will only make our schools less safe and more hurtful places for all youth. We believe the lower courts were right to block these discriminatory laws, and we will continue to defend the freedom of all kids to play.”

“Our client just wants to play sports with her friends and peers,” said Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Tara Borelli. “Everyone understands the value of participating in team athletics, for fitness, leadership, socialization, and myriad other benefits.”

Borelli continued, “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit last April issued a thoughtful and thorough ruling allowing B.P.J. to continue participating in track events. That well-reasoned decision should stand the test of time, and we stand ready to defend it.”

Shortly after taking control of both legislative chambers, Republican members of Congress tried — unsuccessfully — to pass a national ban like those now enforced in 27 states since 2020.

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Federal Government

UPenn erases Lia Thomas’s records as part of settlement with White House

University agreed to ban trans women from women’s sports teams

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U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon (Screen capture: C-SPAN)

In a settlement with the Trump-Vance administration announced on Tuesday, the University of Pennsylvania will ban transgender athletes from competing and erase swimming records set by transgender former student Lia Thomas.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found the university in violation of Title IX, the federal rights law barring sex based discrimination in educational institutions, by “permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”

The statement issued by University of Pennsylvania President J. Larry Jameson highlighted how the law’s interpretation was changed substantially under President Donald Trump’s second term.

“The Department of Education OCR investigated the participation of one transgender athlete on the women’s swimming team three years ago, during the 2021-2022 swim season,” he wrote. “At that time, Penn was in compliance with NCAA eligibility rules and Title IX as then interpreted.”

Jameson continued, “Penn has always followed — and continues to follow — Title IX and the applicable policy of the NCAA regarding transgender athletes. NCAA eligibility rules changed in February 2025 with Executive Orders 14168 and 14201 and Penn will continue to adhere to these new rules.”

Writing that “we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules” in place while Thomas was allowed to compete, the university president added, “We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.”

“Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the university for future generations of female athletes.”

Under former President Joe Biden, the department’s Office of Civil Rights sought to protect against anti-LGBTQ discrimination in education, bringing investigations and enforcement actions in cases where school officials might, for example, require trans students to use restrooms and facilities consistent with their birth sex or fail to respond to peer harassment over their gender identity.

Much of the legal reasoning behind the Biden-Harris administration’s positions extended from the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County, which found that sex-based discrimination includes that which is based on sexual orientation or gender identity under Title VII rules covering employment practices.

The Trump-Vance administration last week put the state of California on notice that its trans athlete policies were, or once were, in violation of Title IX, which comes amid the ongoing battle with Maine over the same issue.

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New York

Two teens shot steps from Stonewall Inn after NYC Pride parade

One of the victims remains in critical condition

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The Stonewall National Memorial in New York on June 19, 2024. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

On Sunday night, following the annual NYC Pride March, two girls were shot in Sheridan Square, feet away from the historic Stonewall Inn.

According to an NYPD report, the two girls, aged 16 and 17, were shot around 10:15 p.m. as Pride festivities began to wind down. The 16-year-old was struck in the head and, according to police sources, is said to be in critical condition, while the 17-year-old was said to be in stable condition.

The Washington Blade confirmed with the NYPD the details from the police reports and learned no arrests had been made as of noon Monday.

The shooting took place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, mere feet away from the most famous gay bar in the city — if not the world — the Stonewall Inn. Earlier that day, hundreds of thousands of people marched down Christopher Street to celebrate 55 years of LGBTQ people standing up for their rights.

In June 1969, after police raided the Stonewall Inn, members of the LGBTQ community pushed back, sparking what became known as the Stonewall riots. Over the course of two days, LGBTQ New Yorkers protested the discriminatory policing of queer spaces across the city and mobilized to speak out — and throw bottles if need be — at officers attempting to suppress their existence.

The following year, LGBTQ people returned to the Stonewall Inn and marched through the same streets where queer New Yorkers had been arrested, marking the first “Gay Pride March” in history and declaring that LGBTQ people were not going anywhere.

New York State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, whose district includes Greenwich Village, took to social media to comment on the shooting.

“After decades of peaceful Pride celebrations — this year gun fire and two people shot near the Stonewall Inn is a reminder that gun violence is everywhere,” the lesbian lawmaker said on X. “Guns are a problem despite the NRA BS.”

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