National
Trans advocate picked to lead LGBT military group
Robinson says she had to ‘deny truths’ to continue service
OutServe-SLDN executive director Allyson Robinson (photo courtesy Outserve Magazine)
Two organizations dedicated to assisting LGBT service members have merged to take on the issues of the post-“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military and have designated a new leader who personifies a lingering inequity that remains for the armed forces.
OutServe-SLDN named as its new executive director Allyson Robinson — a 1994 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point who, as an Army officer, commanded PATRIOT missile units in Europe and the Middle East — as it officially completed its merger last week at its International Leadership Conference in Orlando, Fla.
The Scranton, Pa., native is a transgender veteran and the only openly transgender head of a major national organization dedicated to serving the LGBT community.
Speaking to the Washington Blade from the conference last week, Robinson said she didn’t transition until she left active duty, but still felt like she had to “deny truths” about herself during her service.
“I came from a military family and had that value of service above self, or service to the country that has given me so much,” Robinson said. “I had that value ingrained in me from the time I was a child. To be in a position in order to carry out that value, I had to violate another value that I held very deeply — that value of honestly and integrity. It was an ugly thing.”
Robinson said she didn’t identify as transgender while in service during the 1990s because at that time, she wasn’t aware of the terminology to describe her gender identity, although she was aware of pioneering leaders in the movement.
“I didn’t have language for what I experienced, or what my identity was because much of the language that we use today didn’t exist,” Robinson said. “But clearly, to steer into the heart of your question, I knew who I was. And I knew that in order to keep my career, and to serve the country I love, that I had to deny who I was.”
Unlike “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which was a law passed by Congress in 1993 to prevent openly gay people from serving in the military, the prohibition on openly transgender service is administrative. Those who identify as transgender are forced to take a medical discharge.
Robinson emphasized the difficulties that transgender people experience in concealing their identity while serving in the military.
“And in many ways, it’s even worse than the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ military because there is no ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,'” Robinson added. “People in the chain of command are completely authorized to ask, and if you don’t respond truthfully — if you perjure yourself — then there are penalties for that.”
Much in the same way LGBT advocates pointed to allied nations that allowed openly gay service during the effort to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Robinson said several allied countries have implemented openly transgender service with no adverse impact, including the United Kingdom, Great Britain and Australia.
Most recently, Robinson was the deputy director for employee programs at the HRC Foundation and drove the curricula designed to improve LGBT cultural competence in the workplace. She and her wife of 18 years live with their four children in Gaithersburg, Md.
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said she doesn’t have “in-depth” experience working with Robinson, but engaged with her in a limited capacity during her tenure at HRC.
“I think it’s about time we had a trans person running a non-trans national LGBT organization,” Keisling said. “But I’m assuming they hired her because of her talents and her experience and not because she’s trans, and not because that’s suddenly going to be the only thing they work on.”
Keisling added she hopes the appointment of Robinson will bring greater attention to the issue of transgender people being barred from service.
“That’s a very important issue for them to get to,” Keisling said. “There hasn’t yet been a lot of work on it and we need there to start being support on it, so I’m really hopeful about that.”
Robinson said the issue of transgender service is receiving greater attention and she wants more openly transgender service members and veterans to tell their stories to help enact change.
“This is so crucial,” Robinson said. “We saw it during the fight to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ It’s part of the work that we’re doing at OutServe-SLDN right now — getting out the stories of gay and lesbian service members who are still not receiving the same benefits, the same privileges as their straight counterparts. The stories are so crucial to winning these fights.”
At the same conference where the appointment of Robinson was formally announced, OutServe-SLDN came into existence as a result of the merger between two organizations: Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which since 1993 has provided legal services to gay service members in the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era, and OutServe, which was founded as a Facebook group and rose to prominence during the fight to repeal the law.
SLDN’s board and OutServe’s board voted unanimously to complete the merger, which was first announced in July. Retired Navy Captain April Heinze, who previously served as co-chair of the SLDN board of directors will take the helm alongside Josh Seefried, co-founder and previously co-director of OutServe.
In a statement, Seefried said the merger would enable the groups to serve as a “strong, unified voice” before the Pentagon and White House on policy matters affecting gay service members.
“What began as a simple effort to tell our stories has grown into something we could never have imagined, and this combination represents the next step in that evolution,” Seefried said. “Each organization brings its own strengths to the fight for full LGBT military equality, and we are stronger together.”
Openly transgender service is but one of many goals that Robinson has said she wants to pursue as head of OutServe-SLDN. Also on the docket: getting the Pentagon to make an administrative change so gay service members with same-sex partners can obtain certain benefits; repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act so gay service members can offer health and pension benefits to their same-sex spouses; growth of the network of service members formerly under OutServe; and continuing to provide legal services to gay service members.
Still, for the big ticket items like equal benefits for troops and openly transgender service, Robinson said she wasn’t immediately able to offer a plan publicly to achieve those goals.
“I’ve been part of the work there at HRC for some time; we’re going to continue to work together,” Robinson said. “But in terms of what the specific strategies are, I don’t know that it’s in the movement’s advantage for me to put too many details out there.”
But as part of the effect to provide partner benefits to gay service members, Robinson said she wants to sit down with Pentagon leaders to ask them why they haven’t yet been implemented. At the time “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was lifted last year, the Pentagon said it was going to examine these benefits — which include joint duty assignments, issuance of IDs, use of the commissary and family housing — but hasn’t yet taken action.
“The lives of gay and lesbian service members could be significantly improved — it couple happen today with a stroke of a pen — and yet, for some unfathomable reason, there is a dire lack of will to make that happen among the people whose charge it is to take care of service members and their families,” Robinson said. “I’m very, very eager to sit down with some of those people and ask them that very question.”
Robinson also said SLDN’s lawsuit against DOMA — McLaughlin v. Panetta — will remain a priority for the organization, even though the case has been halted at the district court level pending the outcome of the DOMA cases before the Supreme Court. Because of DOMA, gay service members are denied major benefits that can’t be implemented administratively, like health and pension benefits.
“DOMA hurts military families,” Robinson said. “And because of that, DOMA is a national security issue. And so, we see the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act as something that is crucial not just to our members and their partners and their children, but that’s crucial to the security of this nation.”
And Robinson also said she plans to extend the network of LGBT service members under the organization from the more than 6,000 members in place and reach into the estimated 66,000 gay and lesbian troops that are currently in service.
“Just coming in from this chapter’s meeting that I’m in, I heard something from one of our leaders, our volunteer leaders that encouraged me,” Robinson said. “She said, ‘Our most important member is that young private, or young airmen out there — these are the lowest ranking soldiers in the U.S. military‚ who is gay, lesbian, bi or transgender and who doesn’t even know we exist and feels completely alone.’ As an organization, we exist for those people.”
Florida
DeSantis signs emergency bill that restores Fla. ADAP funding
Temporary funds to last through June 30
After the Florida Department of Health made huge cuts to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program in January, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed emergency legislation restoring HIV access to more than 12,000 Floridians.
Two months ago, as the Washington Blade reported, the Sunshine State cut the vast majority of those in ADAP by shifting the income levels required for eligibility — without following standard procedure when changing government policy outside of legislative or executive action.
The bill, signed by DeSantis on Tuesday, passed both chambers of the Florida Legislature unanimously and appropriates $30.9 million in emergency bridge funding through June 30, 2026. It restores Florida’s ADAP income eligibility to 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level — the level it was prior to the January cuts. The legislation also requires the FDOH to submit detailed monthly financial reports to legislative leadership beginning April 1.
Under the old policy, eligibility would have been limited to those making no more than 130 percent of the federal poverty level, or $20,345 per year.
“For 10 weeks, 12,000 Floridians living with HIV did not know if they could fill their next prescription. Today, they can,” Esteban Wood, director of advocacy and legislative affairs at AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said in a statement.
The detailed reports now required to be sent to legislative leadership must include all federal revenues and expenditures, including manufacturer rebates; enrollment figures by county and insurance status; prescription utilization by drug class; and any projected funding shortfalls. This is the first time the Legislature has required this level of financial transparency from the program.
DeSantis signed the legislation one day after a Leon County Circuit Court judge denied AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s request for an injunction to block the significant changes the DeSantis administration is making to the program, which it claims faces a $120 million shortfall for calendar year 2026.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a national organization focused on protecting and expanding HIV healthcare access and prevention methods, filed a lawsuit over the change in eligibility, arguing the Florida Department of Health did not follow the laid out path for formally changing policy and was acting outside established procedures.
Typically, altering eligibility for a statewide program requires either legislative action or adherence to a multistep rule-making process, including: publishing a Notice of Proposed Rule; providing a statement of estimated regulatory costs; allowing public comment; holding hearings if requested; responding to challenges; and formally adopting the rule. According to AIDS Healthcare Foundation, none of these steps occurred.
The long-term structure of ADAP will be determined by the 2026–2027 fiscal year state budget, something that lawmakers have until June 30 to finish.
Federal Government
Markwayne Mullin confirmed as next DHS secretary
Okla. senator to succeed Kristi Noem
The U.S. Senate confirmed Markwayne Mullin as the next secretary of Homeland Security on Monday, as the agency continues to grapple with what lawmakers have described as a “never-ending” funding standoff, with Democrats attempting to withhold funding from one of the nation’s largest and most costly agencies.
Mullin — a Republican senator from Oklahoma, former mixed martial arts fighter, and plumbing business owner — was confirmed in a 54–45 vote. Two Democrats — U.S. Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) — sided with Republicans in supporting his confirmation.
The new agency head is expected to follow the policy direction set by President Donald Trump, emphasizing stricter immigration enforcement. This includes proposals to support immigration agents at polling sites and to cut funding to so-called “sanctuary cities.”
Mullin replaces Kristi Noem, who was fired earlier this month following a widely scrutinized 2-day congressional hearing on Capitol Hill.
During the hearing, Noem faced intense questioning over her response to several crises, including the fatal shooting of two American citizens in Minneapolis by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, a $220 million border security advertising campaign that featured her on horseback near Mount Rushmore amid one of the largest federal workforce reductions in U.S. history, and the federal response to major natural disasters such as the July 2025 Texas floods and Hurricane Helene in 2024.
Noem had previously drawn criticism for a series of policy decisions in South Dakota that broadly focused on restricting the rights of LGBTQ individuals. In 2023, she signed House Bill 1080, banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. She also signed legislation and executive orders restricting trans athletes’ participation in women’s sports, as well as the state’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” which critics argued enabled discrimination against LGBTQ individuals. Additionally, the state canceled contracts related to LGBTQ support services — including suicide prevention and health care navigation programs‚ and later agreed to a $300,000 settlement with trans advocacy group, The Transformation Project.
Despite her removal from DHS, Noem will remain in the Trump-Vance administration as a special envoy for the “Shield of the Americas,” an initiative aimed at promoting U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere, including efforts to counter cartel networks, reduce Chinese influence, and manage migration.
The new head of DHS has served in Congress since 2013, in both houses of the federal legislature. While in the Senate and a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Mullin has been a vocal critic of policies aimed at expanding LGBTQ inclusion. He led a group of lawmakers in urging the Administration for Community Living to reverse a rule requiring states to prioritize Older Americans Act services based on sexual orientation and gender identity, arguing the policy could have unintended consequences.
Mullin also makes history as the first Native American — and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation — to lead the Department of Homeland Security. He was also among the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results despite no evidence of widespread fraud, and was present in the U.S. House of Representatives chamber on Jan. 6.
Federal Government
Protesters say SAVE Act targets voters, transgender youth
Bill described as ‘Jim Crow 2.0’
Members of Congress, advocates, and people from across the country gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to protest proposed federal legislation that voting rights activists have deemed “Jim Crow 2.0.”
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require in-person proof of citizenship for anyone seeking to vote in U.S. elections.
President Donald Trump has also pushed for the proposed legislation to include a section that would ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, even with parental consent, and prohibit trans people from participating in school or professional sports consistent with their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth.
In addition to changing voter registration requirements, the bill would limit acceptable forms of identification to documents such as a birth certificate or passport — records that the Brennan Center for Justice estimates more than 21 million Americans do not have — effectively restricting access to the ballot. It would also ban online voter registration, DMV voter registration efforts, and mail-in voter registration.
A 2021 investigation by the Associated Press found that fewer than 475 people voted illegally or improperly, a tiny fraction of the estimated 160 million Americans who voted in the 2020 election.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke at the event.
“It will kick millions of American citizens off the rolls. And they don’t even require you to be told,” the highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate told protesters and reporters outside the Capitol. “If this law passes — and it won’t — you’re gonna show up in November … and they’ll say… sorry, you’re no longer on the voting rolls.”
He, like many other speakers, emphasized the bill in the context of American history, pointing to what he described as its racist roots and its impact on Black and brown Americans.
“I have called this act, over and over again, Jim Crow 2.0 … because they know it’s the truth.”
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was one of the lawmakers leading opposition to the legislation and spoke at the rally.
“It’s not just voting rights that are on the line — our democracy is on the line,” the California lawmaker said. “It’s not a voter I.D. bill. It’s a bait and switch bill.”
He added historical context, noting the significance of voting rights legislation passed more than 60 years ago. In 1965, Alabama civil rights activists marched to protest barriers to voter registration. Alabama state troopers violently attacked peaceful demonstrators at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, using tear gas, clubs, and whips against more than 500 — mostly Black — protesters.
“61 years ago — not to the day — but this week, President Lyndon Johnson came to the Capitol and addressed a joint session of Congress in the wake of Bloody Sunday and pushed Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act,” Padilla said. “61 years later, Donald Trump and this Republican majority wants to take us backwards. We’re not gonna let that happen.”
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) also spoke, emphasizing that he views the effort as a Republican-led and Trump-backed attempt to restrict voting access, particularly among Black, brown, and predominantly Democratic communities.
“President Trump told Republicans when they were meeting behind closed doors that ‘The SAVE Act will guarantee Republicans win the midterms and ensure they do not lose an election for 50 years,’” Luján said. “The first time I think Donald Trump’s been honest … This voter suppression bill is only that. Taking away vote by mail? I hope my Republican colleagues from states that voted for Donald Trump or where vote by mail is popular have the courage and the backbone to stand up and say no to this nonsense, because their constituents are going to push back.”
U.S. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) also spoke.
“Our Republican colleagues have already cut Medicaid, Medicare, people don’t know how they’re gonna be able to afford energy,” she said, providing context for the broader political moment. “We’re in the middle of a war that they can’t even get straight while we’re in it and don’t have a way to get out of it. And we are now faced with defending our democracy?”
She then showed the crowd something that she said has been with her throughout her political journey in Washington.
“I brought with me something that I carried on the day that I was sworn into the House of Representatives when I was elected in 2016, and I carried it with me on the day that I was sworn in as United States senator. And I also carried it with me when I was trapped up in the gallery on Jan. 6 and all I could think to do was pray … This document allowed my great great great grandfather, who had been enslaved in Georgia, to have the right to vote. We took this and turned it into a scarf. It is the returns of qualified voters and reconstruction code from 1867. This is my proof of what we’ve been through. This is also our inspiration.”
“I got to travel between the Edmund Pettus Bridge two times. And even as I thought about this moment, I recognized that while we wish we weren’t in it, while we don’t know why we’re in it, I do know we were made for it … So I came today to tell you that, um, just like the leader said, that he calls it Jim Crow 2.0. I call it Jim Crow 2.NO.”
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy organization in the U.S., also spoke, highlighting the impact of the bill’s proposed provisions affecting trans people.
“This bill is not about saving America. This bill is about stealing an election. This bill is about suppressing voters,” Robinson said. “This bill not only tries to disenfranchise voters that deserve their right to vote, it also tries to criminalize trans kids and their families … It tries to criminalize doctors providing medically necessary care for our trans youth.”
The SAVE Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 11 but has not yet been considered in the U.S. Senate.
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