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.”
Federal Government
Inside the LGBTQ records of Todd Blanche and Markwayne Mullin
Two men are acting attorney general, DHS secretary
President Donald Trump became famous for his use of the phrase “You’re fired!” while hosting the reality TV show “The Apprentice” in the early 2000s. However, during his time in the Oval Office, he has attempted to distance himself from that image.
Despite those efforts, the phrase once again comes to mind as Trump has fired two high-level female Cabinet members within the past month: Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem.
Their replacements — Todd Blanche at the Justice Department and Markwayne Mullin at the Department of Homeland Security — bring records that, while different in depth, both reflect limited support for LGBTQ protections and, in some cases, direct opposition.
Todd Blanche
Acting attorney general
Little has been found regarding Todd Blanche’s LGBTQ history prior to his role as acting head of the Department of Justice. Unlike those who have worked within the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division or served as state attorneys general, he has not developed a public-facing legal ideology on LGBTQ issues.
Blanche attended American University for his undergraduate studies — like fellow Trump attorney Michael Cohen — where he met his future wife, Kristin, who was studying at nearby Catholic University in D.C.
He began his legal career as an intern at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, which eventually became a full-time position. He later worked as a paralegal in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York while attending Brooklyn Law School at night. Blanche graduated cum laude in 2003. He and his wife later married and had two children.
Blanche left the U.S. attorney’s office in 2014, taking a job in the Manhattan office of the law firm WilmerHale. In September 2017, he moved to Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, where he was a partner in the White Collar Defense and Investigations practice.
In his personal capacity, he represented several figures associated with Donald Trump and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, including Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, businessman Igor Fruman, and attorney Boris Epshteyn.
In 2024, Blanche switched from Democrat to Republican, aligning himself with Trump’s political orbit. He later served as Trump’s personal defense attorney in the New York State case that led to Trump’s 2024 conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to bisexual adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Now the highest-ranking official at the Justice Department, Blanche has played a central role in overseeing the department and has been involved in leadership decisions tied to several controversial actions affecting LGBTQ people.
In a letter to New York Attorney General Letitia James, Blanche declared that the Justice Department “will not sit idly by while you attempt to use your office to force harmful procedures on our most vulnerable population,” if legal action were taken against NYU Langone. The hospital had “permanently” ended a program earlier that month after the Trump-Vance administration threatened to pull all federal funding if it continued prescribing puberty blockers and hormones to minors.
Blanche wrote that “the Justice Department believes the law is clear, and anti-discrimination laws cannot be used to force NYU Langone to perform sex-rejecting procedures on children.”
“As just one example, your office’s position would require a hospital to prescribe certain medications for certain diagnoses, regardless of the hospital’s or its doctors’ independent medical determination about the propriety of such treatment,” he said.
Blanche also echoed his predecessor’s public stance on limiting LGBTQ-related protections at the federal level, aligning with Bondi’s sentiments in June 2025 regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6–3 decision that restricted LGBTQ history lessions in schools and limits lower federal courts from issuing nationwide injunctions — rulings that have often blocked Trump administration policies.
Calling it “another great decision that came down today,” Blanche argued that the ruling “restores parents’ rights to decide their child’s education,” adding: “It seems like a basic idea, but it took the Supreme Court to set the record straight, and we thank them for that. And now that ruling allows parents to opt out of dangerous trans ideology and make the decisions for their children that they believe is correct.”
In December 2025, a Justice Department memo stated that, “effective immediately,” prisons and jails would no longer be held responsible for violations of standards meant to protect LGBTQ people from harassment, abuse, and rape under the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The law, passed unanimously by Congress in 2003, requires that incarcerated people be screened for their risk of sexual assault, including consideration of LGBTQ status, and applies to all correctional facilities.
Additionally, when the Justice Department, under Blanche’s deputy leadership and at Trump’s behest, attempted to force Children’s National Hospital in D.C. to turn over medical records related to gender-affirming care, U.S. District Judge Julie R. Rubin ruled that the effort “appears to have no purpose other than to intimidate and harass.”
Blanche is also described as having a “strong belief in executive authority.”
Markwayne Mullin
Secretary of Homeland Security
While Blanche’s record is defined more by recent actions than a long paper trail, Markwayne Mullin brings a more established history on LGBTQ issues from his time in Congress.
The head of the Department of Homeland Security has served in Congress since 2013, in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. He has been actively engaged in shaping restrictions and aligns with broader cultural rhetoric that frames anti-LGBTQ speech as protected expression.
In May 2016, Mullin criticized the Department of Education and the Justice Department’s “Dear Colleague” letter on transgender students, arguing that trans girls should not use girls’ restrooms in public schools.
By January 2021, Mullin and then-Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard had introduced a bill to prevent trans women from participating in women’s sports.
Mullin was not recorded as voting on the final passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriage.
In 2023, Mullin received a rating of just 6 percent from the Human Rights Campaign.
While serving in the Senate and as a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Mullin has been a vocal critic of policies aimed at expanding LGBTQ inclusion in federal programs. He has participated in broader Republican efforts questioning equity-based implementation of the Older Americans Act, including guidance related to sexual orientation and gender identity in aging services, arguing such policies 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 among the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results despite no evidence of widespread fraud, and was present in the House on Jan. 6.
Noticias en Español
La X vuelve al tribunal
Primer Circuito examina caso del reconocimiento de personas no binarias en Puerto Rico
Hace ocho meses escribí sobre este tema cuando todavía no había llegado al nivel judicial en el que se encuentra hoy. En ese momento, la discusión se movía entre decisiones administrativas, debates públicos y resistencias políticas. No era un asunto cerrado, pero tampoco había alcanzado el punto actual.
Hoy el escenario es distinto.
La organización Lambda Legal compareció ante el Tribunal de Apelaciones del Primer Circuito en Boston para solicitar que se confirme una decisión que obliga al gobierno de Puerto Rico a emitir certificados de nacimiento que reflejen la identidad de las personas no binarias. La apelación se produce luego de que un tribunal de distrito concluyera que negar esa posibilidad constituye una violación a la Constitución de Estados Unidos.
Este elemento marca la diferencia. Ya no se trata de una discusión conceptual. Existe una determinación judicial que identificó un trato desigual.
El planteamiento de la parte demandante se sostiene en el propio marco legal vigente en Puerto Rico. Los certificados de nacimiento de identidad no son registros históricos inmutables. Son documentos utilizados para fines actuales y esenciales. Permiten acceder a empleo, educación y servicios, y son requeridos en múltiples gestiones ante el Estado. Su función es operativa.
En ese contexto, la exclusión de las personas no binarias no responde a una limitación jurídica. Puerto Rico permite la corrección de marcadores de género en certificados de nacimiento para personas trans binarias desde el caso Arroyo González v. Rosselló Nevares. Además, el Código Civil reconoce la existencia de certificados que reflejan la identidad de la persona más allá del registro original.
La diferencia radica en la aplicación.
El reconocimiento se concede dentro de categorías específicas, mientras que se excluye a quienes no se identifican dentro de ese esquema. Esa exclusión es el eje de la controversia actual.
El argumento presentado por Lambda Legal es preciso. Obligar a una persona a utilizar documentos que no reflejan su identidad implica someterla a una representación incorrecta en procesos fundamentales de la vida cotidiana. Esto puede generar dificultades prácticas, exposición innecesaria y situaciones de vulnerabilidad.
Las personas demandantes, nacidas en Puerto Rico, han planteado que el acceso a documentos precisos no es una cuestión simbólica, sino una necesidad básica para poder desenvolverse sin contradicciones impuestas por el propio Estado.
El hecho de que este caso se encuentre en el sistema federal introduce una dimensión adicional. No se trata de un proyecto legislativo ni de una política pública en discusión. Es una controversia constitucional. El análisis gira en torno a derechos y a la aplicación equitativa de las leyes.
Este proceso tampoco ocurre en aislamiento.
Se desarrolla en un contexto donde los debates sobre identidad y derechos han estado marcados por una mayor presencia de posturas conservadoras en la esfera pública, tanto en Estados Unidos como en Puerto Rico. En el ámbito local, esa influencia ha sido visible en discusiones legislativas recientes, donde argumentos de carácter religioso han comenzado a formar parte del debate sobre política pública. Esa intersección introduce tensiones en torno a la separación entre iglesia y Estado y tiene efectos concretos en el acceso a derechos.
Señalar este contexto no implica cuestionar la fe ni la práctica religiosa. Implica reconocer que, cuando determinados argumentos se trasladan al ejercicio del poder público, pueden incidir en decisiones que afectan a sectores específicos de la población.
Desde Puerto Rico, esta situación no se observa a distancia. Se experimenta en la práctica diaria. En la necesidad de presentar documentos que no corresponden con la identidad de quien los porta. En las implicaciones que esto tiene en espacios laborales, educativos y administrativos.
El avance de este caso abre una posibilidad de cambio en el marco legal aplicable. No porque resuelva de inmediato todas las tensiones en torno al tema, sino porque establece un punto de análisis jurídico sobre una práctica que hasta ahora ha operado bajo criterios restrictivos.
A diferencia de hace ocho meses, el escenario actual incluye una determinación judicial que ya identificó una violación de derechos. Lo que corresponde ahora es evaluar si esa determinación se sostiene en una instancia superior.
Ese proceso no define un resultado inmediato, pero sí establece un nuevo punto de referencia.
El debate ya no es teórico.
Ahora es judicial.
New York
Court orders Pride flag to return to Stonewall
Lambda Legal, Washington Litigation Group filed federal lawsuit
The Pride flag will once again fly over the Stonewall National Monument in New York following a court order requiring the National Park Service to raise it over the site.
The decision follows a lawsuit filed by Lambda Legal and the Washington Litigation Group in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which challenged the removal as unconstitutional under the Administrative Procedure Act and argued that the government unlawfully targeted the LGBTQ community.
In February, the NPS removed the Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument, the first national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history in the U.S. The move followed a Jan. 21 memorandum issued by President Donald Trump-appointed NPS Director Jessica Bowron restricting which flags may be flown at national parks. The directive limited displays to official government flags, with narrow exceptions for those deemed to serve an “official purpose.”
Plaintiffs successfully argued that the Pride flag meets that standard, given Stonewall’s status as the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement. They also contended that the policy violated the APA by bypassing required public input and improperly applying agency rules.
The lawsuit named Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Bowron, and Amy Sebring, superintendent of Manhattan sites for the NPS, as defendants. Plaintiffs included the Gilbert Baker Foundation, Village Preservation, Equality New York, and several individuals.
The court found that the memorandum — while allowing limited exceptions for historical context purposes — was applied unlawfully in this case. As part of the settlement, the NPS is required to rehang the Pride flag on the monument’s official flagpole within seven days, where it will remain permanently.
“The sudden, arbitrary, and capricious removal of the Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument was yet another act by this administration to erase the LGBTQ+ community,” said Karen Loewy, co-counsel for plaintiffs and Lambda Legal’s Senior Counsel and Director of Constitutional Law Practice. “Today, the government has pledged to restore this important symbol back to where it belongs.”
“This is a complete victory for our clients and for the LGBTQ+ community,” said Alexander Kristofcak, lead counsel for plaintiffs and a lawyer with Washington Litigation Group. “The government has acknowledged what we argued from day one: the Pride flag belongs at Stonewall. The flag will be restored and it will fly officially and permanently. And we will remain vigilant to ensure that the government sticks to the deal.”
“Gilbert Baker created the Rainbow Pride flag as a symbol of hope and liberation,” said Charles Beal, president of the Gilbert Baker Foundation. “Today, that symbol is restored to the place where it belongs, standing watch over the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.”
“The government tried to erase an important symbol of the LGBTQ+ community, and the community said no,” said Amanda Babine, executive director of Equality New York. “Today’s accomplishment proves that when we stand together and fight back, we win.”
“The removal of the Pride flag from Stonewall was an attempt to erase LGBTQ+ history and undermine the rule of law,” said Andrew Berman, executive director of Village Preservation. “This settlement restores both.”
With Loewy on the complaint are Douglas F. Curtis, Camilla B. Taylor, Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, Kenneth D. Upton Jr., Jennifer C. Pizer, and Nephetari Smith from Lambda Legal. With Kristofcak on the complaint are Mary L. Dohrmann, Sydney Foster, Kyle Freeny, James I. Pearce, and Nathaniel Zelinsky from Washington Litigation Group.
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