National
Four same-sex couples join Puerto Rico marriage lawsuit
Case filed in federal court in March

Ivonne Álvarez Velez, left, with Pedro Julio Serrano of Puerto Rico Para Tod@s and Ada Conde Vidal. (Photo courtesy of Pedro Julio Serrano)
Iris Delia Rivera Rivera, a former member of the Puerto Rico National Guard, and Maritza López Aviles have been together for 38 years and have a daughter. Zulma Oliveras Vega and Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro of Carolina also have a daughter.
José A. Torruellas Iglesias and Thomas J. Robinson of San Juan, who have been together for 13 years, married in Canada in 2007. Johanne Vélez García and Faviola Meléndez Rodríguez of Guaynabo, who have been together for six years, tied the knot in New York in 2012.
Lambda Legal and Puerto Rico Para Tod@s, a Puerto Rican LGBT advocacy group, also joined the lawsuit that Ada Mercedes Conde Vidal and Ivonne Álvarez Vélez of San Juan filed in March in the U.S. District Court of Puerto Rico
Conde and Álvarez who have been together for nearly 14 years married in Massachusetts in 2004. They are raising their daughter in the Puerto Rican capital.
Conde is also one of the lawyers in the case.
“Puerto Rico is our home, we are very proud of our U.S. citizenship and we are not second-class citizens,” she said in a press release. “We demand our equality, proclaim our love though our marriage and our right to happiness in Puerto Rico.”
“Puerto Rico is loving, respectful, inclusive, supportive and responsive,” added Puerto Rico Para Tod@s Director Pedro Julio Serrano. “The majority of our people support marriage equality for partners of LGBTT people because it is consistent with our values of respect, inclusion and equality.”
Puerto Rican lawmakers in 1999 amended the U.S. commonwealth’s civil code to ban recognition of same-sex marriages — even those legally performed in other jurisdictions. Unions in which one person is transgender are also not recognized.
Gov. Alejandro García Padilla supports civil unions for gays and lesbians, but has yet to publicly back marriage rights for same-sex couples. The Democrat has signed a bill that added sexual orientation and gender identity and expression to Puerto Rico’s anti-discrimination law and three other pro-LGBT measures into law since taking office in January 2013.
Maite Oronoz Rodríguez will become the first openly LGBT judge on the U.S. commonwealth’s Supreme Court after the Puerto Rico Senate on Monday confirmed her nomination.
San Juan Archbishop Roberto González Nieves, Rev. Wanda Rolón and others religious figures are among those who continue to oppose efforts to expand rights to LGBT Puerto Ricans.
“Our people are already on the right side of history,” said Serrano. “Now it’s the government’s turn.”
Same-sex couples can legally marry in 20 states and D.C.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver on Wednesday struck down Utah’s gay nuptials ban. A federal judge in Indiana earlier in the day ruled the Hoosier State’s prohibition of same-sex marriages is unconstitutional.
More than 20 federal and state courts have ruled in support of marriage rights for same-sex couples since the U.S. Supreme Court last June struck down a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act.
New York
Two teens shot steps from Stonewall Inn after NYC Pride parade
One of the victims remains in critical condition

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.”
New York
Zohran Mamdani participates in NYC Pride parade
Mayoral candidate has detailed LGBTQ rights platform

Zohran Mamdani, the candidate for mayor of New York City who pulled a surprise victory in the primary contest last week, walked in the city’s Pride parade on Sunday.
The Democratic Socialist and New York State Assembly member published photos on social media with New York Attorney General Letitia James, telling followers it was “a joy to march in NYC Pride with the people’s champ” and to “see so many friends on this gorgeous day.”
“Happy Pride NYC,” he wrote, adding a rainbow emoji.
Mamdani’s platform includes a detailed plan for LGBTQ people who “across the United States are facing an increasingly hostile political environment.”
His campaign website explains: “New York City must be a refuge for LGBTQIA+ people, but private institutions in our own city have already started capitulating to Trump’s assault on trans rights.
“Meanwhile, the cost of living crisis confronting working class people across the city hits the LGBTQIA+ community particularly hard, with higher rates of unemployment and homelessness than the rest of the city.”
“The Mamdani administration will protect LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers by expanding and protecting gender-affirming care citywide, making NYC an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city, and creating the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.”
U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court upholds ACA rule that makes PrEP, other preventative care free
Liberal justices joined three conservatives in majority opinion

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a portion of the Affordable Care Act requiring private health insurers to cover the cost of preventative care including PrEP, which significantly reduces the risk of transmitting HIV.
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh authored the majority opinion in the case, Kennedy v. Braidwood Management. He was joined by two conservatives, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, along with the three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown-Jackson.
The court’s decision rejected the plaintiffs’ challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s reliance on the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force to “unilaterally” determine which types of care and services must be covered by payors without cost-sharing.
An independent all-volunteer panel of nationally recognized experts in prevention and primary care, the 16 task force members are selected by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve four-year terms.
They are responsible for evaluating the efficacy of counseling, screenings for diseases like cancer and diabetes, and preventative medicines — like Truvada for PrEP, drugs to reduce heart disease and strokes, and eye ointment for newborns to prevent infections.
Parties bringing the challenge objected especially to the mandatory coverage of PrEP, with some arguing the drugs would “encourage and facilitate homosexual behavior” against their religious beliefs.
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