National
Immigration rally includes LGBT voices
Bi-national couples seek inclusion in reform
(DC Agenda video by Steve Fox)
An estimated 200,000 demonstrators descended on the National Mall on Sunday to urge passage of comprehensive immigration reform, including several hundred protesters advocating for LGBT inclusion in the legislation.
As they danced to salsa music and listened to speeches, participants at the rally and the march that followed called on President Obama and Congress to keep their promise to enact reform legislation before the year’s end.
Latino groups — waiving signs reading “Reform not Raids” and “Obama Cumple tu Promesa” — comprised the majority of those participating in the demonstration, although contingents of Asian and Caribbean groups also took part.
The LGBT contingent, which included about 300 people, advocated for their inclusion as part of the broader immigration movement as well as for incorporating the Uniting American Families Act in reform. The bill would enable LGBT Americans to sponsor same-sex partners who are foreign nationals for residency.
Rachel Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality, said the showing was “a nice visible contingent” that demonstrated “how much the LGBT community is here for comprehensive immigration reform that includes all families.”
“First and foremost, we hope to really be a part of the movement that’s pushing for [comprehensive immigration reform] to get going,” she said. “Nobody knows better than [LGBT] families how badly we need immigration reform in this country.”
Advocates are pushing Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who are developing bi-partisan comprehensive immigration reform legislation, to include UAFA in the version of the bill they introduce in the U.S. Senate.
As they marched among other groups, members of Immigration Equality’s contingent sported red shirts with “LGBT families for immigration reform” on the back as they chanted, “Two, four, six, eight! Let our families immigrate!” and “We’re here! We’re queer! You are not alone!”
A number of demonstrators had a personal stake in the passage of legislation to protect bi-national same-sex couples. Eric Stanley, a D.C. resident, and Tim Lin, his partner of nearly four years from Taiwan, said they want UAFA passed so they can remain together in the United States.
Under current law, they said it would take Lin seven to 10 years for him to receive a green card to remain in the country.
“If I could marry him and give a green card, I would,” Stanley said. “It feels like Kansas controls what the rest of country has to do in this situation.”
Although they’re pushing hard for LGBT-inclusive immigration reform, Lin said he isn’t optimistic that reform will pass this year.
“I’m just hoping that with all these people, they might start to think about it this year, and eventually, in a year or two, do something about it,” he said.
Stanley also said he doesn’t think many LGBT people view protection for bi-national couples as a priority.
“People who are not directly affected don’t seem very interested,” he said. “I couldn’t get any friends to come today. But when you are directly affected, it does matter quite a bit.”
Guillermo Lopez, 22, a gay U.S. citizen and student at Houston Community College, said he came to the march in D.C. to support same-sex bi-national couples, even though he’s not in a relationship that would benefit from passage of the Uniting American Families Act.
“If these people were straight or were in heterosexual relationships, they could easily sponsor their partners and give them legal status,” he said. “So we’re here trying to push for the Uniting American Families Act, which would bring that equality so that gay people can sponsor their partner.”
Lopez said he thinks the rally put pressure on President Obama and Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
“Hopefully it’ll put enough pressure on them so that a comprehensive reform bill will pass in 2010 before Democrats lose seats in the election, which will make it harder for us to push our agenda,” he said.
Before marching past the U.S. Capitol to Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, demonstrators gathered on the Mall where a series of speakers rallied the crowd. The issue of helping same-sex couples was only mentioned a few times.
A female speaker at the event said immigration reform is supported by many groups, including “disabled and queer people.” Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), whose Reuniting American Families Act includes language similar to UAFA, was introduced at the event as someone who wants gay and lesbian families included in reform.
Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), a gay lawmaker, joined a group of members of Congress on stage who support immigration reform.
Speakers at the event worked to invigorate the crowd. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), a champion of immigrant rights, was received particularly favorably by attendees, as he urged them to continue to pressuring lawmakers to enact reform.
“If today we will raise our voices in hope, then soon we will raise our voices in victory,” he said. “Because our day is coming. Together, we will turn today’s hope into tomorrow’s victory.”
Gutierrez late last year introduced in the U.S. House a version of immigration reform intended as a more liberal alternative to the working bill expected later in the House. But Gutierrez’s bill lacks a provision similar to the Uniting American Families Act.
Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a group leading the charge for reform, also had encouraging words for his audience.
“We will keep the pressure on until comprehensive immigration reform is finally passed,” he said. “So from here, our power will only grow.”
In addition to Immigration Equality, other LGBT organizations participated in the demonstration, including the Human Rights Campaign, the Latino GLBT History Project and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force.
Rea Carey, the Task Force’s executive director, said her organization participated to emphasize immigration as an LGBT issue.
In addition to ensuring that bi-national same-sex couples can stay together in the United States, Carey said there also are issues related to transgender people and HIV-positive detainees not receiving needed treatment while in custody that need to be addressed.
“We are here today because we want to make sure the broad range of issues that affect LGBT people are recognized in the context of immigration reform,” she said.
Lt. Dan Choi, a gay U.S. Army Iraq war veteran who was arrested last week for chaining himself to the White House gates in protest of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” joined the LGBT contingent in the rally. He said he wouldn’t take questions because the day was focused on the immigration rally.
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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RFK Jr.’s HHS report pushes therapy, not medical interventions, for trans youth
Trump nominates Mike Waltz to become next UN ambassador
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Chronicling disastrous effects of ‘conversion therapy’
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