News
Sanchez: House considering delayed ‘Don’t Ask’ measure
House lawmakers are weighing the possibility of passing delayed implementation legislation as a way to accomplish repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” this year, according to an opponent of the law in Congress.
Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) — a co-sponsor of repeal legislation in the House and member of the House Armed Services Committee — told the Blade in a brief exchange Wednesday that among the options House members are considering is a measure Congress would pass this year that wouldn’t stop discharges in the U.S. military until later.
Asked whether lawmakers are discussing such a measure as an amendment to pending defense authorization legislation for the Pentagon’s budget, Sanchez replied, “We’re certainly looking at that.”
Sanchez said H.R. 1283, the Military Readiness Enhancement Act — standalone legislation sponsored by Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) that would overturn “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” — may not be the legislation that comes to the House floor.
“I could see, for example, something close to Mr. Murphy’s bill, but with maybe a time from not starting for another nine months in anticipation of the report supposedly — or the study that is being done by the military,” she said.
Sanchez said several amendments relating to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” may come before the Rules Committee — the necessary step for bringing an amendment to the floor in the House — and a delayed implementation measure could be one among several.
Supporters of repeal in the LGBT community have been pressing for such legislation as a compromise measure to bring on board Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who wrote in an April 30 letter that he would “strongly oppose” legislative action on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” before the Pentagon completes its study on the issue at the end of the year.
On the Senate side, Senate Armed Services Committee Carl Levin (D-Mich.) reportedly expressed support on Monday for delayed implementation legislation as a way to move forward following the publication of this letter.
“What we ought to do is repeal it, but make the effective date after the report,” Levin said, according to Roll Call newspaper.
Anticipating a House vote on defense authorization legislation in the coming weeks, Sanchez said supporters of repeal in Congress are “looking for the votes” to an end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as part of this larger bill.
She said she’s not expecting a vote on the House Armed Services Committee when the panel takes up the legislation next week, but a vote later when the bill comes to the House floor.
“We don’t have the votes in the committee on the Democratic side to enable to put this [through],” she said. “It won’t be in the chairman’s mark in the full committee. We don’t have votes in the full committee.”
Sanchez said supporters are “counting the votes for the House floor” in hopes of finding sufficient support to “show leadership that, if in fact we have the votes, they may allow us an amendment on the House floor.”
“I don’t even know if we will move something forward,” she said. “It all depends if we can get it through Rules and what that will look like, but certainly there are plenty of us who have had many discussions about how we try to move this issue.”
Iran
Grenell: ‘Real hope’ for gay rights in Iran as result of nationwide protests
Former ambassador to Germany claimed he has sneaked ‘gays and lesbians out of’ country
Richard Grenell, the presidential envoy for special missions of the United States, said on X on Tuesday that he has helped “sneak gays and lesbians out of Iran” and is seeing a change in attitudes in the country.
The post, which now has more than 25,000 likes since its uploading, claims that attitudes toward gays and lesbians are shifting amid massive economic protests across the country.
“For the first time EVER, someone has said ‘I want to wait just a bit,” the former U.S. ambassador to Germany wrote. “There is real hope coming from the inside. I don’t think you can stop this now.”
Grenell has been a longtime supporter of the president.
“Richard Grenell is a fabulous person, A STAR,” Trump posted on Truth Social days before his official appointment to the ambassador role. “He will be someplace, high up! DJT”
Iran, which is experiencing demonstrations across all 31 provinces of the country — including in Tehran, the capital — started as a result of a financial crisis causing the collapse of its national currency. Time magazine credits this uprising after the U.N. re-imposed sanctions in September over the country’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
As basic necessities like bread, rice, meat, and medical supplies become increasingly unaffordable to the majority of the more than 90 million people living there, citizens took to the streets to push back against Iran’s theocratic regime.
Grenell, who was made president and executive director of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last year by Trump, believes that people in the majority Shiite Muslim country are also beginning to protest human rights abuses.
Iran is among only a handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Virginia
Mark Levine loses race to succeed Adam Ebbin in ‘firehouse’ Democratic primary
State Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker won with 70.6 percent of vote
Gay former Virginia House of Delegates member Mark Levine (D-Alexandria) lost his race to become the Democratic nominee to replace gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) in a Jan. 13 “firehouse” Democratic primary.
Levine finished in second place in the hastily called primary, receiving 807 votes or 17.4 percent. The winner in the four-candidate race, state Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, who was endorsed by both Ebbin and Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger received 3,281 votes or 70.6 percent.
Ebbin, whose 39th Senate District includes Alexandria and parts of Arlington and Fairfax Counties, announced on Jan. 7 that he was resigning effective Feb. 18, to take a job in the Spanberger administration as senior advisor at the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority.
Results of the Jan. 13 primary, which was called by Democratic Party leaders in Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax, show that candidates Charles Sumpter, a World Wildlife Fund director, finished in third place with 321 voters or 6.9 percent; and Amy Jackson, the former Alexandria vice mayor, finished in fourth place with 238 votes or 5.1 percent.
Bennett-Parker, who LGBTQ community advocates consider a committed LGBTQ ally, will now compete as the Democratic nominee in a Feb. 10 special election in which registered voters in the 39th District of all political parties and independents will select Ebbin’s replacement in the state senate.
The Alexandria publication ALX Now reports that local realtor Julie Robben Linebery has been selected by the Alexandria Republican City Committee to be the GOP candidate to compete in the Jan. 10 special election. According to ALX Now, Lineberry was the only application to run in a now cancelled special party caucus type event initially called to select the GOP nominees.
It couldn’t immediately be determined if an independent or other party candidate planned to run in the special election.
Bennett-Parker is considered the strong favorite to win the Feb. 10 special election in the heavily Democratic 39th District, where Democrat Ebbin has served as senator since 2012.
Congress
Van Hollen speaks at ‘ICE Out for Good’ protest in D.C.
ICE agent killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is among those who spoke at an “ICE Out for Good” protest that took place outside U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s headquarters in D.C. on Tuesday.
The protest took place six days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis.
Good left behind her wife and three children.
(Video by Michael K. Lavers)
Grenell: ‘Real hope’ for gay rights in Iran as result of nationwide protests
Rollback of health IT standards will harm LGBTQ patients
Mark Levine loses race to succeed Adam Ebbin in ‘firehouse’ Democratic primary
National LGBTQ Task Force brings Creating Change conference back to D.C.
Van Hollen speaks at ‘ICE Out for Good’ protest in D.C.
Hundreds protest ICE killing of Renee Nicole Good in D.C.
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