National
LGBT youth included in plan to end homelessness
Housing secretary says programs will aid ‘ostracized and targeted’ teens

The Obama administration highlighted the longstanding problem of homelessness among LGBT youth this week when it announced a strategy that U.S. Housing & Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donavan called “the most far-reaching and ambitious plan to end homelessness in our history.”
Administration officials released the plan Tuesday during a White House event at which Donovan, two other cabinet secretaries and the head of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness pledged to find stable housing for most of the nation’s homeless within 10 years.
Donavan, who serves as chair of the Interagency Council on Homelessness, said that many people who fall victim to homelessness face discrimination based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.
“What I would say is so many of those at risk of homelessness are marginalized in various ways,” he told the Blade after the event. “As we’ve seen with youth, those who age out of foster care … [and] who are ostracized and targeted because of their gender identity or sexual orientation are one of the populations that are at increased risk for homelessness.
“So everyone has a stake in making sure that those who are at risk of homelessness, including those targeted because of their gender identity and sexual orientation, need to be part of this effort, and they are.”
He said that curtailing bias against homeless LGBT youth would result in broader benefits for the country.
“It’s also wrong for taxpayers of the nation, more broadly, because ultimately the costs of homelessness to our society and the taxpayers are far larger when folks fall into homelessness than if we prevent that homelessness in advance,” he said.
The 67-page document released Tuesday, “Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent & End Homelessness 2010,” calls for building on what it says have been highly effective strategies for addressing the homeless problem that local and state governments and private charitable groups in many parts of the country have used.
Among other things, it calls for eradicating homelessness among military veterans and the chronic homeless within five years. It calls for eliminating homelessness among “unaccompanied youth” and “individual adults” within 10 years.
“Youth often leave home as a result of severe family conflict which may include physical and/or sexual abuse,” says the plan. “Some studies suggest that racial and ethnic minority youth as well as youth who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning represent a larger proportion when compared to the overall population.”
The plan says that, in general, homeless youth need shelter along with transitional programs and services that emphasize “stabilization and reunification with families when appropriate.”
However, it notes that “in many cases, youth have become homeless because of hostile and dangerous conditions at home and that reunification with families may not be appropriate for groups such as victims of abuse and many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth.”
Donovan said the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which prepared the plan, consists of 19 federal agencies, including HUD and the U.S. departments of Health & Human Services and Veterans Affairs.
Barbara Poppe, the Council’s executive director and who is credited with coordinating the project, told the Blade that experts on LGBT youth and homelessness provided information to the Council through a special working group that focused on youth issues.
“We believe they should have absolute access to shelter and support,” she said of LGBT youth. “But more importantly, we want to set them on a path to employment and transition to adulthood. We’re very excited to implement the plan with a strong focus on any homelessness among youth over the next decade.”
The Obama administration’s plan for addressing homelessness comes four year after the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and the National Coalition for the Homeless issued what many LGBT activists considered a groundbreaking report on homelessness among LGBT youth.
The report, based on an extensive review of research conducted by private and local governmental agencies throughout the country, said its findings suggest that between 20 percent and 40 percent of all homeless youth identity as LGBT.
Among other things, the report found that LGBT youth were often victims of violence and harassment in homeless shelter. The report also noted that faith-based shelters sometimes created further problems for LGBT youth because of certain religious teachings on homosexuality.
“Our country can do better, and its leadership has an obligation to ensure that all people — including LGBT youth and adults — are not left without fundamentals such as food, safety and a roof over one’s head,” said Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey in prepared comments on the administration’s new homelessness plan.
“While we are pleased to see that LGBT people are being considered in a strategy to confront homelessness, real progress will occur when such inclusive strategies are actually implemented,” she said. “Homelessness is a critical issue for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. For far too long, too many of our young people have been kicked out of their homes, forced to live on the streets, for simply being who they are. This has been a national disgrace of epidemic proportions.”
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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