National
Goodwin said to be ‘open’ on LGBT issues
But new W.V. senator an unknown to advocates
Many supporters of LGBT rights are expressing confidence that the temporary replacement for Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) will be supportive of pro-LGBT legislation in the Senate even though his views on such issues are unknown.
On Friday, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) announced Carte Goodwin, his former general counsel, would fill the Senate seat vacated by Byrd upon his death earlier this month.
At a press conference at the statehouse in Charleston, W.V., Goodwin reportedly said he has “no agenda” in the Senate other than “working to fight hard every day for West Virginia families,” according to the Hill newspaper.
Goodwin, who didn’t respond to the Blade’s request to comment, is seen as a temporary replacement for Byrd because the West Virginia Legislature is considering a change to state law to allow for a vote to fill the Senate seat this fall.
At 36 years old, Goodwin will become the youngest member of the Senate when he’s sworn into office this week, according to the Hill newspaper.
Stephen Skinner, board president for Fairness West Virginia, said he had no information on Goodwin’s background on LGBT issues, but he thinks the senator would be open to discussion.
“I think he’s certainly someone who would be open to engaging in discussions on LGBT issues,” Skinner said. “But that, of course, doesn’t mean that we know any of his public stances.”
Michael Mitchell, executive director of the National Stonewall Democrats, said Goodwin appears to be a “very smart and energetic choice” to represent West Virginia.
“I just hope that he remembers that he will be a senator for all West Virginians — including LGBT West Virginians — as well as remember that he can be a leader, and should be a leader, for those West Virginians who aren’t necessarily there yet on LGBT issues,” Mitchell said.
Many political observers are expecting Manchin to pursue a run for the U.S. Senate in November and that Goodwin’s past work with the governor means he would be aligned with Manchin in terms of ideology.
Skinner said believing Goodwin’s positions on LGBT issues to be similar to Manchin’s is “absolutely” a safe assumption.
As far as Manchin’s views on LGBT issues, Skinner said the governor has been “thoughtful” about LGBT issues and twice came out publicly against a state constitutional amendment in West Virginia banning same-sex marriage.
“However, he did that in the context of saying that our state [Defense of Marriage Act] was sufficient,” Skinner said. “So although the end result was certaintly something that we wanted from him, he’s clearly not in favor of marriage equality.”
Skinner said Manchin has “indicated at least privately” that he would support a state law prohibiting job bias against LGBT people in the workforce.
“The important thing about Sen. Goodwin and Gov. Manchin is that I know that they will have an open door and will be fully engaged with the folks that believe in equality in West Virginia,” Skinner said.
A lingering question for Goodwin is how he would vote on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” when the issue comes before the full Senate. A provision for repeal is in the fiscal year 2011 defense authorization pending before Congress, and opponents have vowed to strip out the language from the legislation.
Byrd was a “yes” vote in Senate Armed Services Committee in May on an amendment that would lead to repeal of the law.
The late senator’s support was noteworthy because it came on the condition of adding 60 days between the time for when the president and defense leaders would certify that the U.S. military is ready to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the time for when repeal would go into effect.
Skinner said he’s expecting Goodwin to follow through on Byrd’s commitment to repealing the ban on open service.
“I think it’s reasonable for the LGBT community to expect Sen. Goodwin to follow through on Sen. Byrd’s commitment on the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,'” Skinner said.
Paul Guequierre, a Human Rights Campaign spokesperson, said “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is among the issues his organization plans to discuss with Goodwin when the new senator takes office.
“As you know, HRC has done a lot of work on the ground throughout West Virginia with Fairness West Virginia and other organizations to help secure Sen. Byrd’s vote to repeal [‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’] in the Senate Armed Services Committee,” Guequierre said. “We will work just as diligently to secure Sen. Goodwin’s support.”
Alex Nicholson, executive director of Servicemembers United, said the importance of Goodwin’s position on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” stands “somewhere on the middle” in terms of possible obstacles on the way toward repeal.
“In the full chamber, he’s certainly important,” Nicholson said. “We need every vote we can get and we’re not taking any vote for granted, but it’s not going to come down to one vote.”
Nicholson added that Goodwin would need “an extraordinarily strong anti-repeal view” for him to oppose an end to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
“If he’s supportive, he’s going to vote with us,” Nicholson said. “I think if he’s neutral, he’s going to default to party standard, which is to vote for the amendment and against any attempts to strip it.”
Nicholson said any opposition to repeal from Goodwin would be unusual because of Byrd’s role in negotiating the language.
“It would be a big slap in the face, I think, for the senator to have negotiated a position he feels comfortable supporting … and then have this 36-year-old whipper-snapper successor come back and say that was wrong,” Nicholson said. “I think that would be an extraordinary change of course and I think that’s unlikely.”
New York
Men convicted of murdering two men in NYC gay bar drugging scheme sentenced
One of the victims, John Umberger, was D.C. political consultant
A New York judge on Wednesday sentenced three men convicted of killing a D.C. political consultant and another man who they targeted at gay bars in Manhattan.
NBC New York notes a jury in February convicted Jayqwan Hamilton, Jacob Barroso, and Robert DeMaio of murder, robbery, and conspiracy in relation to druggings and robberies that targeted gay bars in Manhattan from March 2021 to June 2022.
John Umberger, a 33-year-old political consultant from D.C., and Julio Ramirez, a 25-year-old social worker, died. Prosecutors said Hamilton, Barroso, and DeMaio targeted three other men at gay bars.
The jury convicted Hamilton and DeMaio of murdering Umberger. State Supreme Court Judge Felicia Mennin sentenced Hamilton and DeMaio to 40 years to life in prison.
Barroso, who was convicted of killing Ramirez, received a 20 years to life sentence.
National
Medical groups file lawsuit over Trump deletion of health information
Crucial datasets included LGBTQ, HIV resources
Nine private medical and public health advocacy organizations, including two from D.C., filed a lawsuit on May 20 in federal court in Seattle challenging what it calls the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s illegal deletion of dozens or more of its webpages containing health related information, including HIV information.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, names as defendants Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and HHS itself, and several agencies operating under HHS and its directors, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration.
“This action challenges the widespread deletion of public health resources from federal agencies,” the lawsuit states. “Dozens (if not more) of taxpayer-funded webpages, databases, and other crucial resources have vanished since January 20, 2025, leaving doctors, nurses, researchers, and the public scrambling for information,” it says.
“These actions have undermined the longstanding, congressionally mandated regime; irreparably harmed Plaintiffs and others who rely on these federal resources; and put the nation’s public health infrastructure in unnecessary jeopardy,” the lawsuit continues.
It adds, “The removal of public health resources was apparently prompted by two recent executive orders – one focused on ‘gender ideology’ and the other targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (‘DEI’) programs. Defendants implemented these executive orders in a haphazard manner that resulted in the deletion (inadvertent or otherwise) of health-related websites and databases, including information related to pregnancy risks, public health datasets, information about opioid-use disorder, and many other valuable resources.”
The lawsuit does not mention that it was President Donald Trump who issued the two executive orders in question.
A White House spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the lawsuit.
While not mentioning Trump by name, the lawsuit names as defendants in addition to HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., Matthew Buzzelli, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health; Martin Makary, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; Thomas Engels, administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration; and Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management.
The 44-page lawsuit complaint includes an addendum with a chart showing the titles or descriptions of 49 “affected resource” website pages that it says were deleted because of the executive orders. The chart shows that just four of the sites were restored after initially being deleted.
Of the 49 sites, 15 addressed LGBTQ-related health issues and six others addressed HIV issues, according to the chart.
“The unannounced and unprecedented deletion of these federal webpages and datasets came as a shock to the medical and scientific communities, which had come to rely on them to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks, assist physicians and other clinicians in daily care, and inform the public about a wide range of healthcare issues,” the lawsuit states.
“Health professionals, nonprofit organizations, and state and local authorities used the websites and datasets daily in care for their patients, to provide resources to their communities, and promote public health,” it says.
Jose Zuniga, president and CEO of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), one of the organizations that signed on as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement that the deleted information from the HHS websites “includes essential information about LGBTQ+ health, gender and reproductive rights, clinical trial data, Mpox and other vaccine guidance and HIV prevention resources.”
Zuniga added, “IAPAC champions evidence-based, data-informed HIV responses and we reject ideologically driven efforts that undermine public health and erase marginalized communities.”
Lisa Amore, a spokesperson for Whitman-Walker Health, D.C.’s largest LGBTQ supportive health services provider, also expressed concern about the potential impact of the HHS website deletions.
“As the region’s leader in HIV care and prevention, Whitman-Walker Health relies on scientific data to help us drive our resources and measure our successes,” Amore said in response to a request for comment from the Washington Blade.
“The District of Columbia has made great strides in the fight against HIV,” Amore said. “But the removal of public facing information from the HHS website makes our collective work much harder and will set HIV care and prevention backward,” she said.
The lawsuit calls on the court to issue a declaratory judgement that the “deletion of public health webpages and resources is unlawful and invalid” and to issue a preliminary or permanent injunction ordering government officials named as defendants in the lawsuit “to restore the public health webpages and resources that have been deleted and to maintain their web domains in accordance with their statutory duties.”
It also calls on the court to require defendant government officials to “file a status report with the Court within twenty-four hours of entry of a preliminary injunction, and at regular intervals, thereafter, confirming compliance with these orders.”
The health organizations that joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs include the Washington State Medical Association, Washington State Nurses Association, Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Academy Health, Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, Fast-Track Cities Institute, International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, National LGBT Cancer Network, and Vermont Medical Society.
The Fast-Track Cities Institute and International Association of Providers of AIDS Care are based in D.C.
U.S. Federal Courts
Federal judge scraps trans-inclusive workplace discrimination protections
Ruling appears to contradict US Supreme Court precedent
Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas has struck down guidelines by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission designed to protect against workplace harassment based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
The EEOC in April 2024 updated its guidelines to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), which determined that discrimination against transgender people constituted sex-based discrimination as proscribed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
To ensure compliance with the law, the agency recommended that employers honor their employees’ preferred pronouns while granting them access to bathrooms and allowing them to wear dress code-compliant clothing that aligns with their gender identities.
While the the guidelines are not legally binding, Kacsmaryk ruled that their issuance created “mandatory standards” exceeding the EEOC’s statutory authority that were “inconsistent with the text, history, and tradition of Title VII and recent Supreme Court precedent.”
“Title VII does not require employers or courts to blind themselves to the biological differences between men and women,” he wrote in the opinion.
The case, which was brought by the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation, presents the greatest setback for LGBTQ inclusive workplace protections since President Donald Trump’s issuance of an executive order on the first day of his second term directing U.S. federal agencies to recognize only two genders as determined by birth sex.
Last month, top Democrats from both chambers of Congress reintroduced the Equality Act, which would codify LGBTQ-inclusive protections against discrimination into federal law, covering employment as well as areas like housing and jury service.
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