National
ENDA blame game underway
Dems cite GOP opposition; others fault Senate leadership

LGBT activists targeted Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) last week, urging him to advance ENDA. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Democratic senators are blaming Republican obstructionism for the Senate’s failure to advance the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, but others say a lack of strategy is preventing a vote.
The plight of ENDA in the Senate received renewed attention last week when GetEqual staged a protest in Las Vegas blocking traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard and demanding Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) take action.
The legislation, stalled in the House and Senate, would prohibit job bias against LGBT people in most public and private workforce scenarios.
Democratic supporters say Republican opposition is preventing Senate action on the bill.
Assistant Majority Leader Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) said Democratic leadership wants to move forward with ENDA, but noted difficulties in moving any item on the legislative agenda forward.
“We have a tough time moving anything on the calendar because of Republican filibusters,” Durbin said.
Still, Durbin said a vote on the legislation in September after lawmakers return from August recess is “possible,” while adding that timeframe is a “pretty hectic period.” He noted that a vote would more likely come in the period following the November election.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee where ENDA is pending, on Tuesday expressed similar grievances about Republican obstructionism.
Asked what’s keeping the legislation from coming to a Senate vote, Harkin simply replied, “Republicans.”
“It’s one of my priority items,” Harkin said. “I’d like to move it, but [I’m] not certain we’re going to have the time.”
Harkin said he couldn’t immediately recall if any particular part of the measure was causing controversy and keeping it from coming to a Senate vote.
“There’s been a lot of objections by certain Republicans on it,” Harkin said. “As far as I’m concerned, they’re not legitimate. I couldn’t even enumerate them right now, I forget what they are.”
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, also blamed Republicans for the failure to advance ENDA in the Senate. She also cited what she called a “general dysfunction” in the chamber as a problem.
“It’s certainly not all about ENDA,” she said. “It’s certainly, certainly not about transgender inclusion in ENDA. They can’t get campaign finance reform through, they can’t get, sometimes, job bills through.”
On Tuesday, Democratic leadership tried to move forward on a campaign finance reform bill known as the DISCLOSE Act. Republicans, who hold 41 of 100 seats in the chamber, were unified in their opposition and able to filibuster a motion to proceed with the legislation.
Still, ENDA is likely to fare better with Republicans in the Senate because the legislation has two GOP co-sponsors, Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine.
R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, dismissed the notion that Republicans were holding up ENDA in the Senate and said “only the current Senate majority leadership can truly answer” why ENDA isn’t on the calendar.
“Blaming the minority leadership for the majority’s disorganization and lack of planning this year is simplistic and, frankly, lazy,” Cooper said. “Both sides of the aisle are frustrated with the lack of activity.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the sponsor for ENDA in the Senate, is hoping House passage of ENDA would jumpstart interest in passing it in the Senate, according to his office.
“I think, at this point, it’s kind of something that we’re waiting for the House to pass to build a little momentum here in the Senate, and then hopefully get going on it here,” said Mike Westling, a Merkley spokesperson.
But in response to inquiries on why the House hasn’t moved forward with the bill, House leadership pointed to the lack of a strategy for ENDA in the Senate.
“We should encourage the Senate to develop a course for ENDA to ensure that when the House passes the legislation, the Senate can move quickly to send the legislation to the president’s desk,” Drew Hammill, a spokesperson for U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, earlier told the Blade.
Asked whether any discussions on a strategy to advance ENDA in the Senate have taken place, Durbin replied, “We have not reached that level.”
Harkin said he hadn’t yet done a whip count on the legislation and wasn’t sure whether the legislation would have 60 votes to pass.
“I just know that initial inquiries about getting a time limit on it were unfruitful,” he said. “So, without a time limit, we’re not going to bring anything up.”
Harkin said Senate leadership is “always looking” for other bills that could serve as a vehicle to move ENDA forward as an amendment, but didn’t name any potential legislation.
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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