National
Tea Party focus doesn’t include LGBT issues
Jobs, spending are priorities for nascent movement
The Tea Party is making headlines for energizing the Republican Party base and ousting incumbent GOP lawmakers from Congress, but some observers say the movement is having limited impact on LGBT issues.
The movement is focused on economic issues and limited government rather than anti-gay rhetoric in its bid for growth and acceptance.
Michael Cole, a Human Rights Campaign spokesperson, said the Tea Party movement has “taken a lot of the wind out of the LGBT demagoguery sails.”
“Their relentless focus on economic issues has really taken a lot of the attention away from some of the attacks on LGBT people that we usually see from elements of the conservative movement,” he said.
Cole acknowledged the Tea Party may have anti-gay extremists in its ranks, recalling how tea partiers reportedly called Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) anti-gay epithets during a March rally at the U.S. Capitol, but maintained members of the movement have been reticent to address social issues.
“You don’t see as much rhetoric around choice or LGBT issues or some of the other things as you do around taxes and the deficit and health care and things like that,” he said.
Jimmy LaSalvia, executive director of GOProud, a gay conservative group, also maintained the focus of the Tea Party is on economic issues and not blocking the advancement of LGBT issues in Congress.
“The focus of the Tea Party is on fiscal issues and the growth of government, and their influence on Congress is to get Congress focused on those issues,” LaSalvia said. “And so, I think, if it’s having any influence on Congress, it’s telling Capitol Hill to wake up and quit spending all the money.”
But the perception that the Tea Party isn’t relevant to LGBT issues isn’t universal.
Michael Mitchell, executive director of the National Stonewall Democrats, characterized the Tea Party as the reincarnation of previous anti-gay movements.
“There is, indeed, a very conservative movement out there that is finding a voice and turning some races, but I believe it’s the same anti-equality, anti-gay elements that have been roadblocks and are going to be roadblocks for us,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said he fears what will happen to LGBT issues if leaders from the Tea Party movement are elected to public office.
“I think if these Tea Party folks are in power – Sarah Palin, for example, if she were to somehow get back into power – believe me, our issues are not going to be anywhere near their agenda at all,” he said.
The fallout of recent Republican primaries suggests that LGBT issues may in fact be playing a role in how in the Tea Party is shaping national elections.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) was trailing in her bid to retain the Republican nomination following a primary last week that as of Blade deadline was too close to call.
Murkowski’s Tea Party opponent in the primary, Joe Miller, led the senator by 1,688 votes on Tuesday. The Alaska Division of Elections was set to count this week 15,272 absentee, questioned and early ballots as part of at least 25,500 uncounted ballots, according to the Associated Press.
Known in some circles as a moderate Republican, Murkowski was among four GOP senators to vote for cloture on attaching hate crimes protection legislation to the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Authorization Act.
Miller, on the other hand, has on his campaign website a letter explaining his opposition to hate crimes laws because he says they violate First Amendment rights. The letter criticizes Murkowski for her vote for the measure.
“At the time of Senator Murkowski’s vote to expand hate crimes into the realm of sexual orientation, the latest FBI statistics at her disposal relating to crimes of bias motivated by sexual orientation reported exactly ONE case in all of Alaska,” writes Miller.
In Arizona, some observers believe the Tea Party also had an impact on moving Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to become the most vocal opponent in the U.S. Senate of repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as he faced a primary challenge from J.D. Hayworth.
McCain has threatened to filibuster the fiscal year 2011 defense authorization bill based on the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal language and has spoken out against repeal in committee hearings. Before lawmakers broke for August recess, McCain objected to bringing the defense bill to the floor because of the repeal language.
The senator’s opposition to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal may have paid off in his primary last week. He trounced Hayworth in the Republican primary by securing 56 percent of the vote.
There is much debate about the Tea Party’s role in the aftermath of those campaigns.
LaSalvia maintained that Murkowski’s situation isn’t the result of her hate crimes vote because of her positions on government spending.
“She wasn’t voted out because she voted for hate crimes; she was voted out because she’s a porker,” LaSalvia said. “That’s a stretch to look at any race and draw a gay connection to really any race like that. The election cycle is shaping up to be an election about jobs, the economy and spending.”
Cole also said he didn’t think hate crimes legislation played a significant role in the Alaska primary.
“If you just look at the reporting afterwards analyzing the race, it was all about these sort of economic issues and these homegrown things,” he said. “Her vote on hate crimes I just never heard once brought up.”
As for McCain, Cole cautioned against making too much of his opposition to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal.
“John McCain had to move to the right on his primary challenge, but I think his primary shift was on immigration,” Cole said. “Certainly, he was never a fan of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, and he increased his rhetoric faced from the threat with his right, but I think that those sorts of instances are exceptions rather than the rule for the way that these campaigns have been fought.”
Another example suggests that the Tea Party movement is throwing out incumbent Republicans regardless of their views on LGBT issues.
Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah), who was unable to secure the Republican nomination in May after finishing third in the second round of balloting at the Utah Republican Convention, has a strong anti-gay record this Congress.
In March, the Senate defeated the senator’s attempt to amend health care reform legislation to include a provision calling for a vote on same-sex marriage in D.C. Additionally, late last year, Bennett was the sole committee vote against reporting out the Domestic Partnership Benefits & Obligations Act to the Senate floor.
LaSalvia said Bennett’s loss of the Republican nomination even with this record underscores the Tea Party is focused on economic issues rather than social issues.
“Bob Bennett got voted out because he’s been part of the problem,” he said. “He’s been in Congress a long time and spent a lot of money and hasn’t stood up to change things.”
LaSalvia noted that Bennett’s vote for the bank bailout as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program was among the actions that frustrated Republican voters.
U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court to consider bans on trans athletes in school sports
27 states have passed laws limiting participation in athletics programs
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear two cases involving transgender youth challenging bans prohibiting them from participating in school sports.
In Little v. Hecox, plaintiffs represented by the ACLU, Legal Voice, and the law firm Cooley are challenging Idaho’s 2020 ban, which requires sex testing to adjudicate questions of an athlete’s eligibility.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals described the process in a 2023 decision halting the policy’s enforcement pending an outcome in the litigation. The “sex dispute verification process, whereby any individual can ‘dispute’ the sex of any female student athlete in the state of Idaho,” the court wrote, would “require her to undergo intrusive medical procedures to verify her sex, including gynecological exams.”
In West Virginia v. B.P.J., Lambda Legal, the ACLU, the ACLU of West Virginia, and Cooley are representing a trans middle school student challenging the Mountain State’s 2021 ban on trans athletes.
The plaintiff was participating in cross country when the law was passed, taking puberty blockers that would have significantly reduced the chances that she could have a physiological advantage over cisgender peers.
“Like any other educational program, school athletic programs should be accessible for everyone regardless of their sex or transgender status,” said Joshua Block, senior counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ and HIV Project. “Trans kids play sports for the same reasons their peers do — to learn perseverance, dedication, teamwork, and to simply have fun with their friends,” Block said.
He added, “Categorically excluding kids from school sports just because they are transgender will only make our schools less safe and more hurtful places for all youth. We believe the lower courts were right to block these discriminatory laws, and we will continue to defend the freedom of all kids to play.”
“Our client just wants to play sports with her friends and peers,” said Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Tara Borelli. “Everyone understands the value of participating in team athletics, for fitness, leadership, socialization, and myriad other benefits.”
Borelli continued, “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit last April issued a thoughtful and thorough ruling allowing B.P.J. to continue participating in track events. That well-reasoned decision should stand the test of time, and we stand ready to defend it.”
Shortly after taking control of both legislative chambers, Republican members of Congress tried — unsuccessfully — to pass a national ban like those now enforced in 27 states since 2020.
Federal Government
UPenn erases Lia Thomas’s records as part of settlement with White House
University agreed to ban trans women from women’s sports teams
In a settlement with the Trump-Vance administration announced on Tuesday, the University of Pennsylvania will ban transgender athletes from competing and erase swimming records set by transgender former student Lia Thomas.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found the university in violation of Title IX, the federal rights law barring sex based discrimination in educational institutions, by “permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”
The statement issued by University of Pennsylvania President J. Larry Jameson highlighted how the law’s interpretation was changed substantially under President Donald Trump’s second term.
“The Department of Education OCR investigated the participation of one transgender athlete on the women’s swimming team three years ago, during the 2021-2022 swim season,” he wrote. “At that time, Penn was in compliance with NCAA eligibility rules and Title IX as then interpreted.”
Jameson continued, “Penn has always followed — and continues to follow — Title IX and the applicable policy of the NCAA regarding transgender athletes. NCAA eligibility rules changed in February 2025 with Executive Orders 14168 and 14201 and Penn will continue to adhere to these new rules.”
Writing that “we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules” in place while Thomas was allowed to compete, the university president added, “We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.”
“Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the university for future generations of female athletes.”
Under former President Joe Biden, the department’s Office of Civil Rights sought to protect against anti-LGBTQ discrimination in education, bringing investigations and enforcement actions in cases where school officials might, for example, require trans students to use restrooms and facilities consistent with their birth sex or fail to respond to peer harassment over their gender identity.
Much of the legal reasoning behind the Biden-Harris administration’s positions extended from the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County, which found that sex-based discrimination includes that which is based on sexual orientation or gender identity under Title VII rules covering employment practices.
The Trump-Vance administration last week put the state of California on notice that its trans athlete policies were, or once were, in violation of Title IX, which comes amid the ongoing battle with Maine over the same issue.
New York
Two teens shot steps from Stonewall Inn after NYC Pride parade
One of the victims remains in critical condition
On Sunday night, following the annual NYC Pride March, two girls were shot in Sheridan Square, feet away from the historic Stonewall Inn.
According to an NYPD report, the two girls, aged 16 and 17, were shot around 10:15 p.m. as Pride festivities began to wind down. The 16-year-old was struck in the head and, according to police sources, is said to be in critical condition, while the 17-year-old was said to be in stable condition.
The Washington Blade confirmed with the NYPD the details from the police reports and learned no arrests had been made as of noon Monday.
The shooting took place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, mere feet away from the most famous gay bar in the city — if not the world — the Stonewall Inn. Earlier that day, hundreds of thousands of people marched down Christopher Street to celebrate 55 years of LGBTQ people standing up for their rights.
In June 1969, after police raided the Stonewall Inn, members of the LGBTQ community pushed back, sparking what became known as the Stonewall riots. Over the course of two days, LGBTQ New Yorkers protested the discriminatory policing of queer spaces across the city and mobilized to speak out — and throw bottles if need be — at officers attempting to suppress their existence.
The following year, LGBTQ people returned to the Stonewall Inn and marched through the same streets where queer New Yorkers had been arrested, marking the first “Gay Pride March” in history and declaring that LGBTQ people were not going anywhere.
New York State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, whose district includes Greenwich Village, took to social media to comment on the shooting.
“After decades of peaceful Pride celebrations — this year gun fire and two people shot near the Stonewall Inn is a reminder that gun violence is everywhere,” the lesbian lawmaker said on X. “Guns are a problem despite the NRA BS.”
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