National
Anti-gay Baptist bishop sued for sexual acts by male parishioner
Minister’s attorney goes on radio show to defend client
An attorney for a Baptist bishop whose ministry is in Lithonia, Ga., and who’s embroiled in a gay sex lawsuit defended his client on a radio show this week.
Bishop Eddie Long’s attorney went to the airwaves on Tom Joyner’s radio show this week to defend the pastor from three lawsuits filed against the popular preacher by three young men who said Long coerced them into having sex.
Craig Gillen, Long’s attorney, told Roland Martin of the Tom Joyner Show at 104.1 Kiss FM it was his decision not to have Long be interviewed on the show and first read a statement from Long.
“I apologize … this was my call [to not have Long interview on the show],” Gillen said during the interview that lasted just under 15 minutes. “He wanted to be here.”
The statement Gillen said was from Long said, in part, “I have been through storms and my faith has always sustained me … Let me be clear, these charges are false.”
Gillen also said Long stated he would respond to the allegations to his congregation of some 25,000 members at the 11 a.m. service on Sunday at New Birth located in Lithonia.
Gillen said “these false allegations” are an attack on Bishop Long personally, on New Birth and its 25,000 members as well as an attack on the church’s mentoring program “that has helped thousands of young men.”
Martin posed the question why Long himself has not spoken out yet himself some 48 hours after the first lawsuit was filed.
“You have a large congregation, a national, international ministry … but if someone leveled these kinds of charges, that I slept in a bed, that I actually performed sexual acts, that I groped individuals, things along those lines, I would likely be screaming to high heaven there’s no way in the world I did any of these things,” Martin said. “Don’t you think that still poses a problem not hearing directly from the bishop addressing these allegations?”
Gillen said he didn’t believe it was a problem and if any blame was to be made about Long not speaking directly about the situation to blame him as his attorney.
“It is important for the bishop to make sure as many folks as possible in that church understand and know he is going to be talking with them directly Sunday morning. These folks along with the bishop are under attack,” Gillen said.
No lawyer likes to have his client in a situation that a lawyer can’t control, Gillen added.
A press conference with Long that was scheduled for today was also canceled. Gillen said on the radio show there was a “miscommunication” and there would be no press conference.
Gillen also pointed out that two of the accusers were arrested for robbing the church.
The full statement from Long as read by Gillen on the radio today:
“I have been through storms and my faith has always sustained me. I am anxious to respond directly to these false allegations and I will do so. However, my lawyers counsel patience at this time.
“Let me be clear — the charges against me and New Birth are false. I have devoted my life to helping others and these false allegations hurt me deeply. But my faith is strong and the truth will emerge.
“All I ask is for your patience as we continue to categorically deny each and every one of these ugly charges. Finally, as I have done for thousands of others over my decades of preaching
I ask for your prayers for me, my family and our church.”
Charges against Long
Jamal Parris, 23, is named as the plaintiff in the third lawsuit. He lives in Colorado Springs, Colo. He and his mother joined Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in 2001 when Parris was 14.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Parris alleges Long encouraged him to call him “Daddy.” During 2004-2005, Parris spent time alone with Long in a guesthouse of the megachurch on Snapfinger Road.
“Initially, Defendant Long engaged in sexual touching during their encounters and then escalated the activity to oral sodomy and other acts of sexual gratification,” the lawsuit states. “Defendant Long would discuss the Holy Scripture to justify the sexual activity.”
The third lawsuit is similar to two lawsuits filed on Tuesday by former members.
Long has a long history of being anti-gay. In December 2004, he led a march of some 10,000 congregants through the streets of Atlanta from the Martin Luther King Jr. Center to Turner Field to protest same-sex marriage. Several local LGBT activists held a counter-protest to the march.
In 2005, black gay activists Keith Boykin and Jasmyne Cannick profiled Long as one of several anti-gay black pastors as part of an “Outing Black Pastors” online series on their websites.
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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