National
Jarrett calls gay suicides a ‘terrible tragedy’
W.H. adviser speaks out against bullying at HRC dinner
White House Adviser Valerie Jarrett at HRC dinner (Blade photo by Michael Key)
A top White House adviser on Saturday decried recent incidents of young gay men committing suicide as “a terrible tragedy” and promised the Obama administration would work to combat the school bullying that reportedly led to these deaths.
Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Obama, made the remarks to an estimated 3,100 people during a speech at the 14th annual Human Rights Campagin national dinner in D.C.
Jarrett said the recent suicides of five young gay men who were bullied because they were gay, or perceived to be gay, has made those who hear their stories “shocked and heartbroken.”
“It’s a terrible tragedy,” she said. “And it has turned a harsh spotlight on an issue that often doesn’t get the public attention it deserves: the struggles of LGBT youth, the enormous pain that too many experience as a result of bullying and the desperate, tragic decision by some young people who feel that their only recourse is to take their own lives.”
Jarrett said just prior to her remarks, she met backstage with Tammy Aaberg, the mother of one of the young gays who committed suicide, Justin Aaberg, as well the deceased child’s brother, Andrew. The 15-year-old Minnesota student reportedly committed suicide in September after he was bullied in school.
“We stand to recognize the courage that these two people and their families have shown by [being] willing so soon to share the story of Justin and honor his memory in the hope that no other mother or father or brother or sister will have to know their pain,” Jarrett said.
In his introduction of Jarrett, Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, also addressed the suicides and said leaders and institutions who decry homosexuality were to blame.
“There are billions of kids struggling with the sexual orientation or gender identity,” Solmonese said. “They are quite literally under attack by the people that they look up to … people who falsely perpetuate the idea that being gay is somehow unhealthy or immoral.”
Solmonese cited as an example of such statements Mormon Apostle Boyd Packer’s remarks last week against gays during a sermon at a general conference in Salt Lake City. Solmonese called the religous leader’s words “horrifying and irresponsible.”
The HRC president said he plans to deliver to the Mormon Church a collection of 100,000 letters and petitions condemning the remarks in an upcoming visit to Utah.
During her speech, Jarrett identified many of the initiatives that President Obama has taken to address the kind of bullying in schools that reportedly led to these suicides.
She said the president is committed to creating an environment in schools and other places throughout the country “that is safe for every person, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Among the initiatives cited by Jarrett were the Education Department’s creation a task force on bullying and the reinvigoration of the department’s Office of Civil Rights activities against harassment in schools.
Jarrett also said protecting young people who are forced to leave their homes is important for protecting LGBT youth and cited the Department of Housing & Urban Development’s new national strategy to fight homelessness.
“It specifically addresses the needs of LGBT youth who are living on the streets because they have been ostracized by their families, friends, and community,” she said. “This includes figuring out whether it’s possible for these children to go home, and if they can’t, that we have safe and nurturing alternatives.”
Jarrett’s remarks in general were well received by attendees, who greeted her with applause when she entered the stage and throughout her remarks.
Lane Hudson, a gay D.C. activist who was in attendance at the dinner, said Jarrett’s remarks on bullying and suicides were “nice to hear.” Still, he maintained the president needs to speak directly on the issue.
“What is needed is for the man she advises, President Obama, to speak out publicly against the terrorizing that occurs in schools and on our streets, particularly to LGBT people,” Hudson said.
In addition to bullying, Jarrett also mentioned efforts on repealing on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Eyes have been on the Obama administration and whether it will pressure the Senate to pass repeal after an effort in that chamber to end the law failed last month.
Jarrett said ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is a promise Obama has made “in no uncertain terms.”
“For the first time in history, the House of Representatives has passed repeal,” she said. “Now we’ve got to keep pushing the Senate to do the right thing and get this done.”
Solmonese also addressed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal and the Senate failure to move forward on the issue last month. He blamed the inability to move forward with the legislation on “people who are fundamentally against any measure of LGBT equality” in the Senate.
“And one of them, who may have been our president, is Sen. John McCain,” Solmonese said. “His filibuster effort and his election year politics brought that long overdue justice to a halt for now.”
Solmonese maintained that another opporunity for the Senate to take up “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal would emerge after Election Day in the lame duck. Many pundits have said the chances of the Senate passing the legislation at this time would be limited.
Still, Solmonese recalled repeated attempts at passing hate crimes legislation — recalling how LGBT activist Judy Shepard vowed to pass the law after earlier defeats — and suggested a similar path lay ahead in ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
“It will be an uphill battle, and partisan divide and a cluttered legislative calendar are going to work against us,” he said. “But [be] rest assured that we will be guided by the words of Judy Shepard and we will stay at it until we win.”
Some LGBT advocates were unhappy with the remarks Jarrett gave on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and said they didn’t demonstrate a sufficient commitment from the administration to end repeal this year.
Hudson said placing responsibility on the Senate to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” wasn’t enough from the White House.
“She needed to commit to the White House making a major effort to end the ban once and for all,” she said. “She came nowhere close to that.”
Alex Nicholson, executive director of Servicemembers United, had been pressuring Jarrett to meet with gay veterans prior to her speech to talk about efforts in repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Following her remarks, Nicholson said he’s pleased she focused on bullying as opposed to a describing litany of accomplishments, but still expressed dissatisfaction with the White House on the issue of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
“We reiterate that we still do not feel strongly supported by this administration’s record of action so far, and that we still want her to meet with true gay military advocates to talk about those ‘no uncertain terms’ she mentioned when referring to the president’s promise on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ our community’s top legislative agenda item of 2010,” Nicholson said.
National
Man charged in Mall of America shooting plot inspired by Pulse massacre: report
Suspect exchanged hundreds of messages, pledged loyalty to ISIS
The U.S. Department of Justice charged Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, 18, of Richfield, Minn., on Oct. 7 with one count of knowingly receiving a firearm and ammunition in order to commit a federal crime of terrorism. Mohamud allegedly planned to carry out a mass-casualty attack in support of ISIS, inspired in part by the Pulse nightclub massacre that took place on June 12, 2016 when then-29-year-old Omar Mateen murdered 49 people and wounded 58 – one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history, and the deadliest targeting the LGBTQ+ community.
According to a DOJ statement release, Mohamud was arrested on Oct. 6 by the FBI, which had arranged to sell him an AK-47 assault rifle, magazines, and ammunition through an undercover FBI employee. Mohamud was arrested shortly after paying $600 in cash and taking possession of those items; he reaffirmed his intention to shoot people at the Mall of America during the transaction.
“Mohamud allegedly sought to carry out a mass-casualty shooting at the Mall of America, expressing a desire to emulate some of the most horrific ISIS-inspired attacks in the United States, including the atrocities at Pulse Nightclub and 2025 New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg in the statement by the DOJ. “The National Security Division will continue to work closely with the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force to track down and prosecute ISIS-inspired terrorists in the United States.”
According to the complaint, beginning on or about December 2024, Mohamud had exchanged hundreds of messages through multiple social media and messaging apps with a confidential source, and expressed a desire to travel to Somalia to join a designated foreign terrorist organization to fight on their behalf.
The defendant stated many times that if he was unable to travel overseas because of a lack of funds, he planned to carry out a mass-casualty event in Minnesota in support of ISIS.
According to the DOJ, “In July 2026, Mohamud sent messages discussing his intent to carry out a mass-casualty shooting attack at the Mall of America because he claimed it was owned by Jews. He wrote that [he] wanted to kill 30 to 60 people so no one would go there.”
“During the course of his communications, Mohamud stated that he wanted to commit an attack similar to those of the Pulse Nightclub mass-shooting in Orlando, the Bondi Beach mass-shooting in Australia, and the New Year’s Day vehicle-ramming attack in New Orleans.”
This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Ryan White of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Bejar for the District of Minnesota.
California
Calif. GOP gubernatorial candidate ad ‘disgusting attempt to exploit lesbian intimacy’
Activists, anti-LGBTQ religious leaders criticized Steve Hilton spot
Two women sit on a bed, a Pride flag hanging behind them. One is nervous; the other tells her to be calm and that she’ll do “all the work.” The music swells. The two hold hands and — fill out a ballot voting for Steve Hilton?
This is the new advertisement from the Hilton gubernatorial campaign that is drawing rebuke from both sides of the aisle, but for very different reasons.
Jorge Reyes Salinas, the communications director at Equality California, said the ad was an insult to the queer community.
“This ad is a disgusting attempt to exploit lesbian intimacy for political attention,” he said. The advertisement plays on media tropes that Salinas says “reduce lesbian and bisexual women … to sexual entertainment,” rather than showing them as well-rounded characters. “Any group of the LGBTQ+ community deserves the same dignity and respect as everyone else,” he said.
The ad is truly hyper-sexualized. It ends with one woman telling the other, “Now lick it.” The two pause and stare before she reveals an envelope to send the ballot, and large text pops up saying, “Just try it!”
Salinas characterized the ad as a desperate attempt to get attention from a candidate who is trailing far behind in the polls in heavily Democratic California. The Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra, who is endorsed by Equality California, holds a 25-point lead over Hilton according to recent polling by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies.
Conservatives have also criticized the ad.
Influential evangelical Pastor Jack Hibbs thought the ad was distasteful and said, “lesbianism among college girls and some high school girls that right now is an actual pandemic of social ill.” Republican attorney general candidate Michael Gates said it undermines “the sanctity of the relationship between parents and their children.” This criticism is rather confusing because although the ad features two relatively young women, they both appear to be adults, not minors.
“The comments from Pastor Jack Hibbs should be criticized because there is nothing wrong with two women being attracted to each other,” Salinas said. “We’re calling out the ad’s stereotypes, while also rejecting the homophobia in the response to it … by other Republicans.”
The backlash from Hilton’s own party and supporters shows that an advertisement full of queer innuendo was ill-considered, considering the national GOP’s attacks on LGBTQ people in recent years. Hilton himself has been campaigning against transgender girls and women competing in school sports and using locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity. This context might be why Hilton’s political base responded to the ad just as poorly as the liberal voters he was attempting to court.
Hilton says the ad is part of a new series rolling out before Election Day, showing stereotypical California liberal archetypes voting for Hilton. He claims these ads are authentically filmed with real actors, as opposed to being A.I. generated, like many of his previous ads. One other advertisement has been released so far by the campaign showing a man at a spiritual retreat also being swayed to vote for Hilton, although it is notably absent of sexual innuendo.
Caleb Kaufman is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.
2026 Midterm Elections
Trump uses anti-trans slur against Democratic Senate candidate
President mocked Annie Andrews
President Donald Trump used an anti-trans slur against Democratic South Carolina Senate candidate Annie Andrews on Monday as he sought to rally support for Republicans in the state’s Senate race.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump attacked Andrews three times, referring to her as “trannie” while promoting U.S. Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.)’s campaign.
Andrews is running against Graham for a Senate seat in the solidly Republican state.
Earlier this year, Graham was specially appointed to the seat following the death of her brother, Lindsey Graham, who represented South Carolina in the Senate from 2003 to 2026.
Andrews, the Democratic nominee from the state, is a pediatrician that lives in Charleston with her three children. She told NBC News that she will “work with anyone to put South Carolina first.”
“As a mom and a pediatrician, I’m in this race to fight for my patients, my three kids, and South Carolina,” Andrews said, adding that “lowering costs and making life better for families across our state is going to take all of us working together.”
Andrews used the attention from the president’s attack to emphasize what she described as a focus on policy issues rather than the culture wars that have dominated much of the political debate.
“If you care more about your bills than the politics in Washington, this campaign is for you,” she added.
Trump’s remarks have drawn criticism from leaders on both sides of the aisle.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) condemned Trump’s words Monday night on social media, calling his attacks on Andrews “despicable.”
“Annie Andrews is a mom and pediatrician who’s always put her community first — and she’s exactly who South Carolina needs representing them in the Senate,” Schumer said on X.
Former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley, a Republican, also criticized the president’s attack on Andrews, urging voters to “reject politics based on division and hate.”
“This is abhorrent. Elections don’t have to be about cruelty and lies. South Carolina deserves better,” Beasley wrote Monday night on X.
South Carolina has not elected a Democratic senator in nearly three decades.
Andrews’s campaign website does not mention her positions on LGBTQ issues.
The Washington Blade reached out to Andrews’s campaign for comment on Trump’s attack and her positions on transgender rights but did not hear back by time of publication.
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