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Rally for sanity, fear packs National Mall

LGBT contingent joins 215,000 for Stewart, Colbert event

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(Blade photo by Michael Key)

It was all about encouraging sanity. Or was it stoking fear?

Either way, the National Mall was packed on Saturday with, according to CBS News, an estimated 215,000 devotees of faux news anchor Jon Stewart and faux commentator Stephen Colbert for their “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.”

“If you look at the size of the crowd, you can see the inspiration there,” said C. Dixon Osburn, a gay D.C.-based activist who attended the rally. “The throngs of us have been longing for some clarity and sanity in moving forward.”

The Comedy Central pair approached the joint rally with different agendas. Stewart called for greater sanity in political discourse to transcend the sound bite journalism found on cable news networks.

“I think you know that the success or failure of a rally is only judged by two criteria: the intellectual coherence of the content and its correllation to the engagement of — I’m just kidding — it’s color and size,” Stewart said. “We all know it’s color and size.”

Colbert, however, sold the rally as a promotion of the kind of fear-mongering dialogue from political commentators that he spoofs on his show.

“If Eve just had a healthy phobia of snakes, she would not have eaten that apple and cursed us all with original sin,” Colbert said. “Then I’d be able to walk around naked everywhere instead of just my bathroom, my living room and participating Burger Kings.”
As they often do during their TV shows, the two comedians sometimes drew on gay-related jokes as they fired up the crowd.

In the song with the refrain “There is no one more American than we,” Stewart and Colbert sang the line “from gay men who like football to straight men who like ‘Glee.'”

Many rally participants carried messages that lampooned previous rallies in D.C. with a more definite political agenda, such as Fox News commentator Glenn Beck’s Tea Party rally or the progressive One Nation Rally.

One held a sign reading “I want my country (ham) back” and another waived a sign stating “This sign contains correct grammar and spelling.” Yet another attendee raised a sheet with the message, “I have a sign.”

Still, others attempted to deliver decidedly liberal messages. Some carried signs that read, “Thank You Obama” and listed the accomplishments of his first two years in office, such as passage of health care reform legislation.

Osburn, director of law and security for Human Rights Watch, participated in the rally with others from his organization by distributing stickers reading “Fight Fear” while wearing chicken beaks.

“It’s part of the Colbert tongue-and-cheek satire of ‘Keep Fear Alive,’ which means being chicken,” Osburn said. “The reality is you’re supposed to fight fear, so we were there armed with facts rather than fear on issues like terrorism and torture and national security issues.”

Media Matters, a progressive media watchdog group, distributed signs reading “Restore Sanity: Fight Fox,” a dig at the news network known for its conservative bent.

A sizeable libertarian presence could be seen at the rally. A few had “Don’t Tread on Me” flags draped on their backs as they watched Stewart and Colbert’s performance.

LGBT people also made up a significant part of the estimated 215,000 in attendance. Osburn said there are “two realities” in the LGBT community: more people are coming out and coming out at an earlier age as a lack of federal protections for LGBT people persists.

“We are finding acceptance in our families and the companies where we work,” he said. “But there’s this disconnect, and that disconnect is in part because of political leadership that continues to try to divide us — rather than unite us — as a country.”

Zack Ford, a gay blogger from Harrisburg, Pa., held a sign saying “Free Hugs from a Military Atheist with a Gay Agenda” and embracing those who approached him.

“People are still scared of homosexuality in the same way they were 40, 50 years ago,” Ford said. “The same myths persist. That’s why I’m out here identifying myself as gay openly and hugging people because I want to help dispel the myth for some people.”

At one point during the rally, Stewart announced awards for those exhibiting a propensity for sanity in moments when the public was paying attention. Stewart also commended others for taking responsibility after acting in less than rationale ways in the past.

Among those he noted was Steven Slater, a gay former flight attendant with JetBlue. In August, he notoriously cursed out a passenger on a plane arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport, grabbed a beer from the galley and deployed an emergency exit slide and fled the plane.

In a video played at the rally, Slater apologized for his actions and admitted he acted in a less than sane manner.

“I could have found a more productive way of expressing my frustration instead of freaking out and cursing out a plane of passengers just trying to get to Pittsburgh,” he said. “Maybe a hug would have solved the whole thing.”

Meanwhile, Colbert offered awards for those who induced fear among others. Among the recipients was the black T-shirt donned by CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper during his coverage of disasters striking various areas throughout the country.

Observing that when Cooper shows up in a neighborhood, it means bad news for the area, Colbert brought one of the anchor’s T-shirt on stage and gave it an award for spreading fear.

“Say ‘hi’ to Anderson’s rock-hard torso for us,” Colbert added.

Some political pundits had speculated that the rally could be an “October surprise” that could motivate people to vote Democratic and mitigate what’s expected to be profound losses for the party on Election Day.

Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), a gay lawmaker, hosted a satellite gathering for the rally on Friday in Boulder, Colo., presumably in an attempt to motivate the Democratic base there.

Sean Theriault, a gay government professor at the University of Texas, Austin, said the rally could have some impact on voters, but added that those who think it’ll prevent a Democratic wipeout are “mistaken.”

“It could help turnout a little bit, it could get the base a little bit energized and it could have a huge impact on a couple of races that are pretty close, but I don’t think it’s going to save the Democrats from the impending disaster,” Theriault said.

Similarly, Ford said he thinks the rally is an opportunity to energize those who may not otherwise be engaged in the political process.

“It’s not necessarily just all left, but it’s people from all walks of life, from all states and countries that are interested in American equality and progress,” Ford said. “They’re coming out here just to get energized and to show what’s important to them.”

Closing the rally with a keynote address, Stewart said he wanted to clarify the purpose of the rally, emphasizing it wasn’t intended to suggest times aren’t difficult and Americans have nothing to fear.

“They are and we do,” he said. “But we live now in hard times, not end times, and unfortunately one of our main tools in delineating the two broke.”

Stewart argued that what he called the “country’s 24-hour political pundit perpetual panic inflictinator” isn’t responsible for America’s problems, but said its existence makes solving them harder.

“The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems, bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen,” Stewart said. “Or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire.”

Still, Stewart said even with such political dialogue taking place, he feels “strangely, calmly good” because he said the uncompromising image of Americans depicted in the media is false.

“We know instinctively as a people that if we are to get through the darkness and back into the light, we have to work together,” Stewart said.

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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

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(Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

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.

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National

Medical groups file lawsuit over Trump deletion of health information

Crucial datasets included LGBTQ, HIV resources

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HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is named as a defendant in the lawsuit. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

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.

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U.S. Federal Courts

Federal judge scraps trans-inclusive workplace discrimination protections

Ruling appears to contradict US Supreme Court precedent

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Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Screen capture: YouTube)

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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