National
GOP letter complicates ‘Don’t Ask’ repeal efforts
All 42 members of GOP caucus penned names to missive
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is among the signers of a letter vowing to obstruct movement on certain bills before the Senate (Blade photo by Michael Key.)
A recent letter in which the Senate Republican caucus has pledged to obstruct movement on legislation unrelated to government funding or taxes is complicating efforts for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal.
In the missive, dated Nov. 29, Republicans vow to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that they’ll vote against cloture for any legislative item until the Senate has “acted to fund the government and we have prevented the tax increase that is currently awaiting all taxpayers.”
“With little time left in this Congressional session, legislative scheduling should be focused on these critical priorities,” the letter states. “While there are other items that might ultimately be worthy of the Senate’s attention, we cannot agree to prioritize any matters above the critical issues of funding the government and preventing a job-killing tax hike.”
The letter is signed by all 42 members of the Republican caucus, including those who are seen as swing votes on moving forward with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” such as Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.). Newly seated Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is also among the signers.
Capitol Hill observers see the letter as an attempt to derail movement on the DREAM Act, an immigration-related bill, as well as repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Legislation to repeal the military’s gay ban is pending before the Senate as part of the fiscal year 2011 defense authorization bill.
A Democratic aide, who spoke to the Washington Blade on condition of anonymity, said the letter is “very, very bad news” for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal efforts.
“They’ve essentially said that they’re going to vote against cloture on any bill but the tax bill, so they’ve actually just all drawn the line … on all armed services bills,” the aide said.
Kevin Kelley, a Collins spokesperson, said in a statement that although the Maine senator signed the letter and believes tax cuts and funding for the government “are the top two priorities for the lame duck session,” she still wants to see “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal this year.
“However, she also believes the there is time in December to consider all three issues, including the defense authorization bill, which includes a repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,'” Collins said. “She has made it clear that if the majority leader brings the defense authorization bill to the floor and allows sufficient debate and amendments, she would vote to proceed to that bill.”
In a statement, Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, chided Republicans for not being as committed to the defense authorization bill as they are to taxes.
“The Republican caucus that has expressed strong support for a vote on extending the Bush era tax cuts should be as equally unified in support of a vote in the lame-duck session on the nation’s defense bill, the very bill which provides for our security and the well being of service members who defend us every day,” Sarvis said.
Winnie Stachelberg, senior vice president for external affairs at the Center for American Progress, said the letter underscores Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has a “sole focus on obstruction” and wants to make President Obama a one-term president.
“Rather than dealing with the myriad of issues that face this country, he’s made clear what his route is,” Stachelberg said.
Stachelberg also noted a recent report from the Washington Post’s Greg Sargeant quoting a Collins spokesperson as saying even though the senator signed the letter, she would be open to voting for a motion to proceed on the defense authorization bill.
Additionally, Stachelberg said she’s had conversations with people on Capitol Hill suggesting Collins, Sen. Richard Lugar and Sen. Lisa Murkowski would be open to voting to moving forward on the defense legislation.
“They actually maintain that while the focus should be on taxes and the economy, that they believe, too, that other issues should be considered as well,” Stachelberg said.
One gay GOP organization was sympathetic to the goals of the letter. R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of the National Log Cabin Republicans, said Congress must push forward with tax legislation “to avoid punitive tax increases come 2011,” but said the Senate can take action on taxes as well as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” before the year’s end.
“Further, while time is limited, the Congress can complete action on taxes as well as a [‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’] repeal inclusive [defense authorization bill],” Cooper said.
Download a copy of the letter here.
National
213 House members ask Speaker Johnson to condemn anti-trans rhetoric
Letter cites ‘demonizing and dehumanizing’ language
The Congressional Equality Caucus has sent a letter urging Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to condemn the surge in anti-trans rhetoric coming from members of Congress.
The letter, signed by 213 members, criticizes Johnson for permitting some lawmakers to use “demonizing and dehumanizing” language directed at the transgender community.
The first signature on the letter is Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware, the only transgender member of Congress.
It also includes signatures from Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (MA-05), House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (CA-33), every member of the Congressional Equality Caucus, and members of every major House Democratic ideological caucus.
Some House Republicans have used slurs to address members of the transgender community during official business, including in committee hearings and on the House floor.
The House has strict rules governing proper language—rules the letter directly cites—while noting that no corrective action was taken by the Chair or Speaker Pro Tempore when these violations occurred.
The letter also calls out members of Congress—though none by name—for inappropriate comments, including calls to institutionalize all transgender people, references to transgender people as mentally ill, and false claims portraying them as inherently violent or as a national security threat.
Citing FBI data, the letter notes that 463 hate crime incidents were reported due to gender identity bias. It also references a 2023 Williams Institute report showing that transgender people are more than four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization, despite making up less than 2% of the U.S. population.
The letter ends with a renewed plea for Speaker Johnson to take appropriate measures to protect not only the trans member of Congress from harassment, but also transgender people across the country.
“We urge you to condemn the rise in dehumanizing rhetoric targeting the transgender community and to ensure members of your conference are abiding by rules of decorum and not using their platforms to demonize and scapegoat the transgender community, including by ensuring members are not using slurs to refer to the transgender community.”
The full letter, including the complete list of signatories, can be found at equality.house.gov. (https://equality.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/equality.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/letter-to-speaker-johnson-on-anti-transgender-rhetoric-enforcing-rules-of-decorum.pdf)
The White House
EXCLUSIVE: Garcia, Markey reintroduce bill to require US promotes LGBTQ rights abroad
International Human Rights Defense Act also calls for permanent special envoy
Two lawmakers on Monday have reintroduced a bill that would require the State Department to promote LGBTQ rights abroad.
A press release notes the International Human Rights Defense Act that U.S. Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) introduced would “direct” the State Department “to monitor and respond to violence against LGBTQ+ people worldwide, while creating a comprehensive plan to combat discrimination, criminalization, and hate-motivated attacks against LGBTQ+ communities” and “formally establish a special envoy to coordinate LGBTQ+ policies across the State Department.”
“LGBTQ+ people here at home and around the world continue to face escalating violence, discrimination, and rollbacks of their rights, and we must act now,” said Garcia in the press release. “This bill will stand up for LGBTQ+ communities at home and abroad, and show the world that our nation can be a leader when it comes to protecting dignity and human rights once again.”
Markey, Garcia, and U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) in 2023 introduced the International Human Rights Defense Act. Markey and former California Congressman Alan Lowenthal in 2019 sponsored the same bill.
The promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights was a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris administration’s overall foreign policy.
The global LGBTQ and intersex rights movement since the Trump-Vance administration froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid has lost more than an estimated $50 million in funding.
The U.S. Agency for International Development, which funded dozens of advocacy groups around the world, officially shut down on July 1. Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this year said the State Department would administer the remaining 17 percent of USAID contracts that had not been cancelled.
Then-President Joe Biden in 2021 named Jessica Stern — the former executive director of Outright International — as his administration’s special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights.
The Trump-Vance White House has not named anyone to the position.
Stern, who co-founded the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice after she left the government, is among those who sharply criticized the removal of LGBTQ- and intersex-specific references from the State Department’s 2024 human rights report.
“It is deliberate erasure,” said Stern in August after the State Department released the report.
The Congressional Equality Caucus in a Sept. 9 letter to Rubio urged the State Department to once again include LGBTQ and intersex people in their annual human rights reports. Garcia, U.S. Reps. Julie Johnson (D-Texas), and Sarah McBride (D-Del.), who chair the group’s International LGBTQI+ Rights Task Force, spearheaded the letter.
“We must recommit the United States to the defense of human rights and the promotion of equality and justice around the world,” said Markey in response to the International Human Rights Defense Act that he and Garcia introduced. “It is as important as ever that we stand up and protect LGBTQ+ individuals from the Trump administration’s cruel attempts to further marginalize this community. I will continue to fight alongside LGBTQ+ individuals for a world that recognizes that LGBTQ+ rights are human rights.”
National
US bishops ban gender-affirming care at Catholic hospitals
Directive adopted during meeting in Baltimore.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops this week adopted a directive that bans Catholic hospitals from offering gender-affirming care to their patients.
Since ‘creation is prior to us and must be received as a gift,’ we have a duty ‘to protect our humanity,’ which means first of all, ‘accepting it and respecting it as it was created,’” reads the directive the USCCB adopted during their meeting that is taking place this week in Baltimore.
The Washington Blade obtained a copy of it on Thursday.
“In order to respect the nature of the human person as a unity of body and soul, Catholic health care services must not provide or permit medical interventions, whether surgical, hormonal, or genetic, that aim not to restore but rather to alter the fundamental order of the human body in its form or function,” reads the directive. “This includes, for example, some forms of genetic engineering whose purpose is not medical treatment, as well as interventions that aim to transform sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex (or to nullify sexual characteristics of a human body.)”
“In accord with the mission of Catholic health care, which includes serving those who are vulnerable, Catholic health care services and providers ‘must employ all appropriate resources to mitigate the suffering of those who experience gender incongruence or gender dysphoria’ and to provide for the full range of their health care needs, employing only those means that respect the fundamental order of the human body,” it adds.
The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2024 condemned gender-affirming surgeries and “gender theory.” The USCCB directive comes against the backdrop of the Trump-Vance administration’s continued attacks against the trans community.
The U.S. Supreme Court in June upheld a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming medical interventions for minors.
Media reports earlier this month indicated the Trump-Vance administration will seek to prohibit Medicaid reimbursement for medical care to trans minors, and ban reimbursement through the Children’s Health Insurance Program for patients under 19. NPR also reported the White House is considering blocking all Medicaid and Medicare funding for hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors.
“The directives adopted by the USCCB will harm, not benefit transgender persons,” said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based LGBTQ Catholic organization, in a statement. “In a church called to synodal listening and dialogue, it is embarrassing, even shameful, that the bishops failed to consult transgender people, who have found that gender-affirming medical care has enhanced their lives and their relationship with God.”
213 House members ask Speaker Johnson to condemn anti-trans rhetoric
D.C. LGBTQ bars ‘hanging in there’ amid tough economy
Japan’s first female prime minister reluctant to advance LGBTQ rights
Rep. Grijalva reiterates LGBTQ support at swearing in
PHOTOS: Cheers to Out Sports!
PHOTOS: Whitman-Walker Gala
Activist hosts Diwali celebration in D.C.
Calendar: November 14-20
Harford school board appeals state’s book ban decision to circuit court
