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U.S. takes anti-bullying message to Italy

Ambassador appears in video promoting gay helpline

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A screen capture from Ambassador David Thorne's 'It Gets Better' video.

The Obama administration’s participation in the “It Gets Better” campaign to stop anti-LGBT bullying and teen suicide moved to Europe last week when the U.S. ambassador to Italy appeared in a video promoting an Italian helpline (watch the video here).

Speaking in Italian and addressing viewers of Italy’s version of MTV and YouTube, Ambassador David Thorne said the American Embassy was “focusing on the rights of gays” this year to commemorate Human Rights Day on Dec. 10.

“If you are a victim of discrimination or acts of bullying, talk to someone who is ready to listen,” he said. “Call the helpline number listed on the screen. Your life is important. You are not alone. Things will get better.”

Thorne’s video recording follows similar videos on the subject of bullying and LGBT teen suicides related to bullying that have been recorded by President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and four cabinet members, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. John Berry, the gay director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, also recorded such a video.

Each of the videos, including the one recorded by Obama, calls on LGBT youth subjected to bullying or harassment to remember that things get better once they finish school and enter a career and that they should seek help and support. The videos are modeled after the first such video made by gay columnist and author Dan Savage, who founded the “It Gets Better Project” to address LGBT teen suicides triggered by harassment and bullying.

Paula Thiede, a spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Italy, said Thorne made his video through recording facilities at the embassy in Rome after seeing an ‘It Gets Better’ message directed to LGBT young people delivered by Secretary Clinton in a video released earlier this year.

Thiede said Thorne’s video message appeared on Italy’s MTV channel Dec. 8-10.

A press release issued by the embassy directed to the Italian media also announced that the embassy organized a free concert Sunday [Dec. 12] called “Broadway Night” at a Rome theater that was “dedicated to the lesbian, gay and trans community.”

The news release says the concert, which was open to everyone, was sponsored by the City of Rome and the surrounding provincial and regional governments together with the Italian Gay Help Line.

“The concert last night was a huge success, the theater was standing room only, with a lively crowd who really enjoyed the music, calling for encores and requesting their favorite American songs,” said Fleur Cowan, deputy cultural attaché for the U.S. Embassy in Rome, in an e-mail on Monday.

“Guests came from as far away as Naples, and we were approached by many people thanking us for the event and underscoring how important the U.S. example of tolerance and social inclusion was for the LGBT community here,” Cowan said.

Thorne’s video attracted considerable coverage in the Italian news media, including stories in two of Italy’s leading mainstream newspapers — La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera.

“This year, both President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton wanted to underscore respect for gay rights,” Thorne said in a statement. “On the occasion of World Human Rights Day, my embassy in Rome decided to collaborate with the associations supporting the Gay Help Line to sensitize public opinion on a very important theme, and to help homosexual young people who are victims of discrimination and bullying.”

Thorne’s video aired at a time when the Italian public and media have been closely following the release by the controversial group WikiLeaks of confidential cables from the U.S. Embassy in Rome that were highly critical of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The embassy cables were among thousands of classified and confidential U.S. documents WikiLeaks obtained from unidentified U.S. sources. The Justice Department is investigating the matter.

Although Thorne’s video steered clear of internal Italian politics, it also followed a Nov. 2 comment by Berlusconi about gays that offended Italian gay activists and drew criticism from opposition party leaders.

In responding to allegations that he hosted parties in his private villas in which young women provided sexual favors to guests — an allegation that Berlusconi strongly denies — the prime minister told reporters at a public gathering, “It is better to like beautiful girls than to be gay.”

His office said the remark was a joke and not intended to offend anyone.

Berlusconi’s government barely survived a vote on a motion of “no confidence” by opposition forces that sought his ouster from office and a call for a national election.

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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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