National
Obama to sign ‘Don’t Ask’ repeal Wednesday
Gibbs says implementation process underway
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs offered limited details on Monday for implementing "Don't Ask" repeal (Blade photo by Michael Key).
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs offered limited details on Monday about the implementation process for repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as he announced President Obama would sign the repeal measure into law on Wednesday.
“My sense, without having a specific time at this point, is that … the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ will be signed by the president likely on Wednesday morning,” Gibbs said during a news conference.
But “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” won’t be off the books immediately after Obama’s signature. A provision in the measure requires that the president, the defense secretary and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify that the U.S. military is ready for repeal before open service is implemented.
Asked by the Washington Blade how long he anticipates before certification takes place, Gibbs didn’t offer a timeline, but said an implementation process will soon be underway. He said the recent Pentagon study predicts that implementing repeal “won’t be overly burdensome.”
“Again, I think that is part of what groups of people are going to working on,” Gibbs said. “But I would say this, we learned that — because of the attitudinal studies that the Pentagon conducted — we know that the vast majority of those serving in our military don’t believe this in any way will be disruptive. I think that points to an implementation process that won’t be overly burdensome.”
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he wouldn’t certify “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal until training is instituted in the armed forces to handle open service and until he felt the military service chiefs were comfortable in moving forward. During testimony before the Senate, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said that repeal shouldn’t be implemented until 2012.
Additionally, after the president and Pentagon leaders certify, repeal still won’t take place until an additional 60-day waiting period has passed.
At the news conference, Gibbs maintained Obama administration attorneys are working on legal issues related to repeal as well as the path toward implementing open service in the U.S. military.
“There are a series of implementation and legal issues that lawyers in this building as well in the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice are working through — and, obviously, working though a longer and larger implementation policy process once the president signs the repeal into law,” Gibbs said.
Looking ahead to this implementation period, a number of lawmakers and LGBT groups — most recently the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network — have been calling on Obama and Gates to issue some kind of executive order to stop the discharges of gay service members before repeal takes effect.
Asked by the Blade whether the administration would be open to such an order during this interim period, Gibbs referred to the implementation process that he said is underway.
“Again, I said earlier in this session, there are a host of implementation and legal issues that are being studied throughout the government,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs restated the administration’s work on implementing the law when asked by the Blade what he would say to a service member who is discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” between the time Congress has acted to repeal the law and the time that repeal takes effect.
“I would say to that person right now that there are a host of lawyers looking at all of these legal issues,” he said. “But I would also say to that person that the president will ask him to — the president will sign into the law the repeal of that policy on Wednesday.”
Gibbs referred to the implementation process again when National Public Radio asked how “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal would impact members of the military with same-sex spouses.
“Again, I think there a series of implementation issues that we’ll tackle as a result of this,” Gibbs said.
The signing of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” legislation on Wednesday would be Obama’s first appearance before a TV camera speaking about repeal since the Senate voted to end the law.
Gibbs said Obama didn’t make a public appearance immediately after the vote because he was busy building support for the START treaty, a nuclear arms reduction agreement.
“I think he was busy probably in the Oval Office working on calls on START,” Gibbs said.
Speculation is also emerging over whether the win over “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would lead to greater gains for the LGBT community and possibly Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage.
Obama opposes same-sex marriage, but during an interview with bloggers in October, he suggested that viewpoint could change. Asked by Americablog’s Joe Sudbay at the time about his position, Obama said “attitudes evolve, including mine.”
During the news conference on Monday, when asked whether “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal would be “laying the groundwork” for the president’s support for same-sex marriage, Gibbs referred to earlier comments he made in October and called repeal of the military a “significant accomplishment.”
“I think the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is a significant accomplishment for many that have sought for more than a decade to repeal a policy that they, like the president, believed was unjust,” Gibbs said.
Pressed on whether the president thinks the vote for repeal means the country is more ready for same-sex marriage, Gibbs said he hasn’t talked to Obama about the issue and noted the broad public support for ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
A Washington Post/ABC News poll published last week found 77 percent of Americans support allowing openly gay people to serve in the armed forces. Support for same-sex marriage is not as strong, although some polls are beginning to find majority support for gay nuptials.
“I have not talked to him about how the vote on Saturday impacts that,” Gibbs said. “I think, clearly, if you look at the issue of repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ there is clearly a shift in voter attitude. There was broad bipartisan support and public support for the repeal of a policy that didn’t make any sense, and on Wednesday, will no longer be the law.”
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.
The White House
Trump travels to Middle East countries with death penalty for homosexuality
President traveled to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates
Homosexuality remains punishable by death in two of the three Middle East countries that President Donald Trump visited last week.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are among the handful of countries in which anyone found guilty of engaging in consensual same-sex sexual relations could face the death penalty.
Trump was in Saudi Arabia from May 13-14. He traveled to Qatar on May 14.
“The law prohibited consensual same-sex sexual conduct between men but did not explicitly prohibit same-sex sexual relations between women,” notes the State Department’s 2023 human rights report, referring specifically to Qatar’s criminalization law. “The law was not systematically enforced. A man convicted of having consensual same-sex sexual relations could receive a sentence of seven years in prison. Under sharia, homosexuality was punishable by death; there were no reports of executions for this reason.”
Trump on May 15 arrived in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The State Department’s 2023 human rights report notes the “penalty for individuals who engaged in ‘consensual sodomy with a man'” in the country “was a minimum prison sentence of six months if the individual’s partner or guardian filed a complaint.”
“There were no known reports of arrests or prosecutions for consensual same-sex sexual conduct. LGBTQI+ identity, real or perceived, could be deemed an act against ‘decency or public morality,’ but there were no reports during the year of persons prosecuted under these provisions,” reads the report.
The report notes Emirati law also criminalizes “men who dressed as women or entered a place designated for women while ‘disguised’ as a woman.” Anyone found guilty could face up to a year in prison and a fine of up to 10,000 dirhams ($2,722.60.)
Trump returned to the U.S. on May 16.
The White House notes Trump during the trip secured more than $2 trillion “in investment agreements with Middle Eastern nations ($200 billion with the United Arab Emirates, $600 billion with Saudi Arabia, and $1.2 trillion with Qatar) for a more safe and prosperous future.”
Former President Joe Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2022.
Saudi Arabia is scheduled to host the 2034 World Cup. The 2022 World Cup took place in Qatar.
State Department
Rubio mum on Hungary’s Pride ban
Lawmakers on April 30 urged secretary of state to condemn anti-LGBTQ bill, constitutional amendment
More than 20 members of Congress have urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to publicly condemn a Hungarian law that bans Pride events.
California Congressman Mark Takano, a Democrat who co-chairs the Congressional Equality Caucus, and U.S. Rep. Bill Keating (D-Mass.), who is the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Europe Subcommittee, spearheaded the letter that lawmakers sent to Rubio on April 30.
Hungarian lawmakers in March passed a bill that bans Pride events and allow authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify those who participate in them. MPs last month amended the Hungarian constitution to ban public LGBTQ events.
“As a NATO ally which hosts U.S. service members, we expect the Hungarian government to abide by certain values which underpin the historic U.S.-Hungary bilateral relationship,” reads the letter. “Unfortunately, this new legislation and constitutional amendment disproportionately and arbitrarily target sexual and gender minorities.”
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government over the last decade has moved to curtail LGBTQ and intersex rights in Hungary.
A law that bans legal recognition of transgender and intersex people took effect in 2020. Hungarian MPs that year also effectively banned same-sex couples from adopting children and defined marriage in the constitution as between a man and a woman.
An anti-LGBTQ propaganda law took effect in 2021. The European Commission sued Hungary, which is a member of the European Union, over it.
MPs in 2023 approved the “snitch on your gay neighbor” bill that would have allowed Hungarians to anonymously report same-sex couples who are raising children. The Budapest Metropolitan Government Office in 2023 fined Lira Konyv, the country’s second-largest bookstore chain, 12 million forints ($33,733.67), for selling copies of British author Alice Oseman’s “Heartstopper.”
Former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman, who is gay, participated in the Budapest Pride march in 2024 and 2023. Pressman was also a vocal critic of Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
“Along with years of democratic backsliding in Hungary, it flies in the face of those values and the passage of this legislation deserves quick and decisive criticism and action in response by the Department of State,” reads the letter, referring to the Pride ban and constitutional amendment against public LGBTQ events. “Therefore, we strongly urge you to publicly condemn this legislation and constitutional change which targets the LGBTQ community and undermines the rights of Hungarians to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.”
U.S. Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Sarah McBride (D-Del.), Jim Costa (D-Calif.), James McGovern (D-Mass.), Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Julie Johnson (D-Texas), Ami Bera (D-Calif.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Dina Titus (D-Nev.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) signed the letter alongside Takano and Keating.
A State Department spokesperson on Wednesday declined to comment.
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bill to criminalize gender affirming care advances
Delaware considers enshrining same-sex marriage into state Constitution
Returning to Alcatraz: Memory through a queer lens
PHOTOS: Equality Prince William Pride
Chilean lawmakers back report that calls for suspension of program for trans children
Ashley Biden to speak at Blade’s Summer Kickoff Party in Rehoboth Beach
Pete Buttigieg, eyeing a presidential run, holds Iowa town hall
Global LGBTQ rights crackdown overshadows this year’s IDAHOBiT
Calendar: May 16-22
