National
Preibus elected as new RNC chair
New GOP head opposes same-sex marriage
The Republican National Committee took a new direction on Friday when it elected the chair of the Wisconsin Republican Party — who has stated opposition to same-sex marriage — as its new head.
Reince Priebus claimed the position after seven rounds voting by winning 97 votes among the delegates voting at the conference. To win this chairmanship, Preibus needed to obtain 85 votes.
In the final round of voting, Maria Cino, who served most recently as deputy chair of the RNC, received 43 votes, while Saul Anuzis, former chair of the Michigan Republican Party, received 28 votes.
Michael Steele, the immediate former chair of the RNC, dropped out after the fouth round of voting as he was struggling to find votes necessary to maintain his position. The gaffe-prone Steele had served for two years as RNC chair before deciding to withdraw.
Upon taking the podium for his acceptance speech, Priebus thanked both God and Jesus for his victory. He called for unification of the Republican Party so members of the GOP could mount a more concerted effort to oust President Obama from the White House in 2012.
“We all recognize that there’s a steep hill here ahead of us, and the only way we’ll be able to move forward is if we’re all together,” Priebus said. “We must never forget why we all do this. Because as [President] Reagan said, ‘Our nation is that shining city upon a hill.’ We must work to keep it that way.”
Priebus said he wants to begin his leadership by putting a in place “solid business plan” to “operate effectively and efficiency to begin to restore the faith of our donors.”
“We must know how to spend these funds effectively to aid in our redistricting efforts, to support our 2011 candidates, to hold a world-class convention and to be sure that our Republican presidential nominee has the organization in place to beat Barack Obama,” he said.
The new chair also said he wants to develop a new line of communication with state parties and Republican leaders like House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Where Priebus will lead the Republican Party on LGBT issues remains to be seen, alth0ugh he’s known for having a history of opposition to same-sex marriage.
Gay bloggers have expressed concern about how Priebus pledged to block marriage rights for same-sex couples in a video posted online prior to his election in response to a question National Organization for Marriage chair Maggie Gallagher.
“There are certain legal definitions that are not just legal and not just protected by our Constitution, but they’re also protected by the sanctity of marriage given to us by God,” Priebus said.
Priebus said he doesn’t believe judges should advance same-sex marriage in their states through court rulings and emphasized the importance of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriage.
The new RNC chair also recalled how he took part in the 2006 effort in Wisconsin to institute a state constitutional ban on gay nuptials.
“I was a part of that,” he said. “I was helpful to make sure that that happened. I was helpful to our attorney general to make sure that that’s happened.
Gay Republicans and GOP organizations have expressed optimism about the election of the new RNC chair and the direction he would take the party.
In a statement, R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, praised Preibus calling for unification of the Republican Party over “common interests.”
“Inclusion wins and our party is strongest when we embrace a big tent philosophy centered on the core principles that unite us as Republicans,” Cooper said. “It is onward and upward to win back the White House.”
Via e-mail to the Washington Blade, Cooper commended Preibus for focusing on new management of the RNC during his acceptance speech.
“Chairman Priebus’s first comments focused solely on the operations and management of the RNC as well as raising money for the 2012 cycle,” Cooper said. “He emphasized for all the party elements to work as a team. Prior to the election, Preibus called for additional grassroots and coalition efforts.”
Chris Barron, chair of GOProud, said the election of Preibus marks the end of “Michael Steele’s disastrous tenure at the RNC.”
“The election of Reince Priebus marks a changing of the guard,” Barron said. “Finally we will have an RNC Chair who understands that his or her role is to raise money and build party infrastructure, not to sell books, hire friends and family, and pontificate on policy.”
In July, GOProud was among the GOP organizations calling for Steele’s ouster after then-RNC chair made remarks suggesting that the war in Afghanistan was unwinnable.
Torrey Shearer, a gay D.C. Republican activist, said Preibus’ election is exciting because he would be bring new energy to the Republican Party to capitalize on recent victories at the ballot box.
“This is an opportunity to build on our success from the mid term elections and strengthen the GOP for success in 2012,” Shearer said. “The election of Reince provides a fresh face to a growing movement of Americans wanting a change from the status quo.”
Asked where he thinks Priebus will lead the Republican Party on LGBT issues, Shearer said such movement would “come from the party’s membership, not from its leadership.”
“The recent critical support of GOP members of the House and Senate illustrates the growing acceptance of our issues in the GOP mainstream,” Shearer said
National
Medical groups file lawsuit over Trump deletion of health information
Crucial datasets included LGBTQ, HIV resources
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.
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.
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