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Senate hearing set for gay judicial nominee

Oetken could become first openly gay male to sit on federal bench

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A Senate hearing has been scheduled on Wednesday for a judicial nominee who, if confirmed, could become the first openly gay male to sit on the federal bench.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to considered the nomination of J. Paul Oetken, whom President Obama nominated in January to become a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of New York. The hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, who recommended the nomination of Oetken to the bench in September, is set to preside over the hearing. Obama officially nominated Oekten to the position based on Schumer’s recommendation.

According to Schumer’s office, Oetken has practiced law at Debevoise and Plimpton, and since 2004, has served as associate general counsel at Cablevision. From 1999 to 2001, Oetken was associate counsel to President Clinton and specialized in First Amendment issues, presidential appointments, ethics, civil rights, and legal policy.

Oetken also served in various roles as an LGBT advocate. The nominee has been involved with Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union. Additionally, Oetken co-authored a U.S. Supreme Court friend-of-the-court brief in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down sodomy laws throughout the country.

Along with Oetken, the committee is slated to consider during the hearing three other nominations: Bernice Bouie Donald, who’s been nominated to become U.S. circuit judge for the Sixth Circuit; Paul Engelmayer, who’s also been nominated to become a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of New York; and Ramona Villagomez Manglona, who’s been nominated to become a judge for the district court for the Northern Mariana Islands.

Obama in January also nominated another openly gay man to the federal bench, Edward DuMont. The president tapped him to serve as an appellate judge and to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Whether the Senate first grants Oetken or DuMont confirmation will determine who becomes the first openly gay male to serve on the federal bench. Should DuMont receive confirmation, he would also become the openly LGBT federal appellate judge.

The Senate is considering the nomination of Oetken after the White House rejected the nomination of Daniel Alter, another New York attorney and former director of civil rights for the Anti-Defamation League, for the same position.

In October, the Washington Blade reported that the White House rejected the Alter nomination, which was recommended by Schumer, based on comments he reportedly made challenging inclusion of the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and suggesting that merchants not wish shoppers “Merry Christmas” during the holidays. Alter has denied he made the reported comments.

While Oetken could be the first openly gay male to serve on the federal bench, he wouldn’t be the first openly LGBT person. In 1994, President Clinton nominated Deborah Batts, an out lesbian, to serve as federal judge also for the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported last year Judge Vaughn Walker of the U.S. District Court for Northern District of California is gay, although Walker wouldn’t comment on the reporting. Walker presided over Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a federal case that will determine the constitutionality of Proposition 8 in California.

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Politics

Joe Biden diagnosed with ‘aggressive form’ of prostate cancer

The former president and his family are reviewing treatment options, according to a statement

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President Joe Biden (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

According to a statement from his personal office on Sunday, former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones.

“Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone,” the statement said.

Biden and his family “are reviewing treatment options with his physicians,” the statement said. “While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management.”

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Politics

Pete Buttigieg, eyeing a presidential run, holds Iowa town hall

Former DOT secretary defended trans rights

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Pete Buttigieg (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

After acknowledging during an interview on Tuesday that he is considering a bid for the White House in 2028, Pete Buttigieg stepped onto a stage in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for a 45-minute town hall where he looked and sounded very much a candidate launching his presidential campaign.

The former U.S. Transportation Secretary warned that “we are being tested on nothing less” than the strength of America’s commitments to freedom and democracy over the next four years of President Donald Trump’s second term.

Rather than “hang back” while those in power “screw up,” he said now is the time to advance and articulate an agenda charting a new path forward for the country, including by restoring access to abortion and better addressing the challenges and meeting the needs of the nation’s veterans and with their families and communities.

As Democrats work to rebuild with an eye toward retaking control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, the party has wrestled with questions of whether and to what extent last year’s electoral defeat may have been attributable to the adoption of policy positions that were unpopular or out of step with views held by key parts of the electorate.

Buttigieg on Tuesday stressed the importance of identifying which parts of the platform should be revisited, the areas in which a greater diversity of viewpoints should be tolerated and welcomed into the Democratic coalition, and when to provide room for disagreement and debate. 

As an example, he took the matter of whether and in which circumstances athletes should be allowed to compete on sports teams that are consistent with their gender identity but inconsistent with their birth sex. 

“I think we do need to revisit some of the things that we have had to say policy-wise that haven’t kept up with the times as a party,” he said, adding, “Americans may have questions about how to make sure sports are safe and fair, which I get.” 

At the same time, “that doesn’t ever mean throwing vulnerable people under the bus,” Buttigieg said — and not just because that would be wrong, but also because it’s bad politics for Democrats. 

For example, “Americans understand that your gender identity shouldn’t affect whether you get to vote,” Buttigieg said, referencing policies passed by conservative lawmakers in Iowa and several other states that would render voters ineligible to cast their ballots in cases where there are discrepancies in the information listed on their official documents, records, and government-issued IDs. The rules are expected to disproportionately impact transgender people who are far likelier than their cisgender counterparts  to have updated the gender markers and names listed on their driver’s licenses, for example.

Buttigieg, a decorated U.S. Navy Reserve officer who was deployed to Afghanistan, also raised an example of unpopular anti-trans policymaking, the Trump-Vance administration’s ban on military service by trans soldiers: “Americans understand,” he said, “that if you are, for example, a soldier who is doing a good job, who is getting good ratings from commander who is contributing to the readiness of this mission, who is ready to put their life on the line, who happens to be transgender, you ought to be honored and not kicked out of the military.”

The line drew applause from attendees, who included a number of veterans including members and staff from VoteVets, the progressive advocacy group that organized the town hall.

Also in attendance on Tuesday were supporters who wore official merchandise from Buttigieg’s 2020 run, which began with his surprise first-place finish in the Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses ahead of then-former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — a transformational moment for the openly gay former mayor of South Bend, Ind., who thereafter emerged as a rising star in his party and quickly become a formidable force in American politics on the national stage.

Many elected officials and other influential stakeholders within the Democratic Party now consider Buttigieg the strongest or one of the strongest of its communicators. His name has often been floated as a strong choice to lead the ticket as the Democratic presidential nominee.And he seems well positioned for a run in 2028. Even so, this far in advance of the election candidates are more circumspect about discussing their plans or their thinking about a bid for the White House so far in advance of the election.

However, Trump’s second administration and the new Congress led in both chambers by Republican loyalists seems to have prompted a number of other top Democrats to dispense with the coquettishness. A report in Politico notes that Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and former U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo have recently either made overtures signaling they are considering a run or declined opportunities to deny it.

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Garcia confronts Noem over gay asylum seeker ‘forcibly removed’ to El Salvador

Andry Hernández Romero is makeup artist from Venezuela

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Andry Hernández Romero (photo credit: Immigrant Defenders Law Center)

California Congressman Robert Garcia on Wednesday asked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about the well-being of a gay asylum seeker from Venezuela who the U.S. “forcibly removed” to El Salvador.

The gay Democrat during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing asked Noem whether Andry Hernández Romero is “alive” and whether “we can check and do a wellness check on him.”

“This individual is in El Salvador, and the appeal would be best made to the president and to the government of El Salvador,” Noem told Garcia.

The Trump-Vance administration in March “forcibly removed” Hernández, who asked for asylum because of persecution he suffered due to his sexual orientation and political beliefs, and other Venezuelans from the U.S. and sent them to El Salvador.

The White House on Feb. 20 designated Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, as an “international terrorist organization.” President Donald Trump on March 15 invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which the Associated Press notes allows the U.S. to deport “noncitizens without any legal recourse.”

Alvaro M. Huerta, director of litigation and advocacy for the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, a Los Angeles-based organization that represents Hernández, said officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection claimed their client is a Tren de Aragua member because of his tattoos.

The Washington Blade on April 17 reported Hernández was sent to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison known by the Spanish acronym CECOT.

Garcia, along with U.S. Reps. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), and Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) last month met with U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador William Duncan and embassy staffers in San Salvador, the Salvadoran capital. The lawmakers did not visit CECOT, but Garcia told the Blade that the embassy agreed to ask the Salvadoran government to “see how (Hernández) is doing and to make sure he’s alive.”

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