National
Anti-gay Bush official sentenced to jail
Bloch guilty in criminal contempt of Congress case
A Bush administration official who came under criticism for refusing to enforce anti-discrimination policies protecting gay federal workers was sentenced on March 30 to one month in jail on a charge of criminal contempt of Congress.
Scott J. Bloch, who served as head of the U.S. Office of Special Council from 2004 to 2008, is appealing the sentence, which was handed down in Washington by U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson. Robinson also sentenced him to one year of unsupervised probation and 200 hours of community service.
She agreed to put a stay on the sentence while Blochās attorney, William Sullivan, files an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Sullivan said the appeal is based on Blochās contention that he did not know the offense of contempt of Congress, to which he pleaded guilty in April 2010, carries a required minimum sentence of 30 days in jail.
The appeal seeks to overturn Robinsonās denial last month of a motion by Bloch to withdraw his guilty plea.
Robinson said she interpreted the statute to include a required jail term of at least one month for those convicted of or who plead guilty to criminal contempt of Congress. She noted that at the time Bloch pleaded guilty, he explicitly acknowledged ā in response to her questions in the courtroom ā that a prosecutorsā plea bargain agreement he accepted did not prevent her from sentencing him to a prison term of up to six months.
Sullivan strongly disputes her interpretation of the statute, saying in court papers that two other judges have sentenced people convicted under the contempt of Congress statute to probation without any jail time. Robinson said those cases were irrelevant because the statute gives her discretion to sentence Bloch to up to six months in jail.
Blochās sentencing last week marked yet another twist in a seven-year saga that began in 2004, upon his appointmentĀ by President George W. BushĀ as head of an office charged with protecting federal employees from discriminatory personnel practices. The independent Office of Special Counsel, which Bloch headed, is also charged with protecting federal employees who become whistleblowers by disclosing corruption or gross incompetence within federal government agencies.
Immediately upon taking office, Bloch announced that he disagreed with a longstanding interpretation of a U.S. civil service law believed to protect federal workers from job-related discrimination based solely on their sexual orientation. Saying he interpreted the statute to limit its coverage of gays to matters involving āhomosexual acts,ā Bloch said gay or lesbian federal employees could no longer be protected against improper personnel practices based on their sexual orientation.
His position on gay federal workers triggered an immediate outcry from LGBT advocacy organizations and their allies in Congress. A spokesperson forĀ Bush surprised some political observers when he said it remained the policy of the White House and the administration that gay or lesbian federal workers were, in fact, protected against sexual orientation discrimination.
LGBT rights groups, while expressing appreciation for the Bush administration statement, pointed out that Bloch appeared to be ignoring the statement by continuing to operate the Office of Special Counsel as if gay and lesbian federal employees were not protected.
In addition to criticism over his position on gay federal workers, Block came under attack over allegations that he improperly sought to purge employees in his office who disagreed with him, including at least two gay employees. The latter allegations led to a congressional investigation into Bloch and the Office of Special Counsel.
Allegations that eventually led to his being charged with contempt of Congress began in 2006, when investigators raised questions about whether Bloch arranged for a computer services company called Geeks on Call to āscrubā files from his office computer as well as from the computers of two of his political appointees at the Office of Special Counsel.
Bloch was under investigation at the time by the inspector general of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management that he allegedly improperly retaliated against former Office of Special Counsel employees.
In May 2008, the FBI raided Blochās office and home, confiscating computers and various files. In October 2008 the White House requested and received his resignation.
The case docket for the U.S. District Court, which is now handling Blochās criminal case, shows that his sentencing date was postponed several times since he pleaded guilty nearly a year ago. The main cause of the postponements has been his attorneyās dispute with the judge over whether the contempt of Congress statute carries a mandatory jail term of at least 30 days.
In an unusual development, federal prosecutors joined defense attorney Sullivan in arguing in court filings that they did not agree with Robinsonās interpretation that the statute carries a required jail term. Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenn Leon, the lead prosecutor in the case, argued in court papers that the government believes the statute gives judges discretion to sentence someone to probation without a prison term.
“Both parties entered into the plea agreement believing that 2 U.S.C. 192 [the contempt of Congress statute] was a probation-eligible offense,” Leon said in a court brief. “In light of the Court’s ruling to the contrary, the government believes that fairness requires it to not oppose the defendant’s motion to withdraw, because otherwise the plea agreement would not reflect what the parties negotiated and agreed to in good faith.”
Some critics, including gay blogger John Aravosis of AmericaBlog, questioned whether the Obama administration was siding with Bloch to prevent a legalĀ precedent that could result in the jailing of Obama administration officials who might get into trouble with the law in the future.
During a court hearing last week, Robinson agreed to consider another request by Sullivan that she allow Bloch to serve his one-month jail sentence in home confinement if the sentence is upheld on appeal.
National
Trump refers to Anderson Cooper as āAllisonā
Crude insults continue in effort to attract male voters
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump referred repeatedly over the weekend to CNNās Anderson Cooper as āAllison Cooper.ā
Cooper, one of the nationās most prominent openly gay television anchors, moderated a town hall last week with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump last Friday called Anderson āAllisonā in a social media post, then used the moniker again at a Michigan rally.
āIf you watched her being interviewed by Allison Cooper the other night, heās a nice person. You know Allison Cooper? CNN fake news,ā Trump said, before adding, āOh, she said no, his name is Anderson. Oh, no.ā
Trump repeated the name during another Michigan rally on Saturday, according to the Associated Pres, then followed it up during a reference in Pennsylvania. āThey had a town hall,ā Trump said in Michigan. āEven Allison Cooper was embarrassed by it. He was embarrassed by it.ā
Describing Anderson Cooper as female plays into offensive and stereotypical depictions of gay men as effeminate as Trump continues to pursue the so-called ābro vote,ā amping up crude and vulgar displays in an effort to appeal to male voters.
Pennsylvania
Transgender Honduran woman canvasses for Harris in Pa.
Monserrath Aleman is CASA in Action volunteer
A transgender woman from Honduras has traveled to Pennsylvania several times in recent weeks to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic candidates.
Monserrath Aleman traveled to York on Aug. 31 and Lancaster on Sept. 21 with a group of other volunteers from CASA in Action.
They door-knocked in areas where large numbers of African Americans, Black, and Latino voters live. Aleman and the other CASA in Action volunteers urged them to support Harris, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), and other down ballot Democratic candidates.
Aleman will be in Harrisburg on Nov. 2, and in York on Election Day.
“We achieved the goal that we had in mind and that we wanted to achieve,” she told the Washington Blade on Oct. 22 during a Zoom interview from Baltimore. “We knocked on doors, passed out flyers.”
Aleman cited Project 2025 ā which the Congressional Equality Caucus on Thursday sharply criticized ā when she spoke with the Blade.
“We know that there is a Project 2025 plan that would affect us: The entire immigrant Latino community, the LGBTI community, everyone,” said Aleman. “So that’s why I’m more motivated to go knocking on doors, to ask for help, for support from everyone who can vote, who can exercise their vote.”
She told the Blade that she and her fellow volunteers “did not have any bad response.”
Aleman grew up in Yoro, a city that is roughly 130 miles north of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.
She left Honduras on Nov. 25, 2021.
Aleman entered Mexico in Palenque, a city in the country’s Chiapas state that is close to the border with Guatemala. The Mexican government granted her a humanitarian visa that allowed her to legally travel through the country.
Aleman told the Blade she walked and took buses to Ciudad JuƔrez, a Mexican border city that is across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas.
She scheduled her appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection while living at a shelter in Ciudad JuĆ”rez.Ā Aleman now lives in Baltimore.
“Discrimination against the LGBTI community exists everywhere, but in Honduras it is more critical,” said Aleman.
Aleman added she feels “more free to express herself, to speak with someone” in the U.S. She also said she remains optimistic that Harris will defeat former President Donald Trump on Election Day.
“There is no other option,” said Aleman.
National
HRC rallies LGBTQ voters in 12 states ahead of Election Day
10 Days of Action campaign targets pro-equality candidate
The Human Rights Campaign said it filled 1,426 new volunteer shifts and held 174 events across key swing states between Oct. 10-20 as part of its 10 Days of Action campaign.Ā
The LGBTQ civil rights advocacy group is working to mobilize and turn out voters in support of pro-equality and LGBTQ candidates, including the Harris-Walz ticket, on Election Day.
HRC reported exceeding its recruitment goals, noting the strong response across the 12 states as a āclear and resounding messageā that LGBTQ and allied voters are energized to back the Harris-Walz ticket.
To kick off the 10 Days of Action, Gwen Walz, the spouse of Minnesota governor and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, spoke at a Philadelphia event that HRC and the Out for Harris-Walz coalition hosted on Oct. 10.
Walz highlighted her husbandās long-standing support for LGBTQ issues, such as his role in fighting to repeal “Donāt Ask, Donāt Tell” in Congress and banning so-called conversion therapy as governor, according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.Ā
Other events launched canvassing efforts for Senate candidates, such as U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.), along with House candidates, such as Will Rollins and Mondaire Jones in California and New York respectively.
A virtual organizing call on Oct. 11 that the Out for Harris-Walz coalition hosted featured prominent figures, including actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Andy Cohen, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), and Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride, who is running for Congress.
To close out the 10 Days of Action, HRC President Kelley Robinson canvassed with LGBTQ organizers in Phoenix on Oct. 20.
In a statement, Robinson said the campaignās work is āfar from over.ā
āWe plan to spend every day until the election making sure everyone we know is registered to vote and has a plan to vote because no one is going to give us the future we deserve ā we have to fight for it and show America that when we show up, equality wins,ā she said. āTogether, we will elect pro-equality leaders like Vice President Harris and Governor Walz who value our communities and are ready to lead us forward with more freedom and opportunity.ā
A September HRC poll found that LGBTQ voters favor Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the presidential race by a nearly 67-point margin.
-
Opinions5 days ago
Wash Post canāt recover from endorsement debacle ā Bezos must sell it
-
District of Columbia5 days ago
D.C. votersā guide: Council, school board, Initiative 83 on ballot
-
District of Columbia3 days ago
D.C. police investigating anti-gay assault at 14th & U McDonaldās
-
Politics3 days ago
Meet the LGBTQ candidates running in key races from U.S. Senate to state houses