National
National News in brief: June 10
Cubs; Red Sox join Giants in ‘It Gets Better,’ Conn. to add trans protections, White House to celebrate Pride this month


The San Francisco Giants were the first professional sports team to join the ‘It Gets Better’ campaign. (Photo courtesy San Francisco Giants)
Cubs, Red Sox join ‘It Gets Better’ campaign
CHICAGO — On the heels of a new “It Gets Better” video recorded by the San Francisco Giants — the first professional American sports team to record a video for the project to stem LGBT youth suicide — the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs have announced they will join the campaign.
The Cubs, who play at Wrigley Field just blocks from Chicago’s gay neighborhood known as “Boys Town,” are owned by openly gay Laura Ricketts and her siblings.
“The Cubs applaud the Giants for their stand against anti-LGBT bullying. Bullying of anyone for any reason is unacceptable,” Ricketts told Chicago’s LGBT newspaper, the Windy City Times, Saturday. “We are proud to join the Giants in taking a stand against bullying and encourage other professional sports organizations to do the same.”
On Monday, the Boston Red Sox announced they would be the third professional sports team to add to the library of 10,000 “It Gets Better” videos, in answer to a Change.org petition started by 12-year-old Sam Maden of New Hampshire. A similar petition has been launched to encourage the Baltimore Orioles to record a video; it’s available at change.org.
Conn. adds trans protections to bias law
HARTFORD, Conn. — The first state to bring about marriage equality by legislative vote, rather than judicial intervention, is poised to extend employment protections to transgender residents.
Though 21 states and the District of Columbia ban employment and public accommodations discrimination based on sexual orientation, only 14 states ban such discrimination based on gender identity. The bill, HB6599, which adds gender identity and expression as a protected class to race, age, sex, marital status and physical ability, passed 20-16, and heads to Gov. Dan Malloy (D) who has vowed to sign it.
Meghan Stabler, a national advocate and educator on transgender rights, who testified at the Judiciary Committee hearing in March, hopes Connecticut’s strategy will be duplicated elsewhere.
“This was the result of a lot of consistent work by a number of organizations for several years, not just pushing for a bill that’s inclusive, but education and outreach to legislative people and state and local organizations — both of faith as well as other allied organizations,” Stabler told the Blade.
White House to host Pride celebration
WASHINGTON – The White House plans to host a reception on June 29 to commemorate June as Pride month, the Washington Blade learned this week.
A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the celebration would take place, but added further information isn’t yet available.
“Later this month, the White House will hold a reception to observe LGBT Pride month,” the official said. “Further details will be provided at a later date.”
The White House has hosted Pride celebrations in June for each of the two previous years in which President Obama has been in office.
Hendricks to run for Va. Assembly seat
An official with the National Black Justice Coalition announced this week that he would seek the Virginia Assembly seat opening up in his hometown upon the retirement of independent Del. Watkins Abbitt.
Jasper Hendricks, III, has worked for the National Black Justice Coalition for three years, and has previously worked in politics, including on the staff of Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami as well as serving as political director of the Wisconsin Democratic Party during the 2006 governor’s race.
Hendricks, however, has lived in the 59th District his entire life.
“I’m originally from here. I went to school in Appomattox,” he said, “I have been commuting via Amtrak to D.C. three days a week.” He says he spends long weekends with his family at home.
“Right now I’m the first Democrat to announce. I’ve heard there are others who are considering it, but taking advice from locals, I was the first person to file.”
When asked about his chances in this sometimes red, sometimes blue district, Hendricks expressed confidence.
“The district is very rural, encompasses Appomattox County of the famous Civil War battles … so it’s a very rural district.”
The current state delegate of 26 years, Watkins Abbitt, was originally a Democrat, but he switched to independent about 15 years ago, and now caucuses with Republicans. His father, Watkins Abbitt Sr. is a former member of Congress.
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

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.
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.