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National news in brief: June 17

A legal group files a complaint against Speaker Boehner, Tracy Morgan apologizes, U.S. bankruptcy court finds DOMA ‘unconstitutional’

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John Boehner

A D.C. group filed a complaint against House Speaker John Boehner this week over his defense of DOMA. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Legal group files complaint against Boehner

WASHINGTON — Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington filed a complaint against House Speaker John Boehner’s defense of the Defense of Marriage Act for “violating the Antideficiency Act,” according to the group. The complaint filed with the Office of Congressional Ethics invokes the law intended to prevent government officials from “overspending on appropriations.”

The Washington-based group announced its action after the Republican leader began mounting a $500,000 defense of the law that bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages done in states where the nuptials are legal, because the group says the action represents “more than 35% of the $1,415,000 Congress appropriated for the [House Office of General Counsel].”

When reached for comment by the Blade, Boehner spokesperson Michael Steel called the complaint “off-base and stupid to the point that it creates the appearance of partisanship by CREW.”

Steel continued, “The Speaker expects any cost to be recouped from the Obama administration Justice Department, which should be defending the law in court.” Steel also disputed the claim that the Speaker’s defense runs afoul of the Antideficiency Act because the cost of the action is considerably less than would be considered in violation of the law.

Tracy Morgan apologizes for anti-gay tirade

NASHVILLE – Comedian Tracy Morgan, a “Saturday Night Live” alumnus and star of “30 Rock,” generated criticism from LGBT activists after delivering an anti-gay tirade during a stand-up show last week in Nashville. The NBC star said that if he had a gay son he would “pull out a knife and stab” his son “to death,” according to Kevin Rogers, who was in the audience.

After Rogers’ Facebook note about the experience started to get attention in the mainstream media, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation immediately demanded a public apology from the comedian, and garnered a pledge from Morgan to work with the organization to combat homophobia and anti-gay bullying. Morgan later appeared on hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons’ radio show to apologize for his statements in Nashville.

“Of all the sicknesses, there is probably none more abusive than homophobia,” Morgan told Simmons. “My heart is committed to giving everyone the same rights that I deserve for myself.” Morgan also told Simmons he would love a gay child as much as a straight child, if not more, “because I know of the difficulty that he would have in society.”

By phone, Kevin Rogers told the Blade he found most shocking Morgan’s comments about “[LGBT people] being born gay, versus programming and the media” being an influence, because that sort of language “fuels bullying.” Rogers told the Blade the incident compelled him to come out to his mother, when he realized she might see him on a CNN interview he was preparing to record.

“I have gotten a lot of love for my mom through Facebook,” he said, adding that his mother was really touched by “all the fans she never knew she had,” and that “Wanda Sykes sent her love.”

U.S. bankruptcy court finds DOMA ‘unconstitutional’

LOS ANGELES — The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California found Monday that the law that bars federal recognition of same-sex couples is unconstitutional, stating, “no legally married couple should be entitled to fewer bankruptcy rights than any other legally married couple.”

In an unusual move, 19 other judges of the 24 overseeing the cases that come through that district signed on in agreement with Judge Thomas B. Donovan, according to the New York Times. This is the latest blow to the Defense of Marriage Act, which has been recently found unconstitutional in several cases making their way through the federal court system across the U.S. Earlier this year, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner pledged that the legislative body would spend more than $500,000 to defend the law after Attorney General Eric Holder announced in February that the Obama administration would no longer defend it as officials consider it unconstitutional.

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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

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(Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

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.

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National

Medical groups file lawsuit over Trump deletion of health information

Crucial datasets included LGBTQ, HIV resources

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HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is named as a defendant in the lawsuit. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

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.

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U.S. Federal Courts

Federal judge scraps trans-inclusive workplace discrimination protections

Ruling appears to contradict US Supreme Court precedent

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Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Screen capture: YouTube)

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.

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