Connect with us

National

National News in Brief: July 28

NY joins a Federal DOMA challenge, SLDN calls for executive order barring discrimination in military, Apple ends partnership with anti-gay site, and more.

Published

on

Edith Windsor

A lawsuit was brought against the government by the ACLU on behalf of Edie Windsor, whose partner died in 2009. (Washington Blade Photo by Michael Key)

N.Y. weighs in on federal DOMA challenge

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a brief in a New York federal court in Windsor v. United States, which is seeking to overturn the third section of the Defense of Marriage Act.

DOMA prevents the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in the states where such marriages are legal.

The Windsor case was brought against the government by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Edie Windsor. When her wife and partner of 44 years, Thea, passed away in 2009, DOMA forced Edie to pay excessive penalties because her marriage was not recognized.

In filing, Schneiderman called DOMA “an unprecedented intrusion into the power of the state to define marriage.” Schneiderman’s position is similar to that of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama who earlier this year announced the Justice Department would no longer defend DOMA in court.

SLDN seeks exec order barring discrimination

WASHINGTON — Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is calling on President Obama to sign an executive order barring all discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity in the armed forces.

“Signing legislation that allows for repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ was an historic milestone, and we appreciate the president’s leadership and commitment in making that happen,” SLDN Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis said. “Every service member deserves equal respect in the work environment, and it’s critical that gay and lesbian service members have the same avenues for recourse as their straight counterparts when it comes to discrimination and harassment.”

Using the Change.org petition platform, the organization is calling for an executive order to give LGBT personnel avenues besides the chain of command to pursue resolution of bias claims.

Effort to undo LGBT history bill in Calif.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After passing two weeks ago a historic law in California requiring school curriculum to include the contributions of the disabled and LGBT people, a group received the secretary of state’s permission to begin collecting signatures for a ballot measure repealing the law.

 

The Capitol Resource Institute has launched a new website, stopsb48.com, in an effort to assist in gathering the 504,000 signatures needed to repeal the FAIR Education Act via ballot referendum, which would reverse the rule requiring schools to include the achievements of disabled Americans and LGBT people like Harvey Milk, Mark Bingham and Bayard Rustin, which some experts say may have a positive effect on the self-esteem of young people in these groups.

Equality California has launched its own campaign in support of defending the law in order to promote the well-being of young LGBT people, whose suicide rates are four times those of their straight counterparts.

Lesbian’s T-shirt deemed offensive at Dollywood

NASHVILLE — A woman visiting Dollywood with her partner was confronted by an

employee and asked to turn her shirt inside out, claiming the “Marriage is so gay” slogan might offend other visitors.

Olivier Odom initially complied with the request during a July 9 visit, according to the Associated Press, but now wants Dollywood to take steps to be more inclusive of LGBT visitors. Dollywood staff contend the park does not discriminate but often asks visitors to cover tattoos or clothing that could offend others.

“The park is open every day to everybody,” Park spokesman Pete Owens told the AP. “We try to provide an environment for families of all shapes and sizes to enjoy themselves.”

Apple ends partnership with ‘Christian Values Network’

SAN FRANCISCO — Following the lead of Microsoft, Macy’s, Delta Airlines and others, Apple this week removed its iTunes store from the “Christian Values Network,” following allegations the site is linked to controversial anti-gay organizations like the Family Research Council deemed ‘hate groups’ by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

A total of 35,000 people signed petitions at Change.org and AllOut.org demanding Apple cut ties with the website in only a few short weeks.

“Apple is a fair-minded business,” said the petition’s author, Ben Crowther. “I’m glad this petition helped make Apple aware of this issue, and I am thrilled that they removed iTunes from CVN.”

Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

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

Published

on

(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.

Continue Reading

National

Medical groups file lawsuit over Trump deletion of health information

Crucial datasets included LGBTQ, HIV resources

Published

on

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.

Continue Reading

U.S. Federal Courts

Federal judge scraps trans-inclusive workplace discrimination protections

Ruling appears to contradict US Supreme Court precedent

Published

on

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.

Continue Reading

Popular