Opinions
Two minority groups with a lot in common
Oppression of LGBT, disability communities has encouraged marginalization
On a summer night, two lovers couldn’t wait to leave Tuscumbia, Ala., to get married in Boston. As they began their trip, a shot was heard. Waving his gun, the brother of the bride-to-be expressed disgust with their plans. Facing the disapproval of their families, and knowing that their marriage would be illegal in many states, the couple decided not to wed.
These thwarted lovebirds weren’t a same-sex couple dealing with trigger-happy homophobia. This couple, whose marital plans were nixed in 1916, were journalist Peter Fagan and Helen Keller, the deaf-blind author and American Civil Liberties Union co-founder. Then, many states prohibited people with disabilities from marrying. Some of these laws remained on the books until the 1970s.
Fighting for marriage equality is one of many things that the LGBT and disability communities historically (and today) have in common.
This month is Disability Pride Month, observed to celebrate the history of people with disabilities and passage 21 years ago of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The ADA prohibits disability-based discrimination.
As a legally blind lesbian, watching the first same-sex couples getting married in New York, I’m proud to be queer and crip. (Reclaiming the pejorative word “cripple,” many of us proudly call ourselves queer and crip.)
Nearly one in five Americans (51.2 million) has a disability and from three to five million people are LGBT and have disabilities, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
We queer crips are of all races, classes, genders, orientations and occupations. Our disabilities include HIV, diabetes, cancer and depression (all covered under the ADA).
If you’re LGBT and a recovering alcoholic, you, too are protected by the ADA.
As a queer crip, the idea of Rep. Michele Bachmann being president makes me shudder. When you’re LGBT and have a disability, you run into people who not only want to “pray the gay away,” but folks who believe if you only prayed more, you’d no longer be disabled.
The sexual oppression of the LGBT and disability community has encouraged both groups’ marginalization, said Bethany Stevens, a policy analyst and sexual health expert at the Center for Leadership and Disability at Georgia State University, in a telephone interview. “Both [groups] are sexually demonized. This is the root of homophobia and ableism [prejudice against disabled people],” said Stevens, who uses a wheelchair and is marrying her partner Sara in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 5. LGBT people and disabled folk have a common history of being scorned by the government and medical establishment. The late Dr. Linda Laubenstein, who had polio, was one of the first to fight for HIV research funding in the early AIDS epidemic (when President Reagan wouldn’t say the word AIDS).
People who are queer and who have disabilities both experience bullying, said Calif. state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) author of the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful Education Act, which requires California schools to begin teaching gay and disability history, in a telephone interview. “Both experience the cruelty of harassment … for the mere fact of being different.”
Yet though LGBT people and disabled folk are marginalized groups, queer crips often don’t feel welcome in the queer community. This is partly because of the inaccessibility of many bars and other LGBT meeting places. But a key reason why queer crips are outsiders in the LGBT community, is because people “perceive us as undesirable and uninterested in sex,” Stevens said.
Not true. We not only have sex, we love it!
“Many able-bodied LGBT people have visualized their ideal lovers right down to their preferred physical requirements, never once thinking that their perfect lover may have a disability,” wrote Raymond Luczak, a deaf gay writer and author of “Road Work Ahead: Poems,” in an e-mail.
Years of prejudice won’t be easily swept away. Yet, let’s make a beginning during this season of Pride. I invite you to get know us queer crips.
Opinions
We must show up to WorldPride 2025 in D.C.
Boycotts offer symbolic protest, but absence creates silence

As an LGBTQI+ activist from Argentina, a country currently facing deep setbacks under an openly anti-rights government, I understand the frustration and fear many are expressing about attending WorldPride 2025 in the United States. I also understand the symbolic weight of showing up anyway.
Following the announcement by Egale Canada and the African Human Rights Coalition that they are withdrawing support for WorldPride due to the Trump administration’s anti-LGBTQI+ stance, concerns have rightly been raised about safety, complicity, and principle. These concerns must not be dismissed. But they must be responded to with a deeper strategic reflection: Visibility, presence, and collective action remain our greatest tools in confronting oppression.
Boycotts may offer symbolic protest, but absence creates silence
WorldPride is not organized by the U.S. government. It is a platform created by and for LGBTQI+ civil society — local activists, grassroots groups, trans-led collectives, BIPOC-led organizations, and everyday people building community despite hostile political environments. Boycotting this space sends a message not only to the Trump administration, but to our own movement: That when things get hard, we retreat.
History teaches us otherwise.
In 1990, amid the AIDS crisis and government neglect, activists did not boycott — they stormed the National Institutes of Health and the FDA. In 2014, when Russia passed its “gay propaganda” law, global solidarity at the Sochi Olympics became a powerful moment of protest and resistance. And in 2020, amidst a pandemic and police violence, Pride went digital but never disappeared.
If we set the precedent that global LGBTQI+ events cannot happen under right-wing or anti-LGBTQI+ governments, we will effectively disqualify a growing list of countries from hosting. That includes not only the U.S. under Trump, but Hungary, Italy, Uganda, Poland — and even my own country, Argentina, under Javier Milei. Yet ILGA World still plans to convene its 2027 conference in Buenos Aires, and rightly so. We must not surrender global platforms to the very governments that wish to erase us.
WorldPride is not a reward for good governance. It’s a tool of resistance
To those who say attending WorldPride in D.C. normalizes Trump’s policies, I say: What greater statement than queer, trans, intersex, and nonbinary people from around the world gathering defiantly in his capital? What more powerful declaration than standing visible where he would rather we vanish?
Safety is paramount, and all governments — including the U.S. — must guarantee the protection of LGBTQI+ participants. But refusing to engage is not the answer. In fact, visibility in hostile spaces has always been a hallmark of our movement’s strength. We showed up at Stonewall. We marched on Washington in 1979. We protested during the AIDS crisis, and we will show up again now — not in spite of adversity, but because of it.
We are in a global moment of rollback. Division is what our opponents want
The rise of anti-gender ideology and trans-exclusionary narratives has created fertile ground for far-right movements worldwide. In this moment, LGBTQI+ solidarity must be global, intersectional, and uncompromising. We cannot afford to fracture our own movement based on geopolitical fault lines.
Egale Canada and the African Human Rights Coalition raised legitimate criticisms — of U.S. foreign policy, immigration barriers, and systemic racism. But those issues must be confronted within WorldPride, not from outside it. We must bring those critiques into plenaries, panels, and the streets of Washington. We must create space for diasporic, racialized, and grassroots-led voices. We must use this moment to hold institutions accountable and shift the power of Pride to those most affected.
Because that is what solidarity looks like — not abandonment, but engagement.
WorldPride 2025 must not be a party disconnected from reality. It must be a protest rooted in our global truths.
Let us not cede this space. Let us make it ours.
Mariano Ruiz is the president of Derechos Humanos y Diversidad Asociación Civil in Argentina. He is also a 2019 Columbia HRAP Alumni.
Opinions
Navigating employer-sponsored health insurance, care
One in four trans patients denied coverage for gender-affirming care

Even though 86% of transgender Americans have health insurance, one in four reported being denied coverage for gender-affirming care in the 2015 and 2022 U.S. Transgender surveys. These denials can occur when an insurance plan contains a categorical exclusion of gender-affirming care. It is important to note that transgender employees who receive insurance coverage through their employers are entitled to legal protections.
Employers are responsible for ensuring that the insurance plans they provide do not violate any laws, including anti-discrimination laws. In 1983, the Supreme Court ruled that under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers are legally required to provide employees with equal pay and benefits, including health insurance. This protection now extends to transgender employees after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), which clarified that sex discrimination under Title VII includes gender identity discrimination.
Since Bostock, several transgender employees have successfully sued their employers for discrimination because they were denied coverage of gender-affirming care by their employers’ insurance. While employers can be held liable under Title VII, it remains unclear whether insurance companies will be held liable under Section 1557, the antidiscrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), in the future.
Most—if not all—courts have ruled that employers can be held liable for choosing insurance plans with categorical exclusions of gender-affirming care. A categorical exclusion is when an insurance plan has a blanket ban of coverage for certain services. Although discrimination cases generally require proof of intent to discriminate, it is not required of transgender employees because categorical exclusions of gender-affirming care are facially discriminatory (i.e. the policy is explicitly and obviously discriminatory in nature).
In Kadel v. Folwell (2024), the Fourth Circuit court considered the Fourteenth Amendment, Title IX, and ACA claims in a consolidated case considering two state health plans: the State of North Carolina’s insurance plans for teachers and West Virginia’s Medicaid program. The Fourth Circuit court held that it is impossible to ban coverage of gender-affirming care without discriminating against transgender people because (1) gender dysphoria is a legitimate medical diagnosis which requires medically necessary treatment; and (2) the services provided under gender-affirming care are also provided to cisgender patients for other medical diagnoses. In short, there is sufficient evidence of discriminatory intent because categorical exclusions of gender-affirming care are facially discriminatory. Under Kadel, the Fourth Circuit also ruled that a policy does not have to explicitly exclude transgender patients. “Rewording the policies to use a proxy,” like sex changes or sex modification, is still facially discriminatory.
Along a similar vein, in Lange v. Houston County (2024), the Eleventh Circuit court found that the Sheriff’s Office’s categorical exclusion of gender-affirming care was a violation of Title VII. Agreeing with the reasoning in Kadel, the court cited a 1991 Supreme Court Case which ruled that proof of intent to discriminate is not needed for facially discriminatory policies. The court also held Anthem Blue Cross liable because third-party administrators in the Eleventh Circuit (i.e., Alabama, Florida, and Georgia) can be held liable as an employer if they make employment decisions as the authorized agent of an employer. However, this decision is unique to the said jurisdictions, and the liability of third-party administrators/insurance providers remains generally unclear. Moreover, the decision is not final because the court granted an en banc appeal, and a panel of all twelve judges re-heard the case in February 2025. The decision after re-hearing remains to be seen.
Recently, Executive Order 14168 and the EEOC’s motion to dismiss its lawsuit against Harmony Hospitality on behalf of a transgender worker prompted concerns over transgender employees’ ability to bring federal discrimination claims. While such concerns are understandable, there has yet been any mandate prohibiting the EEOC from issuing right to sue to transgender individuals. In other words, even if the EEOC may not investigate and file lawsuits on behalf of transgender individuals, it does not bar private parties from doing so. Ultimately, the executive branch alone does not have the power to make changes to the Constitution or any federal statutes. It is up to the legislatures to amend laws and the Constitution, and courts to interpret and rule on constitutionality.
Protections Against Discrimination by Insurers Under Section 1557 Remain Unclear
While employers can be held liable for categorical exclusions of gender-affirming care, employees may be less likely to find relief for legal claims against insurers regarding discrimination on the basis of gender identity. Since Bostock, courts have found insurers liable for denying coverage of gender affirming care under Section 1557 of the ACA, extending sex discrimination to include gender identity. Recent litigation surrounding Section 1557 and the new presidential administration may precede a change in this trend.
In May 2024, the Biden administration issued a final rule implementing Section 1557.It reversed the rule put forth by the Trump administration four years prior, which had revised the Obama administration’s interpretation of the statute. The Biden administration’s final rule defined sex discrimination to include discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. Additionally, under the new rule, a wider swath of insurers and third-party administrators that receive federal financial assistance would be subject to Section 1557.
However, in July 2024, a Mississippi District judge granted a nationwide injunction preventing the Department of Health and Human Services from enforcing the final rule’s prohibition of sex discrimination with respect to gender identity. Additionally, executive orders during the early days of the Trump administration, and guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services that followed, rescinded wide swaths of Biden-era guidance extending sex discrimination protections to include discrimination based on gender identity. It is not yet clear how the new administration’s position on Section 1557 will impact courts’ decision-making regarding insurer liability and the extent of sex discrimination provisions in relation to gender identity going forward.
As the recent history of Section 1557 demonstrates, executive actions may influence the implementation of statutory antidiscrimination provisions, but do not change the law itself. While employers continue to face liability for discrimination towards employees seeking insurance coverage of gender-affirming care under Title VII, some protections remain on less certain ground as the United States enters a new presidential administration.
Ting Cheung, Luke Lamberti, and Neha Sharma are with Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight.
Commentary
A conversation about queers and class
As a barback, I see our community’s elitism up close

In the bar, on the way to its now-Instafamous bathrooms, there’s a sign that reads, “queer & trans liberation means economic justice for all.”
I remember seeing that sign the first week the bar opened, and ever since I often find myself reflecting on that message. I stand fully in agreement. That’s why laws protecting queers in the workplace are essential, for far too often we are targeted otherwise. It’s also why I love working at the bar, since it provides opportunities for queers from all over the spectrum to earn a living. At a time when I gave myself space to pursue art, it was the bar that enabled me to do so.
It’s one thing to support the LGBTQ community in spirit, but that spirit means jack in a capitalist society if viable economic opportunities don’t exist. Speaking of jack, there’s a fellow barback named Jack who I fangirl over often. Jack is a decade younger than me, but damn I wish I had his sex appeal at his age (or any age, for that matter). He also has a mustache that easily puts mine to shame.
Jack not only agrees but took things one step further. “Economic inequality IS a queer issue,” he told me, “especially as we move into the most uncertain period of American politics I have ever lived through, it is apparent our identity is now a fireable offense.”
Uncertain is right. We’re fresh off the heels of a trade bonanza, one caused for literally no reason by our current commander in chief. Yet there emerged a strange division when discussing the trade war’s “unintended” consequences. For working class comrades like Jack and myself, we’re stressed about increasing prices in an already tough economy. But the wealthier echelons of our country had something else on their mind: the spiraling stock market. This alone highlights the story of our economic divide, where the same event produces two separate concerns for two distinct classes.
This is not to say the stock market is not important, but sometimes the media forget many Americans don’t own stock at all, including a vast majority of people between 18 and 29. In fact, according to Axios, the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans own 93 percent of the entire stock market, with the richest 1 percent holding $25 trillion — that’s right, trillion with a “t” — in market value. So, when the president reversed course on trade, it was less about high prices hurting everyday Americans and more about the dent created in the wealth of the wealthiest. And I’ll admit: that bothers me a lot.
If there is any takeaway from Trump’s trade war, it should be this: Economic inequality is the highest it has been in decades and, if left unchecked, will destroy the fabric of our country. We are steadily moving toward oligarchy status—if we’re not there already, that is—and it seems to grow worse with each passing year and administration. But in a city of D.C. gays who often skew corporate, I wonder: Are we all on the same page here?
After becoming a barback, I have my doubts. From questions about what else I do, to comments encouraging me to work hard so that I can be a bartender one day, I quickly learned the gay world is not too fond of barbacking. Barebacking, sure, but not barbacking. And hey, I get it—we’re not the alcohol hookup at the bar. Still, we are part of the service industry, and while some people are incredibly kind, you’d be surprised at how many turn up their noses at us, too.
Recently, I’ve come to realize my class defines me as much as my orientation does, if not more. Naturally, when you come from a rough neck of the woods like I do, it’s easy to feel out of place in a flashy city like D.C., which Jack noticed, too. “Anyone from a working class background could testify to that,” he said. “I don’t really know anyone from true upper class backgrounds, but I’d imagine their experience is one that leans into assimilation.”
Assimilation is a key word here, for admittedly gays love to play with the elite. Often, we don’t have children, meaning more money for the finer things in life, but that also means we may not think about future generations much, either. I’ve written before that our insecurity growing up has us ready to show the world just how powerful gays can be—power that comes in trips to Coachella and Puerto Vallarta, or basking in the lavish houses and toys we own. There’s already a joke that gays run the government, and corporate gays kick ass at their jobs as well. So, given the choice between fighting inequality and keeping a high-paying job, I must admit I have a hard time seeing where D.C. gays stand.
Admittedly, it worked out in our favor before, given that many corporations catered to our economic prowess over the years. But look at what’s happening now: Many corporations have kicked us to the curb. Protections are being stripped from queers, particularly for our trans brothers and sisters. Law firms are bowing down to Trump, offering hundreds of millions in legal fees just for their bottom line. All of this will hurt both queers and the working class in the long run, so again I ask: Corporate gays, where do you stand? Because if you remain complicit, that’s bad news for us all.
I don’t want to sound accusatory, and I hate being a doomsday type, so allow me to end this on a better note. Strength is not about celebrating when times are good. Arguably, true strength emerges when times get tough. These are tough times, my friends, but that also makes now the perfect opportunity to show the world just how strong we are.
At a time when the world is pressuring us to turn our backs on each other, we must defy them to show up when it counts. Corporate gays—now more than ever, at a time when the economy is turning its back on queers, we need you. We need you to stand up for the queer community. We need you to make sure no one gets left behind. We need you to show up for us, so that we can show up for you, too.
Ten years ago, the economy didn’t turn queer out of nowhere. The economy turned queer because we made it turn queer.
And if we did it once, surely we can do it again.
Jake Stewart is a D.C.-based writer and barback.
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