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Gay staffers take key roles in Obama campaign

From finance to digital initiatives, supporters working to win second term

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[Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series.]

Engaging in tasks from fundraising to digital initiatives to public outreach, President Obama’s re-election campaign staff is already hard at work helping to secure a second term in the White House — and many members of the LGBT community have high-profile roles in that effort.

The Washington Blade interviewed four gay and lesbian staffers who are working to re-elect Obama from the campaign headquarters in Chicago. This article is the first in a two-part series and features interviews with two of the campaign workers: Rufus Gifford, the finance director, and Teddy Goff, the digital director.

Barack Obama

President Obama’s campaign staff includes several high-profile gay members. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

For Gifford, who’s gay, seeing Obama serve another two years in office is important because he believes the administration so far has been “two of the most productive years in American history.”

“I’ve been on board with the campaign in one way shape or form since January 2007 — nearly from the moment I met Sen. Obama,” Gifford said. “I was certainly a believer in him and his message and his politics, etc. So, I do believe that the last two years have been two of the very most productive years in American history. In my mind, truly, if we can get four more, think of how much more we can accomplish.”

Gifford said Obama’s accomplishments for the LGBT community — most notably “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal — are “obviously very, very personally important” to him. Still, Gifford also counts among the president’s victories passage of the economic stimulus plan and health care reform as well as ratification of the START Treaty, a nuclear-arms reduction agreement.

As finance director, Gifford overseas the funds raised for both the Obama campaign as well as a joint committee that raises funds between the campaign and the Democratic National Committee. It’s similar to his role as finance director of the DNC, which he occupied immediately before joining the Obama campaign, and his role in raising money for Obama in California during the 2008 campaign.

“Every morning I start the day with a 9 a.m. senior staff meeting with the campaign leadership,” Gifford said. “I am a huge believer that finance should never be siloed within a campaign.”

Gifford said he believes the campaign will be stronger and raise more money if he’s talking to the directors of the field department, the digital department, the tech department and the communications department.

In the second quarter, fundraising for the Obama campaign beat expectations. Obama raised more than $86 million for his re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee, which far outpaced Republican candidates seeking to oust him from the White House.

The third quarter numbers are yet to be made public. Media reports state that the campaign is expecting to rake in less cash because the president had to cancel fundraisers to attend debt ceiling negotiations with congressional leaders.

One difference that Gifford faces working with the Obama campaign in 2012 as opposed to his work in 2008 is the fact that he’s now separated from his partner, Jeremy Bernard, who serves as the White House social secretary.

In 2008, Gifford and Bernard were featured in numerous media outlets as a gay power couple and were named in Out magazine’s listing of the Top 50 power gays.

Gifford declined to comment on his separation from Bernard, but confirmed the couple split in 2009. Gifford’s current partner resides in D.C.

While Gifford manages fundraising for the Obama campaign, another gay member of the president’s re-election team, Goff, handles digital outreach efforts.

As digital director, Goff runs Internet communications for the campaign, which includes outreach via e-mail or social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.

“Our job in the digital department is to talk to millions of Twitter followers, millions of e-mail subscribers, millions of Facebook fans everyday, and that’s a viewpoint that I think is helpful even in helping shape and inform broader discussions about how we talk to people and how we build,” Goff said.

Goff, who’s 26 and gay, comes to the Obama campaign after his most immediate position working with Blue State Digital, a digital agency in New York. In 2008, Goff ran digital programs at the state level for the Obama campaign.

Goff’s commitment to see Obama re-elected stems from the president’s record over the course of two-and-a-half years in office, which Goff said is “without parallel in my lifetime or even my parents’ lifetime.”

“So for me, he’s every bit as inspiring and compelling a figure as I ever thought he was.”

The main priority for 2011, Goff said, is making sure existing Obama supporters have avenues to make their voices heard.

What’s the best online platform for the Obama campaign to connect with its supporters? Goff said “everybody’s different” in the way they want to interact.

“There may be one person who wants to hear from us via e-mail, and another person who wants to hear from us on Twitter, but our point of view is that isn’t so much what matters,” Goff said. “Most things come and go. This time, four years ago, Myspace was a really big deal. Now people aren’t talking about that so much anymore. The perspective that we try to bring to it is what’s the basic content that’s going to engage people, how can we shape a relationship that’s going to make them feel engaged and feel like a part of the family.”

But the fight to re-elect Obama in 2012 could be more of a challenge than it was making sure he won the White House in 2008. Recent polls have placed Obama’s approval rating at its lowest point during the course of his term. A few weeks ago, Gallup found that Obama’s approval rating was at 39 percent, marking the first time his approval rating had dipped below 40 percent.

Gifford said he’s not in a position to say whether a win for Obama will be more challenging than it was in 2008, but asserted supporters will push on in the effort to claim victory.

Similarly, Goff said he doesn’t know if winning the White House will be more challenging for Obama in 2012, but said he expects the commitment of campaign workers would lead the president to victory.

The support that Obama will receive from the LGBT community in his re-election efforts remains to be seen. Significant milestones in LGBT rights occurred under his watch — most notably the passage of hate crimes legislation and repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Obama also received praise earlier this year for dropping the administration’s legal defense of the Defense of Marriage Act in court.

But other actions sought by the LGBT community remain outstanding — such as the enactment of employment protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The president’s lack of support for same-sex marriage riles some in the LGBT community as the fight to win marriage equality continues throughout the states.

Gifford said he’d tell anyone who says Obama hasn’t done enough on LGBT issues during his first term in office that “you cannot make the argument that this is not the most pro-gay administration in history.”

How can other LGBT people help who want to see Obama re-elected in 2012? Goff said those who are interested should check out the campaign website or participate in an on-the-ground field program that is being built in communities across the country.

“There are things for people who want to be involved only or primarily in LGBT issues,” Goff said. “We should have LGBT people do that, but also hope that LGBT people will get involved in the broad program and organize their community just like anybody else.”

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Federal Government

White House finds Calif. violated Title IX by allowing trans athletes in school sports

Education Department threatens ‘imminent enforcement action’

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The Trump-Vance administration announced on Wednesday that California’s Interscholastic Federation and Department of Education violated federal Title IX rules for allowing transgender girls to compete in school sports.

In a press release, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights threatened “imminent enforcement action” including “referral to the U.S. Department of Justice” and the withholding of federal education funding for the state if the parties do not “agree to change these unlawful practices within 10 days.”

The agency specified that to come into compliance; California must enforce a ban excluding transgender student athletes and reclaim any titles, records, and awards they had won.

Federal investigations of the California Interscholastic Federation and the state’s Department of Education were begun in February and April, respectively. The Justice Department sued Maine in April for allowing trans athletes to compete and refusing a similar proposal to certify compliance within 10 days.

Broadly, the Trump-Vance administration’s position is that girls who are made to compete against trans opponents or alongside trans teammates are unfairly disadvantaged, robbed of opportunities like athletics scholarships, and faced with increased risk of injury — constituting actionable claims of unlawful sex discrimination under Title IX.

This marks a major departure from how the previous administration enforced the law. For example, the Department of Education issued new Title IX guidelines in April 2024 that instructed schools and educational institutions covered by the statute to not enforce categorical bans against trans athletes, instead allowing for limited restrictions on eligibility if necessary to ensure fairness or safety at the high school or college level.

Sports aside, under former President Joe Biden the department’s Office of Civil Rights sought to protect against anti-LGBTQ discrimination in education, bringing investigations and enforcement actions in cases where school officials might, for example, require trans students to use restrooms and facilities consistent with their birth sex or fail to respond to peer harassment over their gender identity.

Much of the legal reasoning behind the Biden-Harris administration’s positions extended from the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County, which found that sex-based discrimination includes that which is based on sexual orientation or gender identity under Title VII rules covering employment practices.

A number of high profile Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have recently questioned or challenged the party’s position on transgender athletes, as noted in a statement by Education Secretary Linda McMahon included in Wednesday’s announcement.

“Although Gov. Gavin Newsom admitted months ago it was ‘deeply unfair’ to allow men to compete in women’s sports, both the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation continued as recently as a few weeks ago to allow men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions.”

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Federal Government

Trump’s dismantling of US foreign aid derails HIV prevention effort in Africa

FDA approved breakthrough preventative drug lenacapavir earlier this month

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President Donald Trump (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

On June 18, the Food and Drug Administration approved a long-acting injectable for the prevention of HIV that could have a transformational impact on decades-long efforts to end the epidemic in the U.S. and abroad.

Offering robust protection with just two doses per year, lenacapavir has the potential to dramatically improve uptake and adherence compared to daily oral PrEP regimens like Truvada or Descovy, particularly for high risk populations living in places with poor health infrastructure or where stigma about HIV discourages frequent testing and clinic visits.

According to the New York Times, however, the rollout of lenacapavir for HIV prevention overseas has been stymied by the gutting of agencies, staff, programs, and funding dedicated to foreign aid and public health during President Donald Trump’s second term.

Among other moves, the administration has frozen or withdrawn nearly all U.S. foreign development assistance, dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development and reduced the size of its workforce by more than 95 percent, and shuttered key public health units housed under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the FDA.

As a result, the Times reports, HIV programs across the African continent have been “scrambling to procure drugs that the United States once supplied, replace lost nurses and lab technicians, and restart shuttered programs to prevent new infections.”

Experts fear HIV infection rates are climbing in some of the hardest-hit countries, but since the U.S. pulled funding for data collection and monitoring, there is no way to know for sure.

Historically, the U.S. has provided about 75 percent of all global spending on efforts to fight the epidemic, a reflection of the extent to which there was broad bipartisan support for the allocation of resources for this purpose through programs like the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Trump continued this legacy in his first term, launching the ambitious Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative that was continued under former President Joe Biden.

After returning to the White House, however, the president and his administration have justified their slash-and-burn cuts to the federal government’s work in international development and public health by arguing that funds and resources sent to overseas nations are too often pilfered by corrupt foreign state actors or wasted on ineffectual programs.

Trump and his allies also believe the U.S. should no longer be expected to shoulder such a disproportionate share of the responsibility for foreign aid, and that other countries are likelier to step up and contribute more in response to America’s retreat.

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National

Evan Wolfson on the 10-year legacy of marriage equality

And the urgent need to fight now to protect Obergefell ruling

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‘We must reclaim political power—by electing better lawmakers, reforming the courts, and reaffirming the rule of law,’ said Freedom to Marry founder Evan Wolfson in a new interview. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

It was 10 years ago this week — on June 26 — when gay marriage became the law of the land with the landmark Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges. Both Jim Obergefell and Freedom to Marry founder Evan Wolfson contributed to the foreword of a new coffee table book, “LOVE: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality,” curated by photographer Frankie Frankeny and writer John Casey.

With the current political climate, many fear that marriage equality could be overturned. In my last interview with Evan Wolfson back in 2017, Trump had just started his first term. I asked him then, “Is gay marriage safe?”

Here’s what he said:

“Look, anything can happen. So I don’t think we should ever be complacent or give up or stop working. Even though the election was a catastrophe and our country is very much on the wrong path, I actually think there are other communities, values, and causes we care about that are more in danger. If we stand in solidarity with others and keep moving forward, we will also secure our own gains.

“I’m not really worried they’re going to take away the freedom to marry. That’s a very hard thing to do. Even former or current opponents are mostly focused on other things.

“We won the freedom to marry not just in court, but by shifting public opinion—growing support from 27% when I argued the first trial in Hawaii to 63% in 2015 when the Supreme Court ruled. That didn’t go away on Election Day. More than a million gay people have gotten legally married in the U.S.—and each of those marriages represents family, friends, and allies who support them. That didn’t go away either.

“We won over a hundred court rulings before the final one, and that legal foundation didn’t disappear. We built ‘facts on the ground,’ shifted opinion, mobilized allies. We have to keep doing that work.

“And Gallup just reported record-high support for marriage equality—up to 47% even among Republicans. So yes, we need vigilance, but I don’t think losing marriage equality is the biggest threat we face.”

I recently asked Wolfson if he still stands by that statement.

“So far, I stand by everything I said,” Wolfson responded. In our new conversation, Wolfson elaborated:

“There are other communities and values in more immediate danger. If we stand in solidarity and keep moving forward, we’ll secure our own rights too.

“I’m not worried they’re going to take away the freedom to marry. That’s extremely difficult to undo. Even our opponents have moved on to other battles.

“Let’s remember how we got here: by winning over public opinion through years—decades—of organizing, storytelling, and showing up. When we stood before the court in 2015, public support had climbed from 27% to 63%. That was no accident. And it hasn’t gone backward.

“Of course people are worried now. There’s a lot to worry about. But sitting around cataloging 100 possible future disasters won’t help. If you’re worried—about marriage, about immigrants, about anti-Semitism, the economy, women’s rights, trans rights, democracy—then the answer is to get to work. Worry doesn’t protect us. Action does.”

He added:

“It’s hard to undo a right. It can happen—look at Dobbs overturning Roe v. Wade—but it’s rare. And even if the Supreme Court were to roll back Obergefell, we put a fallback in place: The Respect for Marriage Act.

“Thanks to that bipartisan legislation—signed by President Biden on the White House lawn—any marriage performed legally in one state must be recognized in all 50 states and by the federal government. Even if Obergefell fell, couples could still marry in states where it remains protected and be recognized nationally.

“That act passed with support from Republicans, including some who once voted for the so-called Defense of Marriage Act.

“So yes, I understand the fear. But fear alone won’t protect us. We all need to do the work—each in our own way.”

Wolfson also reflected on the broader threats to democracy:

“None of us is 100% safe from the assaults and corruption of this current regime. That’s why we must reclaim political power—by electing better lawmakers, reforming the courts, and reaffirming the rule of law, democracy, and pluralism.

That’s not just an LGBT issue—it affects everyone. But queer people, especially trans people, are among those most targeted. And we’ve seen how divide-and-conquer politics and demonization are weaponized to climb to power.

“The trans conversation is at an earlier stage than that for gay people, which makes it more vulnerable. Republicans are exploiting that. And yes, some missteps in our activism have made things harder. But we can course-correct.

“Books like Frankie’s remind us of what we’ve already overcome: the AIDS crisis, Reagan-era discrimination, legal persecution. We rose to those challenges, and we can rise to this one.”

As Wolfson puts it:

“This is our generation’s call to action. We have to respond. And if we do it together—with solidarity and purpose—we will protect the people and values we love.”

“LOVE: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality” includes more than 360 pages of wedding photos and stories that are inspiring to read. The book is available everywhere. 

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