National
Baldwin announces bid for U.S. Senate
Wisconsin lawmaker would be first openly gay senator
Tammy Baldwin announced Tuesday she would run for U.S. Senate. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
The only out lesbian in Congress officially threw her hat in the ring to become the next U.S. senator from Wisconsin — and the first openly gay member of the U.S. Senate — in an announcement Tuesday.
“I can’t wait to take my fight to the Senate: a fight to grow our economy, protect seniors, force Wall Street to clean up its act, and bring our troops home from Afghanistan,” Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) wrote in an email to supporters. “And I can’t wait to see you on the trail as we bring our campaign to every corner of Wisconsin.”
Baldwin has served in the U.S. House since 1999. A win for Baldwin would mean she would replace Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), who announced earlier this year he would retire from the Senate upon the completion of his term next year.
“I know that, in this campaign, we’ll be up against some powerful special interests,” she said in her announcement. “But I’ve beaten the odds before. All my life, the naysayers have told me that I can’t win because I’m a progressive…because I’m a woman…even because I’m a lesbian. And I’ve proven them wrong because I’ve had rock-solid supporters like you standing with me.”
MORE IN THE BLADE: GAY WIS. LAWMAKER HOPES TO WIN BALDWIN’S SEAT
Baldwin is no stranger to achieving victories for the LGBT community. Her election to the U.S. House in 1998 marked the first time a non-incumbent openly gay person was elected to Congress.
Gay advocates — particularly the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund — have been pushing Baldwin to make history again by seeking to become the first openly gay person elected to the Senate.
Chuck Wolfe, CEO of the Victory Fund, praised Baldwin in a statement and said his organization would work hard to help her win in 2012.
“We are enormously proud that Tammy has taken this courageous step, and we will be strong supporters of her campaign,” Wolfe said. “Tammy’s record in Congress proves she’ll be a fighter in the Senate for expanding fairness and freedom for all Americans, and Wisconsin families will have no better advocate in Washington.”
The Victory Fund also announced the launch of a website, VictoryForTammy.com, which is dedicated to providing information to LGBT people about the Baldwin campaign. In addition to featuring news about the race and event information, the site will allow people to donate directly to her campaign.
Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, announced on the same day as Baldwin’s announcement that his organization has endorsed the lesbian lawmaker in her bid for a Senate seat.
“Tammy Baldwin’s candidacy for the U.S. Senate is monumental for both the state of Wisconsin and the country’s LGBT community,” Solmonese said. “Tammy has proven herself as an effective legislator over the course of her 13 years in Congress and this campaign will be a top priority for the Human Rights Campaign.”
Katie Belanger, executive director of the state equality group Fair Wisconsin, said the possibility of electing the first openly gay senator is “inspiring” and the Badger State “could not hope for stronger advocate for fairness and equality.”
“Tammy Baldwin has proven in the second congressional district that she can represent a diverse constituency, from farm families to college students to seniors,” Belanger said. “She is well-prepared to represent all of Wisconsin’s diverse communities and will have the vigorous statewide campaign necessary to win the state.”
Baldwin is likely to face primary opponents who are also seeking to carry the Democratic banner in the general election next year. A primary would take place in the first half of September 2012. Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wisc.), an eight-term member of the U.S. House, and Steve Kagen (D-Wisc.), a former House member, have been named as possible competitors.
Russ Feingold, a former U.S. senator from Wisconsin, was also seen as a possible opponent — and likely frontrunner to win the Democratic nomination — but announced last month that he wouldn’t seek elected office in 2012.
But Baldwin appears ahead other Democratic contenders in a hypothetical primary matchup. According to data published last week from Public Policy Polling, Baldwin leads in a three-way race with 37 percent compared to 21 percent for Kind and 15 percent for Kagen.
Additionally, Baldwin has raised significant money compared to her possible opponents. In the most recent Federal Election Commission reports, Baldwin posted $1.1 million in cash on hand after raising more than $600,000 thus far this election cycle. Comparatively, Kind has $478,000 in cash on hand after raising $592,000 this cycle. Kagen has no cash on hand and has only raised $18,000 this cycle.
But in the general election, Baldwin could face more of a challenge. The data from Public Policy Polling found that potential Republican opponents — like former Gov. Tommy Thompson or former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann — are marginally ahead of her in the polls.
The data from PPP shows that in a match between Neumann and Baldwin, Neumann would win 44-40, although 15 percent said they were undecided. In a contest between Thompson and Baldwin, Thompson would win 50-42, although eight percent of voters identified as undecided.
Last week, Neumann officially threw his hat into ring for the Republican nomination and asserted that he believes his opponent will be Baldwin in the general election.
While announcing his candidacy Monday morning, Neumann said, “I believe our opponent is Tammy Baldwin and I believe it is essential that we bring Tammy Baldwin’s record to the forefront.”
A Tea Party Republican, Neumann is more conservative than Thompson. During the 1990s, Neumann made headlines for anti-gay remarks made during his career as a U.S. House member.
According to the New York Times, Neumann said in 1996, “If I was elected God for a day, homosexuality wouldn’t be permitted, but nobody’s electing me God.”
Additionally, Neumann in 1997 suggested he wouldn’t hire an openly gay person as an office staffer during a speech to the Christian Coalition.
“If somebody walks in to me and says, ‘I’m a gay person, I want a job in your office,’ I would say that’s inappropriate, and they wouldn’t be hired because that would mean they are promoting their agenda,” he said. “The gay and lesbian lifestyle [is] unacceptable, lest there be any question about that.”
Watch the video of Baldwin announcing her Senate campaign here:
NOTE: This article has been updated.
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.
The White House
Trump travels to Middle East countries with death penalty for homosexuality
President traveled to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates
Homosexuality remains punishable by death in two of the three Middle East countries that President Donald Trump visited last week.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are among the handful of countries in which anyone found guilty of engaging in consensual same-sex sexual relations could face the death penalty.
Trump was in Saudi Arabia from May 13-14. He traveled to Qatar on May 14.
“The law prohibited consensual same-sex sexual conduct between men but did not explicitly prohibit same-sex sexual relations between women,” notes the State Department’s 2023 human rights report, referring specifically to Qatar’s criminalization law. “The law was not systematically enforced. A man convicted of having consensual same-sex sexual relations could receive a sentence of seven years in prison. Under sharia, homosexuality was punishable by death; there were no reports of executions for this reason.”
Trump on May 15 arrived in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The State Department’s 2023 human rights report notes the “penalty for individuals who engaged in ‘consensual sodomy with a man'” in the country “was a minimum prison sentence of six months if the individual’s partner or guardian filed a complaint.”
“There were no known reports of arrests or prosecutions for consensual same-sex sexual conduct. LGBTQI+ identity, real or perceived, could be deemed an act against ‘decency or public morality,’ but there were no reports during the year of persons prosecuted under these provisions,” reads the report.
The report notes Emirati law also criminalizes “men who dressed as women or entered a place designated for women while ‘disguised’ as a woman.” Anyone found guilty could face up to a year in prison and a fine of up to 10,000 dirhams ($2,722.60.)
Trump returned to the U.S. on May 16.
The White House notes Trump during the trip secured more than $2 trillion “in investment agreements with Middle Eastern nations ($200 billion with the United Arab Emirates, $600 billion with Saudi Arabia, and $1.2 trillion with Qatar) for a more safe and prosperous future.”
Former President Joe Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2022.
Saudi Arabia is scheduled to host the 2034 World Cup. The 2022 World Cup took place in Qatar.
State Department
Rubio mum on Hungary’s Pride ban
Lawmakers on April 30 urged secretary of state to condemn anti-LGBTQ bill, constitutional amendment
More than 20 members of Congress have urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to publicly condemn a Hungarian law that bans Pride events.
California Congressman Mark Takano, a Democrat who co-chairs the Congressional Equality Caucus, and U.S. Rep. Bill Keating (D-Mass.), who is the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Europe Subcommittee, spearheaded the letter that lawmakers sent to Rubio on April 30.
Hungarian lawmakers in March passed a bill that bans Pride events and allow authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify those who participate in them. MPs last month amended the Hungarian constitution to ban public LGBTQ events.
“As a NATO ally which hosts U.S. service members, we expect the Hungarian government to abide by certain values which underpin the historic U.S.-Hungary bilateral relationship,” reads the letter. “Unfortunately, this new legislation and constitutional amendment disproportionately and arbitrarily target sexual and gender minorities.”
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government over the last decade has moved to curtail LGBTQ and intersex rights in Hungary.
A law that bans legal recognition of transgender and intersex people took effect in 2020. Hungarian MPs that year also effectively banned same-sex couples from adopting children and defined marriage in the constitution as between a man and a woman.
An anti-LGBTQ propaganda law took effect in 2021. The European Commission sued Hungary, which is a member of the European Union, over it.
MPs in 2023 approved the “snitch on your gay neighbor” bill that would have allowed Hungarians to anonymously report same-sex couples who are raising children. The Budapest Metropolitan Government Office in 2023 fined Lira Konyv, the country’s second-largest bookstore chain, 12 million forints ($33,733.67), for selling copies of British author Alice Oseman’s “Heartstopper.”
Former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman, who is gay, participated in the Budapest Pride march in 2024 and 2023. Pressman was also a vocal critic of Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
“Along with years of democratic backsliding in Hungary, it flies in the face of those values and the passage of this legislation deserves quick and decisive criticism and action in response by the Department of State,” reads the letter, referring to the Pride ban and constitutional amendment against public LGBTQ events. “Therefore, we strongly urge you to publicly condemn this legislation and constitutional change which targets the LGBTQ community and undermines the rights of Hungarians to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.”
U.S. Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Sarah McBride (D-Del.), Jim Costa (D-Calif.), James McGovern (D-Mass.), Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Julie Johnson (D-Texas), Ami Bera (D-Calif.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Dina Titus (D-Nev.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) signed the letter alongside Takano and Keating.
A State Department spokesperson on Wednesday declined to comment.
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Chilean lawmakers back report that calls for suspension of program for trans children
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Global LGBTQ rights crackdown overshadows this year’s IDAHOBiT
Calendar: May 16-22
