National
‘This will be a very tough campaign’
Baldwin seeks to become first openly gay senator

Rep. Tammy Baldwin, who is seeking to become the next U.S. senator from Wisconsin, is warning supporters that the path to victory won’t be easy.
Baldwin (D-Wisc.), who declared her candidacy for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, described the challenge of her bid to become to first openly gay U.S. senator during a conference call Wednesday with LGBT media.
“What I do want everyone to know is this will be a very tough campaign,” Baldwin said. “Wisconsin is a deeply and evenly divided state. You’ve seen us go and back forth. You’ve seen Wisconsin come alive in the past few months in opposition to a group of state leaders who are not listening to the concerns of the people. But I think voters are going to hear me out and come to know that I am going to be a fighter.”
First up for Baldwin during the campaign: touring Wisconsin to listen to concerns and build name recognition among her potential constituents.
“In the months ahead, as I did over the past summer, I’m going to be traveling the state, meeting with people in their homes and workplaces,” Baldwin said. “You certainly know I’m well-known in the House district that I represent, but there are parts of Wisconsin where I have to go around and introduce myself.”
In the time she has spent speaking with voters, Baldwin said she has heard from people “again and again just how disgusted they are” with what’s happening in Washington.
“It’s clear to all of us that the middle class is getting completely slammed both in this economic environment and in this political environment,” Baldwin said. “I think we as the LGBT community can really understand the concerns we feel when we think our leaders aren’t taking our genuine challenges and struggles to heart.”
Chuck Wolfe, CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, praised Baldwin during the conference call and said her bid for the Senate will be “an important race of our community.”
“The Victory Fund endorsed Tammy in her first state legislative race back in 1992,” Wolfe said. “She hasn’t lost a race. We hope we are able to help her continue that success rate all the way through 2012.”
The first major hurdle for Baldwin will be a Democratic primary challenge in September 2012. Both Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and former Rep. Steve Kagen have been named as possible contenders, although Baldwin at this point is the only announced Democratic candidate.
But polling has shown Baldwin to be ahead of both Kind and Kagen. During the conference call, Baldwin noted she voted in 2002 against the Iraq war resolution and in 1999 against the repeal of a financial regulation law known as the Glass-Steagall Act, which some say led to the financial crisis of 2008. Kind voted in favor of both measures.
“People will also recognize that I have a lifetime commitment to equality for all,” Baldwin said. “And I think they’ll learn that I’m not afraid to stand up to big and powerful interests.”
Asked whether she thinks she’ll have a Democratic opponent, Baldwin said, “I have no idea, but I’m prepared for any eventuality.”
Polls have shown that Baldwin is the front-runner in a Democratic primary, but the situation is different during the general election. Both former Gov. Tommy Thompson and announced U.S. Senate candidate Mark Neumann are slightly ahead of Baldwin in the polls.
But Baldwin dismissed this early polling and said any results obtained at this point would mostly “be related to name recognition.” She noted Thompson has held statewide office as governor and Neumann is a perennial statewide candidate, but she previously only had to be concerned about her House district.
“I think what’s much more important in terms of building a campaign is that once voters, for example, know there’s a candidate named Tammy Baldwin and she’s a fighter for the middle class, then you have, more or less, a deeply and evenly divided state in terms of Democrats and Republicans,” Baldwin said.
Asked whether being an out lesbian will be an issue during the Senate campaign, Baldwin said she thinks Wisconsin will value her honesty about her sexual orientation.
“I have always since the beginning in all my adult life been out and honest about my sexual orientation, and I think that voters appreciate the values of honestly and expect integrity in their elected officials,” Baldwin said.
Still, Baldwin maintained the race “won’t be about me” and instead will focus on the problems facing everyday Americans.
“It will be about the middle-class, the threats that they’re facing right now, the struggles that families are experiencing and which candidate for U.S. Senate is going to be the best fighter for them,” Baldwin said.
What will Baldwin do if confronted with homophobia and anti-gay attacks while on the campaign trail? The candidate pledged to respond to such attacks head on.
“To the extent that I’m faced with it in my campaign, I plan on responding very directly,” Baldwin said. “The campaign is unfolding across the country, but to the extent that it is raised in the U.S. Senate race in Wisconsin, I am certainly not going to turn the other way.”
Asked whether she’ll promote LGBT rights, particularly the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, while on the campaign trail, the lawmaker said she has been talking about such issues in the context of larger discussions as she said Wisconsin in 1982 was the first state to enact protections based on sexual orientation.
“When I talk about the proud tradition of the state of Wisconsin and labor and equal rights — they are all in the same conversation,” Baldwin said. “People in Wisconsin feel proud of those firsts, all of them, and view them as interlinked. That’s the same sort of way, I think, at the national level that we weave these things together.”
Federal Government
RFK Jr.’s HHS report pushes therapy, not medical interventions, for trans youth
‘Discredited junk science’ — GLAAD

A 409-page report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services challenges the ethics of medical interventions for youth experiencing gender dysphoria, the treatments that are often collectively called gender-affirming care, instead advocating for psychotherapy alone.
The document comes in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order barring the federal government from supporting gender transitions for anyone younger than 19.
“Our duty is to protect our nation’s children — not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions,” National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement. “We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas.”
While the report does not constitute clinical guidance, its findings nevertheless conflict with not just the recommendations of LGBTQ advocacy groups but also those issued by organizations with relevant expertise in science and medicine.
The American Medical Association, for instance, notes that “empirical evidence has demonstrated that trans and non-binary gender identities are normal variations of human identity and expression.”
Gender-affirming care for transgender youth under standards widely used in the U.S. includes supportive talk therapy along with — in some but not all cases — puberty blockers or hormone treatment.
“The suggestion that someone’s authentic self and who they are can be ‘changed’ is discredited junk science,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “This so-called guidance is grossly misleading and in direct contrast to the recommendation of every leading health authority in the world. This report amounts to nothing more than forcing the same discredited idea of conversion therapy that ripped families apart and harmed gay, lesbian, and bisexual young people for decades.”
GLAAD further notes that the “government has not released the names of those involved in consulting or authoring this report.”
Janelle Perez, executive director of LPAC, said, “For decades, every major medical association–including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics–have affirmed that medical care is the only safe and effective treatment for transgender youth experiencing gender dysphoria.
“This report is simply promoting conversion therapy by a different name – and the American people know better. We know that conversion therapy isn’t actually therapy – it isolates and harms kids, scapegoats parents, and divides families through blame and rejection. These tactics have been used against gay kids for decades, and now the same people want to use them against transgender youth and their families.
“The end result here will be a devastating denial of essential health care for transgender youth, replaced by a dangerous practice that every major U.S. medical and mental health association agree promotes anxiety, depression, and increased risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts.
“Like being gay or lesbian, being transgender is not a choice, and no amount of pressure can force someone to change who they are. We also know that 98% of people who receive transition-related health care continue to receive that health care throughout their lifetime. Trans health care is health care.”
“Today’s report seeks to erase decades of research and learning, replacing it with propaganda. The claims in today’s report would rip health care away from kids and take decision-making out of the hands of parents,” said Shannon Minter, legal director of NCLR. “It promotes the same kind of conversion therapy long used to shame LGBTQ+ people into hating themselves for being unable to change something they can’t change.”
“Like being gay or lesbian, being transgender is not a choice—it’s rooted in biology and genetics,” Minter said. “No amount or talk or pressure will change that.”
Human Rights Campaign Chief of Staff Jay Brown released a statement: “Trans people are who we are. We’re born this way. And we deserve to live our best lives and have a fair shot and equal opportunity at living a good life.
“This report misrepresents the science that has led all mainstream American medical and mental health professionals to declare healthcare for transgender youth to be best practice and instead follows a script predetermined not by experts but by Sec. Kennedy and anti-equality politicians.”
The White House
Trump nominates Mike Waltz to become next UN ambassador
Former Fla. congressman had been national security advisor

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he will nominate Mike Waltz to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
Waltz, a former Florida congressman, had been the national security advisor.
Trump announced the nomination amid reports that Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, were going to leave the administration after Waltz in March added a journalist to a Signal chat in which he, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other officials discussed plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States ambassador to the United Nations,” said Trump in a Truth Social post that announced Waltz’s nomination. “From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role.”
Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as interim national security advisor, “while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department.”
“Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to make America, and the world, safe again,” said Trump.
Trump shortly after his election nominated U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Trump in March withdrew her nomination in order to ensure Republicans maintained their narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Federal Courts
Second federal lawsuit filed against White House passport policy
Two of seven plaintiffs live in Md.

Lambda Legal on April 25 filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of seven transgender and nonbinary people who are challenging the Trump-Vance administration’s passport policy.
The lawsuit, which Lambda Legal filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Baltimore, alleges the policy that bans the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers “has caused and is causing grave and immediate harm to transgender people like plaintiffs, in violation of their constitutional rights to equal protection.”
Two of the seven plaintiffs — Jill Tran and Peter Poe — live in Maryland. The State Department, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the federal government are defendants.
“The discriminatory passport policy exposes transgender U.S. citizens to harassment, abuse, and discrimination, in some cases endangering them abroad or preventing them from traveling, by forcing them to use identification documents that share private information against their wishes,” said Lambda Legal in a press release.
Zander Schlacter, a New York-based textile artist and designer, is the lead plaintiff.
The lawsuit notes he legally changed his name and gender in New York.
Schlacter less than a week before President Donald Trump’s inauguration “sent an expedited application to update his legal name on his passport, using form DS-5504.”
Trump once he took office signed an executive order that banned the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers. The lawsuit notes Schlacter received his new passport in February.
“The passport has his correct legal name, but now has an incorrect sex marker of ‘F’ or ‘female,'” notes the lawsuit. “Mr. Schlacter also received a letter from the State Department notifying him that ‘the date of birth, place of birth, name, or sex was corrected on your passport application,’ with ‘sex’ circled in red. The stated reason was ‘to correct your information to show your biological sex at birth.'”
“I, like many transgender people, experience fear of harassment or violence when moving through public spaces, especially where a photo ID is required,” said Schlacter in the press release that announced the lawsuit. “My safety is further at risk because of my inaccurate passport. I am unwilling to subject myself and my family to the threat of harassment and discrimination at the hands of border officials or anyone who views my passport.”
Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June 2021 announced the State Department would begin to issue gender-neutral passports and documents for American citizens who were born overseas.
Dana Zzyym, an intersex U.S. Navy veteran who identifies as nonbinary, in 2015 filed a federal lawsuit against the State Department after it denied their application for a passport with an “X” gender marker. Zzyym in October 2021 received the first gender-neutral American passport.
Lambda Legal represented Zzyym.
The State Department policy took effect on April 11, 2022.
Trump signed his executive order shortly after he took office in January. Germany, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands are among the countries that have issued travel advisories for trans and nonbinary people who plan to visit the U.S.
A federal judge in Boston earlier this month issued a preliminary injunction against the executive order. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of seven trans and nonbinary people.
-
Books4 days ago
Chronicling disastrous effects of ‘conversion therapy’
-
U.S. Federal Courts4 days ago
Second federal lawsuit filed against White House passport policy
-
Opinions4 days ago
We must show up to WorldPride 2025 in D.C.
-
District of Columbia4 days ago
Ruby Corado sentencing postponed for third time