National
LGBT caucus absent from jobs letter to Obama
Progressive caucuses seek meeting with president

A letter from several congressional caucuses to President Obama on the country’s high unemployment rate has a notable group absent from its list of signers: the LGBT Equality Caucus.
The caucus, which is dedicated to advancing LGBT rights, isn’t a signer of a Sept. 6 letter to Obama requesting a meeting to discuss the jobless rate in the country and possible solutions to find work for more people.
“With unemployment at 9.1 percent nationally — approaching 12 percent in the Hispanic community, 16.7 percent in the African American community and with Asian American and Pacific Islanders remaining unemployed for longer periods than any other group — we are in a national crisis,” the letter states. “We have learned throughout American history that big, bold action is required to put people back to work and promote economic growth.”
Chairs of the Congressional Asian & Pacific American Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus penned their names to the letter.
But the LGBT Equality Caucus isn’t among the signers even though LGBT workers have no federal non-discrimination protections, which threatens their job security. Firing a person based on sexual orientation is legal in 29 states, while firing someone based on gender identity is legal in 35 states.
A spokesperson for the LGBT Equality Caucus didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. It wasn’t clear whether the LGBT Equality Caucus was asked to sign the letter.
An informed source said the Congressional Black and Congressional Progressive caucuses were responsible for spearheading the initiative and circulating the letter among other groups. These groups didn’t immediately respond to a request to comment.
The letter was sent out days prior to the joint session of Congress on Thursday in which President Obama is set to unveil his plan to stimulate job creation. Some advocates had been hoping the speech would be LGBT inclusive and Obama would mention the lack of federal non-discrimation protections for LGBT workers.
Obama has expressed support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, but the legislation has remained stalled and didn’t have a committee vote in the last Congress when Democrats controlled the U.S. House. As an interim alternative to passing ENDA, some LGBT rights supporters have been calling on Obama to issue an executive order barring the U.S. government from contracting with companies without non-discrimination protections for workers based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Paul Yandura, a gay Democratic activist, said he hopes that even though the LGBT Equality Caucus isn’t a signer of the letter, the group is still working to address to the lack of federal non-discrimination protections for LGBT workers.
“With the dismal to non-existent prospects for passage of LGBT priority legislation, I hope that, at the very least, they are doing everything they can to ensure that those in our community that are not the privileged class — which is most of the community — have strong advocates on their behalf in this stalled economy,” Yandura said.
The full text of the letter follows:
September 6, 2011
The Honorable Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
As chairs of the Congressional Asian and Pacific American Caucus,
Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Congressional Progressive Caucus representing more than half of the Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, we are requesting a meeting with you regarding your upcoming speech to the nation on job creation. With unemployment at 9.1% nationally — approaching 12% in the Hispanic community, 16.7% in the African American community and with Asian American and Pacific
Islanders remaining unemployed for longer periods than any other group— we are in a national crisis. We have learned throughout American history that big, bold action is required to put people back to work and promote economic growth.
Throughout the month of August, we heard repeatedly from our constituents
and neighbors that their primary concern is the state of the economy and
chronic unemployment. The American people want us to pass emergency jobs legislation that puts our nation back to work now. Further, Americans know we cannot cut our way to prosperity. The best, most effective way to tackle our debt problem is to put people back to work.
We can stem the tide of mass unemployment and meet our long-term national commitments by being bold now. The chairs of the CBC, CAPAC, CPC, and CHC look forward to an opportunity to talk with you about proposals we would like you to consider before you address the nation this week.
Sincerely,
EMANUEL CLEAVER, II, Congressional Black Caucus Chairman
JUDY CHU, PhD., Congressional Asian & Pacific American Caucus Chairwoman
CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman
KEITH ELLISON, Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chair
RAÚL M. GRIJALVA, Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chair
National
Baldwin, Pocan named on alleged Minn. shooter’s target lists
Gunman killed state lawmaker, husband on Saturday

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, Democrats of Wisconsin, were named on lists of targets belonging to the man suspected of killing Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband and of injuring Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife.
The Hoffmans sustained multiple gunshot wounds and are reportedly in serious but stable condition.
Vance Boelter, the suspect, was apprehended on Sunday in connection with the shootings, which occurred on Saturday. He faces federal murder and stalking charges as well as state-level murder and attempted murder charges.
“Senator Baldwin was informed by law enforcement that she was included on the alleged shooter’s list of names,” Baldwin’s Communications Director Eli Rosen told Channel3000.com. “She is grateful for law enforcement’s swift action to keep the community safe and remains focused on the things that matter most here: honoring the legacy and life of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, praying for the other victims who are fighting for their lives, and condemning this abhorrent, senseless political violence.”
“I recently heard that my name was in one of the Minnesota shooting suspect’s notebooks and I’m appreciative that law enforcement apprehended the suspect,” Pocan said in a statement to Channel3000.com. “I will not back down in the face of terror, however, we as elected officials, must do better to lower the temperature. That said, my schedule remains unchanged.”
The news outlet reported on Monday that Baldwin’s name appeared on a list of 70 targets, while Pocan’s name was found on additional documents. The senator and congressman are both openly LGBTQ.
Democratic U.S. Reps. Greg Landsman (Ohio), Hillary Schotlen (Mich.), Veronica Escobar (Texas), and Joaquin Castro (Texas) also confirmed that their names appeared in notebooks recovered from Boelter’s vehicle.
Other Democrats who were reportedly targeted but whose offices have not yet provided confirmation as of Tuesday afternoon include LGBTQ congresswoman Angie Craig, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Attorney General Keith Ellison, all from Minnesota, along with U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski of Illinois, and U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri.
Walz called the shootings a “politically motivated assassination.”
Federal Government
Trump anti-trans EO used to deny health care to Democrats, unmarried vets
Veterans warn impacts will be felt disproportionately by women and LGBTQ people.

New rules would allow doctors at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to deny care to unmarried veterans and Democrats at hospitals across the country, pursuant to President Donald Trump’s anti-trans executive order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
According to the Guardian, which was first to report the hospital guidelines on Monday, they apply also to psychologists, dentists, and other providers — allowing for individual staff to refuse care for veterans on the basis of characteristics not covered under federal law, which proscribes discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, and sex.
Doctors can also be barred from working on VA hospitals based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity, per documents reviewed by the Guardian. The agency confirmed changes to the rules came in response to Trump’s executive order.
Specifically, per the paper:
Until the recent changes, VA hospitals’ bylaws said that medical staff could not discriminate against patients “on the basis of race, age, color, sex, religion, national origin, politics, marital status or disability in any employment matter”. Now, several of those items — including “national origin,” “politics” and “marital status” — have been removed from that list.
Similarly, the bylaw on “decisions regarding medical staff membership” no longer forbids VA hospitals from discriminating against candidates for staff positions based on national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, membership in a labor organization or “lawful political party affiliation.”
Experts warn that changes to the guidelines may lead to situations where, for example, doctors may question patients about whether they attended a rally for a political candidate or in support of gay rights, potentially denying care on those bases or because of the reasons given for seeking care, such as cases where the patient may report a rape or sexual assault.
Veterans warn impacts will be felt disproportionately by women and LGBTQ people.
National
New LGBTQ+ Archive to save scrubbed federal resources
Trump’s anti-DEI crusade seeks to erase entire communities

Generally, when someone says, “The internet is forever,” it is not a positive statement.
But for Shae Gardner, policy director at LGBT Tech, it has become a lifeline as she and her team have spent the last couple of months tracking down documents removed from government websites.
After a series of anti-DEI and LGBTQ executive orders, thousands of pages across the federal government have been removed or altered—with LGBTQ topics taking a big hit.
The LGBTQ+ Archive, launched by LGBT Tech last month, aims to restore lost resources about the LGBTQ community into a centralized hub. They have tracked down approximately 1,000 documents—all available as downloadable PDFs and sorted by agency—but know that more are missing. Users can submit missing documents or requests for missing documents.
Archived resources range from the 2023 Equity Action Plans mandated under Biden to HIV resource sheets.
Sid Gazula, LGBT Tech’s Google Policy Fellow said reviewing the documents scrubbed from the Department of Health and Human Services was striking. “You have these important documents related to people’s health. Health isn’t subjective,” he said, “The fact that an executive order could take away all this information was very eye-opening.”
For Gazula it made an already urgent project more urgent. “We, as a community, need access to these resources,” he said, “The archive presents a mechanism to get that access out there.”
The LGBT community has a long history of engaging in archival work, explained K.J. Rawson, professor at Northeastern University and director of the Digital Transgender Archive, in an email. He described archives as “key avenues for preserving and making accessible queer and trans history.”
Since mainstream archives often erase or misrepresent the LGBTQ community, Rawson pointed out that LGBTQ archives “fight against this trend and wrest control back into LGBTQ+ hands,” citing Cait McKinney’s phrase “information activism.”
Gardner feels appreciative of the history of LGBTQ preservation, which guided their work: “I want to make it abundantly clear that we are not the first or only organization doing this sort of preservation work.” She also mentions the Internet Archive, a non-profit library of web pages, which was invaluable during their research.
When the Blade asked about the LGBT Archive, Rawson described it as “crucial!” He elaborated that, “the overt erasure of LGBTQ+ people––but especially trans people––from federal websites has been a hostile move that’s one part of larger efforts to strip us of our humanity and our history.”
Beyond creating a record for the future, the archive is also useful in fighting for LGBTQ representation today. Gardner explained that numerous journalists and advocacy groups have already been using it. Gazula, who is a student, shared that some of their professors said it was an important resource for academic work.
To access it, users have to create an account. Gardner said this is not for marketing. Instead, they want to “put a stop gap between us and malicious actors and attacks on the site” and have a basic understanding of who is using the site. She assures users that the data is backed up on servers globally, but encourages folks to download freely from the archive.
“We decided that we wanted every document and resource on it to be a PDF that they would be able to save it themselves,” said Gardner, “This is not only meant to be very user-friendly, but is also meant to help with those resources being dispersed and being kept.”
“It is the history of our community,” Gardner continued, “we deserve to have continued access to it.”