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National news in brief: September 30

The NFL adds sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy, new standards for transgender health, and a new bill seeks to end HIV criminalization

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NFL adds sexual orientation to non-bias language

NEW YORK — In its latest collective bargaining agreement with its players union, the National Football League has quietly added sexual orientation to its non-discrimination statement.

According to LGBT issues sports blogger and sports law expert, Pete Olsen in the ‘Wide Rights’ blog, the league that governs the lucrative professional football teams in the United States this week added the two words to a 2006 non-discrimination statement that previously included race, religion and national origin.

Outspoken NFL LGBT ally and a Player Association rep to the talks from the Cleveland Browns team, Scott Fujita said the lawyers are responsible for the change, rather than any representatives from the groups at the table.

“Our counsel is pretty progressive [and] on top of such issues,” Fujita told Olsen on Twitter, “so I imagine this was worked out during the ‘lawyer’ discussions when players weren’t around.”

According to blogger Olsen, Perry v. Schwarzenegger lead counsel Ted Olson and David Boies were also present on opposite sides of the contract talks, with Boies representing the team owners and Olson representing the players.

Trans org unveils standards of care recommendations

ATLANTA — The World Professional Association for Transgender Health unveiled new standards of care for transgender and transsexual individuals Sunday at the largest annual meeting of transgender health advocates in the country.

According tothe Georgia Voice, the organization released the seventh version of the standards of care, removing “gender identity disorder,” and replacing it with “gender dysphoria.” The new standards were greeted with applause from the audience.

Bill would curb criminalization of people with HIV

WASHINGTON — A new bill in the U.S. House of Representatives would bar states from creating laws that target HIV-positive individuals with harsher punishment based on their HIV status.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) introduced the bill last week in hopes of eliminating laws that unevenly affect HIV-positive individuals, such as stricter punishments attached to disclosure laws, and punishments on behaviors that have no risk of spreading infection, as is the case with an HIV-positive Texas man given a 35-year sentence for spitting on a police officer. Thirty-four states have laws that criminalize non-disclosure of HIV.

Ind. election includes three out gay candidates

INDIANAPOLIS — For the first time in the city’s history, openly gay Democratic candidates are running in the Indianapolis City Council elections.

The City Council race, which has never seen an openly gay major party candidate, now has three openly gay candidates vying for one at-large seat and two district spots. On the ballot are Zach Adamson, who was endorsed by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund for his at-large race against three other candidates for four open seats, as well as Jackie Leigh Butler and Todd Woodmansee, who are both running against Republican incumbents.

“The historical significance of it is the fact that it doesn’t matter,” Woodmansee told the Indianapolis Star. “We can have people running regardless of what their sexual orientation is, regardless of what their race is and regardless of what their religion is.”

Retailers backing away from anti-gay ‘charity’ marketer

SEATTLE — With the aid of online petition sites like Change.org, several LGBT advocates have successfully pressured major retailers to cut ties with an Internet marketing firm that gives a portion of purchases made through its portal to anti-gay charities.

In a recent New York Times profile, Seattle activist Stuart Wilber recalled discovering that portions of purchases made through CVN.com run by the Christian Charity Give Back Group aided anti-gay groups like SPLC certified hate group the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family. The purchases could be made through retailers like Macy’s, Barney’s New York, Microsoft, Apple and Netflix. All have since left the network, leaving companies like Office Max, Office Depot and Elizabeth Arden.

“I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding, Microsoft,’” Wilber told the Times, about launching his petitions.

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Federal Government

RFK Jr.’s HHS report pushes therapy, not medical interventions, for trans youth

‘Discredited junk science’ — GLAAD

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HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

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.”




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The White House

Trump nominates Mike Waltz to become next UN ambassador

Former Fla. congressman had been national security advisor

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U.N. headquarters in New York (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

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.

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U.S. Federal Courts

Second federal lawsuit filed against White House passport policy

Two of seven plaintiffs live in Md.

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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.

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