National
Cain ignites firestorm with remarks on gays
Surging in polls, pizza magnate says homosexuality a choice

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain made headlines this week, after saying that homosexuality is a choice, just as a new poll showed him moving into a tie for second place for the GOP nomination.
Cain, former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, came under fire from LGBT advocates for indicating on Tuesday he believes people can choose their sexual orientation.
During an appearance on ABC’s “The View,” when asked by host Joy Behar whether he believes being gay is a choice, Cain replied, “Yes.”
“Well, you show me the science that it’s not and I’ll be persuaded,” Cain said. “Right now it’s my opinion against the opinions of others who feel differently. That’s just a difference of opinions.”
Cain’s remarks ignited a firestorm among many LGBT groups who called on the presidential hopeful — as well as other GOP candidates — to repudiate his remarks.
Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement that Cain’s remarks are “frankly, jaw-dropping and certainly unbecoming of a presidential hopeful.”
“Leading medical organizations, including the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, all speak with a loud and clear voice — implying that someone’s sexual orientation can be chosen or changed is dangerous,” Solmonese said.
Solmonese said HRC is eager to connect Cain with medical professionals at these association to guide him through the basic science he said he seeks.
Jack Drescher, a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a member of the DSM-5 Workgroup on sexual and gender identity disorders, said he’s willing to meet with Cain to talk about the medical aspects of the issue.
“Herman Cain’s opinion that being gay is a choice has no basis in current scientific thinking,” Drescher said. “Not only is homosexuality ‘not a choice,’ as most efforts to try and change a person’s sexual orientation fail, but some attempts to change can cause harm and damage to an individual’s well-being.”
LGBT groups representing conservative and Republican interests had different takes on Cain’s remarks.
R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, also criticized Cain and said the organization would be happy to show him the science proving sexual orientation isn’t a choice.
“An individual’s orientation is no more a choice than the color of his skin or whether he is left-handed, and too many people have been hurt because of failed attempts to change the way they were born,” Cooper said.
But Chris Barron, chair of GOProud, defended Cain and said his remarks don’t reflect the candidate’s true position on LGBT issues.
“The attacks levied by the gay left and their allies at Log Cabin against Mr. Cain are despicable,” Cain said. “My partner and I have sat down with Herman Cain and talked with him about issues that are important to gay people, and I can tell you first hand that anyone or any organization that claims that Herman Cain is anti-gay is simply lying or doesn’t know the man at all.”
The attacks on Cain come as a new Washington Post/ABC News poll published Tuesday finds him gaining ground among the GOP candidates, with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney once again at the head of the pack.
Among responders who leaned Republican, Romney led the pack with 21 points and Cain was tied with Texas Gov. Rick Perry at 14 points. Among all registered voters, Romney led with 20 points while Cain and Perry both had 15 points.
Once the front-runner upon his entry into the race, Perry is now tied for second-place with Cain. The Washington Post reported Perry’s slide comes after “several uneven performances” in presidential debates and in response to renewed media emphasis on immigration policies in his state. In Texas, colleges allow the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates.
Sean Theriault, a gay political scientist at the University of Texas, Austin, dismissed a reading of the poll as showing new strength for Romney.
Theriault noted Romney’s numbers hadn’t changed since earlier polling and the Massachusetts governor is only ahead now because of falling numbers for Perry.
“Perry is not doomed,” Theriault said. “Quite the contrary. A strong debate performance, a couple of good weeks of positive news and he’d be back on top. Romney’s numbers have been at 25 since the day he dropped out of the Republican primary in 2008. That’s a pretty strong ceiling effect.”
In related news, two high-profile Republicans who were thought to be possible entries in the presidential race officially announced they wouldn’t seek the nomination in 2012.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP vice-presidential nominee in 2008, announced in a letter to supporters on Wednesday that she wouldn’t seek the nomination for the White House in 2012.
“I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office from the nation’s governors to congressional seats and the presidency,” Palin said.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also announced this week that he wouldn’t join the pack of Republican candidates seeking to oust President Obama from the White House.
“Now is not my time,” said Christie at a news conference in Trenton, N.J., adding, “New Jersey, whether you like it or not, you’re stuck with me.”
Christie is reviled by many LGBT rights supporters for having pledged to veto any legislation that would legalize same-sex marriage in New Jersey.
But in January, Christie signed into law one of the nation’s strongest anti-bullying bills. The law was inspired by the death of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide after his roommate secretly recorded a sexual encounter he had with another man.
New York
Men convicted of murdering two men in NYC gay bar drugging scheme sentenced
One of the victims, John Umberger, was D.C. political consultant

A New York judge on Wednesday sentenced three men convicted of killing a D.C. political consultant and another man who they targeted at gay bars in Manhattan.
NBC New York notes a jury in February convicted Jayqwan Hamilton, Jacob Barroso, and Robert DeMaio of murder, robbery, and conspiracy in relation to druggings and robberies that targeted gay bars in Manhattan from March 2021 to June 2022.
John Umberger, a 33-year-old political consultant from D.C., and Julio Ramirez, a 25-year-old social worker, died. Prosecutors said Hamilton, Barroso, and DeMaio targeted three other men at gay bars.
The jury convicted Hamilton and DeMaio of murdering Umberger. State Supreme Court Judge Felicia Mennin sentenced Hamilton and DeMaio to 40 years to life in prison.
Barroso, who was convicted of killing Ramirez, received a 20 years to life sentence.
National
Medical groups file lawsuit over Trump deletion of health information
Crucial datasets included LGBTQ, HIV resources

Nine private medical and public health advocacy organizations, including two from D.C., filed a lawsuit on May 20 in federal court in Seattle challenging what it calls the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s illegal deletion of dozens or more of its webpages containing health related information, including HIV information.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, names as defendants Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and HHS itself, and several agencies operating under HHS and its directors, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration.
“This action challenges the widespread deletion of public health resources from federal agencies,” the lawsuit states. “Dozens (if not more) of taxpayer-funded webpages, databases, and other crucial resources have vanished since January 20, 2025, leaving doctors, nurses, researchers, and the public scrambling for information,” it says.
“These actions have undermined the longstanding, congressionally mandated regime; irreparably harmed Plaintiffs and others who rely on these federal resources; and put the nation’s public health infrastructure in unnecessary jeopardy,” the lawsuit continues.
It adds, “The removal of public health resources was apparently prompted by two recent executive orders – one focused on ‘gender ideology’ and the other targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (‘DEI’) programs. Defendants implemented these executive orders in a haphazard manner that resulted in the deletion (inadvertent or otherwise) of health-related websites and databases, including information related to pregnancy risks, public health datasets, information about opioid-use disorder, and many other valuable resources.”
The lawsuit does not mention that it was President Donald Trump who issued the two executive orders in question.
A White House spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the lawsuit.
While not mentioning Trump by name, the lawsuit names as defendants in addition to HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., Matthew Buzzelli, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health; Martin Makary, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; Thomas Engels, administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration; and Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management.
The 44-page lawsuit complaint includes an addendum with a chart showing the titles or descriptions of 49 “affected resource” website pages that it says were deleted because of the executive orders. The chart shows that just four of the sites were restored after initially being deleted.
Of the 49 sites, 15 addressed LGBTQ-related health issues and six others addressed HIV issues, according to the chart.
“The unannounced and unprecedented deletion of these federal webpages and datasets came as a shock to the medical and scientific communities, which had come to rely on them to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks, assist physicians and other clinicians in daily care, and inform the public about a wide range of healthcare issues,” the lawsuit states.
“Health professionals, nonprofit organizations, and state and local authorities used the websites and datasets daily in care for their patients, to provide resources to their communities, and promote public health,” it says.
Jose Zuniga, president and CEO of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), one of the organizations that signed on as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement that the deleted information from the HHS websites “includes essential information about LGBTQ+ health, gender and reproductive rights, clinical trial data, Mpox and other vaccine guidance and HIV prevention resources.”
Zuniga added, “IAPAC champions evidence-based, data-informed HIV responses and we reject ideologically driven efforts that undermine public health and erase marginalized communities.”
Lisa Amore, a spokesperson for Whitman-Walker Health, D.C.’s largest LGBTQ supportive health services provider, also expressed concern about the potential impact of the HHS website deletions.
“As the region’s leader in HIV care and prevention, Whitman-Walker Health relies on scientific data to help us drive our resources and measure our successes,” Amore said in response to a request for comment from the Washington Blade.
“The District of Columbia has made great strides in the fight against HIV,” Amore said. “But the removal of public facing information from the HHS website makes our collective work much harder and will set HIV care and prevention backward,” she said.
The lawsuit calls on the court to issue a declaratory judgement that the “deletion of public health webpages and resources is unlawful and invalid” and to issue a preliminary or permanent injunction ordering government officials named as defendants in the lawsuit “to restore the public health webpages and resources that have been deleted and to maintain their web domains in accordance with their statutory duties.”
It also calls on the court to require defendant government officials to “file a status report with the Court within twenty-four hours of entry of a preliminary injunction, and at regular intervals, thereafter, confirming compliance with these orders.”
The health organizations that joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs include the Washington State Medical Association, Washington State Nurses Association, Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Academy Health, Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, Fast-Track Cities Institute, International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, National LGBT Cancer Network, and Vermont Medical Society.
The Fast-Track Cities Institute and International Association of Providers of AIDS Care are based in D.C.
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.