National
Santorum denounces killing of gays in Iran
But renews pledge to reinstate DADT, fight marriage equality
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum (Blade photo by Michael Key)
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Thursday pledged to speak out against the executions of gay people in Iran — calling it “a grave moral wrong” — and accused President Obama of not addressing the issue.
“I would talk about it,” Santorum said. “This president doesn’t talk about those things. He doesn’t talk about the torture, he doesn’t talk about the killing of women and gays and imprisonment. These are fundamental violations of human rights that I would speak about.”
Santorum made the remarks in a brief interview with the Washington Blade in D.C. at the 2011 Value Voters Summit, a convention for social conservatives hosted by the Family Research Council.
The GOP presidential hopeful spoke with the Blade after a giving a speech in which he criticized Obama for not defending the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act in court and for allowing military chaplains to officiate at same-sex weddings.
Santorum also pledged to fight marriage equality “in every state to make sure that marriage remains between one man and one woman.” He backs a U.S. constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage throughout the country.
Speaking with the Blade, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania pledged to speak out against the killing of gays in Iran when asked to clarify remarks he gave in August during a presidential debate. At the time, Santorum called Iran a ‘mullahcracy’ that “tramples the rights of women, tramples the rights of gays, tramples the rights of people all throughout their society.”
In Iran, sodomy is an offense subject to the death penalty. Just last month, Iran reportedly executed three people who were convicted of engaging in same-sex sexual relations.
Chris Barron, chair of GOProud, said Santorum is “absolutely right” about the violations of human rights against gays in Iran.
“We believe strongly that basic human rights should know no geographic boundary,” Barron said. “We thank Senator Santorum for having the courage to speak out with moral clarity on this issue.”
Barron commended Santorum while saying the Obama administration has failed to address the issue.
“While leaders like Israel’s Bibi Netanyahu have addressed the United Nations about the barbaric treatment of gay people in Iran, this administration has chosen to turn a blind eye,” Barron said.
Despite claims Obama hasn’t addressed the issue, the president has spoken up more generally in favor of LGBT rights during a speech last month before the United Nations General Assembly, making him the first sitting U.S. president to do so.
“No country should deny people their rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, but also no country should deny people their rights because of who they love, which is why we must stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians everywhere,” Obama said.
Also during the interview with the Blade, Santorum wouldn’t venture to say whether he thinks being gay is a choice when asked if he shares the views of fellow GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, who earlier this week stated that view.
“I think there’s all sorts of studies that are contradicting on that subject,” Santorum said.
Major psychological institutions — including the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association — have stated that sexual orientation can’t be changed and that so-called reparative therapy practices are dangerous.
Santorum also addressed his previously stated pledge to reinstate “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” if elected president. He said he doesn’t know whether he would do so administratively or whether that would have to be achieved through legislation.
“I’d have to study the issue,” Santorum said. “I don’t know. At this point, I’d have to — I can’t say how, but I certainly would work toward that.”
A transcript of the exchange between the Blade and Santorum follows:
Washington Blade: Herman Cain said earlier this week that homosexuality is a choice. Is that a view you share?
Rick Santorum: Ah, well, I think there’s all sorts of studies that are contradicting on that subject.
Blade: You’ve said you’d reinstate “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” if elected president. Would you do that administratively, or would that have to be through legislative means?
Santorum: I’d have to study the issue. I don’t know. At this point, I’d have to — I can’t say how, but I certainly would work toward that.
Blade: One thing you said in August that really jumped out during the presidential debate was you criticized Iran for trampling the rights of women and gays. I’m just wondering what rights-trampling you’re objecting to.
Santorum: Ah, they’re killing them. They’re killing people because they’re gay, which is a grave moral wrong.
Blade: And how would you address that as president?
Santorum: I would talk about it. This president doesn’t talk about those things. He doesn’t talk about the torture, he doesn’t talk about the killing of women and gays and imprisonment. These are fundamental violations of human rights that I would speak about.
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.
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Federal judge scraps trans-inclusive workplace discrimination protections
