National
Will Senate address bullying in education reform?
Franken, Casey may offer pro-LGBT amendments

A Senate committee markup this week could present an opportunity to include LGBT anti-bullying measures as part of larger education reform legislation — although whether the panel will act remains unclear.
Starting Wednesday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee will consider amendments and vote on legislation to reauthorize the Elementary & Secondary Education Act, an extensive law that helps fund primary and secondary schools throughout the country.
President Obama has identified reauthorization of the law, which was last updated in 2001 during the Bush administration with the No Child Left Behind Act, as among his priorities for this year. At the onset of the 112th Congress, passage of education reform — and possibly LGBT-inclusive legislation — was seen as an area where where a Republican-controlled House and a Democratic-controlled Senate could come to an agreement to take action.
LGBT advocates had been pushing for the inclusion of two-LGBT bills as part of education reform — the Student Non-Discriminination Act and the Safe Schools Improvement Act.
The Student Non-Discrimination Act, or SNDA, is sponsored by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) in the Senate. It establishes sexual orientation and gender identity in schools as protected classes. The bill prohibits school activities receiving federal financial assistance from discriminating against LGBT students. Discrimination also includes harassment of a student.
The Safe Schools Improvement Act, or SSIA, is sponsored by Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) in the Senate. It would require schools receiving federal funds to adopt codes of conduct that prohibit bullying and harassment, including on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The legislation would also require states to report data on bullying and harassment to the Department of Education.
Whether Franken or Casey will offer amendments based on these bills during the Senate HELP committee’s markup remains to be seen. The offices of both senators were non-committal on plans to offer them during the markup process.
Alexandra Fetissoff, a Franken spokesperson, said the senator is committed to SNDA but has yet to make a decision on the best opportunity to introduce the legislation before the Senate.
“He’s currently weighing his options — offering the bill to the committee or as an amendment when ESEA comes to the floor,” Fetissoff said. “He’s hopeful that SNDA will pass as he firmly believes it’s the right thing to do and he believes his colleagues will come to realize that.”
Should Franken offer the amendment during the committee markup process, he should have no problem getting the measure through the committee. All 12 Democrats on the panel are co-sponsors of the bill, which should give it majority support for passage. The legislation has no Republican co-sponsors.
April Mellody, a Casey spokesperson, similarly said plans aren’t yet settled on whether or not her boss will introduce SSIA as an amendment during the markup. She said Casey is “currently working with the other members regarding the amendment process.”
But Mellody said language in the chairman’s mark for the base bill already addresses bullying. Under a provision called Successful, Safe and Healthy Schools, schools receiving grants under the program must have student conduct policies that prohibit bullying and harassment, a key principle of SSIA.
Mellody said Casey is “pleased” with the provision, but would like to see language with enumerated categories that is explicitly LGBT-inclusive.
“Sen. Casey believes those policies should also include specific characteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity, among others, as protected categories,” Mellody said.
Should Casey decide to offer SSIA as an amendment during committee, he could have more difficulty than Franken would if he offered up SNDA. Of the 12 Democrats on the panel, 10 are co-sponsors. Sens. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) and Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) aren’t co-sponsors of the bill.
On the Republican side, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is an original co-sponsor of the bill, bringing the total number of co-sponsors to 11. That could be short of the 12 votes needed for passage if the bill comes up during committee.
However, given that Bingaman and Bennett are co-sponsors for SNDA and voted in favor of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal last year, their support for SSIA is likely should the measure come up in committee.
Michael Cole-Schwartz, spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, said plans remain “up in the air” over whether SNDA or SSIA will come up during the committee markup.
“We don’t know how this is going to turn out,” Cole-Schwartz said. “Certainly, we’ve been advocating on the Hill very strenuously for both of these provisions into the reauthorization, working with our allies in Sen. Casey’s office and Sen. Franken’s office.”
Cole-Schwartz said “it’s poignant” the markup would take place at the same time that the bullying of gay students who committed suicide has been in the news and around the same time as Spirit Day. On Thursday, millions of Americans are expected to wear purple as a sign of support for LGBT youth and to speak out against bullying.
“I think the Senate has a great opportunity to take advantage of this moment that we’re in and really do something to improve the lives of these young people,” Cole-Schwartz said.
If Franken and Casey were to move forward with these amendments, they would be doing so without explicit backing from the Obama administration. President Obama has yet to endorse either SNDA or SSIA.
Shin Inouye, a White House spokesperson, said the administration continues to support the goals of the bills, but stopped short of offering explicit support for them.
“We support the goals of both of these efforts,” Inouye said. “As the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is being considered, we look forward to working with Congress to ensure that all students are safe and healthy and can learn in environments free from discrimination, bullying and harassment.”
UPDATE: An LGBT rights advocate, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Senate HELP Committee Chair Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is the “obstacle” in including SNDA and SSIA in the education reform markup.
The advocate said Harkin isn’t opposed to the bills, but wants “a clean markup process” so education reform “can sail through” without opposition. Harkin co-sponsors both SSIA and SNDA.
“They want clean markup processes so that their bills can go through without opposition,” the advocate said. “So there’s kind of a dance and negotiation going on.”
The anonymous advocate said Franken and Casey are “really trying to negotiate their way” to include their bills in the committee markup, but no decision has yet made on whether they’ll offer those amendments.
ADDITIONAL UPDATE: The committee markup process has been halted after objections from Republican senators. In committee, Harkin said he expects the panel to reconvene either in the evening on Wednesday or early Thursday.
A Harkin spokesperson, also speaking anonymously, responded to the assertion that the senator is an “obstacle” in including SSIA and SNDA in the committee markup by saying Harkin has “long supported efforts to ensure that all children feel safe and secure in our schools.”
“He believes that no student should be forced to endure harassment, discrimination, violence, bullying or intimidation for any reason, including their sexual orientation or gender identity,” the spokesperson said. “Chairman Harkin is an original co-sponsor of the Student Non-Discrimination Act and is committed to working with Sen. Franken, author of SNDA, and Sen. Casey, author of the Safe Schools Improvement Act, to ensure all students are given the opportunity to succeed free from harassment or discrimination.”
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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