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National news in brief: December 2

Second A-List: Dallas star attacked, Marine Commandant pleased with repeal, gay softball group settles with bisexual players, and more

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Levi Crocker

‘A-List: Dallas’ star Levi Crocker claims to have been attacked last week at an Oklahoma City gay bar. (Photo via Levi Crocker’s Twitter stream)

Second ‘A-List: Dallas’ star reports being attacked

OKLAHOMA CITY — After gay Republican fundraiser and ‘A-List: Dallas’ star Taylor Garret reported being targeted in two violent incidents in the past two months, co-star Levi Crocker tweeted after being himself attacked in a gay bar in Oklahoma City last week.

Crocker was apparently assaulted by gay men patronizing the bar who were unhappy with the show or with Crocker’s persona on the series. Crocker took the attack in stride, tweeting “Thank you for busting a bar stool on my head… I was a bit sleepy and need a little pick me up.”

Marine leader Amos: ‘Don’t Ask’ repeal working

WASHINGTON — Marine Corp Commandant Gen. James Amos told the Associated Press that his fears of chaos following repeal of the military’s ban on gay and lesbian open service were unfounded.

“I’m very pleased with how it has gone,” Amos said in an Associated Press interview. The general has held a dozen town hall style question and answer sessions on a tour through Afghanistan, and told the AP that issues pertaining to open gay service were not broached at any of the stops.

After an additional town hall on a battleship in the Gulf of Aden in which the subject was never brought up, a final stop at a base in Bahrain saw a single question about whether or not consequences for complaints about derogatory “homosexual remarks or actions” would be left up to local commanders. Amos confirmed the policy would remain in place.

Court challenge to N.Y. marriage law can continue

LIVINGSTON COUNTY, N.Y. — A county judge in New York has allowed a lawsuit challenging the state’s still-fresh same-sex marriage law to continue, according to Gay City News.

Conservative Christian group New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms is arguing that passage of the law violated the Open Meetings Law.

Lawyers for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who signed the bill this summer, asked Judge Robert B. Wiggins to dismiss the case, but the judge is refusing to do so. Though Wiggins has thrown out several of the other claims by NYCF, the judge will allow the trial to go forward based on the Open Meetings Law provision.

The complaint stems from a meeting Cuomo had with Republican lawmakers regarding the marriage bill. NYCF claims the meeting does not meet a party caucus exemption to the Open Meetings Law.

N.J. lawmaker’s about face on marriage bill

MIDDLETOWN, N.J. — A New Jersey Republican who voted against a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage in that state has now pledged to co-sponsor the legislation, according to New Jersey paper the Star-Ledger.

Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) “said she would vote to override if the governor vetoes,” said state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), who with Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), is a main sponsor of the bill.

Lawmakers in the Garden State will likely have to overcome a veto by Gov. Chris Christie.

Gay softball world series group settles with three bisexual players

SEATTLE — After reinstating as members three bisexual players, and recognizing their San-Francisco team’s 2008 second-place finish, the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance has reached a settlement over limits on straight players in the series.

According to OutSports.com, the organization has clarified its position on the full inclusion of bisexual and transgender players in the games, but will maintain its cap on straight players on a team, after their First Amendment right to do so was upheld in Federal Court earlier this year.

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National

Trump refers to Anderson Cooper as ‘Allison’

Crude insults continue in effort to attract male voters

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Donald Trump is referring to CNN’s Anderson Cooper as ‘Allison.’

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump referred repeatedly over the weekend to CNN’s Anderson Cooper as “Allison Cooper.”

Cooper, one of the nation’s most prominent openly gay television anchors, moderated a town hall last week with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump last Friday called Anderson “Allison” in a social media post, then used the moniker again at a Michigan rally.

“If you watched her being interviewed by Allison Cooper the other night, he’s a nice person. You know Allison Cooper? CNN fake news,” Trump said, before adding, “Oh, she said no, his name is Anderson. Oh, no.”

Trump repeated the name during another Michigan rally on Saturday, according to the Associated Pres, then followed it up during a reference in Pennsylvania. “They had a town hall,” Trump said in Michigan. “Even Allison Cooper was embarrassed by it. He was embarrassed by it.”

Describing Anderson Cooper as female plays into offensive and stereotypical depictions of gay men as effeminate as Trump continues to pursue the so-called “bro vote,” amping up crude and vulgar displays in an effort to appeal to male voters.

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Pennsylvania

Transgender Honduran woman canvasses for Harris in Pa.

Monserrath Aleman is CASA in Action volunteer

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Monserrath Aleman, a transgender woman in Honduras, has canvassed in Pennsylvania for Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic candidates. (Photo by Phil Laubner/CASA in Action)

A transgender woman from Honduras has traveled to Pennsylvania several times in recent weeks to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic candidates.

Monserrath Aleman traveled to York on Aug. 31 and Lancaster on Sept. 21 with a group of other volunteers from CASA in Action. 

They door-knocked in areas where large numbers of African Americans, Black, and Latino voters live. Aleman and the other CASA in Action volunteers urged them to support Harris, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), and other down ballot Democratic candidates.

Aleman will be in Harrisburg on Nov. 2, and in York on Election Day.

“We achieved the goal that we had in mind and that we wanted to achieve,” she told the Washington Blade on Oct. 22 during a Zoom interview from Baltimore. “We knocked on doors, passed out flyers.”

Aleman cited Project 2025 — which the Congressional Equality Caucus on Thursday sharply criticized — when she spoke with the Blade.

“We know that there is a Project 2025 plan that would affect us: The entire immigrant Latino community, the LGBTI community, everyone,” said Aleman. “So that’s why I’m more motivated to go knocking on doors, to ask for help, for support from everyone who can vote, who can exercise their vote.”

She told the Blade that she and her fellow volunteers “did not have any bad response.”

Aleman grew up in Yoro, a city that is roughly 130 miles north of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.

She left Honduras on Nov. 25, 2021.

Aleman entered Mexico in Palenque, a city in the country’s Chiapas state that is close to the border with Guatemala. The Mexican government granted her a humanitarian visa that allowed her to legally travel through the country.

Aleman told the Blade she walked and took buses to Ciudad Juárez, a Mexican border city that is across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas.

She scheduled her appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection while living at a shelter in Ciudad Juárez. Aleman now lives in Baltimore.

“Discrimination against the LGBTI community exists everywhere, but in Honduras it is more critical,” said Aleman.

Aleman added she feels “more free to express herself, to speak with someone” in the U.S. She also said she remains optimistic that Harris will defeat former President Donald Trump on Election Day.

“There is no other option,” said Aleman.

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HRC rallies LGBTQ voters in 12 states ahead of Election Day

10 Days of Action campaign targets pro-equality candidate

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Human Rights Campaign headquarters (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The Human Rights Campaign said it filled 1,426 new volunteer shifts and held 174 events across key swing states between Oct. 10-20 as part of its 10 Days of Action campaign. 

The LGBTQ civil rights advocacy group is working to mobilize and turn out voters in support of pro-equality and LGBTQ candidates, including the Harris-Walz ticket, on Election Day.

HRC reported exceeding its recruitment goals, noting the strong response across the 12 states as a “clear and resounding message” that LGBTQ and allied voters are energized to back the Harris-Walz ticket. 

To kick off the 10 Days of Action, Gwen Walz, the spouse of Minnesota governor and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, spoke at a Philadelphia event that HRC and the Out for Harris-Walz coalition hosted on Oct. 10.

Walz highlighted her husband’s long-standing support for LGBTQ issues, such as his role in fighting to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in Congress and banning so-called conversion therapy as governor, according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star

Other events launched canvassing efforts for Senate candidates, such as U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.), along with House candidates, such as Will Rollins and Mondaire Jones in California and New York respectively. 

A virtual organizing call on Oct. 11 that the Out for Harris-Walz coalition hosted featured prominent figures, including actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Andy Cohen, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), and Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride, who is running for Congress.

To close out the 10 Days of Action, HRC President Kelley Robinson canvassed with LGBTQ organizers in Phoenix on Oct. 20. 

In a statement, Robinson said the campaign’s work is “far from over.”

“We plan to spend every day until the election making sure everyone we know is registered to vote and has a plan to vote because no one is going to give us the future we deserve — we have to fight for it and show America that when we show up, equality wins,” she said. “Together, we will elect pro-equality leaders like Vice President Harris and Governor Walz who value our communities and are ready to lead us forward with more freedom and opportunity.”

A September HRC poll found that LGBTQ voters favor Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the presidential race by a nearly 67-point margin.

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