National
Romney, Santorum show new strength in Iowa polls
Controversy surrounds Paul’s newsletters and endorsement from anti-gay pastor

[Editor’s Note: The Washington Blade will have this reporter in Des Moines, Iowa, next week monitoring activity on the ground prior to the caucuses as well as their results.]
Two GOP presidential contenders are experiencing new strength in the polls just days before the Iowa caucuses as new concerns emerge about another candidate’s anti-gay connections and past.
Recent polls show former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney slightly ahead of other candidates in Iowa — where on Jan. 3 the GOP will hold the nation’s first contest for who’ll win the Republican nomination — as former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum has also risen to become a major candidate in the contest.
According to a NBC/Marist poll published Friday, Romney is virtually tied for support with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) among likely Republican caucus-goers in Iowa. The poll revealed that Romney has support from 23 percent of respondents while Paul has support from 21 percent.
MORE IN THE BLADE: ROMNEY EDGES SANTORUM TO WIN IOWA CAUCUS
Meanwhile, Santorum has risen to third place in Iowa while Gingrich has plummeted after enjoying a commanding lead. The former senator has support from 20 percent of respondents, followed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry at 14 percent and Gingrich at 13 percent.
Gingrich, who until recently was the front-runner in the polls, has fallen after his opponents have attacked for his decisions over the course of this more than 30-year-long political career.
Criticism have been based on his admitted martial infidelities and the $1.6 million he received in consulting fees he received from Freddie Mac, a government-sponsored secondary home mortgage company whose activities some say contributed to the financial crisis of 2008.
Dan Pinello, a gay political science professor at the City University of New York, accounted for Romney’s modest new lead as conservatives coming to terms with the stronger prospects of the former Massachusetts governor winning in the general election.
“A lot of conservatives are finally realizing that they don’t have a viable alternative to Romney, and some of them are just holding their nose and going with him as the best alternative to someone they dislike even more, and that’s Barack Obama,” Pinello said.
Pinello added Romney’s rise in Iowa also could be because a win for Paul — who has significantly less of a chance of winning the Republican nomination or the general election — would have the effect of diminish the caucuses’ importance in the presidential primaries.
“Iowa Republicans have had heard their leadership’s cry that they’ve got to maintain the salience of the Iowa caucus system for the long haul, and choosing someone like Ron Paul doesn’t achieve that,” Pinello said.
As for Santorum — who’s known for being a social conservative and holding anti-gay views — Pinello said the candidate’s new strength is the anti-Romney crowd “scraping the bottom of the barrel” now that Gingrich has become a more unpopular candidate.
“They’ve gone with everyone else, and all those others have never panned out for the long haul,” Pinello said. “And so, [Santorum] is what’s left; he’s the consolation prize it seems in a sense.”
Just last week, anti-gay leader Bob Vander Plaats, CEO of FAMiLY LEADER, threw his personal support behind Santorum in the election, so the candidate’s rise could be the result of that support. ABC News later reported that Vander Plaats solicited money for the endorsement, although the Santorum campaign denied that any agreement was made about money.
Pinello declined to make prediction on who’ll win the Iowa caucuses because of the rapid change of the candidates’ positions in the polls, but said the outcome probably won’t have much bearing on who’ll win the Republican nomination.
“Over the past 40 years, Iowa has only accurately predicted the GOP nominee twice in five contests where there was no incumbent president running on the Republican side,” Pinello said. “That’s not a very good track record.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses in 2008 with 35 percent of the vote while Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) came in forth. The nomination went to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Pinello said the outcome of the Iowa caucuses would only make a difference the race to win the Republican presidential nomination if Romney emerged as the victor.
“If, in fact, Romney is in first place after everything is over next Tuesday, that would be, I think, significant because it would show that it doesn’t seem to be a really truly viable two-person race after the initial contest,” Pinello said.
Paul’s anti-gay ties under scrutiny
As the Republican candidates continue to rise and fall in the polls, Paul’s record has come under increasing scrutiny because of anti-gay ties and statements found in the newsletters he once published.
The newsletters, which were published under various titles in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, describe AIDS as a disease wrought by gays for sexual misbehavior. The newsletters also contain many racially charged and anti-Semitic statements.
Among the gay-related content of the newsletters:
* If you heard a certain behavior of yours caused a deadly disease, wouldn’t you immediately cease and desist?
* Well, gays in San Francisco do not obey the dictates of good sense. They have stopped practicing “safe sex.”
* The rate of AIDS infection is on the increase again. From the gay point of view, the reasons seem quite sensible.
* They are not married, they have no children, and their lives on centered on new sexual partners.
* They enjoy the attention and pity that comes with being sick.
* Put it all together, and you’ve got another wave of AIDS infections, that you, dear taxpayer, will be asked to pay for.
In a radio interview Thursday with WHO Radio in Des Moines, Paul disavowed the content of the letters, saying he had limited input on the content of the letters beyond the economic pieces. The candidate said controversy over the letters hasn’t harmed his campaign.
“It wasn’t a reflection of my views at all…I think it was terrible,” Paul reportedly said. “It was tragic, and I had some responsibility for it, because the name went out in my letter. But I was not an editor. I (was) like a publisher.”
Christian Berle, deputy executive director of the National Log Cabin Republicans, said Paul’s distancing of himself from the newsletters was “appropriate” because the anti-gay statements contained within them are “outside of the mainstream.”
“When looking at Paul as a candidate it is important to look at his focus on small, limited government which positions himself with many LGBT Americans, who are looking to succeed without Washington, telling them what to do,” Berle said.
Berle noted Paul twice voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment and in favor of measures to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in accordance with libertarian views.
“That libertarian message is one that is resonating in Iowa and across the country,” Berle concluded.
Meanwhile, a recent Paul endorsement from Rev. Phillip Kayser, pastor of Dominion Covenant Church in Omaha, Neb., has also been controversial. The religious leader is known for holding anti-gay views and gone so far as to state the death penalty should be imposed upon gays for homosexual acts.
Kayser makes the case for imposing biblical law in a 2009 publication titled “Is the Death Penalty Just?” and contends that gays should be subject to the death penalty to deter their behavior.
“Difficulty in implementing Biblical law does not make non-Biblical penology just,” he says. “But as we have seen, while many homosexuals would be executed, the threat of capital punishment can be restorative. Biblical law would recognize as a matter of justice that even if this law could be enforced today, homosexuals could not be prosecuted for something that was done before.”
According to Talking Points Memo, Kayser confirmed by phone that he still favors instating biblical punishments for gays — although he doesn’t anticipate the punishment being put in place anytime soon.
The Paul campaign touted the endorsement in a statement, although the response to the pastor’s support has apparently been removed from Paul’s web site.
“We welcome Rev. Kayser’s endorsement and the enlightening statements he makes on how Ron Paul’s approach to government is consistent with Christian beliefs,” said Ron Paul 2012 Iowa Chairman Drew Ivers. “We’re thankful for the thoughtfulness with which he makes his endorsement and hope his endorsement and others like it make a strong top-three showing in the caucus more likely.”
Jerame Davis, interim executive director of the National Stonewall Democrats, said the newsletters and endorsement demonstrate that Paul “has never been a friend to the LGBT community.
“He has a long history of close association with racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic language,” Davis said. “A new endorsement or yet another revelation doesn’t really change a whole lot.”
Federal Government
Treasury Department has a gay secretary but LGBTQ staff are under siege
Agency reverses course on LGBTQ inclusion under out Secretary Scott Bessent

A former Treasury Department employee who led the agency’s LGBTQ employee resource group says the removal of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) from its discrimination complaint forms was merely a formalization of existing policy shifts that had already taken hold following the second inauguration of President Donald Trump and his appointment of Scott Bessent — who is gay — to lead the agency.
Christen Boas Hayes, who served on the policy team at Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) from 2020 until March of this year, told the Washington Blade during a phone interview last week that the agency had already stopped processing internal Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaints on the basis of anti-LGBTQ discrimination.
“So the way that the forms are changing is a procedural recognition of something that’s already happening,” said Hayes. “Internally, from speaking to two EEO staff members, the changes are already taking place from an EEO perspective on what kind of cases will be found to have the basis for a complaint.”
The move, they said, comes amid the deterioration of support structures for LGBTQ workers at the agency since the administration’s early rollout of anti-LGBTQ executive orders, which led to “a trickle down effect of how each agency implements those and on what timeline,” decisions “typically made by the assistant secretary of management’s office and then implemented by the appropriate offices.”
At the end of June, a group of U.S. House Democrats including several out LGBTQ members raised alarms after a Federal Register notice disclosed Treasury’s plans to revise its complaint procedures. Through the agency’s Office of Civil Rights and EEO, the agency would eliminate SOGI as protected categories on the forms used by employees to initiate claims of workplace discrimination.
But Hayes’s account reveals that the paperwork change followed months of internal practice, pursuant to a wave of layoffs targeting DEI personnel and a chilling effect on LGBTQ organizing, including through ERGs.
Hayes joined Treasury’s FinCEN in 2020 as the agency transitioned into the Biden-Harris administration, working primarily on cryptocurrency regulation and emerging technologies until they accepted a “deferred resignation” offer, which was extended to civil servants this year amid drastic staffing cuts.
“It was two things,” Hayes said. “One was the fact that the policy work that I was very excited about doing was going to change in nature significantly. The second part was that the environment for LGBTQ staff members was increasingly negative after the release of the executive orders,” especially for trans and nonbinary or gender diverse employees.
“At the same time,” Hayes added, “having been on the job for four years, I also knew this year was the year that I would leave Treasury. I was a good candidate for [deferred resignation], because I was already planning on leaving, but the pressures that emerged following the change in administration really pushed me to accelerate that timeline.”
Some ERGs die by formal edict, others by a thousand cuts
Hayes became involved with the Treasury LGBTQ ERG shortly after joining the agency in 2020, when they reached out to the group’s then-president — “who also recently took the deferred resignation.”
“She said that because of the pressure that ERGs had faced under the first Trump administration, the group was rebuilding, and I became the president of the group pretty quickly,” Hayes said. “Those pressures have increased in the second Trump administration.”
One of the previous ERG board members had left the agency after encountering what Hayes described as “explicitly transphobic” treatment from supervisors during his gender transition. “His supervisors denied him a promotion,” and, “importantly, he did not have faith in the EEO complaint process” to see the issues with discrimination resolved, Hayes said. “And so he decided to just leave, which was, of course, such a loss for Treasury and our Employee Resource Group and all of our employees at Treasury.”
The umbrella LGBTQ ERG that Hayes led included hundreds of members across the agency, they said, and was complemented by smaller ERGs at sub-agencies like the IRS and FinCEN — several of which, Hayes said, were explicitly told to cease operations under the new administration.
Hayes did not receive any formal directive to shutter Treasury’s ERG, but described an “implicit” messaging campaign meant to shut down the group’s activities without issuing anything in writing.
“The suggestion was to stop emailing about anything related to the employee resource group, to have meetings outside of work hours, to meet off of Treasury’s campus, and things like that,” they said. “So obviously that contributes to essentially not existing functionally. Because whereas we could have previously emailed our members comfortably to announce a happy hour or a training or something like that, now they have to text each other personally to gather, which essentially makes it a defunct group.”
Internal directories scrubbed, gender-neutral restrooms removed
Hayes said the dismantling of DEI staff began almost immediately after the executive orders. Employees whose position descriptions included the terms “diversity, equity, and inclusion” were “on the chopping block,” they said. “That may differ from more statutorily mandated positions in the OMWI office or the EEO office.”
With those staff gone, so went the infrastructure that enabled ERG programming and community-building. “The people that made our employee resource group events possible were DEI staff that were fired. And so, it created an immediate chilling effect on our employee resource group, and it also, of course, put fear into a lot of our members’ hearts over whether or not we would be able to continue gathering as a community or supporting employees in a more practical way going forward. And it was just, really — it was really sad.”
Hayes described efforts to erase the ERGs from internal communication channels and databases. “They also took our information off internal websites so nobody could find us as lawyers went through the agency’s internal systems to scrub DEI language and programs,” they said.
Within a week, Hayes said, the administration had removed gender-neutral restrooms from Main Treasury, removed third-gender markers from internal databases and forms, and made it more difficult for employees with nonbinary IDs to access government buildings.
“[They] made it challenging for people with X gender markers on identification documents to access Treasury or the White House by not recognizing their gender marker on the TWAVES and WAVES forms.”
LGBTQ staff lack support and work amid a climate of isolation
The changes have left many LGBTQ staff feeling vulnerable — not only because of diminished workplace inclusion, but due to concerns about job security amid the administration’s reductions in force (RIFs).
“Plenty of people are feeling very stressed, not only about retaining their jobs because of the layoffs and pending questions around RIFs, but then also wondering if they will be included in RIF lists because they’re being penalized somehow for being out at work,” Hayes said. “People wonder if their name will be given, not because they’re in a tranche of billets being laid off, but because of their gender identity or sexual orientation.”
In the absence of functional ERGs, Hayes said, LGBTQ employees have been cut off from even informal networks of support.
“Employees [are] feeling like it’s harder to find members of their own community because there’s no email anymore to ask when the next event is or to ask about navigating healthcare or other questions,” they said. “If there is no ERG to go to to ask for support for their specific issue, that contributes to isolation, which contributes to a worse work environment.”
Hayes said they had not interacted directly with Secretary Bessent, but they and others observed a shift from the previous administration. “It is stark to see that our first ‘out’ secretary did not host a Pride event this year,” they said. “For the last three years we’ve flown the rainbow Pride flag above Treasury during Pride. And it was such a celebration among staff and Secretary Yellen and the executive secretary’s office were super supportive.”
“Employees notice changes like that,” they added. “Things like the fact that the Secretary’s official bio says ‘spouse’ instead of ‘husband.’ It makes employees wonder if they too should be fearful of being their full selves at work.”
The Blade contacted the Treasury Department with a request for comment outlining Hayes’s allegations, including the removal of inclusive infrastructure, the discouragement of ERG activity, the pre-formalization of EEO policy changes, and the targeting of DEI personnel. As of publication, the agency has not responded.
U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court to consider bans on trans athletes in school sports
27 states have passed laws limiting participation in athletics programs

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear two cases involving transgender youth challenging bans prohibiting them from participating in school sports.
In Little v. Hecox, plaintiffs represented by the ACLU, Legal Voice, and the law firm Cooley are challenging Idaho’s 2020 ban, which requires sex testing to adjudicate questions of an athlete’s eligibility.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals described the process in a 2023 decision halting the policy’s enforcement pending an outcome in the litigation. The “sex dispute verification process, whereby any individual can ‘dispute’ the sex of any female student athlete in the state of Idaho,” the court wrote, would “require her to undergo intrusive medical procedures to verify her sex, including gynecological exams.”
In West Virginia v. B.P.J., Lambda Legal, the ACLU, the ACLU of West Virginia, and Cooley are representing a trans middle school student challenging the Mountain State’s 2021 ban on trans athletes.
The plaintiff was participating in cross country when the law was passed, taking puberty blockers that would have significantly reduced the chances that she could have a physiological advantage over cisgender peers.
“Like any other educational program, school athletic programs should be accessible for everyone regardless of their sex or transgender status,” said Joshua Block, senior counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ and HIV Project. “Trans kids play sports for the same reasons their peers do — to learn perseverance, dedication, teamwork, and to simply have fun with their friends,” Block said.
He added, “Categorically excluding kids from school sports just because they are transgender will only make our schools less safe and more hurtful places for all youth. We believe the lower courts were right to block these discriminatory laws, and we will continue to defend the freedom of all kids to play.”
“Our client just wants to play sports with her friends and peers,” said Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Tara Borelli. “Everyone understands the value of participating in team athletics, for fitness, leadership, socialization, and myriad other benefits.”
Borelli continued, “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit last April issued a thoughtful and thorough ruling allowing B.P.J. to continue participating in track events. That well-reasoned decision should stand the test of time, and we stand ready to defend it.”
Shortly after taking control of both legislative chambers, Republican members of Congress tried — unsuccessfully — to pass a national ban like those now enforced in 27 states since 2020.
Federal Government
UPenn erases Lia Thomas’s records as part of settlement with White House
University agreed to ban trans women from women’s sports teams

In a settlement with the Trump-Vance administration announced on Tuesday, the University of Pennsylvania will ban transgender athletes from competing and erase swimming records set by transgender former student Lia Thomas.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found the university in violation of Title IX, the federal rights law barring sex based discrimination in educational institutions, by “permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”
The statement issued by University of Pennsylvania President J. Larry Jameson highlighted how the law’s interpretation was changed substantially under President Donald Trump’s second term.
“The Department of Education OCR investigated the participation of one transgender athlete on the women’s swimming team three years ago, during the 2021-2022 swim season,” he wrote. “At that time, Penn was in compliance with NCAA eligibility rules and Title IX as then interpreted.”
Jameson continued, “Penn has always followed — and continues to follow — Title IX and the applicable policy of the NCAA regarding transgender athletes. NCAA eligibility rules changed in February 2025 with Executive Orders 14168 and 14201 and Penn will continue to adhere to these new rules.”
Writing that “we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules” in place while Thomas was allowed to compete, the university president added, “We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.”
“Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the university for future generations of female athletes.”
Under former President Joe Biden, the department’s Office of Civil Rights sought to protect against anti-LGBTQ discrimination in education, bringing investigations and enforcement actions in cases where school officials might, for example, require trans students to use restrooms and facilities consistent with their birth sex or fail to respond to peer harassment over their gender identity.
Much of the legal reasoning behind the Biden-Harris administration’s positions extended from the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County, which found that sex-based discrimination includes that which is based on sexual orientation or gender identity under Title VII rules covering employment practices.
The Trump-Vance administration last week put the state of California on notice that its trans athlete policies were, or once were, in violation of Title IX, which comes amid the ongoing battle with Maine over the same issue.
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