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Civil unions begin in Delaware, Hawaii

Sen. Coons attends New Year’s Day ceremonies for couples

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Sen. Chris Coons, civil unions, Delware, gay news, gay politics DC

Del. Sen. Chris Coons (D) attended civil union ceremonies for two couples in Wilmington on New Year’s Day.

U.S. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) attended separate civil union ceremonies in Wilmington on New Year’s Day for a gay male and lesbian couple who became the first two same-sex couples to be joined under Delaware’s civil unions law.

“It was very nice to have a senator in attendance as well as lots of family and friends,” said Mac Gardner, who was joined in the ceremony with his partner of 15 years, Michael Clement.

Earlier in the day, Lisa Goodman, an attorney and president of Equality Delaware, and her partner, attorney Drew Fennell, became the first couple to be joined under the law, which the Delaware Legislature passed and Democratic Gov. Jack Markell signed in April.

The Hawaii civil unions law, which passed in the state legislature last February, also took effect on Jan. 1.

“This new law will provide a much needed legal framework to support and fortify the bonds between couples and families,” said Gigi Lee, co-chair of Equality Hawaii Foundation, a statewide LGBT group.

Although the Delaware civil unions law took effect Jan. 1, civil union ceremonies weren’t expected to begin until Jan. 3, when county offices that issue both marriage and civil union licenses were scheduled to reopen following the New Year’s holiday.

But Kenneth Boulden, Clerk of the Peace for New Castle County, which includes the City of Wilmington, took the unusual step of opening his office on New Year’s Day for couples that wished to obtain a civil union license and undergo a civil union ceremony on the day the law went into effect.

Mac Gardner, Michael Clement, Delaware, civil unions, gay news, gay politics dc

Mac Gardner and Michael Clement were joined in a Delaware civil union on Jan. 1. About 50 such licenses were expected to be issued statewide by Tuesday.

According to Gardner, Boulden also issued a one-time waiver of a required 24-hour hold on the issuance of a civil union license to enable same-sex couples to partake in civil unions on that day. The 24-hour hold also applies for marriage licenses.

“It was really nice of him to do that,” said Gardner. “He is a strong supporter of the civil unions.”

Boulden told the Blade that as of noon on Tuesday – the first day that the state’s three counties began to issue civil union licenses on a normal basis – 16 such licenses had been issued by New Castle County, four had been issued from Kent County, and 12 had been issued by Sussex County, which includes the popular gay resort town of Rehoboth Beach.

A total of about 50 civil union licenses were expected to be issued in all three counties by the end of the day on Tuesday, Boulden said.

“There were no glitches in the system,” he said. “Everything went smoothly.”

Steve Elkins, executive director of CAMP Rehoboth, an LGBT community center and service organization in Rehoboth, said the town’s first civil union was to take place at the center on Wednesday.

Unlike Boulden, the Clerk of the Peace in the conservative-oriented Sussex County, George Parish, spoke out against the civil unions law at the time it was pending before the legislature. Elkins said that after the legislature approved the measure, Parish promised to comply with its requirement that civil union licenses be issued to same-sex couples.

Parish couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

“My hope is it will be handled just like any other marriage license,” Elkins said.

The Hawaii law took effect nearly 20 years after a battle over same-sex marriage in the state triggered a flurry of state constitutional amendments that ban same-sex marriage in more than 20 states, including Hawaii.

The state bans on same-sex marriage followed a 1993 decision by the Hawaii Supreme Court that declared Hawaii’s constitution prohibited the state from preventing same-sex couples from marrying. The state legislature responded by adopting a constitutional amendment, later ratified by voters, that defined marriage in the state as a union only between one man and one woman.

While calling the passage of a civil unions bill in Hawaii a “momentous and unprecedented step forward,” officials with Equality Hawaii said their ultimate goal is to bring about full marriage rights for same-sex couples.

“Marriage is still the ultimate expression of love and commitment in our society,” said Alan Spector, a member of the group’s advisory board. “To argue this isn’t the case for same-sex couples is to deny their very membership in society and their investment in its collective belief and aspirations.”

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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

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(Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

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.

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National

Medical groups file lawsuit over Trump deletion of health information

Crucial datasets included LGBTQ, HIV resources

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HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is named as a defendant in the lawsuit. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

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.

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U.S. Federal Courts

Federal judge scraps trans-inclusive workplace discrimination protections

Ruling appears to contradict US Supreme Court precedent

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Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Screen capture: YouTube)

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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