National
White House silent on couple’s Easter request for exec order
Measure would bar anti-LGBT bias among federal contractors
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney (Blade file photo by Michael Key)
The White House remains mum about the idea of President Obama issuing an executive order requiring federal contractors to bar discrimination against LGBT workers — despite a call Monday for him to take action from a gay couple that participated in the annual Easter Egg Roll event.
Under questioning from NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Monday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said he has no updates on “possible or proposed executive orders” when asked to respond to the gay couple’s request.
“I don’t have updates for you on possible or proposed executive orders,” Carney said. “I would note that we’re delighted that that couple and many others were delighted to attend the Easter Egg Roll and, again, I don’t have anything more on the executive order.”
Jarrod Scarbrough and Les Sewell, who hail from Albuquerque, N.M., and have been partners for 18 years, intended to ask Obama to issue an executive order requiring companies doing business with the federal government to have non-discrimination policies protecting LGBT workers during the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday.
Asked by NBC News about why the couple was attending the event, Carney said the couple was invited along with other “families of all kinds” that had been asked to attend.
“Well, they’re here because they were invited and the president — you know, many, many people — families of all kinds are invited to this wonderful event and the president is delighted that they and others were able to attend,” Carney said.
Asked to comment further on the couple’s actions, Carney reiterated previous comments he’s made in response to LGBT-related inquiries on Obama’s record on LGBT issues.
“I don’t have anything for you on a specific executive order,” Carney said. “What I can tell you is, I think, the president’s position on LGBT issues — record, rather — is well known and one that he and we are very proud of.”
The exchange marks the first time that a mainstream media outlet has publicly questioned an administration official about the proposed executive order. Previously, all inquiries had come from the LGBT press.
During a conference call with reporters Monday, Scarbrough said he’s seeking the executive order because he works for a federal contractor, United Healthcare. According to the Human Rights Campaign’s 2012 Corporate Equality Index, the company already has non-discrimination policies set up inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity.
But Scarbrough said he “felt it was important to push President Obama on an executive order” because United Healthcare’s policy is voluntary and he’s being relocated to Florida, which has no statutory non-discrimination protections for LGBT people in the workplace.
“Because of those reasons, I feel that it is important to advocate for myself, my family and any other families around the nation who are affected by this as well,” Scarbrough said.
But the couple didn’t have the opportunity to speak with Obama. Heather Cronk, managing director of GetEQUAL, told the Washington Blade, “He was gone by the time their slot was up.”
The couple is one voice in a growing choir that is urging Obama to take action. Last week, 72 House Democrats wrote a letter to Obama urging him to issue the order. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund became the first non-LGBT civil rights group to endorse the executive order.
Multiple sources have said the Labor and Justice Departments have cleared such a measure, but the White House has remained silent on whether it will take such action.
Since the executive order is similar in its goal to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the directive has sometimes been referred to as the “ENDA” executive order. However, the order would be more limited in scope because it only affects federal contractors.
A transcript of the exchange between NBC News and Carney follows:
NBC News: And on a separate note, Jay, a New Mexico same-sex couple brought their eight-year-old daughter to the White House today for the Easter Egg Roll, in part to send a message to the President that he should sign an executive order that would ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. Does he plan to sign this executive order?
Jay Carney: I don’t have updates for you on possible or proposed executive orders. I would note that we’re delighted that that couple and many others were delighted to attend the Easter Egg Roll and, again, I don’t have anything more on the executive order.
NBC News: Does the president have a reaction to the fact that they’re here and that they —
Carney: Well, they’re here because they were invited and the president — you know, many, many people — families of all kinds are invited to this wonderful event and the president is delighted that they and others were able to attend.
NBC News: But as you know, they’ve been speaking out. They’ve been speaking to various members of the press about this issue, and —
Carney: Well, again, I don’t have anything for you on a specific executive order. What I can tell you is, I think, the president’s position on LGBT issues — record, rather — is well known and one that he and we are very proud of.
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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