National
Mehlman among speakers at secret gay donor conference
OutGiving summit features Plouffe, Collins, others
Ken Mehlman (screen capture from CSREurope via You Tube)
Gay former Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman was among the speakers at a secret LGBT donor conference that took place over the weekend in D.C. and was attended by advocates and high-ranking public officials.
According to a program schedule obtained by the Washington Blade, Mehlman, who came out as gay in 2010, spoke on at least two panels during the annual OutGiving conference hosted by the Gill Action Fund. The organization works at the state level to advance LGBT rights, and to oust lawmakers who oppose them.
A source who attended the conference, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mehlman spoke on a panel about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal with Winnie Stachelberg, vice president of external affairs at the Center for American Progress, and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who was the lead Republican in the Senate pushing for legislation to repeal the military’s gay ban.
Another source familiar with the event, who also requested anonymity, said Mehlman was among 30 or more speakers at the event and presented a session on Republican evolution on LGBT rights with Margaret Hoover, a straight LGBT-friendly conservative activist who testified last year before the Maryland Senate in favor of the same-sex marriage bill.
Mehlman worked for the White House and was later RNC chair at the same time former President George W. Bush was advocating for a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. However, the gay Republican later apologized for his involvement with campaigns exploiting marital politics and is credited with helping to lobby on behalf of the marriage equality bill in New York.
Mike Rogers, a D.C.-based gay activist known for his outing of closeted gay politicians who pursue anti-gay policies, praised Mehlman for taking part in the conference and said it helps him reverse the damage he caused as a GOP operative. Rogers didn’t attend the OutGiving conference.
“I am happy to see Ken Mehlman working to undo the years of damage that he inflicted on the American people and the LGBT community,” Rogers said. “Ken is taking the steps toward redemption and his participation in donor conferences is important in helping to secure new supporters of our movement in the corporate community. I commend him for his recent work.”
The anonymous attendee also said David Plouffe, a campaign manager for President Obama during his 2008 run and now a senior adviser at the White House, gave a speech to attendees about the work the administration has done over the course of Obama’s first term. Clo Ewing, an Obama campaign spokesperson, said his remarks weren’t available.
Also in attendance was lesbian Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who’s pursuing a run for U.S. Senate; she delivered a speech, the source said.
The OutGiving conference is an annual gathering where leading donors and LGBT advocates converge to plan strategies and secure financial commitments for state and federal elections around the country. The conference this year took place at the Mandarin Oriental hotel, starting on the evening of April 26 through April 29. The event is secretive and individuals participate on the condition that they pledge not to speak publicly about it.
One donor who attended the event, who spoke on condition of anonymity, estimated that between 100 and 200 donors, activists and other individuals were in attendance. The donor wouldn’t reveal anything about the nature of the discussions or panels, but said programs and content haven’t “changed dramatically” from previous years and that it was “a very positive conversation.”
More information about what was said during the talks wasn’t known. Unless otherwise noted, the offices for the named individuals in this article didn’t respond to a request for comment or declined to say anything.
According to the schedule obtained by the Washington Blade, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) was another scheduled speaker at the event. She’s considered a leading LGBT advocate in the Senate and was a proponent of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal in 2010.
A number of governors were slated to participate in the event. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, who recently pushed through same-sex marriage legislation in their states, were set to speak on one panel.
On another panel, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell were scheduled to speak. Sue Abbey, a Shumlin spokesperson, confirmed the governor participated in the conference, but didn’t respond to a request to comment further.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick was set to talk on the same panel. But Alex Goldstein, a Patrick campaign spokesperson, said a last minute conflict prevented the governor from attending, even though he backs the work of OutGiving in supporting “the cause of equality across the nation.”
High-profile LGBT advocates were also among the speakers scheduled to participate. Mary Bonauto, the civil rights project director at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders who recently argued before the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals against the Defense of Marriage Act, was scheduled to speak. Ted Olson, who’s litigating on behalf of the American Foundation for Equal Rights against California’s Proposition 8, was another scheduled speaker. Sean Eldridge, president of the small-business investment fund Hudson River Ventures and senior adviser at Freedom to Marry, was also set to talk.
Chris Cormier, Gill Action's director of donor relations (Blade file photo by Michael Key)
Advocates affiliated with Gill Action were also slated to speak, including Tim Gill, the gay billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded the organization in 2005, and Chris Cormier, the organization’s director of donor relations. One source familiar with the event said Kirk Fordham, the newly named executive director of the organization, had offered general remarks and the summit marked his first OutGiving. Former individuals affiliated with Gill Action — Patrick Guerriero and Bill Smith — were also on the schedule.
Others listed as participants at the event — but not as speakers — were Patrick Murphy, the former U.S. House member who led the way for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal and until was running for Pennsylvania attorney general before he lost the Democratic primary, and Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster.
Also on the schedule was lesbian political satirist Kate Clinton, whose speech was likely intended to lighten the mood at the event amid serious discussion of LGBT advocacy.
John Aravosis, who’s gay and editor of AMERICAblog, said the secretive nature of the OutGiving summit doesn’t bother him. He wasn’t in attendance.
“If you hold strategy sessions in public, then they’re press conferences and not strategy sessions,” Aravosis said. “We don’t need the religious right taking notes about what our plans are for the next year.”
CORRECTION: An initial version of this article reported that Patrick Murphy was still pursuing a run for Pennsylvania attorney general. The Blade regrets the error.
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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