National
State advocates pleased with White House meeting
Obama administration briefs visitors on federal initiatives

Representatives from statewide LGBT equality groups expressed satisfaction with a White House briefing that took place last week in which Obama administration officials informed them about federal initiatives to benefit the LGBT community.
Bernard Cherkasov, CEO of Equality Illinois, said attendees at the June 8 briefing were informed about recent administration policy changes that have affected LGBT people.
“We wanted to know what the administration accomplished recently, and what it’s planning on doing in the very near term, so we can relay the information back to educate the LGBT people in our communities,” Cherkasov said. “The second thing that was important to Equality Illinois is to take some of our priorities and our community’s priorities back to the administration, and say, ‘Here are concrete steps that we’re looking for you to take in the coming months and the coming year.'”
Among the federal accomplishments that officials discussed were coverage of LGBT individuals under the health care reform law, including non-discrimination protections, prosecutorial discretion initiatives aimed at keeping bi-national same-sex couples in the United States and a change enabling same-sex couples to file a joint declaration at customs upon returning to United States after being abroad.
The Equality Federation, a national San Francisco-based organization that works to support state LGBT groups, arranged the four-hour plus briefing amid Pride celebrations that are taking place in D.C. at around the same time.
An estimated 100 people from more than 20 state LGBT groups participated in the briefing, with some groups having as many as three representatives. Among the groups were Equality California, MassEquality, Fair Wisconsin, Equality Alabama, Equality Illinois, Equality North Carolina, Georgia Equality, Equality Texas, Equality Maryland and the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition.
Rebecca Isaacs, the Equality Federation’s president, said the intent of the briefing was to ensure state LGBT groups were aware of the initiatives happening at the federal level.
One of the goals that Isaacs had prior to the meeting was examining which federal administrative policy changes could be replicated at the state level in places where legislators may be unwilling to enact pro-LGBT policies. Isaacs said movement toward this goal happened at the briefing.
“The first stage is people need to understand the changes that have happened,” Isaacs said. “I can be more specific when we figure out what policies, for what states. Some places may already have things very clearly laid out, but other places may not. Because we have so many states that have a long way to go in terms of LGBT equality, these are places that they can really look to.”
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment on the briefing after it took place. Prior to the event, Shin Inouye, a White House spokesperson, confirmed the event was taking place but offered limited details. The briefing wasn’t open to the press or the public. An informed source said the administration told attendees it was confidential and advised them not to speak with the media after the event.
According to a schedule obtained by the Washington Blade, a number of Obama administration officials spoke before conference attendees on LGBT issues. At a welcome session, White House LGBT liaison Gautam Raghavan spoke in addition to Issacs. The initial session was set to last 15 minutes.
A subsequent series of briefings under the heading “Updates” had three sessions and three different speakers: “Bullying Prevention” with Deborah Temkin of the Education Department’s Office of Safe & Healthy Students; “International LGBT Human Rights” with Liz Drew, director of human rights and gender on the National Security Staff; and “LGBT Inclusion in the Violence Against Women Act” with Tonya Robinson, special assistant to the president for justice and regulatory affairs for the White House Policy Council.
Five sessions took place at the next series of briefings under the heading, “Implementing Policies on the Ground.” These were “Equal Access to Housing” with Kenneth Carroll, director of the Fair Housing Assistance Program Division for the Department of Housing & Urban Development; “Hospital Visitation, the Affordable Care Act and Spousal Impoverishment” with A.J. Pearlman from Office of the Secretary at the Department of Health & Human Services; “Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act” with Matt Nosanchuk, who’s gay and senior counselor at the Justice Department; “Customs Declaration Regulation, Immigration Prosecutorial Discretion Review” with Phil McNamara, executive secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; and “Family & Medical Leave Act” with Helen Applewhite, a senior adviser at the Labor Department.
After a break, the final briefing, titled “Update on Congressional ‘To-Do’ List,” was delivered by Jon Carlson, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.
On the Thursday prior to the briefing proper, Isaac said a reception took place at the D.C. Jewish Community Center where Chai Feldblum, who’s a lesbian and serves on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, informed state advocates about the new interpretation of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covering transgender workers in cases of workplace discrimination.
Clarissa Filgioun, Equality California’s board president, was among the attendees at the event and said she was taken aback by the level of engagement the Obama administration was prepared to offer LGBT advocates — something she felt wouldn’t be seen under a President Romney administration. Filigioun was the sole representative of her organization.
“I stepped into the meeting, and I really realized what the stakes are for the upcoming election,” Filgioun said. “Frankly, I feel we desperately need four more years of this administration to keep all this work going because I shudder to think what a Romney administration would mean for the LGBT community. I really sat there and I thought, my goodness, there’s no way that there would be this level of engagement with a Romney administration.”
Federal Government
RFK Jr.’s HHS report pushes therapy, not medical interventions, for trans youth
‘Discredited junk science’ — GLAAD

A 409-page report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services challenges the ethics of medical interventions for youth experiencing gender dysphoria, the treatments that are often collectively called gender-affirming care, instead advocating for psychotherapy alone.
The document comes in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order barring the federal government from supporting gender transitions for anyone younger than 19.
“Our duty is to protect our nation’s children — not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions,” National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement. “We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas.”
While the report does not constitute clinical guidance, its findings nevertheless conflict with not just the recommendations of LGBTQ advocacy groups but also those issued by organizations with relevant expertise in science and medicine.
The American Medical Association, for instance, notes that “empirical evidence has demonstrated that trans and non-binary gender identities are normal variations of human identity and expression.”
Gender-affirming care for transgender youth under standards widely used in the U.S. includes supportive talk therapy along with — in some but not all cases — puberty blockers or hormone treatment.
“The suggestion that someone’s authentic self and who they are can be ‘changed’ is discredited junk science,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “This so-called guidance is grossly misleading and in direct contrast to the recommendation of every leading health authority in the world. This report amounts to nothing more than forcing the same discredited idea of conversion therapy that ripped families apart and harmed gay, lesbian, and bisexual young people for decades.”
GLAAD further notes that the “government has not released the names of those involved in consulting or authoring this report.”
Janelle Perez, executive director of LPAC, said, “For decades, every major medical association–including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics–have affirmed that medical care is the only safe and effective treatment for transgender youth experiencing gender dysphoria.
“This report is simply promoting conversion therapy by a different name – and the American people know better. We know that conversion therapy isn’t actually therapy – it isolates and harms kids, scapegoats parents, and divides families through blame and rejection. These tactics have been used against gay kids for decades, and now the same people want to use them against transgender youth and their families.
“The end result here will be a devastating denial of essential health care for transgender youth, replaced by a dangerous practice that every major U.S. medical and mental health association agree promotes anxiety, depression, and increased risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts.
“Like being gay or lesbian, being transgender is not a choice, and no amount of pressure can force someone to change who they are. We also know that 98% of people who receive transition-related health care continue to receive that health care throughout their lifetime. Trans health care is health care.”
“Today’s report seeks to erase decades of research and learning, replacing it with propaganda. The claims in today’s report would rip health care away from kids and take decision-making out of the hands of parents,” said Shannon Minter, legal director of NCLR. “It promotes the same kind of conversion therapy long used to shame LGBTQ+ people into hating themselves for being unable to change something they can’t change.”
“Like being gay or lesbian, being transgender is not a choice—it’s rooted in biology and genetics,” Minter said. “No amount or talk or pressure will change that.”
Human Rights Campaign Chief of Staff Jay Brown released a statement: “Trans people are who we are. We’re born this way. And we deserve to live our best lives and have a fair shot and equal opportunity at living a good life.
“This report misrepresents the science that has led all mainstream American medical and mental health professionals to declare healthcare for transgender youth to be best practice and instead follows a script predetermined not by experts but by Sec. Kennedy and anti-equality politicians.”
The White House
Trump nominates Mike Waltz to become next UN ambassador
Former Fla. congressman had been national security advisor

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he will nominate Mike Waltz to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
Waltz, a former Florida congressman, had been the national security advisor.
Trump announced the nomination amid reports that Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, were going to leave the administration after Waltz in March added a journalist to a Signal chat in which he, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other officials discussed plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States ambassador to the United Nations,” said Trump in a Truth Social post that announced Waltz’s nomination. “From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role.”
Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as interim national security advisor, “while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department.”
“Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to make America, and the world, safe again,” said Trump.
Trump shortly after his election nominated U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Trump in March withdrew her nomination in order to ensure Republicans maintained their narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Federal Courts
Second federal lawsuit filed against White House passport policy
Two of seven plaintiffs live in Md.

Lambda Legal on April 25 filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of seven transgender and nonbinary people who are challenging the Trump-Vance administration’s passport policy.
The lawsuit, which Lambda Legal filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Baltimore, alleges the policy that bans the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers “has caused and is causing grave and immediate harm to transgender people like plaintiffs, in violation of their constitutional rights to equal protection.”
Two of the seven plaintiffs — Jill Tran and Peter Poe — live in Maryland. The State Department, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the federal government are defendants.
“The discriminatory passport policy exposes transgender U.S. citizens to harassment, abuse, and discrimination, in some cases endangering them abroad or preventing them from traveling, by forcing them to use identification documents that share private information against their wishes,” said Lambda Legal in a press release.
Zander Schlacter, a New York-based textile artist and designer, is the lead plaintiff.
The lawsuit notes he legally changed his name and gender in New York.
Schlacter less than a week before President Donald Trump’s inauguration “sent an expedited application to update his legal name on his passport, using form DS-5504.”
Trump once he took office signed an executive order that banned the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers. The lawsuit notes Schlacter received his new passport in February.
“The passport has his correct legal name, but now has an incorrect sex marker of ‘F’ or ‘female,'” notes the lawsuit. “Mr. Schlacter also received a letter from the State Department notifying him that ‘the date of birth, place of birth, name, or sex was corrected on your passport application,’ with ‘sex’ circled in red. The stated reason was ‘to correct your information to show your biological sex at birth.'”
“I, like many transgender people, experience fear of harassment or violence when moving through public spaces, especially where a photo ID is required,” said Schlacter in the press release that announced the lawsuit. “My safety is further at risk because of my inaccurate passport. I am unwilling to subject myself and my family to the threat of harassment and discrimination at the hands of border officials or anyone who views my passport.”
Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June 2021 announced the State Department would begin to issue gender-neutral passports and documents for American citizens who were born overseas.
Dana Zzyym, an intersex U.S. Navy veteran who identifies as nonbinary, in 2015 filed a federal lawsuit against the State Department after it denied their application for a passport with an “X” gender marker. Zzyym in October 2021 received the first gender-neutral American passport.
Lambda Legal represented Zzyym.
The State Department policy took effect on April 11, 2022.
Trump signed his executive order shortly after he took office in January. Germany, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands are among the countries that have issued travel advisories for trans and nonbinary people who plan to visit the U.S.
A federal judge in Boston earlier this month issued a preliminary injunction against the executive order. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of seven trans and nonbinary people.
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