National
Bi-national couple files class-action suit against DOMA
Same-sex couple faces relocation to the Philippines
A bi-national couple in California and their son have filed a lawsuit against the Defense of Marriage Act in court in attempt to avoid separation or relocation to the Philippines.
The lawsuit, Aranas v. Napolitano, was filed Thursday by the Center for Human Rights on Constitutional Law on behalf of a Filipino foreign national along with her 25-year-old son and her U.S. citizen spouse. The class-action suit is pending before the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Jane DeLeon, an immigrant from the Philippines who came to the United States in 1989, has lived with her U.S. citizen partner in California, Irma Rodriguez, for twenty years. They were married in 2008 prior to passage of Proposition 8. DeLeon had her son, Martin Aranas, in a previous marriage with a man and he came to the United States when he was nine years old. His legal status is dependent on his mother’s.
DeLeon and Aranas had temporary lawful status for several years while their visa applications were being processed. DeLeon was approved for an immigrant visa based on her employment, but because she entered the country using the name of her then common-law husband, she needed a I-601 waiver from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service to retain legal status.
According to the lawsuit, DeLeon tried many avenues to obtain the waiver, but was denied in every attempt. Ultimately, DeLeon made the case the relocation to the Philippines would cause undue hardship for the couple. The complaint says Rodriguez suffers from hypertension and the medication she takes, Ultram, isn’t available in country. The lawsuit also cites the State Department annual human rights report and its assertion that the Philippines can be a hostile place for LGBT people.
Nonetheless, on Nov. 9, the federal government denied the application, citing Section 3 of DOMA, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriage. According to a news statement, DeLeon was advised that her temporary lawful status was revoked and if she didn’t depart the country within 12 months she would be barred from reentry for a minimum of ten years.
In the statement, DeLeon said she and her family “pray that the administration will change its mind” and grant her relief so that she’s able to stay within the country.
“Irma and I have committed to each other for the rest of our lives,” DeLeon said. “We now face being forced to move to the Philippines or breaking up our family only because we are legally married women. We would face persecution in the Philippines because we are a same sex couple, not to mention dire poverty, separation from our extended families who live here, and lack of access to medical treatment Irma needs.”
Aranas also said he wants to see the administration change its decision so both he and his mother can remain together in the United States.
“I have attended school here and continue to attend school while working part-time,” Aranas said. “My legalization depends on my mother’s case. After many years of having temporary legal status, I now face being in ‘illegal’ status only because my mother is in a same sex marriage. I hope and pray that President Obama will allow me and the hundreds or thousands of children of gay married couples to continue living here with some legal protection until the courts decide whether denying our parents immigration benefits is constitutional.”
Plaintiffs contend DOMA is unconstitutional because it violates the due process and equal protection guarantees of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The prayer for relief calls for the court to certify a class of similarly situated same-sex married couples and to rule that applying DOMA in this matter is unlawful. Additionally, the lawsuit asks for a temporary injunction preventing the federal government from removing or detaining plaintiffs or denying them access to employment.
Peter Schey, an attorney with the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, said he hopes the lawsuit prompts the administration to change its policy and offer across the board relief for DeLeon’s family and those who are similarly situated.
“To discriminate against this population by requiring that they live underground, work illegally, or worse be deported, while the courts address the constitutionality of DOMA is unconscionable,” Schey said. “If President Obama understood that undocumented youth are entitled to temporary protection from deportation while Congress grabbles with their status, he should understand that same sex married couples are entitled to temporary protection from deportation while the courts decide if they agree with his administration that DOMA is unconstitutional.”
Lavi Soloway, an immigration attorney and founder of the Stop the Deportations, said the case is the sixth to be filed in federal court in which a married bi-national couple has challenged DOMA. Soloway, who isn’t involved in the litigation, said the lawsuit takes its place at the back of line behind nearly 20 other cases challenging DOMA and predicted that the two cases on appeal to the Supreme Court would be resolved by Summer 2013 — much sooner than the resolution of the latest case.
Still, Soloway said the filing of the lawsuit “highlights the urgent need” for the Obama administration to act on its own accord and put marriage-based green card application by gay families on hold in addition to instituting a moratorium on DOMA-based deportations.
“The Obama administration has refused to act to protect LGBT families impacted by DOMA in the immigration context, despite strenuous efforts by members of both the House and Senate to urge implementation of these remedies,” Soloway said. “Thousands of gay and lesbian Americans struggle every day with the crisis of expiring visas, separation, exile, and deportation caused solely by DOMA. This can end now if the Obama administration uses the power of the executive branch to implement remedies to protect our families until DOMA is gone.”
The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly said it would continue to enforce to DOMA in the face of calls to hold marriage-based green cards for same-sex couples in abeyance. The administration has said it would examine potential deportations on a case-by-case basis and would consider low priority individuals with ties to the community, including LGBT families.
National
Man charged in Mall of America shooting plot inspired by Pulse massacre: report
Suspect exchanged hundreds of messages, pledged loyalty to ISIS
The U.S. Department of Justice charged Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, 18, of Richfield, Minn., on Oct. 7 with one count of knowingly receiving a firearm and ammunition in order to commit a federal crime of terrorism. Mohamud allegedly planned to carry out a mass-casualty attack in support of ISIS, inspired in part by the Pulse nightclub massacre that took place on June 12, 2016 when then-29-year-old Omar Mateen murdered 49 people and wounded 58 – one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history, and the deadliest targeting the LGBTQ+ community.
According to a DOJ statement release, Mohamud was arrested on Oct. 6 by the FBI, which had arranged to sell him an AK-47 assault rifle, magazines, and ammunition through an undercover FBI employee. Mohamud was arrested shortly after paying $600 in cash and taking possession of those items; he reaffirmed his intention to shoot people at the Mall of America during the transaction.
“Mohamud allegedly sought to carry out a mass-casualty shooting at the Mall of America, expressing a desire to emulate some of the most horrific ISIS-inspired attacks in the United States, including the atrocities at Pulse Nightclub and 2025 New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg in the statement by the DOJ. “The National Security Division will continue to work closely with the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force to track down and prosecute ISIS-inspired terrorists in the United States.”
According to the complaint, beginning on or about December 2024, Mohamud had exchanged hundreds of messages through multiple social media and messaging apps with a confidential source, and expressed a desire to travel to Somalia to join a designated foreign terrorist organization to fight on their behalf.
The defendant stated many times that if he was unable to travel overseas because of a lack of funds, he planned to carry out a mass-casualty event in Minnesota in support of ISIS.
According to the DOJ, “In July 2026, Mohamud sent messages discussing his intent to carry out a mass-casualty shooting attack at the Mall of America because he claimed it was owned by Jews. He wrote that [he] wanted to kill 30 to 60 people so no one would go there.”
“During the course of his communications, Mohamud stated that he wanted to commit an attack similar to those of the Pulse Nightclub mass-shooting in Orlando, the Bondi Beach mass-shooting in Australia, and the New Year’s Day vehicle-ramming attack in New Orleans.”
This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Ryan White of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Bejar for the District of Minnesota.
California
Calif. GOP gubernatorial candidate ad ‘disgusting attempt to exploit lesbian intimacy’
Activists, anti-LGBTQ religious leaders criticized Steve Hilton spot
Two women sit on a bed, a Pride flag hanging behind them. One is nervous; the other tells her to be calm and that she’ll do “all the work.” The music swells. The two hold hands and — fill out a ballot voting for Steve Hilton?
This is the new advertisement from the Hilton gubernatorial campaign that is drawing rebuke from both sides of the aisle, but for very different reasons.
Jorge Reyes Salinas, the communications director at Equality California, said the ad was an insult to the queer community.
“This ad is a disgusting attempt to exploit lesbian intimacy for political attention,” he said. The advertisement plays on media tropes that Salinas says “reduce lesbian and bisexual women … to sexual entertainment,” rather than showing them as well-rounded characters. “Any group of the LGBTQ+ community deserves the same dignity and respect as everyone else,” he said.
The ad is truly hyper-sexualized. It ends with one woman telling the other, “Now lick it.” The two pause and stare before she reveals an envelope to send the ballot, and large text pops up saying, “Just try it!”
Salinas characterized the ad as a desperate attempt to get attention from a candidate who is trailing far behind in the polls in heavily Democratic California. The Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra, who is endorsed by Equality California, holds a 25-point lead over Hilton according to recent polling by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies.
Conservatives have also criticized the ad.
Influential evangelical Pastor Jack Hibbs thought the ad was distasteful and said, “lesbianism among college girls and some high school girls that right now is an actual pandemic of social ill.” Republican attorney general candidate Michael Gates said it undermines “the sanctity of the relationship between parents and their children.” This criticism is rather confusing because although the ad features two relatively young women, they both appear to be adults, not minors.
“The comments from Pastor Jack Hibbs should be criticized because there is nothing wrong with two women being attracted to each other,” Salinas said. “We’re calling out the ad’s stereotypes, while also rejecting the homophobia in the response to it … by other Republicans.”
The backlash from Hilton’s own party and supporters shows that an advertisement full of queer innuendo was ill-considered, considering the national GOP’s attacks on LGBTQ people in recent years. Hilton himself has been campaigning against transgender girls and women competing in school sports and using locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity. This context might be why Hilton’s political base responded to the ad just as poorly as the liberal voters he was attempting to court.
Hilton says the ad is part of a new series rolling out before Election Day, showing stereotypical California liberal archetypes voting for Hilton. He claims these ads are authentically filmed with real actors, as opposed to being A.I. generated, like many of his previous ads. One other advertisement has been released so far by the campaign showing a man at a spiritual retreat also being swayed to vote for Hilton, although it is notably absent of sexual innuendo.
Caleb Kaufman is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.
2026 Midterm Elections
Trump uses anti-trans slur against Democratic Senate candidate
President mocked Annie Andrews
President Donald Trump used an anti-trans slur against Democratic South Carolina Senate candidate Annie Andrews on Monday as he sought to rally support for Republicans in the state’s Senate race.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump attacked Andrews three times, referring to her as “trannie” while promoting U.S. Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.)’s campaign.
Andrews is running against Graham for a Senate seat in the solidly Republican state.
Earlier this year, Graham was specially appointed to the seat following the death of her brother, Lindsey Graham, who represented South Carolina in the Senate from 2003 to 2026.
Andrews, the Democratic nominee from the state, is a pediatrician that lives in Charleston with her three children. She told NBC News that she will “work with anyone to put South Carolina first.”
“As a mom and a pediatrician, I’m in this race to fight for my patients, my three kids, and South Carolina,” Andrews said, adding that “lowering costs and making life better for families across our state is going to take all of us working together.”
Andrews used the attention from the president’s attack to emphasize what she described as a focus on policy issues rather than the culture wars that have dominated much of the political debate.
“If you care more about your bills than the politics in Washington, this campaign is for you,” she added.
Trump’s remarks have drawn criticism from leaders on both sides of the aisle.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) condemned Trump’s words Monday night on social media, calling his attacks on Andrews “despicable.”
“Annie Andrews is a mom and pediatrician who’s always put her community first — and she’s exactly who South Carolina needs representing them in the Senate,” Schumer said on X.
Former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley, a Republican, also criticized the president’s attack on Andrews, urging voters to “reject politics based on division and hate.”
“This is abhorrent. Elections don’t have to be about cruelty and lies. South Carolina deserves better,” Beasley wrote Monday night on X.
South Carolina has not elected a Democratic senator in nearly three decades.
Andrews’s campaign website does not mention her positions on LGBTQ issues.
The Washington Blade reached out to Andrews’s campaign for comment on Trump’s attack and her positions on transgender rights but did not hear back by time of publication.
Calendar: October 9-15
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