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National

Poll shows economy top issue among LGBT voters

Only nine percent of respondents described gay rights as most important issue going into presidential election

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A Logo poll shows 67 percent of LGBT Americans plan to vote for President Obama in November (Blade file by Michael Key)

A new poll commissioned by Logo TV found that the economy ranks as the top issue among LGBT voters going into the presidential election.

Eighteen percent of the 1,190 self-identified LGBT voters whom Harris Interactive polled on behalf of the network between Aug. 10-15 listed the economy as their primary concern. Fourteen percent of respondents indicated unemployment and jobs as their top priority going into November, while health care ranked third with 12 percent. Nine percent of respondents listed “gay rights in general” as their top priority, while only six percent said marriage rights for same-sex couples is the most important issue.

The poll found that the economy, unemployment and jobs and health care are also the top three issues among 1,367 “general population voters.” Eleven percent of these respondents listed the federal budget deficit as the most important issue. Only one percent said gay rights and nuptials for same-sex couples were their top priorities going into November.

The survey further noted that Americans are generally more likely to vote for a candidate who supports same-sex marriage and adoption, openly gay and lesbian servicemembers in the military, laws that ban anti-gay workplace discrimination and efforts to protect LGBT students from bullying. The poll also noted 52 percent of voters support nuptials for gays and lesbians, compared to only 31 percent who said they backed the issue in 2007.

“The findings in this survey demonstrate what many Americans, gay and straight, have been feeling intuitively — we have reached an historic turning point in the lives of lesbian, gay, bi and transgender Americans,” said Lisa Sherman, executive vice president and general manager of Logo TV. “To see numbers indicating such dramatic support among significant segments of the voting public for LGBT people is heartening. America is filled with allies and champions of gay Americans.”

Ken Sherrill, professor emeritus of political science at Hunter College in New York City, stressed the survey captures what he described as a “political transformation of epic proportions.”

“LGBT rights are no longer a wedge issue in American politics. Instead, support for LGBT rights is now a mainstream position and candidates stand to benefit from their support for LGBT rights,” he said. “The data also demonstrate that LGBT voters are active, savvy, and discerning voters who support candidates who support their interests, but that they also are by no means blindly loyal to any politician or party.”

Logo unveiled the survey only days before Republican National Convention delegates will vote on a proposed party platform that supports a federal constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage and opposes the Obama administration’s decision to no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act. Members of the Democratic Party’s platform committee earlier this month approved a same-sex marriage plank on which delegates will vote at their upcoming convention in Charlotte.

The poll found that 67 percent of LGBT respondents will vote for President Obama in November, compared to 48 percent of general voters. More than a fifth of LGBT respondents also said they would consider voting for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney if he held the same positions on gay rights as the president. Twenty-six percent of LGBT voters also said they are more likely to vote for Republicans if the GOP held the same positions on gay-specific issues as the Democratic Party.

“It’s part of the overall picture we’ve seen that the wedge has lost its edge and that support for the freedom to marry and gay rights actually gives parties across the spectrum the opportunity to advance with very little cost,” Freedom to Marry President Evan Wolfson told the Blade as he reacted to the poll.

He further stressed this survey should provide what he described as lessons for both parties.

“The Logo/Harris poll shows that for LGBT voters, the 2012 election is still very much about the restoration of economic prosperity, growth and jobs,” added R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans. “It also shows that support for ENDA [the Employment Non-Discrimination Act] and the federal contractor executive order, Romney and [Wisconsin Congressman Paul] Ryan can turn the conversation about LGBT equality back to the economy. It’s a message that unites Americans, provides real benefits for millions of LGBT people and plays to the strengths of the Romney-Ryan ticket. Romney and Ryan both have records of supporting these protections, and for practicing nondiscrimination in their own leadership roles, so this step is entirely in line with the Romney-Ryan campaign ‘promise of equal opportunity'”

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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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