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UPDATE: Baldwin expects to campaign with Obama

Senate hopeful optimistic about employment protections, marriage equality

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U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin speaks before the LGBT caucus at the Democratic National Convention (Blade photo by Michael Key)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin expects to campaign with President Obama in Wisconsin between now and November as her bid to become the nation’s first openly gay Senator heats up.

The Washington Blade asked Baldwin during a press conference following remarks she delivered at the LGBT Caucus meeting at the Democratic National Convention about whether there were any plans for her to campaign jointly with the president.

Baldwin said those talks are “absolutely” happening but declined to make any specific announcements. A spokesperson for her campaign later told the Blade that Baldwin fully expects to campaign with the president.

“I just came from last week campaigning with the first lady in Milwaukee, on Sunday, campaigning with Vice President Biden in Green Bay, and I have every expectation that it is going to be a battleground contest in Wisconsin for both the U.S. Senate and the president,” Baldwin said. “So, I look forward to the opportunity to work with the president in any matter I can.”

She noted that she and Obama campaigned together during the 2008 election.

“I joined him onstage at the University of Madison campus,” Baldwin said. “I think there were 30,000 folks who came to that rally. It was very exciting. I trust we’ll have more like that, but I don’t know what the schedule is going forward, so, we’ll see it as it comes.”

Baldwin, who’s running against Republican Tommy Thompson for the open U.S. Senate seat in Wisconsin, faces a tough fight, as polls show Thompson with a significant lead.

Campaigning with Obama could boost Baldwin’s numbers in addition to benefiting Obama because the state could be a battleground in the Republican presidential election with Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan on the Republican ticket as vice presidential nominee. Last month, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said he had “no campaign announcements” when asked if the president would campaign with Baldwin. The Obama campaign on Tuesday didn’t immediately respond to the Blade’s request for comment.

Asked to respond to the approval of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in North Carolina and whether that gave her pause about holding the convention in the state, Baldwin recounted the passage of a similar ballot measure in Wisconsin during the 2006 election and predicted views would change — just as President Obama evolved and come out in support of marriage equality.

“I do know in terms of the issue and how we’re moving — just like we’ve seen the president evolve — we heard him talk about what it took to change his heart and move him,” Baldwin said. “We are seeing that across this country. They estimate — and I don’t know where they get these numbers — that two percent of Americans changed their views on marriage equality. We know that had the amendment come up in Wisconsin this year, or next election cycle, it would have had a different outcome. And I think that’s also going to happen in North Carolina and elsewhere in the country. We’ve got to keep working. We’ve got to keep educating.”

In response to a question on whether she’d speak out to call on President Obama to issue an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT employees, Baldwin said LGBT advocates should continue efforts going forward to achieve progress. Baldwin was among the 72 House members who signed a letter calling on President Obama to take such action — before the White House said it wouldn’t issue the order at this time.

“I certainly supported the effort that was launched earlier this year to raise awareness and to push for that, but we can’t let up,” Baldwin said. “There’s going to be ample opportunities beyond the election to push both Congress to pass the law and make it permanent, but also encourage the president to expand what he can using his power of executive order. He’s done that to the advantage of the LGBT community extensively, more than any other previous president that I’ve seen.”

When asked a more light-hearted question — whether the LGBT caucus at the convention is “the happiest” of them all — Baldwin said, “Well, I haven’t compared yet, but the laughter and the applause coming out of that hall was pretty impressive.”

Questioned further on agenda items the LGBT caucus should push for, Baldwin identified a litany of LGBT rights measures that still have yet to be achieved.”Well, there are still challenges,” Baldwin said. “We live in a fairer America, but we’re not there, and true equal opportunity is not yet recognized throughout this country, so we have a lot of work to do. At the federal level, the Congress has yet to tackle the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and until the Defense of Marriage Act is repealed, you have to look at equity for federal employees and other government workers and jurisdictions.”
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Nine trans activists arrested outside Supreme Court

Gender Liberation Movement organized demonstration against Skrmetti ruling

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Protest sign outside of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 18, 2025. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

On Friday afternoon, nine transgender organizers and allies were arrested on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court for blocking the street and protesting the recent U.S. v. Skrmetti ruling.

The ruling, decided 6-3 by the conservative majority on Wednesday, upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The decision will allow states to pass laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors and further minimizes bodily autonomy.

The nine arrested were part of a larger group of more than 30 protesters wearing colors of the trans Pride flag— pink, blue, and white, — standing outside of the nation’s highest court. Organizers unfurled large cloths in pink, blue, and white, shared personal testimonies about how their gender-affirming care was a matter of life and death, released pink and blue smoke, and saw nine trans participants take their hormone replacement therapy.

The protest was led by the Gender Liberation Movement, an organization that “builds direct action, media, and policy interventions centering bodily autonomy, self-determination, the pursuit of fulfillment, and collectivism in the face of gender-based sociopolitical threats.” Among the nine arrested was GLM co-founder Raquel Willis.

Before being arrested, Willis spoke to multiple media outlets, explaining that this decision was an overreach of power by the Supreme Court.

“Gender-affirming care is sacred, powerful, and transformative. With this ruling in U.S. v. Skrmetti, we see just how ignorant the Supreme Court is of the experiences of trans youth and their affirming families,” said Willis. “Everyone deserves the right to holistic healthcare, and trans youth are no different. We will continue to fight for their bodily autonomy, dignity, and self-determination just like previous generations. No court, no law, no government gave us our power, and none can take it away.”

GLM co-founder Eliel Cruz also spoke to media outlets about the Skrmetti ruling, calling it “a historical moment of fascist attacks,” and encouraged the LGBTQ community to “organize and fight back.”

“As a cisgender man, I stand in solidarity with the trans community during these escalating attacks on their safety, well-being, right to exist in this world, and ability to live a future free of violence,” Cruz said. “I’m enraged at the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a ban on gender-affirming care for youth. My heart hurts for the families and young people who this will negatively impact and harm.”

The Washington Blade reached out to Capitol Police for comment.

A spokesperson said the nine activists were arrested for violating D.C. Code §22-1307 — “Crowding, Obstructing, or Incommoding” — on First Street, N.E., after receiving three warnings.

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FDA approves new twice-yearly HIV prevention drug

Experts say success could inhibit development of HIV vaccine

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New HIV prevention drug Lenacapavir replaces oral medicines with twice-yearly injections. (Photo by fet/Bigstock)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 18 approved a newly developed HIV/AIDS prevention drug that only needs to be taken by injection once every six months.

The new drug, lenacapavir, which is being sold under the brand name of Yeztugo by the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences that developed it, is being hailed by some AIDS activists as a major advancement in the years-long effort to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S. and worldwide.

Although HIV prevention drugs, known as pre-exposure prophylaxis medication or PrEP, have been available since 2012, they initially required taking one or more daily pills. More recently, another injectable PrEP drug was developed that required being administered once every two months.

Experts familiar with the PrEP programs noted that while earlier drugs were highly effective in preventing HIV infection – most were 99 percent effective – they could not be effective if those at risk for HIV who were on the drugs did not adhere to taking their daily pills or injections every two months. Experts also point out that large numbers of people at risk for HIV, especially members of minority communities, are not on PrEP and efforts to reach out to them should be expanded.

“Today marks a monumental advance in HIV prevention,” said Carl Schmid, executive director of the D.C.-based HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute, in a statement released on the day the FDA announced its approval of lenacapavir.

“Congratulations to the many researchers who spent 19 years to get to today’s approval, backed up by the long-term investment needed to get the drug to market,” he said.

Schmid added, “Long-acting PrEP is now not only effective for up to six months but also improves adherence and will reduce HIV infections – if people are aware of it and payers, including private insurers, cover it without cost-sharing as a preventive service.”

Schmid and others monitoring the nation’s HIV/AIDS programs have warned that proposed large scale cuts in the budget for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by the administration of President Donald Trump could seriously harm HIV prevention programs, including PrEP-related efforts.

“Dismantling these programs means that there will be a weakened public health infrastructure and much less HIV testing, which is needed before a person can take PrEP,” Schmid said in his statement.

“Private insurers and employers must also immediately cover Yeztugo as a required preventive service, which means that PrEP users should not face any cost-sharing or utilization management barriers,” he said.

In response to a request by the Washington Blade for comment,  a spokesperson for Gilead Sciences released a statement saying the annual list price per person using Yeztugo in the U.S. is $28,218. But the statement says the company is working to ensure that its HIV prevention medication is accessible to all who need it through broad coverage from health insurance companies and some of its own support programs.

“We’ve seen high insurance coverage for existing prevention options – for example, the vast majority of consumers have a $0 co-pay for Descovy for PrEP in the U.S. – and we are working to ensure broad coverage for lenacapavir [Yeztugo],” the statement says. It was referring to the earlier HIV prevention medication developed by Gilead Sciences, Descovy.

“Eligible insured people will get help with their copay,” the statement continues. “Gilead’s Advancing Access Copay Savings Program may reduce out-of-pocket costs to as little as zero dollars,” it says. “Then for people without insurance, lenacapavir may be available free of charge for those who are eligible, through Gilead’s Advancing Access Patient Assistance Program.”

Gilead Sciences has announced that in the two final trial tests for Yeztugo, which it describes as “the most intentionally inclusive HIV prevention clinical trial programs ever designed,” 99.9 percent of participants who received Yeztugo remained negative. Time magazine reports that among those who remained HIV negative at a rate of 100 percent were men who have sex with men. 

Time also reports that some HIV/AIDS researchers believe the success of the HIV prevention drugs like Gilead’s Yeztugo could complicate the so-far unsuccessful efforts to develop an effective HIV vaccine. 

To be able to test a potential vaccine two groups of test subjects must be used, one that receives the test vaccine and the other that receives a placebo with no drug in it. 

With highly effective HIV prevention drugs now available, it could be ethically difficult to ask a test group to take a placebo and continue to be at risk for HIV, according to some researchers. 

“This might take a bit of the wind out of the sails of vaccine research, because there is something so effective in preventing HIV infection,”  Time quoted Dr. David Ho, a professor of microbiology, immunology, and medicine at New York’s Columbia University as saying.

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Activists rally in response to Supreme Court ruling

‘We won’t bow to hatred: we outlive it’

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Hope Giselle-Godsey speaks at a rally for trans rights at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation on Wednesday, June 18. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Politicians, LGBTQ activists, and allies gathered at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C. on Wednesday following the ruling by the United States Supreme Court in the case of U.S. v. Skrmetti. The Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender adolescents in a 6-3 decision.

A rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court was called for by the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and other organizations following the high court ruling on Wednesday. However, due to a thunderstorm and flood watch, the scores of activists who were to attend the rally were directed to a Lutheran church down the street from the court. Undeterred, activists and community leaders were joined by U.S. Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) for an indoor rally at the church.

“We know that freedom is not inevitable,” Markey told the crowd. “It is fought for by people who said ‘no’ in the face of health cuts, ‘no’ in the face of discrimination, ‘no’ in the face of invasive laws that ban life-saving and life-affirming healthcare and ‘no’ to this anti-justice, anti-freedom agenda.”

Also speaking at the rally was Deirdre Schifeling, chief political advocacy officer of the National ACLU.

“We believe transgender rights matter,” Schifeling stated. “Transgender kids matter and deserve love, support and the freedom to shape their own futures. I am still processing how the Supreme Court could disagree with such an obvious truth.”

“Today’s ruling shows us that unfortunately these attacks on our freedom will not end here,” Schifeling continued. “The Trump administration and extremist politicians across the country are continuing to target our right — our human right — to control our own bodies.”

“If politicians think that we are going to sit back and be defeated, that we are going to let them strip our rights and freedoms away without a fight, they’ve got another think coming,” Schifeling said. “We will never back down. We will never back down or give up. We will organize, we will mobilize and we will fight to protect trans rights in our communities, in our legislatures, in our elections, and in court rooms across the country.”

(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

“Today, the highest court in this land decided that the bodily autonomy of trans youth, specifically trans youth of Tennessee and states with bans harming youth across the country do not matter,” said trans advocate Hope Giselle-Godsey.

“The opponents of trans equality think that today is a victory, but history will remember it as a moment that sharpened us and not silenced us,” Giselle-Godsey continued.

“So yes, today we grieve for the people in those states where those bans exist, but we grieve in motion,” Giselle-Godsey said. “To the system that thinks that it won today, just like every other time before: you will lose again. Because we won’t bow to hatred: we outlive it. We out-organize it. We out-love it. We are still here and we are not finished yet.”

‘As we proceed, the most important pressure here is from the people,’ U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) tells a crowd of trans rights activists at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation on Wednesday, June 18. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
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