National
Hundreds expected at NBJC’s annual “Out on the Hill” summit
The conference will take place in D.C. from Sept. 19-22
Sharon Lettman-Hicks (Photo courtesy of the National Black Justice Coalition)
More than 200 people from across the country are expected to attend the National Black Justice Coalition’s third annual Out on the Hill Black LGBT Leadership Summit in D.C. from Sept. 19-22.
The Obama administration will host black LGBT leaders at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Sept. 20, while the Human Rights Campaign will hold a networking reception for conference delegates later that day. Other events will include a Capitol Hill lobby day and a roundtable of LGBT black older people.
NBJC executive director Sharon Lettman-Hicks pointed out to the Blade that her organization deliberately chose “Own Your Power” as this year’s theme.
“The mantra ‘Own Your Power’ is fundamental to the work we do at the National Black Justice Coalition. NBJC is committed to building informed and empowered black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender leadership — a community of victors, not victims. Progress on LGBT social, employment, and marriage equality issues grows as LGBT people feel empowered to be out and open in their families and communities,” she said. “Increasing acceptance and respect for black LGBT people within their families, churches and communities is essential to increasing that openness within the African American community and gaining support for LGBT equality. With the upcoming election and all the momentum the LGBT equality movement has gained, this is a critical time to take our seat at the table and own our power.”
Openly gay ESPN and CNN columnist LZ Granderson is the conference’s national chair. MSNBC anchor Melissa Harris Perry will also host a town hall on voting rights and discrimination during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference that will coincide with “Out on the Hill.”
NBJC will host its own town hall on the increasing homicide rates among trans women of color at the Washington Marriot Wardman Park Hotel on Sept. 21.
In addition to this issue, Lettman-Hicks said fighting anti-LGBT employment discrimination and securing economic security for LGBT people of color remain her organization’s top priorities. “Out on the Hill” will also examine health disparities that persist among this community.
“In addition to ensuring black LGBT people have the means to care for themselves and their families, it is important that we also address the health disparities that exist,” said Lettman-Hicks. “Stratified risk factors and a lack of access to culturally competent health care services have left black LGBT people particularly vulnerable to health disparities. A panel of black LGBT health experts will address the rise in HIV/AIDS infection rates amongst young black men who have sex with men; challenges to accessing competent health care; and the unique health concerns of black lesbians, including breast/cervical cancer.”
The conference will take place less than two months before the presidential election.
Polls continue to indicate that the vast majority of black voters support President Obama’s re-election campaign. Lettman-Hicks acknowledged that the outcome of the election will have what she described as implications for the LGBT community as a whole.
“This impact will be tenfold for LGBT people of color,” she added.
Lettman-Hicks further stressed that any president has an obligation to “protect all Americans and their families under the law.”
“Thousands of LGBT couples are raising children and have marriages rooted in love and lifelong commitment — you don’t get more traditional than that. The U.S. Census shows that these couples are also more likely to be people of color, especially African American,” she said. “Governor Romney has pledged to represent Americans of ‘every race, creed and sexual orientation’ and has been vocal about his support for ‘traditional marriage.’ Well, that includes loving and committed LGBT couples and the families they are providing for and protecting. Anything short of recognizing our committed relationships and our families is unacceptable.”
Lettman-Hicks further pointed to the current White House’s record on LGBT-specific issues.
“The Obama Administration has certainly made tremendous strides in terms of LGBT equality, from the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ to health care reform to endorsing marriage equality,” she said. “During ‘OUT on the Hill,’ NBJC will be distributing our Obama Report Card, where we grade the president on different issues such as family recognition and safe schools.”
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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