National
Latin American LGBT activists visit the U.S. on State Department-sponsored trip
Nine Central and South American LGBT activists will remain in the country through Sept. 22
Laura Bronzino of Argentina and Jaime Parada in Chile in D.C. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)
Nine Latin American activists continue to tour the United States on a State Department-organized trip that is part of its ongoing efforts to promote human rights for LGBT people around the world.
Jaime Parada of the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation in Chile; Laura Bronzino, president of the Misiones LGBT Association in Argentina; Henry Peralta, general director of the LGBT Equality Foundation in Bolivia; Marcela Sánchez, executive director of Colombia Diversa; Brazilian Congressman Jean de Matos; Francisco Madrigal of the Center for the Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights in Central America in Costa Rica; Efraín Soria, president of the Equity Foundation in Ecuador; José Lopéz, vice president of Comunidad Cultural de Tijuana LGBTI in México and Panamanian activist Augustín Rodríguez began their trip in D.C. on Sept. 4. They met with Human Rights Campaign staffers, former HRC President Elizabeth Birch, Council for Global Equality President Mark Bromley, transgender activist Dr. Dana Beyer and gay Maryland state Del. Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore City,) representatives from the Justice Department, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and other federal agencies, human rights groups and non-governmental organizations while in the nation’s capital. The group also discussed the repeal of the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian servicemembers at the Pentagon.
The activists met with staffers and representatives from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Harvey Milk High School, the American Civil Liberties Union, the New York City Anti-Violence Project and Gay Men’s Health Crisis while in the Big Apple from Sept. 8-12.
The group is scheduled to meet with representatives of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, Equality California, the Transgender Law Center, the Gay-Straight Alliance Network and COLAGE while in the Bay Area from Sept. 12-16. Activists are also slated to meet with the University of Louisville’s Office of LGBT Services staffers and PFLAG members while in Kentucky from Sept. 16-19. And they are scheduled to meet with members of the Unity Coalition and Walker Burttschell, a former Marine infantryman who was discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in 2003, in Miami before they leave the country on Sept. 22.
“I am tremendously happy for this experience that I will live,” said Parada in a press release his organization released before he arrived in the United States on Sept. 1. “It will be a big help in amplifying and perfecting my fight for the human rights of [Chile’s] sexual diversity. Without a doubt, the experiences and knowledge that I will gain will benefit sexual minorities.”
Latin American countries expand rights to LGBT citizens
Central and South American countries have also begun to expand rights to their LGBT citizens.
Same-sex couples in Mexico City have been able to marry and adopt children since 2010 — the Mexican Supreme Court ruled the same year that the country’s 31 other states must recognize them. Gays and lesbians have been able to enter into civil unions in the Mexican state of Coahuila since 2007.
Ecuador and Uruguay also allow civil unions for same-sex couples. Colombia also recognizes these relationships, but gays and lesbians will automatically receive full marriage rights in June 2013 if the country’s lawmakers do not act upon a court ruling that orders them to legislate the matter.
Argentine President Cristina Fernández signed her country’s same-sex marriage law in 2010, while neighboring Uruguay is widely expected to become the next Latin American country to allow gays and lesbians to tie the knot. São Paolo and several other Brazilian cities and states have recognized hundreds of same-sex civil unions in response to a 2011 ruling from the country’s Supreme Court.
Chilean President Sebastián Piñera pledged ahead of the country’s 2010 presidential election that he supports civil unions for same-sex couples. He introduced a civil unions measure last year, but it has stalled in the Chilean Congress.
“Marriage is uncertain,” Parada told the Blade. “It will undoubtedly be one of the most important points in the next presidential election, but it is very uncertain what will happen in that regard.”
Lawmakers pass transgender rights, anti-hate crimes bills
In addition to marriage, attitudes towards anti-LGBT discrimination and other issues in Latin America continue to change.
Piñera in July signed an LGBT-inclusive hate crimes and anti-discrimination bill that had languished for seven years. Chilean lawmakers passed the measure in response to four self-described neo-Nazis who allegedly beat Daniel Zamudio to death in a park in Santiago, the country’s capital, because he was gay.
Parada noted to the Blade that Santiaguïnos marched in the streets nearly every day to show their solidarity with Zamudio in the days and weeks after the brutal attack that left him in a coma. He ultimately succumbed to his injuries, but Parada noted the media coverage that surrounded Zamudio’s death highlighted efforts to combat anti-LGBT discrimination and violence in the country.
“It started a small ‘click’ in the people’s minds,” he said. “This case was an earthquake of a loss of a human life, but it was a point of inflection.”
In neighboring Argentina, Fernández in May signed a law that allows people who have not undergone sex-reassignment surgery to legally change their gender without a doctor or judge’s approval. It further mandates public and private health insurance plans to cover SRS, hormone therapy and other trans-specific treatments without additional premiums.
Bronzino, who is from northeastern Argentina near Iguazu Falls, acknowledged the same-sex marriage and gender identification laws to the Blade. She stressed that anti-LGBT police violence and discrimination remain problems.
Bronzino further noted that a lot of people have yet to benefit from these new legal protections.
“Equality has taken root in this country and the LGBT gender change,” she said. “But in Misiones they are not relevant. Only 15 equal marriages and 13 LGBT gender changes [have taken place.] That is not a large number of people.”
Activists: Trip proves Clinton’s commitment to global LGBT rights
The State Department did not return the Blade’s request for comment on the trip, but those who met with the activists applauded their efforts.
“They’re a great group of people who are all very active in their countries,” said Mónica Trasandes, GLAAD’s director of Spanish language media. “There is so much going on in Latin America now — Mexico and Central and Latin America. It’s wonderful and exciting to see that.”
“It was a pleasure to support the work of the State Department and all of the committed activists visiting the U.S. hoping to take lessons learned from our movement and apply them for positive change in their home countries,” added HRC spokesperson Michael Cole-Schwartz.
Beyer, who met with the activists in Annapolis after she returned from the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, further described the trip as proof what she said is the former First Lady’s ongoing commitment to LGBT rights.
“Secretary Clinton came out and said LGBT rights are human rights and human rights are LGBT rights,” she told the Blade. “She wasn’t just talking. She’s made it real. This is an implementation of that policy of treating LGBT rights as human rights.”
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.
The White House
Trump travels to Middle East countries with death penalty for homosexuality
President traveled to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates
Homosexuality remains punishable by death in two of the three Middle East countries that President Donald Trump visited last week.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are among the handful of countries in which anyone found guilty of engaging in consensual same-sex sexual relations could face the death penalty.
Trump was in Saudi Arabia from May 13-14. He traveled to Qatar on May 14.
“The law prohibited consensual same-sex sexual conduct between men but did not explicitly prohibit same-sex sexual relations between women,” notes the State Department’s 2023 human rights report, referring specifically to Qatar’s criminalization law. “The law was not systematically enforced. A man convicted of having consensual same-sex sexual relations could receive a sentence of seven years in prison. Under sharia, homosexuality was punishable by death; there were no reports of executions for this reason.”
Trump on May 15 arrived in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The State Department’s 2023 human rights report notes the “penalty for individuals who engaged in ‘consensual sodomy with a man'” in the country “was a minimum prison sentence of six months if the individual’s partner or guardian filed a complaint.”
“There were no known reports of arrests or prosecutions for consensual same-sex sexual conduct. LGBTQI+ identity, real or perceived, could be deemed an act against ‘decency or public morality,’ but there were no reports during the year of persons prosecuted under these provisions,” reads the report.
The report notes Emirati law also criminalizes “men who dressed as women or entered a place designated for women while ‘disguised’ as a woman.” Anyone found guilty could face up to a year in prison and a fine of up to 10,000 dirhams ($2,722.60.)
Trump returned to the U.S. on May 16.
The White House notes Trump during the trip secured more than $2 trillion “in investment agreements with Middle Eastern nations ($200 billion with the United Arab Emirates, $600 billion with Saudi Arabia, and $1.2 trillion with Qatar) for a more safe and prosperous future.”
Former President Joe Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2022.
Saudi Arabia is scheduled to host the 2034 World Cup. The 2022 World Cup took place in Qatar.
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