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Lesbian NYC Council speaker discusses Obama, wedding

Quinn mum on plans for mayoral run in 2013

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Gay News, Washington Blade, Christine Quinn

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (photo by Thomas Good via wikimedia.org)

NEW YORK—New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s May 19 wedding to long-time partner Kim Catullo was quite possibly the Empire State’s political marriage of the year — Gov. Andrew Cuomo, U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg were among those who attended the ceremony in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, while retired New York Court of Appeals Chief Judge Judith Kaye officiated the wedding.

“When New York State passed marriage equality, one could feel the joy on the streets,” Quinn told the Washington Blade in a recent interview, referencing the same-sex marriage bill that the state Senate narrowly passed in June 2011. Cuomo almost immediately signed it into law. “Everywhere couples went, people asked when are they getting married, what will their wedding be like? You could see and feel their happiness. The fear and gloom that opponents predicted did not come true, the world did not end when gay people could marry. Just the opposite, people felt love and joy. We had the opportunity to publicly commit in a legal ceremony in front of our family and friends, that we are a couple, we are family. And we are just as important as any other family. I will always be grateful for that day and remember that day for the rest of my life.”

Quinn became speaker in 2006. A Quinnipiac University poll last month shows that she remains the front-runner among likely Democratic mayoral candidates who seek to succeed Bloomberg in 2013.

Quinn declined to respond to the Blade’s questions about her presumptive mayoral campaign, but LGBT issues remain an integral part of her overall agenda.

She introduced a bill in 2004 that would have required city contractors to offer equal benefits to registered same-sex domestic partners and married heterosexual couples. Quinn, 46, also worked with Bloomberg and the city’s Department of Education to implement an anti-bullying curriculum in the city’s public schools — a state law, the Dignity in All Schools Act, which specifically bans harassment based on a student’s sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom, took effect in July.

Quinn, who was executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project from 1996 to 1999, routinely speaks out against anti-LGBT violence in the five boroughs. She joined other New York City officials who criticized Puerto Rico Gov. Luís Fortuño and his administration for what they contend was an unwillingness to stop anti-LGBT violence on the island in the wake of gay teenager Jorge Steven López Mercado’s 2009 murder. Quinn also continues to boycott the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade because organizers prohibit gay men and lesbians from marching.

The once vocal Bloomberg critic faced widespread criticism from LGBT Democrats, fellow progressives and others in 2008 when she supported the extension of term-limits that allowed the mayor and other city officials, including herself, to run for a third-term. Quinn earlier in the same year also acknowledged a City Council slush fund appropriated more than $17 million to community organizations that did not exist since 2001. She sparked further controversy in July when she demanded that the president of New York University remove Chick-fil-A from campus in response to CEO Dan Cathy’s opposition to same-sex marriage.

Quinn did not comment about those criticisms, but she stressed she feels that nuptials for same-sex couples and the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act remain top priorities for LGBT Americans going into the presidential election. Quinn further pointed to immigration reform that she said would allow “for families to stay connected until” DOMA is repealed and passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act as important priorities.

Quinn, who was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, further applauded President Obama’s record in support of same-sex marriage and other issues. She spoke to the Blade hours after she attended a celebration at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in Manhattan that commemorated the first anniversary of the repeal of the ban on openly gay service members.

“I am very confident that when people think about what the president offers, his message that we all need to work together, and we can’t leave anyone behind,  they will come out and vote for him,” said Quinn. “This message clearly includes members of the LGBT community. He has supported issues for our community more than any other president. We must get out there, urge our friends and family to vote, become involved, go to a swing state if need be. We can’t go back to a time when we lost rights. We must go forward and re-elect President Obama.”

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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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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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