National
Gay Republican seeks to unseat Mass. congressman
Boston Globe poll shows Richard Tisei is ahead of incumbent Congressman John Tierney
Richard Tisei may become the first non-incumbent openly gay Republican elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. (photo courtesy of Tisei)
BOSTON – Massachusetts congressional candidate Richard Tisei remains confident that he will become the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress next month.
“I feel pretty comfortable and pretty confident at this point,” Tisei told the Washington Blade during an Oct. 4 interview near Copley Square. A poll the University of New Hampshire Survey Center conducted on behalf of the Boston Globe late last month shows that the former 2010 lieutenant gubernatorial candidate is ahead of incumbent Congressman John Tierney by a 37-31 percent margin.
Thirty percent of respondents said they remain undecided, but the survey further indicates that Tierney’s wife and brothers-in-law’s involvement in an illegal gambling ring has adversely impacted his re-election campaign. “A lot of people in the district are ready for a change and they are looking for a different type of congressman than we have right now. I’ve gotten a great reception from folks.”
Tisei, a former Massachusetts Senate minority leader who co-owns a real estate brokerage company in suburban Lynnfield, announced his candidacy against Tierney last November. He would represent Massachusetts’ Sixth Congressional District that includes portions of Middlesex and Essex Counties north of Boston if elected.
Tierney and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee continue to compare Tisei to a Tea Partier in an attack ad currently airing on local television stations. He quickly brushed aside the comparison.
“I’m the only gay, pro-choice Republican who wouldn’t sign the [Grover] Norquist pledge being called an extremist anywhere in the country,” said Tisei. “It’s funny because people who know me find it laughable. I don’t think he’s realized how much he’s damaged his own credibility. Rather than talking about what he’s done over a 16-year period. Trying to paint me as some type of Right Wing extremist is just so off-the-wall that it damages his own credibility.”
He further noted that the economy and jobs are among the top issues on voters’ minds.
“Most of the jobs are created by small business owners who employ 10 or less people and those are the people who don’t feel comfortable or confident hiring anybody right now because there’s so much uncertainty emulating from the government,” said Tisei. “We have a dysfunctional government so nobody knows when the next tax increase is going to be, the next regulation that comes out or how they’re going to be affected. I think a lot of people are just holding back right now hence the reason our economy really hasn’t jump started.”
Tisei would be the first non-incumbent openly gay Republican elected to the House of Representatives. Both former Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe and former U.S. Rep. Steve Gunderson (R-Wis.) came out after being elected.
GOP establishment continues to back Tisei
Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, who volunteered for Tisei’s first state representative campaign in 1984, was among the first prominent Republicans to endorse his campaign. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio,) House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and the National Republican Congressional Committee have all backed Tisei’s candidacy in spite of their continued support of the Defense of Marriage Act.
“A good number of representatives here in Massachusetts support gay marriage right now and have seen that it’s not the end of the world. And both Democrats and Republicans and the body politic as a whole has evolved,” said Tisei in response to the Blade’s question about how he could spur Capitol Hill Republicans to no longer support DOMA if elected. He further noted he was among the first Massachusetts officials to applaud the state Supreme Judicial Court’s landmark 2003 ruling that struck down the commonwealth’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples.
“Being in Washington, being a member of the caucus, I can help be a catalyst or help bring that process along. I realize that the party as a whole has been a tougher nut to crack, but there are a lot of people within the party who want to see a chance to take place or they want different voices within the party and if an issue like DOMA comes up, somebody like me on the Republican side can stand up and say you know what, this is about fairness, it’s about treating people equally under the law and really appeal to the American ideals to make the argument. If I’m in a position to do that, I think I can change a lot of hearts and minds.”
Tisei, who has also been endorsed by the Victory Fund, further referenced this GOP support to dismiss retiring Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank’s claims last month that he would be “no use to us in Congress.”
“Barney’s a smart guy, but hearing that argument is so convoluted and most of the people I know within the gay community were baffled by it,” said Tisei. “It’s a bit far-fetched for him to make the argument that he did. I think most normal, rational people can understand that we’ll never have true equality in the country unless you have advocates on both sides of the aisle who are willing to stand up and say, you know what, everybody should be treated fairly.”
Romney “knows how the economy works”
Tisei spoke with the Blade hours after former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and President Obama squared off in the first presidential debate in Denver.
He noted that he disagreed with Romney on marriage rights for same-sex couples, abortion, stem cell research and other issues. Tisei stressed he feels Romney “knows his stuff as far as what it takes to get companies to create jobs.”
“On economic issues, I think he knows how the economy works,” he said. “I’ve sat with him over the years in a lot of different meeting when he was the governor here and he really does have the knowledge of how the free enterprise system works. Last night he shows he has a depth. People probably see that he could be a good steward of the economy and help jump start the economy.”
Tisei predicted that Brown will ultimately defeat challenger Elizabeth Warren, but he said it will be “a really close election.” He also opposes a federal judge’s decision last month that ordered a taxpayer-funded sex-reassignment surgery for convicted murderer Michelle Kosilek.
“Governor Patrick has come out against this, which should automatically tell people that just how off the charts that decision was,” said Tisei, who sponsored a bill while in the state Senate that would have added gender identity and expression to the commonwealth’s anti-discrimination law. Patrick signed the measure last November. “You’re talking about somebody who murdered another human being. I just don’t think that the state should be doing that.”
State Department
State Department implements anti-trans bathroom policy
Memo notes directive corresponds with White House executive order
The State Department on April 20 announced employees cannot use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
The Daily Signal, a conservative news website, reported the State Department announced the new policy in a memo titled “Updates Regarding Biological Sex and Intimate Spaces, Including Restrooms.”
The State Department has not responded to the Washington Blade’s request for comment on the directive.
“The administration affirms that there are two sexes — male and female — and that federal facilities should operate on this objective and longstanding basis to ensure consistency, privacy, and safety in shared spaces,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggot told the Daily Signal. “In line with President Trump’s executive order this provides clear, uniform guidance to the department by grounding policy in biological sex as determined at birth.”
President Donald Trump shortly after he took office in January 2025 issued an executive order that directed the federal government to only recognize two genders: male and female. The sweeping directive also ordered federal government agencies to “effectuate this policy by taking appropriate action to ensure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by sex and not identity.”
The Daily Signal notes the new State Department policy “does not prohibit single-occupancy restrooms.”
National
I’m telling the scared little girl I once was it’s okay to feel free
This week is Lesbian Visibility Week
Uncloseted Media published this article on April 23.
By SOPHIE HOLLAND | At 13 years old, I remember looking in the mirror in my Toronto bathroom and thinking, “Yeah, I’m a lesbian.” At the time, I thought it was a dirty word. Thinking back, it could be because the first time I heard it was when a family member said, “I don’t know what a lesbian is, they are like aliens.”
And although I walked around in camouflage Crocs with a rainbow My Little Pony charm, plaid knee-length shorts and a shark tooth necklace (yes, these are all, in my opinion, stereotypically lesbian apparel!), I didn’t feel like I fit the mold. The longer I thought about it, the worse I felt, so I buried my feelings deep inside.
Now I am 25, and I have been out since I was 22. Three years ago, I never could have imagined that I’d be working for a queer news publication and celebrating Lesbian Visibility Week, an annual event meant to honor and uplift lesbian perspectives and highlight the hardships our community faces. To me, LVW is so important because, frankly, it has been an absolute shit show getting here, to a place where I feel love and joy most days.
I think back to the frustration of constantly being asked, “Do you have a boyfriend?” Of watching princess movies and seeing a broken girl only find herself when her prince charming arrives. I remember listening to music that was always about heterosexual relationships. I remember feeling left out in high school when, one by one, my friends got boyfriends.
I tried the boyfriend, and I tried really hard for it to work at a large detriment to my wellbeing. I brainwashed myself into thinking I was probably bisexual, which I told my closest friends around 16 and unsuccessfully told my parents at the same age. I was probably subconsciously using this as a litmus test of their acceptance and to soothe the anxiety I felt around my sexuality.
Learning to love who I am did not only come from me unraveling my internalized lesbophobia and dissecting the oppressive societal messages of heteronormativity. It came from meeting an awesome community of lesbians and queers. I found people who understood my worldview and who showed me the ropes. I no longer had to stutter over concepts like lesbian loneliness or my frustration with misogynistic straight men.
They all just got it.
Without this community, I am not sure if I could be as warm and confident in myself as I am today.
And while I still experience homophobia, like being spat on while walking with an ex in downtown Toronto or having a stranger yell in my face “Are you fucking lesbians?” in Kensington Market, the joy and love still outweighs the nasty.
So, as the sentimental dyke that I have become, I decided to ask a set of lesbians in my orbit — including my friends as well as Uncloseted staffers, board members and followers — if they would share a little bit about what makes them love being a lesbian. And now, I can share it with all of you. Here they are. Happy LVW!
Timi Sotire
Falling in love with her was a reset. I felt like a kid again, hopeful about the future. We’ve had to overcome many obstacles to be together, but I’d choose her in every lifetime. I was sick with a long-term health condition when we met, and hanging out with Sophia really helped me with my recovery after my surgery.
Bella Sayegh
Being a lesbian is one of the most beautiful things in the world. To be authentically yourself in resistance and joy is so special within the lesbian community.
Parker Wales
When I met Liv, I finally understood why almost every song is about love.
Gillian Kilgour
There is no connection quite as perfect as between lesbians, no one sees me like my lesbians do.
Chyna Price
There’s many things I love about being a lesbian. But here are my top three:
- There’s just a deeper understanding when it comes to being loved by another woman.
- The next one would be the sense of community, especially being a POC masculine-presenting lesbian. I don’t feel like I’m cosplaying as someone else like I felt like I was doing before I came out.
- There’s so much history going back to the 1800s on how we found and fought for our love. That fight makes me proud because it shows me … that we’ve [found] ways to express our love even when it was misunderstood, illegal and deemed as madness.
Hope Pisoni
Before I knew I was a lesbian, romantic relationships seemed suffocating — it felt like everyone would expect me to act my part in the meticulous performance that is heterosexuality. But meeting my spouse and discovering our identities together showed me just how freeing it could be to love without a script to follow.
Leital Molad
It was the joy of watching the New York Sirens defeat the Toronto Sceptres at our first professional women’s hockey game — surrounded by hundreds (maybe thousands?) of cheering lesbians.
Angela Earl
I spent years building a life that looked right. But I never felt settled, and eventually I started asking what would actually make me happy. Coming out was about more than who I love, it was letting go of everything I was told to be. The last few years have felt like coming home to a life that had been waiting for me.
Tali Bray
What I love about being a lesbian is what I love about being in love … the wonder and joy of “oh, this is what it’s supposed to feel like.” I love moving through the world with women.
Izzy Stokes
I didn’t fall in love until I realized that queerness was an option. My queer friends have helped me see so much more than I grew up seeing. I’m so proud of us, and I’m so grateful for my lesbian community.
Nandika Chatterjee
When I met my fiancée is when I started to feel most like myself. That meant loving myself for who I am and embracing my identity as a lesbian. I felt free in a way I have never before. That’s the long and short of it.
Liz Lucking
The love and joy of being a lesbian is getting to live the life I dreamed of but never thought I would get to have!
Reflections
As I read these beautiful entries, it’s not lost on me that we’re still living in a world where lesbians are more likely to struggle with maternity problems, fetishization, and compulsory heterosexuality — not to mention the intersectional pressures of racism from both inside and outside the queer community. That’s part of why, according to a 2024 survey, 22 percent of LGBTQ women have attempted suicide, and 66 percent have sought treatment for trauma.
So if you are a lesbian who isn’t out or doesn’t feel safe, I hope you read this and can glean some hope from these messages. So when you look in the mirror, you know that it’s okay to release the weight — which can feel so heavy — of a heteronormative world.
We still have a long fight until all lesbians can feel safe to be themselves, but this is a community that does not back away from the tough, from the joy, from being loud and from all the other things that it takes to start a small revolution.
Hell yeah, lesbians! Here’s to you.
*I am signing off with my cat on my lap and a pride flag over my head <3.
Cuba
Trans parent charged with kidnapping, allegedly fled to Cuba with child
Cuban authorities helped locate Rose Inessa-Ethington
Federal authorities have charged a transgender woman with kidnapping after she allegedly fled to Cuba with her 10-year-old child.
An affidavit that Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Jennifer Waterfield filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Utah on April 16 notes the child is a “biological male who identifies as a female” and “splits time living with divorced parents who share custody” in Cache County, Utah.
Waterfield notes the child on March 28 “was supposed to be traveling by car to” Calgary, Alberta, “for a planned camping trip with his transgender mother, Rose Inessa-Ethington, Rose’s partner, Blue Inessa-Ethington, and Blue’s 3-year-old child.”
The affidavit notes the group instead flew from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Mexico City on March 29. Waterfield writes the Inessa-Ethingtons and the two children then flew from Mérida, Mexico, to Havana on April 1.
The 10-year-old child called her biological mother on March 28 after they arrived in Canada. The custody agreement, according to the affidavit, required Rose Inessa-Ethington to return the child to her former spouse on April 3.
“Interviews of MV [Minor Victim] 1’s family members provided significant concerns for MV 1’s well-being, as MV 1 was born a male, however, identifies as a female child, which is largely believed to be due to manipulation by Rose Inessa-Ethington,” reads the affidavit. “Concerns exist that MV 1 was transported to Cuba for gender reassignment surgery prior to puberty.”
The affidavit indicates authorities found a note in the Inessa-Ethingtons’ home with “instruction from a mental health therapist located in Washington, D.C., including instruction to send the therapist the $10,000.00 and instructions on gender-affirming medical care for children.”
The affidavit does not identify the specific “mental health therapist” in D.C.
A Utah judge on April 13 ordered Rose Inessa-Ethington to “immediately” return the child to her former spouse. The former spouse also received sole custody.
“Your affiant believes that due to the extensive planning and preparation exhibited by both Rose Inessa-Ethington and Blue Inessa-Ethington to isolate MV 1 and take MV 1 to Havana, Cuba, without notifying or requesting permission from MV 1’s mother indicates they are likely not planning to return to the United States,” wrote Waterfield.
The affidavit notes Cuban authorities found the Inessa-Ethingtons and the child.
A press release the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah issued notes the Inessa-Ethingtons “were deported from Cuba” on Monday “with the assistance of the FBI.”
The couple has been charged with International Parental Kidnapping. The Inessa-Ethingtons were arraigned in Richmond, Va., on Monday. The press release notes a federal court in Salt Lake City will soon handle the case.
The New York Times reported the child is now back with their biological mother.
“We are grateful to law enforcement for working swiftly to return the child to the biological mother,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak of the District of Utah in the press release.
The case is unfolding against the backdrop of increased tensions between Washington and Havana after U.S. forces on Jan. 3 seized now former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
President Donald Trump shortly after he took office in January 2025 issued an executive order that directed the federal government to only recognize two genders: male and female. A second White House directive banned federally-funded gender-affirming care for anyone under 19.
The U.S. Supreme Court last year in the Skrmetti decision upheld a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for minors.
Cuba’s national health care system has offered free sex-reassignment surgeries since 2008.
Activists who are critical of Mariela Castro, the daughter of former President Raúl Castro who spearheads LGBTQ issues as director of Cuba’s National Center for Sexual Education, have previously told the Washington Blade that access to these procedures is limited. The Blade on Wednesday asked a contact in Havana to clarify whether Cuban law currently allows minors to undergo sex-reassignment surgery.
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