National
Freedom to Marry fundraisers raise $450,000 for state marriage campaigns
D.C. among cities where National Engagement Parties have taken place


Zack Wahls speaks at a Freedom to Marry house party in Kalorama on Saturday (Photo by Jamie McGonnigal)
A series of Freedom to Marry house parties across the country this month has raised nearly half a million dollars for statewide same-sex marriage campaigns.
The latest National Engagement Parties took place in D.C., New York, San Francisco and Miami Beach, Fla., on Saturday. These fundraisers and those that took place in San Diego, Atlanta and other cities earlier this month have raised $450,000 for efforts to defend marriage rights for gays and lesbians in Maine, Maryland and Washington and defeat a proposed state constitutional amendment that would define marriage as between a man and a woman in Minnesota.
“Even though I’m straight guy, the policies that affect gay people — my parents — affected me,” said Zach Wahls, whose 2011 testimony before the Iowa House Judiciary Committee against a proposed constitutional amendment that would have overturned the state’s same-sex marriage law went viral, at Drew Murphy and Michael Golder’s Kalorama home. He also spoke about his continued advocacy in support of the Boy Scouts of America allowing gay scout leaders. “The stigmas that affected gay people affected me. And so I really do feel as though allies is definitely the right word, but also to me it’s more than that. This is part of who I am. And that’s why I’ve been so involved in this work since the video blew up and I’ve found this incredible opportunity to talk about this issue and speak for my family.”
Gay Maryland state Sen. Rich Madaleno (D-Montgomery County) was among those who attended the D.C. fundraiser.
New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler was among the guests at the National Engagement Party in Manhattan. “Good Morning America” weather anchor Sam Champion, who came out earlier this month, attended the Miami Beach fundraiser with fiancé Rubem Robierb. Actress Jane Lynch attended Freedom to Marry’s Los Angeles house party alongside gay former Republican presidential candidate Fred Karger and others on Oct. 7.
“What I’m most proud to be able to report is that these campaigns are in, by and large, tremendous shape,” said Marc Solomon, national campaign director for Freedom to Marry, as he referred to the four statewide marriage campaigns. “The polling is looking promising. We’ve never gotten into one of these referendum with majority support and in several of the states we have solid majority support. We have outraised our opponents. And we haven’t just outraised our opponents, we’ve been smart in getting money into these campaigns early.”
Freedom to Marry has contributed $4.5 million over the last two years to the four statewide same-sex marriage campaigns — including $30,000 it gave to the NAACP National Voter Fund for Question 6 on from its Freedom to Marry Maryland PAC, according to the campaign finance report it filed with state election officials in Annapolis on Friday. The organization has helped raise an additional $2.4 million for these efforts through public education campaigns and outreach to Freedom to Marry donors.
The group, which remains the largest single source of funding for three of the four statewide same-sex marriage campaigns, raised and spent approximately $5 million in 2011. Freedom to Marry projects it will have raised and spent another $10 million by the end of the year.
Solomon, a former executive director of MassEquality who has worked on same-sex marriage campaigns in California, New York and other states, described the four statewide campaign managers as “truly exceptional.” He further noted that anti-marriage ads have already begun to air in the four states.
“I can tell you we are really prepared, but we know that these fights are always exceptionally difficult,” said Solomon. “And every one of the marriage fights I’ve been involved in has been exceptionally difficult.”
In spite of these challenges, Solomon and others who attended the D.C. fundraiser remain hopeful that voters in Maine, Maryland, Washington and Minnesota will either support their states’ same-sex marriage referenda or defeat the proposed constitutional amendment.
I’m cautiously optimistic,” Wahls told the Washington Blade. “We all remember what happened with Prop 8 [in California] and in Maine, so you can’t get your hopes too high. But I’m feeling very positive. And I think events like this indicate that kind of support.”
U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court to consider bans on trans athletes in school sports
27 states have passed laws limiting participation in athletics programs

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear two cases involving transgender youth challenging bans prohibiting them from participating in school sports.
In Little v. Hecox, plaintiffs represented by the ACLU, Legal Voice, and the law firm Cooley are challenging Idaho’s 2020 ban, which requires sex testing to adjudicate questions of an athlete’s eligibility.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals described the process in a 2023 decision halting the policy’s enforcement pending an outcome in the litigation. The “sex dispute verification process, whereby any individual can ‘dispute’ the sex of any female student athlete in the state of Idaho,” the court wrote, would “require her to undergo intrusive medical procedures to verify her sex, including gynecological exams.”
In West Virginia v. B.P.J., Lambda Legal, the ACLU, the ACLU of West Virginia, and Cooley are representing a trans middle school student challenging the Mountain State’s 2021 ban on trans athletes.
The plaintiff was participating in cross country when the law was passed, taking puberty blockers that would have significantly reduced the chances that she could have a physiological advantage over cisgender peers.
“Like any other educational program, school athletic programs should be accessible for everyone regardless of their sex or transgender status,” said Joshua Block, senior counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ and HIV Project. “Trans kids play sports for the same reasons their peers do — to learn perseverance, dedication, teamwork, and to simply have fun with their friends,” Block said.
He added, “Categorically excluding kids from school sports just because they are transgender will only make our schools less safe and more hurtful places for all youth. We believe the lower courts were right to block these discriminatory laws, and we will continue to defend the freedom of all kids to play.”
“Our client just wants to play sports with her friends and peers,” said Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Tara Borelli. “Everyone understands the value of participating in team athletics, for fitness, leadership, socialization, and myriad other benefits.”
Borelli continued, “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit last April issued a thoughtful and thorough ruling allowing B.P.J. to continue participating in track events. That well-reasoned decision should stand the test of time, and we stand ready to defend it.”
Shortly after taking control of both legislative chambers, Republican members of Congress tried — unsuccessfully — to pass a national ban like those now enforced in 27 states since 2020.
Federal Government
UPenn erases Lia Thomas’s records as part of settlement with White House
University agreed to ban trans women from women’s sports teams

In a settlement with the Trump-Vance administration announced on Tuesday, the University of Pennsylvania will ban transgender athletes from competing and erase swimming records set by transgender former student Lia Thomas.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found the university in violation of Title IX, the federal rights law barring sex based discrimination in educational institutions, by “permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”
The statement issued by University of Pennsylvania President J. Larry Jameson highlighted how the law’s interpretation was changed substantially under President Donald Trump’s second term.
“The Department of Education OCR investigated the participation of one transgender athlete on the women’s swimming team three years ago, during the 2021-2022 swim season,” he wrote. “At that time, Penn was in compliance with NCAA eligibility rules and Title IX as then interpreted.”
Jameson continued, “Penn has always followed — and continues to follow — Title IX and the applicable policy of the NCAA regarding transgender athletes. NCAA eligibility rules changed in February 2025 with Executive Orders 14168 and 14201 and Penn will continue to adhere to these new rules.”
Writing that “we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules” in place while Thomas was allowed to compete, the university president added, “We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.”
“Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the university for future generations of female athletes.”
Under former President Joe Biden, the department’s Office of Civil Rights sought to protect against anti-LGBTQ discrimination in education, bringing investigations and enforcement actions in cases where school officials might, for example, require trans students to use restrooms and facilities consistent with their birth sex or fail to respond to peer harassment over their gender identity.
Much of the legal reasoning behind the Biden-Harris administration’s positions extended from the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County, which found that sex-based discrimination includes that which is based on sexual orientation or gender identity under Title VII rules covering employment practices.
The Trump-Vance administration last week put the state of California on notice that its trans athlete policies were, or once were, in violation of Title IX, which comes amid the ongoing battle with Maine over the same issue.
New York
Two teens shot steps from Stonewall Inn after NYC Pride parade
One of the victims remains in critical condition

On Sunday night, following the annual NYC Pride March, two girls were shot in Sheridan Square, feet away from the historic Stonewall Inn.
According to an NYPD report, the two girls, aged 16 and 17, were shot around 10:15 p.m. as Pride festivities began to wind down. The 16-year-old was struck in the head and, according to police sources, is said to be in critical condition, while the 17-year-old was said to be in stable condition.
The Washington Blade confirmed with the NYPD the details from the police reports and learned no arrests had been made as of noon Monday.
The shooting took place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, mere feet away from the most famous gay bar in the city — if not the world — the Stonewall Inn. Earlier that day, hundreds of thousands of people marched down Christopher Street to celebrate 55 years of LGBTQ people standing up for their rights.
In June 1969, after police raided the Stonewall Inn, members of the LGBTQ community pushed back, sparking what became known as the Stonewall riots. Over the course of two days, LGBTQ New Yorkers protested the discriminatory policing of queer spaces across the city and mobilized to speak out — and throw bottles if need be — at officers attempting to suppress their existence.
The following year, LGBTQ people returned to the Stonewall Inn and marched through the same streets where queer New Yorkers had been arrested, marking the first “Gay Pride March” in history and declaring that LGBTQ people were not going anywhere.
New York State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, whose district includes Greenwich Village, took to social media to comment on the shooting.
“After decades of peaceful Pride celebrations — this year gun fire and two people shot near the Stonewall Inn is a reminder that gun violence is everywhere,” the lesbian lawmaker said on X. “Guns are a problem despite the NRA BS.”
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