National
NOM president’s 80-hour workweek?
IRS forms raise questions, reveal Brown’s $253,000 salary
NOM President Brian Brown (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
In its recently released IRS 990 reports for 2011, the National Organization for Marriage says its president Brian Brown received a salary and benefits package totaling $253,917 and works an average of 80 hours a week as the head of NOM and its affiliated charitable arm, the NOM Education Fund.
D.C. attorney Marcus Owens, a nationally recognized expert on 990 reporting requirements who formerly headed the IRS division overseeing tax-exempt organizations, told the Blade that claims of an 80-hour work week could raise a red flag for the IRS and possibly prompt the tax agency to conduct an audit of NOM.
“Nobody works 80 hours a week on something like this,” Owens said.
But NOM communications director Thomas Peters said in a statement released to the Blade that Brown often puts in more than 80 hours in a week.
“Since no CEO punches a time clock, the intent of the completed forms is to show that Mr. Brown works tirelessly for both NOM’s c4 (through which he is paid) and the c3,” he said.
“In fact there are many weeks he works in excess of 80 hours for NOM while others are certainly less than 80 hours,” Peters said. “Only during the rare vacation does he work less than 40 hours in a week.”
Since its founding in 2008, NOM has emerged as the leading organization opposing legalization of marriage for same-sex couples. It has raised millions of dollars for state ballot measures seeking to ban same-sex marriage.
Peters was referring to the IRS tax code that classifies tax-exempt charitable organizations as a 501 (c)(3) organization, which allows contributors to write off their donations as a tax deduction; and a tax-exempt political organization, like NOM, Inc., which is listed as a 501 (c)(4) group, whose contributors cannot write off their donations.
Owens said groups like NOM that have overlapping staffs for their c3 and c4 entities and where the two entities share the same office are required to keep careful records that separate their expenses and income and ensure that the c3 group doesn’t subsidize the c4 group.
Since the c3 group receives donations that are tax deductible it usually has an easier task of raising money than the c4 group, Owens said. He said the c4 group is allowed to subsidize the c3 group but not vice versa.
“What I advise organizations when they have that sort of dual structure is to make it clear on the 990 that they do track expenses for each organization because otherwise you’re setting yourself up for speculation and a possible IRS audit just to see what’s going on,” he said. “There should be a cost sharing arrangement between the two organizations and employees ought to be keeping time sheets to show which hat they’re wearing when they do something.”
The 990 forms filed by NOM for 2011 show both of its entities are located in the same suite of offices on K Street, N.W.
Owens confirmed that NOM spokesperson Peters was correct when he told the Blade in an earlier statement that gay rights advocate and NOM critic Fred Karger issued a press release on Jan. 30 that incorrectly claimed that Brown’s salary and benefits exceeded $500,000. Owens noted that Karger apparently misread NOM’s 2011 990 form for its c3 NOM Education Fund.
All 990 forms have two columns for reporting salary and compensation – one for the organization for which the 990 applies and another column for income and compensation from “related organizations.” NOM’s 990 report for the c3 Education Fund group includes an entry of $230,000 in compensation and $23,917 in “other” compensation, such as benefits, in the column designated for “related organizations,” which, in this case, means salary and benefits from NOM, Inc., the c4 entity.
“It can get pretty hard to understand,” said Owens, who noted that understanding the 990 forms is difficult for the untrained eye.
“Fred Karger has made another embarrassing mistake, which is typical of someone whose stock and trade is the reckless charge,” Peters said in the earlier statement.
Karger, who filed an ethics complaint against NOM before the Maine election regulatory agency in 2009 that led to a finding of a campaign reporting violation, said it was NOM that has been reckless in “concealing” its finances.
“They stonewall as much as they can until they’re forced to release information,” he said.
Peters said NOM believes its 990 reports for 2011 are in proper order.
“If the IRS has any questions about this, we will be happy to discuss it with them,” he said. “If they inquire we will certainly take the opportunity to ask them about the status of the criminal investigation into NOM’s stolen income tax return, which appears to have come from the IRS and given to our opponents.”
He was referring to a NOM IRS filing that was leaked to the Human Rights Campaign, the national LGBT advocacy group that released the leaked information that caused embarrassment for NOM.
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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