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Minnesota House approves marriage bill

Vote took place six months after voters rejected proposed gay nuptials ban

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Minnesota, gay news, Washington Blade

Minnesota State Capitol (Photo by History127 via Wikimedia Commons)

The Minnesota House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill that would extend marriage to same-sex couples in the state.

The measure that state Rep. Karen Clark (D-Minneapolis) introduced passed by a 75-59 vote margin after lawmakers debated it for nearly three hours.

ā€œI do believe we are on the verge of changing Minnesotaā€™s history,ā€ Clark said before legislators approved House File 1054. Her long-time partner, Jacqueline Zita, was inside the chamber for the vote. ā€œWe are strengthening the meaning of marriage by opening it to couples who are committed.ā€

State Rep. Rena Moran (D-St. Paul) referenced the Declaration of Independence and the civil rights movement as she spoke in support of HF 1054.

ā€œEither weā€™re equal or weā€™re not equal,ā€ she said. ā€œEqual is really equal, so today I stand believing that we are on the right side of history.ā€

State Rep. Tim Faust (D-Hinckley) discussed his own marriage as he discussed why he now supports nuptials for gays and lesbians in Minnesota.

ā€œToday we have the opportunity ā€” the opportunity to give a part of our population, fellow brothers and sisters of God the same rights that most of us have taken for granted since the day we knew what the opposite sex was,ā€ he said.

Same-sex marriage advocates quickly applauded the vote.

ā€œToday, Minnesota moves one significant step closer to finally securing the freedom to marry for same-sex couples,ā€ Minnesotans United, a group that supports the same-sex marriage bill, said. ā€œThis is the first time in history that legislation to extend civil marriage to same-sex couples has passed a body of the Minnesota Legislature, and we are deeply grateful to the 75 leaders in Minnesota House of Representatives who listened to their constituents and chose to stand on the side of love and family by voting yes.ā€

ā€œThank you Minnesota House,ā€ former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe added in a post to his Twitter account after the vote. ā€œEquality is only equality if everyone has it. Youā€™ve made society that much better today.ā€

Neighboring Iowa is among the nine states and D.C. in which gays and lesbians can currently marry.

Delawareā€™s same-sex marriage law will take effect on July 1, while gays and lesbians can begin to tie the knot in Rhode Island on Aug. 1.

Minnesota voters last November rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage in the state as between a man and a woman.

State Rep. Kelby Woodard (R-Belle Plaine) said HF 1054 would classify ā€œhalf of Minnesotans as bigotsā€ as he spoke against it.

ā€œWe are being asked to redefine marriage,ā€ he said. ā€œWe are redefining today in this bill the definition of marriage that has been the bedrock of society for thousands of years.ā€

State Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen (R-Glencoe) cited 2,500 studies he said confirms the benefit of ā€œtraditional marriage for men, women and especially children.ā€ State Rep. Peggy Scott (R-Andover) added HF 1054 would remove ā€œgender-specific terminologyā€ from Minnesotaā€™s marriage laws.

ā€œThere will be consequences intended and not intended to the very essence of who we are and what we become,ā€ state Rep. Tony Albright (R-Prior Lake) said.

Minnesota Family Council President Tom Prichard is among those who criticized lawmakers for supporting HF 1054.

ā€œThe passage of the marriage redefinition bill marks an unprecedented assault on the religious freedoms and the well-being of children,ā€ he said.

The Minnesota Catholic Conference said in a statement it is ā€œdisappointedā€ legislators voted ā€œto redefine the legal definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.ā€

ā€œIn doing so, it has set in motion a transformation of Minnesota law that will focus on accommodating the desires of adults instead of protecting the best interest of children,ā€ the group added. ā€œThis action is an injustice that tears at the fabric of society and will be remembered as such well into the future.ā€

Lawmakers on Thursday also rejected a proposed amendment to HF 1054 sponsored by state Rep. Tim Kelly (R-Red Wing) that would have converted all Minnesota marriages to civil unions by a 22-111 vote margin.

The Minnesota Senate on Monday is scheduled to vote on the same-sex marriage bill.

Governor Mark Dayton has said he will sign it into law if lawmakers approve it.

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State Department

Transgender, nonbinary people file lawsuit against passport executive order

State Department banned from issuing passports with ‘X’ gender markers

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(Bigstock photo)

Seven transgender and nonbinary people on Feb. 7 filed a federal lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s executive order that bans the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers.

Ashton Orr, Zaya Perysian, Sawyer Soe, Chastain Anderson, Drew Hall, Bella Boe, and Reid Solomon-Lane are the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Massachusetts, and the private law firm Covington & Burling LPP filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The lawsuit names Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as defendants.

Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June 2021 announced the State Department would begin to issue gender-neutral passports and documents for American citizens who were born overseas.

Dana Zzyym, an intersex U.S. Navy veteran who identifies as nonbinary, in 2015 filed a federal lawsuit against the State Department after it denied their application for a passport with an ā€œXā€ gender marker. Zzyym in October 2021 received the first gender-neutral American passport.

The State Department policy took effect on April 11, 2022.

Trump signed the executive order that overturned it shortly after he took office on Jan. 20. Rubio later directed State Department personnel to ā€œsuspend any application requesting an ā€˜Xā€™ sex marker and do not take any further action pending additional guidance from the department.ā€  

ā€œThis guidance applies to all applications currently in progress and any future applications,” reads Rubio’s memo. “Guidance on existing passports containing an ā€˜Xā€™ sex marker will come via other channels.ā€

The lawsuit says Trump’s executive order is an “abrupt, discriminatory, and dangerous reversal of settled United States passport policy.” It also concludes the new policy is “unlawful and unconstitutional.”

“It discriminates against individuals based on their sex and, as to some, their transgender status,” reads the lawsuit. “It is motivated by impermissible animus. It cannot be justified under any level of judicial scrutiny, and it wrongly seeks to erase the reality that transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people exist today as they always have.”

Solomon-Lane, who lives in North Adams, Mass., with his spouse and their three children, in an ACLU press release says he has “lived virtually my entire adult life as a man” and “everyone in my personal and professional life knows me as a man, and any stranger on the street who encountered me would view me as a man.”

ā€œI thought that 18 years after transitioning, I would be able to live my life in safety and ease,” he said. “Now, as a married father of three, Trumpā€™s executive order and the ensuing passport policy have threatened that life of safety and ease.”

“If my passport were to reflect a sex designation that is inconsistent with who I am, I would be forcibly outed every time I used my passport for travel or identification, causing potential risk to my safety and my familyā€™s safety,ā€ added Solomon-Lane.

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Federal Government

Education Department moves to end support for trans students

Mental health services among programs that are in jeopardy

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The U.S. Department of Education headquarters in D.C. (Photo courtesy of the GSA/Education Department)

An email sent to employees at the U.S. Department of Education on Friday explains that “programs, contracts, policies, outward-facing media, regulations, and internal practices” will be reviewed and cut in cases where they ā€œfail to affirm the reality of biological sex.ā€

The move, which is of a piece with President Donald Trump’s executive orders restricting transgender rights, jeopardizes the future of initiatives at the agency like mental health services and support for students experiencing homelessness.

Along with external-facing work at the agency, the directive targets employee programs such as those administered by LGBTQ resource groups, in keeping with the Trump-Vance administration’s rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion within the federal government.

In recent weeks, federal agencies had begun changing their documents, policies, and websites for purposes of compliance with the new administration’s first executive action targeting the trans community, ā€œDefending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.ā€

For instance, the Education Department had removed a webpage offering tips for schools to better support homeless LGBTQ youth, noted ProPublica, which broke the news of the “sweeping” changes announced in the email to DOE staff.

According to the news service, the directive further explains the administration’s position that ā€œThe deliberate subjugation of women and girls by means of gender ideology ā€” whether in intimate spaces, weaponized language, or American classrooms ā€” negated the civil rights of biological females and fostered distrust of our federal institutions.”

A U.S. Senate committee hearing will be held Thursday for Linda McMahon, Trump’s nominee for education secretary, who has been criticized by LGBTQ advocacy groups. GLAAD, for instance, notes that she helped to launch and currently chairs the board of a conservative think tank that “has campaigned against policies that support transgender rights in education.”

NBC News reported on Tuesday that Trump planned to issue an executive order this week to abolish the Education Department altogether.

While the president and his conservative allies in and outside the administration have repeatedly expressed plans to disband the agency, doing so would require approval from Congress.

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State Department

Protesters demand US fully restore PEPFAR funding

Activists blocked intersection outside State Department on Thursday

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HIV/AIDS activists block an intersection outside the State Department on Feb. 6, 2025. They were demanding the Trump-Vance administration to fully restore PEPFAR funding. (Photo courtesy of Housing Works)

Dozens of HIV/AIDS activists on Thursday protested outside the State Department and demanded U.S. officials fully restore President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief funding.

The activists ā€” members of Housing Works, Health GAP, and the Treatment Action Group ā€” blocked an intersection for an hour. Health GAP Executive Director Asia Russell told the Washington Blade that police did not make any arrests.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Jan. 24 directed State Department personnel to stop nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending for 90 days in response to an executive order that President Donald Trump signed after his inauguration. Rubio later issued a waiver that allows PEPFAR and other ā€œlife-saving humanitarian assistanceā€ programs to continue to operate during the freeze.

The Blade on Wednesday reported PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to suspend services and even shut down because of a lack of U.S. funding.

ā€œPEPFAR is a program that has saved 26 million lives and changed the trajectory of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic,” said Housing Works CEO Charles King in a press release. “The recent freeze on its funding is not just a bureaucratic decision; it is a death sentence for millions who rely on these life-saving treatments. We cannot allow decades of progress to be undone. The U.S. must immediately reaffirm its commitment to global health and human dignity by restoring PEPFAR funding.” 

ā€œWe demand Secretary Rubio immediately reverse his deadly, illegal stop-work order, which has already disrupted life-saving HIV services worldwide,” added Russell. “Any waiver process is too little, too late.”

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