National
Gay State Department official tapped for ambassadorship
Daniel Baer would represent the U.S. at OSCE in Vienna
U.S. Department of State Deputy Assistant Secretary Daniel Baer (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
The White House on Monday announced that President Obama has nominated Daniel Baer to become the next ambassador of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE.)
Baer, who is the current assistant secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. State Department, would become the fourth openly LGBT person to serve as a U.S. ambassador. David Huebner has been the ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa since 2009. Michael Guest was the ambassador to Romania from 2001-2004 and James Hormel was the ambassador to Luxembourg from 1999-2001.
OSCE, which is based in Vienna, comprises 57 European, Asian and North American countries that cooperate on security, terrorism, economic and human rights issues. The organization formed in the 1970s during the Cold War.
Baer, who has been in his current position since Nov. 2009, was previously an assistant professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. He was a fellow Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics from 2007-2008 and worked at the Boston Consulting Group from 2004-2007.
Baer discussed the State Department’s efforts to support LGBT rights efforts abroad during an interview with the Washington Blade last month.
Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2011 proclaimed “gay rights are human rights” during a landmark speech she gave in Geneva to commemorate International Human Rights Day. Obama on the same day issued a presidential memorandum that directed government agencies that implement American foreign policy to promote LGBT rights in the countries in which they work.
Secretary of State John Kerry on June 5 released a video that marked LGBT Pride Month.
The U.S. Ambassador to Moldova William Moser on May 19 marched in an LGBT Pride parade in Chisinau, the country’s capital. Embassies in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Estonia, Vietnam and other countries last month commemorated the annual International Day Against Homophobia.
Foreign service officers have also participated in LGBT-specific events in Chile and other nations over the last year.
Clinton last August honored Ugandan LGBT rights advocate Frank Mugisha at the U.S. embassy in Kampala, the country’s capital. She, Kerry and Obama have repeatedly spoken out against anti-LGBT violence in countries that include Honduras, Jamaica, Russia and Zimbabwe.
Baer, who spoke to the Blade two days before the start of a USAID-backed training in Bogotá, Colombia, that 30 LGBT advocates from across the South American country attended, said the former First Lady’s 2011 speech and Obama’s referendum “gave a boost to efforts that were already underway.”
“Part of what we’re associated with in the world is human rights leadership and that means taking on the opportunities to speak up and to be a voice for the voiceless and to advocate for equal dignity for all persons by virtue of their being persons,” he said. “This is fully consistent with that, which has been a bi-partisan commitment through Republican and Democratic administrations for a long-time.”
He said ambassadors and their staffs continue to look for opportunities to engage the governments with whom they work on these issues.
“Where there are opportunities to either cooperate or to raise concerns, that’s something we do on a government-to-government channel,” Baer said.
He added the State Department also seeks to identify LGBT advocates and organizations and “try to take our cues from them” as to how to best support them.
“One of the things we can do is help them build their capacity to do the work that NGOs (non-governmental organizations) do,” Baer said.
Baer did not immediately return the Blade’s request for comment on Monday.
Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin applauded Baer’s nomination.
“Daniel has worked tirelessly to promote democracy and human rights in every corner of the globe, helping to secure and protect the freedoms of the world’s most vulnerable communities,” he said in a statement.
The Washington Post on Monday reported Obama is expected to nominate as many as five gay men to fill ambassadorships in the coming weeks. They include former Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry, whom the newspaper reported the president will tap to become the next U.S. ambassador to Australia.
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.”
New York
Zohran Mamdani participates in NYC Pride parade
Mayoral candidate has detailed LGBTQ rights platform
Zohran Mamdani, the candidate for mayor of New York City who pulled a surprise victory in the primary contest last week, walked in the city’s Pride parade on Sunday.
The Democratic Socialist and New York State Assembly member published photos on social media with New York Attorney General Letitia James, telling followers it was “a joy to march in NYC Pride with the people’s champ” and to “see so many friends on this gorgeous day.”
“Happy Pride NYC,” he wrote, adding a rainbow emoji.
Mamdani’s platform includes a detailed plan for LGBTQ people who “across the United States are facing an increasingly hostile political environment.”
His campaign website explains: “New York City must be a refuge for LGBTQIA+ people, but private institutions in our own city have already started capitulating to Trump’s assault on trans rights.
“Meanwhile, the cost of living crisis confronting working class people across the city hits the LGBTQIA+ community particularly hard, with higher rates of unemployment and homelessness than the rest of the city.”
“The Mamdani administration will protect LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers by expanding and protecting gender-affirming care citywide, making NYC an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city, and creating the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.”
Community comes together to repair WorldPride history exhibition
Va. court allows conversion therapy despite law banning it
Celebrate the Fourth of July the gay way!
Longtime DC resident Thomas Walsh dies at 87
Doug Spearman takes his chance
Two new books on dining out LGBTQ-style
‘Andy Warhol in Iran’ a charming look at intersection of art, politics
Pragmatic presidents invest in America
Upwards of 100K people march in Budapest Pride
