National
Married gay couples reap benefits from DOMA ruling
But some encounter confusion, delays from employers
Mary Glantz and Michelle Schohn of Arlington, Va., at their Provincetown, Mass., wedding in November 2009. (Photo courtesy of Michelle Schohn)
The majority of legally married gay couples with whom the Washington Blade has spoken in recent days said they have had little difficulty receiving benefits for their spouses after the U.S. Supreme Court found a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional.
Michelle Schohn of Arlington, Va., a State Department employee who married her partner of 14 years, Mary Glantz, in Provincetown, Mass., in 2009, told the Blade on Tuesday from Estonia that the agency’s HR personnel recognized the couple as married “within hours” after she faxed them a copy of their marriage license. The couple was also able to update their federal life insurance policy.
Schohn said the USAA also pre-approved her and Glantz for a mortgage to potentially buy a home in Maryland as a married couple.
“It’s been amazingly straight-forward and very easy,” Schohn, who was the president of the Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies from 2008-2009, said. “The several people that I’ve worked with so far have been very friendly and accommodating. I haven’t had any kind of pushback from anyone.”
The Office of Personnel Management on June 28 issued a memorandum that outlined the benefits for which legally married gay and lesbian federal employees and their children or stepchildren are now eligible. These include health, dental, vision, life and long-term insurance, retirement benefits and the ability to submit claims for medical expenses through flexible spending accounts.
Alex Hardin, who works in the State Department’s Bureau of European Affairs, told the Blade during GLIFAA’s monthly happy hour at the Capitol Skyline Hotel in Southwest D.C. on Tuesday that he and his partner, who is from Japan, are planning to get married in the nation’s capital later this summer.
The DOMA decision opened the door for legally married gays and lesbians to sponsor their foreign-born partners for immigration purposes.
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano on July 1 said her agency will treat marriage-based green card applications from same-sex bi-national couples the same as those submitted by heterosexuals.
Hardin’s partner already has a green card, but he told the Blade the Supreme Court’s DOMA ruling eliminates any uncertainty over the status of their relationship once they tie the knot.
“Now we can feel more comfortable knowing that we’re going to be married, we’re going to have the rights and privileges of everybody else,” Hardin said.
Eleven states and D.C. currently allow same-sex marriage. Gays and lesbians will be able to legally tie the knot in Minnesota and Rhode Island on Aug. 1.
The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday filed a lawsuit that challenges Pennsylvania’s statuary ban on nuptials for gays and lesbians. The group also plans to contest constitutional amendments in Virginia and North Carolina that define marriage as between a man and a woman.
The ACLU and the National Center for Lesbian Rights in March petitioned the New Mexico Supreme Court to rule on whether same-sex couples can legally marry in the state. Same-sex marriage lawsuits have also been filed in Michigan and Nevada, while motions have been filed in Illinois and New Jersey that seek expedited rulings in cases that seek nuptials for gays and lesbians in the two states.
The Human Rights Campaign, Freedom to Marry and other groups have also launched campaigns to challenge same-sex marriage bans in Arkansas, Florida, Oregon and other states.
Missy Novak of South Deerfield, Mass., contacted the company for which she and her wife both work after the Supreme Court issued its DOMA decision to see whether they and their daughter are now eligible for a family health insurance plan.
The company issued a memo that said “guidance is anticipated” from the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor on “how the ruling affects the laws they enforce.”
Novak said the company told her on Tuesday that it is still waiting to hear from the two agencies.
“We’re kind of eager to hear back from our employer on when are you guys going to be changing this,” she told the Blade.
OPM has said in a series of memos it released after the DOMA ruling that federal gay employees who have entered into civil unions will remain ineligible for most of the benefits that legally married same-sex couples are now able to receive.
GLIFAA President Ken Kero-Mentz said retirement plans are among the issues that still need to be sorted out.
He described the impact of the DOMA decision — specifically the impact it has had on immigration and insurance benefits for gays and lesbians who were unable to obtain federal health insurance benefits while living overseas with their same-sex spouses — as “enormous.”
“DOMA had a particularly hateful effect, especially for us in the foreign service community,” Kero-Mentz said. “We’re able to celebrate that much more within our smaller community because these two massive barriers have now been lifted.”
Melissa Hale and Missy Novak of South Deerfield, Mass., and their daughter, Ayden Novak (Photo courtesy of Missy Novak)
Federal Government
RFK Jr.’s HHS report pushes therapy, not medical interventions, for trans youth
‘Discredited junk science’ — GLAAD
A 409-page report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services challenges the ethics of medical interventions for youth experiencing gender dysphoria, the treatments that are often collectively called gender-affirming care, instead advocating for psychotherapy alone.
The document comes in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order barring the federal government from supporting gender transitions for anyone younger than 19.
“Our duty is to protect our nation’s children — not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions,” National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement. “We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas.”
While the report does not constitute clinical guidance, its findings nevertheless conflict with not just the recommendations of LGBTQ advocacy groups but also those issued by organizations with relevant expertise in science and medicine.
The American Medical Association, for instance, notes that “empirical evidence has demonstrated that trans and non-binary gender identities are normal variations of human identity and expression.”
Gender-affirming care for transgender youth under standards widely used in the U.S. includes supportive talk therapy along with — in some but not all cases — puberty blockers or hormone treatment.
“The suggestion that someone’s authentic self and who they are can be ‘changed’ is discredited junk science,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “This so-called guidance is grossly misleading and in direct contrast to the recommendation of every leading health authority in the world. This report amounts to nothing more than forcing the same discredited idea of conversion therapy that ripped families apart and harmed gay, lesbian, and bisexual young people for decades.”
GLAAD further notes that the “government has not released the names of those involved in consulting or authoring this report.”
Janelle Perez, executive director of LPAC, said, “For decades, every major medical association–including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics–have affirmed that medical care is the only safe and effective treatment for transgender youth experiencing gender dysphoria.
“This report is simply promoting conversion therapy by a different name – and the American people know better. We know that conversion therapy isn’t actually therapy – it isolates and harms kids, scapegoats parents, and divides families through blame and rejection. These tactics have been used against gay kids for decades, and now the same people want to use them against transgender youth and their families.
“The end result here will be a devastating denial of essential health care for transgender youth, replaced by a dangerous practice that every major U.S. medical and mental health association agree promotes anxiety, depression, and increased risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts.
“Like being gay or lesbian, being transgender is not a choice, and no amount of pressure can force someone to change who they are. We also know that 98% of people who receive transition-related health care continue to receive that health care throughout their lifetime. Trans health care is health care.”
“Today’s report seeks to erase decades of research and learning, replacing it with propaganda. The claims in today’s report would rip health care away from kids and take decision-making out of the hands of parents,” said Shannon Minter, legal director of NCLR. “It promotes the same kind of conversion therapy long used to shame LGBTQ+ people into hating themselves for being unable to change something they can’t change.”
“Like being gay or lesbian, being transgender is not a choice—it’s rooted in biology and genetics,” Minter said. “No amount or talk or pressure will change that.”
Human Rights Campaign Chief of Staff Jay Brown released a statement: “Trans people are who we are. We’re born this way. And we deserve to live our best lives and have a fair shot and equal opportunity at living a good life.
“This report misrepresents the science that has led all mainstream American medical and mental health professionals to declare healthcare for transgender youth to be best practice and instead follows a script predetermined not by experts but by Sec. Kennedy and anti-equality politicians.”
The White House
Trump nominates Mike Waltz to become next UN ambassador
Former Fla. congressman had been national security advisor
President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he will nominate Mike Waltz to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
Waltz, a former Florida congressman, had been the national security advisor.
Trump announced the nomination amid reports that Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, were going to leave the administration after Waltz in March added a journalist to a Signal chat in which he, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other officials discussed plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States ambassador to the United Nations,” said Trump in a Truth Social post that announced Waltz’s nomination. “From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role.”
Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as interim national security advisor, “while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department.”
“Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to make America, and the world, safe again,” said Trump.
Trump shortly after his election nominated U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Trump in March withdrew her nomination in order to ensure Republicans maintained their narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Federal Courts
Second federal lawsuit filed against White House passport policy
Two of seven plaintiffs live in Md.
Lambda Legal on April 25 filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of seven transgender and nonbinary people who are challenging the Trump-Vance administration’s passport policy.
The lawsuit, which Lambda Legal filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Baltimore, alleges the policy that bans the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers “has caused and is causing grave and immediate harm to transgender people like plaintiffs, in violation of their constitutional rights to equal protection.”
Two of the seven plaintiffs — Jill Tran and Peter Poe — live in Maryland. The State Department, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the federal government are defendants.
“The discriminatory passport policy exposes transgender U.S. citizens to harassment, abuse, and discrimination, in some cases endangering them abroad or preventing them from traveling, by forcing them to use identification documents that share private information against their wishes,” said Lambda Legal in a press release.
Zander Schlacter, a New York-based textile artist and designer, is the lead plaintiff.
The lawsuit notes he legally changed his name and gender in New York.
Schlacter less than a week before President Donald Trump’s inauguration “sent an expedited application to update his legal name on his passport, using form DS-5504.”
Trump once he took office signed an executive order that banned the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers. The lawsuit notes Schlacter received his new passport in February.
“The passport has his correct legal name, but now has an incorrect sex marker of ‘F’ or ‘female,'” notes the lawsuit. “Mr. Schlacter also received a letter from the State Department notifying him that ‘the date of birth, place of birth, name, or sex was corrected on your passport application,’ with ‘sex’ circled in red. The stated reason was ‘to correct your information to show your biological sex at birth.'”
“I, like many transgender people, experience fear of harassment or violence when moving through public spaces, especially where a photo ID is required,” said Schlacter in the press release that announced the lawsuit. “My safety is further at risk because of my inaccurate passport. I am unwilling to subject myself and my family to the threat of harassment and discrimination at the hands of border officials or anyone who views my passport.”
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 “X” gender marker. Zzyym in October 2021 received the first gender-neutral American passport.
Lambda Legal represented Zzyym.
The State Department policy took effect on April 11, 2022.
Trump signed his executive order shortly after he took office in January. Germany, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands are among the countries that have issued travel advisories for trans and nonbinary people who plan to visit the U.S.
A federal judge in Boston earlier this month issued a preliminary injunction against the executive order. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of seven trans and nonbinary people.
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