National
Judge orders Ohio to recognize gay couple’s marriage
James Obergefell and John Arthur married at a Maryland airport on July 11
A federal judge in Ohio has issued a temporary order requiring the state to recognize a gay couple’s marriage.
A federal judge in Ohio has issued a temporary order requiring the state to recognize the union of a gay couple who legally married in Maryland while one of the spouses in the relationship dies from an incurable disease.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Timothy Black placed an order temporarily restraining state officials from enforcing the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage for — and only for — a Cincinnati, Ohio, gay couple suing the state to recognize their marriage.
Black issued the two-page decision on the basis that the couple’s case is likely to succeed because Ohio’s same-sex marriage ban — passed by Ohio voters in 2004 — violates the couple’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution. The judge also said the couple will suffer “irreparable harm” without an injunction.
“On this record, there is insufficient evidence of a legitimate state interest to justify this singling out of same sex married couples given the severe and irreparable harm it imposes on these Plaintiffs,” Black concludes.
The judge takes special note that Ohio recognizes out-of-state marriages for straight couples that can’t be legally performed within the state — such as opposite-sex marriages entered into by first cousins or minors — yet still won’t recognize out-of-state marriages for gay couples.
The couple in case is James Obergefell and John Arthur, who after being together more than 20 years married in Maryland following the U.S. Supreme Court decision last month striking down the Defense of Marriage Act.
Arthur suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS,) also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which has no known cure and is fatal. He’s currently a hospice patient.
The couple flew to Maryland on July 11 in a special jet equipped with medical equipment and a medical staff to serve Arthur’s needs. They married in the plane as it sat on the tarmac and returned to Cincinnati the next day. They filed their lawsuit — known as Obergefell et al v. Kasich et at — on Friday.
Black’s order bars Gov. John Kasich and other state officials from enforcing Ohio’s ban on same-sex marriage with respect to this couple. Additionally, the order prohibits the local registrar from accepting a death certificate for Arthur if it doesn’t recognize him as married at the time of his death and doesn’t designate Obergefell as his surviving spouse. The order expires on Aug. 5, unless it is extended by the parties and the court.
State officials have the option of appealing the decision to a higher court. Connie Wehrkamp, a Kasich spokesperson, had a little to say about the order after it was issued.
“I can’t comment on the pending litigation except to say that the governor believes marriage is between a man and a woman,” Wehrkamp said.
Nan Hunter, a lesbian law professor at Georgetown University, was optimistic the order would stand on appeal because it’s narrowly crafted.
“I think it is likely to stand,” Hunter said. “The facts are extraordinarily sympathetic, and the judge’s order is quite narrow and limited. This is the kind of case that probably has much greater potential for changing public opinion than for making any rapid changes in Ohio state law.”
Jon Davidson, legal director for Lambda Legal, said he expects proceedings in the case to go forward and state defendants to put up a fight to protect the marriage ban, but predicted the couple would succeed.
“I am optimistic that the judge ultimately will issue a final ruling in the couple’s favor,” Davidson said. “I think he is correct that the state has no adequate justification for refusing to respect marriages same-sex couples have validly entered in other states while it, at the same time, respects other marriages that couples cannot enter in Ohio, such as those entered by first cousins or by minors.”
Davidson said what happens with this case if it reaches the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals is less clear because it’s is known as being conservative. However, he said the compelling story of the plaintiff couple may convince judges to issue a favorable ruling toward them.
“While the Sixth Circuit historically has been among the most conservative federal courts of appeal in the country, many conservatives are coming to question arguments that have been used to deny same-sex couples the freedom to marry and the speed at which attitudes are changing is dramatic,” Davidson said. “And, were this to be the next case to reach the Supreme Court, I think some of the crucial justices could well be touched by the devotion and commitment of this brave couple.”
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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