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Log Cabin denounces ‘tyrannical’ Obamacare

Gay GOP’ers join conservatives in seeking repeal of health reform

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President Obama’s signature legislative achievement is again under attack by Republicans. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

The national gay group Log Cabin Republicans this week joined 21 conservative organizations, including some that oppose LGBT rights, in signing a letter calling on Congress to gut President Obama’s health care reform law.

The letter came shortly before the House began debate Friday morning on a bill introduced by Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) that would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from becoming involved in any way in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, including providing tax credits to individuals and small businesses to lower their health insurance premiums.

The bill, which Obama supporters say would effectively kill the health care reform law, marks the 40th attempt by House Republicans to kill the controversial law.

“I wanted you to know that today Log Cabin Republicans joined Americans for Tax Reform and a broad coalition of national conservative leaders as co-signers of a letter demanding that the United States Congress remove the Internal Revenue Service from any role in the implementation of the tyrannical Obamacare law,” Log Cabin Executive Director Gregory Angelo said in an Aug. 1 letter to the group’s members.

“The healthcare of the American people is one of the most personal and private aspects of our lives – even more so for LGBT Americans,” Angelo said in his letter. “Recent controversies about IRS targeting are bad enough, but with present scandals set aside, the last thing any member of the LGBT community needs is the IRS involved in any way in our heath care,” he said.

Angelo was referring to allegations that IRS officials gave greater scrutiny to conservative groups applying for a non-profit, tax-exempt status. A congressional investigation into the allegations prompted the IRS to apologize for the actions of a few officials who reportedly gave greater scrutiny to conservative groups. However, IRS officials said the agency also challenged tax-exempt applications of liberal-leaning groups.

Among the organizations co-signing the letter to Congress with Log Cabin were Concerned Women for America, which opposes virtually all LGBT rights legislation pending in Congress; the American Conservative Union, which barred Log Cabin and the gay conservative group GOProud from participating in its annual Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference in March; and Restore America’s Mission, which advocates against same-sex marriage.

Angelo told the Blade Log Cabin has made it clear that it doesn’t agree with the LGBT-related positions of some of the co-signers. But he said Log Cabin and each of the co-signers shares the strongly held position that the Obama health care reform law is harmful to the nation and should be repealed.

Angelo noted that the joint letter was initiated by Americans for Tax Reform leader Grover Norquist, who has been supportive of Log Cabin.

The House was scheduled to vote Friday on the Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act, known as HR 2009. The bill would prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury, who has jurisdiction over the IRS, from enforcing the Obamacare law, which is officially called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Democratic leaders in the House, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), have called the latest GOP bill to kill the Obamacare law a publicity stunt aimed at diverting attention from Republican lawmakers’ opposition to a compromise deficit reduction measure and other pending bills opposed by House Republican leaders.

“It is only fitting that Republicans would waste the last week at work this summer voting for the 40th time to repeal the Affordable Care Act and continue their record of no jobs bills, no budget agreement, and no solutions for the middle class,” Pelosi said in a statement.

All of the GOP-sponsored bills calling for repeal of the Affordable Care Act have died in the Senate. Senate Democratic leaders said the bill being debated on Friday, if approved by the GOP-controlled House, would be dead on arrival in the Democratic Senate.

In his letter to Log Cabin members announcing that he co-signed the joint letter supporting HR 2009, Angelo also asked members to make a contribution to the gay GOP group.

“Your financial support of Log Cabin Republicans today allows us to continue to fight for choice in healthcare, your right to privacy, and to keep gay Americans -— and all Americans — free. Please give today and tell the IRS: Hands off my healthcare!”

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Federal Government

RFK Jr.’s HHS report pushes therapy, not medical interventions, for trans youth

‘Discredited junk science’ — GLAAD

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HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

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.”




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The White House

Trump nominates Mike Waltz to become next UN ambassador

Former Fla. congressman had been national security advisor

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U.N. headquarters in New York (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

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.

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U.S. Federal Courts

Second federal lawsuit filed against White House passport policy

Two of seven plaintiffs live in Md.

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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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