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Wade Davis launches youth initiative

Gay former NFL player prepares to take reins at You Can Play

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Wade Davis, gay news, Washington Blade
Wade Davis, gay news, Washington Blade

Wade Davis came out in 2012; he formerly played for the Redskins. (Washington Blade file photo by Damien Salas)

When Wade Davis came out of the closet in June 2012, his story made national headlines.  The former NFL athlete who played for the Washington Redskins, Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee Titans as well as two teams within NFL Europe made the rounds on the media circuit to share his story.

At the time, Davis was working at Hetrick-Martin in New York as the assistant director of job readiness, where he helped LGBT youth learn life skills. He also served as an LGBT surrogate for President Obama during the 2012 election.

Fourteen months later, Davis has launched You Belong: LGBTQA Youth Sports and Leadership Initiative with its first leadership camp recently held in Chicago focusing on basketball.

FIND MORE OF THE WASHINGTON BLADE SPORTS ISSUE HERE.

The You Belong initiative was founded by Davis and writer/activist Darnell Moore and serves to provide LBGTQA youth ages 14 to 24, access to various sports through a series of four-day comprehensive sports instruction and leadership development clinics.

The goal is to create a safe space where LGBTQA youth can become well-rounded athletes, leaders and human beings.

In addition, Davis this month was named the new executive director of the You Can Play Project.

The Blade caught up with Davis a few weeks after the completion of the first You Belong Leadership Camp held in Chicago through July 28th.

 

Washington Blade: Congratulations on the first leadership camp.  How did it go?

Wade Davis:  It was life changing. There is a lack of resources for LGBTQA youth and it was great to be able to share with these kids that they have options going forward.

 

Blade:  Who made up your group of youths?

Davis:  We had 40 in attendance that ranged in age from 14 to 22. There was a nice mix of LGBT and straight and most of them were marginally housed. There was a familiar bond as many of them were facing the same struggles.

 

Blade: How did the kids find out about the Leadership Camp and what were they offered over the course of the four days?

Davis:  We worked with the City of Chicago, the Mayor’s Office and the Center on Halstead to find youth who might benefit from the program. The program was a series of workshops that focused on team building, anti-bullying, safe space and nutrition among other things. There was also a series of speakers that spoke to the kids over the course of the weekend.

WNBA player Tangela Smith, WNBA & NBA consultant Donnie Arey, NBA player and coach Bill Cartwright, NBA players Jarron and Jason Collins, NFL player Marques Sullivan, transgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox, You Can Play founder Patrick Burke and Go! Athletes founder Anna Aegenes were all at the camp to interact with the youth.

 

Blade: How did you come up with that list of speakers?

Davis:  Each one of them brought a different perspective that the kids will be able to use going forward. Bill Cartwright who is 7’1″ shared with them how he felt different growing up because of his height. Playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney of “Choir Boy” fame came in as the closing speaker, which was a nice way to share something with the kids outside of sports. Over the course of the four days, we ran through all the gamut of emotions. We laughed, we cried, we danced.

 

Blade: What are the plans for the camps going forward?

Davis:  In 2014, we are planning to have three Leadership Camps and the length of them will probably be reduced to three days. I am thinking football will be the focus of one and track and field the focus of another one. We are hoping that the third one will be directed at female youth and at some point we would like to work with trans-identified youth. The scheduling is the difficult part as the camp has to be in the off-season of the targeted sport so the professional athletes can be involved.

 

Blade: Congratulations on the new position at You Can Play.

Davis:  Yes, I was not expecting there to be this much attention. I think part of it is that I will be one of the few African-American gay men leading a national LGBT organization.

 

Blade: This is a full-time paid position. Are you leaving Hetrick-Martin?

Davis:  My last day at Hetrick-Martin will be on Sept. 6. I will still be based in New York, so I fully intend to continue stopping in to see the kids. There is so much to learn from them.

 

Blade:  How will your new position at You Can Play affect your work at You Belong?

Davis:  Both projects will continue on their respective missions and I expect them to work together cohesively. You Can Play will offer access to professional athletes for the You Belong Leadership Camps. You Belong will offer a youth audience to further the mission of You Can Play.  I think there will be great synergy.

 

Blade:  I know from talking to you in prior conversations that you are a huge sports fan and love to compete. What are you doing to stay in shape?

Davis:  I am the captain of the national travel team for the New York Gay Flag Football League and generally use my birthday at the end of July as my launching pad to be in great shape for Gay Bowl in October. I don’t want to give anyone the opportunity to say that they outplayed the former professional football player.

 

Blade: Tell me about the book you are writing.

Davis:  It is called “Interference” and it is the story of my journey so far. It has actually evolved over the past year because of all the changes in my path. Now it will include educational tools for people who are interested in getting involved in social justice. It will be on the newsstands in late 2014.

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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

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(Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

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.

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National

Medical groups file lawsuit over Trump deletion of health information

Crucial datasets included LGBTQ, HIV resources

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HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is named as a defendant in the lawsuit. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

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.

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U.S. Federal Courts

Federal judge scraps trans-inclusive workplace discrimination protections

Ruling appears to contradict US Supreme Court precedent

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Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Screen capture: YouTube)

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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