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Already Ready for Hillary

LGBT activists join campaign to persuade Clinton to run in 2016

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Lisa Changadveja, Hillary Clinton, Ready for Hillary, gay news, Washington Blade
Lisa Changadveja, Hillary Clinton, Ready for Hillary, gay news, Washington Blade

Lisa Changadveja was named as Ready for Hillary’s LGBT Americans Director. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Ready for Hillary, an independent super PAC created to urge former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to run for president in 2016, made its first visible outreach to the LGBT community in October when it set up a booth at the annual LGBT Pride festival in Orlando, Fla.

In a development that Ready for Hillary’s leaders believe is indicative of the sentiment of the LGBT community, the booth was inundated throughout the day by more than 900 people who signed up to get involved with the organization and a possible Clinton presidential campaign.

“We’re here to encourage her to run in 2016 because she has the grassroots support behind her and she has the LGBT community behind her if and when she decides to run,” said Lisa Changadveja, who was named in September as Ready for Hillary’s LGBT Americans Director.

Changadveja organized the Hillary booth at the Orlando Pride festival. She said she and other Ready for Hillary staffers along with a corps of volunteers and student interns will set up booths at LGBT Pride festivals throughout the country next year.

Under her supervision, Changadveja said, Ready for Hillary will also have a presence at important LGBT conferences and events other than Pride festivals, including the upcoming annual Creating Change Conference in Houston, organized by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

The Ready for Hillary outreach to the LGBT community comes at a time when Democratic Party activists and big name party contributors, including entertainment industry figures in Hollywood, have been clamoring for Clinton to enter the 2016 presidential race.

Changadveja, 25, a native of Atlanta, has worked on political campaigns since finishing college. She joined Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2007, working on get-out-the-vote efforts in the Nevada Democratic caucus and the Ohio and Indiana Democratic primaries. She worked on campaigns for Democratic candidates and progressive advocacy groups through earlier this year, when she served as a campaign manager for a lesbian candidate for the Texas House of Representatives in the Houston area.

“In her new role, Lisa will harness the enthusiasm of Hillary supporters in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community who are encouraging Hillary to run,” according to a statement released by Ready Hillary.

Although she’ll be traveling across the country, Changadveja works out of the Ready for Hillary headquarters on the fifth floor of a high-rise office building in the Rosslyn section of Arlington, Va.

“We have about 30 staffers across the nation,” she said. “We have tons of interns and volunteers in our office daily,” she added, noting that many of the interns come from nearby Georgetown University and George Washington University.

In its mid-year finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission, the group reported receiving $1.25 million in contributions between Jan. 1 and June 30 of this year and spending $469,000 during that same period to carry out its mission. The report says the organization had $784,641 in cash on hand as of June 30.

The group has announced it adopted a self-imposed cap of $25,000 as the maximum donation from an individual while at the same time it has encouraged and welcomed small donations. According to an internal memo obtained by ABC News in July, Ready for Hillary executive director Adam Parkhomenko reported that 75 percent of all donations received by the group were for $25 or less.

Among the contributors listed on the organization’s FEC report were Andrew Tobias, the gay treasurer of the Democratic National Committee and longtime LGBT rights advocate; Hilary Rosen, the lesbian Democratic activist and businesswoman; and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers who’s a lesbian and longtime LGBT rights advocate.

Gay rights attorney and political commentator Richard Socarides, who served as White House liaison to the LGBT community under President Bill Clinton, said he, too, wants Hillary Clinton to run in 2016.

“I hope she runs,” he said. “I’ve been helping Ready for Hillary informally. I think she would receive overwhelming support from the LGBT community. And it is richly deserved.”

Changadveja said most LGBT Democrats are familiar with Hillary Clinton’s record of support on LGBT issues beginning with her tenure as first lady and her role as a U.S. senator from New York through her stint as Secretary of State under the Obama administration.

For those not familiar with Clinton’s record, Changadveja is happy to fill them in.

“Hillary has been very active in the LGBT community and she’s been a longtime friend,” she said she tells potential supporters. In addition to Clinton’s support for LGBT rights legislation and marriage equality, her support for LGBT employees at the State Department, and her call as Secretary of State for equating LGBT rights with human rights, Changadveja adds a lesser known part of Clinton’s LGBT rights portfolio.

“She was the first first lady to march in a Gay Pride parade,” she said.

D.C. gay Democratic activist Peter Rosenstein, who backed Clinton in her unsuccessful presidential run in 2008, said he and many other LGBT Democrats in the D.C. area are excited about a Clinton run in 2016.

“They have over a million people who ‘liked’ them on Facebook,” Rosenstein said of the Ready for Hillary PAC.

D.C.-area supporters of Hillary Clinton are being invited to a “grassroots” fundraiser for Ready For Hillary scheduled for Dec. 12 at Look Lounge, a K Street, N.W. club. The admission price, Changadveja said, is $20.16, a figure the organization uses to encourage small donors.

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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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