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Melissa Etheridge: I would go to Sochi ‘with bells on’

Singer recently co-launched campaign for LGBT Russians

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Melissa Etheridge, United States Department of Justice, gay news, Washington Blade, LGBT Pride

(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Melissa Etheridge told the Washington Blade during an interview on Dec. 13 that she would travel to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in spite of the country’s ongoing LGBT rights crackdown.

“I would be there with bells on,” she said. “I would love to go offer support, offer visibility, stand there just as a known gay person.”

Etheridge, a two-time Grammy winning singer and songwriter, spoke with the Blade four days after she joined “Milk” producer Bruce Cohen and Anastasia Smirnova of the Russian LGBT Network at the formal launch of the “Uprising of Love” campaign during a Russia Freedom Fund fundraiser in New York. Dustin Lance Black — the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “Milk” and “8” — co-founded this effort with Etheridge and her partner, Linda Wallem, and entertainment executive Greg Propper as a way to further support Russian LGBT rights advocates.

Etheridge, who debuted her song “Uprising of Love” during the New York fundraiser, noted to the Blade the American LGBT rights movement in 2013 reached what she described as a “tipping point” on marriage rights for same-sex couples and other issues. She also attended a United Nations panel on homophobia and transphobia in sports on Dec. 10 that featured retired tennis champion Martina Navratilova, former Washington Wizards center Jason Collins, South African activist Thandeka “Tumi” Mkhuma, intersex advocate Huda Viloria, U.S. Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic and Smirnova and gay MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts who moderated it.

“You kind of look abroad afterwards and I did,” said Etheridge, referencing civil rights activists who began to campaign against Apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s.

Etheridge spoke to the Blade hours after retired Olympic diver Greg Louganis said during a separate interview with the Blade after he took part in a Capitol Hill briefing organized by Human Rights First that Roberts shouldn’t have hosted last month’s Miss Universe 2013 pageant in Moscow. Louganis, who opposes a boycott of the Sochi games over Russia’s LGBT rights record, also questioned gay singer Elton John’s decision to perform in the Russian capital.

“Of course this touches Greg deeply,” said Etheridge, once again noting she would travel to Sochi if she were invited to take part in the games. “He was an Olympic athlete and it’s completely understandable where he’s coming from and each of us have different paths and there is no one right way to do this. If each of us acts and behaves with our conscience we can move this forward.”

Mizeur’s chances of becoming next Md. guv ‘very great’

Etheridge remains friends with Maryland state Del. Heather Mizeur (D-Montgomery County) whom she met during the 2008 presidential campaign when she was courting Democratic superdelegates for then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)

She declined to tell the Blade how much money she has raised for Mizeur’s gubernatorial campaign, but stressed she has “donated time.”

“Her chances of becoming the next governor of Maryland are very great,” said Etheridge. “Her whole life has been about public service and being who she is. She’s one of the smartest people; most motivated, forward people. I love everything she’s doing there.”

Etheridge told the Blade she would support former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton if she were to run for president in 2016, in part, because she has “come a long way” on LGBT-specific issues since she ran against Obama in 2008.

“The way the Clinton administration did us in the 90s was very painful,” said Etheridge, referring to then-President Clinton signing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Defense of Marriage Act into law in 1993 and 1996 respectively. “I think now with her experience that she has and everything I would absolutely support her.”

Etheridge also said she is not surprised her comment during a separate Blade interview in June that actress Angelina Jolie’s decision to undergo a double mastectomy after discovering she carries a genetic mutation that increases her chances of developing breast cancer was not “the brave choice” sparked controversy.

“There was an untended meanness that might have come,” said Etheridge. “People might have thought I was being very cruel in what I was saying. Some of it was lost in where I was trying to come from.”

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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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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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