National
Plaintiffs in Virginia marriage lawsuit: We were Goliath
Tony London’s brother died hours before judge issued ruling
From left, Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin, lawyer Tom Shuttleworth, Carol Schall, Emily, Mary Townley, Adam Umhoefer, lawyers David Boies and Ted Olson, and plaintiff Tim Bostic (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
The two men earlier in the day found out that London’s brother had passed away.
“We were at home in the den waiting to hear about plans so that we could make our trip to Texas,” Bostic told the Washington Blade on Friday, noting he ignored his cell phone when his lawyers called it to let him and London know about Allen’s ruling. “The home phone rang and it was the same number and I was like, that’s really odd. So I picked it up and that was them letting us know the decision had come down.”
Bostic and London – who challenged Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban alongside Carol Schall and Mary Townley of Chesterfield – were among the more than 400 people who gathered at Decorum Furniture in Norfolk on Friday to celebrate Allen’s ruling.
“We are so proud to be proud Virginians,” said Hampton Roads Pride President Laurel Quarberg.
Lieutenant Gov. Ralph Northam also attended the event that Blaine Stewart, an anchor on WKTR, a Norfolk television station, emceed.
“We shouldn’t as a government be telling people who they should and shouldn’t love,” Northam told the Blade. “In 2014 one should be able to love and marry who they want. They should be able to be in the workplace without discrimination and they should be able to raise children as they so choose. It’s a big day for Virginia.”
Same-sex marriage supporters also celebrated Allen’s ruling at a number of gatherings that had been previously scheduled across the state to coincide with Valentine’s Day.
Alexandria Mayor William D. Euille joined a rally for marriage equality at the Alexandria City Courthouse on Valentine’s Day. Couples proceeded from the rally into the courthouse to request a marriage license, but were denied due to state law. The rally in Alexandria was one of several held throughout the state. (Washington Blade photo by Damien Salas)
More than a dozen people unfurled a rainbow banner outside the Virginia Beach Circuit Court before two couples sought to apply for marriage licenses. They included Teresa C. Phillips and Joyce Ann Davis of Chesapeake, who married last October in Delaware on their 33rd anniversary.
Phillips, who spent more than two decades in the U.S. Army, told the Blade as she and Davis walked to the courthouse that the Pentagon gave her spouse an identification card allowing her to receive benefits after they tied the knot in Delaware. Phillips said she and Davis were “elated” to hear Allen’s ruling, but acknowledged “we still have a long way to go” before she and other gays and lesbians can marry in the commonwealth.
“I want to get married in Virginia,” Phillips told the Blade.
Attorney General Mark Herring, who announced last month he would not defend the marriage amendment in court, described Allen’s 41-page decision as “a victory for the Constitution and for treating everyone equally under the law.” Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Equality Virginia Executive Director James Parrish and gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) are among those also applauded the decision.
The Family Foundation of Virginia, the National Organization for Marriage, House Speaker Bill Howell (R-Stafford County) and state Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William County) and others criticized the ruling – and Herring in particular for not defending the marriage amendment that Virginia voters in 2006 approved by a 57-43 percent margin.
“She opened her order before the word other with a rather poetic quote,” former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli told Bruce DePuyt of News Channel 8 on Friday, referring to Allen’s decision to begin her ruling with a quote from Mildred Loving on the 40th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down Virginia’s interracial marriage ban. “It rather undermined her objectivity. She clearly had a view coming in. We expect judges to look at these things more objectively.”
Schall and Townley, whose daughter Emily just turned 16, have also faced questions from same-sex marriage opponents about whether gay couples should raise children.
“Now we know that most of America doesn’t agree with the view of those few,” London told the Blade. “Those few still have the right to make any kind of statement that they want to however they want to as long as its within the boundaries of the law. We’re perfectly happy to see them come up there because we know there is no argument, there’s just no argument at all.”
Bostic added he felt sorry for the lawyers who were defending the marriage amendment during the Feb. 4 oral arguments in their case.
Allen stayed her ruling, pending the outcome of an appeal.
“It felt like David and Goliath… except this time we were Goliath,” he said. “We were expecting less support and more opposition from the get go. I do believe in Virginians, but it was just this idea all of a sudden there were more people on our side than we were hearing negative. It’s a good feeling.”
As Bostic and London spoke with this reporter at Decorum Furniture in Norfolk, a woman whose girlfriend of 16 years passed away two weeks ago thanked the men for filing their lawsuit against the marriage amendment.
“What you guys did was great,” she said.
“That is why we’re doing this,” London told the Blade after the woman spoke with him and Bostic. “16 years and they have nothing left. They have no rights in this state at all. Whatever they built together is gone.”
U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court to consider bans on trans athletes in school sports
27 states have passed laws limiting participation in athletics programs
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear two cases involving transgender youth challenging bans prohibiting them from participating in school sports.
In Little v. Hecox, plaintiffs represented by the ACLU, Legal Voice, and the law firm Cooley are challenging Idaho’s 2020 ban, which requires sex testing to adjudicate questions of an athlete’s eligibility.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals described the process in a 2023 decision halting the policy’s enforcement pending an outcome in the litigation. The “sex dispute verification process, whereby any individual can ‘dispute’ the sex of any female student athlete in the state of Idaho,” the court wrote, would “require her to undergo intrusive medical procedures to verify her sex, including gynecological exams.”
In West Virginia v. B.P.J., Lambda Legal, the ACLU, the ACLU of West Virginia, and Cooley are representing a trans middle school student challenging the Mountain State’s 2021 ban on trans athletes.
The plaintiff was participating in cross country when the law was passed, taking puberty blockers that would have significantly reduced the chances that she could have a physiological advantage over cisgender peers.
“Like any other educational program, school athletic programs should be accessible for everyone regardless of their sex or transgender status,” said Joshua Block, senior counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ and HIV Project. “Trans kids play sports for the same reasons their peers do — to learn perseverance, dedication, teamwork, and to simply have fun with their friends,” Block said.
He added, “Categorically excluding kids from school sports just because they are transgender will only make our schools less safe and more hurtful places for all youth. We believe the lower courts were right to block these discriminatory laws, and we will continue to defend the freedom of all kids to play.”
“Our client just wants to play sports with her friends and peers,” said Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Tara Borelli. “Everyone understands the value of participating in team athletics, for fitness, leadership, socialization, and myriad other benefits.”
Borelli continued, “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit last April issued a thoughtful and thorough ruling allowing B.P.J. to continue participating in track events. That well-reasoned decision should stand the test of time, and we stand ready to defend it.”
Shortly after taking control of both legislative chambers, Republican members of Congress tried — unsuccessfully — to pass a national ban like those now enforced in 27 states since 2020.
Federal Government
UPenn erases Lia Thomas’s records as part of settlement with White House
University agreed to ban trans women from women’s sports teams
In a settlement with the Trump-Vance administration announced on Tuesday, the University of Pennsylvania will ban transgender athletes from competing and erase swimming records set by transgender former student Lia Thomas.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found the university in violation of Title IX, the federal rights law barring sex based discrimination in educational institutions, by “permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”
The statement issued by University of Pennsylvania President J. Larry Jameson highlighted how the law’s interpretation was changed substantially under President Donald Trump’s second term.
“The Department of Education OCR investigated the participation of one transgender athlete on the women’s swimming team three years ago, during the 2021-2022 swim season,” he wrote. “At that time, Penn was in compliance with NCAA eligibility rules and Title IX as then interpreted.”
Jameson continued, “Penn has always followed — and continues to follow — Title IX and the applicable policy of the NCAA regarding transgender athletes. NCAA eligibility rules changed in February 2025 with Executive Orders 14168 and 14201 and Penn will continue to adhere to these new rules.”
Writing that “we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules” in place while Thomas was allowed to compete, the university president added, “We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.”
“Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the university for future generations of female athletes.”
Under former President Joe Biden, the department’s Office of Civil Rights sought to protect against anti-LGBTQ discrimination in education, bringing investigations and enforcement actions in cases where school officials might, for example, require trans students to use restrooms and facilities consistent with their birth sex or fail to respond to peer harassment over their gender identity.
Much of the legal reasoning behind the Biden-Harris administration’s positions extended from the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County, which found that sex-based discrimination includes that which is based on sexual orientation or gender identity under Title VII rules covering employment practices.
The Trump-Vance administration last week put the state of California on notice that its trans athlete policies were, or once were, in violation of Title IX, which comes amid the ongoing battle with Maine over the same issue.
New York
Two teens shot steps from Stonewall Inn after NYC Pride parade
One of the victims remains in critical condition
On Sunday night, following the annual NYC Pride March, two girls were shot in Sheridan Square, feet away from the historic Stonewall Inn.
According to an NYPD report, the two girls, aged 16 and 17, were shot around 10:15 p.m. as Pride festivities began to wind down. The 16-year-old was struck in the head and, according to police sources, is said to be in critical condition, while the 17-year-old was said to be in stable condition.
The Washington Blade confirmed with the NYPD the details from the police reports and learned no arrests had been made as of noon Monday.
The shooting took place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, mere feet away from the most famous gay bar in the city — if not the world — the Stonewall Inn. Earlier that day, hundreds of thousands of people marched down Christopher Street to celebrate 55 years of LGBTQ people standing up for their rights.
In June 1969, after police raided the Stonewall Inn, members of the LGBTQ community pushed back, sparking what became known as the Stonewall riots. Over the course of two days, LGBTQ New Yorkers protested the discriminatory policing of queer spaces across the city and mobilized to speak out — and throw bottles if need be — at officers attempting to suppress their existence.
The following year, LGBTQ people returned to the Stonewall Inn and marched through the same streets where queer New Yorkers had been arrested, marking the first “Gay Pride March” in history and declaring that LGBTQ people were not going anywhere.
New York State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, whose district includes Greenwich Village, took to social media to comment on the shooting.
“After decades of peaceful Pride celebrations — this year gun fire and two people shot near the Stonewall Inn is a reminder that gun violence is everywhere,” the lesbian lawmaker said on X. “Guns are a problem despite the NRA BS.”
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