National
Westin Atlanta Hotel disputes anti-gay bias allegation
Gay guests say they were ejected from area ‘reserved for families’
A D.C. gay man claims he and several friends were asked to leave a Westin Hotel lounge in Atlanta.
The general manager of the Westin Atlanta Airport Hotel has apologized to a group of five gay and lesbian guests who say a hotel security officer asked them to leave the hotel’s cocktail lounge in April because it was “reserved for families and others.”
In a May 19 letter responding to a written complaint to the hotel by D.C. resident K. David Weidner, one of the gay guests, hotel manager Bill Henderson said the security officer asked them to leave the lounge because they “brought in food from the outside.”
“Because food sales are a core business for us, we reserve our outlet space for guests who want to purchase our food and beverages,” Henderson said in his letter.
But Weidner, the co-founder and president of a D.C.-based consulting firm, told the Washington Blade that his two gay male and two lesbian friends who were with him distinctly recall the security officer stressing that the lounge was “reserved” for families and other patrons whom he declined to define.
Weidner said he and his group had just returned from attending a funeral in Montgomery, Ala., for a mutual friend. He said he and the two males with him were dressed in dark suits and ties and the two women wore black dresses.
“We decided that before we changed clothes and refreshed ourselves we wanted to toast our dear friend whom we’d just buried in Montgomery,” Weidner told Henderson in a May 19 letter complaining about the security officer’s handling of the situation.
Weidner told the Blade he brought in $6 worth of crackers and chips he bought from the hotel’s sundry shop located steps away from the cocktail lounge. But he said he has no recollection of the security officer raising the issue of food when he asked his group to leave the lounge and directed them to a nearby dining room that Weidner said had “dirty tables” and no servers.
Before being asked to leave the lounge the group ordered a round of drinks, which a friendly server brought to their table, Weidner told Henderson in his letter. “But she was barely out of sight and we had barely a chance to toast our departed friend when a gentlemen approached our table and identified himself as the director of security,” Weidner said in his letter.
“He said in a rather direct and impolite tone that ‘we would have to remove ourselves from the table, as this area is reserved for families and others.’”
According to Weidner’s account, the security official then said they could enjoy their beverages in a nearby room called the “Revivals” area, which the group later described as a poorly lit space with two dirty tables.
“The five of us looked at each other – we were absolutely stunned,” Weidner said in his letter. “I asked the director of security to define ‘families and others.’ He replied that our party was ‘not welcome to sit at this reserved space, but that we would be welcome in the Revivals area,” Weidner said in his letter to Henderson. “He never did explain what ‘families and others’ meant.”
In response to an inquiry from the Blade, Katie Roberts, an official with a public relations firm representing the Starwood Westin Hotels chain, said the company has a strict policy of non-discrimination and is especially welcoming to the LGBT community.
“The interaction with Mr. Weidner’s group was most unfortunate and poorly handled by the Westin Atlanta Airport associate, but it was in no way discriminatory,” Roberts said in a statement.
“The only reason Mr. Weidner’s group was asked to move to another area was because they had brought in food from the outside into an area where the hotel serves food,” she said. “Starwood has zero tolerance of discrimination of any kind.”
Roberts noted that the Starwood hotel chain works closely with and supports “LGBT rights organizations” and is pleased that the Human Rights Campaign Foundation has recognized Starwood for “nine straight years as one of the ‘Top Employers’ for LGBT equality.”
Weidner said he’s skeptical about the explanations offered by the Westin Atlanta Airport Hotel and its PR firm, and noted that hotel officials did not respond to his requests for an explanation and an apology until the Blade began making inquiries to the Westin.
Upon learning that the city of Atlanta has a human rights law that bans discrimination against LGBT people, Weidner said he’s considering filing a discrimination complaint against the hotel.
“We understand your disappointment and assure you your experience was the exception to our usual guest experience,” Henderson told Weidner in his letter dated June 1. “We have reviewed your comments with our Director of Security to insure the officer is retrained and your experience is not repeated.”
But PR official Roberts told the Blade in a follow-up email that a female restaurant manager approached Weidner and his group first, informing them that they could not bring their own food into the lounge and would have to move.
“Although they did not verbally refuse to move, they remained in the lounge,” Roberts said. “That is when Security was contacted, and the Security officer stated he also mentioned that outside food consumption was not allowed in that area,” she said.
According to Roberts, the security officer told hotel officials “he did not tell the guests they had to move because it was being reserved for ‘families and others.’”
“My goodness, this is heating up,” said Weidner when asked about Roberts’s account of what happened. “Curious…curious,” he said in an email. “The fact that they are responding in this way leads me to speculate there is more going on here than ‘snacks.’”
He disputed the claim by Roberts that the security officer brought up the issue of food being brought in by his group.
“He only told us we were not welcome to stay in the bar because it was reserved for ‘families and others,’” said Weidner.
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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