News
Schumer latest to oppose Mark Green over nominee’s anti-LGBT views
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has come out against the nomination of Mark Green. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has become the latest to come out against the confirmation of Mark Green over the nominee’s anti-LGBT views, urging his fellow members of the Democratic caucus to reject his appointment as Army secretary.
“I will oppose Mr. Green’s nomination and urge all my colleagues – Republicans and Democrats alike – in the Senate to do so as well,” Schumer said. “If President Trump is serious about his pledge to be a president for all Americans, he should abandon consideration of Mr. Green for this position and nominate someone who can faithfully lead and represent all members of the United States Army.”
In addition to Green’s anti-LGBT views, Schumer cited the nominee’s comments against Muslims and in support of constricting access to birth control.
“While I deeply appreciate and applaud his record of service to this nation, I feel that Mr. Green’s intolerant, extreme and deeply disturbing views, and disparaging comments toward the LGBTQ community, Muslims, Latinos and other groups of Americans – all of whom play important roles in the Army and in our country – are dangerous to morale, cohesion and readiness of our Armed Services and the fabric of America,” Schumer said.
As a Tennessee state legislator, Green spearheaded that would have barred municipalities from enacting pro-LGBT non-discrimination ordinances and another bill seeking to bar transgender students from using the restroom consistent with their gender identity.
During a town hall event in Tennessee before the Chattanooga Tea Party last year, Green equated being transgender to having a “disease,” a view major medical organizations have rejected. The LGBT media watchdog GLAAD also uncovered audio of Green on an online radio show in which he said he wants to “crush evil” by keeping transgender women from the restroom, comparing them to ISIS.
Nominated by President Trump last month, Green may not have sufficient support for confirmation as a result of a campaign that LGBT rights supporters launched targeting him over his anti-LGBT views. On Tuesday, CNN reported the nomination of Trump’s Army secretary is “in serious jeopardy, and he could be withdrawing as soon as this week.” According to the report, the nomination is in jeopardy as a result of concerns on both sides of the aisle.
Among those who have expressed concerns over Green is Senate Armed Services Committee John McCain (R-Ariz.). Although McCain didn’t express outright opposition to Green, the senator said he’s troubled by “a broad variety” of the nominee’s comments “concerning the Muslim faith, concerning the LGBT community, other issues according to the comments he has made in the past.”
Also opposing Green is House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who called on Trump to recall nomination, 31 other House Democrats, Muslim Advocates and 22 current and former faculty members at service academies, war colleges and other military universities/
Iran
Grenell: ‘Real hope’ for gay rights in Iran as result of nationwide protests
Former ambassador to Germany claimed he has sneaked ‘gays and lesbians out of’ country
Richard Grenell, the presidential envoy for special missions of the United States, said on X on Tuesday that he has helped “sneak gays and lesbians out of Iran” and is seeing a change in attitudes in the country.
The post, which now has more than 25,000 likes since its uploading, claims that attitudes toward gays and lesbians are shifting amid massive economic protests across the country.
“For the first time EVER, someone has said ‘I want to wait just a bit,” the former U.S. ambassador to Germany wrote. “There is real hope coming from the inside. I don’t think you can stop this now.”
Grenell has been a longtime supporter of the president.
“Richard Grenell is a fabulous person, A STAR,” Trump posted on Truth Social days before his official appointment to the ambassador role. “He will be someplace, high up! DJT”
Iran, which is experiencing demonstrations across all 31 provinces of the country — including in Tehran, the capital — started as a result of a financial crisis causing the collapse of its national currency. Time magazine credits this uprising after the U.N. re-imposed sanctions in September over the country’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
As basic necessities like bread, rice, meat, and medical supplies become increasingly unaffordable to the majority of the more than 90 million people living there, citizens took to the streets to push back against Iran’s theocratic regime.
Grenell, who was made president and executive director of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last year by Trump, believes that people in the majority Shiite Muslim country are also beginning to protest human rights abuses.
Iran is among only a handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Virginia
Mark Levine loses race to succeed Adam Ebbin in ‘firehouse’ Democratic primary
State Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker won with 70.6 percent of vote
Gay former Virginia House of Delegates member Mark Levine (D-Alexandria) lost his race to become the Democratic nominee to replace gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) in a Jan. 13 “firehouse” Democratic primary.
Levine finished in second place in the hastily called primary, receiving 807 votes or 17.4 percent. The winner in the four-candidate race, state Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, who was endorsed by both Ebbin and Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger received 3,281 votes or 70.6 percent.
Ebbin, whose 39th Senate District includes Alexandria and parts of Arlington and Fairfax Counties, announced on Jan. 7 that he was resigning effective Feb. 18, to take a job in the Spanberger administration as senior advisor at the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority.
Results of the Jan. 13 primary, which was called by Democratic Party leaders in Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax, show that candidates Charles Sumpter, a World Wildlife Fund director, finished in third place with 321 voters or 6.9 percent; and Amy Jackson, the former Alexandria vice mayor, finished in fourth place with 238 votes or 5.1 percent.
Bennett-Parker, who LGBTQ community advocates consider a committed LGBTQ ally, will now compete as the Democratic nominee in a Feb. 10 special election in which registered voters in the 39th District of all political parties and independents will select Ebbin’s replacement in the state senate.
The Alexandria publication ALX Now reports that local realtor Julie Robben Linebery has been selected by the Alexandria Republican City Committee to be the GOP candidate to compete in the Jan. 10 special election. According to ALX Now, Lineberry was the only application to run in a now cancelled special party caucus type event initially called to select the GOP nominees.
It couldn’t immediately be determined if an independent or other party candidate planned to run in the special election.
Bennett-Parker is considered the strong favorite to win the Feb. 10 special election in the heavily Democratic 39th District, where Democrat Ebbin has served as senator since 2012.
Congress
Van Hollen speaks at ‘ICE Out for Good’ protest in D.C.
ICE agent killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is among those who spoke at an “ICE Out for Good” protest that took place outside U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s headquarters in D.C. on Tuesday.
The protest took place six days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis.
Good left behind her wife and three children.
(Video by Michael K. Lavers)
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