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Rep. Scalise among victims in Va. shooting

LGBT groups among those condemning attack

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Rep. Steve Scalise was shot Wednesday. (Photo by Gage Skidmore; courtesy Flickr)

The high-profile victim in a shooting Wednesday at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria has a long anti-LGBT history — and LGBT groups are among those condemning the violence against him.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) was taking part in practice as a member of the Republican congressional baseball team when he was shot in the hip. He was taken to MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Scalise was in stable condition.

Others who were shot at the practice were Capitol Police officers. Although they were wounded, their injuries weren’t life threatening, according to the Associated Press. The shooter was killed by police.

A former chair of the conservative House Republican Study Committee, Scalise has built over the course of his tenure in Congress since 2008 among the most anti-LGBT reputations of any lawmaker.

Earning a “0” on the Human Rights Campaign’s congressional scorecard, Scalise voted against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal and hate crimes protection legislation. In the last Congress, Scalise was among the 130 co-sponsors of the First Amendment Defense Act, a federal “religious freedom” bill seen to enable anti-LGBT discrimination.

As a member of House Republican leadership, he’s responsible for the lack of votes on pro-LGBT legislation on the House floor. When Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) introduced an amendment upholding President Obama’s 2014 executive order against anti-LGBT workplace discrimination, Scalise was reportedly among House leaders who convinced seven Republicans to switch their votes to ensure the measure would fail.

When a federal judge upheld Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriage as constitutional in 2014, Scalise hailed the decision during an appearance on the anti-LGBT Family Research Council’s radio program as “an important win for marriage.”

Scalise has also faced charges of racism that nearly derailed his election as House majority whip. The lawmaker once spoke at a meeting of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, founded by Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.

Despite Scalise’s history, LGBT groups and advocates were among those issuing statements condemning the violence against him.

Roddy Flynn, executive director of the LGBT Equality Caucus, said “our thoughts and prayers are with Whip Scalise and all of those injured in this senseless shooting.”

“The tradition of congressional baseball is a lighthearted custom that brings the parties together in friendship,” Flynn said. “For this gunman to target members of Congress and staff preparing for this charitable event is a particularly insidious attack on the very institution.”

Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin also expressed solidarity with the victims in a statement.

“We stand in solidarity and unity with those injured in this horrific attack and hope for their speedy recovery,” Griffin said. “We condemn all forms of violence, and moments like these remind us of the need to work together in finding commonsense solutions to gun violence, hate-motivated violence, and terrorism. The swift response of the U.S. Capitol Police and first responders is testament to their selfless service to our nation.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement the shooting was a “despicable and cowardly attack” on members of Congress.

“My thoughts and prayers are with Whip Steve Scalise and the others wounded, Capitol Police and staff, and their families,” Pelosi added.

The suspected shooter in the incident was identified as Illinois resident James T. Hodgkinson. Capitol Hill forces shot him as he was firing on the grounds and he was taken to the hospital. In a statement at the White House after the shooting, President Trump broke the news Hodgkinson “has now died from his injuries.”

Jason Lindsay, executive director of Pride Fund to End Gun Violence, said in a statement the shooting is “another reminder that no one is safe when access to guns is so easy.”

“We’re heartbroken and horrified for those involved as well as the community as a whole,” Lindsay said. “And while details are still coming together and the motive of the shooter is unclear, this incident is yet another illustration of the need for common sense gun reforms. This shooting comes just two days after our nation reflected on the one year mark of the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando that killed 49 people, injured 53, and emotionally scarred countless others.”

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Virginia

Va. Senate committee approves resolution to repeal marriage amendment

Outgoing state Sen. Adam Ebbin introduced SJ3

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(Bigstock photo)

The Virginia Senate Privileges and Elections Committee on Wednesday by a 10-4 vote margin approved a resolution that seeks to repeal a state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Outgoing state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) introduced SJ3.

Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Virginia since 2014. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2024 signed a bill that codified marriage equality in state law.

A resolution that seeks to repeal the Marshall-Newman Amendment passed in the General Assembly in 2021. The resolution passed again in 2025.

Two successive legislatures must approve the resolution before it can go to the ballot. Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates have said the resolution’s passage is among their 2026 legislative priorities.

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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

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Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in January 2025. (Washington Blade Photo by Michael Key)

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’s post on X)

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.

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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

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Former Va. state Del. Mark Levine (D-Alexandria)

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. 

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