National
Supreme Court next stop for argument gays protected under Title VII
Redress could set up decision in favor of protections nationwide
The U.S. Supreme Court (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key).
The legal team behind a lawsuit seeking redress for a Georgia worker allegedly fired for being a lesbian is poised to seek review from the U.S. Supreme Court, potentially setting up a decision establishing a nationwide prohibition on anti-gay workplace discrimination.
The plan came about after the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta refused on Thursday to rehear “en banc,” or before the full court, a three-judge panel decision against Jameka Evans, a security guard who claims she was targeted for harassment and effectively terminated from her job at Georgia Regional Hospital for being a lesbian.
In March, the three-judge panel ruled Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars employment discrimination on the basis of sex, affords no protections to Evans, rebuking arguments sexual-orientation discrimination is a form a sex discrimination. Cited as reasoning for the decision was legal precedent in the circuit, such as the 1979 decision in Blum v. Gulf Oil Corp.
On Thursday, the full 11th Circuit denied the request filed by Lambda Legal to reconsider that decision “en banc” in a per curiam decision signed by U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez, who’s sitting on the 11th Circuit by designation.
“The Petition(s) for Rehearing are DENIED and no Judge in regular active service on the Court having requested that the Court be polled on rehearing en banc (Rule 35, Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure), the Petition(s) for Rehearing En Banc are DENIED,” the decision said.
The 11th Circuit decision against Evans and the refusal to rehear the case “en banc” defies a growing body of casework that has determined sexual-orientation discrimination in the workplace is unlawful under current law based on the prohibition of sex discrimination under Title VII.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency charged with enforcing federal employment laws, ruled in 2015 sexual-orientation is a form a sex discrimination in the Baldwin v. Foxx case. That decision followed the commission’s 2012 decision in Macy v. Holder that determined transgender discrimination is illegal under Title VII.
A number of trial courts and state courts have accepted that line of legal reasoning. In April, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals during an “en banc” review of a lawsuit filed by fired lesbian teacher Kimberly Hively determined her termination was unlawful, becoming the first federal appeals court to find sexual-orientation discrimination is sex discrimination.
Now that the 11th Circuit had ruled the opposite way on the Title VII and all legal remedies in that legal circuit are exhausted, a circuit split has emerged between the 7th and 11th Circuit — the exact kind of situation that would make the Supreme Court step in.
Greg Nevins, counsel to Evans and Employment Fairness Project Director for Lambda Legal, told the Washington Blade what was initially not a clear circuit split among the courts “all changed” as result of the 11th Circuit decision not to rehear the Evans case.
“It’s unbelievable that they did this because they had the oldest — and lamest — precedent of any of them, and to then say, ‘We’re good here,’ is really unthinkable,” Nevins said.
Despite his disappointment, Nevins said the “crystal clear” circuit split leaves a path forward that could lead to the Supreme Court issuing a ruling to make nationwide guidance.
“We’re set up to file for cert before the Supreme Court and ask them to resolve this once and for all and say on a national level that you cannot file people under federal law for being lesbian, gay or bisexual,” Nevins said.
Asked by the Blade when the petition would be filed, Nevins said the legal team is seeking consultation with the plaintiff and others, but nonetheless “our current thinking is they’ve given us the green light, they’ve actually, you could say, forced our hand.”
But if the Supreme Court rules against protections for gay, lesbian and bisexual workers under Title VII as a result of the review, the decision could undo the sexual-orientation protections found by some courts and the EEOC.
Lambda Legal seeks to take up the issue with the Supreme Court two years after its decision in favor of marriage equality nationwide, but shortly after the confirmation of U.S. Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch.
The Trump-appointed justice — along with U.S. Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — dissented in a recent ruling reaffirming that marriage-equality decision in a case overturning a birth certificate decision for lesbian parents by the Arkansas Supreme Court.
The court with Gorsuch on the bench also agreed to take up a lawsuit filed by Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado, which is asserting a First Amendment right to be able to refuse services for religious reasons to same-sex couples seeking a wedding cake.
Recalling Gorsuch’s admiration for the late U.S. Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, who despite his anti-gay dissents agreed in the 1998 Oncale decision Title VII should be read broadly, Nevins was the optimistic about the outcome of this case before the Supreme Court and said Gorsuch should pay heed to that decision.
“If Justice Gorsuch is truly a disciple of Justice Scalia and really believes sort of the same textualist arguments that Justice Scalia was a champion of, then we should be just fine,” Nevins said.
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
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.
National
Medical groups file lawsuit over Trump deletion of health information
Crucial datasets included LGBTQ, HIV resources
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.
U.S. Federal Courts
Federal judge scraps trans-inclusive workplace discrimination protections
Ruling appears to contradict US Supreme Court precedent
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.
Calendar: May 23-29
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