News
Gay former U.S. ambassador drops congressional bid
Gay U.S. ambassador Daniel Baerhas dropped his congressional campaign. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key).
A gay foreign policy expert who worked on international LGBT rights and served as U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security & Cooperation in Europe has dropped his short-lived bid for a congressional seat in Colorado.
Daniel Baer, who had sought the Democratic nomination to run in Colorado’s 7th congressional district, announced in a statement Thursday he’d suspend his campaign in the aftermath of incumbent Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) deciding to run for re-election.
“When Ed Perlmutter decided to re-enter the race, I took time to reflect on how to move forward,” Baer said. “Running against Ed wasn’t the race I had planned; but while the race had changed, my reasons for running had not. In the end I concluded that while there would be purpose in continuing my campaign, it was less clear that there was wisdom in doing so.”
Baer had declared his candidacy in August for the congressional seat after Perlmutter, a six-term member of Congress, announced he’d retire Congress. Initially, Perlmutter had sought to become governor of Colorado, but dropped that campaign. (Rep. Jared Polis, a gay lawmaker, is still in the Colorado gubernatorial race). Weeks later in August, Perlmutter announced he’d, in fact, seek re-election to Congress.
“Ed works hard to stay connected to folks in our community and he clearly loves being our representative,” Baer said. “I’ll work hard to get Ed re-elected. I’ll send him a check, sign up to knock on doors, and urge my friends to vote for him. I hope everyone else will too.”
Under the Obama administration, Baer served not only as U.S. envoy to OSCE, but deputy assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor, where his portfolio included LGBT international human rights issues. After his appointment as U.S. ambassador, Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons Randy Berry took over the LGBT portfolio at the State Department.
Baer was one of a record number of openly LGBT congressional candidates seeking election ahead of the 2018 midterm election. Other LGBT candidates of note are Maryland State Sen. Rich Madeleno, who seeking to become governor of Maryland; Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who’s seeking re-election in Wisconsin; and Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who’s running for U.S. Senate in Arizona.
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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