Connect with us

National

Gill Action Fund ‘shut down’: sources

Spokesperson disputes claim; website offline

Published

on

Tim Gill (Image courtesy of YouTube)

The Gill Action Fund, a prominent LGBT political organization founded by gay philanthropist Tim Gill, has effectively been “shut down” according to two knowledgable sources.

Sources familiar with Gill Action said the recent departures of two individuals — Shawn Werner, who served as national political director, and Tim Meinke, who served as director of political outgiving — brought the group’s operations to an end.

A spokesperson confirmed the departures of the two employees, but said Gill Action continues its work. The only change is turning to a consultant model and one of the two employees was retained in that capacity, the spokesperson said.

Tim Gill and his spouse, Scott Miller, remain as engaged in political work as they’ve always been, the spokesperson said.

But one source insisted the departures — even if one is retained as a consultant — means the organization, which once had 15 employees working on political activities, has “shut down.”

“I don’t think anything exists anymore,” one source said. “It’s probably there on paper, but I know that they’re not really doing anything anymore.”

The spokesperson called the assertion Gill Action is closed “not true” and said the organization remains as active as it has been in previous capacities.

“There’s no change in the way that they’ve been doing business other than the fact that they are using consultants as opposed to using two employees in house,” the spokesperson said. “So the things that they have been funding and the things that they have been focused on for years are going to be the things that they continue to fund and continue to work on.”

As evidence of the organization’s closure, another source pointed to Gill Action’s website, which is no longer in operation. The spokesperson said the website had merely contained the bios of the two employees who left and is being redesigned, but couldn’t say when the website would be back online.

Meanwhile, the Gill Foundation, a Denver-based non-profit funder for LGBT causes, remains in operation as it has, both sources and the spokesperson said. Although the former CEO of the organization, Courtney Cuff, departed last week, the organization has launched a campaign to replace her.

No similar campaign is underway to find a new executive director for Gill Action and instead the consultants report directly to Tim Gill, the spokesperson said.

Founded in 2005, Gill Action has aimed to advance LGBT rights behind the scenes without attention in the public and the media. That’s consistent with Tim Gill’s mode of operation; he made a fortune as a founder of the software company Quark and has a reputation for being averse to media coverage.

Early efforts include a TV ad in 2006 against former Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), who introduced a U.S constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage nationwide. Instead of targeting her for the anti-gay measure, the ad featured a depiction of Musgrave pilfering the graves of fallen U.S. troops during the height of the Iraq war. Musgrave didn’t lose that year, but lost her seat during the Obama Democratic wave in the 2008 election.

In 2010, when the New York State Senate failed to approve a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage in the state, Gill Action launched a campaign called Fight Back New York, which sought to oust Democrats who voted “no.” The campaign successfully ousted three senators in the Democratic primaries, replacing them with candidates who supported same-sex marriage. New York legalized same-sex marriage in 2011.

Among the efforts in which Gill Action was engaged was passing state legislation and lobbying. In recent years, the group has sought to pass LGBT non-discrimination legislation in Michigan, but that effort failed after lawmakers wouldn’t agree to pass a trans-inclusive bill. Gill Action and others opposed the bill.

Gill Action has also had a role in managing the annual OutGiving conference, an effort for high-dollar donors seeking to give to causes that advance LGBT rights. The conference is for funders and philanthropists whose annual giving to LGBT causes exceeds $25,000. This year, OutGiving took place in May in Miami.

Traditionally, Gill Action has hosted OutGiving in even-numbered years and Gill Foundation has hosted it in odd-numbered years. The Gill Action years were political in nature, and the Gill Foundation years were philanthropic in nature.

A spokesperson said, however, the model changed in 2014. The political OutGiving was dropped in favor of regional conferences for political donors, while the model for philanthropic OutGiving remained the same. The regional conferences, the spokesperson said, will happen as planned in 2018.

Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

U.S. Supreme Court

Nine trans activists arrested outside Supreme Court

Gender Liberation Movement organized demonstration against Skrmetti ruling

Published

on

Protest sign outside of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 18, 2025. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

On Friday afternoon, nine transgender organizers and allies were arrested on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court for blocking the street and protesting the recent U.S. v. Skrmetti ruling.

The ruling, decided 6-3 by the conservative majority on Wednesday, upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The decision will allow states to pass laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors and further minimizes bodily autonomy.

The nine arrested were part of a larger group of more than 30 protesters wearing colors of the trans Pride flag— pink, blue, and white, — standing outside of the nation’s highest court. Organizers unfurled large cloths in pink, blue, and white, shared personal testimonies about how their gender-affirming care was a matter of life and death, released pink and blue smoke, and saw nine trans participants take their hormone replacement therapy.

The protest was led by the Gender Liberation Movement, an organization that “builds direct action, media, and policy interventions centering bodily autonomy, self-determination, the pursuit of fulfillment, and collectivism in the face of gender-based sociopolitical threats.” Among the nine arrested was GLM co-founder Raquel Willis.

Before being arrested, Willis spoke to multiple media outlets, explaining that this decision was an overreach of power by the Supreme Court.

“Gender-affirming care is sacred, powerful, and transformative. With this ruling in U.S. v. Skrmetti, we see just how ignorant the Supreme Court is of the experiences of trans youth and their affirming families,” said Willis. “Everyone deserves the right to holistic healthcare, and trans youth are no different. We will continue to fight for their bodily autonomy, dignity, and self-determination just like previous generations. No court, no law, no government gave us our power, and none can take it away.”

GLM co-founder Eliel Cruz also spoke to media outlets about the Skrmetti ruling, calling it “a historical moment of fascist attacks,” and encouraged the LGBTQ community to “organize and fight back.”

“As a cisgender man, I stand in solidarity with the trans community during these escalating attacks on their safety, well-being, right to exist in this world, and ability to live a future free of violence,” Cruz said. “I’m enraged at the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a ban on gender-affirming care for youth. My heart hurts for the families and young people who this will negatively impact and harm.”

The Washington Blade reached out to Capitol Police for comment.

A spokesperson said the nine activists were arrested for violating D.C. Code §22-1307 — “Crowding, Obstructing, or Incommoding” — on First Street, N.E., after receiving three warnings.

Continue Reading

National

FDA approves new twice-yearly HIV prevention drug

Experts say success could inhibit development of HIV vaccine

Published

on

New HIV prevention drug Lenacapavir replaces oral medicines with twice-yearly injections. (Photo by fet/Bigstock)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 18 approved a newly developed HIV/AIDS prevention drug that only needs to be taken by injection once every six months.

The new drug, lenacapavir, which is being sold under the brand name of Yeztugo by the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences that developed it, is being hailed by some AIDS activists as a major advancement in the years-long effort to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S. and worldwide.

Although HIV prevention drugs, known as pre-exposure prophylaxis medication or PrEP, have been available since 2012, they initially required taking one or more daily pills. More recently, another injectable PrEP drug was developed that required being administered once every two months.

Experts familiar with the PrEP programs noted that while earlier drugs were highly effective in preventing HIV infection – most were 99 percent effective – they could not be effective if those at risk for HIV who were on the drugs did not adhere to taking their daily pills or injections every two months. Experts also point out that large numbers of people at risk for HIV, especially members of minority communities, are not on PrEP and efforts to reach out to them should be expanded.

“Today marks a monumental advance in HIV prevention,” said Carl Schmid, executive director of the D.C.-based HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute, in a statement released on the day the FDA announced its approval of lenacapavir.

“Congratulations to the many researchers who spent 19 years to get to today’s approval, backed up by the long-term investment needed to get the drug to market,” he said.

Schmid added, “Long-acting PrEP is now not only effective for up to six months but also improves adherence and will reduce HIV infections – if people are aware of it and payers, including private insurers, cover it without cost-sharing as a preventive service.”

Schmid and others monitoring the nation’s HIV/AIDS programs have warned that proposed large scale cuts in the budget for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by the administration of President Donald Trump could seriously harm HIV prevention programs, including PrEP-related efforts.

“Dismantling these programs means that there will be a weakened public health infrastructure and much less HIV testing, which is needed before a person can take PrEP,” Schmid said in his statement.

“Private insurers and employers must also immediately cover Yeztugo as a required preventive service, which means that PrEP users should not face any cost-sharing or utilization management barriers,” he said.

In response to a request by the Washington Blade for comment,  a spokesperson for Gilead Sciences released a statement saying the annual list price per person using Yeztugo in the U.S. is $28,218. But the statement says the company is working to ensure that its HIV prevention medication is accessible to all who need it through broad coverage from health insurance companies and some of its own support programs.

“We’ve seen high insurance coverage for existing prevention options – for example, the vast majority of consumers have a $0 co-pay for Descovy for PrEP in the U.S. – and we are working to ensure broad coverage for lenacapavir [Yeztugo],” the statement says. It was referring to the earlier HIV prevention medication developed by Gilead Sciences, Descovy.

“Eligible insured people will get help with their copay,” the statement continues. “Gilead’s Advancing Access Copay Savings Program may reduce out-of-pocket costs to as little as zero dollars,” it says. “Then for people without insurance, lenacapavir may be available free of charge for those who are eligible, through Gilead’s Advancing Access Patient Assistance Program.”

Gilead Sciences has announced that in the two final trial tests for Yeztugo, which it describes as “the most intentionally inclusive HIV prevention clinical trial programs ever designed,” 99.9 percent of participants who received Yeztugo remained negative. Time magazine reports that among those who remained HIV negative at a rate of 100 percent were men who have sex with men. 

Time also reports that some HIV/AIDS researchers believe the success of the HIV prevention drugs like Gilead’s Yeztugo could complicate the so-far unsuccessful efforts to develop an effective HIV vaccine. 

To be able to test a potential vaccine two groups of test subjects must be used, one that receives the test vaccine and the other that receives a placebo with no drug in it. 

With highly effective HIV prevention drugs now available, it could be ethically difficult to ask a test group to take a placebo and continue to be at risk for HIV, according to some researchers. 

“This might take a bit of the wind out of the sails of vaccine research, because there is something so effective in preventing HIV infection,”  Time quoted Dr. David Ho, a professor of microbiology, immunology, and medicine at New York’s Columbia University as saying.

Continue Reading

National

Activists rally in response to Supreme Court ruling

‘We won’t bow to hatred: we outlive it’

Published

on

Hope Giselle-Godsey speaks at a rally for trans rights at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation on Wednesday, June 18. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Politicians, LGBTQ activists, and allies gathered at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C. on Wednesday following the ruling by the United States Supreme Court in the case of U.S. v. Skrmetti. The Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender adolescents in a 6-3 decision.

A rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court was called for by the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and other organizations following the high court ruling on Wednesday. However, due to a thunderstorm and flood watch, the scores of activists who were to attend the rally were directed to a Lutheran church down the street from the court. Undeterred, activists and community leaders were joined by U.S. Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) for an indoor rally at the church.

“We know that freedom is not inevitable,” Markey told the crowd. “It is fought for by people who said ‘no’ in the face of health cuts, ‘no’ in the face of discrimination, ‘no’ in the face of invasive laws that ban life-saving and life-affirming healthcare and ‘no’ to this anti-justice, anti-freedom agenda.”

Also speaking at the rally was Deirdre Schifeling, chief political advocacy officer of the National ACLU.

“We believe transgender rights matter,” Schifeling stated. “Transgender kids matter and deserve love, support and the freedom to shape their own futures. I am still processing how the Supreme Court could disagree with such an obvious truth.”

“Today’s ruling shows us that unfortunately these attacks on our freedom will not end here,” Schifeling continued. “The Trump administration and extremist politicians across the country are continuing to target our right — our human right — to control our own bodies.”

“If politicians think that we are going to sit back and be defeated, that we are going to let them strip our rights and freedoms away without a fight, they’ve got another think coming,” Schifeling said. “We will never back down. We will never back down or give up. We will organize, we will mobilize and we will fight to protect trans rights in our communities, in our legislatures, in our elections, and in court rooms across the country.”

(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

“Today, the highest court in this land decided that the bodily autonomy of trans youth, specifically trans youth of Tennessee and states with bans harming youth across the country do not matter,” said trans advocate Hope Giselle-Godsey.

“The opponents of trans equality think that today is a victory, but history will remember it as a moment that sharpened us and not silenced us,” Giselle-Godsey continued.

“So yes, today we grieve for the people in those states where those bans exist, but we grieve in motion,” Giselle-Godsey said. “To the system that thinks that it won today, just like every other time before: you will lose again. Because we won’t bow to hatred: we outlive it. We out-organize it. We out-love it. We are still here and we are not finished yet.”

‘As we proceed, the most important pressure here is from the people,’ U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) tells a crowd of trans rights activists at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation on Wednesday, June 18. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Continue Reading

Popular