National
Trump administration moves to dissolve final order against trans military ban
DOJ cites stays from Supreme Court allowing implementation
With the U.S. Supreme Court green lighting President Trump this week to proceed with a ban on transgender military service, the U.S. Justice Department moved on Tuesday to dissolve the last court order standing in the administration’s way.
In a one-page notice signed by Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Hunt Joseph Hunt, the Justice Department informs U.S. Judge District George Russell in Maryland of the Trump administration’s intent to a file motion to request a stay on his preliminary injunction preventing Trump from enforcing the anti-trans policy.
Hunt cites the Supreme Court’s decision to issue stays challenging the transgender ban in two other cases before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In both those cases, trial courts issued orders barring the Trump from enforcing the policy as litigation proceeded, but stays from the Supreme Court abrogated those orders.
“The preliminary injunctions stayed in Karnoski and Stockman are indistinguishable from the preliminary injunction in this case, and the Supreme Court’s order is binding precedent on the application of the stay factors to the injunction at issue here,” Hunt writes.
Once the preliminary injunction issued by the Maryland court is lifted, nothing will block the Trump administration its policy. As envisioned in an implementation plan issued by former Defense Secretary James Mattis, the policy would bar new transgender enlistments, but allow openly transgender people currently in the military to remain in the armed forces and receive transition-related care. (Individuals in the military who later decide to come out as transgender and transition, however, will face discharges.)
With the nation’s most superior court directing the Ninth Circuit to dissolve identical orders, it’s hard to see how Russell could keep the last remaining order against the transgender ban in place.
Russell issued the order in the case of Stone v. Trump, a legal challenge against the transgender military ban filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of six transgender service members.
In a brief Wednesday responding to the Justice Department, the ACLU points out the Supreme Court merely stayed orders against the ban until the Ninth Circuit renders a decision in those cases, thus a dissolution would be inappropriate.
The ACLU concedes “it would be appropriate for this court to stay the nationwide effect of its injunction pending appeal” in the aftermath of the orders from the Supreme Court, but urges Russell to keep his order in effect for at least the named transgender plaintiffs in the case.
“Defendants’ argument before the Supreme Court centered on the nationwide effects of the Karnoski and Stockman injunctions,” the brief says. “Every page of the Argument section of their Applications focused on Defendants’ concerns regarding a nationwide injunction, and no plaintiffs in those cases urged the Supreme Court to preserve a stay as to specific individual plaintiffs.”
The ACLU also argues “it is in both parties’ interests to expeditiously reach a resolution of the case,” calling to proceed with discovery process in the lawsuit.
“Defendants previously argued that a stay of compliance with this court’s discovery orders would not prejudice plaintiffs while the preliminary injunction remained in place,” the brief says. “This soon may no longer be the case. Now that plaintiffs may lose the protection of the preliminary injunction, plaintiffs respectfully request that implementation of this court’s discovery orders, and its consideration of the pending dispositive motions, proceed expeditiously.”
On Thursday, the Justice Department responded with another brief calling for a stay pending resolution of the request to dissolve the injunction.
“Because the Supreme Court’s order granted defendants’ stay request in full and stayed the Karnoski and Stockman injunctions in their entirety, a similar stay of this court’s preliminary injunction, in its entirety, is required here,” the brief says.
National
Trump refers to Anderson Cooper as ‘Allison’
Crude insults continue in effort to attract male voters
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump referred repeatedly over the weekend to CNN’s Anderson Cooper as “Allison Cooper.”
Cooper, one of the nation’s most prominent openly gay television anchors, moderated a town hall last week with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump last Friday called Anderson “Allison” in a social media post, then used the moniker again at a Michigan rally.
“If you watched her being interviewed by Allison Cooper the other night, he’s a nice person. You know Allison Cooper? CNN fake news,” Trump said, before adding, “Oh, she said no, his name is Anderson. Oh, no.”
Trump repeated the name during another Michigan rally on Saturday, according to the Associated Pres, then followed it up during a reference in Pennsylvania. “They had a town hall,” Trump said in Michigan. “Even Allison Cooper was embarrassed by it. He was embarrassed by it.”
Describing Anderson Cooper as female plays into offensive and stereotypical depictions of gay men as effeminate as Trump continues to pursue the so-called “bro vote,” amping up crude and vulgar displays in an effort to appeal to male voters.
Pennsylvania
Transgender Honduran woman canvasses for Harris in Pa.
Monserrath Aleman is CASA in Action volunteer
A transgender woman from Honduras has traveled to Pennsylvania several times in recent weeks to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic candidates.
Monserrath Aleman traveled to York on Aug. 31 and Lancaster on Sept. 21 with a group of other volunteers from CASA in Action.
They door-knocked in areas where large numbers of African Americans, Black, and Latino voters live. Aleman and the other CASA in Action volunteers urged them to support Harris, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), and other down ballot Democratic candidates.
Aleman will be in Harrisburg on Nov. 2, and in York on Election Day.
“We achieved the goal that we had in mind and that we wanted to achieve,” she told the Washington Blade on Oct. 22 during a Zoom interview from Baltimore. “We knocked on doors, passed out flyers.”
Aleman cited Project 2025 — which the Congressional Equality Caucus on Thursday sharply criticized — when she spoke with the Blade.
“We know that there is a Project 2025 plan that would affect us: The entire immigrant Latino community, the LGBTI community, everyone,” said Aleman. “So that’s why I’m more motivated to go knocking on doors, to ask for help, for support from everyone who can vote, who can exercise their vote.”
She told the Blade that she and her fellow volunteers “did not have any bad response.”
Aleman grew up in Yoro, a city that is roughly 130 miles north of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.
She left Honduras on Nov. 25, 2021.
Aleman entered Mexico in Palenque, a city in the country’s Chiapas state that is close to the border with Guatemala. The Mexican government granted her a humanitarian visa that allowed her to legally travel through the country.
Aleman told the Blade she walked and took buses to Ciudad Juárez, a Mexican border city that is across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas.
She scheduled her appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection while living at a shelter in Ciudad Juárez. Aleman now lives in Baltimore.
“Discrimination against the LGBTI community exists everywhere, but in Honduras it is more critical,” said Aleman.
Aleman added she feels “more free to express herself, to speak with someone” in the U.S. She also said she remains optimistic that Harris will defeat former President Donald Trump on Election Day.
“There is no other option,” said Aleman.
National
HRC rallies LGBTQ voters in 12 states ahead of Election Day
10 Days of Action campaign targets pro-equality candidate
The Human Rights Campaign said it filled 1,426 new volunteer shifts and held 174 events across key swing states between Oct. 10-20 as part of its 10 Days of Action campaign.
The LGBTQ civil rights advocacy group is working to mobilize and turn out voters in support of pro-equality and LGBTQ candidates, including the Harris-Walz ticket, on Election Day.
HRC reported exceeding its recruitment goals, noting the strong response across the 12 states as a “clear and resounding message” that LGBTQ and allied voters are energized to back the Harris-Walz ticket.
To kick off the 10 Days of Action, Gwen Walz, the spouse of Minnesota governor and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, spoke at a Philadelphia event that HRC and the Out for Harris-Walz coalition hosted on Oct. 10.
Walz highlighted her husband’s long-standing support for LGBTQ issues, such as his role in fighting to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in Congress and banning so-called conversion therapy as governor, according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
Other events launched canvassing efforts for Senate candidates, such as U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.), along with House candidates, such as Will Rollins and Mondaire Jones in California and New York respectively.
A virtual organizing call on Oct. 11 that the Out for Harris-Walz coalition hosted featured prominent figures, including actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Andy Cohen, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), and Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride, who is running for Congress.
To close out the 10 Days of Action, HRC President Kelley Robinson canvassed with LGBTQ organizers in Phoenix on Oct. 20.
In a statement, Robinson said the campaign’s work is “far from over.”
“We plan to spend every day until the election making sure everyone we know is registered to vote and has a plan to vote because no one is going to give us the future we deserve — we have to fight for it and show America that when we show up, equality wins,” she said. “Together, we will elect pro-equality leaders like Vice President Harris and Governor Walz who value our communities and are ready to lead us forward with more freedom and opportunity.”
A September HRC poll found that LGBTQ voters favor Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the presidential race by a nearly 67-point margin.
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