National
Democrats, civil rights groups voice opposition to Trump anti-LGBTQ rule
Proposed change would enable discrimination among federal grantees


House and Senate Democrats, civil rights advocates and groups against HIV/AIDS were among those who voiced their objections this week to a Trump administration proposal that would allow recipients of federal grants, including taxpayer-funded adoption agencies, to discriminate against LGBTQ people.
The opponents of the proposed rule change, which would abolish LGBTQ non-discrimination requirements implemented during the final month of the Obama administration in December 2016, submitted their comments to the Department of Health & Human Services as part of the rule-making process.
All 47 members of the Senate Democratic caucus — including those from conservative states like Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Doug Jones (D-Ala.) — signed on to the letter organized by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) against the proposal.
“This is yet another step in the Trump administration’s efforts to erode civil rights protections and leave millions of people across the country again subject to discrimination,” the senators wrote. “Taken together, these actions leave vulnerable populations unable to access the services they need. We strongly urge the Department to enforce existing federal non-discrimination regulations that protect against discrimination based on sex and religion and rescind this proposed rule.”
HHS unveiled the proposed rule change in November under pressure from conservative groups, including Catholic adoption agencies who say placing children into LGBTQ homes violates their religious beliefs. Vice President Mike Pence said in remarks last month Trump himself gave the order to implement the change.
An estimated 430,000 children are in the foster care system and an estimated 125,000 of them are eligible for adoption.
But the proposal has far-reaching implications. It would not only allow adoption agencies to turn away LGBTQ people, but also allow federal grant recipients to deny them other services, including shelter and medical care.
A quintet of HIV/AIDS groups — AIDS United, National Alliance of State & Territorial AIDS Directors, the National Minority AIDS Council, the National Coalition of STD Directors and the AIDS Institute — expressed concern the proposed rule could hamper medical treatment, including the implementation of Trump’s own plan to beat the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030.
“We have the tools to end the epidemic, but rules that codify stigma and discrimination against LGBTQ individuals would be a significant step backwards in the fight against HIV,” the groups write.
Because the Obama-era regulation also prohibited discrimination on the basis of religion and sex, critics also say the Trump administration proposal could lead to discrimination against religious minorities and women.
In a separate letter led by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), one of the seven openly gay members of Congress, 72 House and Senate appropriators in Congress say the proposal amounts to “opening the door to many types of taxpayer-funded discrimination by HHS grant recipients.”
“It is easy to imagine myriad ways HHS grantees could discriminate under this new rule,” the appropriators write. “Grantees could decline to provide HIV care to an LGBT person on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Grantees could refuse services to single or unmarried parents. Grantees could force a transgender child to undergo ‘conversion therapy’ in order to access their services.”
Proponents of the rule change submitted comments as well. Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-LGBTQ legal firm, said in its response the Trump administration proposal would “allow qualified agencies, both secular and faith-based, to compete for federal grants on an equal footing.”
Zack Pruitt, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a statement the rule change is necessary because “every child deserves a chance to be raised in a loving home.”
“Unfortunately, the previous regulation — finalized in the 11th hour of the Obama Administration — failed to protect all providers and discriminated against faith-based providers simply because of their beliefs about marriage,” Pruitt said. “That is not keeping kids first. HHS’s proposed rule to end this discrimination offers hope for children, more options for birth parents, support for families and increased flexibility for states seeking to alleviate real human need.”
Also submitting a comment in opposition to the proposed rule change was a coalition of Muslim groups: Muslim Advocates, American Muslim Health Professionals, Islamic Circle of North America Council for Social Justice and the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
Nimra Azmi, staff attorney for Muslim Advocates, said in a statement the proposed change “guts anti-discrimination protections enacted in 2016 and gives organizations that accept taxpayer dollars a green light to discriminate against Muslim parents and children.”
“Allowing an adoption agency or a foster care service to reject people because of their religion, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity will seriously harm families and children,” Azmi said. “If adopted, this proposed rule will undercut the core principles of religious liberty and anti-discrimination — which disturbingly appears to be the intention of HHS.”
The Washington Blade has placed a request in with HHS seeking comment seeking information on the number of comments obtained, the next steps in the process and when a final rule will be issued.
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.
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