Politics
Biden names two more LGBTQ nominees for administration posts
The President went more than two months into his presidency without naming a single ambassador to send overseas there are still key vacancies.

WASHINGTON – The White House Friday released a list of another ten nominees to serve in key roles it is forwarding to the U.S. Senate. Included in the list were two more LGBTQ persons as nominees including Scott Miller, Nominee for Ambassador to the Swiss Confederation and to the Principality of Liechtenstein and Todd Harper, Nominee for Chairman of the National Credit Union Administration.
Despite the pace having picked up on nominations, the President went more than two months into his presidency without naming a single ambassador to send overseas, there are still key vacancies among US ambassadorships. And while Biden has made nominations, the US does not have any confirmed ambassadors installed in key countries such as China, Canada, India, France or Israel, CNN reported.
Scott Miller, Nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Swiss Confederation and to the Principality of Liechtenstein

Scott Miller is an LGBTQ rights activist and philanthropist. As co-chair of the Gill Foundation’s board of directors, Miller directs the foundation’s national giving strategy to advance LGBTQ equality, including public education campaigns to ban conversion therapy and end discrimination against LGBTQ Americans.
Photo Credit: The Gill Foundation, Denver, Colorado
At the foundation, Miller also oversees local efforts to ensure equal opportunity for all Coloradans, including generous support for K-12 STEM education at numerous Colorado public schools. During the pandemic, Miller led efforts to provide over 5.6 million meals to tens of thousands of his fellow Coloradans to alleviate food insecurity.
Together Miller and his husband, Tim Gill, are among the top contributors to LGBTQ equality issues in the United States. Previously, Miller served as an account vice president at UBS Wealth Management in Denver, Colorado. Miller earned a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in business administration from the University of Colorado Boulder. Upon graduation, he started his career as a management consultant for Accenture, followed by work as an event planner for global clientele.

Todd Harper, Nominee for Chairman of the National Credit Union Administration
Todd Harper has specialized in financial services policy during his more than 25 years of government service and has led the NCUA Board as Chairman since January 2021. He also chairs the interagency Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
Mr. Harper joined the NCUA Board in April 2019 and is the first NCUA staffer to become a Board Member and Chairman. From 2011 to 2017, he led the agency’s Office of Public and Congressional Affairs and served as the chief policy advisor to two NCUA Chairmen.
Previously, as staff director for the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises in the U.S. House of Representatives, Mr. Harper contributed to the efforts after the financial crisis to enact the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
As legislative director to former Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, he also worked on bipartisan legislation concerning credit union capital rules, terrorism risk insurance, auditing standards and subprime mortgage lending.
A member of the LGBTQ community, Mr. Harper earned an M.P.P. from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a B.S. with high distinction in business analysis from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.
Congress
Congress passes ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ with massive cuts to health insurance coverage
Roughly 1.8 million LGBTQ Americans rely on Medicaid

The “Big, Beautiful Bill” heads to President Donald Trump’s desk following the vote by the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday, which saw two nays from GOP members and unified opposition from the entire Democratic caucus.
To partially offset the cost of tax breaks that disproportionately favor the wealthy, the bill contains massive cuts to Medicaid and social safety net programs like food assistance for the poor while adding a projected $3.3 billion to the deficit.
Policy wise, the signature legislation of Trump’s second term rolls back clean energy tax credits passed under the Biden-Harris administration while beefing up funding for defense and border security.
Roughly 13 percent of LGBTQ adults in the U.S., about 1.8 million people, rely on Medicaid as their primary health insurer, compared to seven percent of non-LGBTQ adults, according to the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute think tank on sexual orientation and gender identities.
In total, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the cuts will cause more than 10 million Americans to lose their coverage under Medicaid and anywhere from three to five million to lose their care under Affordable Care Act marketplace plans.
A number of Republicans in the House and Senate opposed the bill reasoning that they might face political consequences for taking away access to healthcare for, particularly, low-income Americans who rely on Medicaid. Poorer voters flocked to Trump in last year’s presidential election, exit polls show.
A provision that would have blocked the use of federal funds to reimburse medical care for transgender youth was blocked by the Senate Parliamentarian and ultimately struck from the legislation — reportedly after the first trans member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) and the first lesbian U.S. senator, Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), shored up unified opposition to the proposal among Congressional Democrats.
Congress
Ritchie Torres says he is unlikely to run for NY governor
One poll showed gay Democratic congressman nearly tied with Kathy Hochul

Gay Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres of New York is unlikely to challenge New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in the state’s next gubernatorial race, he said during an appearance Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“I’m unlikely to run for governor,” he said. ““I feel like the assault that we’ve seen on the social safety net in the Bronx is so unprecedented. It’s so overwhelming that I’m going to keep my focus on Washington, D.C.”
Torres and Hochul were nearly tied in a poll this spring of likely Democratic voters in New York City, fueling speculation that the congressman might run. A Siena College poll, however, found Hochul leading with a wider margin.
Back in D.C., the congressman and his colleagues are unified in their opposition to President Donald Trump’s signature legislation, the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which heads back to the House after passing the Senate by one vote this week.
To pay for tax cuts that disproportionately advantage the ultra-wealthy and large corporations, the president and Congressional Republicans have proposed massive cuts to Medicaid and other social programs.
A provision in the Senate version of the bill that would have blocked the use of federal funds to reimburse medical care for transgender youth was blocked by the Senate Parliamentarian and ultimately struck from the legislation, reportedly after pressure from transgender U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) and lesbian U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.).
Torres on “Morning Joe” said, “The so-called Big Beautiful Bill represents a betrayal of the working people of America and nowhere more so than in the Bronx,” adding, “It’s going to destabilize every health care provider, every hospital.”
Congress
House Democrats oppose Bessent’s removal of SOGI from discrimination complaint forms
Congressional Equality Caucus sharply criticized move

A letter issued last week by a group of House Democrats objects to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s removal of sexual orientation and gender identity as bases for sex discrimination complaints in several Equal Employment Opportunity forms.
Bessent, who is gay, is the highest ranking openly LGBTQ official in American history and the second out Cabinet member next to Pete Buttigieg, who served as transportation secretary during the Biden-Harris administration.
The signatories to the letter include a few out members of Congress, Congressional Equality Caucus chair and co-chairs Mark Takano (Calif.), Ritchie Torres (N.Y.), and Becca Balint (Vt.), along with U.S. Reps. Nikema Williams (Ga.), Hank Johnson (Ga.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill.), Delia Ramirez (Ill.), Joyce Beatty (Ohio), Lloyd Doggett (Texas), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.), Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), and Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas).
The letter explains the “critical role” played by the EEO given the strictures and limits on how federal employees can find recourse for unlawful workplace discrimination — namely, without the ability to file complaints directly with the Employment Opportunity Commission or otherwise engage with the agency unless the complainant “appeal[s] an agency’s decision following the agency’s investigation or request[s] a hearing before an administrative judge.”
“Your attempt to remove ‘gender identity’ and ‘sexual orientation’ as bases for sex discrimination complaints in numerous Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) forms will create unnecessary hurdles to employees filing EEO complaints and undermine enforcement of federal employee’s nondiscrimination protections,” the members wrote in their letter.
They further explain the legal basis behind LGBTQ inclusive nondiscrimination protections for federal employees in the EEOC’s decisions in Macy v. Holder (2012) and Baldwin v. Foxx (2015) and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020).
“It appears that these changes may be an attempt by the department to dissuade employees from reporting gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination,” the lawmakers wrote. “Without forms clearly enumerating gender identity and sexual orientation as forms of sex discrimination, the average employee who experiences these forms of discrimination may see these forms and not realize that the discrimination they experienced was unlawful and something that they can report and seek recourse for.”
“A more alarming view would be that the department no longer plans to fulfill its legal obligations to investigate complaints of gender identity and sexual orientation and ensure its
employees are working in an environment free from these forms of discrimination,” they added.
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