News
Biden gets lackluster reviews on response to monkeypox outbreak
Comparisons made to inaction during coronavirus, HIV/AIDS
For a population still suffering through the coronavirus pandemic and with lasting memories of HIV/AIDS, the monkeypox outbreak is triggering memories of a U.S. government unable to respond quickly to the emergence of a new disease — and many who see mistakes being repeated are giving lackluster and even negative reviews of the Biden administration’s handling of the issue.
Criticism has emerged from voices in the LGBTQ community, where monkeypox has primarily spread, especially among gay and bisexual men, as well as among public health experts amid the perception the Biden administration has fallen short in vaccine distribution as only two cities — New York and D.C. — are offering vaccines on a pre-emptive basis and immediate distribution is halted despite reports that 1 million vaccines are in reserve overseas.
Lindsey Dawson, associate director of HIV Policy and director of LGBTQ Health Policy for the Kaiser Family Foundation, acknowledged Monday in an interview with the Blade there’s “certainly been criticism the administration was slow to act” in the past six weeks, although she tempered her remarks in hopes the Biden administration would ramp up efforts in time to curb the virus.
“The amount of vaccinations available right now, it’s really quite limited,” Dawson said. “As of last week, about 40,000 vaccines have either been shipped out or are being processed for allocation to jurisdictions. That isn’t nationwide; that was for about 15 jurisdictions, and the supplies that we’re getting are fairly limited. And so, that means that only in certain places, will there be vaccinations available.”
Dawson added the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has promoted vaccines as a kind of post-exposure prophylactic for those who think they may have been exposed to monkeypox, stopping short of guidance making vaccines more generally recommended for populations that may be at risk, such as gay and bisexual men. New York City and D.C. are two jurisdictions that are giving vaccines out on a more general basis.
The Biden administration late last month unveiled a multi-step plan to take on monkeypox, which included the distribution of 296,000 vaccine doses with plans to distribute at total of 1.6 million in the coming months, which is enough to vaccinate 800,000 people because they are a two-dose series. Although HHS announced the purchase of an additional 2.5 million vaccines, the timeline completing the distribution isn’t until 2023 — which critics say is far too late for a disease already beginning to spread.
One prominent point of contention is the failure to distribute 1 million doses of monkeypox vaccine owned by the United States and in freezer storage at a Bavarian Nordic facility in Denmark, according to a June 28 letter to the White House from PrEP4All and Partners in Health. The medication has yet to be deployed fully despite concerns about the spread of monkeypox, which is transferred by skin-to-skin contact. The reason for the delay is the Food & Drug Administration dropped the ball and failed to conduct a timely review of vaccines and refuses to distribute the agency’s counterpart the European Union has approved, the letter says.
Josh Barro, a gay political commentator and journalist, called the failure of the U.S. government to distribute the vaccines “absolute insanity” and more evidence of failure by the FDA to meet speedy deadlines in approvals.
“Literally we have bought these doses already and they’re sitting in a freezer in Denmark until some bureaucrats decide to allow them into the US,” Barro wrote.
The FDA, CDC and FDA didn’t respond Wednesday to the Blade’s request to comment on the slow rollout of vaccines and the 1 million doses reportedly in storage in Denmark.
Evidence of the Biden administration falling short on monkeypox is already leading observers to make comparisons to HIV/AIDS and the coronavirus, when the U.S. government was criticized for inaction. President Trump was accused of dropping the ball on coronavirus with delays in testing and erratic messaging — as well as even lying to the American public about its seriousness — as President Biden faced early criticism for a vaccine-only approach and failing to make good on campaign promises to shut down the virus. During the HIV epidemic in 1980s, activists with the grassroots group ACT UP held die-in protests at government offices and the Food & Drug Administration because the U.S. government was too slow in approving and distributing potential treatments.
Dawson said COVID is different from monkeypox for many reasons, but lessons could be applied to the new outbreak in terms of messaging, testing, and vaccine distribution based on COVID demonstrating “how challenges with mounting a quick response and COVID likely impacted transmissions.”
“And certainly it took a while for vaccinations to be widely available at COVID,” Dawson said, “And so, I think the important lesson there with all infectious diseases be that COVID or monkeypox is that getting out in front of an outbreak and preventing future transmission is essential.”
To be sure, the monkeypox outbreak isn’t nearly on the scale of the HIV/AIDS or COVID-19 pandemic, which have spread far and wide and claimed millions of lives. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the total number of recorded monkeypox infections in the United States as of two days ago is 767. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases, told the Blade in a conference call with reporters last month the risk of gay and bisexual men contracting monkeypox is not high, but the numbers could increase. Monkeypox generally isn’t a fatal disease.
The LGBTQ watchdog group GLAAD, which has strong connections to both media and entertainment, has teamed up with the White House in its messaging on monkeypox, with a heavy emphasis on LGBTQ influencers and a closed press meeting on Wednesday. The White House didn’t respond to the Blade’s request to comment for additional information.
Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO of GLAAD, said in a statement to the Blade the initiative would supplement ongoing efforts to combat monkeypox taken by the.Biden administration and public health officials.
“Getting accurate information out about monkeypox virus (MPV) is critically important to the LGBTQ community and all communities, and we need to continue to hear from public health leaders about what’s being done to combat the virus and inform the public,” Ellis said. “GLAAD is helping convene those who can help get the word out about this threat to public health and to ensure accurate and respectful reporting to keep everyone safe. Media must continue to hold public health officials accountable to accurate data gathering, testing, treatment, and vaccine distribution to stop the spread of MPV.”
Elsewhere, localities are stepping up efforts to implore the Biden administration to do more on monkeypox as vaccines remain in limited supply for reserved for distribution in certain jurisdictions.
In San Francisco, District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman announced Tuesday his introduction of a resolution urging the Department of Health & Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention to accelerate efforts on monkeypox vaccines, calling for a vaccine prioritization plan and streamlined testing as well as enough vaccine doses for high-risk populations, including gay and bisexual men, transgender people, and sex workers.
“This should be a preventable public health crisis – unlike COVID-19, we did not have to wait for new vaccines to be developed,” Mandelman wrote on Twitter. “It begs the question: would monkeypox have received a better response if it wasn’t primarily affecting queer people?”
Equity concerns for a population sensitive to racial disparities are also at the top of list among observers and public health experts with experience in health outreach to LGBTQ patients, especially in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic having a disproportionate impact on Black people.
Dawson expressed concern about localities like New York and D.C. focusing its messaging on monkeypox through social media, which she said may not be visible to workers unable to access it during the day.
“To the extent that vaccination and testing are difficult and burdensome to people, they’re going to be less likely to take it up,” Dawson said. “And people who do take it up are probably people who have more privilege, right? They can take time off work, or they are aware of these slots opening up because they’ve seen that on social media and they’re on social media in the middle of their workday, and so it does raise potential equity challenges there.”
In New York City, despite being a locality deemed a priority spot for monkeypox vaccines, officials are also demanding a better response. Lynn Schulman, a city council member, spearheaded a letter to the CDC with the LGBTQIA+ caucus declaring efforts on monkeypox to have fallen short.
“The biggest concern is the lack of vaccines,” the letter says. “New York City has recently received additional doses of vaccine from the federal government, but vaccine supplies remain low. Currently, if an individual would like to get vaccinated, DOHMH has no appointments available. At a time when we are still dealing with COVID infections, this is unacceptable.”
Dawson said to make a more comprehensive assessment of the Biden’s administration’s approach to monkeypox she’ll observe the pace at which vaccines become more readily available to the public.
“We see those appointments open up and shut down again just minutes later because the demand is just outpacing the availability,” Dawson said. “So it’ll be really important to watch. How likely are vaccines to get get to jurisdictions … Right now, certainly demand is outpacing the vaccinations available, but we could get to a point where we are with COVID vaccines now, where work actually has to be done to encourage uptake of vaccinations.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misattributed a quote about local governments to the Biden administration. The Blade regrets the error.
Virginia
DOJ seeks to join lawsuit against Loudoun County over trans student in locker room
Three male high school students suspended after complaining about classmate
The Justice Department has asked to join a federal lawsuit against Loudoun County Public Schools over the way it handled the case of three male high school students who complained about a transgender student in a boys’ locker room.
The Washington Blade earlier this year reported Loudoun County public schools suspended the three boys and launched a Title IX investigation into whether they sexually harassed the student after they said they felt uncomfortable with their classmate in the locker room at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn.
The parents of two of the boys filed a lawsuit against Loudoun County public schools in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. The Richmond-based Founding Freedoms Law Center and America First Legal, which White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller co-founded, represent them.
The Justice Department in a Dec. 8 press release announced that “it filed legal action against the Loudoun County (Va.) School Board (Loudoun County) for its denial of equal protection based on religion.”
“The suit alleges that Loudoun County applied Policy 8040, which requires students and faculty to accept and promote gender ideology, to two Christian, male students in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” reads the press release.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the press release said “students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.”
“Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality,” said Dhillon.
Outgoing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and outgoing Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in May announced an investigation into the case.
The Virginia Department of Education in 2023 announced the new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students for which Youngkin asked. Equality Virginia and other advocacy groups claim they, among other things, forcibly out trans and nonbinary students.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in February launched an investigation into whether Loudoun County and four other Northern Virginia school districts’ policies in support of trans and nonbinary students violate Title IX and President Donald Trump’s executive order that prohibits federally funded educational institutions from promoting “gender ideology.”
The White House
As house Democrats release Epstein photos, Garcia continues to demand DOJ transparency
Blade this week sat down with gay House Oversight Committee ranking member
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have released new photos from Jeffrey Epstein’s email and computer records, including images highlighting the relationship between President Donald Trump and the convicted sex offender.
Epstein, a wealthy financier, was found guilty of procuring a child for prostitution and sex trafficking, serving a 13-month prison sentence in 2008. At the time of his death in prison under mysterious circumstances, he was facing charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to traffic minors.
Among those pictured in Epstein’s digital files are Trump, former President Bill Clinton, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, actor and director Woody Allen, economist Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, entrepreneurs Richard Branson and Bill Gates, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
One photo shows Trump alongside Epstein and a woman at a Victoria’s Secret party in New York in 1997. American media outlets have published the image, while Getty Images identified the woman as model Ingrid Seynhaeve.
Oversight Committee Democrats are reviewing the full set of photos and plan to release additional images to the public in the coming days and weeks, emphasizing their commitment to protecting survivors’ identities.
With just a week left for the Justice Department to publish all files related to Epstein following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which requires the Justice Department to release most records connected to Epstein investigations, the Washington Blade sat down with U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the Oversight Committee to discuss the current push the release of more documents.
Garcia highlighted the committee’s commitment to transparency and accountability.
“We’ve said anything that we get we’re going to put out. We don’t care who is in the files … if you’ve harmed women and girls, then we’ve got to hold you accountable.”
He noted ongoing questions surrounding Trump’s relationship with Epstein, given their long history and the apparent break in friendship once Trump assumed public office.
“There’s been a lot of questions about … Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. They were best friends for 10 years … met women there and girls.”
Prior to Trump’s presidency, it was widely reported that the two were friends who visited each other’s properties regularly. Additional reporting shows they socialized frequently throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, attending parties at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and Epstein’s residences. Flight logs from an associate’s trial indicate Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet multiple times, and Epstein claimed Trump first had sex with his future wife, Melania Knauss, aboard the jet.
“We’ve provided evidence … [that leads to] questions about what the relationship was like between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.”
Garcia stressed the need for answers regarding the White House’s role in withholding information, questioning the sudden change in attitude toward releasing the files given Trump’s campaign promises.
“Why is the White House trying to cover this up? So if he’s not covering for himself … he’s covering up for his rich friends,” Garcia said. “Why the cover up? Who are you hiding for? I think that’s the question.”
He confirmed that Trump is definitively in the Epstein files, though the extent remains unknown, but will be uncovered soon.
“We know that Trump’s in them. Yeah, he’s been told. We know that Trump’s in them in some way. As far as the extent of it … we don’t know.”
Garcia emphasized accountability for all powerful figures implicated, regardless of financial status, political party, or personal connections.
“All these powerful men that are walking around right now … after abusing, in some cases, 14‑ and 15‑year‑old girls, they have to be held accountable,” he said. “There has to be justice for those survivors and the American public deserves the truth about who was involved in that.”
He added that while he is the ranking member, he will ensure the oversight committee will use all available political tools, including subpoenas — potentially even for the president.
“We want to subpoena anyone that we can … everyone’s kind of on the table.”
He also emphasized accountability for all powerful figures implicated, regardless of financial status, political party, or relationship with the president.
“For me, they’re about justice and doing the right thing,” Garcia said. “This is about women who … were girls and children when they were being abused, trafficked, in some cases, raped. And these women deserve justice.”
“The survivors are strong.”
Deputy White House Press Secretary Abigail Jackson issued a statement regarding the release the photos, echoing previous comments from Republicans on the timing and framing of the photos by the Oversight Committee.
“Once again, House Democrats are selectively releasing cherry-picked photos with random redactions to try and create a false narrative,” Jackson said.
“The Democrat hoax against President Trump has been repeatedly debunked and the Trump administration has done more for Epstein’s victims than Democrats ever have by repeatedly calling for transparency, releasing thousands of pages of documents, and calling for further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends,”
In a press release on Friday, Garcia called for immediate DOJ action:
“It is time to end this White House cover-up and bring justice to the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and his powerful friends. These disturbing photos raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world. We will not rest until the American people get the truth. The Department of Justice must release all the files, NOW.”
(Photo courtesy of the U.S. House Oversight Committee)
District of Columbia
Capital Pride announces change in date for 2026 D.C. Pride parade and festival
Events related to U.S. 250th anniversary and Trump birthday cited as reasons for change
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C. based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, has announced it is changing the dates for the 2026 Capital Pride Parade and Festival from the second weekend in June to the third weekend.
“For over a decade, Capital Pride has taken place during the second weekend in June, but in 2026, we are shifting our dates in response to the city’s capacity due to major events and preparations for the 250th anniversary of the United States,” according to a Dec. 9 statement released by Capital Pride Alliance.
The statement says the parade will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2026, with the festival and related concert taking place on June 21.
“This change ensures our community can gather safely and without unnecessary barriers,” the statement says. “By moving the celebration, we are protecting our space and preserving Pride as a powerful act of visibility, solidarity, and resistance,” it says.
Ryan Bos, the Capital Pride Alliance CEO and President, told the Washington Blade the change in dates came after the group conferred with D.C. government officials regarding plans for a number of events in the city on the second weekend in June. Among them, he noted, is a planned White House celebration of President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and other events related to the U.S. 250th anniversary, which are expected to take place from early June through Independence Day on July 4.
The White House has announced plans for a large June 14, 2026 celebration on the White House south lawn of Trump’s 80th birthday that will include a large-scale Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event involving boxing and wrestling competition.
Bos said the Capital Pride Parade will take place along the same route it has in the past number of years, starting at 14th and T Streets, N.W. and traveling along 14th Street to Pennsylvania Ave., where it will end. He said the festival set for the following day will also take place at its usual location on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., between 2nd Street near the U.S. Capitol, to around 7th Street, N.W.
“Our Pride events thrive because of the passion and support of the community,” Capital Pride Board Chair Anna Jinkerson said in the statement. “In 2026, your involvement is more important than ever,” she said.
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