U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Angie Craig (D-Minn.) will introduce a bill this week addressing the “rising elder abuse of LGBTQI+ individuals,” according legislation the Washington Blade previewed.

The Elder Pride Protection Act of 2024 would establish a task force through the Justice Department, with staff selected by the attorney general from the Elder Justice Initiative and the Division of Civil Rights.

They would be tasked with studying “the increased incidence of elder abuse” targeting LGBTQ individuals, developing best practices for a national approach and for state and local authorities to address these crimes, creating and distributing educational materials to raise awareness, and coordinating “the response of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.”

The legislation establishes that the task force would be responsible for issuance of a progress report on its work to the U.S. House and U.S. Senate Judiciary Committees.

Importantly, elder abuse as defined under the bill ranges from the use of physical force to cause harm to forced or unwanted sexual interaction, emotional or psychological abuse, the failure to meet basic needs, and financial crimes.

“I’m incredibly excited to introduce my new legislation, the Elder Pride Protection Act, that I’m leading with Congresswoman Angie Craig of Minnesota,” Gottheimer said. “No one should ever be mistreated on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, especially our vulnerable elderly populations.”

The congressman added, “This legislation is a critical step in coordinating our response to this runaway abuse at the federal level.”

“LGBTQ+ seniors paved the way for so many of the rights we have today, and they’re a vital part of our communities in Minnesota,” said Craig, who is the first lesbian mother elected to Congress and serves as a co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus.

“I’m working to pass the Elder Pride Protection Act to help empower LGBTQ+ seniors and combat any abuse they might face,” she said.

Garden State Equality, New Jersey’s largest LGBTQ rights group noted that “for too long, elder abuse of our older LGBTQ adults has gone un- or under- reported,” adding that, “The establishment of this task force will help bridge the gap experienced by our LGBTQ elders.”

“The work of this task force, particularly the creation of uniform procedures and communication between state and federal agencies, will be formative in combating the abuse and neglect of LGBTQ elders and is critical in creating true lived equality for all Americans,” Garden State Equality said.

“SAGE is proud to support the Elder Pride Protection Act of 2024,” said Aaron Tax, managing director of government affairs and policy advocacy for SAGE, a national advocacy and services organization for LGBTQ elders.

“LGBTQ+ elders deserve to age without fear of elder abuse,” Tax said. “We applaud Rep. Gottheimer for championing the establishment of this important task force, which we hope will improve the lives of LGBTQ+ older people.”

David Stacy, vice president for government affairs for the Human Rights Campaign, said, “By establishing the ELDER Task Force, this country has the chance to affirm its commitment to addressing and preventing the abuse that this community faces all too often.”

“Congress should pass this bill and send a message that they are dedicated to ensuring every elder can live free from fear and harm,” Stacy said.

Democratic U.S. Reps. Robert Garcia and Barbara Lee of California sent a letter on Thursday urging the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to compel health insurers to provide free access to doxy PEP, a drug regimen for the prevention of sexually transmitted infections.

The USPSTF is an independent panel of experts in primary care and preventative medicine organized under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services whose primary responsibility is to evaluate the evidence on the safety and efficacy of medical screenings, counseling, and preventative medications.

The lawmakers’ letter explains that in 2019, the USPSTF issued an “A-grade” recommendation for prescribing preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) — a different preventative regimen targeting HIV infections — to “those at increased risk of HIV acquisition.”

As required under the Affordable Care Act, the rating meant health plans were required to offer the drug with no cost-sharing, which “has been enormously beneficial to hundreds of thousands of Americans —particularly members of the LGBTQIA+ community.”

The letter points to disproportionately high rates of bacterial STIs (“chlamydia, gonorrhea, and especially syphilis”) among LGBTQ populations as well as recommendations published last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instructing providers to counsel certain patients about PEP, with the agency writing that the drug intervention requires “a focused effort for equitable implementation.”

For these reasons, Garcia and Lee said, “we respectfully ask for your full and fair consideration of a USPSTF recommendation for doxy PEP to the populations outlined in the guidelines with an ‘A’ rating,” with those populations being “gay and bisexual men, other men who have sex with men, and transgender women, and who have a history of bacterial STIs in the past 12 months.”

“Surging STIs are disproportionately impacting LGBTQ+ individuals,” Garcia, a gay co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, said in a press release from his congressional office. “We must ensure that these folks have access to doxy PEP, a critical medication that can save lives and prevent these kinds of infections.”

He added, “By making doxy PEP coverage free by insurers, we can prevent infections and stop the spread of disease for those most vulnerable.”

Lee, a vice chair of the caucus, has a decades-long record of pro-LGBTQ advocacy, particularly in the healthcare space and on issues of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and around the world.

“Widespread use and education about doxy PEP could prevent thousands of bacterial STI cases every year,” she said in the press release. “However, in order to get this treatment to those who need it most, it’s imperative that doxy PEP is covered by insurance plans with no cost to patients.”

“By ensuring doxy PEP is available with grade A rating by the USPSTF, we’re taking a critical step toward promoting health equity and advancing our mission of using informed, evidence-based interventions to support those most in need,” said David Stacy, vice president of government Affairs for the Human Rights Campaign.

David C. Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, said “providing healthcare providers with the guidance and encouragement they need to implement doxy PEP in accordance with the new CDC guidelines will be crucial in helping us use doxy PEP to address our out-of-control STI epidemic.”

On July 9, after most members of Congress had left the Capitol, a small group began setting up a celebration. The halls were nearly silent, aside from the occasional tap of heels on the marble floor, as people slowly streamed into Emancipation Hall and down a corridor. Closer to Senate Meeting Room 212, the intertwining murmur of voices in Spanish and English began to grow.

Then one man stepped to the front of the room and a hush overcame the crowd.

“Today was a great opportunity to meet different members in the House and the Senate,” Frankie Miranda said. “It was an eye-opening experience in many different opportunities, seeing how our message was being welcomed. And in other cases, really not resonating at all, with some of them.”

Miranda, who is the president of the Hispanic Federation, a nonprofit membership and advocacy organization with a mission to “empower and advance the Hispanic community” with a particular focus to low-income, marginalized, and immigrant Latinos, assured that the advocacy for expanding protections for LGBTQ people would not end on Capitol Hill. 

“We are going to continue our push to make sure that the intersectionality in our communities — that our LGBTQ Latinx and that female voices are heard,” Miranda continued, conviction clear in his voice. “We’re going to continue pushing because we know that after pride, the work continues. We cannot just allow ourselves to just be recognized just one month out of the year.”

Miranda, who became the Hispanic Federation’s first gay president in 2019, has vowed to use his platform to help uplift Latino LGBTQ voices. The organization is doing so by giving money to organizations that help with grants and training that focus on LGBTQ Latinos’ experiences — especially those dealing with immigration, race, culture, and language access.

“In 2022, the Federation decided to invest a million dollars in funding to support Latinx LGBTQ organizations,” Miranda said. “Those grantees around this room are part of this incredible initiative that has done incredible work.”

According to the group’s website, 27 organizations have received up to $50,000 each to help serve the Latino LGBTQ community. In addition to providing funds, the Hispanic Federation also created meetings for these organizations to discuss their needs for the continued support of their communities. 

Discussions with Latino LGBTQ organizations have informed the Hispanic Federation about overlooked issues within these communities, eventually leading to the creation of the Advance Change Together (ACT) initiative. The ACT initiative includes grantees who are LGBTQ and Latino from various parts of the country, representing diverse segments of the LGBTQ community.

The ACT initiative is then able to promote specific pro-LGBTQ federal legislation through lobbying. 

“We came together as grassroots orgs to really talk about the current political climate, especially against LGBT rhetoric,” said grantee Kevin Al Perez, president of Somos Familia Valle. “Specifically, the rise of trans bills with youth, lots of anti-trans legislation that is thrown against the LGBT community. It also brings together the intersections of the Latine experience when it comes to immigration, when it comes to status, when it comes to all the intersections that all of our organizations meet.”

Somos Familia Valle is the leading local Latino LGBTQ organization in California’s San Fernando Valley that “supports, empowers, and mobilizes families, and allies for racial, gender, and economic justice” through community dialogue, advocacy, and civic engagement. 

Perez was able to take his successful dialogue techniques to the federal level, highlighting common challenges that California’s Latino LGBTQ community has endured. 

“I was able to meet with Sen. Alex Padilla, which was very amazing,” Perez explained after his day lobbying on the Hill. “We had our drag story hour protested, we had our local elementary school protested for having a rainbow assembly for children, which is just a book celebrating diverse families … I was able to really let him know that this even happens in his own community in Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley.”

He continued, explaining that the significant work done on the Hill is the first of its kind and will hopefully lead to change. 

“I think this is us coming together very historical in a way — that there hasn’t been specifically a Latine LGBT representation, especially here in the Capitol, especially a group, right?” Perez said. “We see a lot of LGBT movement work being led by white boards and I think our perspective really gives an opportunity for our communities to be heard.”

The specific legislation the ACT grantees were promoting includes the Equality Act that would establish uniform and explicit anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people, The Healthy Families Act which that would provide a guaranteed minimum of seven paid sick days per year to care for their families or themselves, and the PrEP Access and Coverage Act that would require all private and public insurance plans to cover the HIV prevention pill and related services.

Xelestiàl Moreno-Luz, a transgender activist and CEO of Saturn’s Wish, an arts and culture organization dedicated to “advancing the artistic and cultural efforts of TGI (trans, gender-diverse, and intersex) BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) works,” is another of the grantees lobbying on behalf of the ACT initiative. 

For Moreno-Luz, the Equality Act would give many in her community — specifically trans Latinos, the ability to be protected federally 

“One of the biggest things for me is how are our policymakers, the people in office, making sure that TGI (trans, gender-diverse, and intersex) people have employment opportunities,” Moreno-Luz said when asked why she was on Capitol Hill. “Even if they have an employment opportunity, Is this employment safe? Is this employment an affirming environment for TGI populations? And so that’s kind of like what I was addressing today.”

For her, this lobbying is more than just passing an act through the House and Senate. It’s about being able to live safely in her own skin. 

“A good colleague of mine mentioned today during one of our delegations that this year 17 trans people have been murdered in the United States,” Moreno-Luz said. “And those are just reported murders, with half of them being Latin.”

According to the Human Rights Campaign, which tracks instances of reported fatal trans violence, has said that in 2023 at least 32 trans and gender-expansive people had been killed through violent means. Moreno-Luz explained that if Congress passes the Equality Act, more trans people would be safe.

“We’re all humans: That’s the message I always try to tell people,” Hector Ruiz, president of the South Texas Equality Project (STEP), said while talking with other grantees. “We love the same, we breathe the same, we eat the same, whatever it may be. Ultimately we’re just people trying to fight for our rights that haven’t been given to us in the past — as a group that I feel has been underrepresented and undervalued.”

STEP works towards creating a more affirming community for LGBTQ people in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley through educational forums, support groups, fundraisers, meetups, and other events that include RGV+ Pride.

“We’re just here to let people [members of Congress] know that we’re humans just like everyone else,” Ruiz added.

Grantee Dagoberto Bailón, co-founder of Trans Queer Pueblo in Phoenix, emphasizes the importance of bridging the gap between members of Congress and those affected by the proposed legislation. He explains that such discussions are crucial for creating meaningful and impactful laws, which can help local organizations better protect LGBTQ Latinos.

“I think it’s important to build connections to really figure out how we can collectively change the way that the U.S. is talking about issues for LGBT people and Latinx people in general,” Bailón said. “Also to go back to our states to see what strategies are working in other states so that we can implement them and sort of build a coalition that can push different pressure points, so that we can achieve the same goal.”

Bailón is not alone in aiming to change attitudes towards LGBTQ people in the U.S. and increase protective measures.

Debo Ofsowitz, the development director for Hope CommUnity Center in Apopka, Fla., also highlighted the importance of getting federal protections for LGBTQ Latinos.

“Young LGBTQ people are growing up in a country where they feel like their own government is attacking them,” they said. “These are young people who know their identity from the day that they were born, just like the rest of us knew our identity from the day that we were born. They feel like they can’t be who they are. They feel like not only are their parents against them, not only their teachers, not only their church, but also their government. We’re trying to change that.”

And change that they will try.

All three protective bills — the Equality Act, Healthy Families Act, and PrEP Access and Coverage Act of 2023 — have all been formally introduced to Congress and have been passed along to committees regarding their issues, but nothing has passed yet. 

Visit the Hispanic Federation’s website for more information.