Federal Government
HHS official discusses agency’s proposed LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination rule
Proposed regulation change published Tuesday
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Tuesday for a new regulation that clarifies nondiscrimination rules on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
“The department is doing all that it can to protect access to health and human services,” Melanie Fontes Rainer, director of HHS’s Office of Civil Rights, told the Washington Blade by phone on Tuesday.
“This proposed rule is a step in that effort,” she said.
Health programs administered by the agency are covered by the nondiscrimination rules in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, Fontes Rainer said, so, “This rule is meant to get to that other slice of the pie that encompasses really important work at the Department of Human Services.”
Nondiscrimination, here, is a priority, “specifically nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity,” she said.
If finalized pursuant to the 60-day public comment period, HHS’s rule will apply to such programs as those administered by the “Administration for Children and Families, SAMHSA, and some other organizations within HHS that have grants,” Fontes Rainer said.
Examples include Head Start, which provides educational, health, nutritional and other services to low income children and their families.
The agency’s legal authority to enforce inclusive nondiscrimination rules was statutorily ordained by Congress, but clarified with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which “made clear that sexual orientation and gender identity were part of this protected sex based discrimination class,” Fontes Rainer said.
The decision helped to accelerate the Biden-Harris administration’s coordination of efforts across the federal government to shore up protections for LGBTQ Americans, she noted, beginning with the Justice Department and then the U.S. Department of Education and HHS.
Those agencies and federal courts have since made clear the law applies not just in the Title VII context — which covers nondiscrimination in employment, the legal question at issue in Bostock — but also “to other federal programs like Title IX,” Fontes Rainer said.
HHS is coordinating efforts with the White House, which last month unveiled a series of new actions to better protect LGBTQ Americans, including through programs administered by HHS, such as those targeting queer youth and their families.
Last June, Fontes Rainer noted, the administration announced that the department’s Administration for Children and Families would pursue a new rule making to “clarify that state child welfare agencies must ensure LGBTQI youth are treated in a safe and appropriate manner.”
The agency’s rule “is inclusive of some grants and services that are inclusive of homelessness services for LGBTQI youth,” Fontes Rainer said. “That’s certainly a part of it. And this grants rule is certainly a part of that effort in the Human Services context.”
“It’s really important right now to have the federal government be strong in the LGBTQI space, whether it’s healthcare, human services or some other service that the federal government provides and [also to] be very clear about what non discrimination means,” she said. “Because, you know, there there is a tsunami of these [anti-trans] healthcare bans across the country.”
According to the Human Rights Campaign, almost 30 percent of transgender youth in the U.S. live in places that have passed bans on gender affirming care, criminalizing healthcare interventions that are backed by every mainstream scientific and medical society.
“We’re seeing a shift right now, where there are a lot of healthcare bans,” Fontes Rainer said. “And, I think, ultimately, these are decisions that are going to be taken into litigation in various contexts, which we’re already seeing across the country.”
Meanwhile, on the federal level, Congressional Republicans are moving to add riders restricting access to healthcare for trans youth into must-pass appropriations bills. Asked to respond to these efforts, Fontes Rainer was quick to note that, “my job is not on the legislative front, here.”
At the same time, she said, when it comes to HHS’s proposed regulation, for “every single program and service we’ve identified, these [nondiscrimination] protections already exist in the law,” so the agency is therefore confident that “we are on good authority and legal footing here.”
While the regulation and its implementation would be new, Fontes Rainer said, HHS is acting under its statutory authority as established long ago by the legislature.
Policy carries real impact on people, families
Last month, HHS hosted a Pride Summit, where officials at the agency from Fontes Rainer to Assistant Secretary Adm. Rachel Levine and Secretary Xavier Becerra, along with other high ranking members of the Biden-Harris administration like White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, spoke about the government’s work advancing rights and protections for the LGBTQ community.
At the event, Becerra dedicated a portion of his remarks to recounting discussions he had with LGBTQ families about how his agency can better serve their needs across the various health and human services programs that comprise its book of business.
Fontes Rainer told the Blade she has participated in many of these conversations, with and without the secretary. “I have made a point to visit with providers, advocates, parents and kids, in many of the states that either have passed or are seeking to pass bans on healthcare for trans youth,” she said.
“Every time I have these conversations, I feel emotional afterwards,” she said. “For a lot of these kids and families, you know, they’re not asking for much. They’re asking to go to the doctor. They’re asking to be treated with respect. They’re asking to have the appropriate pronouns used — things that are very basic.”
The circumstances vary, Fontes Rainer said. Some families have the resources to travel or even relocate to states that are committed to protecting their transgender residents’ access to healthcare.
Others, however, do not. Parents, she said, often “don’t know what they’re gonna do as their child is [forcibly] tapered off of medication, mid treatment” and many are unsure how to respond to the resulting impacts on their child’s mental health.
Fontes Rainer said she has also seen the impacts of legislative restrictions on the healthcare system. “I’ve talked to providers who tell me that they provide gender affirming care in a state where it’s not banned and it’s impossible to get appointments now, because they have so many people traveling there,” she said.
“These efforts by the Biden administration, while they don’t solve everything, they’re really important — both in being strong on the policy and what the law means, but also in being very clear to parents and families and doctors that we have your back,” Fontes Rainer said.
“I’ve been in rooms with the secretary where people, providers, you know, hug him and cry,” she said, “because they feel like it’s really important to have somebody that understands the law in this moment, and they feel like it’s important that, you know, from the secretary on up to the president of the United States, they have support from the Biden administration.”
Fontes Rainer told the Blade she is proud of HHS’s legacy of leadership on LGBTQ rights. With a ceremony last year, the agency became the first to raise the Progress Pride flag, which includes colors to represent Black and brown LGBTQ communities and incorporates the stripes of the transgender Pride flag.
“Now, this year, almost every single agency did that,” she said, adding that last month, “my husband and I put up a Pride Unity flag in our yard” too.
“Right now is not the time to be shy,” Fontes Rainer said. “Now is not the time to like go hide in a hole. Now is the time to be loud and vocal and use your power for good.”
Federal Government
Markwayne Mullin confirmed as next DHS secretary
Okla. senator to succeed Kristi Noem
The U.S. Senate confirmed Markwayne Mullin as the next secretary of Homeland Security on Monday, as the agency continues to grapple with what lawmakers have described as a “never-ending” funding standoff, with Democrats attempting to withhold funding from one of the nation’s largest and most costly agencies.
Mullin — a Republican senator from Oklahoma, former mixed martial arts fighter, and plumbing business owner — was confirmed in a 54–45 vote. Two Democrats — U.S. Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) — sided with Republicans in supporting his confirmation.
The new agency head is expected to follow the policy direction set by President Donald Trump, emphasizing stricter immigration enforcement. This includes proposals to support immigration agents at polling sites and to cut funding to so-called “sanctuary cities.”
Mullin replaces Kristi Noem, who was fired earlier this month following a widely scrutinized 2-day congressional hearing on Capitol Hill.
During the hearing, Noem faced intense questioning over her response to several crises, including the fatal shooting of two American citizens in Minneapolis by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, a $220 million border security advertising campaign that featured her on horseback near Mount Rushmore amid one of the largest federal workforce reductions in U.S. history, and the federal response to major natural disasters such as the July 2025 Texas floods and Hurricane Helene in 2024.
Noem had previously drawn criticism for a series of policy decisions in South Dakota that broadly focused on restricting the rights of LGBTQ individuals. In 2023, she signed House Bill 1080, banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. She also signed legislation and executive orders restricting trans athletes’ participation in women’s sports, as well as the state’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” which critics argued enabled discrimination against LGBTQ individuals. Additionally, the state canceled contracts related to LGBTQ support services — including suicide prevention and health care navigation programs‚ and later agreed to a $300,000 settlement with trans advocacy group, The Transformation Project.
Despite her removal from DHS, Noem will remain in the Trump-Vance administration as a special envoy for the “Shield of the Americas,” an initiative aimed at promoting U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere, including efforts to counter cartel networks, reduce Chinese influence, and manage migration.
The new head of DHS has served in Congress since 2013, in both houses of the federal legislature. While in the Senate and a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Mullin has been a vocal critic of policies aimed at expanding LGBTQ inclusion. He led a group of lawmakers in urging the Administration for Community Living to reverse a rule requiring states to prioritize Older Americans Act services based on sexual orientation and gender identity, arguing the policy could have unintended consequences.
Mullin also makes history as the first Native American — and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation — to lead the Department of Homeland Security. He was also among the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results despite no evidence of widespread fraud, and was present in the U.S. House of Representatives chamber on Jan. 6.
Federal Government
Protesters say SAVE Act targets voters, transgender youth
Bill described as ‘Jim Crow 2.0’
Members of Congress, advocates, and people from across the country gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to protest proposed federal legislation that voting rights activists have deemed “Jim Crow 2.0.”
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require in-person proof of citizenship for anyone seeking to vote in U.S. elections.
President Donald Trump has also pushed for the proposed legislation to include a section that would ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, even with parental consent, and prohibit trans people from participating in school or professional sports consistent with their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth.
In addition to changing voter registration requirements, the bill would limit acceptable forms of identification to documents such as a birth certificate or passport — records that the Brennan Center for Justice estimates more than 21 million Americans do not have — effectively restricting access to the ballot. It would also ban online voter registration, DMV voter registration efforts, and mail-in voter registration.
A 2021 investigation by the Associated Press found that fewer than 475 people voted illegally or improperly, a tiny fraction of the estimated 160 million Americans who voted in the 2020 election.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke at the event.
“It will kick millions of American citizens off the rolls. And they don’t even require you to be told,” the highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate told protesters and reporters outside the Capitol. “If this law passes — and it won’t — you’re gonna show up in November … and they’ll say… sorry, you’re no longer on the voting rolls.”
He, like many other speakers, emphasized the bill in the context of American history, pointing to what he described as its racist roots and its impact on Black and brown Americans.
“I have called this act, over and over again, Jim Crow 2.0 … because they know it’s the truth.”
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was one of the lawmakers leading opposition to the legislation and spoke at the rally.
“It’s not just voting rights that are on the line — our democracy is on the line,” the California lawmaker said. “It’s not a voter I.D. bill. It’s a bait and switch bill.”
He added historical context, noting the significance of voting rights legislation passed more than 60 years ago. In 1965, Alabama civil rights activists marched to protest barriers to voter registration. Alabama state troopers violently attacked peaceful demonstrators at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, using tear gas, clubs, and whips against more than 500 — mostly Black — protesters.
“61 years ago — not to the day — but this week, President Lyndon Johnson came to the Capitol and addressed a joint session of Congress in the wake of Bloody Sunday and pushed Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act,” Padilla said. “61 years later, Donald Trump and this Republican majority wants to take us backwards. We’re not gonna let that happen.”
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) also spoke, emphasizing that he views the effort as a Republican-led and Trump-backed attempt to restrict voting access, particularly among Black, brown, and predominantly Democratic communities.
“President Trump told Republicans when they were meeting behind closed doors that ‘The SAVE Act will guarantee Republicans win the midterms and ensure they do not lose an election for 50 years,’” Luján said. “The first time I think Donald Trump’s been honest … This voter suppression bill is only that. Taking away vote by mail? I hope my Republican colleagues from states that voted for Donald Trump or where vote by mail is popular have the courage and the backbone to stand up and say no to this nonsense, because their constituents are going to push back.”
U.S. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) also spoke.
“Our Republican colleagues have already cut Medicaid, Medicare, people don’t know how they’re gonna be able to afford energy,” she said, providing context for the broader political moment. “We’re in the middle of a war that they can’t even get straight while we’re in it and don’t have a way to get out of it. And we are now faced with defending our democracy?”
She then showed the crowd something that she said has been with her throughout her political journey in Washington.
“I brought with me something that I carried on the day that I was sworn into the House of Representatives when I was elected in 2016, and I carried it with me on the day that I was sworn in as United States senator. And I also carried it with me when I was trapped up in the gallery on Jan. 6 and all I could think to do was pray … This document allowed my great great great grandfather, who had been enslaved in Georgia, to have the right to vote. We took this and turned it into a scarf. It is the returns of qualified voters and reconstruction code from 1867. This is my proof of what we’ve been through. This is also our inspiration.”
“I got to travel between the Edmund Pettus Bridge two times. And even as I thought about this moment, I recognized that while we wish we weren’t in it, while we don’t know why we’re in it, I do know we were made for it … So I came today to tell you that, um, just like the leader said, that he calls it Jim Crow 2.0. I call it Jim Crow 2.NO.”
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy organization in the U.S., also spoke, highlighting the impact of the bill’s proposed provisions affecting trans people.
“This bill is not about saving America. This bill is about stealing an election. This bill is about suppressing voters,” Robinson said. “This bill not only tries to disenfranchise voters that deserve their right to vote, it also tries to criminalize trans kids and their families … It tries to criminalize doctors providing medically necessary care for our trans youth.”
The SAVE Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 11 but has not yet been considered in the U.S. Senate.
Federal Government
Gay Venezuelan man ‘forcibly disappeared’ to El Salvador files claim against White House
Andry Hernández Romero had asked for asylum in US
A gay Venezuelan asylum seeker who the U.S. “forcibly disappeared” to El Salvador has filed a claim against the federal government.
Immigrant Defenders Law Center, who represents Andry Hernández Romero, on Friday announced their client and five other Venezuelans who the Trump-Vance administration “forcibly removed” to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, filed “administrative claims” under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
The White House on Feb. 20, 2025, designated Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, as an “international terrorist organization.”
President Donald Trump less than a month later invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which the Associated Press notes allows the U.S. to deport “noncitizens without any legal recourse.” The White House then “forcibly removed” Hernández, who had been pursuing his asylum case in the U.S., and more than 250 other Venezuelans to El Salvador.
Immigrant Defenders Law Center disputed claims that Hernández is a Tren de Aragua member.
Hernández was held at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison known by the Spanish acronym CECOT, until his release on July 18, 2025. Hernández, who is back in Venezuela, claims he suffered physical and sexual abuse while at CECOT.
“As a Venezuelan citizen with no criminal record anywhere in the world, I would like to tell not only the government of the United States but governments everywhere that no human being is illegal,” said Hernández in the Immigrant Defenders Law Center press release. “The practice of judging whole communities for the wrongdoing of a single individual must end. Governments should use their power to help every person in the nation become more aware and informed, to strengthen our cultures and build a stronger generation with principles and values — one that multiplies the positive instead of destroying unfulfilled dreams and opportunities.”
Immigrant Defenders Law Center filed claims on behalf of Hernández and the five other Venezuelans less than three months after American forces seized then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, at their home in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.
Maduro and Flores have pleaded not guilty to federal drug charges. Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president, is Venezuela’s acting president.
‘Due process and accountability cannot be optional’
Immigrant Defenders Law Center on Friday also made the following demands:
- The Trump administration must officially release the names of all people the United States sent to CECOT to ensure that everyone has been or will be released.
- The federal government must clear the names of the 252 men wrongfully labeled as criminal gang members of Tren de Aragua.
- DHS (Department of Homeland Security) must end the practice of outsourcing torture through third‑country removals, restore humanitarian parole, and rebuild a functioning, humane asylum system.
- DHS must reinstate Temporary Protected Status for all individuals who cannot safely return to their home countries, halt mass deportations and unlawful raids and arrests, and guarantee due process for everyone navigating the immigration system.
- Congress must pass the Neighbors Not Enemies Act, which would repeal the Alien Enemies Act.
“In all my years as an immigration attorney, I have never seen a client simply vanish in the middle of their case with no explanation,” said Immigration Defenders Legal Fund Legal Services Director Melissa Shepard. “In court, the government couldn’t even explain where he was — he had been disappeared.”
“When the government detains and transfers people in secrecy, without transparency or access to the courts, it tears at the basic protections a democracy is supposed to guarantee,” added Shepard. “What this experience makes painfully clear is that due process and accountability cannot be optional. They are the only safeguards standing between people and the kind of lawlessness our clients suffered. We must end third country transfers, restore the asylum system, and humanitarian parole, and reinstate temporary protective status so this nightmare never happens again.”
Markwayne Mullin confirmed as next DHS secretary
Gay man murdered in Va.
Trans Day of Visibility events planned
Virginia General Assembly’s 2026 legislative session ends
Polish court rules country must recognize same-sex marriages from EU states
Queer American in Israel discusses Iran war’s impact
‘How We Survived’ panel set for March 25
Calendar: March 21-26
Small is beautiful: subcompact SUVs
