Politics
Va. lawmakers Roem, Ebbin, Henson headline Out for Harris launch party
Event held at Freddie’s Beach Bar in Arlington
ARLINGTON — LGBTQ Democratic Virginia state legislators Danica Roem, Adam Ebbin, and Rozia Henson headlined an Out for Harris coalition launch party on Thursday at Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant in Arlington, Va.
Following remarks by Freddie Lutz, owner and namesake of the landmark 23-year-old LGBTQ establishment, the speakers highlighted Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s extensive track records of advancing LGBTQ rights while also stressing the urgency of get-out-the-vote efforts with just a few weeks remaining before early ballots will be cast in Virginia.
The lawmakers also shared reflections on their time as LGBTQ officeholders who each has made history with their elected positions: Roem, as the country’s first transgender state legislator, Ebbin, as the first LGBTQ representative in the Virginia house of Delegates, and Henson, as the Virginia General Assembly’s first gay Black man.
“A historic first is first but not the last,” Roem said, adding that these wins often come with challenges, too — as Ebbin, her colleague in the state senate, experienced in the time between his groundbreaking election in 2003 and the LGBTQ representation seen in the state house today, with a total of nine out lawmakers now comprising Virginia’s LGBTQ legislative caucus.
“When you put yourself out there, you wonder at what point the reinforcements are going to arrive,” she said, adding, with a smirk, “or if the closeted members who you’re serving with would just come out already.”
Roem then shared her own coming out journey, starting with her coming of age in Northern Virginia. Freddie’s was the only spot that welcomed LGBTQ young people in the ’90s and 2000s, she said, and “the first place that I felt safe to be out in public as her.”
Later, in 2004, Roem explained how she was venturing out with her hair swept across her face because, at the time, she thought, “I don’t want to be recognized; I don’t want anyone to know.” Meanwhile, Roem said, “across the country, there was a newly elected district attorney” who learned the mayor of San Francisco had blessed same-sex marriage and volunteered herself to help however she could.
Kamala Harris officiated some of the first gay and lesbian weddings, “putting herself right out there,” Roem said — stressing that John Kerry and John Edwards, the Democratic Party’s 2004 presidential ticket, were opposed to same-sex marriage, as was the rest of the party.
However, she said, “For those folks in elected office who put themselves out there, people like Kamala Harris did it 20 years ago, not because it was politically popular. Prop 8 would pass four years later. Not because it was convenient, but because it was right.”
After she became a state legislator, Roem first met Harris, then a U.S. senator, at a Human Rights Campaign event, and “she tells me, hey, just remember, keep shoulders down, chin up, and remember you are exactly where you’re meant to be.”
“Five years later,” Roem said, “I’m exactly where I’m meant to be, because I’m here with y’all at Freddie’s, and this face is not being hidden by my hair unless I am head-banging” to heavy metal music “because I am not going back.”
“We are not going back,” she added, “and we sure as hell are not going back to a time when the Trump administration was kicking transgender military members out of the service, banning trans troops who displayed more courage and sense of self of service than their then- commander-in-chief ever has or ever could.”
“And now, on the ballot this fall, we have friends,” Roem said. “We aren’t where we were 20 years ago, where we’re having to vote strategically; we have our allies on the ballot for president and vice president this fall, with Vice President Harris and with Governor Walz.”
Ebbin began his remarks by acknowledging the “large number of LGBTQ appointees in the administration” who were in attendance in their personal capacity. “I want to thank them for their work every day,” he said.
“When I first ran for office 21 years ago, we were not nearly as visible, we were not nearly as organized, and above all, we didn’t have leaders who always had our backs,” Ebbin said. “There were no other LGBT people in the General Assembly building when I got there, and now, with the help of Delegate Henson, we have a nine-member LGBTQ caucus.”
“You can understand why, as a Virginian, I feel passionately about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” he said. “They will carry our pro-LGBT Virginia values not just across the country, but all the way to the White House.”
During Ebbin’s remarks, an audience member interrupted with questions about the U.S. Senate Democrats who voted for the National Defense Authorization Act despite the funding package’s inclusion of anti-LGBTQ riders, and the Kids Online Safety Act, legislation sponsored by U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
He replied, “I’m in the Virginia Senate. I’m going to not do questions right now,” offering to talk after he stepped off the stage. The heckler persisted, raising that $30 billion was allocated for weapons, likely a reference to the supply of arms to Ukraine, when Ebbin said, “I’m not in the U.S. Senate.”
Ebbin continued, “before any state in the union legalized gay marriage, San Francisco D.A. Kamala Harris took the bold step of officiating LGBT weddings back in early 2004 — and keep in mind, this was at a time when here in Virginia, we’re fighting off some horrific” legislation including efforts to ban adoption by same-sex parents and the formation of gay-straight alliance clubs in schools, which were ultimately defeated.
“Over Kamala Harris’s entire career, she’s been a national leader for LGBTQ rights,” Ebbin said. “She marched in Pride parades not just in San Francisco, but as a U.S. senator and as vice president of the United States, several times, and that is powerful.”
“And then when we turn to her running mate, in 1999, Tim Walz was a teacher and a football coach at Mankato West High School, and he stepped up to advise the Gay Straight Alliance to protect gay kids from being bullied,” Ebbin said.
Walz was “there for high school kids in a red rural place, and in 2006, when he stepped up to run for Congress, he was advised not to pick a position on gay marriage, but he stepped up and he did,” he said. “He was there for us. Then on the flip side, we look at Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, who’ve not only shown us who they are but they’ve written a whole playbook, Project 2025, which is one of the most anti-LGBTQ agendas ever published.”
Ebbin added, “as Maya Angelou reminded us, “the Republican ticket is telling us exactly who they are. So, we should believe them and make sure our friends and neighbors believe them.”
The state senator was also heckled by pro-Palestine protesters who were kicked out for the disruption.
Henson began his brief remarks by telling the audience, “my job here is just to make sure we emphasize the importance of you organizing together, getting in your community, hosting teas, hosting events just like this, in order to make sure we get Kamala Harris to the White House.”
“Without you all setting the expectations and doing the groundwork, I probably would not have been the first openly gay Black state representative,” he said.
Henson thanked Ebbin for his mentorship and friendship, and for his leadership as the first out member of the Virginia General Assembly in its 400-year history. Introducing the state senator, Henson added that but for his help and guidance, “marriage equality would not be in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
Congress
Ogles faces bipartisan backlash over anti-gay social media post
Tenn. congressman blamed the comment on staffer
U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), who represents Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, is facing backlash from LGBTQ advocates and fellow Republicans after a social media post declared that “homosexuality has no place in America.”
“Homosexuality has no place in America. Happy Nuclear Family Month,” the congressman wrote in a post on X that was later deleted.
According to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, an estimated 6.3 percent of U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ.
Following widespread criticism, Ogles removed the post and blamed it on a staff member.
“The post was stupid, hurtful and a complete distraction from my America First focus. The employee has been reprimanded,” Ogles said in a statement.
The Washington Blade reached out to Ogles’s office for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
Among those condemning the message was U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), who called it “absolutely idiotic” in a social media post.
“Homosexuality exists. In America,” Lawler wrote on X. “In fact, Andy, you have family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and constituents who are gay and lesbian. It doesn’t make them less than or somehow unworthy of being an American.”
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) also criticized Ogles’s remarks.
“For all of recorded history, homosexuals have been a part of humanity,” Cruz told TMZ DC. “I think the behavior of consenting adults is their business.”
Chris Sanders, the executive director for the Tennessee Equality Project and Tennessee Equality Project Foundation provided a statement to the Blade about Ogles’s comment.
“The Tennessee Nuclear Family Month resolution has really backfired on conservatives by ensnaring Congressman Ogles in scandal. He used the resolution as a pretext to say that our community doesn’t belong in America, resulting in incredible backlash from across the partisan divide,” Sanders said. “It is a good opportunity for him to pause and reflect on whether it’s time for him to resign. Fighting one’s own constituents is not the purpose of serving in Congress.”
Human Rights Campaign Senior Press Secretary Jarred Keller provided a statement to the Blade regarding Ogles’s comments.
“LGBTQ+ people are woven into the fabric of America, and any politician who questions that is severely out of touch with reality. When so many people are worried about whether they can afford gas to get to work or groceries for their families, the last thing we need is right-wing Republicans targeting marginalized communities with hateful attacks,” Keller said. “Representative Ogles should spend less time attacking LGBTQ+ people and start addressing the issues that actually matter, because last I checked, our community isn’t the reason families are struggling to make ends meet.”
The controversy comes as Tennessee continues to advance legislation affecting LGBTQ residents. The state already has several laws on the books that LGBTQ advocates have criticized, including the Adult Entertainment Act, enacted in 2023, which restricts certain “adult cabaret performances.”
Lawmakers have also introduced additional measures this legislative session, including the “No Pride Flag or Month Act,” which would prohibit state employees, volunteers, and agents from displaying Pride flags or participating in Pride observances while acting in an official capacity.
Another proposal, the “Banning Bostock Act” would seek to limit the application of state anti-discrimination protections based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. Tennessee lawmakers have also passed other measures restricting LGBTQ rights and access to gender-affirming health care.
Congress
10 HIV/AIDS activists arrested on Capitol Hill
Protesters interrupted Secretary of State Marco Rubio during hearing
U.S. Capitol Police on Tuesday arrested 10 HIV/AIDS activists who protested Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
The activists from Housing Works, Health GAP, the Treatment Action Group, and ACT UP held signs and chanted “Rubio’s Cuts Kill People with AIDS, PEPFAR Saves Lives!” before officers removed them from Dirksen Senate Office Building room where the hearing took place.
A media advisory the Washington Blade received before the protest noted “mounting evidence of Rubio’s attempts to sabotage PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, U.S. bilateral AIDS program) and vital global health programs.” The press release specifically highlighted three specific points:
• Eliminating Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) lifesaving PEPFAR programs, which currently support approximately 12 million people on HIV treatment across 51 countries. Instead, Rubio intends to dismantle CDC’s current PEPFAR role and stamp out their global footprint in disease outbreak and surveillance for pandemics beyond HIV. Experts including eight former CDC Directors under Republican and Democratic administrations have spoken out against this effort to dismantle PEPFAR. Recent PEPFAR data showed sharp decreases in the numbers of people newly tested, diagnosed, and treated for HIV, but these data would have been even worse if not for CDC’s PEPFAR programs.
• Withholding $2 billion in Congressionally appropriated FY25 funding, including $330 million to combat HIV, $250 million to fight malaria, $320 million for maternal and child health programs, and nearly $650 million in global health security programs.
• Negotiating secret bilateral deals blackmailing African governments by demanding access to critical mineral wealth as a condition of access to HIV treatment and prevention funding.
The groups have staged several protests against the Trump-Vance administration’s HIV/AIDS policies since it took office.
Rubio on Jan. 28, 2025, issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during a freeze on nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending. HIV/AIDS service providers around the world with whom the Blade has spoken say PEPFAR cuts and the loss of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which officially closed on July 1, 2025, has severely impacted their work.
The State Department last September announced PEPFAR will distribute lenacapavir in countries with high prevalence rates.
The New York Times last summer reported Vought “apportioned” only $2.9 billion of $6 billion that Congress set aside for PEPFAR for fiscal year 2025. (PEPFAR in the coming fiscal year will use funds allocated in fiscal year 2024.)
Bipartisan opposition in the U.S. Senate prompted the Trump-Vance administration last July withdraw a proposal to cut $400 million from PEPFAR’s budget. Vought a few weeks later said he would use a “pocket rescission” to cancel $4.9 billion for HIV/AIDS prevention and global health programs and other foreign aid assistance initiatives that Congress had already approved.
The White House in January expanded the global gag rule to ban U.S. foreign aid for groups that promote “gender ideology.” President Ronald Reagan in 1985 implemented the original regulation, also known as the “Mexico City” policy, which bans U.S. foreign aid for groups that support abortion and/or offer abortion-related services. Advocacy groups insist the expanded rule will adversely impact HIV prevention efforts around the world.
“Congress must stop Secretary Rubio before he dismantles PEPFAR,” said Treatment Action Group’s Kendall Martinez-Wright. “Rubio continues to defy the will of Congress and the American people who want this program restored and repaired. Under his leadership he is diverting funding and trying to eliminate the essential role of technical experts in global HIV and global health, while program performance is flailing.”
2026 Midterm Elections
Ken Paxton wins Texas Republican primary runoff
LGBTQ rights opponent will face Democrat James Talarico in November
Attorney General Ken Paxton won the Republican Senate primary in Texas on Tuesday, ousting incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.
Paxton won the primary against the four-term incumbent in large part due to President Donald Trump’s endorsement. Despite Cornyn voting with Trump more than 90 percent of the time, political insiders say being supportive isn’t enough to win Trump’s endorsement anymore — Republican candidates need to embrace the full MAGA image, something Paxton has done.
Paxton has served as Texas attorney general since 2015 and, before that, worked as a Texas state representative. He has approached both roles with what LGBTQ activists call a “consistently Anti-LGBTQ+ Record.” Following the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges — the case that made same-sex marriage the law of the land — Paxton advised Texas county clerks they could refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples on religious grounds.
His anti-LGBTQ crusade doesn’t stop at fighting against marriage equality.
Paxton has repeatedly demanded medical records for transgender youth in multiple states — including Texas, Georgia, and Washington — in hopes of making the practice illegal. His anti-trans actions go far past medical records. Paxton issued an opinion barring trans Texans from changing the sex on their driver’s licenses and birth certificates, claiming any changes made were “unlawfully altered,” and helped the DOJ reach an agreement with a Texas’s children’s hospital for providing minors gender-affirming care, eventually leading to a 10 million dollar settlement. He also authored a non-legally binding opinion equating gender-affirming healthcare for youth to child abuse.
In addition to his long history of anti-LGBTQ policy in the Lone Star State, Paxton is no stranger to controversy.
Multiple impeachment efforts brought against him in the state House of Representatives for “abuse of office” — with the state Senate later acquitting him — allegations that he used his office to assist large campaign donors, namely Nate Paul, and a widely publicized separation from his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, all impacted his run for the U.S. Senate seat — but not enough to keep him from the office.
Lynne Bowman, vice president of campaigns at the Human Rights Campaign, issued a statement following the announcement of Paxton’s primary win.
“Texans have a clear choice this fall, and an opportunity to reject failed policies that hurt all families,” Bowman sent to the Blade via email. “Ken Paxton is so out of step that he has fought to undercut marriage equality and spent time demanding personal medical records for young people who do not even live in Texas, all while becoming the most corrupt politician in America. The more than 2 million Equality Voters in Texas will send him packing.”
Paxton will face off against Democratic hopeful and vocal Trump critic James Talarico in the fall.
Talarico, who won the Democratic primary in April against Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, has been a vocal supporter of LGBTQ rights, citing his ministry work as the source of his support for the community.
The race for Texas’s Senate seat will be decided on Nov. 3.
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