Politics
LGBTQ candidates running in key races up and down the ballot
Out lawmakers could tip the balance of power in state legislatures and more
The LGBTQ Victory Fund is supporting “a ton of amazing LGBTQ candidates who’ve stepped forward” this election cycle, the organization’s vice president of political programs, Sean Meloy, told the Washington Blade during an interview last week.
Among the “amazing, historic candidates running for office at all levels,” he said, are national officeholders like U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and U.S. House candidates Will Rollins (D-Calif.) and Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), along with those running for state and local positions across the country.
Meloy hails from and currently resides in the “swingiest swing state” of 2024, Pennsylvania. He said, “I’ve never seen the kind of LGBTQ organizing at the level it currently is,” thanks in part to Victory’s coordinated efforts with Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign.
The Keystone State is critical for the presidential race and also home to key contests that could decide control of the House and Senate.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania is running against mega-millionaire hedge fund executive David McCormick in one of the four Senate races of 2024 that Cook Political Report considers a toss-up, a distinction he shares with two incumbent House Democrats and one incumbent House Republican from the state.
The LGBTQ vote is key, which helps to explain the focus on organizing within the LGBTQ coalition, but Meloy stressed that exciting candidates like gay Pennsylvania State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta can boost the performance of others closer to and at the top of the ticket this year.
Kenyatta, who last year was named by President Joe Biden to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans, is “running an amazing campaign,” Meloy said, for auditor general.
He promises to “help bring his voice as a champion for normal folks to government, to make sure our tax dollars are used effectively and efficiently,” Meloy said, adding that “electing a young gay Black man, I think, goes a real long way.”
Folks who have heard him speak will recognize that Kenyatta “is fighting for them,” that he “actually looks like the people that [he’s] meant to represent,” bringing “multiple different historic firsts” to his campaign, Meloy said.
Broadly, “The LGBTQ vote and LGBTQ candidates are going to decide exactly what the makeup of our government looks like, whether it is a pro-equality government that includes LGBTQ people at the table, or one that is vehemently anti-LGBTQ and continues to demonize and attack our community,” he said.
Speaking of attacks against the community, former President Donald Trump and Republican candidates have spent tens of millions of dollars on anti-trans attack ads. Meloy is doubtful they will succeed, but noted the “polling is all over the place” so it is difficult to tell whether the messaging has harmed candidates supported by Victory.
“They’re doubling down on trying to cash in on bigotry, and we just have to make sure that that doesn’t work,” he said.
The battleground states
Along with Baldwin, Meloy said Victory is investing in key down-ticket candidates in Wisconsin, with a staffer on the ground in the battleground state working to elect LGBTQ leaders — like Ryan Spaude, running for Wisconsin State Assembly, and Kristin Alfheim, running for Wisconsin State Senate — who “are going to make or break whether or not Democrats lift that state legislative chamber.”
“They’re very much on the tip of the spear there, and that girds and is also supporting Tammy Baldwin for her reelection,” he said, adding that with help from their elections, the state could “potentially follow other Midwestern legislative chambers like Minnesota and Michigan, to pass pro-LGBTQ legislation.”
“That’s the change that we saw happen in Michigan,” another swing state, “that led to a record amount of LGBTQ folks getting elected, and then passing pro-LGBTQ legislation,” Meloy explained. “Similar things happened in the Pennsylvania State House, fair districts were passed, we doubled the amount of LGBTQ people, and then a record amount of pro-choice, and pro-LGBTQ legislation was passed.”
In Michigan, he said, LGBTQ candidates like Kyle Wright will help Democrats keep their House majority.
Meloy also pointed to the swing state of North Carolina, where even if far-right gubernatorial hopeful Mark Robinson is defeated, LGBTQ candidates like Lisa Grafstein, the state Senate’s lone LGBTQ voice, will help to guard against a GOP supermajority that would “pass absolutely crazy anti-LGBTQ legislation.”
Out west in the swing state of Nevada, Democrats are poised to pick up a couple of seats in both chambers of the legislature, which would give them control of the state Assembly and the state Senate, a check against Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.
“We’ve got Ryan Hampton running to pick up a seat” in the assembly, Meloy said, along with Dallas Harris, who is running for the state Senate.
And across the border in Arizona, another swing state, Lorena Austin is “running there to help keep a seat,” he said.
Elsewhere, opportunities to make history
In deep-red Iowa, Meloy said, “Aime Wichtendahl is running for the state House, and she’d be the first trans voice ever elected to that state legislature.”
“Similarly, in Florida,” he said, “we could have a record amount of LGBTQ legislators impacting the balance of power in Tallahassee, which is extremely important when you have such an anti-LGBTQ governor,” Ron DeSantis (R).
Meloy added that the Sunshine State also has the opportunity to elect its first trans state legislator, Ashley Brundage. Together with the other LGBTQ candidates running in Florida, her election could potentially triple the number of out state lawmakers serving in the legislature.
The White House
HRC files class action over federal ban on gender-affirming care coverage
Lawsuit filed Monday challenges White House effort to restrict care
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the nonprofit sister organization to the largest LGBTQ human rights lobbying and advocacy organization in the U.S., along with law firms Correia & Puth and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, filed a class action lawsuit against the government as it attempts to restrict gender-affirming healthcare for federal employees.
The suit, filed on Monday, alleges that the Office of Personnel Management, run by Trump appointee Scott Kupor, is discriminating against LGBTQ federal employees (and their families and retired employees) by prohibiting health insurance coverage for gender-affirming care under the Federal Employees Health Benefits and Postal Service Health Benefits plans. There are five plaintiffs named in the complaint, but it extends to others who have those healthcare plans.
The document asserts that OPM’s prohibition on coverage for “gender transition” care in the FEHB and PSHB programs violates Title VII, the federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, or national origin.
The policy, which was implemented on Jan. 1 following the 2025 issuing of Program Carrier Letter, mandated that insurance providers in these programs deny any coverage for gender-affirming care. In February, HRC filed a federal complaint with OPM over the change in healthcare policy, which was ultimately passed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for review. That complaint is now an officially filed class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Research from the Williams Institute at UCLA Law, a think tank that collects data and conducts research on issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity, indicates that this policy denying gender-affirming care will impact healthcare access for at least 39,400 current and former federal employees and their dependents.
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson released a statement following the lawsuit’s filing.
“Our message to the Trump administration is simple: we’ll see you in court,” said Robinson. “Healthcare access should never be weaponized to advance discrimination — and the denial of coverage for critical healthcare based simply on who you are blatantly violates the rights of all of us.”
Gender-affirming care has been under constant attack by the Trump-Vance administration since its return to the White House, despite the practice being considered as extensively evidence-based but also supported by nearly every major medical organization. This type of care is provided to all people—not just transgender people—and includes things such as social affirmation, including using correct names and pronouns and wearing clothing that matches a person’s gender identity; mental health support, such as counseling to reduce depression and anxiety; and, in some cases, medical interventions such as reversible puberty blockers or hormone therapy when deemed medically appropriate.
“Federal employees have been through the wringer with the Trump administration,” said Cathy Harris, partner at Correia & Puth. “We draw the line at blatant discrimination to deny healthcare to our nation’s dedicated civil servants.”
“This odious policy is the latest example of the Trump administration’s obsession with targeting transgender people, using shameful and cruel tactics to threaten their employment, their health, and the well-being of themselves and their families,” Robinson added. “OPM’s actions will not go unchallenged, and we’ll continue to fight so that federal employees and their families receive the dignity they deserve.”
This is not the first time the White House has directly attacked gender-affirming care.
In January 2025, the administration issued Executive Order 14187, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.” The order directs federal agencies to restrict gender-affirming medical care — including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries — for individuals under the age of 19.
For more information on how to get involved with the lawsuit, visit hrc.org.
Politics
Buttigieg indicates he may run for president in 2028
Former Transportation Secretary was in Biden-Harris administration’s Cabinet
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told a podcaster he is considering throwing his hat in the ring for president once again.
“I don’t know,” Buttigieg told Steven Bartlett, the British host of The Diary of a CEO, the most popular top business and tech podcast on Spotify, which aired Monday. “I think I’m more inclined than not, but there’s so much we don’t know.”
“There’s so much I don’t even know about what’s going to happen this year, let alone … what we need to know later,” he added.
Buttigieg is no stranger to running for the Oval Office.
In 2019, the former South Bend, Ind., mayor was a serious contender in the Democratic primary for the 2020 presidential election but ultimately ended his campaign and endorsed Joe Biden.
In May, an Emerson College Polling survey found Buttigieg at the top of the list of potential presidential contenders, leading California Gov. Gavin Newsom, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and others.
In addition to discussing his future in federal politics, Buttigieg also discussed President Donald Trump’s handling of the Iran war — which reached its 5-month mark two weeks ago — the changing landscape of U.S. jobs due to the rise of artificial intelligence, and the growing national debt, all issues he could face if he ultimately returns to the White House.
Following his 2020 presidential campaign, Buttigieg gained prominence within the Democratic Party, eventually leading to his confirmation as Transportation Secretary. In February 2021, he became the first openly gay Cabinet member to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
In addition to his experience as an elected official, the 44-year-old served as a Navy intelligence officer in the reserves from 2009-2017, including a seven-month deployment to Afghanistan in 2014. Buttigieg came out as gay in 2015 and later married his husband, Chasten Glezman, in 2018. The couple now has two children: twins.
Buttigieg also has an extensive educational background.
He graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in history and literature and later became a Rhodes Scholar, attending the University of Oxford, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, politics, and economics.
This is not the first time Buttigieg has made headlines this year.
In June, he went public about being falsely accused of posing a threat to his children’s safety. An anonymous police report claimed he was a danger to his 4-year-old twins and was not allowed to be with them until after police interviews were conducted.
The police report was later determined to be false. The Washington Blade reached out to the Michigan State Police to ask what course of action, if any, would be taken against the woman who filed the false report, but the agency did not answer the question.
The Blade reached out to Buttigieg’s team for comment on his potential 2028 presidential bid, but did not hear back before publication.
Congress
House blocks effort to codify transgender servicemember ban into law
Lawmakers approved two anti-trans NDAA amendments
The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday rejected an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have codified a ban transgender servicemembers in the military.
The bipartisan vote was 212-217.
The NDAA is for the 2027 fiscal year and sets policies for the Defense Department programs and activities and the national security programs of the Department of Energy.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) proposed the amendment on July 21. It stated that all personnel are required to serve in accordance with their biological sex, citing military readiness and discipline.
Human Rights Campaign Senior Director of Government Affairs Jennifer Pike Bailey stated that she is grateful for the bipartisan vote that rejected President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “dangerous and discriminatory policy that has kicked brave transgender servicemembers out of the military and weakened our national security.”
“Everyone who meets the same rigorous standards should be able to serve their country. We should honor that patriotism, particularly in this moment where we are witnessing brave servicemembers making the ultimate sacrifice for our country, instead of ending their careers and politicizing their existence. We’re grateful that a permanent extension of this ban failed, and we will keep fighting to reverse this senseless policy,” Bailey said.
Mark Takano, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, stated that he and his members put in countless hours of work to kill the amendment.
“When Americans know they or their families are going to be targeted by or not supported by the military, that leads them to avoid signing up to serve or staying in the service — making it harder to keep the ranks of the armed services full and our nation safe. My colleagues in the Equality Caucus and I will continue working to prevent these attacks on our servicemembers and their families from becoming law,” Takano said.
According to the Congressional Equality Caucus, two other bills could potentially be passed that would also target the transgender community, both of which were proposed by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.).
The first was a bill that would have prohibited gender-related medical care under TRICARE and to prevent TRICARE from covering certain gender-related medical procedures and treatments, which was approved in a vote of 219-208.
The second was a bill that would have prohibited male participation in female sports at DoDEA schools. DoDEA schools are Department of Defense Dependents Schools, which is a network of primary and secondary schools.
The amendment was approved in a vote of 221-203.
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