National
Rally for sanity, fear packs National Mall
LGBT contingent joins 215,000 for Stewart, Colbert event
(Blade photo by Michael Key)
It was all about encouraging sanity. Or was it stoking fear?
Either way, the National Mall was packed on Saturday with, according to CBS News, an estimated 215,000 devotees of faux news anchor Jon Stewart and faux commentator Stephen Colbert for their “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.”
“If you look at the size of the crowd, you can see the inspiration there,” said C. Dixon Osburn, a gay D.C.-based activist who attended the rally. “The throngs of us have been longing for some clarity and sanity in moving forward.”
The Comedy Central pair approached the joint rally with different agendas. Stewart called for greater sanity in political discourse to transcend the sound bite journalism found on cable news networks.
“I think you know that the success or failure of a rally is only judged by two criteria: the intellectual coherence of the content and its correllation to the engagement of — I’m just kidding — it’s color and size,” Stewart said. “We all know it’s color and size.”
Colbert, however, sold the rally as a promotion of the kind of fear-mongering dialogue from political commentators that he spoofs on his show.
In the song with the refrain “There is no one more American than we,” Stewart and Colbert sang the line “from gay men who like football to straight men who like ‘Glee.'”
Many rally participants carried messages that lampooned previous rallies in D.C. with a more definite political agenda, such as Fox News commentator Glenn Beck’s Tea Party rally or the progressive One Nation Rally.
One held a sign reading “I want my country (ham) back” and another waived a sign stating “This sign contains correct grammar and spelling.” Yet another attendee raised a sheet with the message, “I have a sign.”
Still, others attempted to deliver decidedly liberal messages. Some carried signs that read, “Thank You Obama” and listed the accomplishments of his first two years in office, such as passage of health care reform legislation.
Osburn, director of law and security for Human Rights Watch, participated in the rally with others from his organization by distributing stickers reading “Fight Fear” while wearing chicken beaks.
“It’s part of the Colbert tongue-and-cheek satire of ‘Keep Fear Alive,’ which means being chicken,” Osburn said. “The reality is you’re supposed to fight fear, so we were there armed with facts rather than fear on issues like terrorism and torture and national security issues.”
Media Matters, a progressive media watchdog group, distributed signs reading “Restore Sanity: Fight Fox,” a dig at the news network known for its conservative bent.
A sizeable libertarian presence could be seen at the rally. A few had “Don’t Tread on Me” flags draped on their backs as they watched Stewart and Colbert’s performance.
LGBT people also made up a significant part of the estimated 215,000 in attendance. Osburn said there are “two realities” in the LGBT community: more people are coming out and coming out at an earlier age as a lack of federal protections for LGBT people persists.
“We are finding acceptance in our families and the companies where we work,” he said. “But there’s this disconnect, and that disconnect is in part because of political leadership that continues to try to divide us — rather than unite us — as a country.”
Zack Ford, a gay blogger from Harrisburg, Pa., held a sign saying “Free Hugs from a Military Atheist with a Gay Agenda” and embracing those who approached him.
“People are still scared of homosexuality in the same way they were 40, 50 years ago,” Ford said. “The same myths persist. That’s why I’m out here identifying myself as gay openly and hugging people because I want to help dispel the myth for some people.”
At one point during the rally, Stewart announced awards for those exhibiting a propensity for sanity in moments when the public was paying attention. Stewart also commended others for taking responsibility after acting in less than rationale ways in the past.
Among those he noted was Steven Slater, a gay former flight attendant with JetBlue. In August, he notoriously cursed out a passenger on a plane arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport, grabbed a beer from the galley and deployed an emergency exit slide and fled the plane.
In a video played at the rally, Slater apologized for his actions and admitted he acted in a less than sane manner.
“I could have found a more productive way of expressing my frustration instead of freaking out and cursing out a plane of passengers just trying to get to Pittsburgh,” he said. “Maybe a hug would have solved the whole thing.”
Meanwhile, Colbert offered awards for those who induced fear among others. Among the recipients was the black T-shirt donned by CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper during his coverage of disasters striking various areas throughout the country.
Observing that when Cooper shows up in a neighborhood, it means bad news for the area, Colbert brought one of the anchor’s T-shirt on stage and gave it an award for spreading fear.
“Say ‘hi’ to Anderson’s rock-hard torso for us,” Colbert added.
Some political pundits had speculated that the rally could be an “October surprise” that could motivate people to vote Democratic and mitigate what’s expected to be profound losses for the party on Election Day.
Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), a gay lawmaker, hosted a satellite gathering for the rally on Friday in Boulder, Colo., presumably in an attempt to motivate the Democratic base there.
Sean Theriault, a gay government professor at the University of Texas, Austin, said the rally could have some impact on voters, but added that those who think it’ll prevent a Democratic wipeout are “mistaken.”
“It could help turnout a little bit, it could get the base a little bit energized and it could have a huge impact on a couple of races that are pretty close, but I don’t think it’s going to save the Democrats from the impending disaster,” Theriault said.
Similarly, Ford said he thinks the rally is an opportunity to energize those who may not otherwise be engaged in the political process.
“It’s not necessarily just all left, but it’s people from all walks of life, from all states and countries that are interested in American equality and progress,” Ford said. “They’re coming out here just to get energized and to show what’s important to them.”
Closing the rally with a keynote address, Stewart said he wanted to clarify the purpose of the rally, emphasizing it wasn’t intended to suggest times aren’t difficult and Americans have nothing to fear.
“They are and we do,” he said. “But we live now in hard times, not end times, and unfortunately one of our main tools in delineating the two broke.”
Stewart argued that what he called the “country’s 24-hour political pundit perpetual panic inflictinator” isn’t responsible for America’s problems, but said its existence makes solving them harder.
“The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems, bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen,” Stewart said. “Or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire.”
Still, Stewart said even with such political dialogue taking place, he feels “strangely, calmly good” because he said the uncompromising image of Americans depicted in the media is false.
“We know instinctively as a people that if we are to get through the darkness and back into the light, we have to work together,” Stewart said.
South Carolina
Man faces first S.C. ‘hate intimidation’ charge
Timothy Truett allegedly shot at gay club in Myrtle Beach on April 1
A South Carolina man remains in custody on a more than $300,000 bond after he allegedly opened fire at a Myrtle Beach nightclub on April 1, according to WMBF.
Reports say 37-year-old Timothy James Truett Jr., of Clover, S.C., was detained by the Myrtle Beach Police Department after the April 1 incident outside Pulse Ultra Club. He was later arrested and charged with possession of a weapon during a violent crime, discharging a firearm into a dwelling, discharging a firearm within city limits, malicious injury to real property valued over $5,000, and assault or intimidation due to political opinions or the exercise of civil rights.
At 10:57 a.m. on April 1, officers responded to a call about a possible shooting at Pulse Ultra Club, located in the 2700 block of South Kings Highway.
In an affidavit released later, the club’s owner, Ken Phillips, said he was doing paperwork that morning when he heard “five or six” gunshots. He went outside and found a window and the windshield of his SUV shattered by bullets. An SUV with blue plastic covering one window was left at the scene.
Police later reviewed footage that showed a silver vehicle stopping in the middle of the road. The video appeared to capture muzzle flashes coming from the passenger-side window.
According to the affidavit, an officer later pulled over a vehicle driven by Truett and found spent shell casings in the back seat, along with a gun.
Documents do not detail why Truett was ultimately charged under the state law covering assault or intimidation tied to political opinions or the exercise of civil rights.
As of April 1, records show Truett is being held in Horry County on a combined bond of more than $312,000.
WMBF spoke with Phillips after the incident and asked whether there was any prior conflict that might have led to the shooting.
“I don’t know if it’s personal, I don’t know if it’s related to being gay, I don’t know if it’s related to the bar issues,” Phillips told WMBF. “Anybody with a mindset of pulling out a weapon in broad daylight is not right.”
“My primary concern has and always will be the safety of my community and my customers,” he added. “It’s given me great concern … as to how far people will go.”
WMBF also spoke with Adam Hayes, vice chair of Myrtle Beach’s Human Rights Coalition, who was involved in pushing for the ordinance. He said that while the incident itself is troubling, it shows the policy is being put to use.
The ordinance is intended to deter “crimes that are motivated by bias or hate towards any person or persons, in whole or in part, because of the actual or perceived” identity, in the absence of a statewide hate crime law.
“It’s nice to see that something we put into policy is not just a piece of paper, that it’s actually being used,” said Hayes.
He said the shooting underscores the need for a statewide hate crime law in South Carolina and added that the incident has left the local LGBTQ community shaken.
South Carolina and Wyoming are the only two states in the U.S. without a comprehensive statewide hate crime law.
Truett remains in jail as of publication.
The White House
Trump budget would codify expanded global gag rule
Funding for LGBTQ health programs around the world would also be cut
The Trump-Vance administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget would codify the expanded global gag rule and eliminate funding for LGBTQ-specific programs in global health initiatives.
“The budget would ensure no funding supports abortion, unfettered access to birth control, and also eliminates funding for circumcision and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer services to better focus funds on life-saving assistance,” reads the proposed budget the White House released on April 3. “The United States should not pay for the world’s birth control and therapy.”
The proposed budget includes four examples of “eliminated activities.”
- In the last administration, PEPFAR funded health workers who performed over 21 abortions in Mozambique
- Promoting reproductive health education and access to birth control and other harmful programs couched under ‘family planning’ in Ghana
- A supply chain “control tower” to provide a “holistic commercial of the shelf solution” on the Office of Population and Reproductive Health (PRH)
- Promoting health equity and providing condoms and contraception in Kenya.
President Ronald Reagan in 1985 implemented the global gag rule, also known as the “Mexico City” policy, which bans U.S. foreign aid for groups that support abortion and/or offer abortion-related services.
Trump reinstated the rule during his first administration. The Biden-Harris administration shortly after it took office in January 2021 rescinded it.
The Trump-Vance White House earlier this year expanded the global gag rule to ban U.S. foreign aid for groups that promote “gender ideology.” The expansion took effect on Feb. 26.
US funding cuts have devastated global LGBTQ rights movement
The Trump-Vance administration after it took office in January 2025 moved to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, which funded LGBTQ and intersex rights groups around the world. USAID officially shut down on July 1, 2025.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio in March 2025 announced the State Department would administer the 17 percent of USAID contracts that had not been cancelled. Rubio issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the U.S. foreign aid freeze the White House announced shortly after it took office.
The global LGBTQ and intersex rights movement has lost more than an estimated $50 million in funding because of these cuts. The Washington Blade has previously reported PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to suspend services and even shut down.
The Trump-Vance administration has signed healthcare-specific agreements with Kenya, Uganda, and other African countries through its American First Global Health Strategy. Advocacy groups with whom the Blade has spoken have expressed concern these partnerships will result in further exclusion and government-sanctioned discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The proposed fiscal year 2027 budget includes $5.1 billion for “global health to end the previous administration’s abuse of these programs and to execute (the State Department’s) newly released America First Global Health Strategy.” This figure represents a $4.3 billion cut from the previous year.
“The president’s new vision of bilateral health assistance eliminates bloated Beltway Bandit contracts, does more with fewer dollars, and transitions recipient countries to self-reliance,” reads the proposed budget. “The budget would also eliminate disease-specific accounts and provide the department crucial agility to address the actual needs of each recipient country — across HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and polio — to strengthen global health security and protect Americans from disease.”
“The budget would focus on new compacts that unify funding, achieving economies of scale in both implementation and oversight,” it adds. “Under the prior administration, only about 40 percent of PEPFAR funds supported actual service delivery, including medications, testing, commodities, and health workers, with the remaining 60 percent wasted on duplicative administrative costs, unwieldy supply chains, and layers of endless bureaucracy. The new AFGHS (America First Global Health Strategy) compacts would improve efficiency, cut red tape, and dismantle the bloated ecosystem of foreign assistance profiteers.”
The Council for Global Equality on April 3 reiterated its criticism of the expanded global gag rule, and urged Congress to reject the proposed budget.
“We won’t mince words: people are dying because of this policy,” said the Council for Global Equality in a statement. “Making this policy permanent will only ensure that U.S. foreign assistance discriminates against those who need services the most, all while forcing people around the world to adhere to the Trump administration’s extremist, ideological agenda that denies the very existence of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex persons.”
“We will not be silent as Trump threatens to upend decades of bipartisan foreign assistance programs to appease his extremist base,” added the group. “We call on Congress to immediately reject this budget and block implementation of the expanded global gag rules.”
Vice President JD Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, will visit Hungary next week.
An announcement the White House released on Thursday said the Vances will be in Budapest, the Hungarian capital, from April 7-8.
JD Vance “will hold bilateral meetings with” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The announcement further indicates the vice president “will also deliver remarks on the rich partnership between the United States and Hungary.”
The Vances will travel to Hungary less than a week before the country’s parliamentary elections take place on April 12.
Orbán, who has been in office since 2010, and his Fidesz-KDNP coalition government have faced widespread criticism over its anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
The Associated Press notes polls indicate Orbán is trailing Péter Magyar and his center-right Tisza party.
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Trump budget would codify expanded global gag rule
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Pam Bondi ousted as attorney general
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