National
Socarides, Eleveld leaving Equality Matters
Media watchdog loses top staff less than a year after high-profile debut
Equality Matters president Richard Socarides. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Less than a year after its public launch that included a profile story in the New York Times, the LGBT advocacy group Equality Matters is losing its top two leaders and appears nearly defunct.
Equality Matters President Richard Socarides, a former adviser to President Clinton, and Kerry Eleveld, a former Advocate magazine reporter, announced Tuesday they will leave the media watchdog group they helped to create.
“I remain committed to the success of the organization,” Socarides said in an interview with the Washington Blade on Monday, adding that he plans to return to practicing law in New York and will remain involved in LGBT advocacy. Eleveld is writing a book.
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Equality Matters promised to be the “communications war room for gay equality” pushing back against anti-gay messages in the media. However, the project may have become a reduced priority for its parent organization, Media Matters, founded by journalist David Brock.
Though initially able to recruit well-known players in the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal fight, including Eleveld and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network’s communications director, Trevor Thomas, the “rapid response war room” project has lost most of its staff and is down to one dedicated employee, Carlos Maza.
“Virtually 100 percent of his time is spent on the Equality Matters side,” Socarides said of Maza, when asked which staffers are still employed there.
Richard Socarides at a Equality Matters event earlier this year. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Socarides described the structure of Equality Matters today as an entity without its own core staff, whose resources come from the larger Media Matters organization.
“The entire way that the organization functions, intentionally, is to be able to call on” the rest of the Media Matters organization and staff as needed, according to Socarides. “It’s an organization that is fully integrated and embedded into Media Matters.”
In a December New York Times piece announcing the launch of the project, Brock said Equality Matters would “expose right-wing bigotry and homophobia wherever we find it.”
“We believe the big battle is full equality, which is gay marriage,” Brock told the Times back then.
Socarides struck a more modest tone this week.
“[People] have their own opinion about which role each of our organizations play,” Socarides said. “The focus will continue, much the same as it’s been. I expect this will be a bit of a transitional period, but I think that you will see a very strong and vibrant EqualityMatters.org.”
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Brock released a statement early Tuesday reflecting on the original purpose of Equality Matters.
“When we launched our Equality Matters initiative at the end of 2010, we were convinced that additional and focused resources in our core expertise areas — correcting conservative misinformation plus training and communications — could be put to use to help take advantage of a potentially historic and transformative moment in gay rights.”
Eleveld was originally named editor of the organization’s website, but her title changed several months ago to “senior fellow at Media Matters.” Thomas, who was the project’s initial director of programs, took on a role in external affairs for the Media Matters parent organization in the spring.
Thomas and Eleveld moved out of Equality Matters and “have worked at Media Matters for some time now,” according to Media Matters press secretary Jess Levin.
“The Media Matters team has all of our senior fellows on it, so [moving Eleveld to Media Matters] just made more sense, but her work appears on Equality Matters,” Levin told the Blade.
Kerry Eleveld pictured with screenwriter Dustin Lance Black at an Equality Matters event (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
Eleveld and Socarides were outspoken in the first few months of Equality Matters’ existence, releasing a flurry of op-eds and press releases throughout the spring and pressuring President Obama to endorse same-sex marriage.
On June 20, Socarides appeared on CNN and criticized the president for avoiding coming out in favor of marriage rights for same-sex couples, saying that “he should just get on with it.”
The CNN appearance prompted senior Obama adviser David Axelrod to defend Obama on MSNBC later that evening.
Days later, on July 6, Eleveld criticized Obama’s position on marriage in the DailyBeast. “I’m not looking for a savior, I’m seeking the guy we elected,” she wrote, arguing that the White House silence on marriage was setting the wrong tone in the debate and could cost marriage rights advocates important wins down the line.
Shortly after their high-profile criticisms of Obama, the group’s attention shifted to conservative targets such as the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, as well as the National Organization for Marriage and Fox News, fueling speculation that Brock was unhappy with the attacks on the Democratic administration.
Socarides denied that he and Eleveld clashed with Brock and others at Media Matters.
“It never happened,” Socarides said emphatically. “If you look at the kind of stuff that I said and that Kerry said over the year, it’s been fairly consistent.”
“I am very grateful to have Richard Socarides lead this initiative in its first year,” Brock said in a statement. “Having someone of his intellect, stature, and experience was a significant factor in our first year success. He will continue, I am sure, to have major impact in our fight for a progressive country and I will continue to rely on his advice and counsel.”
A Media Matters spokesperson said Eleveld was out of the country and unavailable for an interview. In a statement released Tuesday, she said, “I am grateful that I was given the chance to focus on in-depth reporting about serious issues affecting the LGBT community. … In the New Year, I look forward to working full time on a book about the past several years in LGBT history.”
Federal Government
UPenn erases Lia Thomas’s records as part of settlement with White House
University agreed to ban trans women from women’s sports teams
In a settlement with the Trump-Vance administration announced on Tuesday, the University of Pennsylvania will ban transgender athletes from competing and erase swimming records set by transgender former student Lia Thomas.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found the university in violation of Title IX, the federal rights law barring sex based discrimination in educational institutions, by “permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”
The statement issued by University of Pennsylvania President J. Larry Jameson highlighted how the law’s interpretation was changed substantially under President Donald Trump’s second term.
“The Department of Education OCR investigated the participation of one transgender athlete on the women’s swimming team three years ago, during the 2021-2022 swim season,” he wrote. “At that time, Penn was in compliance with NCAA eligibility rules and Title IX as then interpreted.”
Jameson continued, “Penn has always followed — and continues to follow — Title IX and the applicable policy of the NCAA regarding transgender athletes. NCAA eligibility rules changed in February 2025 with Executive Orders 14168 and 14201 and Penn will continue to adhere to these new rules.”
Writing that “we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules” in place while Thomas was allowed to compete, the university president added, “We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.”
“Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the university for future generations of female athletes.”
Under former President Joe Biden, the department’s Office of Civil Rights sought to protect against anti-LGBTQ discrimination in education, bringing investigations and enforcement actions in cases where school officials might, for example, require trans students to use restrooms and facilities consistent with their birth sex or fail to respond to peer harassment over their gender identity.
Much of the legal reasoning behind the Biden-Harris administration’s positions extended from the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County, which found that sex-based discrimination includes that which is based on sexual orientation or gender identity under Title VII rules covering employment practices.
The Trump-Vance administration last week put the state of California on notice that its trans athlete policies were, or once were, in violation of Title IX, which comes amid the ongoing battle with Maine over the same issue.
New York
Two teens shot steps from Stonewall Inn after NYC Pride parade
One of the victims remains in critical condition
On Sunday night, following the annual NYC Pride March, two girls were shot in Sheridan Square, feet away from the historic Stonewall Inn.
According to an NYPD report, the two girls, aged 16 and 17, were shot around 10:15 p.m. as Pride festivities began to wind down. The 16-year-old was struck in the head and, according to police sources, is said to be in critical condition, while the 17-year-old was said to be in stable condition.
The Washington Blade confirmed with the NYPD the details from the police reports and learned no arrests had been made as of noon Monday.
The shooting took place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, mere feet away from the most famous gay bar in the city — if not the world — the Stonewall Inn. Earlier that day, hundreds of thousands of people marched down Christopher Street to celebrate 55 years of LGBTQ people standing up for their rights.
In June 1969, after police raided the Stonewall Inn, members of the LGBTQ community pushed back, sparking what became known as the Stonewall riots. Over the course of two days, LGBTQ New Yorkers protested the discriminatory policing of queer spaces across the city and mobilized to speak out — and throw bottles if need be — at officers attempting to suppress their existence.
The following year, LGBTQ people returned to the Stonewall Inn and marched through the same streets where queer New Yorkers had been arrested, marking the first “Gay Pride March” in history and declaring that LGBTQ people were not going anywhere.
New York State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, whose district includes Greenwich Village, took to social media to comment on the shooting.
“After decades of peaceful Pride celebrations — this year gun fire and two people shot near the Stonewall Inn is a reminder that gun violence is everywhere,” the lesbian lawmaker said on X. “Guns are a problem despite the NRA BS.”
New York
Zohran Mamdani participates in NYC Pride parade
Mayoral candidate has detailed LGBTQ rights platform
Zohran Mamdani, the candidate for mayor of New York City who pulled a surprise victory in the primary contest last week, walked in the city’s Pride parade on Sunday.
The Democratic Socialist and New York State Assembly member published photos on social media with New York Attorney General Letitia James, telling followers it was “a joy to march in NYC Pride with the people’s champ” and to “see so many friends on this gorgeous day.”
“Happy Pride NYC,” he wrote, adding a rainbow emoji.
Mamdani’s platform includes a detailed plan for LGBTQ people who “across the United States are facing an increasingly hostile political environment.”
His campaign website explains: “New York City must be a refuge for LGBTQIA+ people, but private institutions in our own city have already started capitulating to Trump’s assault on trans rights.
“Meanwhile, the cost of living crisis confronting working class people across the city hits the LGBTQIA+ community particularly hard, with higher rates of unemployment and homelessness than the rest of the city.”
“The Mamdani administration will protect LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers by expanding and protecting gender-affirming care citywide, making NYC an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city, and creating the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.”
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