National
Santorum’s trusted gay ‘friend and confidante’
Despite calling himself a political commentator, gay former Santorum staffer Robert Traynham refuses to talk to gay media
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is back in the limelight after sweeping Tuesday’s GOP primaries and caucuses in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri. Most voters are aware of Santorum’s abysmal record on LGBT-related issues. He was a leading supporter of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and even declared that overturning the nation’s sodomy laws would mean Americans had the right to “bigamy, polygamy and incest.”
But what many don’t remember is that one of Santorum’s top aides and closest advisers in the Senate was an openly gay man, Robert Traynham. The Blade has reached out to Traynham in recent weeks but he declined our interview requests. He now describes himself as a political commentator and has appeared on MSNBC.
Below is a story the Blade published in July 2005 on Santorum and Traynham.
Santorum defends outed gay staffer
Anti-gay senator calls aide ‘a trusted friend and confidante’
By LOU CHIBBARO JR.
U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), considered one of the strongest opponents of gay civil rights in Congress, acknowledged to the media last week that his chief spokesperson is a gay man who he considers an “exemplary” employee and “trusted friend.”
News that Santorum’s communications director, Robert Traynham, is gay and has been open about his sexual orientation to Santorum since he joined the senator’s staff eight years ago stunned gay activists and Pennsylvania’s political establishment.
“It disturbs me that he has a gay person on his staff and yet he is so hostile to the rights of LGBT people,” said Stacey Sobel, executive director of the Philadelphia-based Center for Lesbian & Gay Civil Rights. “If he is open minded enough to have an openly gay staff member, why is he not open minded about the issues important to his LGBT constituents?”
Traynham’s sexual orientation surfaced in the news media after gay activist Michael Rogers reported on the Web site, PageOneQ.com, that he had recorded a telephone conversation in which Traynham confirmed that he is gay and out to Santorum. Rogers reported that he learned about Traynham’s sexual orientation through readers of his Web sites.
Nearly all the major press outlets in Pennsylvania, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, quickly picked up on Traynham’s status as a gay man. Santorum and some of his supporters charged that the outing was aimed at hurting Santorum’s re-election bid next year, where he trails in the polls to Democrat Robert Casey Jr., the state treasurer.
In a statement released by his office, Santorum said Traynham has worked for him for eight years. During the past four years, Santorum said, Traynham served as deputy chief of staff for the Senate Republican Conference, which Santorum heads, before returning to Santorum’s personal office to become communications director.
“He is widely respected and admired on Capitol Hill, both among the press corps and among congressional staff, as a communications professional,” Santorum said. “Not only is Mr. Traynham an exemplary staffer, he is also a trusted friend and confidante to me and my family,” Santorum said in his statement.
“It is entirely unacceptable that my staff’s personal lives are considered fair game by partisans looking for arguments to bolster my opponent’s campaign,” Santorum said. “Mr. Traynham continues to have my full support and confidence as well as my prayers as he navigates this rude and mean-spirited invasion of his personal life.”
Aide’s friends step forward
Traynham has declined all requests for interviews by the media. However, he released information to the Blade this week through several intermediaries who know him through his role as a trusted Santorum aide.
“Robert says Sen. Santorum is a great boss, a wonderfully kind, generous, and able person and a caring friend,” said gay Republican activist Jim Driscoll, who has had dealings with Traynham in his role as a past member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.
Bill Reynolds, communications director for Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), said Traynham does not share all of Santorum’s views on homosexuality or gay rights but prefers to “work on the inside” to present differing viewpoints.
“He is intelligent and competent,” Reynolds said. “Everybody likes him.”
Reynolds said he did not know Traynham was gay until he learned about it from news media reports last week.
“The issue is this is really not an issue,” Reynolds said. “Whether he is gay or not, nobody cares.”
Erica Wright, who worked as Santorum’s communications director before Traynham took the job, said “everyone” who worked with Traynham on Santorum’s staff knew of his sexual orientation.
“Robert is who he is,” she said. “He has been out since he was 20 years old,” she recalled Traynham telling her. “He did not always bring this out, but he did not conceal it.”
A prominent Capitol Hill news reporter, who asked not to be identified, said Traynham “is saddened by what he considers an invasion of his privacy.”
“Robert feels he can be effective inside the system to try to work for change as it relates to gay policy — quietly, behind the scenes,” the reporter said.
The reporter, who knows Traynham from his coverage of the Senate, added, “Robert is a devout Catholic who tries to get to Mass three times a week, usually before work or during lunch. He says he has a strong sense of his faith and struggles just like everyone else about how to deal with these issues.”
Author and gay civil rights activist Keith Boykin reported on his Web site, which focuses on African-American gay issues, that Traynham’s status as a black gay man working for an anti-gay senator considered hostile to civil rights in general came as a shock to many black gays.
Boykin noted that before joining Santorum’s staff, Traynham served as political director for Black America’s Political Action Committee, or BAMPAC, which works to elect black conservatives to public office.
“But Traynham is not one of those black gay Republicans who is challenging his party on their racism and homophobia,” Boykin wrote. “No, instead he’s defending the party and its most vocal bigots. The only reason we know of Traynham’s sexual orientation is because he was outed.”
Santorum has been one of the leading supporters of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, declaring on the Senate floor last year that legalizing gay marriage would threaten the existence of the traditional family unit of a husband and wife with children.
Shortly before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state laws making consensual sodomy a crime, Santorum said if the high court says same-sex partners have a right to consensual sex in their homes, “then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.”
The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected].
Congratulations to Gil Pontes III on his recent appointment to the Financial Advisory Board for the City of Wilton Manors, Fla. Upon being appointed he said, “I’m honored to join the Financial Advisory Board for the City of Wilton Manors at such an important moment for our community. In my role as Executive Director of the NextGen Chamber of Commerce, I spend much of my time focused on economic growth, fiscal sustainability, and the long-term competitiveness of emerging business leaders. I look forward to bringing that perspective to Wilton Manors — helping ensure responsible stewardship of public resources while supporting a vibrant, inclusive local economy.”
Pontes is a nonprofit executive with years of development, operations, budget, management, and strategic planning experience in 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), and political organizations. Pontes is currently executive director of NextGen, Chamber of Commerce. NextGen Chamber’s mission is to “empower emerging business leaders by generating insights, encouraging engagement, and nurturing leadership development to shape the future economy.” Prior to that he served as managing director of The Nora Project, and director of development also at The Nora Project. He has held a number of other positions including Major Gifts Officer, Thundermist Health Center, and has worked in both real estate and banking including as Business Solutions Adviser, Ironwood Financial. For three years he was a Selectman, Town of Berkley, Mass. In that role, he managed HR and general governance for town government. There were 200+ staff and 6,500 constituents. He balanced a $20,000,000 budget annually, established an Economic Development Committee, and hired the first town administrator.
Pontes earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.
Kansas
ACLU sues Kansas over law invalidating trans residents’ IDs
A new Kansas bill requires transgender residents to have their driver’s licenses reflect their sex assigned at birth, invalidating current licenses.
Transgender people across Kansas received letters in the mail on Wednesday demanding the immediate surrender of their driver’s licenses following passage of one of the harshest transgender bathroom bans in the nation. Now the American Civil Liberties Union is filing a lawsuit to block the ban and protect transgender residents from what advocates describe as “sweeping” and “punitive” consequences.
Independent journalist Erin Reed broke the story Wednesday after lawmakers approved House Substitute for Senate Bill 244. In her reporting, Reed included a photo of the letter sent to transgender Kansans, requiring them to obtain a driver’s license that reflects their sex assigned at birth rather than the gender with which they identify.
According to the reporting, transgender Kansans must surrender their driver’s licenses and that their current credentials — regardless of expiration date — will be considered invalid upon the law’s publication. The move effectively nullifies previously issued identification documents, creating immediate uncertainty for those impacted.
House Substitute for Senate Bill 244 also stipulates that any transgender person caught driving without a valid license could face a class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. That potential penalty adds a criminal dimension to what began as an administrative action. It also compounds the legal risks for transgender Kansans, as the state already requires county jails to house inmates according to sex assigned at birth — a policy that advocates say can place transgender detainees at heightened risk.
Beyond identification issues, SB 244 not only bans transgender people from using restrooms that match their gender identity in government buildings — including libraries, courthouses, state parks, hospitals, and interstate rest stops — with the possibility for criminal penalties, but also allows for what critics have described as a “bathroom bounty hunter” provision. The measure permits anyone who encounters a transgender person in a restroom — including potentially in private businesses — to sue them for large sums of money, dramatically expanding the scope of enforcement beyond government authorities.
The lawsuit challenging SB 244 was filed today in the District Court of Douglas County on behalf of anonymous plaintiffs Daniel Doe and Matthew Moe by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kansas, and Ballard Spahr LLP. The complaint argues that SB 244 violates the Kansas Constitution’s protections for personal autonomy, privacy, equality under the law, due process, and freedom of speech.
Additionally, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a temporary restraining order on behalf of the anonymous plaintiffs, arguing that the order — followed by a temporary injunction — is necessary to prevent the “irreparable harm” that would result from SB 244.
State Rep. Abi Boatman, a Wichita Democrat and the only transgender member of the Kansas Legislature, told the Kansas City Star on Wednesday that “persecution is the point.”
“This legislation is a direct attack on the dignity and humanity of transgender Kansans,” said Monica Bennett, legal director of the ACLU of Kansas. “It undermines our state’s strong constitutional protections against government overreach and persecution.”
“SB 244 is a cruel and craven threat to public safety all in the name of fostering fear, division, and paranoia,” said Harper Seldin, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project. “The invalidation of state-issued IDs threatens to out transgender people against their will every time they apply for a job, rent an apartment, or interact with police. Taken as a whole, SB 244 is a transparent attempt to deny transgender people autonomy over their own identities and push them out of public life altogether.”
“SB 244 presents a state-sanctioned attack on transgender people aimed at silencing, dehumanizing, and alienating Kansans whose gender identity does not conform to the state legislature’s preferences,” said Heather St. Clair, a Ballard Spahr litigator working on the case. “Ballard Spahr is committed to standing with the ACLU and the plaintiffs in fighting on behalf of transgender Kansans for a remedy against the injustices presented by SB 244, and is dedicated to protecting the constitutional rights jeopardized by this new law.”
National
After layoffs at Advocate, parent company acquires ‘Them’ from Conde Nast
Top editorial staff let go last week
Former staff members at the Advocate and Out magazines revealed that parent company Equalpride laid off a number of employees late last week.
Those let go included Advocate editor-in-chief Alex Cooper, Pride.com editor-in-chief Rachel Shatto, brand partnerships manager Erin Manley, community editor Marie-Adélina de la Ferriére, and Out magazine staff writers Moises Mendez and Bernardo Sim, according to a report in Hollywood Reporter.
Cooper, who joined the company in 2021, posted to social media that, “Few people have had the privilege of leading this legendary LGBTQ+ news outlet, and I’m deeply honored to have been one of them. To my team: thank you for the last four years. You’ve been the best. For those also affected today, please let me know how I can support you.”
The Advocate’s PR firm when reached by the Blade said it no longer represents the company. Emails to the Advocate went unanswered.
Equalpride on Friday announced it acquired “Them,” a digital LGBTQ outlet founded in 2017 by Conde Nast.
“Equalpride exists to elevate, celebrate and protect LGBTQ+ storytelling at scale,” Equalpride CEO Mark Berryhill said according to Hollywood Reporter. “By combining the strengths of our brands with this respected digital platform, we’re creating a unified ecosystem that delivers even more impact for our audiences, advertisers, and community partners.”
It’s not clear if “Them” staff would take over editorial responsibilities for the Advocate and Out.
Comings & Goings
Kansas passes bathroom bounty hunter bill
ACLU sues Kansas over law invalidating trans residents’ IDs
After layoffs at Advocate, parent company acquires ‘Them’ from Conde Nast
Spring into sold
New book profiles LGBTQ Ukrainians, documents war experiences
PHOTOS: Queen of Hearts
Two very different views of the State of the Union
Va. activists preparing campaign in support of repealing marriage amendment
