National
NYPD officers accused of assault, false arrests
Police say gay man urinated in public, resisted arrest
New York police officers, seen here in a screen shot of a video shot by one of the men arrested, allegedly beat a gay man on June 2.
Representatives of LGBT advocacy groups held a news conference outside New York City police (NYPD) headquarters on Tuesday to denounce what they called the unjustified arrest of three gay men and an assault against two of them by officers who reportedly shouted anti-gay names at the men.
Josh Williams, 26, and his roommates, Tony Maenza and Ben Collins, both 24, have accused the officers of falsely charging Williams with urinating on the grounds of the 79th Precinct police station in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn as they were walking home about 4 a.m. on Sunday, June 2.
The LGBT representatives and three members of the New York City Council who joined them at the news conference said they were especially troubled that the alleged police attack on the gay men came on the heels of a string of anti-gay hate crimes in New York over the past several months, including the murder of a gay man in Greenwich Village in May.
The three men “reported that they were walking past the 79th Precinct when an NYPD officer accused one of the men of public urination and attacked him, throwing him against a police car,” said a statement released by the New York Anti-Violence Project (AVP), an LGBT group that organized the news conference.
“The officer was joined by other officers who also attacked the man, throwing him to the ground and pepper spraying him while he was in handcuffs,” the statement says. “The survivor was handcuffed tightly, causing lacerations. The survivor’s injuries were treated at a hospital, where he was again restrained with wrist and ankle cuffs.”
The Village Voice reported it learned through an unnamed source that the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau opened an investigation into the incident “after someone apparently associated with the precinct filed a complaint.”
The AVP released a video of part of the incident that Maenza says he took with his cell phone, in which silhouettes of the police officers and the three gay men can been seen in the darkness shouting at one another.
Although the video is too dark to show anyone’s face, a cluster of officers can be seen holding down a person on the ground.
“He didn’t do anything,” one of the men shouted in the video. One of the officers shouted back, “Get the fuck out of here.”
The three or four-minute long video, which has been posted on YouTube, ends with Maenza demanding that the officers identify themselves with their badge numbers and telling them he filmed “the whole thing.” When the officers don’t respond to Maenza’s call for their identities the gay men and the officers can be heard exchanging insults, with both sides cursing at one another.
“He didn’t piss, he didn’t fucking piss on anything,” one of the gay men shouted. “You’re a fucking asshole,” one of the officers shouted back. “What a fucking bunch of pigs,” one of the gay men yelled.
In a statement emailed to the Washington Blade, Deputy New York Police Commissioner Paul J. Browne said the incident began when an officer “observed a male urinating on a dumpster in the precinct parking lot” near the precinct’s gasoline pumps.
“The same police officer approached the individual, who was uncooperative and refused to ID himself,” prompting the officer to attempt to arrest the individual, who was later identified as Josh Williams, Browne said in his statement.
“The individual, who appeared highly intoxicated, was combative and uncooperative,” Browne’s statement says. “He resisted arrest and force was employed to arrest him, during which he incurred a laceration to the cheek and bruising.”
Browne’s statement says police charged Williams with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and urinating in public. He said officers arrested Collins and Maenza on a charge of obstructing governmental administration.
According to Browne’s statement, officers filed that charge because Collins and Maenza allegedly interfered with Williams’ arrest by “getting in between the suspect and the officers, trying to pull the suspect away, and refusing to leave police department property when directed.”
Cynthia Conti-Cook, an attorney representing the three gay men, said in a statement released by the New York Anti-Violence Project that the arrests were unjustified and the officers rather than her clients should be charged with committing a crime.
“We call for all charges to be dropped,” she said. “We call for charges to be brought against the police who assaulted, verbally abused and arrested my clients. We will hold these officers accountable today, we all will feel safer in our communities tomorrow,” Conti-Cook said.
In an interview with the Village Voice, Williams said one of the officers started to assault him when Williams asked whether he and his roommates were being detained.
“He rolled his eyes and sort of snapped, twisting an arm behind my back and slamming me against a car,” the Voice quoted Williams as saying. “I was able to ask him what was going on, and he slammed me against the car and pepper-sprayed me. I was blinded and disoriented.”
Sharon Stapel, the Anti-Violence Project’s executive director, told the Blade that the three men were held overnight in a police holding cell and released following a court arraignment.
She said Collins and Maenza agreed to an offer by prosecutors known as an “adjournment in contemplation of a dismissal,” or ACD, plea in which the case against them will be dismissed in six months if they are not arrested again.
Stapel said the three men came to AVP for assistance following their arrests. She said the group waited a little over a week to publicly announce the arrests and what she called the improper action by the police officers to give the men a chance to think about whether to go public with what happened to them.
U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court to consider bans on trans athletes in school sports
27 states have passed laws limiting participation in athletics programs
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear two cases involving transgender youth challenging bans prohibiting them from participating in school sports.
In Little v. Hecox, plaintiffs represented by the ACLU, Legal Voice, and the law firm Cooley are challenging Idaho’s 2020 ban, which requires sex testing to adjudicate questions of an athlete’s eligibility.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals described the process in a 2023 decision halting the policy’s enforcement pending an outcome in the litigation. The “sex dispute verification process, whereby any individual can ‘dispute’ the sex of any female student athlete in the state of Idaho,” the court wrote, would “require her to undergo intrusive medical procedures to verify her sex, including gynecological exams.”
In West Virginia v. B.P.J., Lambda Legal, the ACLU, the ACLU of West Virginia, and Cooley are representing a trans middle school student challenging the Mountain State’s 2021 ban on trans athletes.
The plaintiff was participating in cross country when the law was passed, taking puberty blockers that would have significantly reduced the chances that she could have a physiological advantage over cisgender peers.
“Like any other educational program, school athletic programs should be accessible for everyone regardless of their sex or transgender status,” said Joshua Block, senior counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ and HIV Project. “Trans kids play sports for the same reasons their peers do — to learn perseverance, dedication, teamwork, and to simply have fun with their friends,” Block said.
He added, “Categorically excluding kids from school sports just because they are transgender will only make our schools less safe and more hurtful places for all youth. We believe the lower courts were right to block these discriminatory laws, and we will continue to defend the freedom of all kids to play.”
“Our client just wants to play sports with her friends and peers,” said Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Tara Borelli. “Everyone understands the value of participating in team athletics, for fitness, leadership, socialization, and myriad other benefits.”
Borelli continued, “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit last April issued a thoughtful and thorough ruling allowing B.P.J. to continue participating in track events. That well-reasoned decision should stand the test of time, and we stand ready to defend it.”
Shortly after taking control of both legislative chambers, Republican members of Congress tried — unsuccessfully — to pass a national ban like those now enforced in 27 states since 2020.
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.”
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