The White House
Jill Biden criticized for unveiling Nancy Reagan stamp at White House
LGBTQ cite Reagan administration ‘indifference’ to AIDS epidemic
A White House ceremony on Monday hosted by first lady Jill Biden that unveiled a new U.S. postage stamp honoring former first lady Nancy Reagan drew criticism from LGBTQ and AIDS activists.
In postings on social media and in a statement by the D.C.-based LGBTQ group Mattachine Society of Washington, the activists said they believe the Reagan administration failed to adequately address the AIDS epidemic and LGBTQ rights issues and a postage stamp honoring Nancy Reagan was unwarranted.
Some of the activists, including Charles Francis, co-founder of the reconstituted Mattachine Society of Washington, said the White House decision to unveil the new Nancy Reagan stamp during LGBTQ Pride Week showed an insensitivity to the LGBTQ community.
According to the Associated Press, Biden praised Nancy Reagan at the June 6 White House ceremony as a first lady who “made such a difference” and who “served the American people with grace.”
The AP reported that Biden’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the criticism as of early this week.
The first class “Forever Stamp” was scheduled to be officially issued on July 6, which marks the 101st anniversary of Reagan’s birth. She becomes the sixth first lady to appear on a U.S. postage stamp. The others included Martha Washington, Dolley Madison, Abigail Adams, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Lady Bird Johnson.
Reagan died in 2016 at the age of 94.
The White House ceremony came one week after President Biden issued a Pride Month proclamation expressing his longstanding support for LGBTQ rights and denouncing what he said were hostile efforts in many states placing LGBTQ people under “relentless attack.”
In a statement to the Blade, Francis said he was concerned that recent efforts by some historians and authors to “rehabilitate” Reagan as a behind-the-scenes supporter of LGBTQ people and people with AIDS cannot be backed up by the facts.
“And here we go again with more Nancy Reagan rehabilitation with a new Nancy Reagan postage stamp announced during Pride,” Francis said. “Please consider if you write about the ongoing outrage that even our friends like Jill Biden fall for the memory-dead notion that Nancy Reagan was not political LGBTQ America’s worst enemy,” he said.
Francis points to documents that the Mattachine Society of Washington obtained from the Reagan presidential library in California in the group’s role of using “archives activism” to undercover long hidden government documents showing discrimination and harassment against gay government workers and others.
One of the documents the group found was a telegram sent to the White House in 1985 by an aide to actor Rock Hudson at the time Hudson traveled to France to seek medical treatment for his AIDS diagnosis, which he initially kept secret. Media reports and a copy of the telegram released by Mattachine Society of Washington shows that Hudson confidant Dale Olson sent the telegram to then White House Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Press Secretary Mark Weinberg.
The telegram informs Weinberg that Hudson was seriously ill in a French hospital and needed to be transferred to another hospital where a doctor Hudson had seen and received treatment from in the recent past was located, but the second hospital declined to admit Hudson on grounds that he was not a French citizen. Olsen’s telegram urges Weinberg to arrange for the White House to contact the hospital on Hudson’s behalf and call on the hospital to admit Hudson.
“Only one hospital in the world can offer necessary medical treatment to save life of Rock Hudson or at least alleviate his illness,” Olson stated in the telegram.
Other documents obtained by Mattachine Society of Washington from the Reagan Presidential Library show that Weinberg brought the matter to Reagan’s attention and at Weinberg’s recommendation, Reagan declined to intervene or have the White House intervene on Hudson’s behalf on grounds that it would be improper for the White House to take action that it would not take on behalf of any other American citizen. Instead, the White House responded to the telegram by referring Hudson and his aides in France to take the matter to the U.S. Embassy in Paris.
A detailed February 2015 article about the Hudson-White House development by BuzzFeed reports that the hospital in question eventually admitted Hudson. The article reports that the doctor treating Hudson, a recognized specialist in the early development of AIDS drugs, told Hudson his HIV infection was too far advanced for the experimental drug the doctor had to be of any help to the famed Hollywood star.
According to the article, the seriously ill Hudson flew back to Los Angeles, where he died on Oct. 2, 1985.
The BuzzFeed article says that Weinberg told BuzzFeed in an interview that Reagan informed her husband about Hudson’s situation shortly after the telegram had been received and that President Reagan called Hudson at the French hospital to wish him well.
“I spoke with Mrs. Reagan about the attached telegram,” BuzzFeed quoted Weinberg as saying in a memorandum to another White House official. “She did not feel this was something the White House should get into and agreed to my suggestion that we refer the writer to the U.S. Embassy, Paris,” Weinberg said in his memo.
“That refers to special treatment for a friend or celebrity,” BuzzFeed quoted him as saying in his 2015 interview with the news organization. “It had nothing to do with AIDS or AIDS policy or — that’s a whole different issue,” BuzzFeed quoted Weinberg as saying.
Francis and other critics of the Reagan administration handling of AIDS said Nancy Reagan’s reasoning for turning down Hudson’s appeal for help at a time he was seriously ill in a French hospital was faulty.
“Seems strange that the Reagans used that excuse, since they often did favors for their Hollywood friends during their White House years,” BuzzFeed quoted longtime AIDS activist Peter Staley as saying.
“I’m sure if it had been Bob Hope in that hospital with some rare, incurable cancer, Air Force One would have been dispatched to help save him,” Staley said. “There’s no getting around the fact that they left Rock Hudson to dry. As soon as he had that frightening homosexual disease, he became as unwanted and ignored as the rest of us.”
The White House
Judy Shepard to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
Nancy Pelosi is also among this year’s honorees
Beloved LGBTQ advocate Judy Shepard is among the 19 honorees who will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the U.S., the White House announced on Friday.
The mother of Matthew Shepard, who was killed in 1998 in the country’s most notorious anti-gay hate crime, she co-founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation with her husband Dennis to raise awareness about anti-LGBTQ violence.
The organization runs education, outreach, and advocacy programs, many focused on schools.
In a statement shared via the Human Rights Campaign, Shepard said, “This unexpected honor has been very humbling for me, Dennis, and our family. What makes us proud is knowing our President and our nation share our lifelong commitment to making this world a safer, more loving, more respectful, and more peaceful place for everyone.
“I am grateful to everyone whose love and support for our work through the years has sustained me.
“If I had the power to change one thing, I can only dream of the example that Matt’s life and purpose would have shown, had he lived. This honor reminds the world that his life, and every life, is precious.”
Shepard was instrumental in working with then-President Barack Obama for passage of the landmark Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009, which was led in the House by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who will also be honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom during the ceremony on Friday.
Also in 2009, Shepard published a memoir, “The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed,” and was honored with the Black Tie Dinner Elizabeth Birch Equality Award.
“Judy Shepard has been a champion for equality and President Biden’s choice to honor her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom is a testament to what she’s done to be a force of good in the world,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in a statement.
“A mother who turned unspeakable grief over the loss of her son into a decades-long fight against anti-LGBTQ+ hatred and violence, Judy continues to make a lasting impact in the lives of the LGBTQ+ community,” she said.
“It is because of her advocacy that the first federal hate crimes legislation became law and that countless life-saving trainings, resources and conversations about equality and acceptance are provided each year by the Matthew Shepard Foundation,” Robinson said. “We are honored that Judy is a member of the HRC family and know that her work to create a more inclusive and just world will only continue.”
Other awardees who will be honored by the White House this year are: Actor Michelle Yeoh, entrepreneur and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Jesuit Catholic priest Gregory Boyle, Assistant House Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), former Labor and Education Secretary and former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), journalist and former daytime talkshow host Phil Donahue, World War II veteran and civil rights activist Medgar Evers (posthumous), former Vice President Al Gore, civil rights activist and lawyer Clarence B. Jones, former Secretary of State and U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), former U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) (posthumous), Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky, educator and activist Opal Lee, astronaut and former director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center Ellen Ochoa, astronomer Jane Rigby, United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero, and Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe (posthumous).
The White House
Four states to ignore new Title IX rules protecting transgender students
Biden administration last Friday released final regulations
BY ERIN REED | Last Friday, the Biden administration released its final Title IX rules, which include protections for LGBTQ students by clarifying that Title IX forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The rule change could have a significant impact as it would supersede bathroom bans and other discriminatory policies that have become increasingly common in Republican states within the U.S.
As of Thursday morning, however, officials in at least four states — Oklahoma, Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina — have directed schools to ignore the regulations, potentially setting up a federal showdown that may ultimately end up in a protracted court battle in the lead-up to the 2024 elections.
Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley was the first to respond, decrying the fact that the new Title IX regulations could block teachers and other students from exercising what has been dubbed by some a “right to bully” transgender students by using their old names and pronouns intentionally.
Asserting that Title IX law does not protect trans and queer students, Brumley states that schools “should not alter policies or procedures at this time.” Critically, several courts have ruled that trans and queer students are protected by Title IX, including the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a recent case in West Virginia.
In South Carolina, Schools Supt. Ellen Weaver wrote in a letter that providing protections for trans and LGBTQ students under Title IX “would rescind 50 years of progress and equality of opportunity by putting girls and women at a disadvantage in the educational arena,” apparently leaving trans kids out of her definition of those who deserve progress and equality of opportunity.
She then directed schools to ignore the new directive while waiting for court challenges. While South Carolina does not have a bathroom ban or statewide “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law, such bills continue to be proposed in the state.
Responding to the South Carolina letter, Chase Glenn of Alliance For Full Acceptance stated, “While Supt. Weaver may not personally support the rights of LGBTQ+ students, she has the responsibility as the top school leader in our state to ensure that all students have equal rights and protections, and a safe place to learn and be themselves. The flagrant disregard shown for the Title IX rule tells me that our superintendent unfortunately does not have the best interests of all students in mind.”
Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz also joined in instructing schools not to implement Title IX regulations. In a letter issued to area schools, Diaz stated that the new Title IX regulations were tantamount to “gaslighting the country into believing that biological sex no longer has any meaning.”
Governor Ron DeSantis approved of the letter and stated that Florida “will not comply.” Florida has notably been the site of some of the most viciously anti-queer and anti-trans legislation in recent history, including a “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law that was used to force a trans female teacher to go by “Mr.”
State Education Supt. Ryan Walters of Oklahoma was the latest to echo similar sentiments. Walters has recently appointed the right-wing media figure Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok to an advisory role “to improve school safety,” and notably, Raichik has posed proudly with papers accusing her of instigating bomb threats with her incendiary posts about LGBTQ people in classrooms.
The Title IX policies have been universally applauded by large LGBTQ rights organizations in the U.S. Lambda Legal, a key figure in fighting anti-LGBTQ legislation nationwide, said that the regulations “clearly cover LGBTQ+ students, as well as survivors and pregnant and parenting students across race and gender identity.” The Human Rights Campaign also praised the rule, stating, “rule will be life-changing for so many LGBTQ+ youth and help ensure LGBTQ+ students can receive the same educational experience as their peers: Going to dances, safely using the restroom, and writing stories that tell the truth about their own lives.”
The rule is slated to go into effect Aug. 1, pending any legal challenges.
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Erin Reed is a transgender woman (she/her pronouns) and researcher who tracks anti-LGBTQ+ legislation around the world and helps people become better advocates for their queer family, friends, colleagues, and community. Reed also is a social media consultant and public speaker.
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The preceding article was first published at Erin In The Morning and is republished with permission.
The White House
White House debuts action plan targeting pollutants in drinking water
Same-sex couples face higher risk from environmental hazards
Headlining an Earth Day event in Northern Virginia’s Prince William Forest on Monday, President Joe Biden announced the disbursement of $7 billion in new grants for solar projects and warned of his Republican opponent’s plans to roll back the progress his administration has made toward addressing the harms of climate change.
The administration has led more than 500 programs geared toward communities most impacted by health and safety hazards like pollution and extreme weather events.
In a statement to the Washington Blade on Wednesday, Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said, “President Biden is leading the most ambitious climate, conservation, and environmental justice agenda in history — and that means working toward a future where all people can breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live in a healthy community.”
“This Earth Week, the Biden-Harris Administration announced $7 billion in solar energy projects for over 900,000 households in disadvantaged communities while creating hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs, which are being made more accessible by the American Climate Corps,” she said. “President Biden is delivering on his promise to help protect all communities from the impacts of climate change — including the LGBTQI+ community — and that we leave no community behind as we build an equitable and inclusive clean energy economy for all.”
Recent milestones in the administration’s climate policies include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s issuance on April 10 of legally enforceable standard for detecting and treating drinking water contaminated with polyfluoroalkyl substances.
“This rule sets health safeguards and will require public water systems to monitor and reduce the levels of PFAS in our nation’s drinking water, and notify the public of any exceedances of those levels,” according to a White House fact sheet. “The rule sets drinking water limits for five individual PFAS, including the most frequently found PFOA and PFOS.”
The move is expected to protect 100 million Americans from exposure to the “forever chemicals,” which have been linked to severe health problems including cancers, liver and heart damage, and developmental impacts in children.
An interactive dashboard from the United States Geological Survey shows the concentrations of polyfluoroalkyl substances in tapwater are highest in urban areas with dense populations, including cities like New York and Los Angeles.
During Biden’s tenure, the federal government has launched more than 500 programs that are geared toward investing in the communities most impacted by climate change, whether the harms may arise from chemical pollutants, extreme weather events, or other causes.
New research by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law found that because LGBTQ Americans are likelier to live in coastal areas and densely populated cities, households with same-sex couples are likelier to experience the adverse effects of climate change.
The report notes that previous research, including a study that used “national Census data on same-sex households by census tract combined with data on hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from the National Air Toxics Assessment” to model “the relationship between same-sex households and risk of cancer and respiratory illness” found “that higher prevalence of same-sex households is associated with higher risks for these diseases.”
“Climate change action plans at federal, state, and local levels, including disaster preparedness, response, and recovery plans, must be inclusive and address the specific needs and vulnerabilities facing LGBT people,” the Williams Institute wrote.
With respect to polyfluoroalkyl substances, the EPA’s adoption of new standards follows other federal actions undertaken during the Biden-Harris administration to protect firefighters and healthcare workers, test for and clean up pollution, and phase out or reduce use of the chemicals in fire suppressants, food packaging, and federal procurement.
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Judy Shepard to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
Kenyan court bars homophobic protests
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Christian Siriano to serve as grand marshal of Annapolis Pride Parade
