National
Eric Garcetti may run for president in 2020
LA Mayor says it’s a patriotic duty to oppose Trump
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LOS ANGELES, CA – JANUARY 20: Mayor Eric Garcetti speaks onstage at 2018 Women’s March Los Angeles at Pershing Square on January 20, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amanda Edwards/Getty Images for The Women’s March Los Angeles)
“Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was a crowd favorite,” the Hollywood Reporter wrote about the young mayor’s appearance among top celebrities and activists at the massive Women’s March Jan. 20 in Los Angeles. LGBT Angelinos understand the reaction well, having voted Garcetti “Best” LGBT ally over a strong list of popular reader-selected candidates in a recent Los Angeles Blade survey. Garcetti’s smart, sharp inclusive remarks stood in stark contrast to the self-aggrandizing president more than 600,000 people were there to protest.
“Mr. President, you have your tweets, but we own these streets,” Garcetti said.
As if on cue, Trump issued a tweet inanely ignoring that the demonstrations rebuked him on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration and simultaneously tried to take credit for the turnout. “Beautiful weather all over our great country,” Trump tweeted, “a perfect day for all Women to March. Get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months. Lowest female unemployment in 18 years!”
While employment numbers have improved in the decade of recovery since the 2007 Great Recession, the specific struggle for “wealth creation” is usually framed by women in terms of pay equity and non-discrimination in all aspects of the workplace, including gender parity on boards and commission. It was a key issue raised at the Women’s March, including by Garcetti who issued a gender equity executive order in 2015, has co-equal commissions, and established a transgender advisory board.
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LA Mayor Eric Garcetti in his office (Photo by Karen Ocamb)
Considering economics through the prism of wealth creation or pay equity is an important nuance not lost on those thinking about challenging Trump’s reelection bid in 2020. And while he has heretofore steadfastly denied he is considering running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020—that now includes L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti. “I think every patriot is called on to act right now,” Garcetti told the LA Blade by phone Jan. 19. “I hope we never have a moment like this again—but yes, I’m thinking about it because I’m worried about this country and I want to make sure there’s a perspective and successes we’ve showcased in America’s cities and Los Angeles, in particular, of a model of what we could do nationally. But whether I run or not, I’m going to be incredibly involved at the national level in trying to retake this country.”
The road to Democrats retaking Congress runs through California. Recently, the L.A. Times updated its political forecast of the 2018 midterm elections looking at 10 vulnerable Republican seats, six in Southern California. Two of those six seats are now open contests with the announced retirements of longtime anti-LGBT Reps. Darrell Issa and Ed Royce, both in districts with burgeoning Latino populations and heightened activism to defend DREAMers, family migration, the immigration lottery, and the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Trump announced last September that the Obama-crafted DACA program would end March 5 and called on Congress to find a “fix” before then. Democrats pledged to stand firm to protect the DREAMers, undocumented young people who had been brought to the US as children and who had “come out of the shadows” and given their personal information to the government to get protection and a pathway to citizenship as the DREAM Act and immigration reform were debated. Courts have imposed a temporary injunction against immigration authorities deporting 700,000 DREAMers, which prompted a rush to renew their protected status.
However, the Trump administration’s unrelenting white nationalist message that “illegal aliens” are essentially parasitic vermin invading America has trickled down from the Justice Department to local law enforcement. For example: a pro-immigration activist was arrested in retaliation for releasing a video showing a border guard dumping out water provided by a humanitarian group called No More Deaths for border crossers in the grueling Arizona desert; Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials boarded a privately-owned Greyhound Bus in Ft. Lauderdale, asked everyone for identification papers, and arrested a 60-year old Jamaican grandmother who had overstayed her visa; and on Wednesday, Jan. 24, the Justice Department demanded documents from sanctuary cities – including Los Angeles — proving they are in compliance with immigration law in order to receive federal crime-fighting funding.
That move prompt swift reaction from mayors who called off a planned meeting with Trump as they began their annual bipartisan US Conference of Mayors Wednesday in Washington DC.
“Many mayors of both parties were looking forward to visiting the White House today to speak about infrastructure and other issues of pressing importance to the 82 percent of Americans who call cities home,” New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the group’s president, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s decision to threaten mayors and demonize immigrants yet again – and use cities as political props in the process – has made this meeting untenable.”
Garcetti was at a press conference announcing that decision, offering a “very clear” message: “Washington, we are here to save you,” he said. “We are here to make sure the values of this country and the values of the progress of this nation are matched and are met.”
The Justice Department move and the meeting cancellation come against the backdrop of the contentious arguments in the US Senate about ending the government shutdown without a fix for DREAMers, 120 of whom lose their deportation protection every day.
In exchange for continuing resolution (CR) funding the government through Feb. 8, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave Minority Leader Chuck Schumer a verbal commitment that the Senate would take up DACA legislation. But few people trust McConnell, Schumer’s compromise looked like a betrayal to grassroots activists, the more extreme anti-immigrant House has not agreed to any compromise and no one knows with certainty where Trump stands, despite promising to issue four “core” demands next week.
Of the 18 “no” votes on the CR, 16 were Democrats, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who promised to vote no on any bill that didn’t address DACA. Her vote was both personal—and political: she is being challenged in her reelection primary by California Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon. The parameters for all Democratic litmus tests will no doubt become clearer during the California Democratic Convention Feb. 23-25 in San Diego.
But what was surprising to many politicos watching the debate in Washington was how crudely Trump turned the discussion from sympathy for DREAMers into linking Democrats to murdering Mexicans. In the middle of the CR negotiations, the Trump campaign released an ugly video ad saying Democrats are “complicit” in future murders by illegal immigrants if they don’t vote for tough border security.
The 30-second “Complicit” ad opens with Luis Bracamontes—an undocumented immigrant on trial for the alleged 2014 killings of two police officers in Sacramento, California— saying he wished he had killed more police.
“Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants,” the campaign ad says.
TRUMP CAMPAIGN AD:
“I think if people are unwilling to secure our borders and unwilling to end chain migration, unwilling to end the visa lottery system and unwilling to fix all of the problems we have in our immigration system and aren’t willing to negotiate and actually do things to fix a system that we know to be problematic, then yes, that’s a problem and would allow for future incidents to take place,” said White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders during Monday’s White House briefing.
Only a handful of Democrats publicly expressed their disgust with the ad.
“This is a shameless attempt by the president to distract from the Trump shutdown. Rather than campaigning, he should do his job and negotiate a deal to open the government and address the needs of the American people,” Schumer’s spokesperson told Reuters in an email.
“While this ad is divisive, deceptive and disgusting, it unfortunately is not surprising given what we have seen since he launched his presidential campaign by outrageously disparaging Latino immigrants. Our country is better than this, and I think most voters of any party expect more from their leaders,” Garcetti told the LA Blade.
For many Californians, the ad is darkly reminiscent of conservative Republican Gov. Pete Wilson’s ad pushing the anti-immigrant Prop 187. The initiative passed in 1994 and was subsequently declared unconstitutional. It is often cited as the reason for the near demise of the state GOP.
But just as Wilson still says he supports Prop 187, it is likely some now-terrified voters might agree with Trump’s ad. As of now, the ad will run only online (the famous anti-Barry Goldberg “Daisy” ad was only broadcast once) but it will likely become an issue during the mid-term elections, contrasted with Trump’s latest promise to give DREAMers a pathway to citizenship in 10-12 years, if they meet certain criteria. No doubt, by Feb. 8, both Republicans and Democrats will be screaming: will the real Donald Trump please stand up!
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LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, former White House Social Secretary Jeremy Bernard, and Courage Campaign founder Rick Jacobs (Photo by Karen Ocamb)
Meanwhile, as sound and fury create political whiplash in Washington, Garcetti is working with other mayors and community groups on a grassroots level to find solutions and actually keep America moving. Late last year, the LA mayor launched a 501.c3, 501c4 and political action committee, Accelerator for America, with his out friend and political advisor Rick Jacobs, founder of the Courage Campaign and chair of Howard Dean’s presidential campaign in California.
“With Washington broken, cities and local governments are the only places of innovation and successful delivery of services to Americans,” Jacobs tells the LA Blade. Accelerator for America “brings practical solutions to cities across the country as we address the insecurity Americans feel about their jobs, education, housing and healthcare.”
It’s an effort already at the forefront of discussions among the nation’s mayors at events such as the US Conference of Mayors.
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(Photo courtesy Accelerator for America)
“Mayor Garcetti has become one of the most important leaders in America today because he quietly, deliberately gets things done. Other mayors see that and want to work with him. At our first meeting hosted by (out) South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Nov. 7-8, 2017, we agreed to help other cities create Measure M-type successes—funding for transportation, which also creates 700,000 new, great jobs. In Columbia, South Carolina next month, we’ll tackle other related issues.”
“It’s not a think tank, it’s a do-tank,” Garcetti says. “We’re going to help people run campaigns to create jobs, that solve problems of housing, health, and education in America. And we’ll do that in a way that promotes the civil rights agenda at the same time.”
While early 2020 political bets are focused on highly visible Senate Democrats such as California’s Kamala Harris, New Jersey’s Corey Booker or Massachusetts’ Elizabeth Warren—Garcetti, the jazz-loving, Rhodes Scholar, Naval Reserve officer, is starting to gain notice by helping others.
“I’m going to help flip the House,” Garcetti tells the LA Blade. “I’m very involved in supporting people who are running in the seats that we can reclaim. And I’m going to remind people that most politics is local. Don’t keep crying in the corner. Don’t keep yelling at your Twitter feed. Get up! Go Do Something! And recognize that even if we had a Democrat in the White House, most of the action is where you live. Local communities make this country. Washington doesn’t determine our fate. We determine Washington’s fate.”
Garcetti is not afraid to stand up to bullies and fight for his principles. Like so many others reeling from the 2016 election results, he expected Trump to pivot and perhaps deliver great things. But, Garcetti says, “he’s been truly further to the right than even the most conservative Republican president that we’ve imagined. He’s literally given the keys to our biggest enemies and I don’t think that’s going to change.”
And now Trump’s Justice Department is even threatening arrest of public officials, including mayors, who enforce sanctuary city laws.
“My address is public record. I’ve got 10, 0000 police officers who believe in good policing,” Garcetti says. “They’ll have to get through them to get to me. I just don’t understand this focus on the symbolic, the ideological and the hateful rather than the effective and the moral path. They’re going after 7-11 clerks instead of dangerous murders, which they say they care about. He’s saying go after legal marijuana in the state instead of giving us legal solutions to an opioid crisis that’s killing us. And they’re talking about arresting mayors? This is the talk of dictatorships and authoritarian regimes and if he can’t take differences of opinions, and your response is to start arresting people who disagree with you—we happen to be right. But bring it on.”
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LA City Councilmember Eric Garcetti, Sukey Garcetti, out Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, Gil Garcetti in Council Chambers (Photo by Karen Ocamb)
Garcetti’s principles are also informed by his heritage. The son of former LA District Attorney Gil Garcetti, his grandfather was brought to the US from Mexico as a child after his great grandfather was hung during the Mexican Revolution. So, in essence, Garcetti’s grandfather was a DREAMer. Garcetti’s maternal grandparents were from Russian Jewish immigrant families.
A longtime supporter of the LGBT community, Garcetti says it is “an incredible honor and surprise” to have been voted Best LGBT Ally by readers of the Los Angeles Blade.
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LA City Councilmember Eric Garcetti, Sukey Garcetti, out Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, Gil Garcetti in Council Chambers (Photo by Karen Ocamb)
“I just have a core philosophy: we are all strongest when we get as many people included in the progress of our city, our nation, and our world,” Garcetti says. “And it’s a very simple premise that cities are usually more tolerant places. They are usually more successful places because of that tolerance. And more than tolerant—that sort of inclusion demands that we fight. Each one of us has defining struggles in our life and our generation. And for me, LGBTQ equality has probably been one of the defining struggles of our generation and the one I’ve probably been as deeply in as any one else,” especially as a crusader for marriage equality with his close out friend, Marc Solomon.
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LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, Freedom to Marry National Coordinator Marc Solomon, Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, Freedom to Marry founder Evan Wolfson (Photo by Karen Ocamb)
Since former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was very involved with the Mayors for Freedom to Marry initiative announced at the Mayors Conference in 2012, would Garcetti take a lead in a new mayors coalition to serve as a firewall against the Trump administration rollback of policies and record hate violence in 2017? Read a definitive list of Trump actions against LGBT rights, here.
“Absolutely,” Garcetti says. “I think there is a session at the US Conference of Mayors on this and I think out of that there will be an action plan of where we need to engage this administration. With LGBT stuff, it’s been a little trickier, outside the Pentagon actions [on transgender servicemembers], we’re not sure whether it’s going to be done through judges or whether they are going to do things blatantly. But certainly when the president tweeted what he did, which wound up being against what the Pentagon wanted to do themselves on transgender service members, we were able to respond—all the big city mayors in a coalition.”
Garcetti says the mayors don’t have formal names for some of the work they do, but they do have a network. “I think we’re going to mobilize that again and frequently,” he says. “This is an administration that isn’t just hostile to immigrants and women, they’re hostile to the LGBTQ community. And they will throw us all under the bus in a morning tweet or in a mid-afternoon court decision when we’re not looking. I think it is really, really critical for mayors that are kind of the front line now to be able to mobilize quickly. I absolutely anticipate the coalition to continue to be mobilized around these issues.”
But will you take a leadership role? “Absolutely. Los Angeles is one of the most important cities with an LGBTQ population and full of LGBTQ leadership among both the community and its allies so we absolutely will – along with San Francisco and New York,” Garcetti says.
“But we also found a lot of allies even in the fight in Charlotte, North Carolina [after passage of anti-trans HB2 and the subsequent boycott by a number of states and cities]. That was something we took up and we had our colleague, who’s the mayor of Charlotte at the same time, saying please don’t have these bans on travel. And we walked through why it was so important: we would help engage directly with the community groups that are on the ground to help them fight the fight and support them directly—but that didn’t mean we had to bring conferences or businesses there. So absolutely, I’ll continue to play a leadership role in that.”
If there’s one characteristic that might distinguish Garcetti from the DC prospective presidential pack it’s that he can be angry, intelligently and emotionally reflect that anger back—and then be infuriatingly and infectiously optimistic.
“I know a lot of people are depressed out there. I couldn’t be more excited and empowered. I think this kick in the rear end in the last year is not the way we would want to come to activism. But this is a level of activism I haven’t felt in over a decade,” Garcetti says. “There’s never been a single issue in the polling that I’ve seen in America that has changed as quickly as something like marriage equality. African American civil rights took many more decades. The women’s rights struggle took many more decades. And we can’t lose that momentum. So don’t think just about playing defense. Let’s continue to be on offense and let’s continue to lead.”
Here’s LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s speech before a crowd of 700,000 protesters at the Women’s March. Contrast this with the Trump campaign ad for your January moment of activist zen.
Congress
EXCLUSIVE: Gottheimer, Craig introduce bill to address LGBTQ elder abuse
Legislation will be introduced this week
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U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Angie Craig (D-Minn.) will introduce a bill this week addressing the “rising elder abuse of LGBTQI+ individuals,” according legislation the Washington Blade previewed.
The Elder Pride Protection Act of 2024 would establish a task force through the Justice Department, with staff selected by the attorney general from the Elder Justice Initiative and the Division of Civil Rights.
They would be tasked with studying “the increased incidence of elder abuse” targeting LGBTQ individuals, developing best practices for a national approach and for state and local authorities to address these crimes, creating and distributing educational materials to raise awareness, and coordinating “the response of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.”
The legislation establishes that the task force would be responsible for issuance of a progress report on its work to the U.S. House and U.S. Senate Judiciary Committees.
Importantly, elder abuse as defined under the bill ranges from the use of physical force to cause harm to forced or unwanted sexual interaction, emotional or psychological abuse, the failure to meet basic needs, and financial crimes.
“I’m incredibly excited to introduce my new legislation, the Elder Pride Protection Act, that I’m leading with Congresswoman Angie Craig of Minnesota,” Gottheimer said. “No one should ever be mistreated on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, especially our vulnerable elderly populations.”
The congressman added, “This legislation is a critical step in coordinating our response to this runaway abuse at the federal level.”
“LGBTQ+ seniors paved the way for so many of the rights we have today, and they’re a vital part of our communities in Minnesota,” said Craig, who is the first lesbian mother elected to Congress and serves as a co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus.
“I’m working to pass the Elder Pride Protection Act to help empower LGBTQ+ seniors and combat any abuse they might face,” she said.
Garden State Equality, New Jersey’s largest LGBTQ rights group noted that “for too long, elder abuse of our older LGBTQ adults has gone un- or under- reported,” adding that, “The establishment of this task force will help bridge the gap experienced by our LGBTQ elders.”
“The work of this task force, particularly the creation of uniform procedures and communication between state and federal agencies, will be formative in combating the abuse and neglect of LGBTQ elders and is critical in creating true lived equality for all Americans,” Garden State Equality said.
“SAGE is proud to support the Elder Pride Protection Act of 2024,” said Aaron Tax, managing director of government affairs and policy advocacy for SAGE, a national advocacy and services organization for LGBTQ elders.
“LGBTQ+ elders deserve to age without fear of elder abuse,” Tax said. “We applaud Rep. Gottheimer for championing the establishment of this important task force, which we hope will improve the lives of LGBTQ+ older people.”
David Stacy, vice president for government affairs for the Human Rights Campaign, said, “By establishing the ELDER Task Force, this country has the chance to affirm its commitment to addressing and preventing the abuse that this community faces all too often.”
“Congress should pass this bill and send a message that they are dedicated to ensuring every elder can live free from fear and harm,” Stacy said.
Hawai'i
Kim Coco Iwanoto elected as Hawaii’s first openly trans state lawmaker
Longtime activist defeated House Speaker Scott Saiki in Democratic primary
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In a stunning upset, transgender human rights activist Kim Coco Iwanoto knocked out one of Hawaii’s most powerful politicians, state House Speaker Scott Saiki, in the Democratic primary election on Saturday.
Because there is no Republican in the race, Iwanoto has been elected to represent House District 25, making her Hawaii’s first openly trans state legislator.
This was Iwanoto’s third attempt to win the urban Honolulu district, after close finishes against Saiki in 2020 and 2022, when she lost by less than 200 votes each time. In Saturday’s primary, she won with a margin of 254 votes, according to the latest results posted by the secretary of state — a margin of more than 5 percent.
Iwanoto says she was motivated to challenge Saiki for the seat due to a lack of transparency in Hawaiian politics, and out of concern that everyday issues were being ignored by Democratic Party leadership.
She says a key motivating issue for her was the state’s minimum wage. Although the wage is currently scheduled to rise to $18 per hour in 2028, following a bill passed in 2022, she says Saiki refused to consider a bill to raise the wage from $10.10 per hour in 2020.
“[Saiki] met with the Chamber of Commerce before the session and he held a press conference stating the legislature will not be taking up the issue of raising the minimum wage. I asked my friends who are representatives, did he ask you guys how you felt about not raising the minimum wage from a poverty wage to a living wage? And they said no,” Iwamoto tells the Los Angeles Blade.
“That made me very angry. He should’ve met with people who are living paycheck to paycheck to learn how their lives are impacted.”
Iwamoto says Hawaiians are tired of politicians siding with moneyed interests over their constituents.
“Pay to play politics is rampant, and it’s blatant and obvious,” Iwamoto says. “It’s an open festering wound on the face of democracy in Hawaii. Through the fact of just sheer people-powered campaigning, I was able to get above Saiki’s vote.”
Iwamoto describes herself a fourth generation American of Japanese descent. Her great-grandparents worked on the sugarcane plantations of Kauai. She studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and earned a BA in creative writing at San Francisco State University and a law degree at the University of New Mexico.
Her experiences as a foster parent and raising her 11-year-old daughter led her to run for the state board of education in 2006. That run also made history, as she became the first openly trans person to win statewide office in the U.S.
“Back in 2006, it was international news when Hawaii elected me to that statewide position. I got requests for interviews around the world. That election did trigger a lot of people of trans experience to see that they could run for office, where their gender identity and experience is just one aspect of who they are,” she says.
“More importantly, I think the lesson here is listen to the voters. It’s what the voters are concerned about. In my case, it was consumer protections for condo owners, safer streets for pedestrians and bicyclists, resources for homeless people who are sleeping in our sidewalks.”
Hawaii has long been held as one of the most progressive states when it comes to legislation to protect the LGBTQ community, a fact that Iwamoto appreciates.
“My opponent was there for 30 years, and he was an ally to the LGBT community,” she says. “What he ignored was the overrepresentation of the LGBT people within the homeless community, within the working community.”
“We are part of every marginalized experience. Whether it’s minimum wage earners, the homeless population, LGBT are overrepresented in youth homelessness, and that persists in cycles.”
Congress
Garcia and Lee push for insurers to provide doxy PEP for free
Lawmakers note spike in bacterial infections among LGBTQ populations
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Democratic U.S. Reps. Robert Garcia and Barbara Lee of California sent a letter on Thursday urging the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to compel health insurers to provide free access to doxy PEP, a drug regimen for the prevention of sexually transmitted infections.
The USPSTF is an independent panel of experts in primary care and preventative medicine organized under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services whose primary responsibility is to evaluate the evidence on the safety and efficacy of medical screenings, counseling, and preventative medications.
The lawmakers’ letter explains that in 2019, the USPSTF issued an “A-grade” recommendation for prescribing preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) — a different preventative regimen targeting HIV infections — to “those at increased risk of HIV acquisition.”
As required under the Affordable Care Act, the rating meant health plans were required to offer the drug with no cost-sharing, which “has been enormously beneficial to hundreds of thousands of Americans —particularly members of the LGBTQIA+ community.”
The letter points to disproportionately high rates of bacterial STIs (“chlamydia, gonorrhea, and especially syphilis”) among LGBTQ populations as well as recommendations published last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instructing providers to counsel certain patients about PEP, with the agency writing that the drug intervention requires “a focused effort for equitable implementation.”
For these reasons, Garcia and Lee said, “we respectfully ask for your full and fair consideration of a USPSTF recommendation for doxy PEP to the populations outlined in the guidelines with an ‘A’ rating,” with those populations being “gay and bisexual men, other men who have sex with men, and transgender women, and who have a history of bacterial STIs in the past 12 months.”
“Surging STIs are disproportionately impacting LGBTQ+ individuals,” Garcia, a gay co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, said in a press release from his congressional office. “We must ensure that these folks have access to doxy PEP, a critical medication that can save lives and prevent these kinds of infections.”
He added, “By making doxy PEP coverage free by insurers, we can prevent infections and stop the spread of disease for those most vulnerable.”
Lee, a vice chair of the caucus, has a decades-long record of pro-LGBTQ advocacy, particularly in the healthcare space and on issues of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and around the world.
“Widespread use and education about doxy PEP could prevent thousands of bacterial STI cases every year,” she said in the press release. “However, in order to get this treatment to those who need it most, it’s imperative that doxy PEP is covered by insurance plans with no cost to patients.”
“By ensuring doxy PEP is available with grade A rating by the USPSTF, we’re taking a critical step toward promoting health equity and advancing our mission of using informed, evidence-based interventions to support those most in need,” said David Stacy, vice president of government Affairs for the Human Rights Campaign.
David C. Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, said “providing healthcare providers with the guidance and encouragement they need to implement doxy PEP in accordance with the new CDC guidelines will be crucial in helping us use doxy PEP to address our out-of-control STI epidemic.”
The White House
White House press secretary defends administration’s LGBTQ-inclusive Title IX policy
New nondiscrimination rules took effect last week
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During a briefing with reporters on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the Biden-Harris administration’s expansion of Title IX to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Changes to the rules came pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that LGBTQ employees are legally protected from sex-based discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The new policy, which took effect last week, also revokes Trump-era rules governing how schools must respond to allegations of sexual assault, which were widely considered imbalanced in ways favoring those accused of sex crimes.
Asked to respond to conservatives who warn the policy will harm women and girls, including the Republican state attorneys general who have filed legal challenges and the GOP governors who have vowed to disregard the new rules, Jean-Pierre began by stipulating that “there’s still ongoing litigation, so I would have to refer you to DOJ.”
“More broadly,” she said, “every student deserves the right to feel safe. Every student deserves the right to feel safe in schools. That’s what the rule is all about: Strengthening and restoring vital protections that the previous administration took away.”
“Ending violence against women and girls has been a priority” for President Joe Biden not just during his tenure in the White House but also throughout his decades-long career in the U.S. Senate, the press secretary added.
“This is an important step in an ongoing work to end campus sexual assault,” Jean-Pierre said. “That’s what we want to see. And I cannot speak any further to the litigation.”
Maryland
Larry Hogan speaks with the Washington Blade
Republican former Md. governor defends LGBTQ rights, abortion records
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Republican former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in a written interview with the Washington Blade discussed his decision to run for the U.S. Senate and defended his record on LGBTQ rights.
“It’s more important than ever to have strong, independent leadership at every level of government bringing people together and fighting for the exhausted majority,” said Hogan in response to the Blade’s questions that his campaign sent on July 30. “Marylanders know me, and they know I was proud to represent all Marylanders as governor, and that’s exactly what I’ll do in the U.S. Senate.”
Hogan was Maryland’s governor from 2015-2023.
He defeated then-Lieutenant Gov. Anthony Brown, who is now the state’s attorney general, by a 52-46 percent margin in 2014. Hogan four years later defeated former NAACP President Ben Jealous by a 56-43 percent margin.
Hogan in March 2023 said he would not run for president. He announced in February that he is running for retiring U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.)’s seat.
Hogan in May easily won the Republican primary. He will face off against Democratic Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks in November. The outcome could determine whether Democrats maintain control of the Senate.
“I like the county executive and respect her — we worked together on a number of things as governor,” said Hogan, referring to Alsobrooks. “We just have fundamental disagreements on the issues, and how we approach things. I’m committed to taking an independent approach, challenging hyper-partisanship, and getting the country back to decency and common sense.”
Former governor defends LGBTQ record amid criticism
Hogan in 2018 signed a bill that banned so-called conversion therapy in Maryland. Hogan during a 2023 interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” criticized Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over his state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law he signed.
A bill that created the Commission on LGBTQ Affairs in the Governor’s Community Initiatives Office took effect in 2021 without Hogan’s signature.
Hogan also did not sign a bill that banned the so-called LGBTQ panic defense in Maryland.
That law also took effect in 2021.
Hogan spokesperson Blake Kernen further elaborated on the former governor’s LGBTQ rights record.
“After calling for ‘tolerance and mutual respect’ in his inaugural address, Gov. Hogan supported LGBTQ community priorities throughout his time in office,” Kernen told the Blade. “As some examples, he enacted legislation to ban the practice of conversion therapy, and he upheld and strengthened the state’s anti-discrimination protections — including allowing measures to take effect that extend IVF treatment coverage to same-sex couples, allow transgender Marylanders to revise their birth certificates, ban the ‘gay panic defense,’ and make it easier to prosecute hate crimes.”
(The panic defense ban bill became law without Hogan’s signature.)
Kernen pointed out Hogan appointed the first openly LGBTQ person to serve as a chief judge on a Maryland appellate court.
Hogan in 2022 named E. Gregory Wells as chief judge of the Court of Special Appeals. Wells, who is also Black, is also the first African American person named to the position.
Kernen also noted to the Blade that Hogan “appointed the first members and administrative director of the” Maryland Commission on LGBTQ Affairs. (The law took effect in 2021 without Hogan’s signature.)
“He signed anti-bullying laws, and championed numerous initiatives to combat bias and hate crimes–including increased funding, and expanded community and school resources,” said Kernen.
“In January 2023, when Gov. Hogan left office, the state continued to have the Human Rights Campaign’s highest rating for Working Toward Innovative Equality,” he added. “Maryland has a bipartisan legacy of supporting the LGBTQ community, and Gov. Hogan looks forward to building on this work in the Senate.”
Hogan on June 1 participated in the Annapolis Pride parade.
Democratic Gov. Wes Moore also took part. An Alsobrooks campaign spokesperson told the Blade that she was unable to attend, but many of her campaign volunteers and supporters marched in the parade.
“We’re grateful to Annapolis Pride for giving candidates the opportunity to take part in their festival,” said Hogan. “I wish County Executive Alsobrooks had been able to join us, but it was an outstanding parade, and a true testament to the spirit of the community.”
HRC last month endorsed Alsobrooks.
HRC President Kelley Robinson in a statement said Alsobrooks “has always been a champion for equality and freedom, from her support for the state law that legalized same-sex marriage in 2012, to becoming the first Maryland county executive to authorize flying the Progress Pride flag over county buildings, and much more.”
Alsobrooks throughout her campaign has highlighted abortion rights within the context of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down Roe v. Wade. Alsobrooks during interview with the Blade before the May 14 Democratic primary noted Hogan’s “well-known position as a person who is not pro-choice.”
Kernen in a May 22 statement criticized Alsobrooks over her comments about Hogan’s abortion rights record.
“Governor Hogan protected choice in Maryland for eight years, funding access to abortion in the budget every year and being the first governor in America to provide over-the-counter birth control paid for by Medicaid,” said Kernen. “He said in 2019, Roe was rightly decided and has been on the record against a national abortion ban since 1992.”
“He rightly vetoed legislation to allow non-licensed medical professionals to perform abortions because that would have lowered health care standards for women,” added Kernen. “In the Senate, instead of playing politics with this issue, he will work to reinstate Roe v. Wade as the law of the land. Marylanders know that when Gov. Hogan gives his word, he keeps it, and that is why voters continue to reject these same tired, false, and fear-mongering attacks.”
Attempted Trump assassination was ‘terrible tragedy’
Hogan remains a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump.
He did not support Trump in 2016 or 2020. Hogan also did not attend last month’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Trump in June endorsed Hogan for Senate. Kernen said the former governor “didn’t seek the endorsement, and has no interest in it.”
Trump on July 13 survived an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pa.
Hogan described the assassination attempt as a “terrible tragedy.” He added the country is “at a dangerous inflection point — our nation is like a tinderbox right now.”
“I’ve long been a proponent of lowering the temperature and finding a way to do away with the divisive rhetoric and the angry, toxic politics,” said Hogan.
The Blade asked Hogan whether he thinks the country can unify in the wake of the assassination attempt.
“When I travel the state meeting Marylanders, they give me hope,” he said in response to the question. “If politicians and pundits were more like regular people, our whole nation would be in a better place.”
![](https://www.washingtonblade.com/content/files/2024/08/20240601_Larry_Hogan_in_Annapolis_Pride_Parade_insert_3_via_Larry_Hogan_Facebook.jpg)
A Public Policy Polling poll conducted between June 19-20 found Alsobrooks ahead of Hogan by a 45-34 percent margin. Hogan would be the first Republican from Maryland in the U.S. Senate since Charles Mathias retired in 1987 if he wins in November.
“I think a lot of voters, both Republicans and Democrats, want strong independent leaders who will clean up the mess in Washington,” Hogan told the Blade. “They know me, and they know I’m that guy.”
“The pundits said for a long time the Hogan brand of politics is dead, but every time we prove them wrong,” he added. “I know I’m the underdog, but I’m seeking to prove them wrong again.”
Hogan responded to the Washington Blade’s questions before Vice President Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
“I want to extend my congratulations to Gov. Walz on being selected as the Democratic vice presidential nominee,” said Hogan on Tuesday in a statement. “We had the chance to work together as fellow governors, and while we come from different parties, I have always appreciated his dedication to public service. I believe we need more governors at the national level because governors have to actually get stuff done. I wish Tim and his family well in the campaign ahead.”
National
Harris notes Walz advised high school GSA during Philadelphia campaign rally
Vice president announced running mate on Tuesday
![](https://www.losangelesblade.com/content/files/2024/08/20240806_Tim_Walz_and_Kamala_Harris_screen_capture_insert_via_Kamala_Harris_YouTube.jpg)
During a campaign rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris shared the story of how her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, served as faculty advisor to a gay-straight alliance in 1999 when he was a high school social studies teacher and football coach.
Speaking just hours after he was announced as Harris’s vice presidential candidate, she told the crowd that Walz “wasn’t only a role model on the football field” because “around that same time, Coach Walz was approached by student in his social studies class.”
The vice president continued, “The young man was one of the first openly gay students at the school, and was hoping to start a gay-straight alliance. At a time when acceptance was difficult to find for LGBTQ students, Tim knew the signal that it would send to have a football coach get involved.”
“So he signed up to be the group’s faculty advisor,” Harris said. “And as students said, he made the school a safe place for everybody.”
A campaign spokesperson for former President Donald Trump, along with Republican allies, criticized the Minnesota governor’s pro-LGBTQ record shortly after press outlets reported on Tuesday morning that he was selected to join the Democratic ticket.
“Tim and I have a message for Trump and others who would turn back the clock on our fundamental freedoms,” Harris said. “We’re not going back.”
National
Trump campaign, GOP allies criticize Walz for pro-trans record
Chaya Raichik, other anti-LGBTQ extremists label Minn. governor ’tampon Tim’
![](https://www.losangelesblade.com/content/files/2024/08/Tim_Walz_insert_public_domain.jpg)
Shortly after Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, earning praise from Democrats and LGBTQ advocacy groups close to the party, Republicans seemed to coalesce around an attack message.
First came efforts to characterize Walz as a liberal extremist. Then, in short order, conservative critics lashed out at the governor’s stridently pro-LGBTQ record.
“As a woman, I think there is no greater threat to our health than leaders who support gender transition surgeries for young minors, who support putting tampons in men’s bathrooms in public schools,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for former President Donald Trump’s campaign, said during an interview with Fox News.
Walz last year issued an executive order protecting access to medically necessary gender- affirming healthcare treatments, which include surgical interventions for minors only in extremely rare circumstances. He also signed a bill in 2023 to provide menstrual products in schools for all students “in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 through 12.”
A Democratic Minnesota legislator who authored the bill told the New York Times she received emails from trans students, “parents, teachers, librarians, custodians from across the country, talking about how they were — or that they knew — trans students who faced these barriers and needed these products, and how much it meant to them that they would have that access, and also that we were standing up for them.”
Walz’s pro-trans record nevertheless became fodder for conservative activists and pundits, such as Chaya Raichik, creator of Libs of TikTok, who the Southern Poverty Law Center considers an anti-LGBTQ extremist.
She and other right-wing Trump supporters began calling the governor “tampon Tim” online.
“I can’t imagine too many parents are OK with the government helping their children permanently mutilate their bodies without parental consent, while also revoke and custody if they don’t go along with the insanity!” Donald Trump, Jr., wrote on X.
In reality, the executive order to which the former president’s eldest son was referring directs state agencies to “coordinate to protect people or entities who are providing, assisting, seeking, or obtaining gender-affirming health care services,” per a press release from Walz’s office.
The document also stipulates that Minnesota will “decline to help other states that try to penalize individuals and entities seeking gender affirming health care services” including by refusing “requests to extradite individuals accused of committing acts related to, securing of, or receipt of gender affirming health care services.”
“As states across the country move to ban access to gender-affirming care, we want LGBTQ Minnesotans to know they will continue to be safe, protected, and welcome in Minnesota,” Walz said at the time. “In Minnesota, you will not be punished for seeking or providing medical care. This executive order delivers the urgent action that our LGBTQ Minnesotans deserve.”
Congress
Latino LGBTQ activists lobby Congress for federal protections
Hispanic Federation hosted July 2 event at Capitol
![](https://www.losangelesblade.com/content/files/2024/07/20240709_Frankie_Miranda_at_Advance_Change_Together_ACT_press_conference_with_Hispanic_Federation_press_conference_at_House_Triange_insert_c_Washington_Blade_by_Michael_Key.jpg)
BY JOE REPERKENNY | On July 9, after most members of Congress had left the Capitol, a small group began setting up a celebration. The halls were nearly silent, aside from the occasional tap of heels on the marble floor, as people slowly streamed into Emancipation Hall and down a corridor. Closer to Senate Meeting Room 212, the intertwining murmur of voices in Spanish and English began to grow.
Then one man stepped to the front of the room and a hush overcame the crowd.
“Today was a great opportunity to meet different members in the House and the Senate,” Frankie Miranda said. “It was an eye-opening experience in many different opportunities, seeing how our message was being welcomed. And in other cases, really not resonating at all, with some of them.”
Miranda, who is the president of the Hispanic Federation, a nonprofit membership and advocacy organization with a mission to “empower and advance the Hispanic community” with a particular focus to low-income, marginalized, and immigrant Latinos, assured that the advocacy for expanding protections for LGBTQ people would not end on Capitol Hill.
“We are going to continue our push to make sure that the intersectionality in our communities — that our LGBTQ Latinx and that female voices are heard,” Miranda continued, conviction clear in his voice. “We’re going to continue pushing because we know that after pride, the work continues. We cannot just allow ourselves to just be recognized just one month out of the year.”
Miranda, who became the Hispanic Federation’s first gay president in 2019, has vowed to use his platform to help uplift Latino LGBTQ voices. The organization is doing so by giving money to organizations that help with grants and training that focus on LGBTQ Latinos’ experiences — especially those dealing with immigration, race, culture, and language access.
“In 2022, the Federation decided to invest a million dollars in funding to support Latinx LGBTQ organizations,” Miranda said. “Those grantees around this room are part of this incredible initiative that has done incredible work.”
According to the group’s website, 27 organizations have received up to $50,000 each to help serve the Latino LGBTQ community. In addition to providing funds, the Hispanic Federation also created meetings for these organizations to discuss their needs for the continued support of their communities.
Discussions with Latino LGBTQ organizations have informed the Hispanic Federation about overlooked issues within these communities, eventually leading to the creation of the Advance Change Together (ACT) initiative. The ACT initiative includes grantees who are LGBTQ and Latino from various parts of the country, representing diverse segments of the LGBTQ community.
The ACT initiative is then able to promote specific pro-LGBTQ federal legislation through lobbying.
“We came together as grassroots orgs to really talk about the current political climate, especially against LGBT rhetoric,” said grantee Kevin Al Perez, president of Somos Familia Valle. “Specifically, the rise of trans bills with youth, lots of anti-trans legislation that is thrown against the LGBT community. It also brings together the intersections of the Latine experience when it comes to immigration, when it comes to status, when it comes to all the intersections that all of our organizations meet.”
Somos Familia Valle is the leading local Latino LGBTQ organization in the San Fernando Valley that “supports, empowers, and mobilizes families, and allies for racial, gender, and economic justice” through community dialogue, advocacy, and civic engagement.
Perez was able to take his successful dialogue techniques to the federal level, highlighting common challenges that California’s Latino LGBTQ community has endured.
“I was able to meet with Sen. Alex Padilla, which was very amazing,” Perez explained after his day lobbying on the Hill. “We had our drag story hour protested, we had our local elementary school protested for having a rainbow assembly for children, which is just a book celebrating diverse families … I was able to really let him know that this even happens in his own community in Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley.”
He continued, explaining that the significant work done on the Hill is the first of its kind and will hopefully lead to change.
“I think this is us coming together very historical in a way — that there hasn’t been specifically a Latine LGBT representation, especially here in the Capitol, especially a group, right?” Perez said. “We see a lot of LGBT movement work being led by white boards and I think our perspective really gives an opportunity for our communities to be heard.”
The specific legislation the ACT grantees were promoting includes the Equality Act that would establish uniform and explicit anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people, The Healthy Families Act which that would provide a guaranteed minimum of seven paid sick days per year to care for their families or themselves, and the PrEP Access and Coverage Act that would require all private and public insurance plans to cover the HIV prevention pill and related services.
Xelestiàl Moreno-Luz, a transgender activist and CEO of Saturn’s Wish, an arts and culture organization dedicated to “advancing the artistic and cultural efforts of TGI (trans, gender-diverse, and intersex) BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) works,” is another of the grantees lobbying on behalf of the ACT initiative.
For Moreno-Luz, the Equality Act would give many in her community — specifically trans Latinos, the ability to be protected federally
“One of the biggest things for me is how are our policymakers, the people in office, making sure that TGI (trans, gender-diverse, and intersex) people have employment opportunities,” Moreno-Luz said when asked why she was on Capitol Hill. “Even if they have an employment opportunity, Is this employment safe? Is this employment an affirming environment for TGI populations? And so that’s kind of like what I was addressing today.”
For her, this lobbying is more than just passing an act through the House and Senate. It’s about being able to live safely in her own skin.
“A good colleague of mine mentioned today during one of our delegations that this year 17 trans people have been murdered in the United States,” Moreno-Luz said. “And those are just reported murders, with half of them being Latin.”
According to the Human Rights Campaign, which tracks instances of reported fatal trans violence, has said that in 2023 at least 32 trans and gender-expansive people had been killed through violent means. Moreno-Luz explained that if Congress passes the Equality Act, more trans people would be safe.
“We’re all humans: That’s the message I always try to tell people,” Hector Ruiz, president of the South Texas Equality Project (STEP), said while talking with other grantees. “We love the same, we breathe the same, we eat the same, whatever it may be. Ultimately we’re just people trying to fight for our rights that haven’t been given to us in the past — as a group that I feel has been underrepresented and undervalued.”
STEP works towards creating a more affirming community for LGBTQ people in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley through educational forums, support groups, fundraisers, meetups, and other events that include RGV+ Pride.
“We’re just here to let people [members of Congress] know that we’re humans just like everyone else,” Ruiz added.
![](https://www.washingtonblade.com/content/files/2023/05/20200114_Rio_Grande_between_Matamoros_Mexico_and_Brownsville_Texas_insert_c_Washington_Blade_by_Michael_K_Lavers.jpg)
Grantee Dagoberto Bailón, co-founder of Trans Queer Pueblo in Phoenix, emphasizes the importance of bridging the gap between members of Congress and those affected by the proposed legislation. He explains that such discussions are crucial for creating meaningful and impactful laws, which can help local organizations better protect LGBTQ Latinos.
“I think it’s important to build connections to really figure out how we can collectively change the way that the U.S. is talking about issues for LGBT people and Latinx people in general,” Bailón said. “Also to go back to our states to see what strategies are working in other states so that we can implement them and sort of build a coalition that can push different pressure points, so that we can achieve the same goal.”
Bailón is not alone in aiming to change attitudes towards LGBTQ people in the U.S. and increase protective measures.
Debo Ofsowitz, the development director for Hope CommUnity Center in Apopka, Fla., also highlighted the importance of getting federal protections for LGBTQ Latinos.
“Young LGBTQ people are growing up in a country where they feel like their own government is attacking them,” they said. “These are young people who know their identity from the day that they were born, just like the rest of us knew our identity from the day that we were born. They feel like they can’t be who they are. They feel like not only are their parents against them, not only their teachers, not only their church, but also their government. We’re trying to change that.”
And change that they will try.
All three protective bills — the Equality Act, Healthy Families Act, and PrEP Access and Coverage Act of 2023 — have all been formally introduced to Congress and have been passed along to committees regarding their issues, but nothing has passed yet.
Visit the Hispanic Federation’s website for more information.
National
Project 2025’s ‘War on Porn’ threatens sex workers, LGBTQ community
Far-right plan for second Trump administration includes 32 anti-LGBTQ provisions
![](https://www.losangelesblade.com/content/files/2024/08/20240718_Donald_Trump_at_RNC_insert_1_c_Washington_Blade_by_Michael_Key.jpg)
Civil liberties and LGBTQ rights advocates have expressed alarm that a proposal to criminalize pornography in a 920-page far-right blueprint for the first 180 days of a second Trump administration known as Project 2025 would have a far-reaching impact that threatens the rights of sex workers and the LGBTQ community, especially the transgender community.
Project 2025 was created by a coalition of several dozen conservative and religious-right organizations led by the D.C.-based Heritage Foundation, with most of them having opposed LGBTQ rights for many years and several having been designated as anti-LGBTQ hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
LGBTQ rights organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights group, and the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, point out that Project 2025 includes at least 32 specific provisions that call for rolling back LGBTQ rights, including marriage equality and LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections in federal government agencies.
“Project 2025 demonstrates what four years of a Trump-Vance administration would look like,” HRC said in a statement. “It is a wrecking ball aimed at the very foundations of civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights, health care access, voting rights, and environmental protections,” the statement says.
GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement that Project 2025 “would create an America where the freedoms that are a hallmark to our Democracy are replaced with authoritarianism and the progress we have made for LGBTQ people, people of color, women, and other marginalized communities is stripped away.”
Former President Donald Trump, who won the Republican presidential nomination last month at the GOP convention in Milwaukee, has disavowed Project 2025, saying he played no role in creating it and he does not agree with many of its provisions. But political observers point out that former Trump administration officials and many longtime Trump supporters played a lead role in developing Project 2025. Democratic Party leaders are predicting much of Project 2025’s content, including its anti-LGBTQ provisions, would likely be backed by a Trump administration.
With that as a backdrop, civil liberties advocates and representatives of the adult entertainment industry, including sex worker advocacy groups, are saying criminalization of pornography as proposed by Project 2025 would have far reaching negative consequences, including a negative impact on the LGBTQ community.
“The impact would be vast, and censorship of ‘pornography’ is central to this project,” according to a statement released by the Free Speech Coalition, which describes itself as a nonpartisan trade association for the adult entertainment industry. “The mandate calls for banning ‘pornography’ – broadly defined to include LGBTQ+ content – and imprisoning those who distribute it,” the statement says.
The Free Speech Coalition and other groups and activists opposing a ban on pornography point out that the text of Project 2025’s provision calling for a ban on porn seeks to create a link between what it calls harmful pornography and the transgender and LGBTQ communities.
Here is the full text of the Project 2025 provision for criminalizing pornography:
“Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not a political Gordian knot inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual liberation, and child welfare. It has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.”
According to the Free Speech Coalition, “With new laws calling for the imprisonment of those who produce or distribute adult content, Project 2025 advocates for the arrest of millions of adult content creators – a War on Porn that might mimic the War on Drugs.”
The group adds in its statement, “This risk to anyone working in the sex industry is enormous but given the project’s twin concerns about LGBTQ+ content, would likely fall most heavily on LGBTQ+ sex workers, pushing them further into the margins, and increasing risk of violence and exploitation.”
Among those who share that concern is Cyndee Clay, executive director of the D.C.-based sex worker advocacy group HIPS. “Calls to outlaw pornography are problematic enough, but they also take one more legal option for sex work away from people who do sex work,” Clay told the Washington Blade. “What’s more concerning is this push from Project 2025 seems to be less about pornography itself and more about attacking trans rights and trans voices,” Clay said.
The Blade’s attempt to reach some of the largest online porn sites like Pornhub and the popular gay dating and sex meet-up site Grindr were unsuccessful. The ACLU, which has championed rights of sexual freedom for many years, didn’t respond to the Blade’s request for comment on Project 2025. But in a brief statement on its website, the ACLU criticizes Project 2025 as a plan to “dismantle policies put in place to protect our civil rights and liberties and establish a more authoritarian rule of law.”
The statement adds, “Along with our network of affiliates and coalition partners in all 50 states, we are armed with tools and tactics to protect against executive action that would take away our rights.”
Blair Hopkins, executive director of the Sex Worker Outreach Project Behind Bars, known as SWOP, said she believes the large adult industry companies like Pornhub, and others will be working behind the scenes to oppose Project 2025. Hopkins said the criminalization of porn would have a dramatic impact on the multi-million adult entertainment industry, which through its online sites and employment of sex workers as actors and support workers is an important segment of the nation’s economy.
According to its website, Pornhub alone has more than 100 million daily visits to its adult website and 36 billion visits per year. It says it has 20 million registered Pornhub users.
Hopkins said Pornhub has provided financial support for SWOP and other organizations that support sex workers.
“It’s been said that sex workers are the canary in the coal mine when it comes to any kind of civil rights,” Hopkins told the Blade. “And that is proven to be true over and over again,” she said. “So, what I think they’re talking about is not only will pornography be banned and criminalized, but also that anything can be categorized as pornography. And that is directly targeting the LGBTQ community.”
Todd Evans, executive director of the National LGBT Media Association, which represents LGBTQ news publications across the country, said a ban on pornography like what is being proposed by Project 2025 could have a negative impact on LGBTQ media outlets.
“Just think about it,” he said. “Who is defining pornography? What does that mean? Is Michelangelo’s ‘David’ pornography?”
Evans added, “It definitely has an effect on LGBT media because it goes back to what that definition of pornography is. And does it depend on who is delivering it? Like if it’s an LGBT publication, is that definition harsher than maybe a mainstream publication?”
Adult entertainment advocates have also pointed out that access to porn has already effectively been “banned” in several states that have passed laws calling for the adult sites to require anyone visiting the site to provide an identification document such as a driver’s license to show they are an adult. This has prompted some porn sites, including Pornhub, to discontinue operating in those states.
National
Harris chooses Walz as running mate; LGBTQ groups celebrate
Minn. governor has a strong pro-LGBTQ record
![](https://www.losangelesblade.com/content/files/2024/08/Tim_Walz_insert_public_domain.jpg)
Vice President Kamala Harris has selected Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate, multiple press outlets reported on Tuesday.
The vice president and her campaign had a short runway to make the decision leading into the Democratic National Convention in mid-August. Harris emerged as the frontrunner shortly after President Joe Biden announced his decision to step aside on July 21.
Walz, who is serving in his second term and chairs the Democratic Governors Association, represented a red-leaning district in the U.S. House of Representatives for 12 years. The governor was introduced to many Americans when he surfaced as a top vice presidential candidate in recent weeks.
In public appearances, Walz made headlines for his plainspoken progressive appeal to voters, attracting even more attention for his line of attack against Republican opponents, former President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who he called “weird dudes.”
The Hill’s Brooke Migdon wrote last week that Walz “helped make Minnesota an LGBTQ ‘refuge,'” shielding access to gender affirming care and abortion, banning so-called conversion therapy, and prohibiting book bans targeting titles with LGBTQ characters and themes.
In 1999, Walz advised Mankato West High School’s first gay-straight alliance (GSA) club, Migdon notes. The social studies teacher would then oust anti-LGBTQ longtime Republican U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht in 2006, running on a platform supporting same-sex marriage, which Minnesota had banned in 1997.
Once elected, Walz, who had served for 24 years in the Army National Guard, fought for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the policy prohibiting LGBTQ members of the U.S. Armed Forces from serving openly, and played a major role in passage of the landmark Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
LGBTQ groups celebrate
Kat Rohn, executive director of OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, told the Washington Blade by email that “Tim Walz has been a longstanding ally to the LGBTQ+ community — from the classroom to elected office.”
“Here in Minnesota we have seen that first hand through how he has engaged on our issues and through policy that has advanced under his leadership — including signing into law bills that ban conversion ‘therapy,’ end the LGBTQ+ panic defense, and establish MN as a trans refuge state,” Rohn said. “At a time when LGBTQ+ communities are under attack, Gov. Walz has made it clear that welcome and inclusion are Minnesotan values, and we’re excited to see how that continues onto the national stage.”
“There’s no doubt — Kamala Harris has electrified the nation and breathed new hope into the race,” said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson. “Her pick of governor Walz sends a message that a Harris-Walz administration will be committed to advancing equality and justice for all.”
“That is the choice we are faced with in America,” Robinson said. “A Trump-Vance Administration that would demonize LGBTQ+ people, terrorize our families, send our rights and freedoms back to ‘The Land Before Time’ and install Project 2025. Or a Harris-Walz Administration that will fight for our freedoms, defend our families, and make America a place where people don’t just get by — but can get ahead.”
GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis said, “Vice President Harris’ choice of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz underscores a longstanding commitment to the equality, prosperity, and safety of all Americans, including and especially for LGBTQ people. Gov. Walz has a proven record of including and protecting LGBTQ people and the fundamental freedoms all Americans treasure.”
“In this consequential election, we need all voices to speak up for the rights of LGBTQ people to be welcome as we are, live free from discrimination and harm, and pursue our own success and happiness,” Ellis said. “Voters can review the records of the Harris-Walz ticket to inform their own choices this fall, to reflect the country they want to live in, and to envision a future where all of us are more safe and free.”
LGBTQ+ Victory Fund President Annise Parker said, “Governor Tim Walz is a strong ally for our community and a staunch supporter of LGBTQ+ equality. As governor, Walz worked with LGBTQ+ legislators to transform Minnesota into a refuge for LGBTQ+ families, a state where equality is the law of the land.”
“A Harris-Walz ticket will certainly push the movement for equality forward, and we expect a Harris-Walz administration will continue the historic levels of LGBTQ+ representation among presidential appointments,” Parker said. “We are confident that our work to elect pro-equality, pro-choice LGBTQ+ candidates will have a major impact up-ticket and that our candidates will win in November and make our government more reflective of our country’s highest values. ”
National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund Vice President Sayre E. Reece said:
“The National LGBTQ Action Fund expected a strategic and bold choice as a strong addition to the ticket as a vice presidential candidate. In Governor Walz we have gotten both. We applaud Vice President Harris’ decision and fully support the Harris/Walz ticket – in fact, you could call this a ‘Golden ticket.’
Governor Walz has been a steadfast ally and advocate for the LGBTQ community, including support for trans affirming care, bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom and gun control. As governor, Walz signed a ban on so-called ‘conversion therapy’ into law, ending the harmful and cruel practice that has cost LGBTQ people their dignity and their lives. Under Walz’s leadership, Minnesota is both a ‘trans sanctuary’ and immigration sanctuary state.
The National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund will advocate for continued support and action to address the challenges LGBTQ people face, from anti-trans legislation and discrimination to fair and inclusive immigration policy, reproductive rights and more.
Governor Walz is a champion of immigration rights and protections for all, he supports serious and impactful plan to combat climate change and expansive gun control legislation — we know that these are queer issues, and our communities will continue to benefit from his leadership on these issue and others.
“Understanding how LGBTQ populations are impacted by a wide variety of these issues and more will be critical to our communities to stem the tide of anti-LGBTQ attacks and work for more representation and progress connected to all work of the next administration.
We need bold and powerful voices to take on the divisive messages and outright lies, dangerous policies and plans of the Trump campaign and this ticket can and should do that as we enter the final months before the November elections.”
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