National
Eric Garcetti may run for president in 2020
LA Mayor says it’s a patriotic duty to oppose Trump
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.
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!
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.
(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.”
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.
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.
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
Senate braces for anti-LGBTQ+ attacks with incoming Republican majority
Republicans to regain control of chamber in January
Particularly since Republicans took the U.S. House of Representatives in 2023, legislative attacks against the LGBTQ+ community, at least at the federal level, have been blunted by U.S. Senate Democrats exercising their narrow majority in the upper chamber, along with President Joe Biden’s promise to veto any discriminatory bill that should reach his desk.
Next month, however, Republicans will take control of both chambers of Congress as President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, marking the first time since 2018 that the GOP has governed with a trifecta in Washington.
“We expect the Trump administration and House and Senate Republicans to continue their anti-LGBTQ+ attacks on all aspects of life, especially against trans kids,” Josh Sorbe, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Whip and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), told the Washington Blade.
Durbin is among the Democratic senators who spoke out this week against a policy rider added to the National Defense Authorization Act by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.), which would prohibit the military’s health provider Tricare from covering transgender medical treatments for the children of U.S. service members.
“In his first term, Donald Trump enabled LGBTQ+ workplace discrimination, banned trans service members, and vilified trans kids,” Sorbe said, while “The Biden-Harris administration and Democrats codified same-sex marriage, declared mpox a national emergency, and built up the LGBTQ+ movement.”
He added, “Democrats will continue to hold the line against misguided, anti-freedom legislation that we anticipate will be introduced.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee, one of the most powerful in Congress, exercises broad legislative jurisdiction and is responsible for oversight of the Executive Branch as well as the initial stages of confirming the president’s nominees for vacancies on the federal bench, including those picked to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the 117th Congress, control of the Senate was a 50-50 split, with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris casting tie-breaking votes. Democrats won another Senate seat in the 2022 midterms and for the past two years Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has led a 51-49 majority.
Despite the party’s narrow margin of control and starting with less than half the number of vacancies than were available for Trump to fill when he took office in 2017, Sorbe noted Senate Democrats are expected to confirm Biden’s 234th and 235th judicial nominees — surpassing, by one, the number of confirmations under the previous administration and also, by one, the record setting number of LGBTQ+ jurists appointed by President Obama over two terms.
These “highly qualified, diverse candidates” will “help ensure the fair and impartial administration of the American justice system,” Sorbe said. Many will decide legal questions with broad implications for LGBTQ+ communities, including challenges brought against anti-LGBTQ+ legislation at the local, state, and federal level, or anti-LGBTQ+ policies enacted by the Trump-Vance administration.
Sorbe highlighted some of the other work Durbin has done to “protect civil rights for all Americans” over the past four years in the majority, pointing to the Judiciary Committee’s 2021 hearing on the Equality Act, legislation that would codify LGBTQ+-inclusive nondiscrimination protections; a 2023 hearing that celebrated “the historic progress made in protecting the right of LGBTQ+ Americans”; the first hearing since 1984 about the Equal Rights Amendment that would “enshrine gender equality into the Constitution”; floor speeches in which the majority whip denounced “the harmful anti-LGBTQ+ legislation being introduced across the country”; and the senator’s co-sponsorship of the Respect for Marriage Act, which solidified the legal rights of interracial and same-sex married couples.
White House
Biden establishes national monument for first female Cabinet secretary
Frances Perkins may have been the first lesbian Cabinet pick
President Joe Biden on Monday signed a proclamation to establish a national monument in Newcastle, Maine, that will honor Frances Perkins, who became the first woman named to a Cabinet-level position when she was chosen by FDR to serve as secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor.
The move highlights the Biden-Harris administration’s record of advancing women’s rights and strengthening the labor movement while also commemorating Perkins’s achievements, including the establishment of pensions, unemployment, and workers’ compensation, the minimum wage and overtime pay, the 40-hour workweek, and child labor laws.
Perkins is also credited with helping to lay the blueprint for legislation like the Social Security Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the National Labor Relations Act.
Research suggests she may have been a lesbian, perhaps even the first LGBTQ+ Cabinet secretary.
According to the National Park Service, “Perkins’ relationship with one roommate, Mary Harriman Rumsey,” who was a close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, “was very intimate,” though an entry for the late labor secretary on the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project quotes her biographer Kirsten Downey’s assertion that “it is probably impossible to know whether Frances’s relationship with Mary was also sexual or romantic.”
White House
Trump appoints Richard Grenell to his administration
Former US ambassador to Germany will be special missions envoy
President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday named former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell to his administration.
Grenell will serve as special missions envoy.
“Ric will work in some of the hottest spots around the world, including Venezuela and North Korea,” Trump said on Truth Social, according to the Associated Press.
Grenell, 58, was U.S. ambassador to Germany from 2018-2020.
The Trump-Pence administration later named him acting director of national intelligence, which at the time made him the highest-ranking openly gay presidential appointee in American history. Grenell was also the previous White House’s special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations.
The Trump-Pence administration in 2019 tapped Grenell to lead an initiative that encouraged countries to decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. Grenell and then-U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Kelly Knight Craft later that year organized an event on the sidelines of a U.N. Security Council meeting that focused on decriminalization efforts.
Many activists around the world with whom the Washington Blade has previously spoken questioned whether this effort had any tangible results. Grenell also faced sharp criticism when he told Breitbart News shortly after he arrived in Berlin that he wanted to “empower” the European right.
Grenell was among those who the president-elect reportedly considered to nominate to become the next secretary of state. Trump instead tapped U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
“Working on behalf of the American people for (Trump) is an honor of a lifetime,” said Grenell on X on Saturday. “President Trump is a problem solver who keeps Americans safe and prosperous.”
Working on behalf of the American people for @realDonaldTrump is an honor of a lifetime.
President Trump is a problem solver who keeps Americans safe and prosperous.
We have so much to do.
Let’s get to work. https://t.co/xGpTLr1QHy— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) December 15, 2024
Log Cabin Republicans President Charles Moran and Amir Ohana, the openly gay speaker of the Israeli Knesset, are among those who congratulated Grenell.
National
Colleagues, politicos mourn death of Los Angeles Blade publisher
‘A trailblazing journalist, publisher, and tireless advocate’
Troy Masters, publisher of the Los Angeles Blade, died on Wednesday Dec. 11, according to a family member. He was 63. The LA County Coroner said the cause of death was suicide.
Masters was a well-respected and award-winning journalist and publisher with decades of experience, mostly in LGBTQ media. In 2017, he became the founding publisher of the Los Angeles Blade, a sister publication of the Washington Blade.
Praise for Masters’s work and dedication to LGBTQ equality and journalism poured in throughout the day.
Equality California released the following statement from Executive Director Tony Hoang: “We at Equality California are heartbroken by the unexpected passing of Troy Masters, a trailblazing journalist, publisher, and tireless advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. Troy’s remarkable career spanned decades, during which he used his voice and platform to amplify the stories of our community and champion the fight for equality.
“His passion for storytelling and relentless pursuit of social justice left an indelible mark on the fight for LGBTQ+ rights. Over many years, Equality California and the Los Angeles Blade have worked hand in hand to ensure LGBTQ+ stories are accurately represented and shared within the Los Angeles community and throughout California.
“Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and the Los Angeles Blade and Washington Blade teams during this difficult time. We stand in solidarity with them as we honor Troy’s life, legacy, and unwavering dedication to our community. His passing is a profound loss, and he will be deeply missed.
“Rest in power, Troy. Your work will forever live on in the hearts and lives of those you fought so fiercely for.”
California state Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, (D-Los Angeles) said in a statement: “I am terribly saddened to hear of the passing of Troy Masters, a pillar in the LGBTQ+ community. In his many roles, he has covered life in our community and the challenges of our fight for civil rights and social justice.”
L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, in a statement on X, said she would miss Masters’s humor, wit and huge heart and praised his journalistic pursuits and dedication to uplifting the LGBTQ+ community.
Journalist and Blade contributor Jasmyne Cannick also praised Masters, describing him as a mentor.
“Through the years, he was supportive of my work, giving me space and a voice as a columnist and reporter for the Blade newspapers when it mattered most,” she said in on X. “Troy understood the importance of covering the Black LGBTQ+ community and made it a point to ask me what stories they needed to be telling.”
Michael Yamashita, publisher of the Bay Area Reporter, in a statement said, “I have known Troy as a fellow publisher and friend for over 20 years. He was smart and accomplished. More than a few times, he started gay publications — in New York City and Los Angeles. I will miss working with him.”
Dana Piccoli, managing director of News Is Out, a queer media collaborative, wrote: “Troy was a fierce advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and pioneer in queer media. We were lucky to work with him as a member of News Is Out and will forever be grateful for the barriers he broke down for the queer community. Our hearts are with our colleagues at the Los Angeles Blade and the Washington Blade.”
“It has been a tough day for all of us at the Blade,” said Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff. “Troy’s love of queer media and the city of Los Angeles is well known and he will be missed by so many. In his spirit, we will carry on with our mission and we are planning a celebration of his life in the coming months.”
Montana
Montana Supreme Court blocks ban on healthcare for trans youth
‘Today’s ruling permits our clients to breathe a sigh of relief’
The Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that SB 99, a 2023 Montana law that bans life-saving gender-affirming care for transgender youth, is unconstitutional under the Montana Constitution’s privacy clause, which prohibits government intrusion into private medical decisions. This ruling will allow Montana communities and families to continue accessing medical treatments for transgender minors with gender dysphoria, the ACLU announced in a statement.
“I will never understand why my representatives are working to strip me of my rights and the rights of other transgender kids,” Phoebe Cross, a 17-year-old transgender boy told the ACLU. “Just living as a trans teenager is difficult enough, the last thing me and my peers need is to have our rights taken away.”
“Fortunately, the Montana Supreme Court understands the danger of the state interfering with critical healthcare,” said Lambda Legal Counsel Kell Olson. “Because Montana’s constitutional protections are even stronger than their federal counterparts, transgender youth in Montana can sleep easier tonight knowing that they can continue to thrive for now, without this looming threat hanging over their heads.”
“We are so thankful for this opportunity to protect trans youth, their families, and their medical providers from this baseless and dangerous law,” said Malita Picasso, Staff Attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “Every day that transgender Montanans are able to access this care is a critical and life-saving victory. We will never stop fighting until every transgender person has the care and support they need to thrive.”
“Today’s ruling permits our clients to breathe a sigh of relief,” said Akilah Deernose, Executive Director of the ACLU of Montana. “But the fight for trans rights is far from over. We will continue to push for the right of all Montanans, including those who are transgender, to be themselves and live their lives free of intrusive government interference.”
The Court found that the Plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their privacy claim, holding: “The Legislature did not make gender-affirming care unlawful. Nor did it make the treatments unlawful for all minors. Instead, it restricted a broad swath of medical treatments only when sought for a particular purpose. The record indicates that Provider Plaintiffs, or other medical professionals providing gender-affirming care, are recognized as competent in the medical community to provide that care.[T]he law puts governmental regulation in the mix of an individual’s fundamental right ‘to make medical judgments affecting her or his bodily integrity and health in partnership with a chosen health care provider.’
Two justices filed a concurrence arguing that the Court should also clarify that discrimination on the basis of transgender status is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Montana’s Equal Protection Clause, the ACLU reported.
Congress
Protests against anti-trans bathroom policy lead to more than a dozen arrests
Demonstrations were staged outside House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) office
About 15 protestors affiliated with the Gender Liberation Movement were arrested on Thursday for protesting the anti-trans bathroom policy that was introduced by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and enacted last month by U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
Whistleblower Chelsea Manning and social justice advocates Raquel Willis and Renee Bracey Sherman were among those who were arrested in the women’s bathroom and the hallway outside Johnson’s office in the Cannon House Office Building.
Demonstrators held banners reading “FLUSH BATHROOM BIGOTRY” and “CONGRESS: STOP PISSING ON OUR RIGHTS!” They chanted, “SPEAKER JOHNSON, NANCY MACE, OUR GENDERS ARE NO DEBATE!” and “WHEN TRANS FOLKS ARE UNDER ATTACK WHAT DO WE DO? ACT UP, FIGHT BACK!”
Protests began around 12:10 p.m. ET. Within 30 minutes, Capitol Police arrived on the scene, began making arrests, and cleared the area. A spokesperson told Axios the demonstration was an illegal violation of the D.C. code against crowding, obstructing or incommoding.
Mace and her flame-throwing House GOP allies have said the bathroom policy was meant to target Sarah McBride, the Delaware state senator who will become the first transgender member of Congress after she is seated in January.
LGBTQ groups, elected Democrats, and others have denounced the move as a bigoted effort to bully and intimidate a new colleague, with many asking how the policy’s proponents would enforce the measure.
Outside her office in the Longworth House Office Building, the Washington Blade requested comment from Mace about the protests and arrests.
“Yeah, I went to the Capitol Police station where they were being processed, so I’ll be posting what I said shortly,” the congresswoman said.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) (Washington Blade photo by Christopher Kane)
Using an anti-trans slur, Mace posted a video to her X account in which she says, “alright, so some tranny protestors showed up at the Capitol today to protest my bathroom bill, but they got arrested — poor things.”
“So I have a message for the protestors who got arrested,” the congresswoman continued, and then spoke into a megaphone as she read the Miranda warning. “If you cannot afford an attorney — I doubt many of you can — one will be provided to you at the government’s expense,” she said.
“Everyone deserves to use the restroom without fear of discrimination or violence. Trans folks are no different. We deserve dignity and respect and we will fight until we get it,” Gender Liberation Movement co-founder Raquel Willis said in a press release.
“In the 2024 election, trans folks were left to fend for ourselves after nearly $200 million of attack ads were disseminated across the United States,” she said. “Now, as Republican politicians, try to remove us from public life, Democratic leaders are silent as hell.”
Willis continued, “But we can’t transform bigotry and hate with inaction. We must confront it head on. Democrats must rise up, filibuster, and block this bill.”
State Department
State Department honors Ghanaian LGBTQ+ activist
Ebenezer Peegan among Secretary of State’s Human Rights Defender Award recipients
The State Department on Tuesday honored a Ghanaian LGBTQ+ activist and seven other human rights advocates from around the world.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken presented Rightify Ghana Executive Director Ebenezer Peegah with the Secretary of State’s Human Rights Defender Award during a ceremony at the State Department.
“He’s been a prominent figure advocating for equality and justice,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Enrique Roig told the Washington Blade on Tuesday during an interview.
The other human rights activists who received the award include:
• Mary Ann Abunda, a migrant workers advocate in Kuwait
• Permanent Human Rights Assembly of Bolivia President Amparo Carvajal
• Aida Dzhumanazarova, country director for the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law in Kyrgyzstan
• Mang Hre Lian, founder of the Chin Media Network in Myanmar
• Juana Ruiz of Asociación Asvidas, an organization that advocates for survivors of gender-based violence in Colombia
• Rufat Sararov, a former prosecutor who runs Defense Line in Azerbaijan
The State Department posthumously honored Thulani Maseko, a prominent human rights activist from Eswatini who was killed in 2023. His wife, Tanele Maseko, accepted the award on his behalf.
The ceremony took place on International Human Rights Day, which commemorates the U.N. General Assembly’s ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Dec. 10, 1948. Sararov did not attend because Azeri authorities arrested him before he could obtain a visa that would have allowed him to travel to the U.S.
Ghanaian Supreme Court to rule on anti-LGBTQ+ law on Dec. 18
Ghanaian lawmakers on Feb. 28 approved the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill that would, among other things, criminalize allyship. President Nana Akufo-Addo has said he will not sign the bill until the Supreme Court rules on whether it is constitutional or not.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the law on Dec. 18. John Dramani Mahama, the country’s president-elect, will take office on Jan. 7.
Ruig applauded Peegah’s efforts to highlight the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill.
“For us in the U.S. government, the work that he’s done on this issue has also been instrumental in our own discussions with the current government as well as the incoming administration around the concerns that we’ve expressed with regards to this legislation,” Roig told the Washington Blade “He’s been an important partner in all this as well.”
Peegah on Aug. 14 met with Pope Francis at the Vatican.
U.S. Supreme Court
Trans rights supporters, opponents rally outside Supreme Court as justices consider Tenn. law
Oral arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti case took place Wednesday
At least 1,000 people rallied outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday as the justices considered whether a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth is unconstitutional.
Dueling rallies began early in the morning, with protesters supporting trans rights and protesters supporting Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care each stationed with podiums on opposite sides.
Trans rights protesters, who significantly outnumbered the other group, held signs reading “Keep hate out of healthcare,” and “Respect family medical decisions.” On the other side, protesters carried signs with messages like “Sex change is fantasy,” and “Stop transing gay kids.”
Ari, a trans person who grew up in Nashville and now lives in D.C., spoke to the Washington Blade about the negative effects of the Tennessee law on the well-being of trans youth.
“I grew up with kids who died because of a lack of trans healthcare, and I am scared of that getting worse,” they said. “All that this bill brings is more dead kids.”
The Tennessee law that is being challenged in U.S. v Skrmetti took effect in 2023 and bans medical providers from prescribing medical treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapies to trans youth.
A number of Democratic lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, and U.S. Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) addressed the crowd in support of trans rights.
In his speech, Merkley said Americans deserved freedom in accessing gender affirming care and criticized the law as political intervention in private medical decisions.
“Americans should have the freedom to make medical decisions in the privacy of their doctor’s office without politicians trying to dictate to them,” he said.
Robert Garofalo, a chief doctor in the division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at a Chicago children’s hospital, emphasized the importance of trans youth having access to gender affirming care.
“We [providers] are seeing patients and families every day, present with crippling fears, added stress and anxiety as they desperately try to locate care where it remains legal to do so,” Garofalo, who is also a professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University, told the crowd. “Transgender children and adolescents deserve health care that is grounded in compassion, science and principles of public health and human rights. They must not be denied life saving medical care — their lives depend on it.”
Major U.S. medical associations, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, support gender affirming care.
Research has found gender affirming care improves the mental health and overall well-being of gender diverse children and adolescents. Those who are denied access to gender affirming care are at increased risk for significant mental health challenges.
An unlikely coalition came out to support Tennessee’s ban on gender affirming care. Far-right figures, such as U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Matt Walsh — both of whom have a history of making homophobic statements — were joined by groups such as the LGBT Courage Coalition and Gays Against Groomers.
The groups questioned the quality of the research finding gender-affirming care to have a positive effect on the well-being of trans and gender nonconforming youth and argued that minors cannot consent to medical treatment. Ben Appel, a co-founder of the LGBT Courage Coalition, which he notes was “co-founded by gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans adults who oppose pediatric gender medicine, which we know to be non-evidence-based and harmful to young gay people,” said gender nonconformity is often part of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual experience and should not be “medicalized.”
“I care about the adult gay detransitioners who have been harmed … by these homophobic practice,” he said “They should have just been told they’re gay.”
Claire, a Maryland resident who attended the rally in favor of the Tennessee law and claims to have detransitioned, described being prescribed testosterone and having a mastectomy at 14, medical treatments she says she was unable to consent to at that age. She doesn’t oppose gender affirming care for adults but is opposed to “medical experimentation on children.”
“I think that adults should be allowed to do whatever they want with their bodies. I think that it is if someone is happy with the decision that they made that’s great,” she said. “I was not able to make that decision. I was a child.”
But trans activists fear that a ruling in favor of Tennessee could pave the way for states to restrict access to gender-affirming care for adults.
“There’s also broader implications for civil rights and trans rights, more broadly, for adults in the future. There are some states that have tried to ban some healthcare for adults — they haven’t yet — but I think that’s something we might also see if the Supreme Court rules that way,” Ethan Rice, a senior attorney at Lambda Legal, one of the legal organizations representing the plaintiffs in U.S. v Skrmetti, said.
In the case, three Tennessee families and a physician are challenging the Tennessee law on the grounds that it violates the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment by drawing lines based on sex and discriminating against trans people. The statute bans medications for trans children while allowing the same medications to be used when treating minors suffering from other conditions, such as early-onset puberty.
A 2020 Supreme Court decision determined sex-based discrimination includes discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. The key question in U.S. v. Skrmetti is whether this interpretation applies under the Equal Protection Clause.
“We really hope that the Supreme Court recognizes their own precedent on sex discrimination cases and comes out the right way, saying this is sex discrimination by the state of Tennessee and thus is unconstitutional,” Rice said.
Twenty-six states currently have laws or policies restricting minors’ access to gender-affirming care. If the court rules against Tennessee, similar bans in other states would also be unconstitutional, granting trans youth greater access to gender affirming care nationwide.
Edith Guffey, the board chair at PFLAG, expressed doubt the court will strike down the law, citing its sharp ideological turn to the right in recent years. But she said she remains hopeful.
“I hope that the court will … step outside agendas and look at the needs of people and who has the right to say what’s good for their children,” she said.
Chase Strangio, an ACLU attorney representing the families, on Wednesday became the first openly trans lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court. He addressed the trans rights protesters after the hearing.
“Whatever happens, we are the defiance,” Strangio said. “We are collectively a refutation of everything they say about us. And our fight for justice did not begin today, it will not end in June — whatever the court decides.”
National
LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, migrants brace for second Trump administration
Incoming president has promised ‘mass deportations’
Advocacy groups in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s election fear his administration’s proposed immigration policies will place LGBTQ+ migrants and asylum seekers at increased risk.
“What we are expecting again is that the new administration will continue weaponizing the immigration system to keep igniting resentment,” Abdiel Echevarría-Cabán, an immigration lawyer who is based in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, told the Washington Blade.
Trump during the campaign pledged a “mass deportation” of undocumented immigrants.
The president-elect in 2019 implemented the Migrant Protection Protocols program — known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy — that forced asylum seekers to pursue their cases in Mexico.
Advocates sharply criticized MPP, in part, because it made LGBTQ+ asylum seekers who were forced to live in Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, Matamoros, and other Mexican border cities even more vulnerable to violence and persecution based on their gender identity and sexual orientation.
The State Department currently advises American citizens not to travel to Tamaulipas state in which Matamoros is located because of “crime and kidnapping.” The State Department also urges American citizens to “reconsider travel” to Baja California and Chihuahua states in which Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez are located respectively because of “crime and kidnapping.”
The Biden-Harris administration ended MPP in 2021.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in March 2020 implemented Title 42, which closed the Southern border to most asylum seekers and migrants because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy ended in May 2023.
Robert Contreras, president of Bienestar Human Services, a Los Angeles-based organization that works with Latino and LGBTQ+ communities, in a statement to the Blade noted Project 2025, which “outlines the incoming administration’s agenda, proposes extensive rollbacks of rights and protections for LGBTQ+ individuals.”
“This includes dismantling anti-discrimination protections, restricting access to gender-affirming healthcare, and increasing immigration enforcement,” said Contreras.
Trans woman in Tijuana nervously awaits response to asylum application
A Biden-Harris administration policy that took place in May 2023 says “noncitizens who cross the Southwest land border or adjacent coastal borders without authorization after traveling through another country, and without having (1) availed themselves of an existing lawful process, (2) presented at a port of entry at a pre-scheduled time using the CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) One app, or (3) been denied asylum in a third country through which they traveled, are presumed ineligible for asylum unless they meet certain limited exceptions.” The exceptions under the regulation include:
- They were provided authorization to travel to the United States pursuant to a DHS-approved parole process;
- They used the CBP One app to schedule a time and place to present at a port of entry, or they presented at a port of entry without using the CBP One app and established that it was not possible to access or use the CBP One app due to a language barrier, illiteracy, significant technical failure, or other ongoing and serious obstacle; or
- They applied for and were denied asylum in a third country en route to the United States.
Biden in June issued an executive order that prohibits migrants from asking for asylum in the U.S. if they “unlawfully” cross the Southern border.
The Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration works with LGBTQ+ migrants and asylum seekers in Tijuana, Mexicali and other Mexican border cities.
ORAM Executive Director Steve Roth is among those who criticized Biden’s executive order. Roth told the Blade the incoming administration’s proposed policies would “leave vulnerable transgender people, gay men, lesbians, and others fleeing life-threatening violence and persecution with little to no opportunity to seek asylum in the U.S. stripped of safe pathways.”
“Many will find themselves stranded in dangerous regions like the Mexico-U.S. border and transit countries around the world where their safety and well-being will be further jeopardized by violence, exploitation, and a lack of support,” he said.
Jennicet Gutiérrez, co-executive director of Familia: TQLM, an organization that advocates on behalf of transgender and gender non-conforming immigrants, noted to the Blade a trans woman who has asked for asylum in the U.S. “has been patiently waiting in Tijuana” for more than six months “for her CBP One application response.”
“Now she feels uncertain if she will ever get the chance to cross to the United States,” said Gutiérrez.
She added Trump’s election “is going to be devastating for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers.”
“Transgender migrants are concerned about the future of their cases,” said Gutiérrez. “The upcoming administration is not going to prioritize or protect our communities. Instead, they will prioritize mass deportations and incarceration.”
TransLatin@ Coalition President Bamby Salcedo echoed Gutiérrez.
“Trans people who are immigrants are getting the double whammy with the new administration,” Salcedo told the Blade. “As it is, trans people have been political targets throughout this election. Now, with the specific target against immigrants, trans immigrants will be greatly impacted.”
‘We’re ready to keep fighting’
Trans Queer Pueblo is a Phoenix-based organization that provides health care and other services to undocumented LGBTQ+ immigrants and migrants of color. The group, among other things, also advocates on behalf of those who are in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers.
“We refuse to wait for politicians to change systems that were designed to hurt us,” Trans Queer Pueblo told the Blade in a statement. “The elections saw both political parties using our trans and migrant identities as political pawns.”
Trans Queer Pueblo acknowledged concerns over the incoming administration’s immigration policies. It added, however, Arizona’s Proposition 314 is “our biggest battle.”
Arizona voters last month approved Proposition 314, which is also known as the Secure the Border Act.
Trans Queer Pueblo notes it “makes it a crime for undocumented people to exist anywhere, with arrests possible anywhere, including schools and hospitals.” The group pointed out Proposition 314 also applies to asylum seekers.
“We are building a future where LGBTQ+ migrants of color can live free, healthy, and secure, deciding our own destiny without fear,” Trans Queer Pueblo told the Blade. “This new administration will not change our mission — we’re ready to keep fighting.”
Contreras stressed Bienestar “remains committed to advocate for the rights and safety of all migrants and asylum seekers.” Gutiérrez added it is “crucial for LGBTQ+ migrants to know that they are not alone.”
“We will continue to organize and mobilize,” she said. “We must resist unjust treatments and laws.”
National
Biden, other administration officials mark Transgender Day of Remembrance
‘Epidemic of violence towards transgender people’
Democratic officials marked Transgender Day of Remembrance, which took place on Wednesday, honoring the lives lost to anti-trans violence and calling out rising anti-trans rhetoric and discrimination.
President Joe Biden in a statement said “we mourn the transgender Americans whose lives were taken this year in horrific acts of violence.”
“There should be no place for hate in America — and yet too many transgender Americans, including young people, are cruelly targeted and face harassment simply for being themselves. It’s wrong,” he said. “Every American deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, and to live free from discrimination. Today, we recommit ourselves to building a country where everyone is afforded that promise.”
U.S. Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), and Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.), as well as U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), all members of the Congressional Equality Caucus, introduced a bicameral resolution commemorating the Transgender Day of Remembrance and “recognizing the epidemic of violence toward transgender people and memorializing the lives lost this year.”
“As anti-transgender rhetoric and legislation has increased in the United States over recent years, unfortunately so has anti-transgender violence,” Jayapal said in a statement announcing the resolution. “On Transgender Day of Remembrance, this resolution stands as a symbol of the strength and resilience of the trans community and honors the lives of the trans people we have lost to horrific violence.”
Jacobs also addressed President-elect Donald Trump’s anti-trans rhetoric.
“Donald Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-trans agenda will likely fuel this anxiety and violence against queer communities,” Jacobs said. “That makes this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance even more important. Our bicameral resolution is a powerful reminder that anti-trans rhetoric can cost lives.”
A report by the Human Rights Campaign documenting anti-trans violence found at least 36 trans and gender-expansive people in the U.S. lost their lives to violence since last year.
Transgender Day of Remembrance was founded in 1999 by trans activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith to commemorate the one year anniversary of the murder of Rita Hester, a trans woman who was killed in Boston. The day has since grown into a national and international event.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement honored Transgender Day of Remembrance.
“Transgender individuals exist in every country, every culture, and every faith tradition,” he said. “ The United States recognizes Transgender Day of Remembrance to affirm the dignity and human rights of transgender persons globally.”
In a post on X, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) wrote, “On this Transgender Day of Remembrance, we honor the trans and nonbinary lives lost to violence simply for being who they are. Every American deserves to live their truth and feel safe doing so. Hate has no place here.”
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield noted the Biden-Harris administration’s advocacy for the trans community, which has included issuing a policy that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation under the Title IX federal civil rights law this year.
“On Transgender Day of Remembrance, we reaffirm there is no place for hate in America. The Biden-Harris Administration is proud to advocate for the safety of transgender and all LGBTQI+ Americans, including at the UN,” she said in a post on X.
Victor Madrigal-Borloz, a former independent UN expert on LGBTQ+ and intersex rights, also on X, said trans people’s human rights are questioned “for reasons that have nothing to do with them and a lot with bigotry.”
“Support them actively,” he urged.
Xavier Becerra, the secretary of health and human services, seemingly mixed up the day that was being observed, releasing a statement mistakenly commemorating Transgender Day of Visibility, which takes place on March 31.
“We fight so that trans Americans can go to the doctor and receive the same treatment as any other patient … so that they feel welcomed at school and in their community for who they are,” Becerra said.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, issued a proclamation recognizing Transgender Day of Remembrance, continuing the precedent he set last year as the first Maryland governor to issue such a proclamation.
Moore in May signed into law a bill that added gender-affirming care to Maryland’s definition of legally protected health care, affirming its status as a sanctuary state for trans people and their healthcare providers.
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