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Should Atlantis Events come with a warning label?

Circuit party cruises, drugs, and obfuscation-you worried?

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Another Atlantis Events cruise is underway—this one an 11-day cruise from Auckland, New Zealand to Sydney, Australia.

All that bad press about the death of popular Storm Chasers star Joel Taylor last month has simply faded from memory as the gayest circuit party on the high seas returns to cruising as usual. No more PR finger-pointing and the myopic moralism from social media commentators about “personal responsibility” pretty much assures there will be no accountability for the suspected drug overdose death of a gay man so many say they loved.

Taylor was buried on Jan. 29 in his hometown of Elk City, Oklahoma with his family, best friend and former Storm Chasers co-star Reed Timmer and apparently his other best friend, the Dominator 1—the black armored storm-chasing beast Taylor drove on the Discovery Channel series—attending his funeral. 

No doubt unspoken during the somber service was how protected Taylor was during his dangerous career, only to die alone in his cabin after partying with seafaring friends aboard Harmony of the Seas, an 18-deck ocean liner, the largest of Royal Caribbean’s fleet, chartered by West Hollywood-based Atlantis Events.

TMZ broke the story on  Jan. 24, reporting that Taylor “died from a suspected overdose on a cruise ship—this according to passengers on the boat. Passengers on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line Harmony of the Seas tell TMZ—drugs on the party boat were plentiful, and they say 38-year-old Taylor was partaking.” TMZ updated the story, reporting that “Law enforcement sources tell TMZ, ‘It appears the death could be an overdose and Joel Taylor was consuming controlled substances.’ A passenger who interacted with Joel tells TMZ, Joel had consumed enough GHB on the dance floor Tuesday that he was rendered unconscious and taken off the dance floor by 2 people and back to his room.”

That information is critical because it appears that TMZ is the only media outlet with a law enforcement source saying the cause of death might be a drug overdose. The Institute of Forensic Sciences of Puerto Rico conducted the autopsy after Taylor’s family identified him. But as of Feb. 18, there appears to be no public toxicology results—hence, no official report of how, exactly, Joel Taylor died. And with no confirmation of a drug overdose, neither Royal Caribbean nor Atlantis Events has yet officially explained how Taylor could have ODed on a ship with a zero tolerance policy for illegal drugs. 

They can also obfuscate when asked whether their medical staff is trained to handle reactions to bad drugs or drug overdoses since—Catch 22 alert—they have a zero tolerance for drugs. It’s like prison officials refusing to comment on rape in prison because rape in prison is illegal.

Royal Caribbean issued a statement without acknowledging Taylor’s name. “As is our standard procedure, law enforcement was notified and responded to the ship when it arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday, January 23,” Owen Torres, manager of global corporate communications for Royal Caribbean Cruises, said in a statement to PEOPLE and other news outlets. “We extend our most sincere and heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the 38-year-old male guest from the United States who died while onboard Harmony of the Seas. A member of our Care Team is providing support and assistance to his family.”

Atlantis Events released no statement of condolence or explanation and took down its website page advertising the ‘all-gay Caribbean Cruise on Harmony of the Seas’ running from January 20-27, with an ‘Error 404’ message in its place, TMZ did not disclose which branch of law enforcement gave them the information but there are several with at least a tangential association with the cruise.

Torres said the cruise lines works closely with the US Coast Guard and Customs and Border Patrol which acts like the TSA scanning passengers before boarding. Several Atlantis passengers confirmed this on social media noting that some passengers had been arrested for drug possession or prevented from boarding at the Ft. Lauderdale port before departure.

Ricardo Castrodad, public affairs officer for the Coast Guard’s San Juan sector, told PEOPLE that Royal Caribbean had notified them about a death on board when they docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico but their investigation would be purely from a “marine safety standpoint.”

Several media outlets subsequently reported that the FBI was investigating Taylor’s death. But FBI Miami representative James P. Marshall told the Los Angeles Blade that “FBI Miami is not involved in this matter” and FBI San Juan representative Carlos Osorio said that since no violent crime had been committed, his FBI office was not involved. He said jurisdiction for drug overdoses rested with the San Juan police.

However, no one answered at police headquarters in San Juan when both the Los Angeles Blade and Washington Blade reporter Michael Lavers (who speaks Spanish) repeatedly called. Only one of the four local newspapers reported the death at the time.

Lavers, who has recently filed several in-depth reports from Puerto Rico, offers this perspective. “The Puerto Rico Police Department is overwhelmed because of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. A lack of resources, increased crime and the devastation itself have combined to create this situation,” Lavers says. “I quite frankly would not expect the Puerto Rico Police Department to conduct a swift investigation into Joel’s death.”

Nonetheless, Royal Caribbean’s Owen Torres insisted there was no drug-related story to report until the San Juan police finish their investigation and the toxicology report identifies the cause of death.

In a roughly 30 minute (tape recorded) sometimes testy phone interview, Torres hammered away at his main talking points that seemed more geared to protect the company from liability than acknowledging a situation fraught with contradictions.

For instance, when the Los Angeles Blade attempted to interview Atlantis Events President & CEO Rich Campbell, an assistant politely but firmly said “we won’t comment” on Taylor’s death. When pressed to answer other drug-related policy questions, the man said, “That’s all I can tell you. You have to contact the cruise line. They’re doing PR.” No one picked up when the Los Angeles Blade tried again.

However, Torres told the Los Angeles Blade: “I cannot speak on behalf of Atlantis charter. You need to contact them in regards to their policies.”

But several times Torres insisted that Royal Caribbean’s policy applies to Atlantis, as well as all of RCCI’s fleet of cruise ships—“all the same rules ally.” Royal Caribbean has “a zero tolerance for illegal drugs, period— whether a charter or a guest.” The “clear list” of banned drugs are on their website and in cruise documents. “And we hold our charter responsible the same way as we do [sic] and we involve law enforcement should we find any violation, whether you’re a charter and our guest.”

And again: “Our rules and regulations apply to charters and we hold them accountable. I can’t speak to what Atlantis does—we need to touch base with them. But we hold them accountable,” Torres said, though he refused to say how Royal Caribbean would hold Atlantis Events accountable for one or more violations of corporate drug policy. But, he added, “as of right now, we are definitely evaluating the situation and will take it from there.”

Though Torres noted that no one knows the facts, he said TMZ’s reporting was wrong. “I’m telling you right now you need to look into what the local law enforcement [says] to see what exactly is the cause of death because as far as I know—you and I don’t know what the cause of death is. You’re just speculating from what TMZ said and that kind of stuff and that is not correct. We’re not in the business to speculate [sic] and that is for law enforcement to finalize their investigation,” Torres told the Los Angeles Blade.

Torres also insisted that information about the onboard medical center is adequately addressed in ship documents and that the medical staff is trained to handle any contingency. “Our hospital and medical staff provide treatment for anyone for anything of that matter,” Torres said. Asked specifically about whether the staff is prepared to handle drug overdoses (drug interactions can be fatal, as well), Torres’ had a strange reaction “No, no, no, no! You’re misquoting me right there,” he said. “I’m not saying anything you’re saying about what you’re just now saying.”

Finally, Torres said that if a passenger shows up and is overdosing, “there’s a procedure our medical team deals with” but he is not aware of what it is. Additionally, the ship will medically evacuate serious medical cases.

Towards the end of the interview, Torres was exasperated by the questions culled from comments on websites and social media about rampant drug use on that trip.

“The drug use on this cruise was the worst we had ever seen. Out in the open as it was widely accepted and no one had shame. We had never seen people do GHB, Coke and Meth all while dancing but we did on this cruise. It was so widespread that we choose to go back to our rooms because it was really getting to us seeing it,” Anthony, for example, who commented Jan. 29 on Jim Walker’s Cruise Law News. “It was so accepted that it became the joke of all the shows. “

“If you’re saying things are rampant, I’m trying to figure out what it is our crew did not do in? Of not reporting it, because then that’s a different story because we have security guards all over our ship,” Torres said. But “just coming to me with ‘he said, she said’—that’s not the business we’re in.”

“So nothing can be reported about what the cause of death is or what happened on board because right now, we are working with law enforcement, period,” Torres continued. “At the end of the day, Royal is Royal but [Atlantis CEO] Rich Campbell is who you need to touch base with….I have made it very clear—I don’t speak on behalf of Atlantis. Never.”

The veracity of this is difficult to determine, considering what the Puerto Rican Police Department is experiencing. As of Feb. 13, more than 400,000 customers still didn’t have electricity and intermittent blackouts are common in the wake of Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm with 155-mph winds that devastated the island on Sept. 20. At least 64 people died, thousand were left homeless and thousands more were left with no electricity or clean water for months.

And as the Associated Press reported, the police have been stretched to the limit with 32 people killed in the first 11 days of the new year and a reign of lawlessness as police—complaining they haven’t been paid overtime—staged a walkout in January that took about 2,000 officers off the street each day.

“The police and people in government are focused right now on solving immediate needs that emerged with the hurricane so they are not as focused on watching crime rates or fulfilling typical duties, like public security, as they would under normal circumstances,” expert Monica Caudillo told the New York Daily News. 

Additionally, for all the repeated messages about how drugs are not allowed, at least one person didn’t get the message. On Jan. 30, Sam commented on maritime attorney Jim Walkers’ website: “You know what is something is that when AIDS took front and center and the gay community grew up and realized what was causing it, the community took the situation seriously and it curbed the effects. The community stood behind one another and saved one each other from what was a certain death. But when it comes to drugs it is a personal responsibility. Where is our responsibility coming into play? I hold myself to the same level of moral decency as I expect Atlantis Events to be held to the same. These drugs were being used in plain view of the security and staff of Atlantis and not once was someone told to put it away. YET we were told that smoking cigarettes was prohibited on most of the ship except…… But never once was drugs prohibited., Not a single message. There was a message about sex in the open take it to your room but never mentioned about drugs YOU Know why because it comes down to dollars and sense. Atlantis is more about the profits than the safety. They have stooped to the corporate level of making money at the client’s expense and we are fueling it for them. Unfortunately, they bought out the only other gay cruise line to monopolize the industry in such a way that we have no other choices if we want to cruise on our own. At least when RSVP was not affiliated with Atlantis we had a choice now we are left with none and the brand RSVP has been dwindled done to worthless.”

Such lack of communal response and apparent obfuscation by Royal Caribbean and Atlantis Events also concerns LGBT advocates such as Jim Key, former Chief Marketing Officer at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Key is concerned that by not squarely addressing the issue of drug use at sea, more people could die.

“I can certainly understand why Royal Caribbean has a policy against drug use. It’s a huge travel company, not a nightclub promoter. But the time for Royal Caribbean’s president and the president of Atlantis to pretend people aren’t using drugs should have stopped after the first drug-related death (that I know of), nine years ago,” Key told the Los Angeles Blade. “The only question is how will they care for people who have overdosed? Telling passengers Royal Caribbean has zero tolerance for drug use won’t stop people from using, but it does make it even less likely they’ll seek medical care on the ship.”

On Jan. 29, Key posted an open letter to Royal Caribbean International President Michael Bayley on Towleroad calling for responsibility and action.

“Dear Mr. Bayley,” Key wrote, “Since Atlantis Events refuses to take responsibility to protect the lives of passengers on Royal Caribbean-chartered and operated ships, you—and the heads of other cruise lines that do business with Atlantis—must take action.”

Taylor’s tragic death wasn’t the first death on an Atlantis cruise “resulting from an accidental overdose of party drugs. In recent years, at least two other people on Royal Caribbean ships—and perhaps many more—have died similarly. One of them was my friend Spencer Yu, in 2009,” Key wrote. “If three people had died from drug overdoses at a nightclub on land, that club would be shut down, but on Atlantis-chartered ships, the parties continue and the number of deaths keep growing.”

Key aimed his ire at Atlantis Events president Rich Campbell, with whom he and Center COO Darrel Cummings had met to suggest ways to protect other passengers from Spencer’s fate.” He disclosed that The Center had used donated cruise packages for silent auctions.

Key and Cummings asked Campbell to have onboard medical staff experienced in caring for passengers who might accidentally overdose, common at all-night circuit-type parties.

“I was stunned when he refused our request, saying ‘that’s news to me’ in regard to my comments about the wide use of drugs on his cruises,” Key wrote. “We were prepared with a number of recommendations to help protect passengers, but by refusing to even acknowledge the truth, he had no interest in hearing our suggestions.” After all, a friend of Campbell’s “was arrested on your Allure of the Seas in 2011 for dealing drugs.”

Key explained that he had enjoyed his three times on Atlantis cruises. “Unfortunately, the cruises are also the perfect storm for potential tragedy,” he wrote. “On cruises, where there are no security personnel, people are able to quickly go back and forth to their cabin during parties, night after night, increasing the likelihood they’ll take more drugs than their bodies can handle. And when that happens, there are no nearby hospitals.”

Since Campbell profits while dodging culpability, Key wrote, “if Royal Caribbean continues to operate ships for Atlantis, you—and the head of Holland America and other cruise lines chartered by his company—must take action to prevent any more needless deaths. If you remain complicit, you’ll have on your hands the blood of those who die on future cruises.”

It’s not a brain twister: medical staff must know how to treat distressed guests—and “passengers must know how to recognize the signs someone has overdosed and how to quickly get them the treatment they need, without fear of prosecution or discrimination,” Key wrote.

Dr. Travis Cosban, an ER doctor and passenger aboard Taylor’s cruise, also responded to critics holding Atlantis blameless and touting each passenger’s “personal responsibility,” ignoring that partygoers may not know the strength of the drugs they’re taking or how they might react to combinations of drugs.

In his letter to Bayley and Atlantis talked about the “fear” of coming forward. “Rumors were flying on social media that if anyone was caught with or under the influence of drugs they may be detained, arrested or removed from the boat. Consequentially, it does not surprise me that passengers would be hesitant to bring anyone to the appropriate medical facility on board. This culture of fear was created by Atlantis,” Cosban wrote. “Providing staff and medical treatment locations that are safe spaces is essential to healthcare delivery and passenger safety. This is true on land and it is true on water…. Atlantis cannot claim ignorance now.”

“The best step forward,” Cosban continued, “is taking reasonable actions to ensure prevention is a priority for future cruises. This requires a change in attitude and a change in culture. No one should ever fear seeking help when they most need it and Atlantis should put resources in place to ensure that doctors can be the safety net they are trained to be.”

For some people, the controversy over the Royal Caribbean/Atlantis Events drug-fueled party scene is out of line. But for others, it hits home.

“As a survivor of dance floor drugs and a serious meth addiction that nearly killed me, I was once one of the bodies carried from a dance floor and into an ambulance,” longtime AIDS activist Mark S, King, writer at MyFabulousDisease.com, tells the Los Angeles Blade. “Fortunately for me, this occurred on land, in a city where medical personnel and a hospital were nearby. I barely escaped becoming a statistic myself. So I have empathy for the gay men who believe they are having the times of their lives.”

King’s revelry blinded him to his naiveté about mixing drugs. ”That’s where my heart goes out to the clueless party boys aboard the Atlantis cruises,” he says. “Except, when they dose themselves into oblivion, there are no experienced EMT people at the ready, no ambulances, no hospitals. Their relative experience has deadly consequences.

“If we learned anything from HIV activism, it is that moral judgments get us nowhere when addressing a public health crisis, which this certainly is,” King continues. “None of us should sentence anyone to a death ‘they deserved’ because they were careless, when they were trying to find a tribe with which to belong. I get that. It’s easy for others to pass judgment. I would rather demand that these cruise lines have the guts to address this issue and quit hiding behind their soft porn marketing campaigns. They must address this.”

And what if they don’t?

 

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National

Trump refers to Anderson Cooper as ‘Allison’

Crude insults continue in effort to attract male voters

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Donald Trump is referring to CNN’s Anderson Cooper as ‘Allison.’

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump referred repeatedly over the weekend to CNN’s Anderson Cooper as “Allison Cooper.”

Cooper, one of the nation’s most prominent openly gay television anchors, moderated a town hall last week with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump last Friday called Anderson “Allison” in a social media post, then used the moniker again at a Michigan rally.

“If you watched her being interviewed by Allison Cooper the other night, he’s a nice person. You know Allison Cooper? CNN fake news,” Trump said, before adding, “Oh, she said no, his name is Anderson. Oh, no.”

Trump repeated the name during another Michigan rally on Saturday, according to the Associated Pres, then followed it up during a reference in Pennsylvania. “They had a town hall,” Trump said in Michigan. “Even Allison Cooper was embarrassed by it. He was embarrassed by it.”

Describing Anderson Cooper as female plays into offensive and stereotypical depictions of gay men as effeminate as Trump continues to pursue the so-called “bro vote,” amping up crude and vulgar displays in an effort to appeal to male voters.

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National

HRC rallies LGBTQ voters in 12 states ahead of Election Day

10 Days of Action campaign targets pro-equality candidate

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Human Rights Campaign headquarters in D.C. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The Human Rights Campaign said it filled 1,426 new volunteer shifts and held 174 events across key swing states between Oct. 10-20 as part of its 10 Days of Action campaign. 

The LGBTQ civil rights advocacy group is working to mobilize and turn out voters in support of pro-equality and LGBTQ candidates, including the Harris-Walz ticket, on Election Day.

HRC reported exceeding its recruitment goals, noting the strong response across the 12 states as a “clear and resounding message” that LGBTQ and allied voters are energized to back the Harris-Walz ticket. 

To kick off the 10 Days of Action, Gwen Walz, the spouse of Minnesota governor and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, spoke at a Philadelphia event that HRC and the Out for Harris-Walz coalition hosted on Oct. 10.

Walz highlighted her husband’s long-standing support for LGBTQ issues, such as his role in fighting to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in Congress and banning so-called conversion therapy as governor, according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star

Other events launched canvassing efforts for Senate candidates, such as U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.), along with House candidates, such as Will Rollins and Mondaire Jones in California and New York respectively. 

A virtual organizing call on Oct. 11 that the Out for Harris-Walz coalition hosted featured prominent figures, including actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Andy Cohen, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), and Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride, who is running for Congress.

To close out the 10 Days of Action, HRC President Kelley Robinson canvassed with LGBTQ organizers in Phoenix on Oct. 20. 

In a statement, Robinson said the campaign’s work is “far from over.”

“We plan to spend every day until the election making sure everyone we know is registered to vote and has a plan to vote because no one is going to give us the future we deserve — we have to fight for it and show America that when we show up, equality wins,” she said. “Together, we will elect pro-equality leaders like Vice President Harris and Governor Walz who value our communities and are ready to lead us forward with more freedom and opportunity.”

A September HRC poll found that LGBTQ voters favor Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the presidential race by a nearly 67-point margin.

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National

73 percent of LGBTQ community centers face harassment: Report

Findings show threats triggered by ‘anti-LGBTQ politics or rhetoric’

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(Washington Blade photo by Daniel Truitt)

The biennial 2024 LGBTQ Community Center Survey Report, which was released Oct. 16, shows that 73 percent of 199 U.S.-based LGBTQ community centers that participated in the survey reported they had experienced anti-LGBTQ threats or harassment during the past two years.

The survey, which included LGBTQ centers in 42 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, is prepared by the Fort Lauderdale-based CenterLink, which provides services and support for LGBTQ community centers; and the Boulder, Colo.-based Movement Advancement Project (MAP), a research organization that focuses on social justice issues impacting the LGBTQ community.

“The biennial survey series started in 2008 and highlights the crucial role these centers play in the broader LGBTQ movement, offering an invaluable link between LGBTQ people and local, state, and national efforts to advance LGBTQ equality,” a statement released by the two organizations says.

The statement and the findings in the report point out that most of the LGBTQ centers that faced anti-LGBTQ threats or harassment said they were triggered by “anti-LGBTQ politics and rhetoric” that has surfaced across the country in the past several years.

“As attacks on LGBTQ people escalate year after year, we applaud these centers’ ongoing dedication to serving on the front lines – meeting both the immediate and long-term needs of LGBTQ people, their families, and their communities across the country,” Tessa Juste, a Movement Advancement Project official, said in the statement.

“This report illustrates the vital difference these centers make in people’s everyday lives, while also highlighting the urgent need for continued funding and support of these centers and the lifelines they provide,” Juste said.

“A majority of centers said they had experienced these threats or harassment offline (63 percent of centers) as well as online (68 percent),” the report states. “Almost half of centers (47 percent) said they had experienced both online and offline harassment in the past two years,” the report says.

“Numerous centers mentioned in open-ended comments that these threats or harassment were specifically in response to anti-LGBTQ politics or rhetoric (77 percent), transgender-related events or programs (50 percent), and youth-related programming (42 percent), again reflecting the current political environment and its targeted attacks on LGBTQ and specifically transgender youth,” according to the report.

Although the report lists in its appendix the names of each of the 199 LGBTQ community centers that participated in the survey, it does not disclose the names and locations of the LGBTQ centers that reported receiving threats or harassment.

Dana Juniel, director of communications for the Movement Advancement Project, told the Washington Blade in a statement that the two organizations that conducted the survey have a policy of not disclosing the centers’ responses to specific questions in the survey.

“Not identifying the specific centers has been our policy since the inception of this report and it is a typical policy for this type of report,” Juniel said. “It’s important to understand that the goal of the survey is to better understand the landscape and capacity of the movement as a whole, not to identify gaps or challenges for specific organizations,” she said.

The report shows that among the LGBTQ community centers that participated in the 2023-2024 survey were the D.C. Center for the LGBTQ Community; the D.C. LGBTQ youth advocacy group SMYAL, which the report lists as an LGBTQ center; the Delmarva Pride Center in Easton, Md.; the Frederick Center in Frederick, Md.; the CAMP Rehoboth LGBTQ center in Rehoboth Beach, Del.; the Sussex Pride center also  in Delaware; and LGBTQ centers in Virginia based in the cities of Richmond, Norfolk, Winchester, Oakton, and Staunton.

Spokespersons for the D.C. Center and CAMP Rehoboth did not immediately respond to a Blade inquiry on whether they were among the centers that experienced threats or harassment. Sussex Pride Executive Director David Mariner told the Blade that his center was among those that had not received anti-LGBTQ threats or harassment in the past two years.

The Blade reported in August of this year that D.C. police were investigating threats made against SMYAL following the publication of an article criticizing SMYAL’s programs supporting LGBTQ youth in the conservative online publication Townhall.com. A D.C. police report said the threats were reported by SMYAL Executive Director Erin Whelan.

The statement released by CenterLink and Movement Advancement Project also points out that the LGBTQ center survey shows LGBTQ community centers in the U.S. serve more than 58,700 people each week, or three million people each year, “with many centers primarily serving people and communities that are historically under-resourced and under-served, including low-income, people of color, transgender people, and those under the age of 18.”

Denise Spivak, CEO of CenterLink, says in the joint statement that the report “is a crucial guidepost for us to see the positive impact of LGBTQ centers across the U.S. as well as what areas need additional resources.” She added, “As we celebrate our 30th anniversary, this report makes clear the importance of LGBTQ centers in our communities.”

Among other things, the report includes these findings:

• 66 percent of LGBTQ community centers directly provide physical health, mental health, and/or anti-violence services or programs

• Half of the centers (50 percent) offer computer resources or services to the public, providing needed tools for job searching, career development, social services, and schoolwork.

• Nearly all centers (92 percent) engage in advocacy, public policy, or civic engagement activities across a wide range of issues and areas.

• While nearly half of all centers remain thinly staffed, 84 percent of responding centers employ paid staff, providing jobs to 3,100 people.

• In 2023, roughly 11,600 people volunteered more than 421,000 hours at responding community centers, helping centers with and without paid staff to significantly expand their reach and impact.

The 2024 LGBTQ Community Center Survey Report can be accessed here.

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Federal Government

Pentagon gives honorable discharges to 800+ LGBTQ+ veterans

Administration has committed to remedying harms of anti-LGBTQ military policies

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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (screen capture/YouTube/CNN)

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday announced the Pentagon has upgraded the paperwork of more than 800 veterans who were discharged other than honorably before discriminatory policies like “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” were repealed.

“More than 96 percent of the individuals who were administratively separated under DADT and who served for long enough to receive a merit-based characterization of service now have an honorable characterization of service,” said Christa Specht, director of legal policy at the department’s Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.

The change will allow veterans to access benefits they had been denied, in areas from health care and college tuition assistance to VA loan programs and some jobs.

Separately, this summer President Joe Biden issued pardons to service members who had been convicted for sodomy before military laws criminalizing same-sex intimacy were lifted.

More than a decade after the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the administration has made a priority of helping LGBTQ+ veterans who are eligible to upgrade their discharge papers, directing the department to help them overcome bureaucratic barriers and difficult-to-navigate processes.

However, as noted by CBS News, which documented the challenges faced by these former service members in a comprehensive investigation published last year, these efforts are ongoing.

The department is continuing to review cases beyond the 800+ included in Tuesday’s announcement, with an official telling CBS, “We encourage all veterans who believe they have suffered an error or injustice to request a correction to their military records.” 

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National

Detroit teen arrested in fatal stabbing of gay man

Prosecutor says defendant targeted victim from online dating app

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Officials say Ahmed Al-Alikhan allegedly fatally stabbed Howard Brisendine.

A 17-year-old Detroit man has been charged with first-degree murder for the Sept. 24 stabbing death of a 64-year-old gay man that prosecutors say he met through an online dating app.

A statement released by the Wayne County, Mich., Prosecutor’s Office says Ahmed Al-Alikhan allegedly fatally stabbed Howard Brisendine inside Brisendine’s home in Detroit before he allegedly took the victim’s car keys and stole the car.

The statement says police arrived on the scene about 4:04 p.m. on Sept. 29 after receiving a call about a deceased person found in their home. Upon arrival police found Brisentine deceased in his living room suffering from multiple stab wounds, the statement says.

“It is alleged that the defendant targeted the victim on an online dating app because he was a member of the LGBTQ community,” according to the prosecutor’s statement.

“It is further alleged that on Sept. 24, 2024, at the victim’s residence in the 6000 block of Minock Street in Detroit, the defendant stabbed the victim multiple times, fatally injuring him, before taking the victim’s car keys and fleeing the scene in his vehicle,” it says.

It further states that Al-Alikhan was first taken into custody by police in Dearborn, Mich., and later turned over to the Detroit police on Oct. 1. The statement doesn’t say how police learned that Al-Alikhan was the suspected perpetrator. 

In addition to first-degree murder, Al-Alikhan has been charged with felony murder and unlawful driving away in an automobile.

“It is hard to fathom a more planned series of events in this case,” prosecutor Kym Worthy said in the statement. “Unfortunately, the set of alleged facts are far too common in the LGBTQ community,” Worthy said. “We will bring justice to Mr. Brisendine. The defendant is 17 years and 11 months old – mere weeks away from being an adult offender under the law.”

She added, “As a result of that and the heinous nature of this crime, we will seek to try him as an adult.”

A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said the office has not designated the incident as a hate crime, but said regardless of that designation, a conviction of first-degree murder could result in a sentence of life in prison. The spokesperson, Maria Lewis, said the prosecutor’s office was not initially disclosing the name of the dating app through which the two men met, but said that would be disclosed in court as the case proceeds.

The NBC affiliate station in Detroit, WDIV TV, reported that Brisendine was found deceased by Luis Mandujano, who lives near where Brisendine lived and who owns the Detroit gay bar Gigi’s, where Brisendine worked as a doorman. The NBC station report says Mandujano said he went to Brisendine’s house on Sept. 29 after Brisendine did not show up for work and his car was not at his house.

Mandujano, who is organizing a GoFundMe fundraising effort for Brisendine, states in his message on the GoFundMe site that Brisendine worked as a beloved doorman at Gigi’s bar.

“We will do what we can to honor Howard’s life as we put him to rest,” Mandujano states in his GoFundMe message. “He left the material world in a volatile manner at the hand of a monster that took his life for being gay. Let’s not allow hate to win!”

In response to a Facebook message from the Washington Blade, a spokesperson for Gigi’s said the money raised from the GoFundMe effort will be used for Brisendine’s funeral expenses and his “remaining bills.” The spokesperson, who didn’t disclose their name, added, “Any leftover money will be donated to local LGBTQ nonprofit groups to combat hate.”

The GoFundMe site can be accessed here.

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Congress

Baldwin attacked over LGBTQ rights support as race narrows

Wis. Democrat facing off against Republican Eric Hovde

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U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

As her race against Republican challenger Eric Hovde tightens, with Cook Political Report projecting a toss-up in November, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) is fielding attacks over her support for LGBTQ rights.

Two recent ads run by the Senate Leadership Fund, a superPAC that works to elect Republicans to the chamber, take aim at her support for gender affirming care and an LGBTQ center in Wisconsin. Baldwin was the first openly LGBTQ candidate elected to the Senate.

The first ad concerns her statement of support for Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’s veto of a Republican-led bill to ban medically necessary healthcare interventions for transgender youth in the state.

Treatments require parental consent for patients younger than 18, and genital surgeries are not performed on minors in Wisconsin.

The second ad concerns funding that Baldwin had earmarked for Briarpatch Youth Services, an organization that provides crucial services for at-risk and homeless young people, with some programming for LGBTQ youth.

Baldwin’s victory is seen as key for Democrats to retain control of the Senate, a tall order that would require them to defend a handful of vulnerable incumbents. U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, an Independent who usually votes with the Democrats, is retiring after this term and his replacement is expected to be the state’s Republican Gov. Jim Justice.

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Supreme Court begins fall term with major gender affirming care case on the docket

Justices rule against Biden admin over emergency abortion question

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The Supreme Court as composed June 30, 2022 to present. Front row, left to right: Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., and Associate Justice Elena Kagan. Back row, left to right: Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. (Photo Credit: Fred Schilling, The Supreme Court of the U.S.)

The U.S. Supreme Court’s fall term began on Monday with major cases on the docket including U.S. v Skrmetti, which could decide the fate of 24 state laws banning the use of puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender minors.

First, however, the justices dealt another blow to the Biden-Harris administration and reproductive rights advocates by leaving in place a lower court order that blocked efforts by the federal government to allow hospitals to terminate pregnancies in medical emergencies.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had issued a guidance instructing healthcare providers to offer abortions in such circumstances, per the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which kicked off litigation over whether the law overrides state abortion restrictions.

The U.S. Court of appeals for the 5th Circuit had upheld a decision blocking the federal government from enforcing the law via the HHS guidance, and the U.S. Department of Justice subsequently asked the Supreme Court to intervene.

The justices also declined to hear a free speech case in which parents challenged a DOJ memo instructing officials to look into threats against public school officials, which sparked false claims that parents were being labeled “domestic terrorists” for raising objections at school board meetings over, especially, COVID policies and curricula and educational materials addressing matters of race, sexuality, and gender.

Looking to the cases ahead, U.S. v. Skrmetti is “obviously the blockbuster case of the term,” a Supreme Court practitioner and lecturer at the Harvard law school litigation clinic told NPR.

The attorney, Deepak Gupta, said the litigation “presents fundamental questions about the scope of state power to regulate medical care for minors, and the rights of parents to make medical decisions for your children.”

The ACLU, which represents parties in the case, argues that Tennessee’s gender affirming care ban violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment by allowing puberty blockers and hormone treatments for cisgender patients younger than 18 while prohibiting these interventions for their transgender counterparts.

The organization notes that “leading medical experts and organizations — such as the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics — oppose these restrictions, which have already forced thousands of families across the country to travel to maintain access to medical care or watch their child suffer without it.”

When passing their bans on gender affirming care, conservative states have cited the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), which overturned constitutional protections for abortion that were in place since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.

The ACLU notes “U.S. v. Skrmetti will be a major test of how far the court is willing to stretch Dobbs to allow states to ban other health care” including other types of reproductive care like IVF and birth control.

Also on the docket in the months ahead are cases that will decide core questions about the government’s ability to regulate “ghost guns,” firearms that are made with build-it-yourself kits available online, and the constitutionality of a Texas law requiring age verification to access pornography.

The latter case drew opposition from liberal and conservative groups that argue it will have a chilling effect on adults who, as NPR wrote, “would realistically fear extortion, identity theft and even tracking of their habits by the government and others.”

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Lesbian software developer seeks to preserve lost LGBTQ history

HistoryIT helps create digital archives that are genuinely accessible

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‘There's so much history, and we have to transfer it to the digital,’ says Kristen Gwinn-Becker.

Up until the early 2010s, if you searched “Babe Ruth” in the Baseball Hall of Fame, nothing would pop up. To find information on the greatest baseball player of all time, you would have to search “Ruth, George Herman.” 

That is the way online archival systems were set up and there was a clear problem with it. Kristen Gwinn-Becker was uniquely able to solve it. “I’m a super tech geek, history geek,” she says, “I love any opportunity to create this aha moment with people through history.” 

Gwinn-Becker is the founder and CEO of HistoryIT, a company that helps organizations create digital archives that are genuinely accessible. “I believe history is incredibly important, but I also think it’s in danger,” she says. “Less than 2% of our historical materials are digital and even less of that is truly accessible.”

Gwinn-Becker’s love for history is personal. As a lesbian, growing up, she sought out evidence of herself across time. “I was interested in stories, interested in people whose lives mirrored mine to help me understand who I was.” 

“[My identity] influences my love of history and my strong belief in history is important,” she says.

Despite always loving history, Gwinn-Becker found herself living and working in San Francisco during the early dot com boom and bust in the ‘90s. “It was an exciting time,” she recounts, “if you were intellectually curious, you could just jump right in.”

Being there was almost happenstance, Gwinn-Becker explained: “I was 20 years old and wanted to live in San Francisco.” Quickly, she fell in love with “all of the incredible new tools.” She was working with non-profits that encouraged her to take classes and apply the new skills. “I was really into software, web, and database development.” 

But history eventually pulled her back. “Tech was fun, but I didn’t want to be a developer,” she says. Something was missing. When the opportunity to get a Ph.D. in history from George Washington University presented itself, “I got to work on the Eleanor Roosevelt papers, who I was and remain quite passionate about.” 

Gwinn-Becker’s research on Eleanor Roosevelt planted the seeds of digital preservation. “Eleanor Roosevelt doesn’t have a single archive. FDR has lots but the first ladies don’t,” she says. Gwinn-Becker wondered what else was missing from the archive — and what would be missing from the archive if we didn’t start preserving it now.

Those questions eventually led Gwinn-Becker to found HistoryIT in 2011. Since then, the company has created digital archives for organizations ranging from museums and universities to sororities, fraternities, and community organizations.

This process is not easy. “Digital preservation is more than scanning,” says Gwinn-Becker. “Most commercial scanners’ intent is to create a digital copy, not an exact replica.” 

To digitally preserve something, Gwinn-Becker’s team must take a photo with overhead cameras. “There is an international standard,” she says, “you create an archival TIFF.” 

“It’s the biggest possible file we can create now. That’s how you future-proof.”

Despite the common belief that the internet is forever, JPEGs saved to social media or websites are a poor archive. “It’s more expensive for us to do projects in the 2000 to 2016 period than to do 19th-century projects,” explains Gwinn-Becker, since finding adequate files for preservation can be tricky. “The images themselves are deteriorated because they’re compressed so much,” she says.

Her clients are finding that having a strong digital archive is useful outside of the noble goal of protecting history. “It’s a unique trove of content,” says Gwinn-Becker. One client saw a 790% increase in donations after incorporating the digital archive into fundraising efforts. “It’s important to have content quickly and easily,” says Gwinn-Becker, whose team also works with clients on digital strategy for their archive.

One of Gwinn-Becker’s favorite parts of her job is finding what she calls “hidden histories.”

“We [LGBTQ people] are represented everywhere. We’re represented in sports, in religious history, in every kind of movement, not only our movement. I’m passionate about bringing those stories out.” 

Sometimes queer stories are found in unexpected places, says Gwinn-Becker. “We work with sororities and fraternities. There are a hell of a lot of our stories there.”

Part of digital preservation is also making sure that history being created in the moment is not lost to future generations. HistoryIT works with NFL teams, for example. One of their clients is the Panthers, who hired Justine Lindsay, the first transgender cheerleader in the NFL. Gwinn-Becker was excited to be able to preserve information about Lindsay in the digital record. “It’s making history in the process of preserving it,” says Gwinn-Becker.

Preserving queer history, either through “hidden histories” or LGBTQ-specific archives, is vital says Gwinn-Becker. “Think about whose history gets marginalized, whose history gets moved to the sidelines, whose history gets just erased,” she prompts. “In a time of fake news, we need to point to evidence in the past. Queer people have existed since there were humans, but their stories are hidden,” Gwinn-Becker says.

Meanwhile, Gwinn-Becker accidentally finds herself as part of queer history too. Listed as one of Inc. Magazine’s Top 250 Female Founders of 2024, she is surrounded by names like Christina Aguilera, Selena Gomez, and Natalie Portman. 

One name stuck out. “Never in my life did I think I’d be on the same list – other than the obvious one – with Billie Jean King. That’s pretty exciting,” she said. 

But she can’t focus on the win for too long. “When I go to sleep at night, I think ‘there’s so much history, and we have to transfer it to the digital,’” she says, “We have a very small period in which to do that in a meaningful way.”

(This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship lab through News is Out. The lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBCUniversal.)

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Trans employee awarded $930,000 in lawsuit against D.C. McDonald’s

Jury finds franchise failed to stop harassment, retaliation by staff

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Diana Portillo Medrano, second from right, joins her legal team from the law firm Correia & Puth outside D.C. Superior Court on Aug. 15. From left to right are paralegal Claudia Inglessis, attorney Andrew Adelman, Medrano, and attorney Jonathan Puth. (Photo courtesy of Correia & Puth)

A D.C. Superior Court jury on Aug. 15 ordered a company that owned and operated a McDonald’s restaurant franchise in Northwest Washington to pay $930,000 in damages to a transgender employee who charged in a lawsuit that she was subjected to discrimination, harassment, and retaliation because of her gender identity in violation of the D.C. Human Rights Act.

The lawsuit, which was filed in January 2021 by attorneys representing Diana Portillo Medrano, says Medrano was first hired to work at the McDonald’s at 5948 Georgia Ave., N.W. in 2011 as a customer service representative and was recognized  and promoted for good work until she began to transition as a trans woman two years later.

It says she was fired in 2016 after she filed a discrimination complaint with the D.C. Office of Human Rights on grounds that she did not have legal authorization to work in the U.S. as an immigrant from El Salvador. One of her attorneys, Jonathan Puth, said the jury agreed with the lawsuit’s allegation that the reason given for the firing was a “pretext” and the real reason was retaliation for her discrimination complaint.

Puth said evidence was presented during the eight-day civil trial that the McDonald’s had knowingly hired other immigrant employees who did not have legal authorization to work and never held that against them.

“Despite a successful five-year career with McDonald’s marked by raises, promotions, and awards and absence of discipline, Plaintiff Diana Medrano’s supervisors and co-workers subjected her to a barrage of taunts, laughter, ridicule, and harassment because she is a transgender woman,” the lawsuit states.

“Managers and supervisors routinely referred to her as male despite her expressed request that they respect her gender identity as female, encouraging co-workers to harass her relentlessly in like fashion,” it says. “When she complained to her managers, they claimed Ithat the harassment was justified because she hadn’t legally changed her name,” the lawsuit’s complaint continues.

“After she formalized and elevated her complaints, Defendants fired her on pretextual grounds. Defendants discriminated against Ms. Medrano because of her gender identity and retaliated against her in violation of the District of Columbia Human Rights Act,” the lawsuit complaint states.

The lawsuit names as defendants International Golden Foods LLC and MCI Golden Foods LLC, two companies based in Burke, Va. that it says were owned and operated by Luis Gavignano, who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The lawsuit says the two companies held the franchise rights to own and operate the McDonald’s where Medrano worked.

The Washington Blade’s attempts to reach a spokesperson for the two companies and for Gavignano as well as two of the attorneys that represented them in contesting the lawsuit through email and phone messages were unsuccessful. 

In a nine-page written answer to the lawsuit filed Feb. 12, 2021, on behalf of International Golden Foods, which is referred to as IGF, attorneys Amy M. Heerink and Kelvin Newsome dispute the allegations that Medrano was targeted for discrimination and harassment because of her gender identity.

The written answer to the complaint highlights the company’s claim that Medrano was fired because she didn’t have legal authority to work in the U.S. It refers to the company’s personnel official, Carla Vega, who informed Medrano that she could no longer work for the McDonald’s outlet.

“IGF admits that Ms. Vega informed Plaintiff that her employment had to be terminated due to Plaintiff’s voluntary and unprompted statement during the investigation that she was not authorized to work in the United States,” the written answer to the lawsuit states. “IGF admits that Plaintiff’s employment was terminated based on her ineligibility to work in the United States,” it says.

“The jury clearly found that IGF continually used unauthorized employees, hired and employed unauthorized workers knowingly,” Puth, Madrano’s attorney, told the Blade. “And they never fired anyone for that reason at any of their stores except for Diana,” Puth said.

“And so, the jury found that the reason given was a pretext for retaliation,” he said. “That was what was motivating them. They were motivated to retaliate against her because she kept complaining about discrimination.”

Puth noted that Medrano initially filed her complaint with the D.C. Office of Human Rights and was represented at that time by an attorney with Whitman-Walker Health’s legal clinic. He said Whitman-Walker later referred her to his law firm, Correia & Puth, after determining the case could not be resolved at the Office of Human Rights.

The jury’s verdict of $930,000 in damages included $700,000 in punitive damages and $230,000 in damages for the emotional distress Medrano suffered due to the discrimination and harassment to which she was subjected.

A statement released by the law firm representing her says the action by the jury is believed to be the first jury verdict in a transgender employment discrimination case under the D.C. Human Rights Act.

Attorney Puth and his law firm partner, attorney Andrew Adelman, were the attorneys of record representing Medrano in her lawsuit. 

 “When you are sure of what you have experienced, no matter how much time passes, the truth will come to light,” Medrano said in the statement released by her attorneys. “Our truth is our best weapon to achieve justice,” she said. “It is truth, justice, and faith in God that have helped me get here.”

In his law firm’s statement, Puth called the jury’s verdict a vindication of Medrano’s 11-year battle for her legal rights.

“Diana is our hero,” he said. “She stood up for her rights in the face of terrible harassment and kept fighting even after she was fired for doing so. This verdict puts other employers on notice that tolerating harassment of transgender employees is both unlawful and costly.”

Puth said earlier this year Medrano was approved for U.S. political asylum based on discrimination and harassment she faced in El Salvador. He said she is currently working full-time as a counselor for Empoderate, an LGBTQ health organization providing services for the Latina/Latino community that is affiliated with the D.C.-based La Clinica del Pueblo.

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LGBTQ groups mark National Hispanic Heritage Month

GLAAD screened ‘Dímelo’ at Sept. 20 event in Los Angeles

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(GLAAD screenshot)

Advocacy groups across the country are marking National Hispanic Heritage Month.

The Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles on Sept. 20 hosted a comedy night that featured Danielle Perez, Gabe González, Lorena Russ, and Roz Hernandez. The event, which GLAAD organized, also included a screening of “Dímelo,” a digital series the organization produced with LatiNation that features interviews with Latino comedians. 

A press release notes Damian Terriquez, Mimi Davila, Salina EsTitties, and Tony Rodriguez attended the event. GLAAD in a post on its website on Sept. 25 highlighted Essa Noche and other Latino drag queens.

“The art of drag has always been a vibrant expression of resistance, creativity, and identity, particularly within marginalized communities,” reads the post. “Latine drag artists not only embody the resilience and power of their heritage but also elevate queer voices in spaces where their visibility is often limited.”

EsTitties on Sept. 29 hosted Queerceañera, “an inclusive take on the coming-of-age quinceañera tradition throughout Latin America and the United States” the Los Angeles LGBT Center organized.

Celebrate Orgullo, which describes itself as the “first Hispanic and Indigenous LGBTQ+ festival in Greater Miami and Miami Beach,” will take place from Oct. 4-14. Unity Coalition|Coalición Unida, is organizing the events.

“The festival invites you to experience a warm and welcoming ‘wave’ of pride that celebrates what makes us unique while uniting us in a shared spirit of inclusion,” reads a press release.

GLSEN has posted to its website a list of resources for undocumented students.

“Especially in this political climate, it’s important not only to affirm LGBTQ Latinx identities with positive representation but also to ensure that students know how they’re protected, especially those who are among the most marginalized,” says GLSEN.

National Hispanic Heritage Month is from Sept. 15-Oct. 15.

Fenway Health in Boston on its website notes National Hispanic Heritage Month “honors and celebrates the vibrant histories, cultures, languages, traditions, values, and contributions of people whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.”

Hispanic Heritage Week began in 1968. It became National Hispanic Heritage Month in 1988.

Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua mark their respective Independence Days on Sept. 15. Mexico’s Independence Day is on Sept. 16, and Chile’s Independence Day is on Sept. 18. Día de la Raza is Oct. 12.

“Here at Fenway Health, we are grateful every day for the many Latino/a/é staff members, clients, patients, volunteers, and supporters that are part of our community,” said Fenway Health. Their contributions and perspectives help drive Fenway’s mission: To advocate for and deliver innovative, equitable, accessible health care, supportive services, and transformative research and education and to center LGBTQIA+ people, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other people of color) individuals, and other underserved communities to enable our local, national, and global neighbors to flourish.”

President Joe Biden in his National Hispanic Heritage Month proclamation made a similar point.

“In our country, Latino leaders are striving for the American Dream and helping those around them reach it too,” he said. “From those who have been here for generations to those who have recently arrived, Latinos have pushed our great American experiment forward.”  

The proclamation also acknowledges Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Small Business Administration Administrator Isabel Guzman, and other Latino members of his administration.

“I am proud to work with incredible Latino leaders, who are dedicated to bettering our nation every day,” said Biden.

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