A prominent activist in Puerto Rico says he is once again unable to access his verified Facebook page.

Pedro Julio Serrano, founder of Puerto Rico Para Todes, a Puerto Rican LGBTQ advocacy group, sent to the Washington Blade a screenshot of an email he sent to Meta, Facebook’s parent company, on July 24 that said he has “been trying to recover my page since July 19 when it was hacked.”

The link to Serrano’s Facebook page has been changed to facebook.com/beonrightpath.

“The Meta Pro Team is telling me that I can no longer recover it,” wrote Serrano. “I have to file this impersonating report in order to close the other page that is impersonating me, but it tells me that the url of the impersonating profile is invalid, even though my friends and family can still see the page. I was verified previous to the Meta Verified program because I am a public figure.”

“I beg you to delete the account whose url is facebook.com/beonrightpath,” he added.

Dev, a Meta Pro Team representative, responded to Serrano’s email on July 25. The representative provided him with his case number, and added “your call has been scheduled and you might receive a call shortly.” 

Hitesh, a Meta Support Pro representative, on July 30 emailed Serrano and asked him to provide a copy of a photo ID and a signed statement. The same Meta Support Pro representative in an email to Serrano on July 23 provided him with steps on how to report the issue to Facebook. 

Arthur, another Meta Pro Team representative, sent a similar email to Serrano on July 19. Joy, yet another Meta Pro Team representative, sent a similar email to Serrano the next day. 

Nick, a second Meta Support Pro representative emailed Serrano on Aug. 11.

“I completely understand that the delay in the response from the dedicated team might be affecting your work,” wrote the representative. “I apologize for the inconvenience. Trust me, I am continuously trying to get in touch with (sic) the regarding the update and I am very positive that we will be getting a revert soon.”

“Now my request to you is that please allow me few more time (sic) so that once I get the update I will myself deliver the message to you,” added the representative. “I really appreciate your patience, I do.”

“One of my main tools for activism is my Facebook page because it connects me to a network of leaders and activists who spread the word and take action on matters related to our struggle,” Serrano told the Blade on Friday. 

“My page was verified before the subscription service because of my public profile nationally and internationally,” he added. “It’s the way that people can know that what is posted comes from me. I need this tool to continue the work against the bigots who want to take us back.”

Serrano said he last spoke with a Meta representative on the telephone two weeks ago. He did acknowledge “they have been writing to me almost every day asking me for more time to resolve the issue.”

“I thank the Meta support group for always responding, even if it takes a few days; but the issue hasn’t been resolved,” Serrano told the Blade on Friday. “They have all my info, copies of my IDs, a signed statement, everything. They know it’s me. They just need to help me recover my page.”

Meta has not responded to the Blade’s requests for comment.

Religious fundamentalists launch ‘campaign of harassment and threats’ against Serrano

Serrano in 2020 was unable to access his Facebook pages for more than two months.

He received an alert in August 2020 that said he violated community guidelines and was “pretending to be a well-known person or public figure.” Serrano on Oct. 21, 2020, received a message from Facebook that said his suspension was a “mistake” and his access had been restored.

Serrano in a complaint he filed with the Puerto Rico Police Department on July 12 said “fundamentalist leaders” in the U.S. commonwealth have launched “a campaign of harassment and threats” against him. Serrano lost access to his verified Facebook page a week later.

Serrano on Friday told the Blade his inability to access his Facebook account is “related” to the complaint he filed.

“The last time that it happened in 2020 I was subjected to a similar public attack from fundamentalist leaders,” he said. “It is not a coincidence.”

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled the Pentagon can no longer prevent people with HIV from enlisting in the military.

Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria issued the ruling in a lawsuit that Lambda Legal filed against the Pentagon in 2022.

“Defendants’ policies prohibiting the accession of asymptomatic HIV-positive individuals with undetectable viral loads into the military are irrational, arbitrary, and capricious,” wrote Brinkema. “Even worse, they contribute to the ongoing stigma surrounding HIV-positive individuals while actively hampering the military’s own recruitment goals.”

Brinkema further stated “modern science has transformed the treatment of HIV, and this court has already ruled that asymptomatic HIV-positive service members with undetectable viral loads who maintain treatment are capable of performing all of their military duties, including worldwide deployment.”

“Now, defendants must allow similarly situated civilians seeking accession into the United States military to demonstrate the same and permit their enlistment, appointment, and induction,” added Brinkema.

Brinkema in April 2022 declared the military’s HIV restrictions unconstitutional. 

Nicholas Harrison, a gay D.C. attorney and longtime member of the U.S. Army National Guard who has been living with HIV since 2012, challenged the policy. The Washington Blade reported the April 2022 decision ordered the Pentagon “to discontinue its policy of refusing to deploy and commission as officers members of the military with HIV if they are asymptomatic and otherwise physically capable of serving.”

Harrison became a first lieutenant in the D.C. National Guard on Aug. 5, 2022.

Isaiah Wilkins, one of the three plaintiffs in the lawsuit on which Brinkema ruled on Tuesday, was a member of the Georgia Army National Guard for two years before he left to attend the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School. NBC News notes Wilkins was “separated” from the USMAPS after he took a medical exam “that revealed for the first time that he was HIV positive.”

“This is a victory not only for me but for other people living with HIV who want to serve,” said Wilkins in a Lambda Legal press release. “As I’ve said before, giving up on my dream to serve my country was never an option. I am eager to apply to enlist in the Army without the threat of a crippling discriminatory policy.”  

CHICAGO — U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) addressed LGBTQ-focused legislative priorities Democrats are likely to push for in a Harris-Walz administration during a Democratic National Convention and Harris for President press briefing on Tuesday.

Responding to a question from the Washington Blade, the congressman, who’s gay, referenced Vice President Kamala Harris’s record of fighting for rights and protections for the community throughout her career in public service. He said that by contrast, Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, is “attacking LGBTQ+ people every single day.”

“So I think you can see not just the Equality Act, which we support, but also ensuring we’re not banning books and that we’re not doing horrible things to attack the community,” Garcia said.

“Remember that the Biden-Harris administration has been the most pro-LGBTQ+ administration in history” and the vice president is “a big part of that,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve ever had any presidential candidate who understands the LGBTQ+ community or has advocated for that community as much as Vice President Harris.”

“LGBTQ equality, actually, she has said herself, is a top legislative priority; she’s spoken to it many times,” the congressman said, “but I also believe that her administration will be reflective of the diversity of this country, including within the LGBTQ+ community.”

“When she was D.A. in the Bay Area, she was one of the first people in the country to marry same-sex couples and started that whole revolution across the country,” Garcia added.

Trump, on the other hand, “has been incredibly homophobic and has been incredibly, I think, shameful in his attacks on the community,” Garcia said.

D.C. police are investigating as a suspected hate crime an incident in which a gay man says he was attacked and beaten by four or five employees of the Dupont Circle Shake Shack restaurant on Saturday, Aug. 17, after he and his male partner kissed each other while waiting for their food order.

District resident Christian Dingus, 28, told the Washington Blade the attack came after he tried to defuse an argument between his partner and one of the Shake Shack employees who told the two men not to kiss each other. Dingus said it started inside the popular food establishment and moved outside a side door where several employees knocked him down onto the sidewalk and repeatedly punched and kicked him.

He says after he was knocked down, he positioned himself in a “fetal position” on the sidewalk and remembers being repeatedly punched and hit in the head and body by four or five attackers.

The incident was captured on video taken by another Shake Shack customer on her cell phone, and which has been posted on social media, including Facebook. Although the faces of the attackers and of Dingus and his partner are not clearly visible on the dramatic video, it provides a vivid view of a man being knocked to the ground and being assaulted by several other men who are seen running out the door and attacking Dingus.

Dingus said he declined an offer to take him to a hospital when an ambulance arrived after police also arrived on the scene. But he said a friend took him to a hospital later that day after he experienced intense pain in his jaw, which was severely bruised but was not broken. He said he was released from the hospital the next day and continues to recover from multiple bruises to the head, face, and body.

A D.C. police report says one of the alleged attackers, identified as Suspect 1, told police that Dingus, identified in the report as Victim 1, “placed his hands” on the suspect’s neck. “Suspect 1 advised that he was defending himself,” the report says.

Dingus called that claim by the suspect a complete falsehood, saying he never touched any of the employees who attacked him.

In response to a request from the Blade for comment, a Shake Shack spokesperson sent the Blade a statement saying employees have been suspended as Shake Shack continues to cooperate with a D.C. police ongoing investigation into the incident.

“We are aware of the incident on Saturday, Aug. 17, involving team members and a guest at our Dupont Circle location and are taking it very seriously,” the statement says. “At Shake Shack, the safety and well-being of our guests and team members are our top priority, and we have a zero-tolerance policy for any form of violence,” it says.

“We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation and have suspended the team members involved pending further review,” the statement continues. “We are committed to taking the appropriate action based on the findings.”

The Shake Shack where the incident took place is located at 1216 18th St., N.W., which is at the intersection of Connecticut Avenue, 18th Street, and Jefferson Place. The police report says the assault took place on Jefferson Place, where a Shake Shack’s side door entrance is located. 

The police report lists the incident as a “simple assault” and “suspected” hate crime. It shows that no arrests had been made as of the time the report was prepared on Aug. 17. Dingus said police asked him if he wanted to press charges against the men who assaulted him and he told them yes, “definitely,” he told the Blade.

With all the attackers being Shake Shack employees, Dingus said he was concerned that no arrests were made while police were on the scene speaking with him and witnesses.

D.C. police spokesperson Paris Lewbel told the Blade on Monday the incident remains under investigation. “All facts and evidence in the case will be presented to the United States Attorney’s Office for a determination on charges,” he said.

Dingus said the Shake Shack employees targeted him after he tried to defend his partner, who he believed was being threatened by the employees. “I started yelling at them, saying you have no right to do this. Leave him alone,” he said. “At that point I was pushed very forcefully, and really from that moment all five of them were coming at me. They were pushing me and punching me in my head,” he said.

“And then I got pushed, thrown to the ground,” he told the Blade. “At that point I covered my head and kind of went into the fetal position. And they just continued to punch me in my head and my side and my face.”  

Before traveling to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention as an honored guest of the National LGBTQ+ Task Force Action Fund, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy connected with the Washington Blade by Zoom for an interview from her home in Little Rock, Ark.

Raised in the South Side of Chicago during the 1940s and 50s, the author, activist, and community organizer has been at the forefront of queer and trans liberation movements for decades, a witness to the 1969 Stonewall Riots who then had a front row seat to the scourge of HIV/AIDS in San Francisco in the 1980s and 90s.

“And right now,” she said, the trans community is “facing the same bullshit they tried in ’69, ’65, ’64.”

Before Thursday’s call, Miss Major had received a letter from Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), a White House press secretary during the Trump administration and one of the conservative officials who objected to the Biden-Harris administration’s policy of allowing U.S. citizens to select “X” as a gender marker on official documents, including passports and other forms of identification.

A few months ago, Miss Major’s assistant Muriel Tarver explained, Sanders “issued a proclamation saying that anyone that had an ‘X’ on their driver’s license or state-issued ID, that it would have to come off. She said that they would not be harassed, that just when you went to renew your identification, it would be changed at that time.”

The letter, Tarver said, certainly seems like harassment. “They didn’t wait for her to go and get her new ID. And her ID has not expired. It’s not getting ready to expire. But here’s the letter.”

Those who are familiar with Miss Major’s brand of activism might be surprised by her work with the Task Force Action Fund, her appearance at the DNC, and perhaps especially her commitment to criss-crossing the country to talk voters out of supporting Donald Trump and into supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’s historic bid for the White House.

As shown in “Major!” the 2015 documentary about her life, and a 2023 memoir comprised of interviews with journalist Toshio Meronek called “Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary,” the activist’s foremost concerns have always been centered around providing for her trans brothers and sisters.

Her work on this front is never ending: Tarver gave the Blade a virtual tour of Miss Major’s property, which she has used as a refuge for trans folks who are free to stay and relax on the well-kept grounds, which are complete with a guest house and a pool.

Where she may have sidestepped electoral politics in the past, however, there is “so much happening to whereby you had to get involved in it now,” Miss Major said. “But before it was just — my community has suffered so bad for so long, so often, that you’ve got to do something to help them navigate the bullshit that goes on in the world.”

This usually means ensuring that basic needs are met. “And I don’t feel as if politics helps that,” she said, because “it’s got to be people and the relationships you build and what you build together with another person that makes it better.”

Miss Major added, “I want things to be better for all of us. You know, transgender and non transgender people.” And as society has begun to make space for those with non-cisgender identities, the backlash has been vicious. “They’re so afraid of opening up to us,” she said.

When it comes to political candidates, she said, “As an ordinary person, you know, I’m concerned about food and gas and clothing and shit like that. And, you know, who else cares about this? I need to know the person who’s in charge cares and is going to do something to alleviate the stress on me to get it.”

By the time President Joe Biden announced his decision to step aside on July 21 — well before that pivotal moment, Tarver stressed — Miss Major and the Task Force Action Fund were ready to spring into action.

“It was quite a service act that he did for the country,” Miss Major said. “Because I really believe that he could have gone further, but he just didn’t have what it took. And so when he stepped out and made her the nominee, he invigorated, and he poured such joy to this country, and hope, and belief that it can be done, that [Trump] can be stopped.”

“As we all heard about the potential for Biden stepping down and putting aside his personal and political interests for the sake of democracy, which is a pretty historical and brave thing, we all wanted to be ready to respond to what would happen,” Task Force Action Fund Communications Director Cathy Renna told the Blade by phone.

Issuing a joint endorsement of Harris was historic for both Miss Major and the Task Force Action Fund, Renna said. “We have not endorsed anyone since Jimmy Carter, which was shortly after our founding, right? So, we’re talking about almost 50 years ago.”

“We wanted a bold choice,” she said, “and we also understand what’s at stake in this election.”

Miss Major sees the contrast between the two candidates as clear and compelling; the difference between sanity and insanity, competence and chaos. “Do you want someone who lies to you? Or do you what someone who tells the truth?”

Trump spreads filth and disorder like the character from Charles M. Schulz’s “Peanuts” comic strip who is perpetually surrounded by a cloud of dust and detritus, she said.

Harris, on the other hand, represents the future. “She’s breaking the ceiling. There’s a glass ceiling. And when she breaks through, she’s gonna go on,” Miss Major said. “And after this, something like 10s of 1000s of people are gonna go through that, too. It’s just going to be phenomenal.”

By the time Harris was first elected to serve as San Francisco District Attorney in 2004, Miss Major for years had worked in food banks and in other roles providing direct services to the trans community and home health services to those living with HIV/AIDS. That year, she was tapped to lead the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project.

Reflecting on Harris’s tenure, Miss Major said, “We became people to her. We weren’t some oddity that she reached for. She accepted the whole bunch, all of us. It was just a marvelous thing to be a part of. You know, finally, find somebody that believed in us.”

Along with her leadership on marriage equality — as one of the earliest and most strident public figures who advocated for same-sex marriage — as district attorney, Harris fought against the so-called gay and trans panic defenses, courtroom arguments used to seek lesser penalties for violent crimes against LGBTQ people.

“For us, it’s incredibly important to get behind the candidate who is already an ally to our community and who we know, no matter what, is going to have an administration where we’ll have a seat at the table,” Renna said.

She added, “We may not always agree, but it’s an administration that will be willing to listen to us and hear us out and try to hopefully better understand the variety of issues, especially from the perspective of the Task Force Action Fund, which is very intersectional and will bring to the table not just the siloed queer issues.”

“For us,” Renna said, “it’s about more than marriage equality and trans affirming care. It’s about reproductive justice. It’s about climate. It’s about disability rights. And racial equity. So for us, you know, this [Harris-Walz] ticket really represents all the issues we care about.”

Harris is unflappable, Miss Major said. “They can’t shake her up or piss her off or anything to disturb her. She knows exactly what she’s going to do. She knows how she’s going to do it. And if you get in the way, I pity you.”

Looking ahead to the convention — and beyond

“Miss Major has been part of the family and orbit of the Task Force and Task Force Action Fund for years,” Renna said. “She was honored at Creating Change many years ago, she participated in Creating Change this year in New Orleans, and so many of the staff and folks who are at the Task Force love, respect, and are connected to her.”

So, Miss Major’s participation in the DNC is “not just a unique opportunity to partner and collaborate with her, but a really important piece of work to do for for our community, particularly for trans people of color,” Renna said.

“We are also giddy with anticipation,” she added. “Everyone we’re talking to is so excited she’s going to be there. She’s an icon. She is a pioneer. She’s an inspiration, but she’s also someone who speaks to the moment that we’re living in right now, because she’s lived through it in the past. And so, for, especially, younger folks to hear from her, I think it will give them context and hope and inspire them to be more engaged in the process.”

“I have a feeling we’re going to blow the roof off the United Center and all the other venues at the convention, because there’s so much positive energy around this,” Renna said.

“You can’t help but be excited” about Harris’s candidacy, Miss Major agreed.

The energy and enthusiasm, Renna said, are “what you need to counteract the level of lies, misinformation, and hate that’s coming at us, that has been coming at us from the other side” particularly since Trump’s emergence as a national political figure.

“I plan on going to every place Trump goes and speak to the tender loving people in those places and tell them what a liar he is and how insane he is and that they just shouldn’t vote for him,” Miss Major said. “So wherever it is from now till November, I will be there. Wherever he goes.”

“I’m gonna explain to the people that he not only lies, but he doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” she said. “And that we can feel safe and warm and secure in the fact that Harris is going to lead this country into the future.”

“We’re not going back — you know, I lived back there,” Miss Major said. “No, we’re not going there, because it hurts to think about that shit, you know, and it’s aggravating to have lived through it already, you know, I don’t want to go through it a second time.”

U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Angie Craig (D-Minn.) will introduce a bill this week addressing the “rising elder abuse of LGBTQI+ individuals,” according legislation the Washington Blade previewed.

The Elder Pride Protection Act of 2024 would establish a task force through the Justice Department, with staff selected by the attorney general from the Elder Justice Initiative and the Division of Civil Rights.

They would be tasked with studying “the increased incidence of elder abuse” targeting LGBTQ individuals, developing best practices for a national approach and for state and local authorities to address these crimes, creating and distributing educational materials to raise awareness, and coordinating “the response of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.”

The legislation establishes that the task force would be responsible for issuance of a progress report on its work to the U.S. House and U.S. Senate Judiciary Committees.

Importantly, elder abuse as defined under the bill ranges from the use of physical force to cause harm to forced or unwanted sexual interaction, emotional or psychological abuse, the failure to meet basic needs, and financial crimes.

“I’m incredibly excited to introduce my new legislation, the Elder Pride Protection Act, that I’m leading with Congresswoman Angie Craig of Minnesota,” Gottheimer said. “No one should ever be mistreated on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, especially our vulnerable elderly populations.”

The congressman added, “This legislation is a critical step in coordinating our response to this runaway abuse at the federal level.”

“LGBTQ+ seniors paved the way for so many of the rights we have today, and they’re a vital part of our communities in Minnesota,” said Craig, who is the first lesbian mother elected to Congress and serves as a co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus.

“I’m working to pass the Elder Pride Protection Act to help empower LGBTQ+ seniors and combat any abuse they might face,” she said.

Garden State Equality, New Jersey’s largest LGBTQ rights group noted that “for too long, elder abuse of our older LGBTQ adults has gone un- or under- reported,” adding that, “The establishment of this task force will help bridge the gap experienced by our LGBTQ elders.”

“The work of this task force, particularly the creation of uniform procedures and communication between state and federal agencies, will be formative in combating the abuse and neglect of LGBTQ elders and is critical in creating true lived equality for all Americans,” Garden State Equality said.

“SAGE is proud to support the Elder Pride Protection Act of 2024,” said Aaron Tax, managing director of government affairs and policy advocacy for SAGE, a national advocacy and services organization for LGBTQ elders.

“LGBTQ+ elders deserve to age without fear of elder abuse,” Tax said. “We applaud Rep. Gottheimer for championing the establishment of this important task force, which we hope will improve the lives of LGBTQ+ older people.”

David Stacy, vice president for government affairs for the Human Rights Campaign, said, “By establishing the ELDER Task Force, this country has the chance to affirm its commitment to addressing and preventing the abuse that this community faces all too often.”

“Congress should pass this bill and send a message that they are dedicated to ensuring every elder can live free from fear and harm,” Stacy said.

In a stunning upset, transgender human rights activist Kim Coco Iwanoto knocked out one of Hawaii’s most powerful politicians, state House Speaker Scott Saiki, in the Democratic primary election on Saturday. 

Because there is no Republican in the race, Iwanoto has been elected to represent House District 25, making her Hawaii’s first openly trans state legislator. 

This was Iwanoto’s third attempt to win the urban Honolulu district, after close finishes against Saiki in 2020 and 2022, when she lost by less than 200 votes each time. In Saturday’s primary, she won with a margin of 254 votes, according to the latest results posted by the secretary of state — a margin of more than 5 percent.

Iwanoto says she was motivated to challenge Saiki for the seat due to a lack of transparency in Hawaiian politics, and out of concern that everyday issues were being ignored by Democratic Party leadership.

She says a key motivating issue for her was the state’s minimum wage. Although the wage is currently scheduled to rise to $18 per hour in 2028, following a bill passed in 2022, she says Saiki refused to consider a bill to raise the wage from $10.10 per hour in 2020.

“[Saiki] met with the Chamber of Commerce before the session and he held a press conference stating the legislature will not be taking up the issue of raising the minimum wage. I asked my friends who are representatives, did he ask you guys how you felt about not raising the minimum wage from a poverty wage to a living wage? And they said no,” Iwamoto tells the Los Angeles Blade.

“That made me very angry. He should’ve met with people who are living paycheck to paycheck to learn how their lives are impacted.” 

Iwamoto says Hawaiians are tired of politicians siding with moneyed interests over their constituents.

“Pay to play politics is rampant, and it’s blatant and obvious,” Iwamoto says. “It’s an open festering wound on the face of democracy in Hawaii. Through the fact of just sheer people-powered campaigning, I was able to get above Saiki’s vote.”

Iwamoto describes herself a fourth generation American of Japanese descent. Her great-grandparents worked on the sugarcane plantations of Kauai. She studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and earned a BA in creative writing at San Francisco State University and a law degree at the University of New Mexico. 

Her experiences as a foster parent and raising her 11-year-old daughter led her to run for the state board of education in 2006. That run also made history, as she became the first openly trans person to win statewide office in the U.S.

“Back in 2006, it was international news when Hawaii elected me to that statewide position. I got requests for interviews around the world. That election did trigger a lot of people of trans experience to see that they could run for office, where their gender identity and experience is just one aspect of who they are,” she says.

“More importantly, I think the lesson here is listen to the voters. It’s what the voters are concerned about. In my case, it was consumer protections for condo owners, safer streets for pedestrians and bicyclists, resources for homeless people who are sleeping in our sidewalks.”

Hawaii has long been held as one of the most progressive states when it comes to legislation to protect the LGBTQ community, a fact that Iwamoto appreciates.

“My opponent was there for 30 years, and he was an ally to the LGBT community,” she says. “What he ignored was the overrepresentation of the LGBT people within the homeless community, within the working community.”

“We are part of every marginalized experience. Whether it’s minimum wage earners, the homeless population, LGBT are overrepresented in youth homelessness, and that persists in cycles.”

Democratic U.S. Reps. Robert Garcia and Barbara Lee of California sent a letter on Thursday urging the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to compel health insurers to provide free access to doxy PEP, a drug regimen for the prevention of sexually transmitted infections.

The USPSTF is an independent panel of experts in primary care and preventative medicine organized under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services whose primary responsibility is to evaluate the evidence on the safety and efficacy of medical screenings, counseling, and preventative medications.

The lawmakers’ letter explains that in 2019, the USPSTF issued an “A-grade” recommendation for prescribing preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) — a different preventative regimen targeting HIV infections — to “those at increased risk of HIV acquisition.”

As required under the Affordable Care Act, the rating meant health plans were required to offer the drug with no cost-sharing, which “has been enormously beneficial to hundreds of thousands of Americans —particularly members of the LGBTQIA+ community.”

The letter points to disproportionately high rates of bacterial STIs (“chlamydia, gonorrhea, and especially syphilis”) among LGBTQ populations as well as recommendations published last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instructing providers to counsel certain patients about PEP, with the agency writing that the drug intervention requires “a focused effort for equitable implementation.”

For these reasons, Garcia and Lee said, “we respectfully ask for your full and fair consideration of a USPSTF recommendation for doxy PEP to the populations outlined in the guidelines with an ‘A’ rating,” with those populations being “gay and bisexual men, other men who have sex with men, and transgender women, and who have a history of bacterial STIs in the past 12 months.”

“Surging STIs are disproportionately impacting LGBTQ+ individuals,” Garcia, a gay co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, said in a press release from his congressional office. “We must ensure that these folks have access to doxy PEP, a critical medication that can save lives and prevent these kinds of infections.”

He added, “By making doxy PEP coverage free by insurers, we can prevent infections and stop the spread of disease for those most vulnerable.”

Lee, a vice chair of the caucus, has a decades-long record of pro-LGBTQ advocacy, particularly in the healthcare space and on issues of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and around the world.

“Widespread use and education about doxy PEP could prevent thousands of bacterial STI cases every year,” she said in the press release. “However, in order to get this treatment to those who need it most, it’s imperative that doxy PEP is covered by insurance plans with no cost to patients.”

“By ensuring doxy PEP is available with grade A rating by the USPSTF, we’re taking a critical step toward promoting health equity and advancing our mission of using informed, evidence-based interventions to support those most in need,” said David Stacy, vice president of government Affairs for the Human Rights Campaign.

David C. Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, said “providing healthcare providers with the guidance and encouragement they need to implement doxy PEP in accordance with the new CDC guidelines will be crucial in helping us use doxy PEP to address our out-of-control STI epidemic.”

During a briefing with reporters on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the Biden-Harris administration’s expansion of Title IX to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. 

Changes to the rules came pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that LGBTQ employees are legally protected from sex-based discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

The new policy, which took effect last week, also revokes Trump-era rules governing how schools must respond to allegations of sexual assault, which were widely considered imbalanced in ways favoring those accused of sex crimes.

Asked to respond to conservatives who warn the policy will harm women and girls, including the Republican state attorneys general who have filed legal challenges and the GOP governors who have vowed to disregard the new rules, Jean-Pierre began by stipulating that “there’s still ongoing litigation, so I would have to refer you to DOJ.” 

“More broadly,” she said, “every student deserves the right to feel safe. Every student deserves the right to feel safe in schools. That’s what the rule is all about: Strengthening and restoring vital protections that the previous administration took away.”

“Ending violence against women and girls has been a priority” for President Joe Biden not just during his tenure in the White House but also throughout his decades-long career in the U.S. Senate, the press secretary added. 

“This is an important step in an ongoing work to end campus sexual assault,” Jean-Pierre said. “That’s what we want to see. And I cannot speak any further to the litigation.”

Republican former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in a written interview with the Washington Blade discussed his decision to run for the U.S. Senate and defended his record on LGBTQ rights.

“It’s more important than ever to have strong, independent leadership at every level of government bringing people together and fighting for the exhausted majority,” said Hogan in response to the Blade’s questions that his campaign sent on July 30. “Marylanders know me, and they know I was proud to represent all Marylanders as governor, and that’s exactly what I’ll do in the U.S. Senate.”

Hogan was Maryland’s governor from 2015-2023.

He defeated then-Lieutenant Gov. Anthony Brown, who is now the state’s attorney general, by a 52-46 percent margin in 2014. Hogan four years later defeated former NAACP President Ben Jealous by a 56-43 percent margin.

Hogan in March 2023 said he would not run for president. He announced in February that he is running for retiring U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.)’s seat. 

Hogan in May easily won the Republican primary. He will face off against Democratic Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks in November. The outcome could determine whether Democrats maintain control of the Senate.

“I like the county executive and respect her — we worked together on a number of things as governor,” said Hogan, referring to Alsobrooks. “We just have fundamental disagreements on the issues, and how we approach things. I’m committed to taking an independent approach, challenging hyper-partisanship, and getting the country back to decency and common sense.”

Former governor defends LGBTQ record amid criticism

Hogan in 2018 signed a bill that banned so-called conversion therapy in Maryland. Hogan during a 2023 interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” criticized Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over his state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law he signed.

A bill that created the Commission on LGBTQ Affairs in the Governor’s Community Initiatives Office took effect in 2021 without Hogan’s signature. 

Hogan also did not sign a bill that banned the so-called LGBTQ panic defense in Maryland.

That law also took effect in 2021. 

Hogan spokesperson Blake Kernen further elaborated on the former governor’s LGBTQ rights record.

“After calling for ‘tolerance and mutual respect’ in his inaugural address, Gov. Hogan supported LGBTQ community priorities throughout his time in office,” Kernen told the Blade. “As some examples, he enacted legislation to ban the practice of conversion therapy, and he upheld and strengthened the state’s anti-discrimination protections — including allowing measures to take effect that extend IVF treatment coverage to same-sex couples, allow transgender Marylanders to revise their birth certificates, ban the ‘gay panic defense,’ and make it easier to prosecute hate crimes.”

(The panic defense ban bill became law without Hogan’s signature.)

Kernen pointed out Hogan appointed the first openly LGBTQ person to serve as a chief judge on a Maryland appellate court.

Hogan in 2022 named E. Gregory Wells as chief judge of the Court of Special Appeals. Wells, who is also Black, is also the first African American person named to the position.

Kernen also noted to the Blade that Hogan “appointed the first members and administrative director of the” Maryland Commission on LGBTQ Affairs. (The law took effect in 2021 without Hogan’s signature.)

“He signed anti-bullying laws, and championed numerous initiatives to combat bias and hate crimes–including increased funding, and expanded community and school resources,” said Kernen.

“In January 2023, when Gov. Hogan left office, the state continued to have the Human Rights Campaign’s highest rating for Working Toward Innovative Equality,” he added. “Maryland has a bipartisan legacy of supporting the LGBTQ community, and Gov. Hogan looks forward to building on this work in the Senate.” 

Hogan on June 1 participated in the Annapolis Pride parade.

Democratic Gov. Wes Moore also took part. An Alsobrooks campaign spokesperson told the Blade that she was unable to attend, but many of her campaign volunteers and supporters marched in the parade.

“We’re grateful to Annapolis Pride for giving candidates the opportunity to take part in their festival,” said Hogan. “I wish County Executive Alsobrooks had been able to join us, but it was an outstanding parade, and a true testament to the spirit of the community.” 

HRC last month endorsed Alsobrooks.

HRC President Kelley Robinson in a statement said Alsobrooks “has always been a champion for equality and freedom, from her support for the state law that legalized same-sex marriage in 2012, to becoming the first Maryland county executive to authorize flying the Progress Pride flag over county buildings, and much more.”

Alsobrooks throughout her campaign has highlighted abortion rights within the context of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down Roe v. Wade. Alsobrooks during interview with the Blade before the May 14 Democratic primary noted Hogan’s “well-known position as a person who is not pro-choice.”

Kernen in a May 22 statement criticized Alsobrooks over her comments about Hogan’s abortion rights record.

“Governor Hogan protected choice in Maryland for eight years, funding access to abortion in the budget every year and being the first governor in America to provide over-the-counter birth control paid for by Medicaid,” said Kernen. “He said in 2019, Roe was rightly decided and has been on the record against a national abortion ban since 1992.” 

“He rightly vetoed legislation to allow non-licensed medical professionals to perform abortions because that would have lowered health care standards for women,” added Kernen. “In the Senate, instead of playing politics with this issue, he will work to reinstate Roe v. Wade as the law of the land. Marylanders know that when Gov. Hogan gives his word, he keeps it, and that is why voters continue to reject these same tired, false, and fear-mongering attacks.”

Attempted Trump assassination was ‘terrible tragedy’

Hogan remains a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump.

He did not support Trump in 2016 or 2020. Hogan also did not attend last month’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Trump in June endorsed Hogan for Senate. Kernen said the former governor “didn’t seek the endorsement, and has no interest in it.”

Trump on July 13 survived an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pa.

Hogan described the assassination attempt as a “terrible tragedy.” He added the country is “at a dangerous inflection point — our nation is like a tinderbox right now.”

“I’ve long been a proponent of lowering the temperature and finding a way to do away with the divisive rhetoric and the angry, toxic politics,” said Hogan.

The Blade asked Hogan whether he thinks the country can unify in the wake of the assassination attempt.

“When I travel the state meeting Marylanders, they give me hope,” he said in response to the question. “If politicians and pundits were more like regular people, our whole nation would be in a better place.”

A Public Policy Polling poll conducted between June 19-20 found Alsobrooks ahead of Hogan by a 45-34 percent margin. Hogan would be the first Republican from Maryland in the U.S. Senate since Charles Mathias retired in 1987 if he wins in November.

“I think a lot of voters, both Republicans and Democrats, want strong independent leaders who will clean up the mess in Washington,” Hogan told the Blade. “They know me, and they know I’m that guy.”

“The pundits said for a long time the Hogan brand of politics is dead, but every time we prove them wrong,” he added. “I know I’m the underdog, but I’m seeking to prove them wrong again.”

Hogan responded to the Washington Blade’s questions before Vice President Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

“I want to extend my congratulations to Gov. Walz on being selected as the Democratic vice presidential nominee,” said Hogan on Tuesday in a statement. “We had the chance to work together as fellow governors, and while we come from different parties, I have always appreciated his dedication to public service. I believe we need more governors at the national level because governors have to actually get stuff done. I wish Tim and his family well in the campaign ahead.”