Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride is poised to become the first openly transgender person elected to Congress after she won her primary on Tuesday.

McBride defeated Earl Cooper by a 79.9-16.2 percent margin in the Democratic primary for the state’s congressional seat. McBride will face Republican John Whalen in November.

The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund in a press release notes McBride is “favored to win in the heavily Democratic state.”

“Voters across the country are sick and tired of the divisive politics of the past — that’s why we’re seeing an increase in diverse, young candidates like Sarah McBride clearing their primaries,” said Victory Fund President Annise Parker. “Nobody is more qualified than Sarah to represent the values of Delaware in Congress. I look forward to celebrating Sarah’s election victory in November and seeing her get to work for her constituents in Washington.” 

McBride is poised to succeed U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), who is running for retiring U.S. Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.)’s seat.

“Of course, there’s going to be discussion about the potential of this campaign to break this barrier and to increase diversity in Congress and to ensure that a voice that has been totally absent from the halls of Congress is finally there in an elected capacity,” McBride told the Washington Blade during a 2023 interview after she declared her candidacy. “While it’s not what this campaign is focused on, while it’s not what voters are focused on, it is certainly relevant to the young people who are feeling alone and scared right now.”

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a lower court’s decision that blocked enforcement of an Arizona law banning transgender girls from playing on public schools’ sports team that correspond with their gender identity.

Then-Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, in 2022 signed the law.

The Associated Press reported the parents of two trans girls challenged the law in a lawsuit they filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson, Ariz., in April 2023. U.S. District Judge Jennifer Zipps on July 20, 2023, blocked the law.

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, who was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, appealed the ruling to the 9th Circuit. Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes is not defending the law.

A three-judge panel on the 9th Circuit unanimously upheld Zipps’s ruling.

“We are pleased with the 9th Circuit’s ruling today, which held that the Arizona law likely violates the Equal Protection Clause and recognizes that a student’s transgender status is not an accurate proxy for athletic ability and competitive advantage,” said Rachel Berg, a staff attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, in a press release.

NCLR represents the two plaintiffs in the case.

In a speech Saturday night at the Human Rights Campaign National Dinner, Minnesota governor and 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz discussed how he came to know the Shepard family when working in Congress to pass the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

“When the final vote was coming up in the House, it was going to be close,” he said. “I walked through the House floor, through the tunnels, from the Longworth House Office Building over to the Capitol, and I made that walk with Matthew’s mom, Judy Shepard, and the sheriff who found Matthew’s body tied to that fence post in Wyoming, and I remember walking with a mother who lost her son and hearing the sheriff tell me the only place he wasn’t bloody was where the tears ran down Matthew’s eyes.”

“I watched a mother and the unbelievable pain that I couldn’t even fathom, to lose a child this way, walk with her head held high to make sure that none of the rest of us ever have to get a call from someone,” Walz said.

The governor invited the crowd to applaud for Judy and Dennis Shepard, who were in attendance, adding that the room was full of “heroes” like them who had, in ways both big and small, endeavored “to make people’s lives a little bit easier.”

Walz began his speech by highlighting the many ways in which Vice President Kamala Harris has fought “every single day on the side of the American people,” relentlessly working to expand rights and protections for the LGBTQ community throughout her career and promising to build on this legacy if she is elected president in November.

“As the DA of San Francisco, Vice President Harris took one of the toughest stances in the nation against hate crimes,” he said. “She led the fight against the hateful gay and transgender panic defense.”

Walz continued, “she went on to become the attorney general of the largest state in the country, and the moment it arrived, to defend marriage equality. And she threw her whole self into that fight. You know Kamala Harris. She doesn’t just pick these fights when she talks about it, and this is the thing to keep in mind: All she does is win. All she does is win.”

“As a U.S. senator, she fought hard for the Equality Act, introduced a bill to make sure you had access to PrEP, and as vice president, and I say this, it is not a stretch, and the facts are there, this is the most pro LGBTQ+-administration in American history,” the governor said.

“She helped President Biden pass the landmark Respect for Marriage Act requiring every state and territory to fully honor same sex and interracial marriage,” Walz said. “She helped stop the ignorant and Byzantine practice of banning gay and bisexual men from donating blood.”

Harris has worked to improve mental healthcare for LGBTQ youth, he added, and “she made human rights for LGBTQ+ individuals around the world a top priority in this nation’s foreign policy” while working with the president on “historic executive orders protecting folks from discrimination.”

Walz then turned to his own record, beginning with his career as a schoolteacher and football coach before his election to Congress. He said, “some of my students, and this is in the late 90s, we’re concerned about an uptick in bullying amongst the gay lesbian community in our school.”

When one of those students, who was in the audience Saturday, had asked him to serve as faculty advisor for the gay straight alliance club, Walz recalled, “I said ‘absolutely.’ I understood what it meant to be that older, strange, white guy” standing up for the school’s LGBTQ students in such a public manner.

In 2006, when running for Congress as a Democrat in a deep-red district, “I was in a state that advanced same sex marriage for a decade,” Walz said. “But I knew I was right, and I ran on a platform that supported equality.”

The notion that he won despite taking pro-LGBTQ and pro-choice positions is misleading, the governor said — he won because of those reasons.

Walz then detailed how he fought for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as the top Democrat on the Veterans Affairs Committee, operating under the maxim that “you don’t get elected to office to bank political capital so you can get elected again” but rather “you get elected office to burn political capital to improve [people’s] lives.”

As governor, he said, the “first thing we did is we banned conversion therapy,” and throughout his first and second terms in office, “we protected the transgender community.”

“We banned banning books,” he said, pushing back against efforts to target and remove content with LGBTQ characters and themes, a preoccupation of Republicans including the 2024 GOP presidential and vice presidential nominees Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).

“This is what these folks are focusing on, spending all their time, like reading about two male penguins who love each other is somehow going to turn your children gay,” Walz said, setting up a contrast between the Democratic and Republican tickets.

The other side believes “the government should be free to invade every corner of our lives, our bedrooms, our kids’ schools, even our doctor’s office,” Walz said, and they have laid out a “playbook” to make that happen with Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s governing blueprint for a second Trump administration.

“This Project 2025 that’s out there to restrict freedoms, demonize this community, bully vulnerable children, the message is simple from all of us, and here in about 59 days, you’re going to get a chance to send that message: leave our kids the hell alone.”

Walz then pivoted to Trump’s ban on transgender military service members. “We’ve had thousands of brave transgender troops, decorated warriors, who served this country. When Donald Trump was commander-in-chief, he belittled them and he banned them from service. Thankfully, President Biden and vice president Harris rescinded that stupid, bigoted policy.”

He added, “If you want to serve this nation, you should be allowed to, and what we should do is respect that service. They should not get incoming fire from their commander-in-chief, attacking their basic dignity, humanity, and patriotism. And I will say this, I didn’t serve for 24 years in this to have those guys diminish another troop’s service.”

“We’re not going back to the discrimination,” Walz said. “We’re not going to force our children into situations where they become suicidal. We’re not going to continue to demonize people because of who they are, and we’re not going to continue to allow people in this country to go hungry or to be shot dead because we don’t make decisions that can improve that.”

A group of 164 members of Congress filed an amicus brief on Tuesday urging the U.S. Supreme Court to defend transgender Americans’ access to medically necessary healthcare as the justices prepare to hear oral arguments this fall in U.S. v. Skrmetti.

Lawmakers who issued the 27-page brief include House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.), House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (Calif.), U.S. Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Congressional Equality Caucus Chair Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), along with the caucus’s eight co-chairs and 25 vice chairs. Ranking members of the powerful House Judiciary and House Ways and Means Committees, U.S. Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Frank Pallone, Jr., (D-N.J.), were also among the signatories.

The case, among the most closely watched this term, will determine whether Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, along with a similar law passed in Kentucky, violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

In their brief, the lawmakers urge the Supreme Court to treat with skepticism “legislation banning safe and effective therapies that comport with the standard of care” and to examine the role of “animosity towards transgender people” in states’ gender affirming care bans.

“Decisions about healthcare belong to patients, their doctors, and their families — not politicians,” Pocan said. “The law at issue in this case is motivated by an animus towards the trans community and is part of a cruel, coordinated attack on trans rights by anti-equality extremists. We strongly urge the Supreme Court to uphold the constitution’s promise of equal protection under the law and strike down Tennessee’s harmful ban.”

“For years, far-right Republicans have been leading constant, relentless, and escalating attacks on transgender Americans. Their age-old, discriminatory playbook now threatens access to lifesaving, gender-affirming care for more than 100,000 transgender and nonbinary children living in states with these bans if the Supreme Court uphold laws like Tennessee’s at the heart of Skrmetti fueled by ignorance and hate,” Markey said.

“Transgender people deserve the same access to healthcare as everyone else,” said Nadler. “There is no constitutionally sound justification to strip from families with transgender children, and their doctors, the decision to seek medical care and give it to politicians sitting in the state capitol. I trust parents, not politicians, to decide what is best for their transgender children.”

Pallone warned that if Tennessee’s ban, Senate Bill 1, is “allowed to stand, it will establish a dangerous precedent that will open the floodgates to further discrimination against transgender Americans.”

“Unending attacks from MAGA extremists across the nation are putting trans youth at risk with hateful laws to ban gender-affirming care,” said Merkley author of the Equality Act. “Let’s get politicians — who have no expertise in making decisions for patients — out of the exam room. The court must reject these divisive policies, and Congress must pass the Equality Act to fully realize a more equal and just union for all.”

Also filing an amicus brief on Tuesday was the Gender Research Advisory Council + Education (GRACE), a trans-led nonprofit that wrote, in a press release, “Skrmetti is critically important to the trans community because approximately 40 percent of trans youth live in the 25 states that have enacted such bans.”

The group argued laws like Tennessee’s SB 1 are cruel, discriminatory, and contradict “the position of every major medical association that such treatments are safe, effective and medically necessary for adolescents suffering from gender dysphoria.”

GRACE’s brief includes 28 families “who hope to share with the court that they are responsible, committed parents from a variety of backgrounds who have successfully navigated their adolescent’s transition.”

“These parents sought medical expertise for their children with diligence regarding the best care available and input from experienced physicians and mental health professionals and they have seen firsthand the profound benefits of providing medically appropriate care to their transgender children,” said GRACE board member and brief co-author Sean Madden.

“Left unchecked, this may start with the transgender community, but it certainly won’t end there,” added GRACE President Alaina Kupec. “Next it could be treatments for HIV or cancer.”

An unidentified male suspect on Aug. 4 threw a baseball-sized rock into a large glass window located next to the main entrance door of the Human Rights Campaign’s headquarters building at 1640 Rhode Island Ave., N.W., according to a D.C. police report.

The report, which lists the incident as a misdemeanor crime of Destruction of Property, provides a description of the suspect but does not say whether anyone witnessed him breaking the window. It says police received a call for the destruction of property at the eight-story tall HRC building at approximately 2:15 a.m.

“At 0212 hours [2:12 a.m.], Suspect 1 approached the outside perimeter of 1640 Rhode Island Avenue, NW at the Human Rights Campaign building and threw a baseball sized rock at a window next to the door to the building,” the police report says. “The window received significant damage causing multiple cracks from the base of the window to the top of the window,” it says.

“Suspect 1 then walked away from the location heading eastbound on Rhode Island Avenue NW wearing a white t-shirt, tan baseball cap, black pants, black and white shoes while carrying a dark colored bookbag,” the report concludes.

D.C. police reports for this type of crime almost always state whether one or more witnesses were present at the time the crime was committed. The fact that no witnesses are mentioned in the report while a detailed description of the suspect is given suggests that police had access to a video recording of the incident taken by a security camera on or near the HRC building.

The report also states that the incident has not been classified as a suspected hate crime.

In response to a Blade inquiry, D.C. police spokesperson Paris Lewbel said he was reaching out to police officials who know something about the incident, but he did not provide additional information as of Wednesday morning, Sept. 4.

In response to a request by the Blade for comment from HRC, including whether HRC provided police with video footage of the incident, HRC spokesperson Jarred Keller said he was reaching out to HRC officials for information about the incident. But he also did not provide a response as of Wednesday morning.

The Blade learned about the HRC window-breaking incident a little over a week ago, more than two weeks after it happened on Aug. 4, through a tip from an HRC volunteer.

On its website HRC says its headquarters building, which first opened in 2003, “provides ample workspace for HRC’s staff of more than 150,” also houses HRC’s Equality Center, a meeting and event space available for rent, as well as the HRC Media Center, a multimedia production facility.

“This building is an important symbol for all who visit the nation’s capital – a constant reminder to our LGBTQ+ community, as well as anti-LGBTQ+ activists, that HRC will not stop until the LGBTQ+ community is ensured equality,” a statement on the website says.

The fifth annual Transgender Visibility March returned to D.C. on Saturday, Aug. 24. This marked the first time the march has been back in D.C. since the inaugural event in 2019, which featured “Pose” star Angelica Ross and then-Human Rights Campaign president Alphonso David. 

The Washington Blade caught up with Hope Giselle-Godsey, executive director of the march, as she got ready for the festivities. 

BLADE: Would you mind telling me a little bit of background about yourself? How did you end up in the position of executive director of the Trans Visibility March?

GISELLE-GODSEY: I started with the March in 2018 when Marissa [Miller, the founder of the march,] reached out to me and asked me for my help. She realized that with my platform and everything that has been built, I would be the perfect person to do public-facing events. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity because when Marissa Miller calls you answer.

That turned into me just being called upon every year. This year I got that call, but it was a little different. She says to me, “Hope it is time for me to move out of the way, and I want there to be some new leadership, and I want to know if you’re willing to take on the mantle of leader of the March?”

That took me by surprise, one because I just wasn’t I didn’t know that I was in the running. It was a full circle moment, and it felt really good that someone who had mentored me in the space was willing to trust me with something that her and her partner, Lynn, had built from the ground up.

BLADE: Could you tell me a bit about the march? Why does it exist? What are its goals? 

GISELLE-GODSEY: The March has a goal of making sure that we create visibility around the issues that are facing trans people every year, because, contrary to popular belief, they are not always the same. They don’t always look the same, and they are not maintained year to year. 

For instance, this year, we’re heavily talking about the idea of voting. We’re also really digging deeper into our sexual health and what that component of the conversation looks like. What will be to truly figure out what sexual freedom looks like for people who are often taught that abstinence is the only way to feel sexually free? We just know that that’s not simply true.

We also have a focus on the youth. They’re going to have the torches passed to them at some point. We want to make sure that as we are activating and growing in this fight for trans visibility and equality that we are including the voices of tomorrow that are going to be taking up the mantle.

We have Jay Jones, who is the first trans student body president at Howard University, who is going to be opening the march with me tomorrow. We want to make sure that her voice is heard, and that folks understand that she is creating history at an HBCU as a Black trans woman. Those things deserve to be celebrated.

BLADE: Trans people face outsized violence. Protesters have faced rising violence. It is a point of bravery to be out on the streets like this, I am sure some people are nervous. Do you have any words about what it means to be marching, as a trans person?

GISELLE-GODSEY: It’s a true testament of being tired of following the status quo and allowing your fear to dictate what your freedom can look like. 

People don’t understand the need to be visible in order to feel free. Marches like this help people to understand that if we aren’t seen, people can pretend like we don’t exist. That does us a disservice. 

By creating the space in this March, you have to do it alone. It offers a lot of folks who would normally never speak up about issues that they are passionate about because they would feel like if they did it, there was a higher chance for violence or there was a higher chance for something to go wrong.

In spaces where you have not only community, but you have allies and accomplices, it creates a space that opens a new world. It helps us to truly begin to change the narrative around what it looks like to feel and be safe as trans people. 

BLADE: The last time you all marched in Washington, we were in a different political climate. Trump was in office versus Biden. Anti-trans legislation was just beginning its tidal wave. Can you reflect on this juxtaposition and the stakes it means to be marching for trans visibility on this distinctly political stage?

GISELLE-GODSEY: It reminds us that we are never safe in the eyes of the social public that wants to make everyone believe that we are a threat to their existence, when, in fact, it is the opposite.

It forces us to be mindful about how we take breaks from work. We may feel like “Well, we got this passed, this TV show was created, so we can pause.” [Marching in D.C.] reminds us that until the most marginalized of us are free, none of us are truly free. That quote is overused but for all the right reasons.

Until all of us have the opportunity to be in TV shows, host spaces, graduate, and all of these things without it being a huge hoopla, without people having to make an article about it, then we might be able to take a little break. 

Over these last five years, some of us have gotten a little comfortable with the idea of trusting that the system that is rigged against anyone different. 

BLADE: Are there any ideas, events, people, or motivations you all are holding when you march?

GISELLE-GODSEY: Illuminate, educate, and advocate. Those are three pillars this year. 

We are standing firm on amplifying those things, owning those things, making those things our bread and butter. When folks leave [the march], they leave with the ability to feel like they can do those things on their own.

There is space for you to illuminate your problems or your areas of opportunity, whether it be with your boss or whether it be with your city council member. You can educate them about why these things are important. You can become a stronger advocate. 

We want to make sure that folks understand that these are not just pillars for the march, but these could be pillars for your life.

BLADE: What does your vision of the future for the transgender community look like?

GISELLE-GODSEY: I see us having a transgender president, though I’m not sure if I want to be that person.

I see a future where trans people can dream in the same way that other marginalized groups of people have been able to dream and see themselves actualized.

As a person from the intersection of both transness and Blackness, seeing Obama being sworn into office felt amazing.

As children you get told you can be whatever you want to be, but for so long, as Black folks, we also understood that there was a silent list of things that we probably shouldn’t strive to do. 

What I see for the future is that in the same way that that glass ceiling is being broken for certain marginalized people, with the example of Obama being one of them, I would love to see that being broken for trans people. 

I do see that being broken for trans people. I think that we are on the brink of having our first woman president — not to mention she’s a biracial, Black woman. In the next eight years, there might be another cultural shift, and we could have a trans president.

It feels amazing to remind people that those are actual possibilities now, and not just things to ponder over with friends at a kiki in a basement.

BLADE: Anything else?

GISELLE-GODSEY: There is an idea that we only need visibility because of the deaths that are happening. What I’m trying to showcase to folks is that the visibility March is not just because we are being murdered, it is also because we are not being heard. Our issues are not being heard. 

We want trans men to be able to have access to proper health care. We want to be able to access safe-sex practices that are taught by and fostered for TGN people. There are so many things that are important to us. 

When we have these conversations, we’re often whittled down to this idea of just being trans people who are upset – rightfully so – about the fact that some of our siblings are being killed. But that is not the only reason that we march. I want folks to understand and know that this isn’t just about a death toll. 

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.”