National
10 years later, firestorm over gay-only ENDA vote still informs movement
Ten years ago, a firestorm ignited in the LGBT community over a vote in the U.S. House that many transgender people remember vividly because it excluded them in favor of advancing employment non-discrimination protections to lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
The vote on the “gay-only” version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act on Nov. 7, 2007, rocked the LGBT movement and prompted protests against the Human Rights Campaign and gay former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who backed the bill, arguing it was the best that could be done at the time. The 10th anniversary of the vote is Tuesday.
But the omission galvanized transgender rights advocates to such an extent that for the next 10 years the LGBT movement committed to moving forward only legislation that included the full community — both at the state and federal level — and today advancement of a sexual-orientation only bill is impossible to imagine.
Dana Beyer, a Chevy Chase, Md.-based transgender activist who’s running for state Senate in Maryland, said the vote on the gay-only version of ENDA was “a landmark” for trans inclusion in the LGBT movement.
“Whenever I discuss the progress that we’ve made, which has been remarkable, I begin there because that was basically the first real battle for the trans community on the national stage and over the succeeding decade, we’ve made incredible progress,” Beyer said.
Beyer added from that time forward after the creation of United ENDA — an unprecedented coalition of more than 400 organizations that emerged to fight against trans exclusion —there have been with few exceptions “no instances of any gay activism or legislation that did not include trans people.”
Rebecca Juro, a New Jersey-based transgender activist and radio show host, said the reaction to the vote on the sexual-orientation only version of ENDA was a significant turning point.
“The reason why Barney Frank was able to introduce and get the kind of support he did in Congress was because there was a feeling [of] who cares, nobody knows about these people,” Juro said. “What that did was it said, ’No, no, no,’ you’re wrong.’ and people are going to call you out and it’s going to cost you politically and people are going to show up at the Human Rights Campaign galas and make it difficult for you to solicit money for your campaign.”
In the year Democrats assumed control of the U.S. House after more than a decade of Republican majorities, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) brought the gay-only version of ENDA to the floor after Frank determined an initial version of the bill that included protections based on gender identity wouldn’t get a majority vote in the chamber.
That version of ENDA would pass on the House floor by a vote of 235-184. (Among those voting in favor of the bill was Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), although he also voted in favor of a motion to recommit that would have killed the legislation.)
Voting “no” on the legislation were 25 Democrats, many of whom — such as Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), former Rep. Anthony Weiner (N.Y.) and former Rep. Michael Michaud (Maine) — rejected the measure on the basis it lacked protections for transgender people. Then-Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), now a U.S. senator and still the only out lesbian in Congress, proposed an amendment to insert gender identity, but withdrew the measure before it could come to a vote.
Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign at the time of the vote, backed ENDA and 10 years later stood by his decision as a means to develop the legislation, citing “no hope of passing any legislation into law” with George W. Bush as president.
“It was a tactical decision to take a step in the direction of getting what we ultimately wanted, which was maybe a non-inclusive bill in the House, and inclusive bill in the Senate that would end up as a fully inclusive bill or that would end up as a fully inclusive bill by the time Obama became president,” Solmonese said.
Recalling a “great deal of debate within the community and the House” about whether sufficient votes for transgender inclusion were present, Solmonese said lawmakers pledged to LGBT activists support for a trans-inclusive bill before, then told Pelosi not bring such a measure to the floor.
“They sort of wanted it both ways,” Solmonese said. “They knew what they were supposed to do, but they didn’t want to do it.”
Frank said the vote on ENDA was “very important” because it paved the way for legislative victories on hate crimes protections and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal.
“One of the problems we’ve had historically — we don’t have it anymore — is members being afraid to vote for us because they thought they could be defeated, that it would be a tough vote,” Frank said. “So, here we had members voting for a bill that was a broad protections for LGB people and nobody lost because of it. That was very helpful in setting the foundation.”
In his book “A Life in Politics,” Frank recounts the deliberative process that went into bringing the gay-only version of ENDA to the House floor, maintaining Republicans would have sought to amend the bill to remove the transgender protections.
Baldwin disagreed with moving forward without transgender inclusion, Frank wrote, even though she ultimately voted for the bill. (Baldwin’s office didn’t respond to a request to comment for this article.)
“As we approached the final vote, Tammy did her own informal whip count and concluded we would have enough Democratic votes,” Frank wrote. “Speaker Pelosi, a strong supporter of the bill, asked Tammy for her count, checked it herself with the members, and decided that Tammy had been too optimistic — a conclusion that [former Rep. George Miller and I, based on our own work, fully agreed with. We did not have the votes for the inclusive-bill. It was sadly but unmistakably clear to Pelosi, Miller and me that we could pass ENDA only in its earlier form, covering only lesbian, gay and bisexual workers.”
Backing that move was the Human Rights Campaign, which continued to support the gay-only measure as one of five co-signers in a letter to Congress dated Nov. 6, 2007 organized by the Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights.
“With each significant step toward progress, the civil rights community has also faced difficult and sometimes even agonizing tradeoffs,” the letter said. “We have always recognized, however, that each legislative breakthrough has paved the way for additional progress in the future. With respect to ENDA, we take the same view.”
That vote sent a shockwave through the transgender community, which quickly marshaled opposition to the bill and protested any further advancement without their protections. Many angrily accused the Human Rights Campaign and Frank of abandoning the transgender community.
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said the vote was “one of the most important things that happened in the movement in the last 20 years.”
“We wanted everything to be about setting up for what the movement was after this vote happened, after the bill died for the year,” Keisling said. “What were the lessons the movement was going to learn, what was the lesson HRC was going to learn, what was the lesson Barney Frank was going to learn?”
The night before the vote, Keisling said, she received a call from Frank’s office and was informed “it was over” a for trans-inclusive version of ENDA. Together with Dave Noble, then policy director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, Keisling said she planned to write a letter to Baldwin in hopes she could influence the vote, but was told the gay-only ENDA would move forward.
That night, Keisling and Noble reached out to the National Center for Lesbian Rights and other groups to form a coalition against the trans omission. By morning more than 60 organizations had joined United ENDA, Keisling said, a coalition that refused to support the gay-only bill and pledged to work with lawmakers to support a trans-inclusive measure.
Keisling said other groups “were calling up slightly annoyed that they hadn’t been asked to sign on” and soon the coalition grew to several hundred members.
“It essentially was because Barney Frank and HRC had totally lost touch with what the community was,” Keisling said. “So they did not understand that this would not be alright with the community and we all found out very quickly in a matter of hours that it really was not, that the movement had really become an LGBT movement and it wasn’t going to fly to take trans people out. So not only were we against the vote happening, we were the leaders of being against the vote happening.”
The gay-only version of ENDA never reached Bush’s desk for his veto, nor did any version of the bill — trans-inclusive or otherwise — come up in the U.S. Senate even though Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress.
Had ENDA been brought to the floor for a vote in the Senate, the sponsor would likely have been the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, who was one of the rare champions of LGBT rights at the time.
Solmonese said he didn’t immediately remember why ENDA never came up in the Senate and said it “may have had to do with timing,” but said Kennedy would only have moved forward with a trans-inclusive bill, not a gay-only ENDA, as part of the strategy for the House vote.
“He understood and supported the rationale of having an overarching strategy,” Solmonese said. “George Bush is the president. This thing’s not going to get passed into law. You do one version in the House, an inclusive version in the Senate, the leadership of both chambers is such that the conference committee would likely end up with something that was fully inclusive, right?”
Keisling, however, said “there was no Senate plan” because the Democratic majority in the chamber was seen as too marginal to advance ENDA, nor did Kennedy ever express an aversion to the gay-only version of the bill.
“The plan was that Barney Frank and HRC thought that it was worth passing the gay-only bill through the House, just move the ball forward and get members on the record as Barney said many times,” Keisling said. “Everyone else believed that since it would never become law that year, we shouldn’t exclude anyone.”
Do the backers of the bill at that time have any regrets? Solmonese acknowledged a few even though he stood by his decision to support ENDA in 2007.
“I regret that I saw it one way, which was a step in building towards what all of us ultimately wanted and by no means a signal that that was the legislation that anybody would ultimately support, but the fact that many people didn’t see it that way and many people simply saw the symbolism around the act as one that was divisive to the community, that was never the intention of HRC or my intention, but I certainly regret that that’s the way that it unfolded,” Solmonese said.
Frank said his “regret was we didn’t have the votes” when asked about his approach and blustered at the suggestion anything else could have been done.
“I think to do nothing at all — that was the argument, if you can’t include everybody, you can’t include anybody — in the first place, that’s not the history of the civil rights movement,” Frank said. “I voted to help protect African Americans and immigrants and women. The civil rights movement…you move as much as you can as soon as you can and you build on that. So do I regret not trying hard to get votes? No, I tried as hard as I could to get the votes.”
‘The pendulum is all the way the other way’
Over the course of 10 years since that vote, it’s hard to imagine Congress — or any other legislative body — passing legislation that excluded transgender people. Each successful version of ENDA introduced and advanced in Congress has been trans inclusive and its supporters have defended that language against any objection it. The Equality Act, the successor to ENDA that would ban anti-LGBT discrimination in employment and in all aspects of civil rights law, has consistently been trans inclusive.
Keisling said the commitment to trans inclusion among LGBT groups is “almost total.”
“Most of the big LGBT organizations, including the legal organizations, the lion’s share of their work now is trans work and, no, I don’t think any of them would intentionally do work to cut trans people out. In fact, there are times that we have to talk people into doing things because they’re afraid trans people will think it means cutting them out when it doesn’t. So, yeah, the pendulum is all the way the other way, and then probably some extra.”
Drew Hammill, a Pelosi spokesperson, pointed to enactment of the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and his boss’ support for the Equality Act as evidence of her support for trans inclusion.
“Leader Pelosi was proud to lead the Congress as speaker in passing a fully inclusive hate crimes bill signed into law by President Obama in October of 2009,” Hammill said. “A top priority for the leader is the Equality Act, comprehensive legislation to amend the Civil Rights Act and protect LGBT Americans from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and sex. The leader believes that this legislation would pass the Congress now should Speaker Ryan allow a vote.”
Times have changed for the Human Rights Campaign as well. In 2014, Chad Griffin, the current president of the Human Rights Campaign, apologized on behalf of his organization at the Southern Comfort transgender conference for having “done wrong by the transgender community in the past.”
Transgender work has become a major component of the LGBT group’s work. In recent years, the organization has opposed a gay-only non-discrimination bill in Michigan, worked to thwart the anti-trans House Bill 2 in North Carolina and successfully blocked an anti-trans bathroom bill in Texas. The organization has also opposed non-discrimination measures in Pennsylvania and Charlotte, N.C., without public accommodations protections, which were seen as a backdoor way of leaving out transgender people because of controversy over bathroom use.
Sarah McBride, who’s transgender and press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, said in the past 10 years the organization is “proudly and unequivocally continuing to fight for trans-inclusive protections” and will only back legislation that is fully inclusive.
“From Michigan to North Carolina to Birmingham, HRC has forcefully and aggressively blocked laws and policies that don’t protect every LGBTQ person from discrimination while fighting to extend robust protections across the country,” McBride said. “We are also working to accelerate the pace of progress in other ways, from raising the visibility of the transgender community, to incentivizing trans-inclusive healthcare through our Corporate Equality Index, to shining a spotlight on the epidemic of anti-transgender violence which is taking the lives of so many trans women of color.”
But 2007 wasn’t the last time there would be fighting within the LGBT community over ENDA. In 2013, major LGBT groups (again with the exception of the Human Rights Campaign) dropped support from a version of ENDA over the scope of its religious exemption, which would have provided leeway for religious institutions, like churches or religious schools, to discriminate against LGBT workers in non-ministerial positions even if the bill were to become law. In a reversal from 2007, the Senate passed the legislation, but it didn’t come up for a vote in the Republican-controlled House.
Although ENDA has never become law, a growing consensus has emerged in the courts that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, also applies to anti-trans discrimination. Four federal appellate courts — the First, Sixth, Ninth and Eleventh circuit courts of appeals — have determined employment discrimination against transgender people is barred under Title VII, as has the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Keisling cautioned against too much reliance on laws against sex discrimination because “things are in flux,” noting U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ withdrawal of support for transgender protections under Title VII and President Trump’s appointment of anti-LGBT judges.
“We’re still convinced that the courts are on our side, cases and decisions have been building up to support us and actually [the idea] trans people are supported by sex discrimination is better supported than that gay people are,” Keisling said. “We just don’t exactly know how that’s going to maintain. We do know that there’s a handful of both sexual orientation and gender identity cases moving up through the court system, so what I say now might not be true a month from now and certainly will be changed somewhat in a year.”
Confidence in the legal landscape for trans protections under Title VII is at such a point that a pending petition filed by Lambda Legal before the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a nationwide ruling for gay protections under the law, but not explicit trans protections, hasn’t registered as trans exclusion. The petition was filed on behalf of lesbian plaintiff Jackie Evans after the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against her.
Beyer said she’s not bothered by the petition and it should only upset transgender activists “who don’t bother to parse the specifics” and recognize the transgender victories in lower courts.
“We could have easily won [trans protections] nationwide first,” Beyer said. “In this case, sexual orientation has been viewed differently and most courts haven’t wanted to touch it until the Hively case in the 7th Circuit took it, and now we’ve got Evans. That’s beginning to change. I’m certainly not at all offended by that because this is the way you go. You have a case and the case can’t equally be broadened to include different classifications simply because the community would like it.”
The social scene, in contrast to advocacy groups and the legal landscape, may not be as advanced in accepting transgender inclusion despite the explosion over ENDA 10 years ago. Transgender rights advocates noted a distinction between the LGBT community at large in accepting transgender people and advocacy groups.
Beyer said she doesn’t see transgender inclusion at the social level “anywhere near as advanced” as the current legal landscape.
“Acceptance, affirmation in the general culture is one thing, but the fact that, say, 35 percent of Americans do know a trans person, doesn’t mean that people are that much more comfortable with trans people,” Beyer said. “I think on balance they are, but not overwhelmingly so.”
Efforts to resist trans inclusion in the movement on occasion still emerge, although they’re rare and don’t represent mainstream LGBT views. In 2015, a petition was posted on Change.org titled “Drop the T” urging major LGBT organizations to “disassociate themselves from the transgender movement and return to representing their base support of gay men and lesbians.” The petition, signed by 3,227 people, had no impact on transgender advocacy at LGBT groups.
But transgender advocates also saw a generational divide in the approach to trans inclusion on the social scene that meets what is now seen at the advocacy level.
Juro said college-aged LGBT activists just beginning to come into the movement have a much different view of trans inclusion than their LGBT elders.
“They’re all like, no, you cannot separate, we’re all in this together and trying to say we’ll get rights for gay people without trans people is unacceptable,” Juro said. “And our youth, let’s be honest, are the ones who are driving the community. There the ones who get out there with the signs and the marches. People my age, 55, and old farts, we’re not always as active as we used to be and these are the kids who are driving the movement.”
In some respects, the transgender movement has evolved in strength to take on challenges on its own. Just recently, the National Center for Transgender Equality formed a 501(c)(4) political arm and the Breakthrough Fund, a political action committee and offshoot of the Trans United Fund run by transgender activists, launched with the goal of electing transgender people to public office.
Beyer said the transgender movement is rising to the occasion now that transgender issues have become the focus after many victories on gay rights.
“I think the grassroots trans community has seized the initiative simply because after marriage, after Obergefell, it seemed like the air went out of the gay balloon,” Beyer said. “On a local level, there are still black trans women being murdered. There’s still difficulty getting jobs for many trans people, particularly the younger ones. So, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.”
With the LGBT movement changing dramatically, Keisling said “the LGBT movement is quickly becoming a trans movement,” and now she’s concerned “we’re sending signals to the gay community that trans work is more important than gay work.”
Nonetheless, Keisling cited concerns about insufficient trans presence in places where existing infrastructure is based on gay rights, such as states that have state LGBT equality groups, but no trans groups.
“That’s fine as long as the LGBT movement is strong, but after marriage, if the movement’s weakening…that means trans people don’t have enough support from the LGBT group because it’s weakening but they don’t have the ability to have a strong trans group because there’s an LGBT group,” Keisling said. “I think that’s a conversation we have to start having more explicitly.”
National
A trans president? March organizer dares to dream
Fifth annual Trans Visibility March was held Aug. 24
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.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico activist once again loses access to Facebook account
Pedro Julio Serrano has filed police complaint against anti-LGBTQ religious leaders
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.”
U.S. Federal Courts
Federal judge: Military can no longer prevent people with HIV from enlisting
Lambda Legal filed lawsuit on behalf of three servicemembers in 2022
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.”
Congress
Garcia addresses LGBTQ priorities of a Harris administration
Congressman highlights Equality Act, combatting book bans
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.
District of Columbia
D.C. gay man attacked, beaten by Shake Shack staff
Victim says assault came after he and boyfriend kissed
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.”
National
Miss Major is committed to defeating Trump, electing Harris
Activist will join Task Force Action Fund at DNC before hitting campaign trail
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.”
Congress
EXCLUSIVE: Gottheimer, Craig introduce bill to address LGBTQ elder abuse
Legislation will be introduced this week
U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Angie Craig (D-Minn.) will introduce a bill this week addressing the “rising elder abuse of LGBTQI+ individuals,” according legislation the Washington Blade previewed.
The Elder Pride Protection Act of 2024 would establish a task force through the Justice Department, with staff selected by the attorney general from the Elder Justice Initiative and the Division of Civil Rights.
They would be tasked with studying “the increased incidence of elder abuse” targeting LGBTQ individuals, developing best practices for a national approach and for state and local authorities to address these crimes, creating and distributing educational materials to raise awareness, and coordinating “the response of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.”
The legislation establishes that the task force would be responsible for issuance of a progress report on its work to the U.S. House and U.S. Senate Judiciary Committees.
Importantly, elder abuse as defined under the bill ranges from the use of physical force to cause harm to forced or unwanted sexual interaction, emotional or psychological abuse, the failure to meet basic needs, and financial crimes.
“I’m incredibly excited to introduce my new legislation, the Elder Pride Protection Act, that I’m leading with Congresswoman Angie Craig of Minnesota,” Gottheimer said. “No one should ever be mistreated on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, especially our vulnerable elderly populations.”
The congressman added, “This legislation is a critical step in coordinating our response to this runaway abuse at the federal level.”
“LGBTQ+ seniors paved the way for so many of the rights we have today, and they’re a vital part of our communities in Minnesota,” said Craig, who is the first lesbian mother elected to Congress and serves as a co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus.
“I’m working to pass the Elder Pride Protection Act to help empower LGBTQ+ seniors and combat any abuse they might face,” she said.
Garden State Equality, New Jersey’s largest LGBTQ rights group noted that “for too long, elder abuse of our older LGBTQ adults has gone un- or under- reported,” adding that, “The establishment of this task force will help bridge the gap experienced by our LGBTQ elders.”
“The work of this task force, particularly the creation of uniform procedures and communication between state and federal agencies, will be formative in combating the abuse and neglect of LGBTQ elders and is critical in creating true lived equality for all Americans,” Garden State Equality said.
“SAGE is proud to support the Elder Pride Protection Act of 2024,” said Aaron Tax, managing director of government affairs and policy advocacy for SAGE, a national advocacy and services organization for LGBTQ elders.
“LGBTQ+ elders deserve to age without fear of elder abuse,” Tax said. “We applaud Rep. Gottheimer for championing the establishment of this important task force, which we hope will improve the lives of LGBTQ+ older people.”
David Stacy, vice president for government affairs for the Human Rights Campaign, said, “By establishing the ELDER Task Force, this country has the chance to affirm its commitment to addressing and preventing the abuse that this community faces all too often.”
“Congress should pass this bill and send a message that they are dedicated to ensuring every elder can live free from fear and harm,” Stacy said.
Hawai'i
Kim Coco Iwanoto elected as Hawaii’s first openly trans state lawmaker
Longtime activist defeated House Speaker Scott Saiki in Democratic primary
In a stunning upset, transgender human rights activist Kim Coco Iwanoto knocked out one of Hawaii’s most powerful politicians, state House Speaker Scott Saiki, in the Democratic primary election on Saturday.
Because there is no Republican in the race, Iwanoto has been elected to represent House District 25, making her Hawaii’s first openly trans state legislator.
This was Iwanoto’s third attempt to win the urban Honolulu district, after close finishes against Saiki in 2020 and 2022, when she lost by less than 200 votes each time. In Saturday’s primary, she won with a margin of 254 votes, according to the latest results posted by the secretary of state — a margin of more than 5 percent.
Iwanoto says she was motivated to challenge Saiki for the seat due to a lack of transparency in Hawaiian politics, and out of concern that everyday issues were being ignored by Democratic Party leadership.
She says a key motivating issue for her was the state’s minimum wage. Although the wage is currently scheduled to rise to $18 per hour in 2028, following a bill passed in 2022, she says Saiki refused to consider a bill to raise the wage from $10.10 per hour in 2020.
“[Saiki] met with the Chamber of Commerce before the session and he held a press conference stating the legislature will not be taking up the issue of raising the minimum wage. I asked my friends who are representatives, did he ask you guys how you felt about not raising the minimum wage from a poverty wage to a living wage? And they said no,” Iwamoto tells the Los Angeles Blade.
“That made me very angry. He should’ve met with people who are living paycheck to paycheck to learn how their lives are impacted.”
Iwamoto says Hawaiians are tired of politicians siding with moneyed interests over their constituents.
“Pay to play politics is rampant, and it’s blatant and obvious,” Iwamoto says. “It’s an open festering wound on the face of democracy in Hawaii. Through the fact of just sheer people-powered campaigning, I was able to get above Saiki’s vote.”
Iwamoto describes herself a fourth generation American of Japanese descent. Her great-grandparents worked on the sugarcane plantations of Kauai. She studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and earned a BA in creative writing at San Francisco State University and a law degree at the University of New Mexico.
Her experiences as a foster parent and raising her 11-year-old daughter led her to run for the state board of education in 2006. That run also made history, as she became the first openly trans person to win statewide office in the U.S.
“Back in 2006, it was international news when Hawaii elected me to that statewide position. I got requests for interviews around the world. That election did trigger a lot of people of trans experience to see that they could run for office, where their gender identity and experience is just one aspect of who they are,” she says.
“More importantly, I think the lesson here is listen to the voters. It’s what the voters are concerned about. In my case, it was consumer protections for condo owners, safer streets for pedestrians and bicyclists, resources for homeless people who are sleeping in our sidewalks.”
Hawaii has long been held as one of the most progressive states when it comes to legislation to protect the LGBTQ community, a fact that Iwamoto appreciates.
“My opponent was there for 30 years, and he was an ally to the LGBT community,” she says. “What he ignored was the overrepresentation of the LGBT people within the homeless community, within the working community.”
“We are part of every marginalized experience. Whether it’s minimum wage earners, the homeless population, LGBT are overrepresented in youth homelessness, and that persists in cycles.”
Congress
Garcia and Lee push for insurers to provide doxy PEP for free
Lawmakers note spike in bacterial infections among LGBTQ populations
Democratic U.S. Reps. Robert Garcia and Barbara Lee of California sent a letter on Thursday urging the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to compel health insurers to provide free access to doxy PEP, a drug regimen for the prevention of sexually transmitted infections.
The USPSTF is an independent panel of experts in primary care and preventative medicine organized under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services whose primary responsibility is to evaluate the evidence on the safety and efficacy of medical screenings, counseling, and preventative medications.
The lawmakers’ letter explains that in 2019, the USPSTF issued an “A-grade” recommendation for prescribing preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) — a different preventative regimen targeting HIV infections — to “those at increased risk of HIV acquisition.”
As required under the Affordable Care Act, the rating meant health plans were required to offer the drug with no cost-sharing, which “has been enormously beneficial to hundreds of thousands of Americans —particularly members of the LGBTQIA+ community.”
The letter points to disproportionately high rates of bacterial STIs (“chlamydia, gonorrhea, and especially syphilis”) among LGBTQ populations as well as recommendations published last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instructing providers to counsel certain patients about PEP, with the agency writing that the drug intervention requires “a focused effort for equitable implementation.”
For these reasons, Garcia and Lee said, “we respectfully ask for your full and fair consideration of a USPSTF recommendation for doxy PEP to the populations outlined in the guidelines with an ‘A’ rating,” with those populations being “gay and bisexual men, other men who have sex with men, and transgender women, and who have a history of bacterial STIs in the past 12 months.”
“Surging STIs are disproportionately impacting LGBTQ+ individuals,” Garcia, a gay co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, said in a press release from his congressional office. “We must ensure that these folks have access to doxy PEP, a critical medication that can save lives and prevent these kinds of infections.”
He added, “By making doxy PEP coverage free by insurers, we can prevent infections and stop the spread of disease for those most vulnerable.”
Lee, a vice chair of the caucus, has a decades-long record of pro-LGBTQ advocacy, particularly in the healthcare space and on issues of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and around the world.
“Widespread use and education about doxy PEP could prevent thousands of bacterial STI cases every year,” she said in the press release. “However, in order to get this treatment to those who need it most, it’s imperative that doxy PEP is covered by insurance plans with no cost to patients.”
“By ensuring doxy PEP is available with grade A rating by the USPSTF, we’re taking a critical step toward promoting health equity and advancing our mission of using informed, evidence-based interventions to support those most in need,” said David Stacy, vice president of government Affairs for the Human Rights Campaign.
David C. Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, said “providing healthcare providers with the guidance and encouragement they need to implement doxy PEP in accordance with the new CDC guidelines will be crucial in helping us use doxy PEP to address our out-of-control STI epidemic.”
The White House
White House press secretary defends administration’s LGBTQ-inclusive Title IX policy
New nondiscrimination rules took effect last week
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.”
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