Joe Solmonese, a former head of the Human Rights Campaign, has been named chief executive for the 2020 Democratic National Convention Committee in Milwaukee.
The pick was made less than three weeks after the Democratic Party announced next year Milwaukee would host the Democratic National Convention, where the Democratic presidential candidate who will challenge President Trump in 2020 will be anointed as the party’s nominee.
As chief executive, Solmonese will be charged with overseeing the day-to-day operations for the committee as it prepares for the convention, which will take place July 13-16, 2020. The news of his appointment was first reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Solmonese was head of the Human Rights Campaign from 2005 to 2012. His tenure took place during the end of the George W. Bush administration, when he oversaw efforts to beat back against a Federal Marriage Amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage nationwide, and the beginning of the Obama administration, when he oversaw efforts to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Additionally, Solmonese served as chief executive of EMILY’s List, which supports female candidates who are pro-choice, and transition chair of Planned Parenthood Federation of America after Cecile Richards ended her 12-year tenure last year.
Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez said in a statement Solmonese “will be an asset in leading our convention team” and “brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to this role and will be instrumental in ensuring we have a successful event.”
“We chose Milwaukee because the city embodies who we are as a party, and under Joe’s leadership, I’m confident those values will be at the forefront as we celebrate our nominee and prepare for the general election,” Perez said. “I am thrilled to have him as a part of the team and look forward to a unifying convention that will put our nominee in the best possible position for victory in November 2020.”
Solmonese said in a statement being selected as the chief executive for the convention is “a tremendous honor and I’m prepared to hit the ground running.”
“There is no better time than now to be a Democrat and next summer we will showcase the ideals and diversity that make our party, the city of Milwaukee, and our nominee special to the American people,” Solmonese said.
President Trump’s recently selected choices to the fill the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS are rankling some observers.
Critics say the appointments fail to address social determinants of health, including homophobia and transphobia, rely too heavily on the pharmaceutical industry and leave out Republicans with records of fighting HIV/AIDS.
The nine members were selected last week — joining co-chairs Carl Schmid and John Wiesman — in the aftermath of Trump announcing in his State of the Union address a pledge to end new HIV infections in the United States by 2030.
Scott Schoettes, HIV project director for Lambda Legal, said he’s “glad to see” the posts filled, but had concerns about addressing the social determinants of health and the Trump administration waiting to make the choices until after the plan was unveiled.
“I have some concerns that they really came up with their plan, and then chose the people to be on the council sort of after the fact,” Schoettes said. “It seems to be you would want those people in those advisory positions as you develop your plan, and it seems like the people they’ve picked are, so far, reflective of that plan in that it’s very focused on finding everyone, getting them tested, getting them treated and not really thinking much about the social determinant of health or the things that we know drive the epidemic in a significant way in the United States.”
Schoettes is a former member of PACHA who was appointed during the Obama administration, but was among six members who resigned in June 2017 over Trump’s perceived inaction on HIV/AIDS.
“I’m hopeful that the administration will pay more attention to these individuals than they did to the members while I was serving, but I’m not sure that they will,” Schoettes said.
In December 2017, Trump sacked the remaining remembers of PACHA without explanation via letter from FedEx, as first reported by the Washington Blade. It wasn’t until 15 months later that Trump would finally restaff PACHA with the nine new members.
Schoettes said the social determinants PACHA should be able to address include “housing instability and access to care, income insecurity, food insecurity.”
“All of those things drive the HIV epidemic in addition to things like homophobia, transphobia, racism, gender inequality,” Schoettes said. “And so, unless you are addressing those other factors, you’re not really going to get at the sort of entrenched people living with HIV and the people that are out there that are not currently diagnosed. Those folks are living in a swirl of other social determinants of health that are preventing them from getting tested, from accessing care and you got to address those things as well as just the biomedical side of it.”
The nine new PACHA members come from variety of backgrounds , including the pharmaceutical industry, activism and academia:
Gregg Alton, chief patient officer for Gilead Sciences, Inc.;
Wendy Holman, CEO and co-founder of Ridgeback Biotherapeutics;
Marc Meachem, head of External Affairs North America for ViiV Healthcare;
Rafaelé Roberto Narváez, co-founder and director of Health Programs for Latinos Salud;
Michael Saag, professor of medicine and associate dean for global health at UAB School of Medicine and director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Center for AIDS Research;
John Sapero, office chief for the HIV prevention program at the Arizona Department of Health Services;
Robert Schwartz, head of Dermatology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School;
Justin Smith, a Ph.D. candidate at Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University; and
Ada Stewart, lead provider and HIV specialist at Eau Claire (South Carolina) Cooperative Health Centers.
Created in 1995, PACHA has provided advice to U.S. presidents on policy and research to promote effective treatment and prevention for HIV — maintaining the goal of finding a cure.
Asia Russell, executive director of the New York-based Health GAP, said the appointments demonstrate Trump “doesn’t give a damn” about PACHA being truly diverse, citing in particular the appointments from the pharmaceutical industry.
“His appointment of representatives of pharmaceutical companies that profit directly from government refusal to address price gouging is unethical,” Russell said.
Gay Republicans with records of working on HIV/AIDS were also critical of what they perceived as a lack of Republican appointments to PACHA. (Schmid was once a Republican, but told the Blade he’s now a registered independent and has been so for about the last decade.)
Jim Driscoll, a Nevada-based HIV/AIDS advocate who supported President Trump in the 2016 election, was among those dissatisfied with the apparent lack of Republicans.
“Politically the group is very one sided,” Driscoll said. “Members appear to be chosen more to forestall community blow back than for their ability to aid, advise or influence President Trump.”
Driscoll, who served as a PACHA member during the George W. Bush administration and applied for membership in the Trump administration, also said other key groups were absent, such as AIDS patients in treatment, registered nurses and older patients “despite elders being the fastest growing group and too little is being done about AIDS among the elderly.”
“Gay Republicans are wondering, who actually won this election?” Driscoll said. “Gays are well represented, except there appear to be zero gay Republicans. The council needs at least two credible gay Republicans who supported Mr. Trump and at least three or four more Trump supporters. I expect that even VP Pence and his evangelical supporters would want this.”
Jerri Ann Henry, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, said she knows Republicans who have been involved with her organization and “unhappy to have been passed over,” and echoed the concerns about no Republicans.
“It’s very disappointing for me to see there are, I don’t think, any Republicans on PACHA at all under a Republican administration,” Henry said. “And I think this is one of those committees that most administrations have tried to make overly partisan. That’s not a top criteria that should be used in selecting people, but under a Republican president, it would be great to see some Republicans there, especially the people who have worked in the past under less friendly administrations to make things like this happen.”
Schmid, who in addition to serving as PACHA co-chair is deputy director of the AIDS Institute, said in response to criticisms Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar is responsible for the appointments, but in defense of the appointments said the claims were off base.
With respect to addressing the social determinants of health, Schmid said during the PACHA meeting last week — the first meeting after the new appointments were made — those issues were discussed “along with other non-medical issues were highlighted and discussed throughout the meeting.”
“Seems people are quick to criticize without knowing the facts,” Schmid said, “And comments such as these ignore the leaders in the community who are members of PACHA and the work they are doing to end HIV in their respective communities.”
In response to the lack of Republicans on PACHA, Schmid said people making the criticism do not have their facts correct and “probably should do some more research before making such a claim.”
“I tend to think people keep their party affiliation private and it is not my business, it is their private personal matter,” Schmid added.
In terms of diversity, Schmid said six out of 11 of the members are gay, including two black gay men and one Latino gay man.
Schmid said during the PACHA meeting last week he announced the new appointments were just the first round and more should follow in the aftermath of Trump unveiling a plan to beat HIV/AIDS by 2030.
“I listed a number of people we are looking for: More people living with HIV, more women, younger people, trans people, injection drug users, reps of tribal and faith communities, local government, philanthropy, community health centers, people who focus on Hepatitis, STDs, different disciplines and geographic diversity,” Schmid said.
The Department of Health & Human Services didn’t respond to the Washington Blade’s request for comment on the criticism of the PACHA choices.
Among the first orders of business for the newly appointed PACHA was approving a resolution in support of the Trump administration’s “Ending the HIV Epidemic” plan.
Cited in the resolution is how HIV/AIDS “disproportionately impacts certain populations, including gay and bisexual men, in particular among those who are black, Latino, and young; black women, transgender women and those who inject drugs.”
The resolution concludes with commending the Trump administration’s “bold initiative” to end new HIV infections and pledging to dedicate resources to make it happen, but also to “ensure that proper accountability and metrics are in place.”
“As part of this assistance PACHA will focus on reducing the stigma often associated with HIV, as well as the numerous disparities and social determinants of health that impact HIV in the United States,” the resolutions says.
The resolution says PACHA will work with the administration to ensure the plan is sufficient not just for the first year, but for future years until meeting the goal of no new infections by 2030.
The PACHA members will have their work cut out for them. In addition to advising Trump on HIV/AIDS as he pursues his goal, PACHA is charged with providing counsel on the National AIDS Strategy, which is due for an update in 2020.
It remains to be seen what recommendation PACHA will make. A progress report from the Trump administration last year on the National AIDS Strategy adopted Obama-era goals in combatting HIV/AIDS, which includes reducing the rate of new diagnoses among gay and bisexual men.
The observers critical of the PACHA choices, however, raised questions about whether the administration was making a serious commitment to achieve its goal in stopping HIV/AIDS.
Cited as evidence of concern was Trump’s fiscal year 2020 budget request. Although the request calls for $300 million to beat HIV/AIDS, the budget slashes global HIV programs and cuts Medicare and Medicaid, programs on which many people with HIV/AIDS rely.
Russell was particularly critical of the budget’s request to cut global programs, saying they’re “threatening the lives of people with HIV worldwide.”
“For example, the White House just requested Congress pass $1.742 billion in killer cuts to global AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs for FY 2020, when those programs actually need $1.39 billion in funding increases to accelerate life saving service delivery,” Russell said. “Even drastically improved PACHA representation would not correct the impact of President Trump’s deadly decisions.”
Schoettes had concerns about the budget’s proposed cuts to programs on the domestic side, saying the administration has made an “ambitious goal” but he hasn’t “seen the actions or the steps that would be necessary to achieve the goal.”
“While there was an increase in HIV spending proposed in the president’s budget, there were a bunch of cuts to other really critical programs,” Schoettes said. “They’re going to undermine that goal. So, for instance, cuts to NIH that really dwarf the increases that we saw with respect to HIV. Cuts to Medicaid and attempts to move that into a block grant program. The continued efforts to undermine the ACA. You can some funding that’s going to specifically address HIV, you are actually undermining the goals of health for those communities if you’re not providing comprehensive access to health care.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday announced it has refused to hear the case of a Hawaii bed and breakfast that sought to refuse service to same-sex couples out of religious objections.
The high court indicated it had denied certiorari to Aloha Bed & Breakfast, or refused to take up its case, in an order list Monday reflecting decisions justices made during a conference on Friday.
The denial of certiorari effectively means the end to the lawsuit against Aloha Bed & Breakfast, which was found to have violated Hawaii civil rights laws for refusing boarding to Diane Cervelli and Taeko Bufford in 2007.
The initial lawsuit, Aloha Bed & Breakfast v. Dianne Cervelli, was filed by Lambda Legal on behalf of the same-sex couple after they were denied service. The co-plaintiff in the case was the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission.
Peter Renn, counsel for Lambda Legal’s Western Regional Office, said the denial of certiorari affirms non-discrimination laws for LGBT people in face of objections based on “religious freedom” claims.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to let the lower court ruling stand reaffirms that the freedom of religion does not give businesses a right to violate nondiscrimination laws that protect all individuals from harm, whether on the basis of race, gender or sexual orientation,” Renn said. “The Supreme Court declined to consider carving out an exception from this basic principle when a business discriminates based on the sexual orientation of its customers. LGBT people deserve an equal right to go about their everyday life without the fear that discrimination waits for them around the corner.”
According to the complaint, after Cerveilli emailed Phyllis Young, the owner of the Hawaii B&B about a potential room, she was initially told there was an availability. When Cervelli disclosed she was bringing a same-sex partner, Young replied, “Are you both lesbians?” The owner then refused boarding, saying she was uncomfortable with having lesbians in her home.
The Hawaii First Circuit Court ruled for the same-sex couple in April 2013. Although Aloha B&B appealed to the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, that court affirmed the lower court ruling. Last year, the Hawaii Supreme Court refused to hear that decision.
But the Aloha Bed & Breakfast wasn’t done. Represented by the anti-LGBT legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, the businesses filed in October 2018 a petition for certiorari before the Supreme Court, citing a First Amendment right to refuse service to same-sex couples for religious reasons.
“The Commission officially labeled her religious beliefs unlawful ‘discrimination’ despite the fact that Mrs. Young declines to rent bedrooms in her family home to any romantic partners other than a married man and women — Hawaii’s only recognized form of marriage in 2007,” the petition says. “For this ‘crime’ of being a faithful Catholic, the Commission sought punitive damages and statutory penalties that could cause Mrs. Young to lose her home.”
ADF also asserted Aloha Bed & Breakfast’s Fourteenth Amendment right to due process was violated because the establishment, which rents out 1-3 rooms in the owner’s personal home, wasn’t given fair notice Hawaii civil rights law would apply to her.
In a filing last month responding to the ADF petition, Lambda Legal disputed Aloha Bed & Breakfast suffered harm under the First Amendment.
“Aloha B&B’s accusation that the Commission engaged in a ten-year campaign of religious hostility is a work of pure fiction,” the filing says. “To begin, it completely ignores that it was Ms. Cervelli and Ms. Bufford — private parties — who suffered discrimination by Aloha B&B and thereafter filed this civil action. And, unlike the authority relied upon by Aloha B&B, it was a circuit court — not the Commission — that found Aloha B&B liable for violating the public accommodations law.”
The Supreme Court’s decision to deny certiorari to Aloha Bed & Breakfast comes nearly a year after justices issued a narrow ruling for Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, who was penalized under Colorado law for refusing service to a same-sex couple. Although the Supreme Court didn’t issue a First Amendment right to discriminate as Phillips requested, the court ruled for baker based on the narrow facts of the case, finding anti-religion bias on the Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
Fifteen months after firing all members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, President Trump has restaffed the advisory body with nine new appointments.
The Department of Health & Human Services confirmed the new appointments to PACHA morning Thursday morning after letters went out last week informing the new members of their appointments.
Brett P. Giroir, HHS assistant secretary for health, said in a statement the new members “will play a critical role” in responding to HIV/AIDS in the wake of Trump’s recently announced plan to end new HIV infections by 2030.
“More than 1 million Americans are living with HIV and nearly 40,000 are newly diagnosed with the virus each year,” Dr. Giroir said. “Working together, we have the opportunity to tackle some big issues, and I know our new members are up to the task.”
The new members are come from variety of professions, including the pharmaceutical industry, activism and academia.
Gregg Alton, chief patient officer for Gilead Sciences, Inc.;
Wendy Holman, CEO and Co-Founder of Ridgeback Biotherapeutics;
Marc Meachem, head of External Affairs North America for ViiV Healthcare;
Rafaelé Roberto Narváez, co-founder and director of Health Programs for Latinos Salud;
Michael Saag, professor of medicine and associate dean for global health at UAB School of Medicine and director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Center for AIDS Research;
John Sapero. office chief for the HIV prevention program at the Arizona Department of Health Services;
Robert Schwartz, head of Dermatology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School;
Justin Smith, aPh.D. Candidate at Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University; and
Ada Stewart, lead provider and HIV specialist at Eau Claire (South Carolina) Cooperative Health Centers.
The new members will join Carl Schmid, deputy director of the AIDS Institute, and John Wiesman, secretary of health in Washington State, who were already serving as co-chairs.
Created in 1995, PACHA has provided advice to the U.S. presidents on policy and research to promote effective treatment and prevention for HIV — maintaining the goal of finding a cure.
But PACHA has languished in the Trump administration. In June 2017, six members of the advisory council appointed during the Obama administration resigned in protest over the perceived inaction from Trump on HIV/AIDS.
Cited by the six members as evidence of inaction was Trump’s failure to appoint a director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, a position that still remains vacant to this day.
Six months later, as first reported by the Washington Blade, Trump terminated the remaining members of the council without explanation via letters sent to them via FedEx.
PACHA was entirely vacant for an entire year, but that changed in December as the Trump administration seemed to have awakened on HIV/AIDS.
In a speech recognizing gay people as among the victims of the epidemic, Secretary of Health & Human Services Alex Azar announced the new co-chairs for PACHA.
In the next month, Trump announced a new initiative during his State of the Union a new initiative to end new HIV infections in the United States by 2030. Trump’s fiscal year 2020 budget seeks $300 million for domestic HIV/AIDS to fulfill that commitment (although global programs are facing a steep cut).
The new members of PACHA will likely provide advice to the administration on pursuing Trump’s stated goal to beat HIV by 2030. After all, achieving that goal will require a multi-year sustained effort, not just additional money found in a single budget request.
PACHA will also have an additional goal: Updating the National AIDS Strategy developed under the Obama administration..
The 2010 strategy, which enumerated gay and bisexual men as groups vulnerable to the disease, is due for an update in 2020. The update is expected to reassess the epidemic domestically and make new goals in combatting it.
It remains to be seen what recommendation PACHA will make. A progress report from the Trump administration last year adopted Obama-era goals in combatting HIV/AIDS, which includes reducing the rate of new diagnoses among gay and bisexual men.
With court orders barring President Trump from enforcing his transgender military ban out of the way, the Defense Department late Tuesday unveiled its plan to make the policy a reality, announcing it would begin April 12.
A 15-page memo signed by David Norquirst, who’s performing the duties of deputy secretary of defense, spells out the timeline, procedures and potential exemptions for implementing the plan ordered by Trump and created by former Defense Secretary James Mattis.
As stated on the first page of the memo, the new policy “is effective April 12, 2019.” On the date, the policy of open transgender service as implemented June 30, 2016 during the Obama administration will come to an end after nearly three years.
The memo takes great pains to demonstrate the policy isn’t a ban because it allows transgender people to enlist, provided they have no diagnosis of gender dysphoria and are willing to serve in their biological sex.
“When a standard, requirement, or policy depends on whether the individual is a male or a female (e.g., medical fitness for duty; physical fitness and body fat standards; berthing, bathroom, and shower facilities; and uniform and grooming standards), all persons will be subject to the standard, requirement or policy associated with their biological sex,” the memo says.
The memo also includes an exemption to the ban in certain circumstances. These cases include a transgender person with gender dysphoria who enters into a contract to enlist before the new policy takes effect and has remained stable in their gender identity for 18 months.
“A history of gender dysphoria is disqualifying, unless, as certified by a licensed mental health provider, the applicant has been stable without clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning for 18 months,” the memo says.
As outlined in the Mattis plan last year, that provision would suggest transgender people in the military who came out during the current policy would be able to stay in the armed forces.
According to the Williams Institute at University of California, Los Angeles, an estimated 15,500 transgender people are in the armed forces. A 2016 RAND Corp. study came up with a smaller number, estimating between 1,320 to 6,630 are currently on active duty.
Transgender people who obtain an exemption also appear to be eligible for transition-related care, including gender reassignment surgery, through the military health care system.
“Service members who are exempt may continue to receive all medically necessary treatment, as defined in DoDI 1300.28,” which is the policy outlined during the Obama administration when former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter first implemented transgender military service.
Individuals won’t be eligible for an exemption, however, in other situations, such as having “a history of cross-sex hormone therapy or a history of sex reassignment or genital reconstruction surgery is disqualifying.”
Moreover, a waiver system seems to be part of the policy. These waivers will be granted “in whole or in part, to the requirements in this attachment in individual cases,” the memo says.
Transgender advocates shredded the plan as a discriminatory effort to prohibit qualified individuals from joining the armed forces.
Harper Jean Tobin, director of policy for the National Center for Transgender Equality, said in a statement the policy represents a “looming purge” and “an unprecedented step backward in the social and civil progress of our country and our military.”
“Throughout our nation’s history, we have seen arbitrary barriers in our military replaced with inclusion and equal standards,” Tobin said, “This is the first time in American history such a step forward has been reversed, and it is a severe blow to the military and to the nation’s values.”
Aaron Belkin, director of the San Francisco-based Palm Center, told the Washington Blade the waivers to the ban aren’t significant and the policy as a whole amounts to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
“This is a ban that affects all transgender troops in a similar way that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ affected gay and lesbian troops,” Belkin said. “Now we know that during ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ that didn’t mean that every gay and lesbian person was fired and the same phenomenon is going to be true here, where the transgender ban will burden all transgender troops, but that doesn’t mean they’ll all be fired.”
Belkin estimated 10 percent of transgender troops currently in the military have received a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and said “those folks are grandfathered in under the new policy.”
“But it’s really important to remember for those people, they are serving under a double standard that applies only to them, and they’re serving at the discretion at the secretary of defense,” Belkin said. “For all other service members, they have basically job protections. For trans troops, if the secretary decides tomorrow, we don’t want grandfather clause to apply anymore, then trans troops are out.”
The Pentagon unveiled the policy on the same day the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Advocates & Defenders filed a brief in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals against its implementation, arguing one court injunction remains in place against the Trump policy.
Jennifer Levi, GLAD’s transgender rights project director, said in a statement the implementation of the Pentagon’s policy was unlawful.
“Not only does the Trump-Pence transgender military ban violate the Constitution, but now the administration is also defying a court order,” Levi said, “With brazen disregard for the judicial process, the Pentagon is prematurely and illegally rolling out a plan to implement the ban when a court injunction remains in place prohibiting them from doing so.
Speier in a statement slammed Trump and his administration for moving forward with a policy undermining and disregarding the service of those troops.
“I would like to know what it is that the President is so afraid of? Transgender troops have served for decades and carried out multiple deployments, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, to protect our country and freedoms,” Speier said. “These tough, brave servicemembers have never used bone spurs as an excuse to dodge their duty and service to our country. We owe them our gratitude, not government-sanctioned discrimination. This policy is malicious, demeaning and destructive and it does not serve our country’s interests. I will fight it with every fiber of my being.”
Pending before the U.S. House is legislation Speier introduced that would block the transgender military ban. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) has introduced a companion bill in the U.S. Senate.
Tobin called on Congress to take action and reverse the Pentagon in the aftermath of the unveiling of the new policy.
“The Trump Administration is built on demonizing minority groups; reversing the civil rights gains of immigrants, people of color, women, and the LGBTQ movement will forever remain the hallmarks of their time in office,” Tobin said. “That is why Congress must act now and secure the fate of nearly 15,000 transgender troops. We cannot let an incompetent administration guided by a petulant bigot stand as the mascot of our time. History is watching Congress and will judge them harshly for inaction. That is why we must act swiftly to protect transgender troops, our military, and the dignity of our own legacy.”
The U.S. Senate last week approved three of President Trump’s picks for the judiciary — each of whom have anti-LGBT records — and in some cases the judges were confirmed from Senate Republicans who say they support LGBT rights.
The Senate confirmed Allison Jones Rushing of North Carolina to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fourth Circuit, Chad Readler of Ohio to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit and Eric Murphy of Ohio as U.S. Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit.
Each of three new judges has issues in their on civil rights troubling to many observers, including aspects of the record related to LGBT rights.
Rushing, who at 37 is now the youngest federal circuit judge in the United States, once had an internship at the anti-LGBT legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, which has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
ADF has filed lawsuits seeking to bar transgender people from using restroom consistent with their gender identity and argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who sought a First Amendment right to refuse to make wedding cakes for same-sex couple based on religious objections.
Rushing, who also clerked for U.S. Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, also spoke in favor of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which barred federal recognition of same-sex marriage, when it was litigated before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013. The Supreme Court ended up striking down the anti-gay statute.
Despite Rushing’s record, all three Republican senators on the record in support of same-sex marriage — Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Lisa Murkowksi (R-Alaska) — voted for Rushing’s confirmation.
Vanita Gupta, CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights, said in a statement Rushing’s confirmation brings bias and inexperience to the Fourth Circuit.
“Her inexperience is only outmatched by her clear bias – as evidenced by Rushing’s work with Alliance Defending Freedom, an extremist organization listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center,” Gupta said. “Rushing has denounced marriage equality, opposed remedies for discriminatory lending practices, and rejected efforts to end housing discrimination against domestic and sexual violence survivors. Her record clearly shows she will not be a fair and independent judge – a reality with dire consequences for Fourth Circuit cases and the American people.”
Readler, who until recently was acting assistant attorney general for the U.S. Justice Department for the Civil Division, faced opposition to his confirmation based on mostly on his signature on Trump’s administration briefs arguing protections for pre-existing conditions under the Affordable Care Act should be struck down.
But Readler, who also defended Trump’s travel ban on mostly Muslim countries and the family separation policy for immigrants seeking asylum at the border, also built a record defending the Trump administration’s anti-LGBT legal policy.
Readler penned his name to legal briefs defending President Trump’s transgender military ban as well as voluntarily briefs arguing gay workers aren’t protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars sex discrimination in employment, and Phillips in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case.
Collins broke with her caucus and voted against Reader’s confirmation, citing his legal work against protections for pre-existing conditions, but she did vote to invoke cloture on his confirmation. Portman and Murkowski both voted to confirm Readler.
Tom Perez, chair of the Democratic National Committee, denounced Readler’s confirmation in a statement after the vote.
“A vote for Chad Readler is a vote to take away protections for people with pre-existing conditions,” Perez said. “It’s as simple as that. Republicans have shown their true colors: They’ve confirmed a judge who has a long and disturbing record of attacking people’s health care, voting rights, and civil rights. He’ll drag us backwards on every issue – from criminal justice and consumer protection to LGBTQ rights and the treatment of immigrants. Voters will not forget this betrayal next November.”
Murphy, who until recently was solicitor general of Ohio, defended in court the state’s ban same-sex marriage in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, which despite his efforts led the Supreme Court to rule in favor of marriage equality nationwide in 2015.
Collins, Portman and Murkowski each voted for Murphy’s confirmation. In the case of Portman, who has a gay son, the senator voted for a nominee that would have deprived his son of right to marry had Murphy’s argument succeeded before the Supreme Court.
Sasha Buchert, senior attorney at Lambda Legal, took a note of Portman’s vote in a statement condemning the Murphy confirmation.
“Today’s vote to confirm Eric Murphy was yet another example of how little concern Senate Republicans have for the safety and security of the LGBT community, and their broader disdain for civil rights,” Buchert said. “The fact that even Sen. Portman, who came out publicly in support of marriage equality, could not bring himself to vote against this nominee demonstrates the extent to which Senate Republicans have completely abdicated their duty to provide meaningful advice and consent. Our federal courts will be the worse off for generations to come.”
News the “London patient” has become the second-person ever found in remission of HIV has been hailed as a medical triumph, but new developments with pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, could mark additional steps in combatting the disease.
In the works for potential approval in the next couple of years is medicine based on PrEP, but for long-acting treatment, such as an injectable drug and antibodies that block HIV infection as well as PrEP-on-demand for use on a case-by-case basis for sexual encounters.
Anthony Fauci, an immunologist and head of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Disease, said during an interview with the Washington Blade a number of studies are ongoing to develop drugs for patients at risk of contracting HIV so they don’t need to take a pill every day.
“People sometimes get pill fatigue, and it becomes onerous to have to take the medicine every single day of your life, particularly a medicine that you know is important for a disease that’s potentially lethal,” Fauci said.
One alternative evaluated in clinical trials, Fauci said, is a long-acting injectable drug version of PrEP a patient would take at first take every four weeks or so, and then every two months, and then every four to six months.
“So instead of having the obligation of remembering to take a pill every day, you hopefully, we’re not there yet, can have an injection that you get maybe two or three times a year to allow you to essentially suppress the virus,” Fauci said.
The same drug, Fauci said, would be able to work for both HIV prevention and treatment, so patients both with HIV looking to suppress the viral loads and patients at risk of contracting HIV would have use for the medication.
Fauci said the injectable drug is “the most common and optimistic one and promising one,” but other options are in the works.
A large study, Fauci said, is taking place in developing countries, mostly in Southern Africa, where individuals would have to use a device intermittently about every eight weeks that would transfer a broadly neutralizing antibody, or a natural protein, that acts against HIV.
“And you give that to people who are at risk of getting infected, so that’s for prophylaxsis,” Fauci said. “So instead of taking that single pill every day to prevent infection, you can get an infusion of any antibody about every eight to 12 weeks or so to prevent infection.”
Another possible alternative, Fauci said, is PrEP-on-demand that individuals would take on an intermittent basis when they expect they would have a sexual encounter.
But Fauci cautioned PrEP-on-demand is “a little bit risky” because it might require expecting a sexual encounter before it happens and “often people, they get into situations where they can’t anticipate what’s going to happen.”
Carlos del Rio, chair of the Hubert Department of Global Health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, told the Blade new medications would be effective as a compliment to existing treatment.
“I think it’s another strategy,” del Rio said. “I think it’s something that we can clearly do, and I think it’s something that needs to be looked at. For some populations that may be the way to go. If I was infected, maybe I’d rather take a pill a day, but some other people may want to get an injection once a month.”
For each of the possible medications, Fauci said the timeline for approval is “tough to say” with trials ongoing. The medication, he said, won’t be made available to the public for “at least a year or two.”
“Nonetheless, that PrEP-on-demand is a study that is being conducted to see how effective it is,” Fauci said. “It might be as effective as a pill a day. We don’t know. Hopefully it will be because we could save people the obligation of taking a pill every day.”
“You’d have to have a clinical trial that shows that it’s highly effective in preventing HIV infection, or, in the case of the people who are infected, and using it as a treatment, you’d have to show that compared to taking a pill every day that the people who get the injection every several months, they suppress their virus as well as if you take a pill every day,” Fauci said. “That’s the data that are generally end points of the study.”
James Driscoll, a Nevada-based HIV activist who supported Donald Trump for president in 2016, said the long-acting medicine for HIV prevention and treatment is “an essential tool” for combatting the disease.
“Current efforts are not doing the job,” Driscoll said. “An aggressive campaign to get out long-acting PrEP, will reduce new infections, but also increase AIDS awareness and lower stigma.”
The Food & Drug Administration, Driscoll said, should move expeditiously on the approving the medication.
“In the 1990s, FDA delays in approving new treatments resulted in unnecessary deaths,” Driscoll said. “It is crucial that President Trump and Secretary Azar stress to FDA the urgency of avoiding the errors of the past with this critical new weapon in the war against AIDS.”
The new medications are being studied as news recently broke in The New York Times an individual known as the “London patient” has become the second person found to have been in remission after HIV infection. (The first was the “Berlin Patient,” whose apparent remission was announced in 2008.) The treatment consisted of a bone marrow transplant from donors with a genetic makeup resistant to HIV infection.
Del Rio, however, said the treatment provided to the “London Patient” is “not feasible” for widespread treatment of HIV.
“That’s a very nice science discovery, but it’s not a feasible result,” del Rio said. “You are not going to be able to do bone marrow transplants for 35 million people globally. It’s a good science study, we’re learning a lot from it, but this is not something that can be implemented.”
The achievement, del Rio said, was comparable to John Glenn becoming the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.
“From that to say that we’re going to be traveling in space, all of us, is not the case,” del Rio said.
Del Rio said the existing medication and long-acting treatments in development, on the other hand, are practical in combatting HIV.
“But at the end of the day, we do need to find a cure, and I think research and cure has advanced with this patient, but there’s still a lot of research to be done.”
Development of these medications to treat and prevent HIV occur as President Trump announced in his State of the Union address his administration’s plan to end new HIV infections by 2030.
The effort will target areas in the United States where new infections are taking place: 48 counties in the United States, D.C., and San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as seven states where the epidemic is mostly in rural areas. The seven states are Missouri, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina.
Fauci said the development of alternative treatment for HIV and prevention “certainly could wind up being helpful” in achieving the administration’s goal of ending new infections.
“Obviously, if it’s an improved way to treat the disease, any improvements in that always help the program that you’re involved with,” Fauci said. “Right now, we think we can do with the currently available drugs. If we get a situation where it’s more user-friendly.”
The private sector, Fauci said, is “absolutely an essential component” of developing long-acting PrEP because they’re responsible for manufacturing the medication. For PrEP, the manufacturer of the drug is Gilead, but other companies, such as ViiV, are involved.
“Although the NIH does the research that develops the concept and often does the clinical trial, the fact is it’s absolutely essential to partner with the pharmaceutical industry,” Fauci said.
Gilead didn’t respond to repeated requests from the Washington Blade to comment for this article, nor did ViiV respond to a request for comment.
The new drugs are being developed amid calls for Gilead to make the existing product generic, and therefore less expensive for purchase. Although Gilead offers a coupon for Truvada and many insurance companies cover the medication, the average retail cost is $2,000 a bottle and many say the existing mediation is out of reach.
Leading the charge calling on Gilead to make Truvada generic is New York City Speaker Corey Johnson, who’s openly gay and HIV positive. During a news conference last month at an AIDS Memorial Park event, Johnson said the current system is unfair, according to the New York Daily News.
“It’s life or death for people who do not get access to this live-saving medication that they need,” Johnson was quoted as saying. “Other countries pay $100 year for PrEP. Americans end up paying more than $20,000 a year for the same medication.”
Asked about Gilead making Truvada generic, Fauci said “whenever you can get a drug at a less expensive price, it always helps matters,” but declined to comment specifically on whether Gilead should make that move.
“I can’t comment on that,” Fauci said. “That’s a legal issue. It’s purely legalize to determine if that can be done. I really can’t comment on it.”
Del Rio said some Truvada drugs are “already becoming generic” and that will “help us decrease costs of these medications, right?”
A coalition of 161 major businesses —including Apple, Coca-Cola and Target Corp. — has formed to urge Congress to ban anti-LGBT discrimination with passage of the Equality Act, the Human Rights Campaign announced Friday.
The initiative, known as the Business Coalition for the Equality Act, was first launched in 2016 with 60 members, but now includes nearly three times that number of businesses.
Forming a coalition organized by the Human Rights Campaign, these companies operate in all 50 states, have headquarters in 26 states, more than $3.7 trillion in combined revenue and more than 8.5 million employees in the United States.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced on Thursday the Equality Act, which would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include LGBT people, will be introduced next week. Capitol Hill sources have to the Blade the bill will be introduced on Wednesday.
Pelosi has already said passage of the Equality Act will be a priority for the New Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.
Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement the 161 businesses “are sending a loud and clear message that the time has come for full federal equality.”
“By standing with the LGBTQ community and joining the fight to pass the Equality Act, these companies are demanding full federal equality for the more than 11 million LGBTQ people in this country who deserve to earn a living, raise their families and live their lives free from discrimination,” Griffin said. “These leading employers know that protecting their employees and customers from discrimination isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s also good for business.”
Kevin Walling, chief human resources officer of the one of thew new coalition member Hershey’s, said in a statement the Equality Act is consistent with his company’s mission.
“At The Hershey Company, we recognize that our talented employees are our business edge, and that retaining our place as the market leader in our category requires the best talent,” Walling said.“To help us achieve our goal of recruiting the nation’s top employees, we know that we must foster a business culture that is welcoming to all, regardless of sexual orientation, or gender, or race, or other status. By the same token, if our nation is to compete on a global stage, our federal laws must ensure that all employees are treated with the same respect. That is why The Hershey Company supports the Human Rights Campaign and the Equality Act.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Thursday during her weekly news conference the Equality Act, legislation that would enact long sought-after federal protections against anti-LGBT legislation, would be introduced next week.
Pelosi said the Equality Act would be introduced in the same week as legislation intended to protect DREAMers, or young undocumented immigrants, and other immigrants from deportation in the aftermath of President Trump’s revocation of their protections.
“Next week, will be launching our Equality Act to end discrimination for the LGBTQ community and we will be launching our initiative to protect the DREAMers and temporary-protected status persons in our country,” Pelosi said.
Touting the new Democratic House majority’s achievement in advancing background checks for gun purchases and government reform legislation, Pelosi also said legislation for women workers ensuring equal pay for equal work and reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act would come later this month.
“We said these things during the campaign, and we’re getting it done and we are telling the public about the paths that we are on to get them turned into law to make a difference in the lives of the American people,” Pelosi said.
As it was previously introduced, the Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act to ban anti-LGBT discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, education, federal programs and credit.
The bill also seeks to update federal law to include sex in the list of protected classes in public accommodation in addition to expanding the definition of public accommodations to include retail stores, banks, transportation services and health care services. Further, the Equality Act would establish that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act — a 1994 law aimed at protecting religious liberty — can’t be used to enable anti-LGBT discrimination.
After the news conference, Pelosi told the Blade “we’ll see” when asked when she’d bring legislation to a floor vote, but was confident the House would approve it. (The Republican-controlled Senate is a different story.)
“As we go along, it’s the tempo of the floor, but it is a priority for us,” Pelosi said. “I’m very pleased because we have a great deal of outside support for it, which I hope will help us pass it in the Senate. We most certainly will pass it overwhelmingly in the House.”
In previous years, the Equality Act was introduced in the House by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and in the Senate by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.). The Washington Blade has requests in with those lawmakers’ office seeking additional details about the introduction.
A federal judge in Maryland lifted on Thursday his order against President Trump’s transgender military ban, bringing the administration one step closer toward enforcing the policy.
In a six-page order, U.S. District Judge George Russell III, an Obama appointee, rules he must lift his order “because the court is bound by the Supreme Court’s decision” that essentially green lighted Trump’s policy.
Russell was one of four district judges to have issued an order against the transgender military ban, which Trump announced in a series of tweets pledging to bar transgender people from the armed forces “in any capacity.”
But in January, the Supreme Court lifted two of these orders issued by judges in Ninth Circuit, essentially allowing the military to enforce Trump’s ban as litigation against it proceeds through the courts.
Weeks earlier, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had sided with Trump on the transgender military ban, issuing an order against the injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
Although courts have now lifted each of the initial injunctions, transgender advocates say the order from Kollar-Kotelly remains in effect, keeping openly transgender service in place for the time being.
The U.S. Circuit of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has yet to issue the mandate on its decision, which gives the legal team supporting transgender plaintiffs the chance to seek “en banc” review before the full court. Transgender advocates say the absence of the mandate keeps the Kollar-Kotelly order intact for now.
But with the Supreme Court lifting the orders in two other cases, it’s hard to see how the D.C. Circuit would change its mind and take up “en banc” review of its case. After all, the Supreme Court is the superior court, and lower courts are bound by its order to allow enforcement of the ban as litigation proceeds.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the case against the transgender ban in Maryland, sought to convince Russell after the Supreme Court to at least keep the injunction for each of the five plaintiffs in the case, known as Stone v. Trump.
But Russell says in his order the Supreme Court made no such exceptions in its decision on the Ninth Circuits orders, which compels him to deny the request.
“The Supreme Court implicitly rejected the option to narrowly tailor its stays so that the preliminary injunctions were still in effect as to the individual plaintiffs,” Russell writes. “Further, the Stockman and Karnoski plaintiffs include transgender individuals who intend to join the military…like certain plaintiffs in this case. The court, therefore, cannot materially distinguish plaintiffs in this case from those for whom the Supreme Court rejected a narrow tailoring of the stays.”
Joshua Block, senior staff attorney for the ACLU said in a statement “while not surprising, this decision is deeply disappointing for our clients and for transgender service members across the nation.”
“Each and every claim made by President Trump to justify this ban can be easily debunked by the conclusions drawn from the Department of Defense’s own review process,” Block said. “We will continue to fight against this discriminatory policy and the Trump administration’s attacks on transgender people. Our clients are brave men and women who should be able to continue serving their country ably and honorably without being discriminated against by their own commander in chief.”
Jessica Maxwell, a Pentagon spokesperson, said the military will continue to allow openly transgender service for the time being, but that should change soon.
“The department is pleased with the district court’s decision to stay the final injunction against the department’s proposed policy. The 2016 policy will remain in effect until the department issues further guidance, which will be forthcoming in the near future.