For many years, the sight of Pearl Hart’s lavender Auburn car pulling up outside the courthouse struck fear into her opponents. Known for her uncompromising nature and fierce defense of those who could not defend themselves, Pearl Hart was not a lawyer prosecutors ever wanted to face.
She defended gay rights all her life, often without charging a fee. She was unpopular with the establishment, being, in the words of the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame, “too liberal and too honest to ever win the backing of a corrupt and prejudiced political system.”Within the LGBTQ+ community, however, she was regarded as a heroine, a woman who would protect their rights at any cost, and the first lesbian lawyer to appear before the Supreme Court. Her name is still spoken with reverence in the lesbian bars of Chicago, and more publically, her name lives on in the city’s Gerber/Hart Library, which is devoted to LGBTQ+ books and archives.
Hart was born in Traverse City, Michigan in 1890 to Jewish immigrant parents, the fifth daughter of David and Rebecca Harchovsky. Her father was a rabbi who, soon after her birth, moved his family to Chicago, where he served a congregation on the southwest side. Hart herself would later say that this early exposure to poverty and her parents’ dedication to helping others formed the basis of her lifelong dedication to social justice. She recalled that she was a much-loved child, spoiled on occasion, who was encouraged in everything she did.
The young Pearl adopted the name Hart when she began her professional career. She found it easier and more convenient but never otherwise distanced herself from her origins as the child of immigrant parents, later vehemently arguing in the Supreme Court that “I defend the foreign born against the present deportation hysteria because of a consciousness that it was the foreign born and their children who built this nation of ours and who have been its most loyal partisans.”Hart trained as a stenographer before studying at John Marshall Law School and was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1914, after which she became one of the first women to specialize in criminal law, serving as a probation officer from 1915 to 1917.
Soon afterward, she met Blossom Churan, the daughter of a law officer with whom Hart shared an office. The two entered a relationship, one which turned serious after the deaths of Churan’s father and Hart’s mother, from whom they were careful to conceal their connection. Hart never denied that she was a lesbian, but neither did she flaunt it, especially during her early years when she was fighting to establish her professional reputation.
Her five foot eleven, two hundred pound frame made her an imposing presence. She was described by journalist I.F. Stone as a “big benevolent Brunnhilde of a woman,”but only to those she supported. To those facing her across a courtroom, she was a terrifying spectacle, utterly ruthless and laser-focused behind her heavy-rimmed glasses. Hart dedicated herself to supporting and defending those who could not help themselves and became the first woman appointed as a public defender in the Morals court, which dealt with cases of prostitution, immoral or homosexual conduct, child abuse, and adultery. She achieved what her friend, journalist Studs Terkel, termed a remarkable acquittal record of over 90%.
By 1937, Hart was widely respected professionally and became a founding member and secretary of the National Lawyers Guild, which uniquely for the time was fully racially integrated. The 1940’s saw her become a fully-fledged civil rights activist serving on the board of the civil rights bail fund, which sought to legally challenge racial segregation and discrimination in matters such as housing and healthcare. She also founded the Midwest Association for the Protection of the Foreign Born, to protect those being threatened with deportation.
In her personal life, by 1947 Hart was proposing to live with Churan at 2821 North Pine Grove Avenue, in what was then the heart of gay Chicago. Churan, though, had taken as a lover the prominent physician Dr. Bertha Isaacs, and rather than separate, Hart proposed that they all live together, which they did in what Hart’s later lover Valerie Taylor called a “rather gothic existence”until Churan’s death.
All three women kept their lives compartmentalized and, in the words of Taylor, “Neighbors saw three aging women, two with successful careers, one who stayed at home. Out of town relatives or friends stayed at nearby hotels.”
Despite this, Hart was increasingly living openly as a lesbian, and from the 1960s onward, she focused on ensuring that the rights of the LGBTQ+ community were legally protected. The Lavender Scare, termed a “government witch hunt (to) expose closeted queers,” sought to expose LGBTQ+ individuals in order that they could be dismissed from the government, civil service and military. It greatly angered her. Ms. Hart became the go-to lawyer for the LGBTQ+ community, many of whom were subject to these entrapment police “stings.” She usually defended these cases for nothing or for only a minimal fee.
She also co-founded the Mattachine Society in the Midwest, which sought to ensure that LGBTQ+ individuals were aware of their legal rights and the protection that she and others could offer. The society also played a key role in bringing the plight of their members to wider attention, with one newsletterurging the people of Chicago to come “out of the closets and into the streets,”as Hart would protect them (the newsletter can be found dated May 1970 in the Pearl Hart Papers, Box 10 Folder 7).
She also consistently defended those caught up in the Red Scare, held without bail, and under threat of deportation. Most famously, she defended the Chicago men George Witkovich and James Keller, who were held for refusing to answer questions about their relationship with the Communist party at their deportation hearing. The case was ultimately heard by the Supreme Court on May 19, 1957. Hart won a hard-fought victory that meant that evidence of Communist Party affiliation could not be sought after a person was ordered to be deported. Such a public triumph on a national scale gave Hart a platform from which to campaign for LGBTQ+ rights on a grander level.
Hart became, for many, the public face of LGBTQ+ protection in Chicago and a champion of the underdog. Known as the “Guardian Angel of Chicago’s Gay Community,” she practiced law for over 60 years, prevented from becoming a judge by the establishment with which she remained consistently unpopular. She didn’t stop her crusade to make the world better and more equal until a short while before her death in 1975.
Today, her dog-eared photo still graces many a Chicago bar. In the words of the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame – into which she was inducted posthumously in 1992 – she is remembered for her“inheritance,” which it defines as “the love and respect of thousands of men and women whom she helped, and a society somewhat better for her effort – which is all she wanted.”
American Library Association President Emily Drabinski was in Washington for the PFLAG National “Learning with Love” Convention, whose timing and theme are particularly apposite this year given the escalating fight this week on Capitol Hill over book bans.
She connected with the Washington Blade Saturday morning to discuss matters including how best to combat efforts to pull books from library shelves and ways to help restore public faith in the these institutions along with the qualified professionals serving in them.
Drabinski on Wednesday was named to the Out 100 2023 list, which celebrates the year’s “most impactful and influential LGBTQ+ people” and has included some of the most famous and celebrated public figures.
The honor comes about 16 months after Drabinski was named ALA president and then immediately earned right-wing backlash for a celebratory tweet in which she reflected on the significance of her election as a lesbian with progressive views.
Among the first to speak out against her over the tweet was a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, the anti-LGBTQ group that promotes book bans, opposes public support and funding for libraries and other institutions, and is considered a far-right extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It was not long before elected Republican officials followed suit.
These critics often argue for their right to hold and express political opinions as they wish while claiming that others are unsuited for high profile roles because they hold or have shared views they find objectionable, those that are left-of-center, said Drabinski, who acknowledged homophobia also played a role in the outrage directed at her.
At the same time, Drabinski stressed that her focus remains on the responsibilities of leading the ALA, many of whose 49,000+ members have also been personally targeted by school boards, elected officials, and advocacy groups like Moms for Liberty.
The ALA is not alone in raising the alarm over the alignment of these parties and interests in favor of censoring certain ideas and voices, a movement which according to PEN America has led to an unprecedented number and range of titles being pulled from library shelves across the country.
“These efforts are a threat to student’s rights and freedoms,” according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education, whose Office of Civil Rights last month appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary Matt Nosanchuk whose duties include responding to book bans, taking “enforcement action when necessary.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
American Library Association President Emily Drabinski October 21, 2023 Interview with the Washington Blade’s White House correspondent, Christopher Kane.
Washington Blade: Reading about the backlash you encountered, I was reminded of Gigi Sohn’s confirmation process in the Senate and how ugly that got. I’m curious to hear how your experience with this may have impacted the way that you look at whether and how to share your political views publicly. And more broadly, as the issues that are top of mind and front and center for ALA are becoming really politically fraught, how you look at the intersection of politics with your work?
Emily Drabinski: It’s a question I think about constantly. You know, I think everybody has a political viewpoint, all of us do, and my political views inform how I think about the world and how I explain the world to myself, but the American Library Association isn’t about me. The status of American libraries is not about me. Attacks on the right to read and and libraries in general, they might have my name on them, but they’re clearly not about me.
What’s been frustrating is to see the whole entire Association — which is about what libraries are about, which is building community; it’s about collective action and collectives of people coming together. [So], to see the focus on me as an individual has been really distressing.
It’s also not lost on me which ideas you can have, which identities you can have, or which you can write — like what political viewpoint will get you this kind of blowback. And it’s not everybody, right? It’s only some of us. You know, they’re all about freedom of thought and they’re all against cancellation of individuals for their viewpoints, and yet they don’t extend that to people from across the political spectrum.
Blade: You mentioned the issue of which identities are allowed. The homophobia seems not to be lingering beneath the surface; this is really tinged with homophobia.
Drabinski: Absolutely. When the Montana Library Commission voted to not renew their membership with the American Library Association, that was about my queer identity as much as it was about anything else.
Regardless of what they said, when you listen back to the hearing, there were that someone on the call quoting Leviticus — which felt like, you know, so, so regressive, and a kind of conversation about queer identity that I had, that I remember us having in the 90s. And I thought we were in a different kind of world, but it’s like the book bans — there are obvious attacks on black people, people of color, indigenous people, and LGBTQ+ people. And so it’s no surprise that they’ve come from for me also, I suppose.
Blade: Did you meet with lawmakers when you were in Washington, and can you tell me about what your advocacy work has looked like recently?
Drabinski: I did not meet with lawmakers. I was here to be at PFLAG. ALA continues to work with lawmakers, and I think it’s important to say across the political spectrum, you know, we there’s broad bipartisan support for libraries. That’s always been true. And so we work with people from all sides of the aisle around the right to read. So, you know, I don’t want it to seem like the politicization of libraries is coming from the Republican Party in general. I think we all know it’s from a minority of people that don’t represent the broad political spectrum in this country.
Blade: And those voices have become, I think, amplified on social media. You’ve certainly had experiences with Moms for Liberty. I’m curious to hear your thoughts about the group and its influence and maybe some of the ways that that that might be countered, you know, from the left.
Drabinski: I don’t follow the group very closely, you know, just because I think that their work — they want to sort of sow chaos, I think, inside of public institutions, including schools and libraries. They’re very well funded; their funding is difficult to track. They clearly aren’t local, right? You have in many libraries Moms for Liberty groups trying to ban books when they’re not even members of the community.
But I think what we can learn from them is what it means to be loud, right? They have a tiny number of people who are very, very loud and draw a lot of attention and in some cases can drown out the other side at various school and library board meetings. But what I’m seeing on the ground when I travel around the country is that once people understand what is happening in their libraries, they are quick to mobilize against it.
Even in southern Louisiana, right, near the gulf where you had St. Tammany Parish, the story of the attacks on the libraries there which have been definitely driven by these organized groups. [The state’s Attorney General] Jeff Landry [created] a tip line where you can report on your librarians and teachers for distributing, you know, inappropriate materials or whatever. He campaigns on this issue in St. Tammany, but even in St. Tammany, the community is organized to fight back and you see books now making their way back to the shelf.
So, I think that there’s something for us to learn — that we need to be as loud as they are. We know we’ve got numbers on our side. As long as we can get everybody out to the meeting when the decisions are being made, as long as we can get people who are pro-library, pro-reading and pro-freedom, frankly, in positions of authority in local government and on library boards, I think we’re gonna win because poll after poll shows that that nobody’s against children reading. You just can’t be.
Blade: I’m reminded now of your comments during last night’s panel discussion at the PFLAG conference about the importance of these library board elections. Do you think that there’s more work to be done to build out an infrastructure of grassroots organizing around these issues in the same way that Moms for Liberty has done?
Drabinski: Yeah, I think so. I think that’s the way to win, right, is to have densely organized people on the ground who have a vision of a world that’s about equality and equal access to public resources. We have the desire to have people live on our side. Most people want those things. But the one thing I would push back against is the idea that we don’t have organized entities doing that kind of work already. I think we’ve paid less attention to those movements than we should.
So, for example, in St Tammany Queer North Shore is a social group that has been organized around all the things that LGBTQ+ people do, hanging out with each other, going to potlucks, go to parties, or making a float for the Mardi Gras parade — but then they also see what’s happening in their local library and they organize quickly and got a lot of the community out to support the library.
There’s a recent story in Convergence Magazine that talks about a library in Danvers, Massachusetts where they had people organized to protest a drag queen makeup hour, where they were gonna teach you how to put on makeup, which is such a great program, right? And 350 people showed up from the organized labor community, the faith community, the other related movements like the environmental movement, in that area. They showed up en masse to protect the library and formed a human chain, a human wall around a library to keep the 11 protesters away.
So I think sometimes the stories we tell overemphasize the power that groups like Moms for Liberty have, when we have lots of examples that I think get a little less airtime, where you see organized people who care about libraries showing up and and winning.
Blade: There’s also this persistent problem of declining faith in expertise and institutional knowledge. How do you think the media could do a better job of relaying information about these topics?
Drabinski: Every time I see a profile of — you know that profile in the Post of like the 11 people who are behind the vast majority of book ban attempts? I want every one of those profiles to be matched by a profile of a school or public or academic librarian who is doing critical, community based, community focused work to make life better for people.
We’re very activated around the book banners, but we don’t pay enough attention to the parts and places where we’re winning. And so I think a better understanding of what librarians do every day, and what library workers contribute to their community…I see all of this attention being paid to us around the books and stuff. And I want to use this moment to tell the stories of American libraries that are bigger and better and greater than that.
When I go around to libraries and talk to library workers, and they show what they’re doing — everything from a library in Ames, Iowa, [where] you can borrow a pair of reading glasses in the library in case you forgot yours. Like, a little example of the library solving a problem for people and every every library will have like in that same library. And in that library in Ames, there were like 15 other things that were evidence that librarians were solving problems for the community. So I think it’s really important to tell those kinds of stories and they’re a little less sexy, I think, than the meanness, but I think they’re also really important.
That expertise piece, you know, I heard this like stat many years ago about Flickr, the old photo site, the most popular tag on on Flickr was “me,” the word “me,” because people wanted to be able to click on the word and find pictures of themselves. People, right? We curate worlds for ourselves, which is [not shameful]; we all do it.
But what library workers do is they think about everybody at once. They think about the public and think about meeting the needs of the public. So even the “parent’s rights” thing, like I’m a parent. I have rights. I have a child that I want to protect and the idea that by giving my child access to a diverse range of reading materials, which is absolutely a priority in my household, that that would somehow be an attack on someone else’s children. It’s like my librarians know and understand and appreciate publics in a way that nobody else does.
If we could talk more about that public and the service that libraries provide, it would be good for all of us to be thinking about other people rather than so much about our individual solitary worldviews.
I find that when I tell stories about what’s happening in public libraries to people, they’re blown away. Like, there’s a library where you can check out a cotton candy machine in Donnelly Idaho — rural Donnelly, Idaho, a town of like, I don’t know, 4000 people, the vast majority of whom are living below the poverty line.
The library is a public entity that makes it possible for everybody to have a birthday party. And, once a month, they get queer kids together for like after=hours hangout time and they’ve got three or four kids who show up and it’s the only place in the community where they can use the names that they have for themselves and the pronouns that they use for themselves without fear of reprisal. And that’s the work of the library, making that possible.
I think if we could tell more of those stories, of what libraries really do — which is absolutely not distribute pornography — that is not what any library is doing, I absolutely promise you that. It’s not happening.
Blade: For me, the question of who ought to decide things like which materials should be made available to young people and of which ages is settled just with the knowledge that librarians are required to have master’s degrees. But there are many people who refuse to defer to the expertise of medical doctors. Is the kind of storytelling you were describing a way to get around this problem?
Drabinski: Yeah, but you erode trust in public institutions, and you defund them over 40 years of organized disinvestment in the public sector, and then you find that they are weakened. And then you say, this institution is weak and failing, and then you attack it. And we’ve seen this again and again, libraries aren’t the first and we won’t be the last. I think we have a lot to learn from public education, because they came for the teachers at schools first, and now they’ve come for us.
Blade: Absolutely, and in the arts more broadly. I’m thinking of Jesse Helms’s crusade against the National Endowment for the Arts in the 80s.
Drabinski: Totally. we’ve been here before, you know, but I think for a lot of us — I was talking to a couple of other PFLAG-ers this morning, and we can’t believe we’re here again.
Blade: The word “unprecedented” is cropping up a lot lately…
Drabinski: Who doesn’t love a library? Everybody loves the library, right? This attack on a much beloved public institution and the people who steward that institution, that feels unprecedented to me. I had no idea that the world would turn against us in this way; it’s been challenging.
Zak Malamed, a Democrat running for the House seat of embattled U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), spoke with the Washington Blade by phone on Monday about his candidacy in what is expected to be one of the most consequential and closely watched congressional races of 2024.
“My hometown congressional district will make the difference between whether Republicans or Democrats control the House,” in turn determining the fate of legislative protections for the LGBTQ community and solutions to tackle crises like gun violence and the scarcity of affordable housing, he said.
It is not enough, however, just to elect Democrats at a time that calls for a new generation of leadership, Malamed said, including for his would-be constituents whose elected representatives have included “complacent” members of Congress from his own party.
Prior to Santos, New York’s 3rd Congressional District was represented by Tom Suozzi, a Democrat who last year defended Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, calling the measure prohibiting classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity “reasonable” and “common sense.”
Time reported in May that Suozzi, a declared candidate in the race, is “said to be among the party’s favorites for retaking the seat.”
Eight months ahead of the Democratic primary, where he is slated to face off against five other hopefuls including a member of the Nassau County Legislature and a former New York state senator, Malamed said he has “out-raised the entire field.”
This includes the lone Republican challenger who has entered the race as well as Santos, whose reelection campaign recently had to refund more to its donors than it had collected in contributions.
Running the only campaign that is not even partially self-funded, Malamed has also raised more than any candidate from either party vying to unseat the other three GOP incumbents whose House districts include Long Island: U.S. Reps. Nick LaLota, Anthony D’Esposito and Andrew Garbarino.
Malamed is a founder of The Next 50, a group that has helped elect multiple LGBTQ candidates across the country, along with other high profile Democrats like Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.)
“If we take anything constructive away from George Santos being elected to represent this district in Congress, it’s that this district was unequivocally looking for something new — just not someone who lied about being Jewish, lied about having relatives who survived the Holocaust, and lied about starting a nonprofit,” he said.
In the months following Santos’ election in 2022, his constituents would learn their congressman had also fabricated an astonishing number of other details about his life and career, along with the news that he was under investigation by multiple law enforcement agencies for alleged financial crimes.
On Oct. 10, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York charged Santos with a 23-count criminal indictment for conspiracy, wire fraud, false statements, falsification of records, aggravated identity theft and credit card fraud.
A Jewish candidate with deep ties to his district
Ninety-four percent of Jewish voters in Santos’ district said they wanted him to resign according to a Newsday/Sienna College poll in January, which came after news reports revealed Santos’ claims of being “a proud Jew” with grandparents who fled Europe during World War II were bogus.
“The irony of those components of his story is that it’s actually my story, and it’s a big reason why I chose to step up and run, which has only become of greater consequence in this moment when the Jewish people in particular are under great threat in this country,” Malamed said.
He recounted the story of how, 10 years after she tuned into a radio broadcast to hear the U.N. officially recognize the state of Israel for the first time on May 11, 1949, his grandmother relocated from Tel Aviv to Lake Success, N.Y., the village in Great Neck on Long Island where the intergovernmental organization was then headquartered.
The area is also located within the congressional district, one of the nation’s most Jewish, that her grandson is now running to represent in Congress. Malamed, who was born and raised in Great Neck, stressed the seriousness with which he takes the responsibility of doing right by this community, which “has long been a beacon” for Jewish people “nationally and even internationally.”
Especially now, he said, in the aftermath of the deadly terrorist attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, as “antisemitism is skyrocketing” and threats to the security of Israel “are as grave as as they’ve been since my grandmother was listening to that radio address 75 years ago.”
Asked whether he expects Jewish voters in the district will be as monolithic against Santos as they were when answering that survey nine months ago, perhaps in light of his vocal support for Israel in recent weeks, Malamed responded that negative views of the congressman are monolithic among practically all voters in NY-03.
Additionally, he said, even right-leaning Jewish constituents are warming to President Joe Biden and Democratic leadership in Congress because they have seen their staunch support for and allyship with the state of Israel.
Malamed added that “up until, I think, last week, George Santos had more primary opponents than I had,” but Republican candidates have been dropping out of the race as the party “both locally and, as we’ve seen now, nationally, is in utter chaos.”
An antidote to House GOP’s dysfunction and extremism
Recent weeks have seen the Republican led House embroiled in infighting and dysfunction, leaderless 20 days after group of far-right members ousted their speaker, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), in part because he had brokered a deal with Democrats to forestall a government shutdown with a last-minute stop-gap spending bill.
The move came after weeks in which House Republicans had insisted on adding partisan, far-right provisions, many of which were anti-LGBTQ, to appropriations bills that have historically passed with broad bipartisan support — despite the certainty that with these amendments, they would be dead-on-arrival in the Democratic controlled Senate.
Malamed denounced extremism within the House GOP conference, including Santos, who despite being openly-gay has supported legislation attacking drag performances and the transgender community and backed a bill to make the AR-15 the “national gun” of the U.S.
If elected, Malamed said his support for the LGBTQ community will be unwavering and unequivocal,” adding that residents in his district and the American people deserve nothing less from their elected representatives, whether they are Republicans or Democrats.
“I grew up in a time where I’ve seen rights expand, and yet in the past year or two some some rights for Americans are now being stripped and taken away and that absolutely must not happen to the LGBTQ community,” he said.
“We need to make sure that we work to combat discrimination, that we work to expand rights and make sure that our LGBTQ community members feel the support of their leaders and their government.”
The comprehensive report, based on The Trevor Project’s 2023 National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People, presents alarming statistics and underscores the need for targeted mental health support for this vulnerable group.
According to the findings, nearly one-third of LGBTQ+ young people identify as having a disability. These disabilities range from ADHD and learning disorders to physical and autoimmune conditions, with many respondents reporting multiple diagnoses. The data reveals that LGBTQ+ young people with disabilities experience significantly higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts compared to their non-disabled LGBTQ+ peers.
The report highlights a concerning trend: Approximately 65 percent of LGBTQ+ young people with disabilities have faced discrimination due to their disability in the past year. This discrimination is closely linked to increased mental health issues. For instance, those who experienced such discrimination reported higher instances of depression and anxiety, as well as a marked increase in suicide attempts.
Another critical study finding is the positive impact of understanding and inclusive therapy. LGBTQ+ young people who felt their therapist understood their disability reported lower rates of suicide attempts. This underscores the importance of disability-informed mental health services.
The report also sheds light on demographic variations. Older LGBTQ+ individuals and those identifying as transgender, nonbinary, or multisexual reported higher rates of disability. Notably, specific groups, such as queer, asexual, and gender-diverse young people, also showed elevated rates of disability.
Additionally, the survey found the critical role of supportive environments in mitigating mental health risks for LGBTQ+ young people with disabilities. Participants who reported having access to affirming spaces, whether in schools, communities, or online, exhibited more resilience and lower levels of mental health distress. This suggests that fostering inclusive environments where LGBTQ+ youth with disabilities feel accepted and understood can significantly impact their mental well-being. It also highlights the necessity for policies and programs that not only address mental health concerns directly but also actively work towards creating safer, more inclusive spaces for these young individuals.
The Trevor Project’s study serves as a crucial call to action for improved mental health support and anti-discrimination efforts for LGBTQ+ young people with disabilities. The organization emphasizes the need for further research and intervention strategies to address these challenges effectively.
In response to these findings, The Trevor Project continues to advocate for comprehensive, accessible mental health services and increased awareness and support for LGBTQ+ youth with disabilities, according to a statement by the group. Through their crisis services team and targeted training programs, they aim to enhance understanding and provide vital resources for this particularly vulnerable community.
If you are having thoughts of suicide or are concerned that someone you know may be, resources are available to help. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 is for people of all ages and identities. The lifeline also provides resources to help with other crises, such as domestic violence situations. The Trevor Project Lifeline, for LGBTQ+ youth (ages 24 and younger), can be reached at (866) 488-7386. Users can also access chat services at TheTrevorProject.org/Help or text START to 678678.
LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, the only national organization dedicated to electing LGBTQ+ leaders to public office, endorsed 23 more out LGBTQ+ candidates. Victory Fund has now endorsed 260 candidates running in the 2023 cycle and 43 candidates running in the 2024 cycle.
2023 General Candidates
Damian Pardo (he/him)
Miami City Commission, District 2, FL
General: 11/7/2023
Jenna Yeakle (she/her)
Duluth City Council, At-Large, MN
General: 11/7/2023
Heather Rodenborg (she/her)
Delaware City School Board, OH
General: 11/7/2023
Jess Branas (she/her)
Upper Darby Town Council, District 2, PA
General: 11/7/2023
Khalilah Karim (she/her)
Durham City Council, At-Large, NC
General: 11/7/2023
2023 Unopposed Candidates
Andrea Ditillo (she/her)
Churchill Borough Council, At-Large, PA
General: 11/7/2023
2023 General Candidates
Sylvia Swayne (she/her)
Alabama House of Representatives, District 55
Runoff: 10/24/2023
Paul Sanchez (he/him)
South Salt Lake City Council, UT
General: 11/7/2023
Navarra Carr (she/her)
Port Angeles City Council, Position 6, WA
General: 11/7/2023
2024 General Candidates
Clarissa Cervantes (she/they)
California State Assembly, District 58
Primary: 3/5/2024
General: 11/5/2024
Jennifer Esteen (she/her)
Alameda County Board of Supervisors, District 4, CA
Primary: 3/5/2024
General: 11/5/2024
Ari Ruiz (he/him)
California State Assembly, District 52
Primary: 3/5/2024
General: 11/5/2024
Carlos Guillermo Smith (he/him)
Florida State Senate, District 17
Primary: 8/20/2024
General: 11/5/2024
Joe Saunders (he/him)
Florida House of Representatives, District 106
Primary: 8/20/2024
General: 11/5/2024
Malcolm Kenyatta (he/him)
Pennsylvania Auditor General
Primary: 4/23/2024
General: 11/5/2024
Dave Upthegrove (he/him)
Commissioner of Public Lands, WA
Primary: 8/6/2024
General: 11/5/2024
2024 Incumbent Candidates
Ravi Shah (he/him)
Tucson Unified School Board, At-Large, AZ
General: 11/7/2024
Terra Lawson-Remer (she/they)
San Diego County Board of Supervisors, District 3, CA
Primary: 3/5/2024
General: 11/5/2024
Michele Rayner (she/they)
Florida House of Representatives, District 62
Primary: 8/20/2024
General: 11/5/2024
Brandon Woodard (he/him)
Kansas House of Representatives, District 10B
Primary: 8/7/2024
General: 11/6/2024
Brian Knudsen (he/him)
Las Vegas City Council, Ward 1, NV
Primary: 6/11/2024
General: 11/5/2024
Charles Spain (he/him)
Court of Appeals Justice, Place 4, District 14, TX
A new bill just introduced in Florida aims to expand “Don’t Say Gay Or Trans” provisions to a broad range of workplaces. Targeting government employees, contractors, and nonprofits, the bill sets forth restrictions and bans on policies relating to pronouns, gender identity, and sexuality.
Specifically, it would prohibit state and local government employees as well as any contractors engaged with the government from changing their pronouns or honorifics if they do not match their assigned sex at birth. It would also bar them from instructing on gender identity or sexuality, similar to “Don’t Say Gay Or Trans” laws already active in the state education system. The legislation would establish “biological” pronouns as official state policy.
The bill also would establish protections for what it calls “deeply held biology-based beliefs.” It may even prevent all nonprofits in the state from mandating any “training, instruction, or other activity on sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression,” a clause that could destroy LGBTQ+ nonprofits across Florida.
The bill, HB599, was introduced by Representative Ryan Chamberlin, a Republican. The bill is split into two sections, with the first section applying to government employees and contractors, which it defines as “an individual, partnership, corporation, or business entity” that “enters or attempts to enter into a contract for services” with any state, county, municipality, or special district of Florida.
These definitions encompass a huge number of businesses, such as stadiums, convention centers, major hospitals, insurance agencies, and more. For these businesses, as well as for all government workers, the bill would declare that it is the state’s policy that “a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex.” It then would bar covered employees from sharing pronouns that “do not correspond to that person’s sex,” effectively banning social transition at work for these employees.
See the provisions barring pronouns, honorifics, and more here:
The bill also would enshrine a new phrase into law: protections for employees “deeply held religious or biology-based beliefs.” The phrase “deeply held religious beliefs” has longstanding precedent in constitutional law and is used to overturn laws judged to be violating someone’s freedom of religion.
Deeply held “biology-based” beliefs, however, are not something that has ever been a part of any law. It would appear that this line is meant to provide religious-based protections to people who assert that their misgendering of transgender people and using transgender people’s old names is part of their “biology-based” rights.
The bill is not limited in its application to government employees and contractors, however. A separate section of the bill would apply to “nonprofit organizations or an employer who receives funding from the state.” In the most broad reading of this section, separating “nonprofit organizations” from “employers who receive funding from the state,” it would bar all such organizations from mandating “training, instruction, or other activity on sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.”
Provisions in HB599
This provision is severe in its potential impact. Virtually every LGBTQ+ organization would be radically affected by it and would likely have to shut down. It would be nearly impossible for an LGBTQ+ organization to run without providing instruction, training, and “other activity” around gender identity or sexuality. It would be a blatant power grab by the state targeting organizations critical to the government and would further drive LGBTQ+ activism and organizing underground in the state. If enforced broadly, this section could have a similar impact to laws in Russia designed to shut down LGBTQ+ organizations there.
This section would have impacts far beyond LGBTQ+ organizations as well. The provisions would apply to “any organization that is exempt from taxation” including “s. 501” organizations. This would include, for instance, 501c4s, which are crucial during election cycles and could be used to target left-leaning organizations running election ads. Many of these organizations have LGBTQ+ employees and provide instruction and accommodations for their employees, which would be barred by the state if this gets passed into law.
It could also have impacts on medical organizations that do business with state and local governments. Planned Parenthood, a 501c3, heavily provides care for LGBTQ+ people, and such a law could be used to target the organization statewide. Likewise, many state hospital systems that do business with the government often must educate employees and patients on HIV and AIDs, which is impossible to divorce from LGBTQ+ issues. Community health clinics would, similarly, have to contend with these provisions.
Brandon J. Wolf, the National Press Secretary for the Human Rights Campaign said to the Blade in a statement Tuesday: “This Florida bill is a hateful, anti-LGBTQ+ monstrosity. It is dangerous, unconstitutional, and we know it’s just the start of politicians’ attacks on our community this legislative session. We’re prepared to fight back.”
This legislation represents an early move in what promises to be a challenging year for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in 2024. Historically, Florida has often been the breeding ground for new laws aimed at the LGBTQ+ community. This bill might well serve as a precursor to the next “model policy” that could be replicated in multiple states, and bears close watching.
A Laramie preacher has won a federal lawsuit against the University of Wyoming (UW). He had sued the university for infringing on his constitutionally protected free speech rights.
Last December, Laramie Faith Community Church Elder Todd Schmidt displayed an anti-trans banner in the UW student union, identifying an individual transgender student by name. The university banned him from tabling for one year, alleging that he was harassing the student.
Schmidt sued UW on First Amendment grounds. He won a preliminary injunction that has already let him return to the student union. Last week, both parties agreed to a judge’s order, bringing the case to a close. UW will also pay Schmidt $35,000 for attorney fees and expenses.
Schmidt’s presence on campus has stirred up other issues. A few days after he posted the sign, he received a trespass warning from police because he showed up in his car outside of a sorority that admitted a transgender student. In February, Schmidt told the Star-Tribune that he was in the area because he was making a DoorDash delivery there. He then rang the doorbell of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority house with the intention of having “a conversation” with sorority members. The University of Wyoming listed “multiple complaints,” as one of the reasons for the one year suspension, the lawsuit states.
In our nation, we must accept that we’re likely to hear and read things that are offensive to us — sometimes deeply offensive. I reiterate, and the working group acknowledges, that there are legal limitations to free expression on our campus.
But feeling uncomfortable or offended — and, in many cases, even feeling unsafe — is not, in and of itself, grounds for stopping speech.
We live during a time when political and social divisiveness seems to be tearing apart the very fabric of our society. We can’t let that happen. Nor can we depart from the principle of free expression that has been part of our nation’s foundation from the beginning.
The Christian anti-LGBTQ+ legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) — defined as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center — is hoping the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn state bans on so-called conversion therapy for minors. Though the court hasn’t agreed to take on the case just yet, it provide insight into how ADF plans on challenging more conversion therapy bans in the future.
The ADF is providing legal counsel to licensed marriage and family counselor Brian Tingley in Tingley v. Ferguson, a legal challenge to Washington state’s ban. Tingley says the ban violates his rights to free speech and free exercise of religion, The New Republic reported.
Related:
Tingley’s petition to the court says that his speech as a therapist should be considered as “speech” and not professional “conduct.” He said he “lives in continuous fear of government persecution” because the ban “forbids him from speaking, treating his professional license as a license for government censorship.” Tingley says he should be able to offer conversion therapy — even though it has been widely disavowed as a form of psychological torture by numerous American mental health organizations — because some kids are actively seeking to change their sexual orientation.
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His case may actually be aided by the 2018 Supreme Court decision National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra which said that the government couldn’t “compel” or “regulate” anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers in California to inform pregnant people about state-funded reproductive health services.
However, Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis told the aforementioned publication that the cases are different. Bans on conversion therapy aren’t trying to force Tingley and other therapists to say things they don’t want to say, Kreis argues. Rather, he reasons, state bans are trying to prevent medical conduct from resulting in “tangible harms.”
A 2013 survey showed that 84% of former patients who tried ex-gay therapy said it inflicted lasting shame and emotional harm. Additionally, March 2022 peer-reviewed study from The Trevor Project showed that 13% of LGBTQ+ youth nationwide had reported being subjected to conversion therapy. Of those, 83% were subjected to it before reaching the age of 18. The study showed that young people who underwent conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide afterward. Numerous conversion therapy advocates have later come out as still gay and apologized for the harm that conversion therapy causes.
Furthermore, Kreis notes that the bans provide specific exemptions for “purely religious” speech and also that the government already heavily regulates the professional fields of therapy and healthcare. Thus, the bans are just an extension of that.
Katherine Franke, a law professor at Columbia University, said the ADF will use similar free speech arguments to try and overturn regulations involving professional conduct.
“We have all sorts of regulations for licensed mental health professionals, and the patients rely on this kind of safety that those licensing requirements impose,” she told The New Republic. “Opening the door in this kind of case… opens the door to quite a few other situations where a person may have an objection to what is a public norm or an expert judgment about the safety of other people. It shouldn’t be your private decision that you’re not going to agree with that and therefore [will] not follow that law, when that is a condition of your licensure.”
The methods of so-called conversion therapists include encouraging queer people not to masturbate, redirecting their sexual energy into exercise, “covert aversion” (a fancy name for imagining possible negative consequences of being queer), Bible study, directing same-sex sexual desire onto opposite-sex partners, inflicting pain and humiliation anytime LGBTQ+ feelings arise, and forcing people to act out stereotypical gender roles in behavior and personal appearance.
Twenty-nine U.S. states have either passed full or partial bans on conversion therapy for minors. In three of those states — Alabama, Georgia, and Florida — court injunctions have stopped the bans from going into effect while legal challenges to the bans proceed in court.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. The Trans Lifeline (1-877-565-8860) is staffed by trans people and will not contact law enforcement. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for youth via chat, text (678-678), or phone (1-866-488-7386). Help is available at all three resources in English and Spanish.
Eddie Ashley was looking for a hookup. So like countless others on a Saturday night in New York City, he went to The Ritz, a gay bar in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.
He drank too much, he said. And he did end up going home with someone — one of his victims.
Eighteen months later, Ashley, 30, was sentenced to nine years in state prison for robbing the man he left the bar with in May 2022, along with various other crimes he pleaded guilty to committing in recent years.
Authorities said Ashley and the victim went to the victim’s apartment several blocks north of the bar, and Ashley stole the man’s phone and wallet.
But this was not, prosecutors said, a one-off robbery among so many others across the city on any given night. The encounter was part of a broader crime ring in which authorities said at least 16 victims, many of them gay men, were targeted from September 2021 to August 2022 at bars and nightclubs, then often drugged and robbed of thousands of dollars while they were incapacitated. In several cases, surviving victims and their family members believe the assailants used facial recognition technology to unlock their mark’s phones. Two of the men were killed. Ashley denies knowledge of the wider crime ring and was not charged with murder.
The attacks happened quietly throughout the city’s busy nightlife, striking run-of-the-mill bars, multistory nightclubs, and underground gay leather bars across two Manhattan neighborhoods, with intoxicated gay men often the targets. The danger lurking in the venues didn’t come into broad public view until May 2022 — eight months after it started — when NBC News reported that a 25-year-old gay man had been killed.
After months of pressure from the victims’ families, the news media and politicians, the New York City Police Department said it had finally cracked the case: Officers arrested six suspects earlier this year who they said were part of the drugging-and-robbery ring. The arrests were announced at a news conference that included the mayor, police commissioner and the Manhattan district attorney — and was met with long-awaited relief within the city’s gay community.
Five of the suspects pleaded not guilty charges that included murder, conspiracy and grand larceny.
Eddie Ashley, though, admitted he was guilty.
One of the four crimes to which he pleaded guilty, the May 2022 robbery, was linked by prosecutors to the broader crime ring. Awaiting his sentencing three weeks ago, he asked if theexpected punishment fit the crime.
“I lost a lot being in here, financially, I lost my grandma — so I’m kind of messed up. This is basically a bad situation right now for something that was just one night,” Ashley told NBC News at Rikers Island jail complex in his first interview about the crimes.
Ashley’s sentencing is the most significant development in the year-old case, and it provides the best insights yet into how the investigation unfolded. But it also highlights how much is still not known.
A separate crime ring was committing similar crimes at bars in Manhattan’s Lower East Side within the same time period, according to prosecutors. Some victims still don’t know if their specific cases are linked to one or the other alleged crime ring — or neither. And there’s even bigger gaps: One man remembers being victimized in March of this year by a woman — yet all the people who have been charged are men.
And almost all of the victims who spoke with NBC News say they wonder whether the reign of terror afflicting New York City’s nightlife still continues, unnoticed once again.
Julio Ramirez was a 25-year-old social worker. John Umberger was a 33-year-old political consultant. Both went out to gay bars in Hell’s Kitchen 38 days apart last spring. Both ended up drugged, robbed and dead.
Police initially told relatives that their deaths appeared to be self-inflicted: accidental overdoses, the families said.
But that didn’t add up to the families. They suspected foul play.
Both Ramirez and Umberger each left a bar with at least one man. Both had their bank accounts drained. Both appeared to be reading text messages on their phoneafter their bodies were found.
“Right away I knew something was wrong,” Ramirez’s brother, Carlos, said. “He would never intentionally take any drugs or anything that could harm him.”
Umberger’s family was similarly not convinced by the police explanation.
To them, “it looked like John had gone out to a club, been robbed, emptied his credit cards out of his wallet — but he still had his wallet, no phone — and he came home and did a bunch of drugs because he was so depressed over what happened,” Umberger’s mother, Linda Clary, previously told NBC News. “That’s where it was like, ‘I’m sorry, that’s not my child.’ I can assure you if that were to happen, that’s not what John would have done.”
Both families were determined to take matters into their own hands.
In the days following her son’s death last spring, Clary flew to New York from her home in Georgia, seeking answers. With the help of six family members and her son’s friends, she retraced his last steps from what she gathered from his bank transactions, phone records and those who saw him last. Similarly, after several failed login attempts to Ramirez’s computer, Carlos Ramirez gained access and uncovered suspicious banking records from his brother’s accounts. Clary and Ramirez both said thousands of dollars had been drained from their loved one’s accounts following their deaths.
Both families took their findings to the NYPD.
“They looked at us like we were from outer space,” Clary previously said. “No one was interested in finding out the truth.”
Two days after speaking with authorities, Clary said a homicide detective was assigned to her son’s case.
But still frustrated with the pace of the investigations, both families brought their stories to the media, hoping it would put pressure on authorities.
Had she not gone to reporters, Clary speculated, “it would have continued to be pushed under the carpet, and things would still be going on.”
Once the news of Umberger’s death became known, gay men who said they had survived similarly harrowing experiences stepped forward to share their stories publicly.
NBC News spoke with six people who say they or their family members had been the victims of crimes from December 2021 to this March that broadly fit the pattern of the Ramirez and Umberger cases. Many of the victims say the suspects used their faces while incapacitated to unlock their phones, via facial recognition technology, and access their bank accounts. Some of them asked that their names not be published out of fear of retaliation by the people who harmed them. All of the men say they filed police reports shortly after their encounters occurred and most said their cases are ongoing.
In December 2021, Tyler Burt, 28, was walking home after a night out with friends when he stopped in at the Boiler Room, a gay bar in Manhattan’s East Village for one last drink. Sitting alone at the bar was the last thing he remembered before waking up the next day in his apartment fully clothed, with his shoes still on and roughly $15,000 and personal belongings stolen, Burt said.
“I feel lucky in a way that I didn’t get murdered,” Burt said. “Something horrible happened to me, but I’m still alive to tell the tale. I’m very grateful for that.”
In July 2022, a 51-year-old Manhattan resident said he woke up on his living room floor in a pile of his own vomit after having a single drink at the 9th Avenue Saloon, a gay bar in Hell’s Kitchen. The last thing he remembered was saying goodbye to his friends. He said that he had a single drink the entire evening and that roughly $8,000 had been taken from his account.
“The only reason I didn’t die was because they left me on my stomach,” he said. “And thank God I wasn’t raped.”
“Why can’t I go out and have fun and not worry that I’m not going to make it home?” the man added.
And this March, Michael, a 30-year-old gay man, said he was approached by an unknown woman after visiting The Eagle NYC, a gay bar in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. When he came to, he said, the same woman — who he said knew his name — was shaking him on an empty street in East Harlem, about 80 blocks north of the bar, “trying to get rid of me.” The next day, he realized that $5,000 was missing from his bank account.
“The way that they systematically went through all of my banking and credit card apps on my phone, it was like practice,” he said. “You could tell that they’d done this before.”
The medical examiner’s office ruled in March that Ramirez and Umberger’s deaths were homicides caused by a “drug-facilitated theft.” Multiple drugs were found in their systems, including fentanyl, lidocaine and cocaine.
In the following weeks, six men — Ashley, Jayqwan Hamilton, 36; Robert Demaio, 35; Jacob Barroso, 30; Andre Butts, 29; and Shane Hoskins, 32 — were chargedin connection with the crime scheme that led to the deaths of Ramirez and Umberger. Three — Hamilton, Demaio and Barroso — were charged with murder.
While many of the victims were gay men, all were targeted for financial gain and not because of their sexual orientation, prosecutors said.
The initial court appearance in April for three of the suspects — two of whom were charged with murder — was tense.
The small Manhattan courtroom was packed with family members and friends of the deceased sitting across a tight aisle from the family and friends of the men accused of killing their loved ones.
When the three defendants appeared, they were surrounded by a swarm of roughly a dozen court officers. Carlos Ramirez and his parents were visibly distressed, realizing they were seated directly behind where the defendants would be sitting, prompting others in the gallery to make room for them to move.
“It was such a bad, dark feeling just thinking that these were the last people my brother was with when he died,” Ramirez said. “That just really messed me up.”
As the judge spoke, a relative of one of the defendants got into a verbal altercation with a police officer after the officer asked them to quiet down. When the man asked why, the officer got in the man’s face and screamed: “Because I said so! You’re in our house.” When the man yelled expletives back, he was escorted out of the courtroom by several officers.
Once the courtroom became quiet again, all that could be heard through the whispers were the sniffles of tearful grieving family members.
Outside, supporters of one of the suspects, Barroso, went in front of the news cameras and yelled that he is “not a murderer. You guys got this backwards. We will prove his innocence.”
A few weeks later, Clary flew from Georgia to New York to attend the first court appearance for Hamilton, one of the two men charged in her son’s murder.
It was the first time she had been to New York since recovering her son’s body.
At the courthouse she was swarmed by a gaggle of reporters and news cameras, which she described as “overwhelming.” The attention on Clary was unsurprising.
After months of raising awareness about the gay bar killings, Clary — a devout Christian from the South — had become somewhat of a leading voice for the safety and well-being of New York City’s gay men.
“It does strike me as being odd the more that I think about it though,” Clary said. “Here you are in New York, the bastion of progressivism, and yet I’m the one having to raise the flag.”
“Life is full of ironies,” she added.
Ashley grew up downtown. As a high school dropout, he said he had been working toward earning some sort of employment certificate before he was sent to Rikers. He was living with his elderly grandmother in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and taking care of her.
“I had a lot of s— going on before,” Ashley said. “I was trying to get my life together.”
On May 14, 2022, Ashley went to The Ritz — the same bar where Ramirez was last seen a month before — looking for a hookup, he said. He said he had been to the bar two or three times before.
Prosecutors said Ashley left the bar and went to the apartment of the man whose phone and wallet Ashley would later steal. Ashley said he does not remember going back to the man’s apartment but does remember that he had not met the man before. He described the man as being in his 20s and Latino.
Police obtained security footage of Ashley using the victim’s phone to pay for Taco Bell that same morning via Apple Pay, according to prosecutors. Ashley said he does remember getting Taco Bell but suggested the victim could have bought him food.
In April, Ashley was arrested and charged with robbery, grand larceny, petit larceny and identity theft for four incidents from October 2021 to August 2022, including the May 2022 encounter, which was linked to the broader crime scheme, according to prosecutors. Unable to make bail, he was sent to the notorious Rikers Island jail.
After nearly seven months there, Ashley said he changed his plea to guilty so he can serve time in prison elsewhere. For years, the massive jail complex has been under scrutiny by criminal justice activists and lawmakers from around the country for its allegedly “inhumane conditions.”
Ashley had one word to describe his time at Rikers: “rough.”
He said he’s been in fights with inmates, adding, “Maybe two or three altercations with officers’ use of force, but that’s about it.”
Being in custody has also taken an immense emotional toll, he said. His grandmother died while he was behind bars.
He explained that, regardless of the other crimes he committed, he believes the May 2022 encounter had an outsize impact on his sentencing because it was linked to the wider scheme.
Ashley was not charged with murder and was not present on the nights of either Ramirez’s or Umberger’s deaths, according to prosecutors. He said he only found out about the wider crime scheme when he obtained an attorney upon his arraignment.
“I knew it had nothing to do with me,” he said of victims who were drugged and died.
Prosecutors allege that another one of the six suspects, Hamilton, who was charged with murder in the deaths of both Ramirez and Umberger, was present on the night Ashley committed the robbery in May 2022. Hamilton was accused of giving Ashley’s victim an unknown illicit substance outside the bar and using the victim’s phone to steal $2,000 from his bank accounts. Hamilton’s lawyer declined to comment.
Ashley said he remembers Hamilton being at the bar that night, but he maintains that he never saw Hamilton drugging anyone. Ashley declined to say how he knew Hamilton, citing Hamilton’s ongoing case, but said they were not friends. He also denied knowing any of the other four defendants.
After sitting with NBC News in the Rikers visitors’ hall — a nearly empty room that could seat hundreds — for about 15 minutes, Ashley called a correction officer over to end the meeting.
“I don’t even care anymore,” Ashley said when asked about being connected by authorities to a broader scheme that led to the death of two men, walking off. “It’s behind me.”
For the victims and families of the deceased, the yearslong crime scheme has been difficult to leave behind.
Many of the victims who spoke with NBC News described re-entering New York City’s nightlife scene with apprehension.
The 51-year-old man said he’s been out only once or twice since he was robbed. He said he’s afraid that his assailants — who he said do not appear to be any of the suspects arrested in recent months — might recognize him.
“I go straight to work and straight to home,” he said. “I’m always looking around; I’m always suspicious of everything.”
Michael said he is slowly trying to re-enter New York’s nightlife scene after being abandoned in East Harlem.
“My therapist has told me to be more discerning around people, and that’s a good defense mechanism, but I don’t really like that, you know?” Michael said. “I like the person I am. I like being friendly and trusting and open, and it would really suck if that’s something that was permanently changed by this experience.”
Michael went back to The Eagle NYC for the first time last month. Instead of opting for a late night out, he went for happy hour earlier in the evening.
All but one of the surviving victims who spoke with NBC News said they still have facial recognition software on their phones out of convenience. Some note that the larger issue is the danger of being drugged, regardless of whether a criminal can unlock a person’s phone and steal their money.
The Ramirez family did not celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas last year, Carlos said, and does not plan on doing so this year either. For Carlos personally, he said he misses his best friend.
“When something happens and it’s good news and he’s not here, I can’t share it with him. It kind of takes away from it,” Carlos said. “That’s really hard.”
Clary said she hasn’t built up the courage to go through her son’s belongings in his apartment in Washington, D.C. More recently, she’s made a handful of trips to New York City for the pretrial court appearances of the suspects charged in connection with her son’s death.
Clary has been enjoying her new role as a grandmother in recent months. But even that, she said, has been challenging at times.
“That whole experience is diminished because John is not here,” she said. “At some point I have to let go of John not being here and trust God that He has a plan that this life, that we think is everything, is so small compared to eternity.”
When she’s in New York, she said she likes to frequent some of her son’s favorite restaurants in Manhattan: The Waverly Inn in the West Village, Minetta Tavern in Greenwich Village and La Goulue on the Upper East Side, across the street from the apartment where her son died.
“It is a kind of ridiculous, not logical thing,” Clary said. “But you like to go to the places he enjoyed being at because you’re thinking, ‘Yeah, this is the closest thing you have to him being here.’”
It’s been more than two years since authorities say this crime ring, which largely targeted gay bars, began. Yet victims of similar crimes to the ones that killed Ramirez and Umberger say they are still nearly as perplexed about the encounters as they were when they first regained consciousness immediately afterward.
Michael said police and prosecutors told him his case was linked to the same group being charged in the two men’s deaths. Police sources also confirmed the connection with NBC News.
However, Michael said authorities were never able to identify the sole person he remembers from the encounter: an unknown woman.
“That tells me that there are still people on the streets who did this to me, to other people,” Michael said. “There’s no way they caught everyone who were doing these robberies.”
Some survivors have even less clarity. They say police told them their cases have not been connected to the ring related to Ramirez and Umberger or the second known ring.
A 48-year-old man, who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation from people involved in his encounter, said he was drugged and robbed after visiting The Eagle NYC in October 2022. He said his case is still ongoing.
“I know what happened legally with the Hell’s Kitchen cases, but I feel like The Eagle cases just sort of fell off the radar,” the man said. “Were they connected to other cases? Have they all been caught? Are there suspects still at large? Is this still happening?”
The NYPD and mayor’s office launched a program in June to re-examine unsolved drugging, robbery and homicide cases involving LGBTQ victims, which was largely seen as a response to criticisms surviving victims made in the news media.
A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said that the NYPD has not received any requests to have cases re-examined as of last month and that the lack of applications could suggest that there is not a need to re-examine any cases.
However, Burt said he applied to have his case re-examined in June. He said he tried following up with the NYPD in July, but he did not receive a response to his last emails, which he shared with NBC News.
“I’m just disappointed in how this whole thing has been handled,” Burt said. “Every step of the way has made me feel like this is not a priority.”
The NYPD defended how the cases were handled.
“The Detective Bureau is committed to conducting solid, high-quality investigations and ensuring that each investigation is handled efficiently with dedication and professionalism,” an NYPD spokesperson said in an email.
Michael suggested that while it is important to find and punish those who were responsible for the past crimes, it is equally paramount that people understand that the technological tactics used to access their financial accounts are likely being replicated by others.
“As long as there is a convenient way for you to unlock your phone without having to enter a pin, people are going to use it and people are going to find ways to exploit it,” he said. “Awareness is the most important thing.”
“Maybe they’re laying low, maybe it’s hard to find them,” he added, “but they’re definitely still out there.”
LGBTQ+ people in the military once faced dishonorable discharge if they came out (or were outed), and although they can serve openly now, some of their stories have been overlooked. But the Library of Congress’s collection “Serving in Silence: LGBTQ+ Veterans,” part of the library’s Veterans History Project, is shining a light on them.
“It’s been a long road to making sure that we are able to collect, to preserve for posterity, to make accessible and therefore discoverable, the fullness of the human story of America’s veterans, and that includes necessarily those of LGBTQ+ experience,” Monica Mohindra, director of the project, recently told New Jersey newspaper The Record.
Throughout LGBTQ+ history, the experience of bisexual people has often been ignored, even though they make up the largest portion of the LGBTQ+ population. Cliff Arnesen, one of the veterans featured in “Serving in Silence,” is seeking to address this.
“You don’t know how many bisexual people have made enormous contributions to the overall” LGBTQ+ movement, Arnesen told The Record. “People like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Freddie Mercury, David Bowie — all bisexual. But none of that comes up in certain history books. That’s why the bisexual community is up in arms all the time and we’re trying to educate.”
Arnesen came out as bi when he was under arrest for being absent without leave from the U.S. Army base at Fort Dix in New Jersey in 1966 (he had been visiting his mother, who was suffering domestic abuse at the time). He was dishonorably discharged the following year. He eventually channeled the anger he felt at the military into activism, becoming the first bi veteran to testify before Congress and helping found American Veterans for Equal Rights.
He also worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs and became president of New England Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Veterans Inc. His discharge was upgraded to “general under honorable conditions” under an amnesty program established by President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s. During President Joe Biden’s time in office, Arnesen and other bi vets have been meeting with administration officials to talk about issues faced by bisexuals.
Arnesen is one of 22 LGBTQ+ veterans whose stories are posted on the “Serving in Silence” web page, but Mohindra noted that it’s “not fully encompassing of all of our collections of the LGBTQ+ experience.” The Veterans History Project has more than 118,000 individual narratives, and the public can add to this. Anyone can contribute, and there are online instructions for interviewing veterans for the project.