[Photo: President Barack Obama takes questions from members of the media the day after unveiling his third budget proposal. (Photo by Chris Geidner.)]
With a focus on the White House budget unveiled on Feb. 14 and the protests for freedom in Egypt and across the Middle East, President Barack Obama held a news conference in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building today. Spending an hour answering questions, Obama was asked no questions about any LGBT-specific issues.
He did, however, reference LGBT-specific issues once, pointing to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal as an example of something that his administration accomplished despite calls for quicker action from outside the White House.
In response to a question from NBC’s Chuck Todd in which Todd said that the findings of the fiscal commission have been “shelved,” Obama said, “I’ve had this conversation for that last two years about every single issue that we worked on, whether it was health care or ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ On Egypt, right? We’ve had this monumental change over the last three weeks — well, why did it take three weeks?
“So I think that there’s a tendency for us to assume that if it didn’t happen today it’s not going to happen.”
The inclusion of DADT repeal in Obama’s list rankled one of Obama’s harshest LGBT critics on the left, AmericaBlog’s John Aravosis, who wrote, “Repeal didn’t take a long time because that was part of the plan. The legislation passed because we got lucky.”
Earlier in the morning, White House domestic policy advisor Melody Barnes, the director of the Domestic Policy Council, held a conference call with members of the LGBT media, focusing on budgetary issues impacting LGBT people and HIV/AIDS concerns.
Among other issues, Barnes noted a request in the White House budget proposal for a five percent increase in the budget of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Meanwhile, the director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, Jeffrey Crowley, also was on the call and pointed to, among other priorities reflected in the budget, an $80 million increase for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP).
* * *
As I did following an earlier presidential news conference, here’s the question I would have asked if I had been selected to ask a question:
Despite the fact that you focused on jobs in your State of the Union and talked about how the budget request would create jobs, you have made no mention of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which is unlikely to pass in the 112th Congress. Without ENDA, what is the administration going to do in the next two years to make jobs more secure for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans?
Despite not getting the chance to ask the question directly, I am seeking a response from the White House.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will limit its enforcement of certain gender-identity discrimination claims against members of the Christian Employers Alliance under a new settlement.
The Christian Employers Alliance (CEA), a group representing Christian employers, sued the EEOC in January 2025, arguing that the agency "improperly applied Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to force employers to affirm and accommodate" transgender employees, reports HR Brew.
CEA claims the agency did this under the Biden administration, including through 2024 guidance addressing pronoun use and access to facilities consistent with employees' gender identity. The group also objected to the EEOC's position on employer-sponsored insurance coverage for gender-affirming care, arguing that these requirements could conflict with some members' religious beliefs.
"It's been harder to raise money, and I think that this is happening with a lot of the event-based walks across the country -- we've just seen different levels of participation," says Naseema Shafi, president and CEO of Whitman-Walker Health, which is seeking broader community support for its chief fundraiser, the Walk & 5K to End HIV.
The annual event, during which participants traverse a 5-kilometer course near Whitman-Walker's Southeast D.C. location, raises money for the health center's HIV research, testing and prevention services, and care for people living with HIV. Organizers hope to raise more than $400,000 this year but have collected only $86,000 so far, according to the event's website.
Officially, this year’s 26th International AIDS Conference, held July 26-31 in Rio de Janeiro, advanced a clear and timely theme: “Rethink. Rebuild. Rise.” A community well-versed in resilience would respond to devastating losses in funding and political support with strategies for rising above all obstacles and ending HIV/AIDS.
Yet, over the course of the week, as thousands of scientists, researchers, healthcare providers, advocates, administrators, journalists, community leaders, and people living with HIV attended more than 150 sessions, a new rallying cry emerged around the sprawling Riocentro Convention Center: “Innovation without access is injustice.”
[Photo: President Barack Obama takes questions from members of the media the day after unveiling his third budget proposal. (Photo by Chris Geidner.)]
