The openly gay two-term mayor of Lexington, Ky., has announced his intention to seek the Democratic nomination for the state’s 6th Congressional District seat held by U.S. Rep. Andy Barr (R).
Gray previously ran for Senate against Sen. Rand Paul (R) in 2016, but was unsuccessful in his bid. However, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader, Gray won a majority of votes in the counties that comprise the 6th District. The district leans nine point more Republican than the nation as a whole, but Democrats were able to hold onto the seat as recently as 2010.
Were he to be successful, Gray would become the first out LGBTQ member of Congress from the state.
Gray faces two other candidates seeking to become “firsts”: former Marine Corps fighter pilot Amy McGrath, who would become the first woman elected to Congress from Kentucky as a Democrat, and State Sen. Reggie Thomas (D-Lexington), who would become the first African-American elected to Congress from the Bluegrass State.
Gray hopes to run on his experience in both the public and the private sector, incorporating lessons from his experience running his family’s company, Gray Construction, as well as from his time as mayor, to prove he can get things accomplished in a Congress often criticized for its inaction.
As an openly LGBTQ elected official, Gray was involved in efforts advocating for the passage of pro-LGBTQ ordinances in Lexington and in several other Kentucky towns or cities. In total, eight municipalities have adopted such ordinances. In June, Gray wrote a letter to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra asking him to exempt Lexington from a ban on state-funded travel to states, including Kentucky, with laws that discriminate against LGBTQ people.
“Our city realizes that inclusive and welcoming values translate into good business and economic prosperity,” Gray said in the letter.
Federal Judge Victoria Calvert has permanently blocked a portion of Georgia’s law banning prisoners from receiving gender-affirming care, ruling on Dec. 3 that the state’s blanket ban on hormone therapy violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in May and implemented in July, the law bars prisoners from receiving hormone therapy or other treatment for gender dysphoria -- even when a doctor deems it medically necessary. It prohibits the state from funding such care and blocks transgender inmates from paying for it themselves. Non-transgender prisoners, however, may still receive hormone therapy and other gender-affirming treatments so long as the care is not related to gender transition.
Employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Hampton Medical Center in Virginia were reportedly warned in October that they could face discipline -- or even be fired -- for wearing or displaying rainbow-themed items, including official VA Pride lanyards.
The warning is the latest example of the Trump administration’s efforts to downplay or erase acknowledgment of LGBTQ identity under the guise of eliminating so-called "wokeness" and other references to identity-based characteristics deemed "divisive."
As reported by The Advocate, local leadership at the medical center sent out the directive citing an "executive order," though it was unclear whether that referred to Donald Trump’s directive banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in federal agencies, or his order declaring that the U.S. government recognizes only two biological sexes as valid.
Police in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, are facing criticism for a botched raid on an alleged "gay spa" that led to more than 200 arrests but ultimately produced no criminal charges.
On November 28, local police carried out a joint raid with City Hall and the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (JAWI) at a men-only spa in the city center, suspecting it of promoting homosexuality, a criminal offense in the majority-Muslim country that carries penalties of up to 20 years in prison and mandatory caning under both federal colonial-era law and state Sharia statutes.
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