Democratic U.S. Rep. Eugene Vindman cursed at a constituent and walked out of a meeting with party activists after transgender attendees challenged his vote for a Republican-backed “forced outing” bill.
The confrontation occurred on August 11 in King George County, a heavily Republican locality at the eastern end of Vindman’s 7th Congressional District that overwhelmingly favored President Donald Trump in 2024.
Vindman, a swing-district Democrat, attended the King George Democratic Committee meeting to rally party loyalists behind his reelection bid. After discussing Trump, affordability, and the midterm elections, he took questions from the audience.
A transgender woman asked Vindman about his vote for H.R. 2616, a Republican-backed bill that passed the U.S. House in May with the support of eight Democrats.
The bill requires schools receiving federal funds to obtain parental permission before using a name or pronouns that do not align with a student’s assigned sex at birth or providing certain accommodations for transgender students. It also prohibits them from teaching concepts related to “gender ideology” or acknowledging transgender existence. The measure has not advanced in the U.S. Senate.
“How can you one week say, ‘Hey, they’re important to our community,’ and then the next week, vote to out kids?” the woman asked Vindman.
Vindman described himself as a supporter of LGBTQ rights but said Republicans forced a vote on the bill as part of an election-year attempt to put Democrats in vulnerable districts on the defensive.
He argued that lawmakers were left to choose between supporting what critics dubbed the “forced outing” bill and defending a position he characterized as broadly unpopular with the American public. Vindman said he voted for the measure because he believes parents should be involved.
“I’m a parent. I’m a dad,” he said. “I care deeply about my kids, and that’s what I voted on.”
LGBTQ attendees disputed Vindman’s reasoning, arguing that a teacher may be the only accepting adult in the life of a student who is transgender or questioning their gender identity. Several trans people shared stories of being kicked out of their homes or growing up in anti-LGBTQ environments and warned that the bill would significantly harm gender-diverse youth without supportive parents.
“I voted as a parent,” Vindman replied. “I’m going to vote to help the vast majority of people the majority of the time. Is it going to help everybody? No.”
GxBar, an LGBTQ-friendly salon in Kyiv, was vandalized by unidentified individuals who poured blood and left severed pig heads and entrails around its main entrance.
The vandalism targeted the GxBar Special salon, which has faced other attacks in recent months that the business believes are linked to its support for the LGBTQ community.
According to a post on GxBar's Instagram account, the salon was defaced around 6:17 a.m. on July 21. Security footage from inside the salon shows at least one person -- and possibly others -- dousing the entrance in blood and placing the pig heads on the building's front stoop.
"At my core, I'll always be the kid from the trailer park," says U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, who is running for one of Minnesota's two U.S. Senate seats. "I have a theory that you don't move very far from where you begin, even if you, outwardly, get really lucky and do. So I've always been someone who, as a member of Congress, has been fighting for economic opportunity and good jobs and lowering costs for people."
Craig, whose father was largely absent during her childhood, was raised along with her younger brother and sister by her mother and grandmother in Arkansas. The family, who lived in a mobile home, moved to several small towns throughout the state before finally settling near Jonesboro, a city located about 60 miles from Memphis, Tennessee, when Craig was in seventh grade.
A New Jersey school district has agreed to pay $950,000 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the mother of a transgender student who died by suicide after allegedly enduring years of bullying and harassment.
Danielle Warshefski will receive $603,664.78, while the law firm that represented her will receive the remainder to cover legal costs and attorneys' fees.
According to the lawsuit, Warshefski's son, Myles Fitzpatrick, came out as transgender in December 2020, while Manville High School was holding classes virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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