National
Cicilline victory gives Congress 4th gay member
Gay Providence mayor wins House seat; Pougnet falls short in Calif.
![](https://www.washingtonblade.com/content/files/2010/11/Baldwin_and_Cicilline_650x250_cMichael_Key.jpg)
![Cicilline_and_Baldwin_insert_(c)Michael_Key](https://www.washingtonblade.com/content/files/2010/11/Cicilline_and_Baldwin_insert_cMichael_Key--300x199.jpg)
U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin and Rhode Island Mayor David Cicilline who won a Congressional seat Tuesday. (Blade photo by Michael Key)
The election of an openly gay Rhode Island politician to the U.S. House proved one of the few bright spots on Election Day for the LGBT community.
David Cicilline, whoās gay and the mayor of Providence, R.I., defeated his Republican opponent, John Loughlin, a Rhode Island State Assembly member.
According to the Rhode Island Board of Elections, Cicilline won by taking 50.6 percent of vote in the stateās 1st congressional district while Loughlin earned 44.6 percent.
“I am thrilled to be the next Congressman from Rhode Island’s First District and so grateful to the members of the LGBT community who supported my campaign,” Cicilline said. “I look forward to going to Washington and fighting for the issues important to all of us ā creating good jobs, protecting Social Security, working to fight global climate change and, of course, fighting for full equality for our community.”
Chuck Wolfe, CEO for the Victory Fund, commended Cicilline for his victory in a statement.
āMayor Cicilline will be a strong advocate for all Rhode Islanders, but he will also be an authentic voice for the millions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans who long for the day when we will be treated equally under law,ā WolfeĀ said.Ā āWe are enormously proud of him and grateful to Rhode Island voters.ā
CicillineāsĀ electionĀ positions him to become the fourth sitting openly gay member of the U.S. House when the 112th Congress begins in January. Heāll succeed Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), whoās retiring from Congress at the end of this year. Gay Reps. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) all won re-election Tuesday.
The Providence mayorĀ was favored to win because he was running in a Democratic stronghold and was a powerhouse fundraiser. According to Federal Election Commission reports,Ā Cicilline raked in nearly $1.7 million over the course of his campaign.
Cicilline earned the endorsement of many national LGBT organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign and the Victory Fund.
In a statement, Michael Cole, an HRC spokesperson, said heās āthrilledā that Cicilline will join the members of Congress who are openly gay.
āNo doubt he will carry on the record of retiring Rep. Patrick Kennedy in ensuring Rhode Islandās first district is represented by an effective congressman in promoting equality for all people,ā Cole said.
Signs showed the race was tightening in the week before the election. While earlier polls showed Cicilline ahead of Loughlin by double-digit numbers, the lead dropped to single digits in some polls the week before the campaign.
The Loughlin campaign also engaged in what could be seen as gay-baiting in the weeks before the election. Loughlin ran ads emphasizing that heās a husband and a father ā possibly a reference to the fact that Cicilline is gay and single ā and defended āDonāt Ask, Donāt Tellā during a debate.
The news wasnāt as good for other openly gay candidates seeking election to Congress. Both were Democratic candidates who faced the challenge of unseating incumbent Republicans in traditionally GOP districts during an election that was seen as a Republican wave.
Steve Pougnet, whoās gay and mayor of Palm Springs, Calif., lost his bid to unseat six-term incumbent Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.).
According to the California secretary of stateās website, with 445 of 624 precincts reporting, Bono Mack claimed 51.5 percent of the vote compared to the 42.1 percent of the vote earned by Pougnet. A third-party conservativeĀ candidate, Bill Lussenheide, won 6.4 percent of the vote.
Prior to the start of this Congress, Bono Mack had the support of many in the LGBT community for voting twice against the Federal Marriage Amendment. She also supported hate crimes legislation as well as a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
But the Republican lawmakerās vote this year against āDonāt Ask, Donāt Tellā repeal earned the rancor of many LGBT people. Others in the LGBT community also flocked to Pougnet because his election would have made him the first person in a same-sex marriage and the first gay father elected to Congress.
Pougnet lost the race even though he managed to be on par with Bono Mack in terms of fundraising throughout much of the campaign. According to the FEC, the Democratic candidate raised nearly $1.7 million while Bono Mack raked in more than $2.2 million.
Both HRC and the Victory Fund had endorsed Pougnet in his bid and expressed disappointment in his loss on Election Day.
Cole said Pougnetās loss is sad not just for his district, but for Congress because the body āneeds more voices like him.ā
āPougnet would have been the first gay parent to serve in Congress but remains a leader in our community and a powerful force for equality,ā Cole said.
On the other side of the country, Ed Potosnak, a schoolteacher and former staffer for Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), lost his bid to unseat Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.), a one-term incumbent.
According to the Westfield Ledger newspaper, with all but one precinct reporting, Lance claimed 59 percent of votes to defeat the gay Democratic challenger.
Potosnakās chances of winning were widely seen as slim. Neither HRC nor the Victory Fund endorsed him in the race. Still, the candidate received an endorsement from the National Stonewall Democrats.
Michael Mitchell, Stonewallās executive director, said Potosnak ran a āsolid, clean campaignā that focused on education and business growth.
āAs a teacher and small business owner, Ed knows firsthand the struggles of the constituents of the district, something that his opponent Leo Lance has forgotten, given that he spoke about jobs on the House floor for under two minutes during the entire 110th Congress,ā Mitchell said.
In addition to Cicilline, the Victory Fund announced that more openly LGBT candidates won election to public office than in any other year. The group, which works to elect openly LGBT candidates, said at least 106 of its 164 endorsed candidates won their races.
Specifically, Victory Fund celebrated wins by Jim Gray as mayor of Lexington, Ken.; Nickie Antonio as the first openly gay member of the Ohio House; Marcus Brandon as the only out gay state lawmaker in North Carolina; and three newcomers in Maryland who boosted the stateās openly gay and lesbian delegation to seven.
Iowa justices ousted
While celebrating the victories of openly gay candidates around the country, LGBT advocates expressed disappointment and concern after three state Supreme Court justices who ruled in favor of same-sex marriage rights in Iowa were ousted by voters.
The anti-gay group National Organization for Marriage spent $600,000 on TV ads and a statewide bus tour in an effort to remove the justices, an effort decried as an attempt to intimidate justices across the country.
“By their own admission, NOMās Iowa strategy was about sending a warning shot to judges nationwide,ā saidĀ HRC President Joe Solmonese. āNOM and its secret donors will continue to target judges around the country if they rule in favor of marriage equality and will foster an anti-gay, hostile environment in the process.ā
National
TransTech Social removing barriers to trans success
āTechnology was the key to my freedomā
![](https://www.washingtonblade.com/content/files/2024/07/TransTech_Social_insert_by_Lexi_Webster_Photography.jpg)
It is common knowledge that women earn 84% of the average worker. Less common knowledge? Trans women earn 60% of the average worker. Trans men and non-binary people come in at around 70%, while 16% of all trans people make less than $10,000 annually.Ā
E.C. Pizarro was lucky, and he knew it. He had a BFA in graphic design and had taught himself how to code. As a stealth trans man in a corporate job, he had access to a stable wage and good benefits. āPeople that do not have experiences in corporate America or with equitable employment don’t realize [these things] are privileges that a lot of people don’t have access to.ā
He wanted to give back and was gearing up to bring more volunteer work into his life by participating in a fraternity for trans men. When he went to a TransTech event and learned about the educational and career resources for trans people who face barriers to entering the workforce, he knew he had found his place.
At the event he met, Angelica Ross. Yes, that Angelica Ross, of āPoseā and āAmerican Horror Story.ā
Before she was Candy, Ross was a self-taught coder. She went from posing for an adult website to doing its back-end coding to teaching her trans siblings how to succeed in tech.Ā
āTechnology was the key to my freedom,ā Ross said in an interview with The Plug. āTechnology took me from being exploited on someoneās website to building my own websites and to building websites for other people and getting paid to do so.ā
Pizarro was impressed and wanted to help. āI went up to Angelica and I was like āHey, I’m a trans man. These are my skills. I’m down to volunteer and do any type of workāthe one caveat is that I’m stealth. You can’t tell anybody that I’m trans.āā
For four years, Pizarro helped from mostly behind the scenes, sometimes getting side-eyed since people thought he was a cis man in trans spaces. āI was still stealth as the Director of Social Media and Communications for the National Trans Visibility March in 2019,ā Pizarro says, chuckling a little.
But by that point, Ross ā who headlined the 2019 march ā was overextended trying to balance being a world-famous actress, advocate, and businesswoman.
She needed someone to step in as executive director of TransTech and looked to the group of dedicated volunteers. Pizarro was elected by his peers to take the reins of the organization.
This was a turning point for Pizarro. āI’m very passionate about tech and for me a small sacrifice of being open with my trans experience to liberate other trans people,ā he said. āI felt like if that’s something I got to do, then I’m gonna do it.ā
And he did it. The infrastructure Ross put together worked: with mentorship, education, community, and networking with trans-accepting employers, trans people were gaining financial security and independence.
So, Pizarro focused on expanding TransTech as widely as possible. āWe have grown exponentially over the last three years,ā he says. āWhen I took over in 2021, we had about 800 members based in the United States. Now we support over 6,700 members across 50 countries.ā
TransTech is filling a demonstrated need within specifically the trans community. New research from LGBT Tech found that 68% of transgender adults use the internet to find LGBTQ-friendly employment (compared to 38% of cisgender LGBTQ+ adults). More than 70% of all LGBTQ adults use the Internet to access educational content.
Accessibility is central to the TransTech programming. Despite the growth, everything remains free. āThereās no membership fee. All of our programming is free. All of the certifications and educational resources are free,ā Pizarro says.
They know the financial burden the trans community faces ā 29% of trans adults live in poverty. āIf weāre asking anyone to up-skill [for a cost] and these are the things they are going through, we are asking them to invest in their future versus their meal today.āĀ
Pizarro believes that accessibility is more than just making the training free. He wants the community to understand that tech work is something they are innately capable of doing.
āTransTech was built on the foundation of nontraditional tech. It’s not always coding. It’s graphic design. It’s social media. It’s video editing. It’s anything that uses a piece of technology and nowadays almost everything uses a piece of technology,ā says Pizarro.
He emphasizes to participants: āYou’re in tech and you don’t even know it,ā pointing out how many already utilize tech skills like marketing and monetization with their social media accounts.
Some people involved in the programming are nervous about entering the ātech worldā because of headlines about tech layoffs. He makes sure to emphasize that unlike in some other jobs, tech companies often pay generous severance packages, which gives employees ābreathing room.ā Pizzaro explains that āonce you have experience with one tech company, you can go someplace else and make a substantial amount of money as well.ā
While TransTech is designed for the gender-diverse community, the programming is open to everyone Pizarro explains. āWe just ask that you don’t be transphobic.ā (Or any of the other -phobics too, he says, listing them off.) He also emphasizes that this allows trans members who are not out to comfortably participate.
Pizarro wants everyone to understand that they donāt just belong in tech, but they make tech better. āTech is most profitable when you have diverse people building the tech and using the tech,ā Pizarro says. āThere is an intentional funding as well as support to diversity tech because they understand how that impacts the product.ā
He also reminds participants that they have developed transferrable skills in every part of their lives. āI like to tell people if you can manage your life as a trans person in the United States or anywhere you can manage a project.ā
![](https://www.washingtonblade.com/content/files/2024/04/20240331_Angelica_Ross_at_Transgender_Day_of_Visibility_rally_on_the_Mall_insert_c_Washington_Blade_by_Linus_Berggren.jpg)
District of Columbia
Fire by arson forced temporary shutdown of Glorious Health Club
Spa and art gallery catering to gay
men expects to reopen in August
![](https://www.washingtonblade.com/content/files/2019/03/Glorious_Health_Club_logo_social_media_via_Facebook.jpg)
In a little noticed development, D.C.ās Glorious Health Club, which bills itself as a spa, art gallery, and community center catering to gay men, was forced to close on May 19 after one or more unidentified suspects ignited a fire inside the club that D.C. fire department officials have ruled an act of arson.
Robert Siegel, the clubās owner, told the Washington Blade that he and investigators with the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department believe one or more yet unidentified suspects broke into the kitchen of the former warehouse building where the club is located at 2120 West Virginia Ave., N.E.
According to Siegel, investigators with the fire departmentās arson squad believe a flammable liquid was used to start the fire in the kitchen and in two other locations within the building.
āThree separate fires were started,ā Siegel said. āThey started one on a staircase and one on the upstairs storage area,ā he said in addition to the one in the kitchen. He said about 40 patrons were in the club at the time the fire started, and all were able to leave without injury.
Siegel said the fire caused $500,000 worth of damage to his building, with some of the damage caused ā understandably he said ā by fire fighters who had to rip open doors and break through the roof to gain access to the flames that engulfed parts of the interior of the building. He said he arranged for repair work to begin after the fire was extinguished.
āI expect weāll be reopening in about a month from now,ā he said. āAnd weāll be a bigger and better place.ā
Fortunately, Siegel said, most of the artwork and art exhibits located in the club were not damaged.
āIt was basically the kitchen, patio, and the roof,ā he said, adding that much of the solar panels he had on the roof were destroyed by the fire or by firefighters seeking to gain access to the building.
āAnd the fire was so hot it did structural damage to the roof,ā he said. āIt actually melted steel. Weāre talking about 50-foot steel beams that have to be replaced,ā he told the Blade. āThatās $100,000 right there.āĀ
Vito Maggiolo, a spokesperson for the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, said the fire was āruled incendiary/arsonā and isĀ āunder active investigation.āĀ
It could not immediately be determined if one or more people responsible for the fire targeted the Glorious Health Club because itās a gay community establishment.
National
House Republicans propose steep cuts in federal AIDS budget
Advocacy groups say move would eliminate āEnding HIV Epidemicā initiative
![](https://www.washingtonblade.com/content/files/2024/07/20160221_Donald_Trump_insert_by_actionsports_via_Bigstock.jpg)
The Republican-controlled U.S. House Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies approved a spending bill on June 26 that calls for cutting at least $419 million from federal AIDS programs that AIDS activists say would have a devastating impact on efforts to greatly reduce the number of new HIV infections by 2030.
The subcommitteeās proposed bill, which includes billions of dollars in cuts in a wide range of other federal health, education, and human services related programs, is scheduled to be considered by the full House Appropriations Committee on July 10. Officials with AIDS advocacy groups say they are hopeful that the full committee, like last year, will refuse to approve the proposed cuts in the AIDS budget.
The proposed GOP cuts would eliminate $214 million from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventionās HIV prevention programs, $190 million from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, and $15 million from the Department of Health and Human Services Secretaryās Minority HIV/AIDS Program.
Activists say the impact of those cuts would kill the federal governmentās Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative, which among other things, calls for reducing the number of new HIV infections in the U.S. by 75 percent by 2025 and by 90 percent by 2030. The activists point out that ironically the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative was launched during the administration of President Donald Trump.
āInstead of providing new investments in ending HIV by increasing funding for testing, prevention programs, such as PrEP, and life-saving care and treatment, House Republicans are again choosing to go through a worthless exercise of cutting programs that the American people depend on and will never pass,ā said Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute.
āWhile we vigorously fight these cuts, we look forward to working with the entire Congress in a bipartisan fashion on spending bills that can actually become law,ā Schmid said in a statement.
Schmid noted that the bill also includes provisions known as āpolicy ridersā that would take away rights and protections from women, such as access to birth control and abortion, and for minorities, including LGBTQ people.
According to a statement released by the office of Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who is the ranking minority member of the House Appropriations Committee, one of the policy riders would āblock the Biden administrationās policies to ensure nondiscrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.ā The statement says another policy rider would āprevent policies or programs intended to promote diversity, equality, or inclusion.ā
Most political observers believe the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate would also kill the GOP proposed policy riders and cuts in the AIDS budget if the full Republican-controlled House were to approve the budget bill passed by the appropriations subcommittee.
Rep, Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who serves as chair of the full House Appropriations Committee, released a statement on June 27 defending the subcommitteeās bill and its proposed spending cuts. āThe bill provides appropriate and fiscally responsible funding to ensure these departments can continue to perform their core missions while also acknowledging the fiscal realities facing our nation,ā he said.
āImportantly, the bill pushes back on the Biden administrationās out-of-touch progressive policy agenda, preventing this White House from finalizing or implementing controversial rules or executive orders,ā Cole said in his statement. āIt also preserves long standing bipartisan policy provisions protecting the right to life.ā
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