News
O’Malley to lay out comprehensive vision for LGBT rights
2016 hopeful set to address Iowa Safe Schools event
Martin and Katie O’Malley (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
The Washington Blade obtained from his campaign prepared remarks the candidate intends to make at the Iowa Spirit Awards in Des Moines, an event hosted by Iowa Safe Schools that celebrates LGBT youth and educators in the early caucus state.
“I am proud to say that we are finally — and rightfully — having a real debate about how to ensure equality for all LGBTQ Americans, in every part of public life,” O’Malley says. “But as you know, we owe you more than words. We owe you action.”
O’Malley’s speech has two major components: Touting his record on LGBT rights and laying out his plan for the future with a strong emphasis on anti-bullying efforts and federal non-discrimination protections.
The candidate recalls as mayor of Baltimore signing the state’s first transgender non-discrimination ordinance and in 2014 adding transgender protections to the state’s civil rights law. But O’Malley adds “what I’m most proud of is standing up for marriage equality as a human right.”
“And almost exactly three years ago today, we won that fight — becoming the first state to successfully defend marriage equality at the ballot box,” O’Malley says.
Critics of O’Malley on LGBT issues say he wasn’t on board with marriage equality until later during his tenure as governor and initially favored civil unions at a time when LGBT advocates were pushing for full marriage rights.
On the issue of bullying, O’Malley invokes statistics on the challenges faced by LGBT students and says “often the most frequent victims of bullying are transgender kids.” The candidate pledges to require all schools to implement anti-bullying policies and to face penalties when they don’t provide safe environments.
“Schools that allow for unlawful discrimination should risk losing federal funding — and students who experience harassment, bullying, intimidation, and violence should have a legal cause of action under the law,” he says.
O’Malley will deliver the speech following news a panel on the Republican-controlled state legislature would investigate the host organization of the event for teaching LGBT youth about safe-sex practices. The candidate rejects the effort as a “witch hunt.”
“The leaders of Iowa Safe Schools came together to educate students and teachers,” O’Malley says. “They joined hands to promote diversity, equality, and social justice. And now, they’re being attacked for trying to make Iowa a more welcoming and inclusive place. In a nation where all of us are entitled to equal rights and protections, this cannot be tolerated.”
On the federal non-discrimination protections, O’Malley takes note he was the first presidential candidate to endorse the Equality Act, saying “first and foremost we must fight” to pass the legislation.
“I was proud to be the first presidential candidate to endorse this critical legislation because I saw how important our comprehensive non-discrimination legislation had been in Maryland,” O’Malley says. “It is time to end discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations and education, credit and more as a nation once and for all.”
O’Malley also decries the recent wave of anti-transgender violence, the treatment of LGBT undocumented immigrants in detention and the high rate of LGBT homeless youth. Among his other pledges are improving the Runaway & Homeless Youth Act to include LGBT youth, eliminating abstinence-only sex education programs, banning “ex-gay” conversion therapy, ending immigration detention and repealing HIV criminalization laws.
Following a dispute that erupted last week after Hillary Clinton called the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act a “defensive” act against worse discrimination and Bernard Sanders criticized her for rewriting history, O’Malley seeks to rise above the disagreement.
“The other candidates might talk about who supported DOMA when – but I’m talking about what we must do, together, tomorrow,” O’Malley said.
But in the very next line, O’Malley makes a veiled criticism of the candidates for their histories, saying he’s “actually gone to the mat for LGBTQ rights.”
“I didn’t just believe in marriage equality, I achieved marriage equality,” O’Malley said. “And when I tell you today that we need to provide better and more equitable healthcare to our transgender neighbors, that we must fight for the Equality Act – it’s because I’ve done it, as an executive, and I know that it is necessary and that it is possible.”
The candidate faces an uphill battle in winning the Democratic nomination — let alone the White House in 2016. Many national polls indicate O’Malley has support from 1 percent of Democrats, although polls for the Iowa caucuses alone peg him slightly higher at around 3 percent.
O’Malley seems to acknowledge the challenge of his campaign toward the end of his remarks, describing the “tough fight” ahead for progressive values at large in a way that could easily reflect his presidential aspirations.
“I kind of like the tough fights,” he said. “I’ve always been drawn to the tough fights. Perhaps the toughness of the fight is the way the hidden God has of telling us we are fighting for something worth saving. The American Dream is worth saving. Our children’s future is worth saving. Our country is worth saving. It’s time to join the fight. Together, you and I can and will rebuild the American Dream.”
Former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) died on Tuesday. He was 86.
The Massachusetts Democrat served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981-2013. Frank in 1987 became the first member of Congress to voluntarily come out as gay.
The Washington Blade earlier this month interviewed Frank after he entered hospice care at his Ogunquit, Maine, home where he lived with his husband, Jim Ready, since 2013. The former congressman, among other things, talked about his new book, “The Hard Path to Unity: Why We Must Reform the Left to Rescue Democracy.”
The book is scheduled for release on Sept. 15.
NBC Boston reported Frank’s sister, Ann Lewis, and a close family friend confirmed his death.
The Blade will update this article.
Ghana
Intersex lives, constitutional freedom, and the dangerous future of Ghana’s Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill
Lawmakers continue to consider draconian measure
There is a dangerous silence surrounding intersex lives in Ghana — a silence shaped by fear, misinformation, cultural misunderstanding, and institutional neglect. Today, amid discussions around the possible passage of the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025, that silence risks becoming law, reinforcing exclusion and deepening the marginalization of already invisible lives.
Much of the national debate surrounding the bill has focused on LGBTQ+ identities. Yet buried within it are implications for intersex persons that many Ghanaians do not fully understand because intersex realities remain largely invisible.
Intersex persons are born with natural variations in chromosomes, hormones, reproductive anatomy, and/or genital characteristics that do not fit typical definitions of male or female bodies. Intersex is not a sexual orientation or gender identity. It is a biological reality. Ghana’s Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has clearly acknowledged this distinction.
Despite this distinction, the bill mistakenly collapses intersex realities into a legal framework linked to LGBTQ+ criminalization.
Although the bill contains only limited references to intersex persons, under certain medical exceptions, these references do not amount to recognition or protection. Instead, they frame intersex bodies as abnormalities requiring regulation, correction, and institutional management. This approach is inconsistent not only with Ghana’s constitutional guarantees of dignity, equality, privacy, and liberty, but also with emerging African and international human rights standards. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Resolution on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Intersex Persons in Africa – ACHPR/Res.552 (LXXIV) 2023 affirms protections relating to bodily integrity, dignity, freedom from discrimination, and against harmful medical practices. Additionally, the United Nations has repeatedly condemned medically unnecessary and non-consensual interventions on intersex children. Rather than affirming the humanity and autonomy of intersex persons, the bill risks legitimizing systems of surveillance, coercion, violence, and institutional erasure.
This is not protection.
It is managed erasure.
A child born intersex in Ghana already enters a society shaped by secrecy and stigma. Families are often pressured to hide intersex children or seek “correction” to make their bodies conform to social expectations.
The bill risks intensifying this pressure.
Clause 17 creates space for “approved service providers” to support interventions relating to intersex persons, yet offers little protection around informed consent, bodily autonomy, confidentiality, or coercive treatment. Under the language of “correction” or “support,” harmful interventions may become normalized.
The intersex community has documented painful lived experiences of intersex Ghanaians that reveal the devastating consequences of stigma and invisibility.
One heartbreaking case involved intersex twins born in Ghana’s Eastern Region in 1993, who were repeatedly forced to move from village to village because of rejection and ridicule. After losing their father, their main source of protection and support, they became even more vulnerable and reportedly experienced severe emotional distress, including suicidal thoughts linked to years of stigma and exclusion. This is what invisibility looks like in practice.
Another painful example is the story of Ativor Holali, whose lived experience exposed the cruel realities intersex persons face in sports and public life. Ativor Holali endured invasive scrutiny, public humiliation, and social suspicion because her body did not conform to rigid expectations of femininity. Rather than being protected as a Ghanaian athlete deserving dignity and privacy, she became the subject of speculation, gossip, and institutional discomfort.
Her experience reflects a broader social crisis: when society insists that every body must fit a narrow binary definition, intersex people are forced to defend their humanity in spaces where dignity should already be guaranteed.
Intersex Persons Society Of Ghana (IPSOG)’s Ŋusẽdodo research further revealed that approximately 70 percent of intersex respondents reported depression, anxiety, trauma, or severe emotional distress linked to medical mistreatment, family rejection, bullying, and social exclusion.
The bill risks transforming these existing prejudices into institutional policy. Several provisions risk deepening surveillance, restricting advocacy, weakening confidentiality, and discouraging public education around intersex realities. Intersex-led organizations providing healthcare guidance, legal referrals, psychosocial support, and community services may face serious challenges.
This places IPSOG and other intersex-led organizations in Ghana at serious risk.
For many intersex Ghanaians, these spaces are not political luxuries.
They are survival mechanisms.
Governments derive legitimacy by protecting the natural rights of all persons, including dignity, liberty, bodily autonomy, and freedom from arbitrary interference. The bill raises concerns because it risks weakening these protections for intersex persons through surveillance, coercive interventions, and restrictions on advocacy.
Ghana’s Constitution declares that “the dignity of all persons shall be inviolable.” Articles 15, 17, 18, and 21 specifically protect dignity, equality, privacy, expression, and freedom of association. These protections should apply equally to intersex persons.
Intersex persons are not threats to Ghanaian culture.
Intersex children are not moral dangers.
Intersex bodies are not political weapons.
They are human beings deserving dignity, healthcare, safety, and constitutional protection.
The true measure of a democracy is how it protects those most vulnerable to exclusion. At this moment, Ghana faces a choice: deepen fear and silence, or uphold dignity, bodily autonomy, and constitutional freedom for intersex persons.
History will remember the choice we make.
Fafali Delight Akortsu is the founder and president of the Intersex Persons Society of Ghana (IPSOG).
District of Columbia
Doc on Blade reporter Chibbaro scores Emmy nomination
‘Lou’s Legacy’ chronicles 50-year career
“Lou’s Legacy: A Reporter’s Life at the Washington Blade” has been nominated for a Capital Emmy in the “Documentary – Historical” category by the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
“Our members include all of the video content producers who serve our local audiences in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia—from the Atlantic to the Appalachians, from Bristol to Baltimore,” said Capitol Emmys President Adam Longo in a press release.
Broadcast last June by WETA PBS in Washington, D.C. and MPT in Maryland, the documentary was directed and produced by Emmy-nominated filmmaker Patrick Sammon in association with the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. Additional nominees who worked on the film include producer Julianne Donofrio and editor Amir Jaffer.
“Lou’s Legacy” tells the story of two D.C. icons — legendary Washington Blade reporter Lou Chibbaro Jr. and beloved drag performer Donnell Robinson, known to generations of Washington audiences as “Ella Fitzgerald.” Through Chibbaro’s nearly five-decade career at the Blade and Ella’s return to the stage after a three-year hiatus following COVID, the 29-minute documentary explores the history of Washington’s LGBTQ community and today’s rising backlash against LGBTQ rights, including laws targeting drag performers.
“We’re honored that Lou’s Legacy has been recognized alongside such an impressive group of historical documentaries,” said Sammon. “This nomination is especially meaningful because the film preserves and celebrates the stories of people who helped shape queer history in Washington, DC — often without recognition from mainstream institutions. We’re deeply grateful to the Mattachine Society, Lou Chibbaro Jr., Donnell Robinson, WETA PBS, and everyone who helped bring this project to life.”
“Lou’s Legacy” premiered on WETA PBS in June 2025 during Pride month. The documentary also broadcast on Maryland Public Television and is streaming nationally on PBS.org. WETA will rebroadcast “Lou’s Legacy” several times during Pride month, including June 15 th at 9 p.m. Winners of the Capital Emmy Awards will be announced at the Capital Emmy Gala on June 20 at the Bethesda Marriott Hotel.
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