National
‘Unprecedented’: Vatican official apologizes to LGBTQ Catholics
Synod of Bishops deleted, reposted link to pro-LGBTQ video
In a development that Catholic Church observers consider to be unprecedented, a high-level Vatican official apologized last week to LGBTQ people and to the Mt. Rainier, Md., based LGBTQ Catholic group New Ways Ministry for removing from a Vatican open forum website a link to an LGBTQ supportive video on New Ways Ministry’s website.
The apology by Thierry Bonaventura, communication manager of the Vatican-based General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, came five days after New Ways Ministry released excerpts from two letters that Pope Francis sent to New Ways Ministry in May and June of 2021 praising the organization for its work in support of LGBTQ Catholics.
According to the National Catholic Reporter, conservative Catholic media outlets reported that Bonaventura removed the link to the New Ways Ministry video from the Synod’s website on Dec. 7 after he learned that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops censured New Ways Ministry in 2010 because of its support for civil marriage for same-sex couples.
Supporters of New Ways Ministry believe Bonaventura may have issued his apology and subsequently reposted the video link to the Synod website after learning that the Pope himself had expressed a favorable opinion of New Ways Ministry in his recent letters to the LGBTQ ministry.
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, said in a statement that the New Ways Ministry video, among other things, encourages LGBTQ people to participate in Synod consultations. The Synod provides advice to the Pope on a wide range of church-related matters.
DeBernardo said it was someone from the Vatican, not New Ways Ministry, who placed the link to the LGBTQ group’s video on the Synod’s website.
“In recent days, I have personally taken the initiative to de-publish a post promoted by the reality ‘New Ways Ministries’ for internal procedural reasons,” Bonaventura says in his apology, which he posted on Facebook. “This brought pain to the entire LGBTQ community who once again felt left out,” he said.
“I feel I must apologize to all LGBTQ people and to the members of New Ways Ministries for the pain caused,” Bonaventura said. He added that he reposted the link to the New Ways Ministry video on the Synod website. He also posted in his Facebook message a link to the Synod’s resources web page, suggesting that LGBTQ Catholics should submit messages on the site.
“Certainly, LGBTQ groups and those groups who feel they live on the ‘margins’ of the Church can direct their contributions, resources, or what they want to share with the whole people of God to [this website],” he wrote.
“New Ways Ministry warmly accepts the apology of Thierry Bonaventura,” DeBernardo said in a Dec. 13 statement. “Apologies are powerful in their ability to build bridges of reconciliation and justice,” DeBernardo said. “Mr. Bonaventura’s kind words and his reposting of the video will be effective in helping to repair the rift that exists between LGBTQ people and Catholic institutions,” he said.
“We appreciate that apologies are never easy to make,” DeBernardo continued. “New Ways Ministry had not requested one, making this gesture all the more authentic,” he said. “Vatican officials rarely apologize, and they almost certainly have never apologized to LGBTQ people or an LGBTQ Catholic Ministry,” said DeBernardo.
“This action signals that Vatican officials are becoming aware of how their decisions impact LGBTQ lives,” he said. “It also reveals a desire to repair damages they may have caused. In these respects, this is an historic moment.”
DeBernardo said Pope Francis’s two letters to New Ways Ministry came in response to messages that he sent to the Pope discussing problems LGBTQ people and New Ways Ministry have faced with Catholic Church officials, including the Vatican.
“We wrote to the Pope in April, introducing ourselves as an organization, providing him with a brief history, including two major censures by church officials,” DeBernardo told the Blade.
Among the issues he said his group raised with the Pope was a 1999 decision by the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith to prohibit the two co-founders of New Ways Ministry – Sister Jeannine Gramick and Father Robert Nugent – from engaging in pastoral work with gay people.
The National Catholic Reporter, which published a story about the Pope’s letters to New Ways Ministry, reports that the 1999 action against Gramick and Nugent was based on claims by Vatican officials that the two LGBTQ supporters promoted “ambiguities and errors” in their ministerial work.
The newspaper, which operates independently from the Catholic Church, points out in a Dec. 8 story that the notification sent to Gramick and Nugent prohibiting them from providing pastoral support for homosexuals was signed by then Cardinal Joseph Razinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI.
DeBernardo told the Blade New Ways Ministry decided to release excerpts of the Pope’s two letters rather than the entire letters because some of the content “were pastoral and personal messages which it was not appropriate or relevant to release.” He said the decision to release the excepts was made after a National Catholic Reporter journalist contacted the group for comment after the newspaper learned that the link to the New Ways Ministry video had been removed from the Vatican based Synod’s website.
“We made the decision that we would let him know about the papal correspondence as a way to show that Pope Francis was indeed genuinely interested in LGBTQ people, as evidenced by the fact that he was in supportive correspondence with New Ways,” DeBernardo said.
“In two letters to New Ways Ministry this year, Pope Francis commended the organization for its outreach to the LGBTQ community and referred to one of its co-founders, Loretto Sister Jeannine Gramick, as ‘a valiant woman’ who suffered much from her ministry,” the newspaper reports.
“Written in Spanish on official Vatican stationary, Francis’ letters mention that the Pope is aware that New Ways Ministry’s ‘history has not been an easy one, but that loving one’s neighbor is still the second commandment, tied ‘necessarily’ to the first commandment to love God,” the National Catholic Reporter story continues.
“Thank you for your neighborly work,” the newspaper quoted Francis as telling DeBernardo in a June 17 letter. In that same letter, the Pope also expressed praise for Sister Gramick. “I know how much she has suffered. She is a valiant woman who makes her decisions in prayer,” the newspaper quoted the Pope as saying.
“It helped me a lot to know the full story you tell me about New Ways Ministry’s history,” the newspaper further quoted the Pope as saying in a May 3 letter. “Sometimes we receive partial information about people and organizations, and this doesn’t help. Your letter, as it narrates with objectivity its history, gives me light to better understand certain situations,” National Catholic Reporter quoted the Pope as saying to DeBernardo in the May 3 letter.
“In ongoing communications with us and with others, it is clear that Pope Francis wants LGBTQ ministry to thrive,” DeBernardo said in a Dec. 13 statement. “He has publicly emphasized that he wants all people to participate in synod discussions, especially those who have been marginalized or alienated from the church,” he said.
“This unprecedented apology from a Vatican office corrects the earlier mistake and amplifies, even louder, the welcome that Pope Francis has extended to LGBTQ people,” said DeBernardo.
The White House
Report: Grenell wants Russian ambassadorship
Country’s anti-LGBTQ record a reported barrier
Richard Grenell, President Donald Trump’s special envoy for “special missions,” is making it known that he is interested in the Russian ambassadorship.
According to reporting by the Daily Mail, Grenell has “floated” his interest in the role to coworkers, but issues surrounding the former German ambassador’s sexuality have made securing the position more difficult.
“He had an interest in the job — or at least he floated the idea to select colleagues. But Putin’s regime is extremely anti–LGBTQ, so I’m sure they didn’t take that thought too seriously,” one source close to Grenell told the Daily Mail. “That would never happen anyway.”
Grenell has long been one of Trump’s closest allies and was the first openly gay person to hold a Cabinet-level position. He was ousted last month as acting director of the Kennedy Center, a position he had held since Trump reestablished the board to be composed of his political supporters in 2025.
In addition to leading the nation’s cultural arts center, Grenell previously served as the U.S. ambassador to Germany from 2018 to 2020, and as the special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations from 2019 to 2021. He was also a State Department spokesperson to the U.N. under the George W. Bush administration and a Fox News contributor.
Russia has a longstanding history of being anti-LGBTQ.
In 2013, the country passed a law banning any public endorsement of “nontraditional sexual relations” among minors. In December 2022, Putin signed legislation expanding the ban, making it illegal to promote same-sex relationships or suggest that non-heterosexual orientations are “normal” for people of any age, widening censorship across media and public life.
The Russian courts have also supported the restriction of LGBTQ identity in the country. In November 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court granted a request from the Justice Ministry to outlaw the “international LGBT movement” as “extremist,” allowing authorities to criminalize advocacy and potentially prosecute individuals for expressions of LGBTQ+ identity or support.
In addition to LGBTQ rights issues, the war between Russia and Ukraine has become a global concern. Ukraine, which was part of the former Soviet Union, includes the territory known as Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. The annexation remains a major point of international dispute over sovereignty. Since 2022, Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine has escalated the conflict, drawing global attention and sanctions while straining U.S.-Russia relations.
The U.S. has spent $188 billion in total related to the war in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
The Russian ambassadorship seems to be a difficult role to fill, according to additional information presented by the Daily Mail. With Trump already being seen as relatively positive by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and with close ties to members of his Cabinet and family — like son-in-law Jared Kushner — the ambassadorship is complicated and viewed as less critical than in previous administrations.
“There is no rush to fill that role because it has now been deemed unnecessary,” another source told the U.K.-based publication.
Bob Foresman, a seasoned businessman with decades-long ties to the Kremlin, was reportedly once the frontrunner, according to the Daily Mail. Foresman served as vice chair of UBS Investment Bank and Deputy Chairman of Renaissance Capital between 2006 and 2009, and earlier led investment banking for Russia at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein from 1997 to 2000.
“This is a pattern, especially in the Trump administration — special envoys big–footing the ambassadors,” a source told the Daily Mail. “It is shocking that we are already in April and we don’t have an ambassador to one of the most important countries in the world.”
Tennessee
Tenn. lawmakers pass transgender “watch list” bill
State Senate to consider measure on Wednesday
The Tennessee House of Representatives passed a bill last week to create a transgender “watch list” that also pushes detransition medical treatment. The state Senate will consider it on Wednesday.
House Bill 754/State Bill 676 has been deemed “ugly” by LGBTQ advocates and criticized by healthcare information litigators as a major privacy concern.
The bill would require “gender clinics accepting funds from this state to perform gender transition procedures to also perform detransition procedures; requires insurance entities providing coverage of gender transition procedures to also cover detransition procedures; requires certain gender clinics and insurance entities to report information regarding detransition procedures to the department of health.”
It would require that any gender-affirming care-providing clinics share the date, age, and sex of patients; any drugs prescribed (dosage, frequency, duration, and method administered); the state and county; the name, contact information, and medical specialty of the healthcare professional who prescribed the treatment; and any past medical history related to “neurological, behavioral, or mental health conditions.” It would also mandate additional information if surgical intervention is prescribed, including details on which healthcare professional made a referral and when.
HB 0754 would also require the state to produce a “comprehensive annual statistical report,” with all collected data shared with the heads of the legislature and the legislative librarian, and eventually published online for public access.
The bill also reframes detransitioning as a major focus of gender-affirming healthcare — despite studies showing that the number of trans people who detransition is statistically quite low, around 13 percent, and is often the result of external pressures (such as discrimination or family) rather than an issue with their gender identity.
This legislation stands in sharp contrast to federal protections restricting what healthcare information can be shared. In 1996, Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, requiring protections for all “individually identifiable health information,” including medical records, conversations, billing information, and other patient data.
Margaret Riley, professor of law, public health sciences, and public policy at the University of Virginia, has written about similar efforts at the federal level, noting the Trump-Vance administration’s push to subpoena multiple hospitals’ records of gender-affirming care for trans patients despite no claims — or proof — that a crime was committed.
It has “sown fear and concern, both among people whose information is sought and among the doctors and other providers who offer such care. Some health providers have reportedly decided to no longer provide gender-affirming care to minors as a result of the inquiries, even in states where that care is legal.” She wrote in an article on the Conversation, where she goes further, pointing out that the push, mostly from conservative members of the government, are pushing extracting this private information “while giving no inkling of any alleged crimes that may have been committed.”
State Rep. Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby), the bill’s sponsor, said in a press conference two weeks ago that he has met dozens of individuals who sought to transition genders and ultimately detransitioned. In committee, an individual testified in support of the bill, claiming that while insurance paid for gender-affirming care, detransition care was not covered.
“I believe that we as a society are going to look back on this time that really burst out in 2014 and think, ‘Dear God, What were we thinking? This was as dumb as frontal lobotomies,’” Faison said of gender-affirming care. “I think we’re going to look back on society one day and think that.”
Jennifer Levi, GLAD Law’s senior director of Transgender and Queer Rights, shared with PBS last year that legislation like this changes the entire concept of HIPAA rights for trans Americans in ways that are invasive and unnecessary.
“It turns doctor-patient confidentiality into government surveillance,” Levi said, later emphasizing this will cause fewer people to seek out the care that they need. “It’s chilling.”
The Washington Blade reached out to the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, which shared this statement from Executive Director Miriam Nemeth:
“HB 754/SB 676 continues the ugly legacy of Tennessee legislators’ attacks on the lives of transgender Tennesseans. Most Tennesseans, regardless of political views, oppose government databases tracking medical decisions made between patients and their doctors. The same should be true here. The state does not threaten to end the livelihood of doctors and fine them $150,000 for safeguarding the sensitive information of people with diabetes, depression, cancer, or other conditions. Trans people and intersex people deserve the same safety, privacy, and equal treatment under the law as everyone else.”
Iran
LGBTQ groups condemn Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian civilization
Ceasefire announced less than two hours before Tuesday deadline
The Council for Global Equality is among the groups that condemned President Donald Trump on Tuesday over his latest threats against Iran.
Trump in a Truth Social post said “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Tehran did not reach an agreement with the U.S. by 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
Iran is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death.
Israel and the U.S. on Feb. 28 launched airstrikes against Iran.
One of them killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran in response launched missiles and drones against Israel and other countries that include Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, and Cyprus.
Gas prices in the U.S. and around the world continue to increase because the war has essentially closed the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway that connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s crude oil passes.
Trump less than 90 minutes before his deadline announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran that Pakistan helped broker.
“We the undersigned human rights, humanitarian, civil liberties, faith-based and environmental organizations, think tanks and experts are deeply alarmed by President Trump’s threat regarding Iran that ‘a whole civilization will die tonight’ if his demands are not met. Such language describes a grave atrocity if carried out,” reads the statement that the Council for Global Equality more than 200 other organizations and human rights experts signed. “A threat to wipe out ‘a whole civilization’ may amount to a threat of genocide. Genocide is a crime defined by the Genocide Convention and by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as committing one or more of several acts ‘with intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, racial or religious groups as such.'”
The statement states “the law is clear that civilians must not be targeted, and they must also be protected from indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks.”
“Strikes on civilian infrastructure — such as the recent attack on a bridge and the attacks President Trump is repeatedly threatening to carry out to destroy power plants — have devastating consequences for the civilian population and environment,” it reads.
“We urge all parties to respect international law,” adds the statement. “Those responsible for atrocities, including crimes against humanity and war crimes, can and must be held accountable.”
The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice, Amnesty International USA, Human Rights Watch, the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP, MADRE, and the Robert and Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center are among the other groups that signed the letter.
Report: Grenell wants Russian ambassadorship
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Cuba bajo presión y sin respuestas
Tenn. lawmakers pass transgender “watch list” bill
