National
Monkeypox being spread through sex, not brief skin-to-skin contact: experts
Health experts weigh declaring virus an STD
Amid fears monkeypox would spread at an increased rate at the end of summer as gay men gather in close quarters for dance parties and other celebrations, health experts are starting to emphasize that the current outbreak isn’t spreading through minimal skin-to-skin contact, such as brushing up against a fellow shirtless dance partner, but rather through sexual activity and overwhelmingly among men who have sex with men.
With reported cases of monkeypox in the United States this week reaching 15,505, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control, a number of health experts who spoke to the Blade talked about outright declaring monkeypox a sexually transmitted disease as part of this messaging — although they acknowledge such a label would have pros and cons.
Juan Carlos Loubriel, senior director of community health at the D.C.-based Whitman-Walker Health, was among the health experts making the distinction between the negligible risks of transmitting monkeypox through brief skin-to-skin contact as opposed to sexual activity.
“I’ll say that we need to provide the real facts to our community that indicates right now that the majority of the cases are sexually transmitted, right?” Loubriel said. “So transmission is not occurring by casual touch, right? That’s what we know as of today … So the majority of the cases [are] by prolonged skin-to-skin contact, and during sex there is a lot of skin-to-skin contact.”
As health experts at large are beginning to make a distinction in how the disease is transmitted, the Biden administration has also taken up messaging that downplays the risk of monkeypox transmission through minimal skin-to-skin contact.
Demetre Daskalakis, who is the face of the LGBTQ outreach for the Biden administration as deputy coordinator of the White House monkeypox task force, made colorful remarks Friday during a conference call with reporters downplaying the risk of contracting monkeypox through brief contact, quoting a senior policy adviser at the CDC who has studied LGBTQ health issues.
“I think I’m going to quote my friend Robbie Goldstein that sex involves friction, and friction seems to be how this happens,” Daskalakis said. “So, I think, that from the perspective of events, the real risk at an event is low. Of course, you have to gauge that risk based on what you’re doing, so if there’s a lot of clothes out dancing and friction, that could be a mechanism of transmission, but just brushing by someone, I’ve said this many times before, just brushing by someone is probably low or no risk.”
Asked by the Blade during the call about any consideration on declaring monkeypox a sexually transmitted disease, Daskalakis said it’s “really important that the decision around monkeypox and whether it’s designated happen thoughtfully from the perspective of other implications.”
“What’s really important from the perspective of our communication on the ground is that our harm reduction and safer sex guidance really does mention the importance of sexual transmission or the associated transmission of the virus, and also provides guidance necessary, like reminding people that condoms may have a role — not necessarily the full role — in preventing monkeypox, but also reminds folks that skin-to-skin contact in the context of sex can be really a part of how transmission occurs,” he said.
The messaging is consistent with new studies finding cases of monkeypox are overwhelmingly the result of sexual activity. According to a recent report by NBC News, an increasing amount of scientific evidence — such three studies published in peer-reviewed journals, as well as reports from national, regional, and global health authorities — has indicated “experts may have framed monkeypox’s typical transmission route precisely backward.”
“[A]n expanding cadre of experts has come to believe that sex between men itself — both anal as well as oral intercourse — is likely the main driver of global monkeypox transmission,” the NBC News report says. “The skin contact that comes with sex, these experts say, is probably much less of a risk factor.”
With evidence the monkeypox outbreak is overwhelmingly being transmitted through sexual activity and risks from skin-to-skin contact virtually non-existent, experts say discussion on whether or not to label the virus as a sexually transmitted disease are ongoing and controversial.
On one hand, designating monkeypox as a sexually transmitted disease would give the public a clearer idea about the way it’s being transmitted to allay concerns and enable the public to take appropriate precautions. On the other hand, as seen during the height of HIV/AIDS crisis, an emphasis on monkeypox being transmitted among men who have sex with men may have the effect of stigmatizing the community (and the sexual activity) as being responsible for the outbreak.
Loubriel said the issue of whether or not monkeypox should be messaged more as a sexually transmitted disease is “a very good question and also a very big debate around public health, even within the public health sector.”
“The only reason we cannot say it is just sexually transmitted is because we know as a fact that it can be spread by other various avenues like touching clothing, bedding with an infected person or towels being used by someone with monkeypox, potentially contact with respiratory secretions,” Loubriel added. “So that is why it’s probably not been named as a sexually transmitted infection.”
Joseph Lee, a professor of health education at East Carolina University who studies health inequities among LGBTQ people, said there’s “real tension” in finding the right messaging, which he said would strike a balance between being factual while not being stigmatic of the marginalized community affected by monkeypox.
“We see when we have messaging that goes to the general public…that messaging about how a particular group is doing worse triggers negative stereotypes and makes people feel less at risk than they are,” Lee said. “And really importantly, it makes the group at the worst end of that problem feel sometimes like they’re feeling fatalistic or they can’t do anything to protect themselves. You almost feel like you have to give up and you’re just going to get it anyway because the messaging is so clear, how much it’s impacting your community.”
Lee, however, praised communications on monkeypox from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, saying the agency has “very useful guidance about promoting equity in monkeypox communication that I actually really like.”
Key points in the guidance, Lee said, is messaging that monkeypox can affect anyone, while going through some of the ways the virus is being transmitted and ways the public can protect itself. The guidance, Lee said, follows the right strategy of articulating a message to the general public, then adding more specific messages about protection against the disease and risk to the communities most vulnerable.
“That’s sort of their big picture strategy that I think is actually the right strategy,” Lee concluded. “How well everyone’s implementing it across the country in our messy, somewhat broken public health system is another question.”
Federal Government
Protesters say SAVE Act targets voters, transgender youth
Bill described as ‘Jim Crow 2.0’
Members of Congress, advocates, and people from across the country gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to protest proposed federal legislation that voting rights activists have deemed “Jim Crow 2.0.”
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require in-person proof of citizenship for anyone seeking to vote in U.S. elections.
President Donald Trump has also pushed for the proposed legislation to include a section that would ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, even with parental consent, and prohibit trans people from participating in school or professional sports consistent with their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth.
In addition to changing voter registration requirements, the bill would limit acceptable forms of identification to documents such as a birth certificate or passport — records that the Brennan Center for Justice estimates more than 21 million Americans do not have — effectively restricting access to the ballot. It would also ban online voter registration, DMV voter registration efforts, and mail-in voter registration.
A 2021 investigation by the Associated Press found that fewer than 475 people voted illegally or improperly, a tiny fraction of the estimated 160 million Americans who voted in the 2020 election.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke at the event.
“It will kick millions of American citizens off the rolls. And they don’t even require you to be told,” the highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate told protesters and reporters outside the Capitol. “If this law passes — and it won’t — you’re gonna show up in November … and they’ll say… sorry, you’re no longer on the voting rolls.”
He, like many other speakers, emphasized the bill in the context of American history, pointing to what he described as its racist roots and its impact on Black and brown Americans.
“I have called this act, over and over again, Jim Crow 2.0 … because they know it’s the truth.”
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was one of the lawmakers leading opposition to the legislation and spoke at the rally.
“It’s not just voting rights that are on the line — our democracy is on the line,” the California lawmaker said. “It’s not a voter I.D. bill. It’s a bait and switch bill.”
He added historical context, noting the significance of voting rights legislation passed more than 60 years ago. In 1965, Alabama civil rights activists marched to protest barriers to voter registration. Alabama state troopers violently attacked peaceful demonstrators at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, using tear gas, clubs, and whips against more than 500 — mostly Black — protesters.
“61 years ago — not to the day — but this week, President Lyndon Johnson came to the Capitol and addressed a joint session of Congress in the wake of Bloody Sunday and pushed Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act,” Padilla said. “61 years later, Donald Trump and this Republican majority wants to take us backwards. We’re not gonna let that happen.”
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) also spoke, emphasizing that he views the effort as a Republican-led and Trump-backed attempt to restrict voting access, particularly among Black, brown, and predominantly Democratic communities.
“President Trump told Republicans when they were meeting behind closed doors that ‘The SAVE Act will guarantee Republicans win the midterms and ensure they do not lose an election for 50 years,’” Luján said. “The first time I think Donald Trump’s been honest … This voter suppression bill is only that. Taking away vote by mail? I hope my Republican colleagues from states that voted for Donald Trump or where vote by mail is popular have the courage and the backbone to stand up and say no to this nonsense, because their constituents are going to push back.”
U.S. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) also spoke.
“Our Republican colleagues have already cut Medicaid, Medicare, people don’t know how they’re gonna be able to afford energy,” she said, providing context for the broader political moment. “We’re in the middle of a war that they can’t even get straight while we’re in it and don’t have a way to get out of it. And we are now faced with defending our democracy?”
She then showed the crowd something that she said has been with her throughout her political journey in Washington.
“I brought with me something that I carried on the day that I was sworn into the House of Representatives when I was elected in 2016, and I carried it with me on the day that I was sworn in as United States senator. And I also carried it with me when I was trapped up in the gallery on Jan. 6 and all I could think to do was pray … This document allowed my great great great grandfather, who had been enslaved in Georgia, to have the right to vote. We took this and turned it into a scarf. It is the returns of qualified voters and reconstruction code from 1867. This is my proof of what we’ve been through. This is also our inspiration.”
“I got to travel between the Edmund Pettus Bridge two times. And even as I thought about this moment, I recognized that while we wish we weren’t in it, while we don’t know why we’re in it, I do know we were made for it … So I came today to tell you that, um, just like the leader said, that he calls it Jim Crow 2.0. I call it Jim Crow 2.NO.”
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy organization in the U.S., also spoke, highlighting the impact of the bill’s proposed provisions affecting trans people.
“This bill is not about saving America. This bill is about stealing an election. This bill is about suppressing voters,” Robinson said. “This bill not only tries to disenfranchise voters that deserve their right to vote, it also tries to criminalize trans kids and their families … It tries to criminalize doctors providing medically necessary care for our trans youth.”
The SAVE Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 11 but has not yet been considered in the U.S. Senate.
Idaho
Idaho advances bill to restrict bathroom access for transgender residents
HB 752 passed in state House of Representatives on Monday
The Idaho House of Representatives passed House Bill 752 on Monday, a measure that would make it a crime for a person to use a bathroom other than the one designated for their “biological sex.”
The story was first reported by the Idaho Capitol Sun after the bill cleared the House.
House Bill 752 would make it a criminal offense — either a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on the number of prior offenses — for individuals who “knowingly and willfully” enter a bathroom or changing room designated for the opposite sex.
The bill would apply to public buildings, including government-owned spaces, and places of “public accommodation,” a category that includes private businesses.
According to the bill’s text, it would “prohibit a person from entering a restroom or changing room designated for the opposite sex; provide a penalty; provide exceptions; define terms; and declare an emergency and provide an effective date.”
A first offense would be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison. A second or subsequent offense within five years would be a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.
The bill passed in a 54–15 vote on Monday. Six Republicans broke with their party’s majority to join nine Democrats in opposing the measure.
The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Cornel Rasor, a Republican from Sagle near the Washington-Idaho border, told House lawmakers that the legislation is intended to protect women and girls.
“It prevents discomfort and voyeurism escalation and assaults, while preserving single-user options and narrow exceptions so no one is denied access for emergency aid,” Rasor said.
State Rep. Chris Mathias, a Democrat from Boise, disagreed, arguing that the legislation would unfairly target transgender Idahoans.
“The truth of the matter is — and I know a lot of people don’t want to say it — but forcing people who don’t look like the sex they were assigned at birth, or transgender folks, to use other people’s bathrooms is going to put a lot of people in danger,” Mathias said.
The Idaho American Civil Liberties Union made a statement about the bill following its passage.
“Idaho lawmakers continue pushing these harmful, invasive bathroom laws, yet cannot present credible evidence that transgender people using gender-aligned bathrooms threaten public safety,” the Idaho ACLU said. “The bill does nothing to address real criminal acts, such as sexual assault or voyeurism, and disregards concerns from law enforcement about the burden enforcement would place on local resources.”
In addition to human rights advocates, who have spoken out against similar bills advancing in state legislatures across the country, Idaho law enforcement groups have also opposed the measure. They argue that the way the legislation is written would “pose significant practical enforcement challenges,” noting that officers are tasked with maintaining public safety — not conducting gender checks or policing bathroom access.
During a committee hearing last week, law enforcement representatives and several trans Idahoans testified that the bill would make many residents less safe.
“Officers responding to a complaint would be placed in the difficult position of determining an individual’s biological sex in order to enforce the statute,” Idaho Fraternal Order of Police President Bryan Lovell wrote. “In many circumstances, there is no clear or reasonable way for officers to make that determination without engaging in questioning or investigative actions that could be viewed as invasive and inappropriate.”
The Idaho Sheriffs’ Association requested that lawmakers amend the bill to require that individuals be given an opportunity to leave a bathroom immediately before facing potential prosecution.
The bill now heads to the Idaho Senate for consideration. To become law, it must pass both chambers and avoid a veto from the governor.
A separate bathroom bill, House Bill 607, which would be enforced through civil lawsuits, passed the House last month but has not yet received a committee hearing in the Senate.
State Department
Report: US to withhold HIV aid to Zambia unless mineral access expanded
New York Times obtained Secretary of State Marco Rubio memo
The State Department is reportedly considering withholding assistance for Zambians with HIV unless the country’s government allows the U.S. to access more of its minerals.
The New York Times on Monday reported Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a memo to State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs staffers wrote the U.S. “will only secure our priorities by demonstrating willingness to publicly take support away from Zambia on a massive scale.” The newspaper said it obtained a copy of the letter.
Zambia is a country in southern Africa that borders Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Times notes upwards of 1.3 million Zambians receive daily HIV medications through PEPFAR. The newspaper reported Rubio in his memo said the Trump-Vance administration could “significantly cut assistance” as soon as May.
“Reports of (the) State Department withholding lifesaving HIV treatment in return for mining concessions in Zambia does not make us safer, stronger, or more prosperous,” said U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday. “Monetizing innocent people’s lives further undermines U.S. global leadership and is just plain wrong.”
The Washington Blade has reached out to the State Department for comment.
Zambia received breakthrough HIV prevention drug through PEPFAR
Rubio on Jan. 28, 2025, issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during a freeze on nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending. HIV/AIDS service providers around the world with whom the Blade has spoken say PEPFAR cuts and the loss of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which officially closed on July 1, 2025, has severely impacted their work.
The State Department last September announced PEPFAR will distribute lenacapavir in countries with high prevalence rates. Zambia two months later received the first doses of the breakthrough HIV prevention drug.
Kenya and Uganda are among the African countries have signed health agreements with the U.S. since the Trump-Vance administration took office.
The Times notes the countries that signed these agreements pledged to increase health spending. The Blade last month reported LGBTQ rights groups have questioned whether these agreements will lead to further exclusion and government-sanctioned discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Housewives take Capitol Hill by storm
Protesters say SAVE Act targets voters, transgender youth
‘It’s Dorothy’ traces lasting influence of a cultural icon
SAVE Act could silence millions of trans voters
The frightening rise of antisemitism, Islamophobia
Ensuring safer drinking water
A season of renewal for D.C. theater
PHOTOS: Awesome Con
Kennedy Center leadership changes as Trump ally Grenell departs
