Washington Blade White House Correspondent Joe Reberkenny joins The Gaily Show bi-weekly on Wednesdays to share his award-winning reporting from the Capitol. This week he reports on Hegseth’s testosterone screening policy at the Pentagon, Georgia voters just elected their first LGBTQ congressman, and how Rep. Seth Moulton’s anti-trans stances came back to haunt him as he crashed out of his Senate primary. Article continues below.
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Hegseth’s Obsession With Testosterone On Pause
Reberkenny reported earlier this summer that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth planned to implement mandatory testosterone screening for everyone serving in the armed forces. He said that cisgender service members must have a particular testosterone level, as set by him, calling it a standard of “health, performance, and readiness.”
Reberkenny said that Hegseth has had to pause that directive as the Pentagon awaits final medical guidance in the face of massive pushback from medical professionals.
“A lot of doctors and endocrine groups,” Reberkenny said, “various people who work with — not even testosterone, who just work with human hormones every day — were like, ‘This is not necessarily going to make all these people more ready than they would’ve been prior. It’s really just adding sometimes dangerous chemicals that these people don’t need into their body.”
Transgender service members undergo specific medical guidance from medical providers. Those doctors routinely monitor the health of their transgender patients to ensure the hormone therapy addresses their medical needs.
Reberkenny said that Hegseth and Trump are pushing out transgender service members for needing hormone therapy, while attempting to create a hormone therapy plan for every single cisgender person in the armed forces.
The Trump administration is still fighting lawsuits from transgender service members attempting to continue their work and service to the country.
Everton Blair Makes History in Georgia
When anti-transgender Democrat Collin Allred defeated Rep. Julie Johnson in a Texas primary earlier this year, Allred unseated the South’s only out LGBTQ Congressperson.
According to Reberkenny that will now change. Everton Blair won Georgia’s recent special runoff election for the 13th Congressional District and will become the first openly LGBTQ member of Congress from that state. Consequently, he will be the South’s only out LGBTQ representative.
The seat opened after the death of Rep. David Scott. His daughter, Marcye Scott, ran against Blair.
The new Congressman served as chair of the Gwinnett County Board of Education, was a White House initiative fellow in the Obama administration, and specializes in education policy and equity.
After he was sworn in, Blair immediately joined the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and he became co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus.
“He knows what to do and he really cares about supporting the education of everyone,” Reberkenny said. “This is a lot of good news for representation in general. He’s going to be one to watch for sure, and I am ready to see it blossom.
Blair will not have to run again in this November’s midterms and will serve out the remainder of Rep. Scott’s original term before having to run for re-election.
Rep. Moulton Lost Big in MA Senate Primary
In the aftermath of the 2024 election, Rep. Seth Moulton said the reason why Vice President Harris lost was not because of racism, sexism, immigration, or the economy. He said it was because of transgender athletes.
“I have two little girls,” he said at the time. “I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”
He admitted later that his daughters play in co-ed sports.
The backlash was immediate, but nonetheless Moulton decided to give up his Congressional seat to challenge Senator Ed Markey for his. Notably, Markey is the lead sponsor of the Transgender Bill of Rights.
“Ed Markey has [said] consistently, ‘not only should we allow them [to play sports], we should allow them to have political rights, a guaranteed access to healthcare and to just basic equality,'” Reberkenny said.
Reberkenny reported from Markey’s re-introduction of the Transgender Bill of Rights on Capitol Hill.
“There’s a ferocity and an intense liveliness that he has to him that a lot of people who aren’t familiar with Massachusetts politics would maybe attribute to somebody much younger,” Reberkenny said. “He is a lawmaker who I’ve seen who’s consistently stepped out in support of the LGBTQ community and who is really just still very passionate, still very there, which you can’t always say about other legislators who are approaching that same age.”
Moulton waited until the debate with Markey to issue an apology for his remarks. His campaign pointed to his score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s congressional scorecard. They noted he cosponsored Markey’s Transgender Bill of Rights and they pointed to his vote against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025. The bill would have banned trans girls from playing in school sports. However, Moulton himself said after the vote that he wanted to ban trans girls from playing sports if the “right” bill came along.
Markey won the primary with 65% of the vote.
