Local

Roanoke auto shop fights anti-gay vandalism

‘Die fag’ scraped onto car owned by gay student

Published

13 years ago

August 29, 2012

Jordan Addison, pictured with his parents Ronald and Rachel Fowler, found support from a Virginia auto body shop after his car was vandalized. (Photo courtesy of Addison)

Jordan Addison, 21, a second-year student at Virginia’s Radford University, said he became alarmed and discouraged when unidentified vandals defaced his car with an anti-gay slur, smashed the windshield, and slashed two tires in four separate incidents between March and May.

The first incident occurred late at night when his car was parked in front of his parents’ mountainside house in the rural town of Max Meadows, located about 60 miles southwest of Roanoke.

The other three incidents occurred while his car was in the parking lot outside his dorm on the Radford campus, which is located about 30 miles west of Roanoke.

“We have no idea who could have done it,” Addison told the Blade.

While the identity of the vandals remains a mystery, he said he’s certain he was targeted because he’s an out gay man.

Addison said he became even more discouraged when auto body shops near his parents’ home and near the college told him it would cost as much as $3,000 or more to remove the words “fag die” that one or more vandals scraped into the driver’s side door of his 1999 Volkswagen Passat.

“I actually called one place and I said I need to get my door repainted,” Addison told the Blade. “And he said, oh, that will be about $600. And then I showed up and his estimate went up to a little over $3,000.”

Addison said his parents, fellow students, and faculty members chipped in to help cover the costs of replacing the shattered front windshield and two slashed tires. But he said the high cost of having the “fag die” slur removed from the side of the car was more than he could afford. His insurance policy didn’t include a “comprehensive” provision needed to cover that type of damage.

“So I was in the middle of don’t go back to class and don’t drive your car or drive your car back,” with the slur visible for everyone to see, “and go to class and keep your grades up. And that’s what I chose.”

In a turn of events that Addison describes as astonishing and heartwarming, an auto body shop manager in Roanoke named Richard “J.R.” Henegar Jr., who learned about Addison’s plight from a friend who works at Radford University, took action on Addison’s behalf.

A Navy veteran who’s straight and married, Henegar summoned Addison to bring the car to Quality Auto Paint and Body Shop in Roanoke, which is owned by Henegar’s father. At his own expense, Henegar obtained a rental car for Addison’s use while he said he would arrange to remove the anti-gay slur from the side of the car.

“I saw his car and I said this is uncalled for and I’m going to take care of your car,” Henegar told the Blade.

Without telling Addison, Henegar contacted 10 other businesses, most auto body shops in the Roanoke area, and persuaded them to share the costs and provide parts needed to do a major overhaul of the car in addition to removing the slur etched into the paint.

Among other things, Henegar had the entire car repainted, installed new tires, tinted windows, a new security alarm system and a new stereo. He said the total cost came to more than $10,000 and involved at least 100 hours of labor, which he said he and the other businesses that helped him performed after regular business hours and on weekends.

When the work was finished Henegar arranged for a local vendor to screen print T-shirts with an anti-bullying message that he modeled after the logo of an anti-bullying organization he discovered online.

“I told him about the story and he didn’t charge me a dime,” Henegar said of the T-shirt vendor. “He had all the T-shirts printed. There was a big circle with a line through it that said bullies. On the back it said special thanks to all our vendors and it had a list of the vendors.”

Henegar then invited one of the local TV news stations to come to his shop to cover what he said would be Addison’s “homecoming”— his shop’s official presentation of the completed car to Addison, who knew nothing of what was about to happen.

“He just completely blew my mind,” said Addison in describing his emotions when he and his partner arrived at the shop and discovered the overhauled car.

“He breaks so many stereotypes because he’s a straight guy but he’s helping me out and I’m a gay male,” Addison said. “He has tattoos everywhere but he’s like a science nerd and he’s such a sweet person. It blows my mind that people like him live where I’m from.”

Addison added, “He’s just so kind and brave and put so much work into something for someone he’d never met.”

Henegar, who’s in line to take over the shop when his father retires, said his father and the shop’s 10 employees supported his efforts.

“We just wanted to bring some attention to bullying and make people aware that it’s uncalled for,” he said. “And we’re a small business in the South and we’re not going to stand for it.”

The Aug. 20 video coverage by WDBJ 7 TV News in Roanoke of Addison’s stunned expression when he saw his spruced up car at the Quality Auto Paint and Body shop quickly circulated nationally and internationally online.

Henegar said within days of news broadcast by the TV station, the video went viral, prompting hundreds of people to send emails and phone messages praising the shop for helping someone in need.

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Virginia

DOJ seeks to join lawsuit against Loudoun County over trans student in locker room

Three male high school students suspended after complaining about classmate

Published

3 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Staff reports

(Bigstock photo)

The Justice Department has asked to join a federal lawsuit against Loudoun County Public Schools over the way it handled the case of three male high school students who complained about a transgender student in a boys’ locker room.

The Washington Blade earlier this year reported Loudoun County public schools suspended the three boys and launched a Title IX investigation into whether they sexually harassed the student after they said they felt uncomfortable with their classmate in the locker room at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn.

The parents of two of the boys filed a lawsuit against Loudoun County public schools in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. The Richmond-based Founding Freedoms Law Center and America First Legal, which White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller co-founded, represent them.

The Justice Department in a Dec. 8 press release announced that “it filed legal action against the Loudoun County (Va.) School Board (Loudoun County) for its denial of equal protection based on religion.”

“The suit alleges that Loudoun County applied Policy 8040, which requires students and faculty to accept and promote gender ideology, to two Christian, male students in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” reads the press release.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the press release said “students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.”

“Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality,” said Dhillon.

Outgoing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and outgoing Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in May announced an investigation into the case.

The Virginia Department of Education in 2023 announced the new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students for which Youngkin asked. Equality Virginia and other advocacy groups claim they, among other things, forcibly out trans and nonbinary students.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in February launched an investigation into whether Loudoun County and four other Northern Virginia school districts’ policies in support of trans and nonbinary students violate Title IX and President Donald Trump’s executive order that prohibits federally funded educational institutions from promoting “gender ideology.”

District of Columbia

Capital Pride announces change in date for 2026 D.C. Pride parade and festival

Events related to U.S. 250th anniversary and Trump birthday cited as reasons for change

Published

8 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

A scene from the 2024 Capital Pride Festival. (Washington Blade file photo by Emily Hanna)

The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C. based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, has announced it is changing the dates for the 2026 Capital Pride Parade and Festival from the second weekend in June to the third weekend.

“For over a decade, Capital Pride has taken place during the second weekend in June, but in 2026, we are shifting our dates in response to the city’s capacity due to major events and preparations for the 250^th anniversary of the United States,” according to a Dec. 9 statement released by Capital Pride Alliance.

The statement says the parade will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2026, with the festival and related concert taking place on June 21.

“This change ensures our community can gather safely and without unnecessary barriers,” the statement says. “By moving the celebration, we are protecting our space and preserving Pride as a powerful act of visibility, solidarity, and resistance,” it says.

Ryan Bos, the Capital Pride Alliance CEO and President, told the Washington Blade the change in dates came after the group conferred with D.C. government officials regarding plans for a number of events in the city on the second weekend in June. Among them, he noted, is a planned White House celebration of President Donald Trump’s 80^th birthday and other events related to the U.S. 250^th anniversary, which are expected to take place from early June through Independence Day on July 4.

The White House has announced plans for a large June 14, 2026 celebration on the White House south lawn of Trump’s 80th birthday that will include a large-scale Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event involving boxing and wrestling competition.

Bos said the Capital Pride Parade will take place along the same route it has in the past number of years, starting at 14^th and T Streets, N.W. and traveling along 14^th Street to Pennsylvania Ave., where it will end. He said the festival set for the following day will also take place at its usual location on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., between 2^nd Street near the U.S. Capitol, to around 7^th Street, N.W.

“Our Pride events thrive because of the passion and support of the community,” Capital Pride Board Chair Anna Jinkerson said in the statement. “In 2026, your involvement is more important than ever,” she said.

District of Columbia

Three women elected leaders of Capital Pride Alliance board

Restructured body includes chair rather than president as top leader

Published

4 days ago

December 9, 2025

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Capital Pride Alliance announced three women will lead its board. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, announced it has restructured its board of directors and elected for the first time three women to serve as leaders of the board’s Executive Committee.

“Congratulations to our newly elected Executive Officers, making history as Capital Pride Alliance’s first all-women Board leadership,” the group said in a statement.

“As we head into 2026 with a bold new leadership structure, we’re proud to welcome Anna Jinkerson as Board Chair, Kim Baker as Board Treasurer, and Taylor Lianne Chandler as Board Secretary,” the statement says.

In a separate statement released on Nov. 20, Capital Pride Alliance says the restructured Board now includes the top leadership posts of Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary, replacing the previous structure of President and Vice President as the top board leaders.

It says an additional update to the leadership structure includes a change in title for longtime Capital Pride official Ryan Bos from executive director to chief executive officer and president.

According to the statement, June Crenshaw, who served as acting deputy director during the time the group organized WorldPride 2025 in D.C., will now continue in that role as permanent deputy director.

The statement provides background information on the three newly elected women Board leaders.

• Anna Jinkerson (chair), who joined the Capital Pride Alliance board in 2022, previously served as the group’s vice president for operations and acting president. “A seasoned non-profit executive, she currently serves as Assistant to the President and CEO and Chief of Staff at Living Cities, a national member collaborative of leading philanthropic foundations and financial institutions committed to closing income and wealth gaps in the United States and building an economy that works for everyone.”

• Kim Baker (treasurer) is a “biracial Filipino American and queer leader,” a “retired, disabled U.S. Army veteran with more than 20 years of service and extensive experience in finance, security, and risk management.” She has served on the Capital Pride Board since 2018, “bringing a proven track record of steady, principled leadership and unwavering dedication to the LGBTQ+ community.”

• Taylor Lianne Chandler (Secretary) is a former sign language interpreter and crisis management consultant. She “takes office as the first intersex and trans-identifying member of the Executive Committee.” She joined the Capital Pride Board in 2019 and previously served as executive producer from 2016 to 2018.

Bos told the Washington Blade in a Dec. 2 interview that the Capital Pride board currently has 12 members, and is in the process of interviewing additional potential board members.

“In January we will be announcing in another likely press release the full board,” Bos said. “We are finishing the interview process of new board members this month,” he said. “And they will take office to join the board in January.”

Bos said the organization’s rules set a cap of 25 total board members, but the board, which elects its members, has not yet decided how many additional members it will select and a full 25-member board is not required.

The Nov. 20 Capital Pride statement says the new board executive members will succeed the organization’s previous leadership team, which included Ashley Smith, who served as president for eight years before he resigned earlier this year; Anthony Musa, who served for seven years as vice president of board engagement; Natalie Thompson, who served eight years on the executive committee; and Vince Micone, who served for eight years as vice president of operations.

“I am grateful for the leadership, dedication, and commitment shown by our former executive officers — Ashley, Natalie, Anthony, and Vince — who have been instrumental in CPA’s growth and the exceptional success of WorldPride 2025,” Bos said in the statement.

“I look forward to collaborating with Anna in her new role, as well as Kim and Taylor in theirs, as we take on the important work ahead, prepare for Capital Pride 2026, and expand our platform and voice through Pride365,” Bos said.