Local
Trans woman charged in carjacking of U.S. senator’s daughter
A transgender woman awaiting possible placement in a court-ordered counseling program was one of two people charged last week with allegedly carjacking a vehicle a U.S. senator’s daughter was driving in D.C.
Prince George’s County police arrested two suspects at a Taco Bell restaurant in Seat Pleasant, Md., about an hour after they allegedly pulled U.S. Sen. Bob Corker’s daughter Julia Corker, 22, from her Chevrolet Tahoe while she was stopped at a red light at Seventh and D streets, N.W., police said. The two reportedly drove away in the vehicle and later parked it outside the Taco Bell, which is located near a police station.
The transgender woman, who according to D.C. court records uses the name Gabrielle, was identified by police by her legal name, DeWalden Connor, 22, of Capitol Heights, Md. The other suspect was identified as Steven Alston, 25, of Northeast D.C. Both suspects were held this week in Prince George’s County on $75,000 bond pending their extradition to D.C.
Records in D.C. Superior Court show that at the time of her arrest, Connor was awaiting placement in a special diversion program following an Oct. 21 arrest in D.C. on a charge of sexual solicitation. The records show the diversion program is operated by Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive, which is based in Adams Morgan.
HIPS Executive Director Cyndee Clay said privacy rules prevented her from disclosing the names of participants in the program. She said the court and the U.S. Attorney’s office have retained HIPS to operate the program, which provides counseling and skills training for trans women arrested on prostitution related charges. Diversion programs call for the dropping of first-offense charges against enrollees if they successfully complete the program.
Court records show that Superior Court Judge Kaye Christian was scheduled to rule Dec. 17 on whether Connor should be accepted into the HIPS program. It could not immediately be determined if the carjacking arrest would adversely affect her chances of being accepted in the program.
According to an account released by the senator’s office, D.C. police, Capitol Hill police, the FBI, and Prince George’s County police responded within minutes of Julie Corker’s report of the carjacking. The law enforcement agencies arranged for the tracking of the vehicle through its OnStar anti-theft, global positioning device, police said, which resulted in county police finding the car.
Police charged Connor and Alston with unauthorized use of a vehicle and theft of over $500. The two could be charged with additional offenses upon extradition to D.C.
District of Columbia
Mayor Bowser signs bill requiring insurers to cover PrEP
‘This is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS’
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on March 20 signed a bill approved by the D.C. Council that requires health insurance companies to cover the costs of HIV prevention or PrEP drugs for D.C. residents at risk for HIV infection.
Like all legislation approved by the Council and signed by the mayor, the bill, called the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act, was sent to Capitol Hill for a required 30-day congressional review period before it takes effect as D.C. law.
Gay D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) last year introduced the bill.
Insurance coverage for PrEP drugs has been provided through coverage standards included in the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. But AIDS advocacy organizations have called on states and D.C. to pass their own legislation requiring insurance coverage of PrEP as a safeguard in case federal policies are weakened or removed by the Trump administration, which has already reduced federal funding for HIV/AIDS-related programs.
Like legislation passed by other states, the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act requires insurers to cover all PrEP drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Studies have shown that PrEP drugs, which can be taken as pills or by injection just twice a year, are highly effective in preventing HIV infection.
“I think this is a win for our community,” Parker said after the D.C. Council voted unanimously to approve the bill on its first vote on the measure in February. “And this is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”
District of Columbia
Blade editor to be inducted into D.C. Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame
Kevin Naff marks 24 years with publication this year
Longtime Washington Blade Editor Kevin Naff will be inducted into D.C.’s Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame in June, the group announced this week.
Hall of Fame honorees are chosen by the Society of Professional Journalists’ Washington, D.C., Pro Chapter. Naff and two other inductees — Seth Borenstein, a Washington-based national science writer for the AP and Cheryl W. Thompson, an award-winning correspondent for National Public Radio — will be celebrated at the chapter’s Dateline Awards dinner on Tuesday, June 9, at the National Press Club. The dinner’s emcee will be Kojo Nnamdi, host of WAMU radio’s weekly “Politics Hour.”
“I am tremendously honored by this recognition,” Naff said. “I have spent a lifetime in the D.C. area learning from so many talented journalists and am humbled to be considered in their company. Thank you to SPJ and to all the LGBTQ pioneers who came before me who made this possible.”
Naff joined the Blade in 2002 after years in print and digital journalism. He worked as a financial reporter for Reuters in New York before moving to Baltimore in 1996 to launch the Baltimore Sun’s website. He spent four years at the Sun before leaving for an internet startup and later joining the mobile data group at Verizon Wireless working on the first generation of mobile apps.
He then moved to the Blade and has served as the publication’s longest-tenured editor. In 2023, Naff published his first book, “How We Won the War for LGBTQ Equality — And How Our Enemies Could Take It All Away.”
Previous Hall of Fame inductees include luminaries in journalism like Wolf Blitzer, Benjamin Bradlee, Bob Woodward, Andrea Mitchell, and Edgar Allen Poe. The Blade’s senior news reporter Lou Chibbaro Jr. was inducted in 2015.
Maryland
Supreme Court ruling against conversion therapy bans could affect Md. law
Then-Gov. Larry Hogan signed statute in 2018
By PAMELA WOOD, JOHN-JOHN WILLIAMS IV, and MADELEINE O’NEILL | The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a law banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ kids in Colorado, a ruling that also could apply to Maryland’s ban on the discredited practice.
An 8-1 high court majority sided with a Christian counselor who argues the law banning talk therapy violates the First Amendment. The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court to decide whether it meets a legal standard that few laws pass.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the court’s majority, said the law “censors speech based on viewpoint.” The First Amendment, he wrote, “stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Mayor Bowser signs bill requiring insurers to cover PrEP
JD Vance to travel to Hungary next week
Pam Bondi ousted as attorney general
VIDEO: Gay journalist detained for booing Trumps at ‘Chicago’ opening night
Idaho Gov. signs harshest anti-trans bathroom bill in the country
‘Out for McDuffie’ event held at D.C. gay bar
‘Jonah’ an undeniably compelling but unusual memory play
The Oscar-losing performance that’s too good to miss
Thousands attend ‘No Kings’ protests in D.C.
