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Getting our stories told
PR expert Cathy Renna among business chamber honorees
Cathy McElrath Renna, founder of Renna Communications, an LGBT media strategy firm, says she laughed when told she was this year’s recipient of the Business Leadership Award from the Capital Area Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
“I just laughed, because I would have never imagined my activism as a business,” she says.
Renna will receive her award tonight at CAGLCC’s 20th anniversary awards dinner.
Longtime New Yorker and current Mount Pleasant resident Renna is quick to share credit for the success of Renna Communications with her wife.
“I wouldn’t have this business if it weren’t for my wife,” she says. “Don’t ask me to even balance a checkbook,” she added, pointing out that her wife Leah McElrath Renna has experience as a financial planner and “I trust her more than anyone in the world.”
The firm was founded in March 2006, when their daughter Rosemary — now 4 — was just 6 months old. “On Friday I’m not going to step from that podium until Leah joins me on the platform,” Renna said, “because she so deserves to do so.”
They’re not legally married yet. “But we’re working on it … we’ve just been too busy working on D.C. marriage equality.”
Helping to spearhead the media coalition work of the D.C. Campaign for All Families, D.C. for Marriage and D.C. Clergy for Marriage Equality has ironically been getting in the way of planning their own wedding. But the couple made time to take Rosemary to the White House Easter Egg Roll this week. Renna Communications got a big boost from the White House Easter Egg Roll event in April 2006 — just a month after the firm opened.
“It was the first big thing the firm did,” she says. “In 2006 there were about 150 LGBT families, about 400 people. We understood it was not a political issue, but for us I like to say that just like breathing, our existence is political.
“So we wore rainbow leis, so festive and appropriate, and lots of straight families had them on also, they knew who we were, and they were supportive. In some ways it was a political statement,” she concedes, “to highlight that families can come in all shapes and sizes, and we’ve gone every year since.”
She calls that kind of direct messaging “the goal of the work we do as a firm — and the tagline for our firm is ‘we’ll get your story told.'” She says the LGBT community has come of age in the last 20 years.
“We are no longer abstract — we exist. … Change won’t come until people understand the stories behind that need for marriage equality or for employment rights. We’re doing a better job now, but we still have a long way to go, but we’re getting there because now we’re a whole lot smarter.”
Also being honored at the awards dinner on April 9 are:
• David von Storch, owner of Capitol City Brewing Company and Vida Fitness among other businesses, for Excellence in Business;
• Jonathan Blumenthal, co-founder and president of Burgundy Crescent Volunteers, as Volunteer of the Year;
• Thomas Sanchez, principal of Wamwaw LCC, a web development and strategy firm, as Emerging Entrepreneur;
• Bob Summersgill, longtime LGBT activist instrumental in passing the marriage equality law in D.C., for Community Advocacy;
• and Wachovia, a Wells Fargo Company, as Corporate Partner of the Year.
The awards dinner is at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 1330 Maryland Ave., S.W. It begins with a silent auction and networking at 6:30 p.m. Individual tickets are $180 for CAGLCC members and $195 for nonmembers.
District of Columbia
Hands Off the Arts to form ‘human chain’ around Kennedy Center
Drag performer Tara Hoot among event organizers
An organization called Hands Off the Arts has announced it is holding a protest on Friday, Sept. 18, in which between 400 and 800 participants are expected to create a “human chain” around the Kennedy Center to voice their strong objection to President Donald Trump’s call for possibly demolishing the Kennedy Center.
“Hands Off the Arts is organizing a rally Sept. 18 against the president’s defacing of JFK’s memorial, his removal and censorship of art, and the threat to demolish the center if he can’t remake the site in his image,” a statement released by the group says.
The statement says the event will start with a rally at 6:30 p.m. on the Kennedy Center steps and culminate with a “human chain” around the building. “There will be musical performances, testimonials from current and former employees, along with other special guest speakers,” it says
A separate announcement by the group says longtime D.C. drag performer Tara Hoot, who has performed at the Kennedy Center in past years, was among the organizers of the Sept. 18 protest.
The planned protest follows Trump’s decision last year to use his authority to replace the existing members of the Kennedy Center’s board of directors with new members loyal to him. Over the objection of longtime Kennedy Center supporters, the Trump-appointed board changed the name of the center, at Trump’s request, from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts to the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
But following the threat of legal action by opponents who pointed out that the name change could not be legally made unless approved by Congress, the name change was cancelled, with Trump saying he would take steps to restore it later.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reports in a Sept. 13 news story that because of negative publicity related to Trump’s actions, the Kennedy Center was facing “fiscal collapse” and possible bankruptcy and could be forced to shut down as early as this week.
According to the Post report, a 57-page document presented to the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees says the center was facing a financial and structural building crisis, with the recent collapse of part of the building’s inside ceiling, indicating the building was unsafe for employees and the public. Among other things, the document says the Kennedy Center may not be able to make payroll or pay for routine maintenance “within a matter of weeks,” the Post reports.
Some LGBTQ advocates were among those who joined others in boycotting the Kennedy Center to express their objections to Trump’s actions, including a statement by Trump that he objected to the Kennedy Center’s practice of hosting drag performances.
The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington has been among the LGBTQ performing arts groups and artists that have performed at the Kennedy Center.
“With the future still very much uncertain, now more than ever, the Center needs you to stand up for freedom of expression and against authoritarian overreach into arts and culture institutions,” the Hands Off the Arts group says in its announcement of the Hands Around the Kennedy Center protest.
“You have the opportunity to make a difference — show up with Hands Off the Arts and show your power as part of Hands Around the Kennedy Center,” it says.
A spokesperson for the Kennedy Center couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Baltimore
Transgender woman killed in Barclay community mourned by friends, advocates
Sophie Lee shot to death on Friday morning
By DARREONNA DAVIS | Denise Johnson imagined spending Sunday with her daughter, Sophie Lee, eating crabs at the park. Instead, she stood on a Barclay street corner Sunday evening surrounded by nearly 100 people who came to remember her daughter, a transgender woman who was fatally shot there Friday.
The 27-year-old woman was found in the 2400 block of North Calvert Street around 1:15 a.m. Friday, Baltimore Police said in a news release.
Lindsey Eldridge, a police department spokesperson, said it’s unclear if her identity had anything to do with her death and the investigation is ongoing.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected].
The Comings & Goings column also invites LGBTQ+ college students to share their successes with us. If you have been elected to a student government position, landed an exciting internship, or are graduating and beginning your career with a new job, let us know so we can share your success.
Congratulations to Jaime Christopher Pierce on their appointment to serve as a member of the Virginia Governor’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board. Pierce was sworn in on Sept. 3 by Greg Parks, clerk of the Alexandria Circuit Court.
Pierce currently serves as vice chair of the Alexandria City LGBTQIA+ Task Force and as a member of the Alexandria Pride planning committee. They previously served on the board of directors of Equality Virginia.
Upon being sworn in, Pierce said, “Public service has been a central part of my life for more than 30 years, and this appointment gives me an opportunity to serve the Commonwealth in a different and very personal way. My career has allowed me to work with people and communities throughout Virginia, and I hope to bring that experience, along with my own lived experience and my involvement in the LGBTQ+ community, to the work of the Board.” They added, “Having Greg administer the oath makes the occasion even more meaningful because of his own historic role as Virginia’s first openly gay elected circuit court clerk.”
Pierce also serves as Circuit Court Services Manager for the Department of Judicial Services, at the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia. They began their career in Virginia’s judiciary in 1994 as a deputy clerk with the Virginia Beach Circuit Court and have since held several professional and leadership positions within the court system. Pierce is a member of the National Association for Court Management (NACM) and the Mid-Atlantic Association for Court Management. At the national level, Pierce participated in the workgroup that developed the National Association for Court Management’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Guide, a resource designed to help court professionals advance inclusive practices and strengthen access, fairness and belonging within the justice system.
Pierce earned a degree in Criminal Justice from Liberty University, and a certificate in Paralegal Studies from Norfolk State University.
Advocate, Out parent company adds Trump supporter to board, prompting outrage
78th annual Emmy Awards recapped
Indonesia’s top Muslim clerical body proposes criminalizing LGBTQ people, advocacy
Hands Off the Arts to form ‘human chain’ around Kennedy Center
LGBTQ issues, attacks on Democrats dominate unusual RNC midterm convention
Multi-billion-dollar 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund to continue until 2090
LGBTQ Military Happy Hour set for Sept. 15
Calendar: September 11-17
Comings & Goings
