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Local community mourns death of ‘committed advocate’

Smallwood called ‘pioneer’ in giving back

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Local LGBT community members are in mourning after the passing of a D.C. activist who was known as a ā€œcommitted advocateā€ for those in need.

Charlotte Smallwood (photo courtest Courtney Williams)

Charlotte Smallwood, 73 and a local lesbian activist, diedĀ Monday after a battle with brain cancer.

Following her retirement from the federal government, Smallwood was known for her activism in the LGBT community. One of four founding members of the D.C.-based Transgender Health Empowerment in 1995, Smallwood was also editor-in-chief of FEMAIL Monthly Newsletter and later co-editor of Community Life Newsletter.

Earline Budd, a treatment and healing specialist for Transgender Health Empowerment, recalled Smallwood as a steadfast ally to the transgender community and ā€œjust a pioneer in her own way in terms of giving back.ā€

ā€œShe was just a committed advocate, someone who gave herself to not just LGBT community, but to other communities,ā€ she said. ā€œI kind of equate Charlotte to a Mother Teresa in terms of how she extended herself.ā€

Budd saidĀ other dutiesĀ to whichĀ Smallwood devoted herself were involvement with the Mautner Project, a lesbian health organization, and Women in the Life, a local lesbians of color organization. Budd said Smallwood was aĀ standing member with Transgender Health Empowerment until her death.

Courtney Williams, a D.C. resident, also had fond memories of Smallwood and said she was committed to the concerns of women and LGBT people as they aged.

ā€œBasically, when people go out to party and as they get older people tendĀ  to forgot about them — Charlotte kept them out at the forefront,ā€ Williams said. ā€œShe was involved in her neighborhood as senior citizens were concerned. She really helped them out and tried to find them resources.ā€

Williams said Smallwood was also ā€œvery involvedā€ in D.C. Black Pride in the very beginnings of the annual events in 1991.

Smallwood also contributed to the Human Rights Campaign. Donna Payne, HRCā€™s associate director of diversity, said Smallwood volunteered for the organizationā€™s national dinner for the past four years.

ā€œAnnually, she would help do work no one wants to do — stuffing the gift bags and setting up items for the auction,ā€ Payne said. ā€œShe would stay in the back so things would get done.ā€

Payne said she knew Smallwood from the community meetings with the D.C. mayor’s office liaison and dances for the black women’s circuit in the district.

ā€œShe was always fun to be with because she didn’t mind being out,ā€ Payne said. ā€œIt’s hard to find black LGBT seniors that are willing to be out.ā€

At her early years at HRC, Payne said Smallwood would often take her aside and encourage her ā€œto stay focused on our rights because it was expected of her and the elder black LGBT community.ā€

Vicki Harris, a lesbian D.C. resident, said Smallwood was ā€œalways there for everybody,ā€Ā especially thoseĀ in need of assistance.

ā€œWhatever you needed, you could call Charlotte,ā€ she said. ā€œShe was just that type of person. It was just hilarious that whatever you needed for her, she had it in her. She had our back every last day of the month.ā€

Harris, who ran a lesbian womenā€™s strippers event for the Edge/Wet Nightclub when it was in existence, recalled with humor how Smallwood had a job as a dressing room attendant to keep an eye on the belongings of women as they performed.

ā€œWhen I first asked her if she would do the job, she was like, ā€˜Ehhh,ā€™ā€ Harris said. ā€œSo, weā€™re standing in the dressing room — and one of the girls had just come out of the shower and they were naked — and she looked at me and said, ā€˜Iā€™ll take the job!ā€™ā€

A funeral service for Smallwood will is scheduled for Monday at the Moiunt Pleasant Baptist Church at 215 Rhode Island Ave., NW. The viewing is set to take place at 10 am and services with begin at 11 am. A repast will be provided at the church following the burial.

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Virginia

Virginia High School League reverses policy on transgender athletes

Trans athletes previously allowed to compete on teams that corresponded with gender identity

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Virginia flag flies over the state Capitol. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The Virginia High School League on Monday announced it will no longer allow transgender athletes to compete on teams that correspond with their gender identity following another executive order signed by President Donald Trump targeting trans people.

The VHSL announced their policy change on their X account. It undoes a 2023 announcement that said it would not change their policy that allowed trans athletes to compete on teams that affirmed their identities.

Following a Jan. 28 executive order signed that stopped hospitals and other medical institutions from providing gender-affirming care to minors under that age of 19, Trump on Feb. 5 signed another executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”

The ban seeks ā€œto rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls.ā€ The NCAA and many other educational institutions agreed to implement the ban in fear of losing federal funding.

“The VHSL is an association comprising 318 member schools with more than 177,000 students participating yearly in sports and academic activities. The VHSL is the governing body, and our member schools look to and rely on the VHSL for policy and guidance. To that end, the VHSL will comply with the executive order,” said VHSL Executive Director John W. “Billy” Haun. “The compliance will provide membership clear and consistent direction.”

The VHSL also said staff will be making changes to their handbook and policy manual in the coming days, reminiscent of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrubbing all of the papers in its database of any now-banned language regarding LGBTQ people and attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The VHSL’s own data indicates only 29 of the student athletes it oversees have been reported as trans since 2022.

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District of Columbia

Booz Allen withdraws as WorldPride corporate sponsor

Company updated programs to comply with Trump executive orders

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(Screenshot courtesy of WorldPride's website)

The U.S. technology company Booz Allen Hamilton has confirmed it has withdrawn as a corporate sponsor for the international LGBTQ WorldPride events scheduled to take place in D.C. from May 17-June 8, according to a report by the Washington Business Journal.

In an exclusive story published Feb.10, the business publication reports that Booz Allen Hamilton disclosed in a statement that its decision to withdraw as a WorldPride sponsor was based on its need to comply with ā€œrecently issued presidential executive orders.ā€

Although the statement did not say so directly, it is referring to executive orders issued since Jan. 20 by President Donald Trump that, among other things, ban government agencies and companies doing business with the government through contracts from promoting or carrying out diversity, equity, and inclusion or ā€œDEIā€ programs.

On its website, Booz Allen Hamilton describes itself as an ā€œadvanced technology company delivering outcomes with speed for Americaā€™s most critical defense, civil, and national securities priorities.ā€ Among the government agencies it does business with, the website statement says, are the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

ā€œWe take this responsibility to our nation seriously,ā€ Washington Business Journal quoted the Booz Allen Hamilton statement regarding WorldPride as saying. ā€œIt demands from us commitment to their best principle to flawless execution and to full compliance with all laws and regulations, including executive orders,ā€ Washington Business Journal quotes the statement as saying.

The Washington Business Journal article includes a photo of more than a dozen of Booz Allen Hamilton employees marching in D.C.ā€™s Capital Pride parade in 2017.

The company did not immediately respond to a request from Washington Blade seeking comment on its WorldPride decision.

Capital Pride Alliance, the group that organizes most D.C. LGBTQ Pride events and is the lead organizer of WorldPride 2025, in response to a request by the Blade released a statement responding to Booz Allen Hamiltonā€™s sponsorship withdrawal.

ā€œBooz Allen Hamilton is the only organization that has withdrawn its committed financial support for WorldPride,ā€ the statement says. ā€œCPA is proud of its many longstanding legacy sponsors, many of whom have already reaffirmed their commitments to participate in WorldPride this summer,ā€ the statement continues.

ā€œJust like many American companies and LGBTQ+ organizations, we are navigating current challenges and many unknowns,ā€ the statement says. ā€œWe are confident, however, that we will have the support necessary to have a successful and safe WorldPride that meets this moment,ā€ it says.

ā€œThat support includes families, organizations, and businesses from across our community and corporations that truly celebrate diversity and value equity and inclusion for all,ā€ the statement concludes.

The Capital Pride Alliance website last year listed Booz Allen Hamilton as a corporate sponsor for the 2024 Capital Pride events in the category of a ā€œTrue Colorsā€ sponsor, which it said represented a donation of $75,000. But the Capital Pride Alliance statement to the Blade this week says, ā€œWe are not going to share theyā€™re previously planned commitment for 2025.ā€

The statement adds, ā€œMany in our community are extremely vulnerable right now, and standing up for them, standing with them, standing with us, in this movement is what we all need.ā€

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District of Columbia

Trump executive order prompts local hospitals to stop gender-affirming care for youth

Activists marched outside Children’s National on Feb. 2

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A protester stands outside Children's National Hospital in Northwest D.C. on Feb. 2, 2025. (Washington Blade photo by Linus Berggren)

Hospitals in the D.C. area are putting a prompt stop to aiding transgender youth and their families continue their transition after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that bans all gender-affirming care nationwide for minors under 19.

On Jan. 28, days after Trump took office, signed the executive order, ā€œProtecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,ā€ which immediately halted the prescription and medical treatment of gender-affirming care for all minors under the age of 19 across the country. The order use of ā€œchemical and surgical mutilationā€ is in reference to the various kinds of gender-affirming care that youth may receive when in the care of a medical practice.

“Today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a childā€™s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions.ā€ says the executive order. ā€œThis dangerous trend will be a stain on our nationā€™s history, and it must end.ā€

The executive order laid out various guidelines for medical practices to follow that must be implemented within the coming months. These include ā€œending reliance on junk science,ā€ in referring to following the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s guidelines for youth, and “defunding chemical and surgical mutilation,” which seeks to ban hospitals and medical schools to use federal funding for gender-affirming care.

Hospitals, medical schools, and clinics across the country have begun to abide by the executive order and drop trans and gender diverse youth as they dismantled programs that provided care of any kind that treated a childā€™s gender dysphoria. Childrenā€™s National Hospital in Northwest Washington is one of those institutions.

ā€œChildrenā€™s National is committed to providing compassionate and comprehensive care in accordance with the law,” said Children’s National in a Jan. 30 press release. “As a result, we are currently pausing all puberty blockers and hormone therapy prescriptions for transgender youth patients, per the guidelines in the executive order issued by the White House this week. Childrenā€™s National already does not perform gender affirming surgery for minors.”

“We recognize the impact this change will have, and our commitment to creating a better future for children and families remains at the forefront of our mission,” it added. “We will do everything we can to ensure the same uninterrupted access to mental health counseling, social support, and holistic and respectful care for every patient at Children’s National. We are working directly with patients and providers to ensure every patient has access to the information and support services they need, and we appreciate their continued trust and understanding as we work through these changes.ā€

The hospital did not provide the Washington Blade with additional comment.

Activists in response to the decision organized a march that took place outside Children’s Hospital. on Feb. 2. D.C. Safe Haven, a group founded to ā€œprovide TLGBQ people in the DMV area with opportunities to transform their lives,ā€ helped organize the march.

Similar protests have taken place across the country.

The Gender Liberation Movement organized the “Rise Up for Trans Youth” march in New York’s Union Square on Saturday. The group was one of the organizers of a march that took place in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 4 when the justices heard oral arguments in the U.S. v. Skrmetti case, which challenges a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for minors under 18.

ā€œVCU Health and Childrenā€™s Hospital of Richmond at VCU have suspended gender-affirming medications and gender-affirming surgical procedures for patients under 19-years-old in response to an executive order issued by the White House on Jan. 28, 2025, and related state guidance received by VCU on Jan. 30, 2025,” the hospital said in a statement. “Our doors remain open to all patients and their families for screening, counseling, mental health care, and all other health care needs.ā€

Equality Virginia, a queer advocacy group that works across the state, in a statement to the Blade criticized the executive order and response to it.

ā€œExecutive orders are not legislation, they are not law, and they do not supersede state laws,” said Narissa Rahaman, the group’s executive director. “The General Assembly has taken up bills on both transgender athletes and gender-affirming care, and in both cases, the general assembly has declined to pursue bans on either. State law is clear; what is unclear is why the Youngkin administration is spending its final year cozying up to the Trump administration and repeatedly singling out transgender Virginians for discrimination.ā€

ā€œTo the transgender and nonbinary athletes and youth seeking healthcare in Virginia who are feeling scared: Equality Virginia will not stop fighting for you, no matter who occupies the Governorā€™s Mansion or the White House,” added Rahaman.

Petitions are urging D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, Health and Human Services, and Children’s National to use D.C.’s human rights law to challenge the executive orders. Lambda Legal, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and the law firms Jenner & Block and Hogan Lovells have filed lawsuits against Trump’s mandate on behalf of families of trans youth.

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