Local
Beyer falls short in bid for legislature
7 gay, lesbian candidates advance in Md. races
CHEVY CHASE, Md. — The scene at Dana Beyer’s Chevy Chase, Md., home is somber. With all but seven of the 35 precincts having reported their votes, it’s clear the transgender eye surgeon-turned-political hopeful has not garnered enough votes to secure one of the three state General Assembly seats for her home turf of District 18.
Beyer was pragmatic during a brief concession speech in her living room to a houseful of canvass workers, family, friends and supporters.
“I think you all did a great job,” Beyer said. “This doesn’t reflect on you and it doesn’t reflect on me. The people we ID’ed just didn’t vote. It was the difference between the IDs and the votes. They said they were voting for us and they just didn’t. So that’s it. We just have to live with that. And as they say, people get the elected officials they deserve.”
Beyer was running against incumbents Al Carr, Ana Sol Gutierrez and Jeff Waldstreicher in this race, the Democratic primary. According to unofficial numbers, Beyer trailed all three incumbents but was ahead of the other two challengers. With all precincts accounted for, Gutierrez led with 7,397 votes, Waldstreicher was in second with 6,946 and Carr in third with 6,349 (24.17, 22.69 and 20.74 percent of the vote respectively). Beyer had 5,064 votes or 16.55 percent. Vanessa Atterbeary had 3,982 (13.01 percent) while Michael Heney trailed with just 868 votes (2.84 percent).
After her speech, Beyer admitted the loss was a tough blow.
“It’s very disappointing,” she said. “I don’t know why it happened. As I’ve said before, I knocked on over 10,000 doors, my team knocked on 18,000 doors. We made 10,000 phone calls. Over 5,300 committed to vote for me but it hasn’t happened. Why it hasn’t happened, I don’t know.”
The winners are expected to coast to an easy victory in the November general election as the district, which includes Chevy Chase, Kensington and Wheaton, is overwhelmingly Democratic.
Beyer ran on a platform of health care reform, fair taxes for the middle class and civil rights. Hot-button issues in her district include Metro’s controversial Purple Line, Pepco response to storm-induced power outages and speed cameras.
What were the topics on people’s minds during her door-to-door visits?
“It depended when it was,” Beyer said. “When we started early on, it was the budget crisis. That was the No. 1 issue. So we talked about taxes and spending. I would have preferred to speak about health care because that’s my personal interest as a physician, but that was not the hot topic. We talked about transportation, mass transit, the Purple Line, and such.”
Had she won, Beyer would have been in a solid position to make history as the first transgender person to be elected to a state legislature. Beyer also ran unsuccessfully in 2006.
She says she doesn’t think being trans was a factor this time.
“The media didn’t bring it up other than the gay media,” she said. “It was never raised in my interviews with the Post or the Gazette. With all the other media, people didn’t seem to think it was relevant. And no voter has ever, back in 2006 or this year, ever brought up the issue. And one could say, ‘Oh well they’re just being very polite,’ but it’s hard to believe that the 15,000 doors I knocked on were all just very polite people. Or that they were truly homophobic but they were just being nice to me. I don’t believe that. I think they really didn’t care.”
Elsewhere in Maryland, seven openly gay and lesbian candidates won their races. Incumbent Dels. Heather Mizeur (D-Dist. 20), Maggie McIntosh (D-Dist. 43) and Anne Kaiser (D-Dist. 14) advanced to the general election, along with newcomers Mary Washington (D-Dist. 43), Luke Clippinger (D-Dist. 46) and Bonnie Cullison (D-Dist. 19). Gay Sen. Rich Madaleno (D-Dist. 18) also won his race. With those victories, Maryland is poised to join just a handful of states served by seven openly gay and lesbian state legislators, according to a statement from the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund.
During informal conversations at Beyer’s house while waiting for poll numbers to come in, canvassers said Beyer’s trans status was a rare, though occasional, issue when they went door to door.
“One [person] said he wasn’t voting for her because of her lifestyle choices,” said one canvasser who wasn’t authorized to speak to the press. “But I don’t think most people even knew. I had one older person say, ‘Well you know she used to be a he,’ but I really think people like that, people of that generation, are becoming extinct. People like us, under 30, we just don’t care.”
With some liberal voters, it appeared to be an advantage.
“It did come up once, I can’t remember how,” another person on Beyer’s campaign said. “They were like, ‘Holy shit, that’s progressive. I’m gonna put her picture on my refrigerator.’”
Beyer said she has no immediate plans other than sleeping in and then going on a vacation, her first, she says, in “many, many years.”
“I’m proud of the job I did, so we’ll see,” she said. “I’ve reinvented myself enough times that when I went into this, of course I didn’t know what would happen, but I intended to win. I worked very hard to win but at the end of the day, I knew it wasn’t about the end result. I’d given it my best and I’m proud of that and I’ll move on.”
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
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
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 250th 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 80th birthday and other events related to the U.S. 250th 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 14th and T Streets, N.W. and traveling along 14th 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 2nd Street near the U.S. Capitol, to around 7th 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
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.
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