Local
Md. trans bill on ‘hold’ in committee
Supporters hopeful Judiciary panel will approve measure Saturday
A committee of the Maryland State Senate voted 6-5 to place a temporary hold on a transgender non-discrimination bill on Friday, adding yet another roadblock to a measure that survived a procedural attempt to kill it one week ago.
The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee approved a request by Sen. Nancy Jacobs (R-Cecil and Harford Counties) to place the hold on the Gender Identity Non-Discrimination Act. Jacobs is one of the bill’s most outspoken opponents.
Sen. Brian Frosh (D-Montgomery County), the committee chair, voted against the hold, but three other committee Democrats joined the three Republican members of the 11-member committee to vote for the hold.
The action prevented the committee from voting to release the bill to the full Senate, which must pass the legislation before the end of the day on Monday, when the Maryland Legislature adjourns for the year.
Frosh’s office said Frosh was expected to allow the committee to vote on the bill on Saturday morning. Supporters said they were hopeful the legislation might reach the Senate floor for a debate and vote on the same day, as originally expected.
The Maryland House of Delegates has already passed the bill, and Gov. Martin O’Malley has said he would sign it.
Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-Montgomery County), a member of the Judicial Proceedings Committee and a lead supporter of the bill, told the Blade late Friday that he and others supporting the bill were hopeful that at least two of the Democrats who voted for the hold would vote for the bill on Saturday morning when the committee was expected to meet between 10 and 11 a.m..
“The way I’m reading it now is we have five hard votes ‘yes’ and then there are at least two senators who supported the hold who could still vote for the bill tomorrow,” he said. “So I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll be headed to the floor tomorrow,” he said.
Others familiar with the committee action identified the two Democrats who voted for the hold and who could vote for the bill as James Brochin and Bobby Zirkin, both Democrats from Baltimore County.
The Judicial Proceedings Committee was originally expected to vote on the measure Friday, one day after it held a two-hour hearing in Annapolis on Thursday in which about 40 witnesses testified for and against the bill.
Among those testifying against it were four transgender activists, including one from New York, who said the bill did not go far enough because it lacks a provision banning discrimination against transgender Marylanders in the area of public accommodations.
The bill’s author and chief sponsor, House of Delegates member Joseline Pina-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel Counties), testified that she reluctantly removed the public accommodations provision from the bill in order to line up enough votes to pass it in a House committee.
Pina-Melnyk has said the bill would have died in committee, as it has for the past four years, if the public accommodations provision remained a part of the legislation.
As currently written, the bill would ban discrimination against transgender people in the area of employment, housing, and credit – including bank loans.
Most transgender activists in Maryland along with the National Center for Transgender Equality and the transgender rights project of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force are supporting the bill. They say they plan to push for the addition of a public accommodations provision as early as next year.
The bill received a further boost Friday morning from the Washington Post, which published an editorial calling on the State Senate to quickly pass the measure as a first step in rectifying longstanding discrimination against transgender people.
“The legislation is a modest, fair and reasonable step in the direction of equal rights for a minority that continues to suffer widespread bias,” the Post said.
Among those testifying in favor of the bill on Thursday was attorney Lisa Mottet, director of the NGLTF transgender rights project.
Longtime transgender rights opponent Ruth Jacobs, head of Citizens for a Responsible Government, emerged as the lead witness against the bill on its merits, saying she opposes any form of anti-discrimination protection based on gender identity.
In a development that surprised some attending the hearing, Zirkin criticized Jacobs’ organization for unleashing a barrage of computer generated “robo-calls” to state residents in the late evening hours over the past few days.
Zirkin — speaking to Jacobs after the hearing recessed — said his family received one of the calls around 3 a.m. on Thursday, which he said disturbed one of his children, according to people who listened to his conversation with Jacobs.
Zirkin was one of the committee members said to be undecided on whether to vote for the gender identity bill.
The bill reached the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee a little more than a week after Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (D-Calvert and Prince George’s County) diverted it to the Senate Rules Committee, which supporters and opponents viewed as a clear move to kill the bill.
The Rules Committee is widely recognized as a “graveyard” for bills unpopular with the Senate leadership, especially its president.
But Miller relinquished his “hold” on the bill about a week later following what observers viewed as an extraordinary lobbying campaign led by the state LGBT group Equality Maryland and many of its LGBT and straight allies.
The campaign generated a barrage of phone calls and e-mails to Miller’s office complaining that his action went against the democratic principles of allowing legislation to be decided by an up or down vote rather than being killed in committee without a vote.
Supporters were hopeful the bill was back on track when the Judicial Proceedings Committee held its hearing on the measure on Thursday and indicated through Frosh that it would vote on the bill on Friday afternoon.
“This is not good because another day is lost,” said Dana Beyer, a Maryland transgender activist and former House of Delegates candidate from Montgomery County.
But Morgan Meneses-Sheets, Equality Maryland’s executive director, said she was optimistic that the Judicial Proceedings panel would approve the bill Saturday morning, placing it back on track for a full Senate vote over the weekend.
District of Columbia
D.C. police arrest man for burglary at gay bar Spark Social House
Suspect ID’d from images captured by Spark Social House security cameras
D.C. police on Feb. 18 arrested a 63-year-old man “of no fixed address” for allegedly stealing cash from the registers at the gay bar Spark Social House after unlawfully entering the bar at 2009 14th St., N.W., around 12:04 a.m. after it had closed for business, according to a police incident report.
“Later that day officers canvassing for the suspect located him nearby,” a separate police statement says. “63-year-old Tony Jones of no fixed address was arrested and charged with Burglary II,” the statement says.
The police incident report states that the bar’s owner, Nick Tsusaki, told police investigators that the bar’s security cameras captured the image of a man who has frequently visited the bar and was believed to be homeless.
“Once inside, the defendant was observed via the establishment’s security cameras opening the cash register, removing U.S. currency, and placing the currency into the left front pocket of his jacket,” the report says.
Tsusaki told the Washington Blade that he and Spark’s employees have allowed Jones to enter the bar many times since it opened last year to use the bathroom in a gesture of compassion knowing he was homeless. Tsusaki said he is not aware of Jones ever having purchased anything during his visits.
According to Tsusaki, Spark closed for business at around 10:30 p.m. on the night of the incident at which time an employee did not properly lock the front entrance door. He said no employees or customers were present when the security cameras show Jones entering Spark through the front door around 12:04 a.m.
Tsusaki said the security camera images show Jones had been inside Spark for about three hours on the night of the burglary and show him taking cash out of two cash registers. He took a total of $300, Tsusaki said.
When Tsusaki and Spark employees arrived at the bar later in the day and discovered the cash was missing from the registers they immediately called police, Tsusaki told the Blade. Knowing that Jones often hung out along the 2000 block of 14th Street where Spark is located, Tsusaki said he went outside to look for him and saw him across the street and pointed Jones out to police, who then placed him under arrest.
A police arrest affidavit filed in court states that at the time they arrested him police found the stolen cash inside the pocket of the jacket Jones was wearing. It says after taking him into police custody officers found a powdered substance in a Ziploc bag also in Jones’s possession that tested positive for cocaine, resulting in him being charged with cocaine possession in addition to the burglary charge.
D.C. Superior Court records show a judge ordered Jones held in preventive detention at a Feb. 19 presentment hearing. The judge then scheduled a preliminary hearing for the case on Feb. 20, the outcome of which couldn’t immediately be obtained.
District of Columbia
Judge rescinds order against activist in Capital Pride lawsuit
Darren Pasha accused of stalking organization staff, board members, volunteers
A D.C. Superior Court judge on Feb.18 agreed to rescind his earlier ruling declaring local gay activist Darren Pasha in default for failing to attend a virtual court hearing regarding an anti-stalking lawsuit brought against him by the Capital Pride Alliance, the group that organizes D.C.’s annual Pride events.
The Capital Pride lawsuit, initially filed on Oct. 27, 2025, accuses Pasha of engaging in a year-long “course of conduct” of “harassment, intimidation, threats, manipulation, and coercive behavior” targeting Capital Pride staff, board members, and volunteers.
In his own court filings without retaining an attorney, Pasha has strongly denied the stalking related allegations against him, saying “no credible or admissible evidence has been provided” to show he engaged in any wrongdoing.
Judge Robert D. Okum nevertheless on Feb. 6 approved a temporary stay-away order requiring Pasha to stay at least 100 feet away from Capital Pride’s staff, volunteers, and board members until the time of a follow-up court hearing scheduled for April 17. He reduced the stay-away distance from 200 yards as requested by Capital Pride.
In his two-page order issued on Feb. 18, Okun stated that Pasha explained that he was involved in a scooter accident in which he was injured and his phone was damaged, preventing him from joining the Feb. 6 court hearing.
“Therefore, the court finds there is a good cause for vacating the default,” Okun states in his order.
At the time he initially approved the default order at the Feb. 6 hearing that Pasha didn’t attend, Okun scheduled an April 17 ex parte proof hearing in which Capital Pride could have requested a ruling in its favor seeking a permanent anti-stalking order against Pasha.
In his Feb. 18 ruling rescinding the default order Okun changed the April 17 ex parte proof hearing to an initial scheduling conference hearing in which a decision on the outcome of the case is not likely to happen.
In addition, he agreed to consider Pasha’s call for a jury trial and gave Capital Pride 14 days to contest that request. The Capital Pride lawsuit initially called for a non-jury trial by judge.
One request by Pasha that Okum denied was a call for him to order Capital Pride to stop its staff or volunteers from posting information about the lawsuit on social media. Pasha has said the D.C.-based online blog called DC Homos, which Pasha claims is operated by someone associated with Capital Pride, has been posting articles portraying him in a negative light and subjecting him to highly negative publicity.
“The defendant has not set forth a sufficient basis for the court to restrict the plaintiff’s social media postings, and the court therefore will deny the defendant’s request in his social media praecipe,” Okun states in his order.
A praecipe is a formal written document requesting action by a court.
Pasha called the order a positive development in his favor. He said he plans to file another motion with more information about what he calls the unfair and defamatory reports about him related to the lawsuit by DC Homos, with a call for the judge to reverse his decision not to order Capital Pride to stop social media postings about the lawsuit.
Pasha points to a video interview on the LGBTQ Team Rayceen broadcast, a link to which he sent to the Washington Blade, in which DC Homos operator Jose Romero acknowledged his association with Capital Pride Alliance.
Capital Pride Executive Director Ryan Bos didn’t immediately respond to a message from the Blade asking whether Romero was a volunteer or employee with Capital Pride.
Pasha also said he believes the latest order has the effect of rescinding the temporary stay away order against him approved by Okun in his earlier ruling, even though Okun makes no mention of the stay away order in his latest ruling. Capital Pride attorney Nick Harrison told the Blade the stay away order “remains in full force and effect.”
Harrison said Capital Pride has no further comment on the lawsuit.
District of Columbia
Trans activists arrested outside HHS headquarters in D.C.
Protesters demonstrated directive against gender-affirming care
Authorities on Tuesday arrested 24 activists outside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services headquarters in D.C.
The Gender Liberation Movement, a national organization that uses direct action, media engagement, and policy advocacy to defend bodily autonomy and self-determination, organized the protest in which more than 50 activists participated. Organizers said the action was a response to changes in federal policy mandated by Executive Order 14187, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”
The order directs federal agencies and programs to work toward “significantly limiting youth access to gender-affirming care nationwide,” according to KFF, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that provides independent, fact-based information on national health issues. The executive order also includes claims about gender-affirming care and transgender youth that critics have described as misinformation.
Members of ACT UP NY and ACT UP Pittsburgh also participated in the demonstration, which took place on the final day of the public comment period for proposed federal rules that would restrict access to gender-affirming care.
Demonstrators blocked the building’s main entrance, holding a banner reading “HANDS OFF OUR ‘MONES,” while chanting, “HHS—RFK—TRANS YOUTH ARE NO DEBATE” and “NO HATE—NO FEAR—TRANS YOUTH ARE WELCOME HERE.”
“We want trans youth and their loving families to know that we see them, we cherish them, and we won’t let these attacks go on without a fight,” said GLM co-founder Raquel Willis. “We also want all Americans to understand that Trump, RFK, and their HHS won’t stop at trying to block care for trans youth — they’re coming for trans adults, for those who need treatment from insulin to SSRIs, and all those already failed by a broken health insurance system.”
“It is shameful and intentional that this administration is pitting communities against one another by weaponizing Medicaid funding to strip care from trans youth. This has nothing to do with protecting health and everything to do with political distraction,” added GLM co-founder Eliel Cruz. “They are targeting young people to deflect from their failure to deliver for working families across the country. Instead of restricting care, we should be expanding it. Healthcare is a human right, and it must be accessible to every person — without cost or exception.”
Despite HHS’s efforts to restrict gender-affirming care for trans youth, major medical associations — including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Endocrine Society — continue to regard such care as evidence-based treatment. Gender-affirming care can include psychotherapy, social support, and, when clinically appropriate, puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
The protest comes amid broader shifts in access to care nationwide.
NYU Langone Health recently announced it will stop providing transition-related medical care to minors and will no longer accept new patients into its Transgender Youth Health Program following President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order targeting trans healthcare.
PHOTOS: Cupid’s Undie Run
Sweat DC expands to Shaw
D.C. police arrest man for burglary at gay bar Spark Social House
Going for gold: Ford Bronco Sport vs. Toyota RAV4
How do we honor Renee Good, Alex Pretti?
LGBTQ groups question US health agreements with African countries
Trump falsely links trans people to terrorism
Fellow lawmakers praise Adam Ebbin after Va. Senate farewell address
LGBTQ activists mourn the Rev. Jesse Jackson
