Local
Local news in brief: April 15
Delaware passes civil unions bill; Stein Club elects new president
Del. Senate passes civil unions bill
The Delaware Senate voted 13-6 late last week to approve a civil unions bill that would provide same-sex couples with all of the rights and benefits of marriage under state law.
LGBT activists were optimistic that the Delaware House of Representatives would approve the bill; a vote was expected this week. The stateās governor, Democrat Jack A. Markell, has said he plans to sign the bill.
āWe are delighted that not only did the civil unions bill get passed by the Senate but that it got passed by a two-to-one margin,ā said Lisa Goodman, president of Equality Delaware, a state LGBT group coordinating lobbying efforts for the bill.
āWe think that says a lot about what the citizens of Delaware want to see, that the citizens of Delaware are two-to-one in favor of civil unions,ā she said.
Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, called on the Delaware House to quickly pass the bill and send it to the governor for signing.
āToday we applaud the Delaware Senate for valuing all Delaware families,ā Solmonese said.
A public opinion poll commissioned by Equality Delaware and conducted in March by the survey research firm Lake Research Partners found that 62 percent of voters favor allowing same-sex couples to form legalized civil unions, with 31 percent opposing such a law. Seven percent of the voters polled were undecided. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percent.
āWe feel very optimistic about getting the bill through the House,ā Goodman said. āWe have all three of the Democratic leaders in the House on the bill as sponsors and weāve been working very hard with House members.ā
Democrats hold a 26 to 15 majority in the 41-member Delaware House of Representatives.
Goodman said a debate and vote on the bill in the full House was expected to take place April 14.
Similar to civil unions laws in other states, the Delaware measure, Senate Bill 30, would provide same-sex couples with all of the rights, benefits and obligations of marriage under state law but would not provide any federal rights or benefits related to marriage.
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which Congress passed in 1996 and President Bill Clinton signed, bars same-sex couples from receiving federal marriage-related rights or benefits.
If the Delaware civil unions measure is approved by the legislature and signed by the governor, Delaware would become the eighth state to provide marriage-related rights and benefits to same-sex couples ā either through either civil unions or comprehensive domestic partnership laws.
Two of the other states ā Illinois and Hawaii ā approved such laws earlier this year. The Illinois law is scheduled to take effect in June and the Hawaii law goes into effect in January 2012.
Stein Club elects new president
The Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the cityās largest LGBT political group, Monday night elected local attorney and lesbian activist Lateefah Williams as its new president.
Williams replaces Jeffrey Richardson, who resigned as president after being appointed by Mayor Vincent Gray as director of the Mayorās Office of GLBT Affairs.
She becomes the first African-American woman to hold the post of Stein Club president since the clubās founding nearly 35 years ago.
Williams also serves as national committeewoman for the D.C. Young Democrats and is a member of the D.C. Democratic State Committee and the Metropolitan Womenās Democratic Club.
Career wise, Williams is political and legislative director for Local 689 of the Amalgamated Transit Union. She previously worked as a policy analyst for the think tank and government watchdog group OMB Watch and as an attorney in private practice for local D.C. area law firms. She holds a law degree from Georgetown University Law School and is a member of the bar in D.C. and Maryland.
āIt is truly an honor to preside over an organization with such a storied history and to follow in the footsteps of the many great club presidents who have preceded me,ā she said. āI am truly committed to service and l look forward to working with our members and the community at large to continue to advance LGBT equality and Democratic ideals in the District of Columbia.ā
District of Columbia
Sentencing for Ruby Corado postponed for second time
Former Casa Ruby director pleaded guilty to wire fraud

The sentencing in D.C. federal court for Ruby Corado, the founder and executive director of the now-defunct LGBTQ community services organization Casa Ruby on a charge of wire fraud, has been postponed for the second time, from March 28 to April 29.
A spokesperson for U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden, who is presiding over the case, said it was the judge who postponed the sentencing due to a scheduling conflict. The earlier postponement, from Jan. 10 to March 28, came at the request of Coradoās attorney and was not opposed by prosecutors with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C.
Corado pleaded guilty on July 17, 2024, to a single charge of wire fraud as part of a plea bargain deal offered by prosecutors. The charge to which she pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for D.C. says she allegedly diverted at least $150,000 āin taxpayer backed emergency COVID relief funds to private offshore bank accounts for her personal use,ā according to a statement from the U.S. Attorneyās office.
Under the federal wire fraud law, for which Corado is being prosecuted, she could be subjected to a possible maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and restitution requiring her to repay the funds she allegedly stole.
Court observers, however, have said that due to Coradoās decision to waive her right to a trial and plead guilty to the lesser charge, prosecutors will likely ask the judge to hand down a lesser sentence than the maximum sentence.
An earlier criminal complaint filed against Corado, which has been replaced by the single charge to which she has pleaded guilty, came at the time the FBI arrested her on March 5, 2024, at a hotel in Laurel, Md., shortly after she returned to the U.S. from El Salvador.
At the request of her attorney and against the wishes of prosecutors, another judge at that time agreed to release Corado into custody of her niece in Rockville, Md., under a home detention order. The release order came seven days after Corado had been held in jail at the time of her March 5 arrest.
Virginia
Pride Liberation Project announces additional Va. school board protests
Student-led group challenging Trump-Vance administrationās anti-LGBTQ policies

Following their recent protests at school board meetings in Virginia to challenge the Trump-Vance administrationās anti-LGBTQ policies, a student-led rights group on Wednesday outlined plans to continue their actions.
The Pride Liberation Project released a statement in early March announcing their āMarch Month of Actionā after their first round of protests. The Pride Liberation Project on Wednesday issued another press release that provided additional details.
āQueer students will rally at local school board meetings across Virginia, as they call for education leaders to reject the Trump-Muskās administration escalating attacks against queer people.ā said Conifer Selintung on behalf of the Pride Liberation Project. āSince taking office, the Trump-Musk administration has ignored the real issues facing our schools ā like declining reading scores and the mental health crisis ā and tried to bully queer students into the closet. Alongside other hateful attacks, theyāve attacked nondiscrimination protections, banned gender-affirming care, and whitewashed history.ā
The Pride Liberation Project press release also included a statement from Moth, an LGBTQ student at McLean High School.
āI want to be able to go to school as myself, just like any other student,ā said Moth. āTo do that, I need my school board to stand up to bullies.ā
The Pride Liberation Project has also released a schedule of rallies it plans to hold this month.
The first rally took place at the Prince William County School Board meeting in Manassas on Wednesday. A second event took place at the Roanoke County School Board meeting on Thursday.
Additional rallies are scheduled to take place in Rockingham and York Counties on March 24, Loudoun County on March 25, and Fairfax County on March 27.
District of Columbia
Harvey Fierstein says he was banned from Kennedy Center
Gay icon called out President Donald Trump

Gay icon and film legend Harvey Fierstein, 72, announced in an Instagram post on Tuesday that he was banned from the Kennedy Center as a result of President Donald Trumpās sweeping anti-LGBTQ measures in the performing space.Ā
Fierstein, who is a longtime fixture of queer storytelling both on screen and on stage, took to social media to criticize Trump for his recent decisions to take control of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and to hide ā if not erase ā LGBTQ art, and sounds the alarm for the future of the United States.Ā
In the picture posted on Instagram, Fierstein alongside LGBTQ rights activist Marsha P. Johnson is walking in the Christopher Street Liberation Day parade in 1979, with the caption beginning with āI have been banned from THE KENNEDY CENTER.ā
The multiple Tony Award-winning artist, who may be best known for “Torch Song Trilogy,” “La Cage aux Folles,” and “Kinky Boots,” to name a few, went on to explain his thoughts on Trumpās very public takeover of the national cultural center.
āA few folks have written to ask how I feel about Trump’s takeover of The Kennedy Center. How do you think I feel? The shows I’ve written are now banned from being performed in our premier American theater. Those shows, most of which have been performed there in the past, include, KINKY BOOTS. LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, TORCH SONG TRILOGY, HAIRSPRAY, SAFE SEX, CASA VALENTINA, SPOOKHOUSE, A CATERED AFFAIR, THE SISSY DUCKLING, BELLA BELLA and more.ā
āI have been in the struggle for our civil rights for more than 50 years only to watch them snatched away by a man who actually couldn’t care less,ā the post continued. āHe does this stuff only to placate the religious right so they’ll look the other way as he savages our political system for his own glorification. He attacks free speech. He attacks the free press. He attacks America’s allies. His only allegiance is to himself – the golden calf.ā
Fierstein then issued a warning for Americans, remarking that removing works that donāt align with Trumpās personal agenda represents a slippery slope that can lead to the erosion of democracy and emergence into fascism.Ā Ā
āMy fellow Americans I warn you – this is NOT how it begins. This is how freedom ENDS!ā
He finished the post with a call to action for Americans to recognize and confront Trumpās injustice.
āTrump may have declared ‘woke’ as dead in America. We must prove him wrong. WAKE THE HELL UP!!!!!ā
The post seemingly also pushes back on the Trump administrationās choice to remove any mention of transgender people from the Stonewall National Monumentās website by including Marsha P. Johnson in his post.
Since its upload on Tuesday, the post has gained more than 14,000 likes and 300 comments supporting Fierstein.Ā Ā
Trumpās reported banning of Fierstein from the Kennedy Center comes amid the presidentās drastic overhaul of the cultural venue after calling out āwokeā programming on its stages, including a drag show. His actions signal a broader effort to reshape the nation’s artistic landscape to align with his administrationās ideology.
The Kennedy Center couldn’t immediately be reached to confirm Fierstein’s claims. This post will be updated.
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