Local
D.C. Council urged to strengthen anti-bullying bill
Activists, experts say measure lacks reporting provisions
Council members Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) and David Catania (I-At-Large). (Blade photo by Michael Key)
At least eight witnesses representing LGBT organizations told a D.C. City Council committee on Monday that an anti-bullying bill introduced in January is an important first step in addressing the problem of bullying and harassment in the city’s schools, parks and libraries.
But the LGBT representatives – as well as other witnesses – testified that the Bullying and Intimidation Prevention Act of 2011 lacks sufficient implementation and accountability provisions needed to ensure its effective enforcement.
“It does not benefit students to pass a new anti-bullying law unless there are real accountability standards and implementation processes in place,” said Alison Gill, public policy manager for the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a national group that advocates for LGBT-supportive polices in the nation’s schools.
“The District of Columbia has been a pioneer on issues such as nondiscrimination in schools and yet is one of only a handful of jurisdictions in this country without an anti-bullying law,” Gill said.
Gill and the other witnesses spoke before the Council’s Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation, one of two committees with jurisdiction over the anti-bullying bill.
While saying bullying and harassment is a serious problem that affects all young people, they pointed to studies showing that the problem has had a greater impact on LGBT youth.
“Bullying and harassment has often increased adverse effects on marginalized students, including those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender,” Gill told the committee.
“According to GLSEN’s 2009 National School Climate Survey, nearly nine out of 10 LGBT students experience verbal or physical harassment in school,” she said. “Thirty percent missed at least one day of school in the past month because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable.”
The bill requires the city’s public and charter schools, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the city’s public libraries, and the University of the District of Columbia to adopt “a policy prohibiting harassment, intimidation or bullying” in their respective facilities, buildings and grounds.
Others testifying in support of the bill and calling for adding various strengthening provisions included Andrew Barnett, executive director of the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL); Amy Morgan of the D.C. Trans Coalition; Adam Tenner, executive director of Metro Teen AIDS; Annie Kaplan, president of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan D.C.; Rick Rosendall, vice president of the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance; Bob Summersgill, Ward 3 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner and former GLAA president; and Christopher Dyer, former director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBT Affairs.
Also expressing support for the bill were Chad Ferguson, director of the Office of Youth Engagement for D.C. Public Schools; Jesus Aguirre, director of the Department of Parks and Recreation; and Micki Freeny, coordinator of children’s services for the D.C. public library system.
Most of these witnesses — but not the three government officials — called on the Council to add these new provisions to the bill:
• A required reporting system to keep track of incidents of bullying and harassment that would allow the city to gather data on the prevalence and types of harassment and bullying incidents and how well the law is working to curtail such incidents.
• An improved and strengthened implementation provision that, among other things, creates an implementation task force consisting of community advocates and officials from affected city agencies.
• The bill’s definition of bullying, intimidation and harassment should be broadened to include the full list of protected groups and characteristics in the D.C. Human Rights Act. In addition, the bill should include protections against bullying and harassment targeting people for who they associate with.
“Students may experience bullying not based on who they are, but based on the people that they associate with and therefore need to be explicitly protected for this reason,” GLSEN’s Gill said in her testimony.
The bill has been assigned to the Council’s Committee of the Whole in addition to the Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation. The Committee of the Whole, whose ranks include all 13 Council members, has jurisdiction over the city’s public and charter school systems and plays a role in deciding on all school-related legislation.
Council Chair Kwame Brown (D-At-Large), chair of the Committee of the Whole, is a co-introducer of the Bullying and Intimidation Prevention Act, along with Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who is gay; and Council members Harry Thomas (D-Ward 5) and Michael Brown (D-At-Large).
Council member Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4), chair of the Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation, which held Monday’s hearing, is a co-sponsor of the bill along with six other Council members, including gay Council member David Catania (I-At-Large).
City Hall observers say support for the bill on the Council is overwhelming. With Mayor Vincent Gray saying he would sign the measure, there’s little doubt that some form of an anti-bullying bill will clear the city’s legislative process this year and make its way to Capitol Hill for final clearance by Congress.
The LGBT advocates who testified at Monday’s hearing said their main objective is to persuade the Council to adopt the proposed changes they have submitted in the form of one or more amendments to the bill.
“Thank you for your testimony, which has been tremendously helpful,” Bowser told several of the witnesses, including those representing LGBT organizations.
Catania, who was the only other committee member to attend the hearing, also praised the witnesses and expressed support for a comprehensive anti-bullying bill “with teeth.”
Bowser said she and her Council colleagues were open to the suggestions and recommendations of the witnesses but made no commitment to adopt the proposed changes.
The legislation defines harassment, intimidation or bullying as “any gesture or written, verbal or physical act, including electronic communication, that is reasonably perceived as being motivated either by any actual or perceived characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or a mental, physical or sensory handicap, or by any other distinguishing characteristic…”
The definition says that in order to be considered harassment, intimidation or bullying under the bill’s school-related provisions, the act in question must be understood by a “reasonable person” to have the “effect of harming or damaging the student’s property, or placing a student in reasonable fear of harm to his person or damage to his property…”
It says an act can be labeled as harassment, intimidation or bullying if it has the “effect of insulting or demeaning any student or group of students in such as a way as to cause substantial disruption in, or substantial interference with, the orderly operation of a school, university, recreation facility, or library.”
Brazil
DHS plans to deport transgender Brazilian woman arrested in Md.
ICE agents removed Alice Correia Barbosa from her car on Aug. 23
The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday said it plans to deport a transgender Brazilian woman who U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested in Silver Spring.
A video posted to Instagram shows three plain-clothed ICE agents removing Alice Correia Barbosa from her car on Aug. 23. One agent misgendered Correia before he and the two other agents placed her into an unmarked SUV.
A senior DHS official in response to the Washington Blade’s request for comment about Correia’s arrest referred to her by her birth name and described her as an “illegal alien from Brazil” who “overstayed his visa by almost six years.” The official also used male pronouns to describe Correia.
“He remained in the U.S. after his B-2 tourist visa that allowed him to remain in the U.S. for six months. Nearly six years later, he is still illegally in our country,” the official told the Blade. “Barbosa’s criminal history includes arrests possession of a controlled substance and marijuana possession. U.S. Border Patrol arrested Barbosa on Aug. 23, 2025, and he will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. President Trump and Secretary Noem are committed to restoring integrity to the visa program and ensuring it is not abused to allow aliens a permanent one-way ticket to remain in the U.S.”
The Blade asked the official why they used Correia’s birth name to identify her and male pronouns to describe her.
“Because he is a man,” said the official.
Erika Hilton, a Brazilian congresswoman who is a Black travesti, on Aug. 24 said she asked the country’s Foreign Ministry to “intercede to guarantee the rights and physical integrity of Alice Correia Barbosa, a Brazilian trans woman who was arbitrarily, suspiciously, and violently arrested in the U.S.”
Hilton in her X post said Correia’s arrest is unconstitutional. Hilton further criticized the Trump-Vance administration’s overall immigration policy.
“Obviously, I don’t believe it’s fruitful to explain to the U.S. the illegalities committed by a Dorito-colored dictator’s little project,” said Hilton.
Acabo de acionar o Itamaraty pedindo que intercedam pela garantia dos direitos e integridade física de Alice Correia Barbosa, uma brasileira trans que foi presa de forma arbitrária, suspeita e violenta nos EUA.
Tudo, em desrespeito à Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos,…
— ERIKA HILTON (@ErikakHilton) August 24, 2025
The Brazilian Foreign Affairs on Wednesday told the Blade the country’s Consulate General in D.C. “is monitoring the case, in contact with local authorities, and providing consular assistance to the Brazilian national.” Them reported Correia is in ICE custody at the Caroline Detention Facility in Virginia.
Brazil has the highest number of reported murders of trans people in the world. The State Department’s 2024 human rights report that “erased” LGBTQ people does not mention this fact.
President Donald Trump in his inaugural speech announced the federal government’s “official policy” is “there are only two genders, male and female.” Hilton and Duda Salabert, another Brazilian congresswoman who is also trans, earlier this year said the U.S. listed their gender on their American visas as “male.”
Arts & Entertainment
2025 Best of LGBTQ DC Readers’ Choice Award Nominations
Nominate your favorites in each category through September 7th.
Now more than ever, it’s important to celebrate and uplift the people, places, and organizations that make our community strong. Nominations are officially open for the 2025 Best of LGBTQ DC Awards!
Nominate your favorites in each category through September 7th. The top 5 nominees will move forward as finalists, with voting beginning on September 15th.
We’ll honor the winners at the Best of LGBTQ DC Awards Party on Thursday, October 16th, and showcase them in our special issue released Friday, October 17th.
Let’s shine a spotlight on the resilience, creativity, and spirit of our community during these times. Your voice matters—help us recognize those who continue to make a difference every day.
CLICK HERE TO NOMINATE OR USE THE FORM BELOW!
District of Columbia
WorldPride D.C. attendance, economic impact far lower than predicted
Officials estimate 1.2 million turned out against expectations of 2-3 million
Destination D.C., the nonprofit organization that promotes and tracks tourism and special events in the nation’s capital, announced on Aug. 26 that an estimated 1.2 million people attended WorldPride 2025 in D.C, which took place May 17-June 8.
The organization says a study it conducted also shows WorldPride 2025 had a positive economic impact on the city of $310.7 million.
Those numbers fall far short of predictions of 2-3 million visitors and nearly $800 million in economic impact. Hotel occupancy rates were 5 percent lower than in 2024 for the same week.
The announcement of the WorldPride attendance and economic impact numbers were included in a statement reporting on the economic impact of tourism in the city in 2024, changes in visitation and tourism occurring in 2025, and Destination D.C.’s plans to promote tourism in 2026.
Some D.C. government officials, including Mayor Muriel Bowser, whose office provided D.C. agency support for WorldPride events, had predicted back in January that as many as three million visitors would turn out for WorldPride D.C. Some city officials had also predicted the WorldPride events would have as much as a $787 million economic impact on the city.
But not long after President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2025 and began putting in place policies hostile to countries in Europe, Latin America, and Canada, including proposed tariffs, news began to surface that many potential visitors from foreign countries, including possible LGBTQ visitors, were choosing not to come to the United States.
Trump’s statements and policies in opposition to LGBTQ people, especially transgender people, also played a role in alienating potential visitors to the U.S. for WorldPride, observers have said.
“Washington, D.C. shined during WorldPride, an incredible celebration that honored and advocated for the global LGBTQ+ community, with an estimated 1.2 million attendees across hundreds of events, resulting in $310.7 million in economic impact,” the Destination D.C. statement says.
“While the impact was significant, hotel occupancy throughout the duration of WorldPride was down about five percent year-over-year, according to STR,” the statement continues. STR is a tourism research firm.
“An economic impact study conducted in early 2024 predicted stronger figures based on travel trends from 2023, before the current political and economic climate,” it says.
“Despite those challenges, WorldPride had strong regional support and went far in extending the message that Washington, D.C. is a welcoming and inclusive destination for visitors of all backgrounds,” according to the statement. “There were attendees from all over the world.”
Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based group that played the lead role in organizing WorldPride D.C. 2025, had pointed out that the local D.C. government hosting WorldPride has a longtime strong record of support for the LGBTQ community.
The group argued that LGBTQ activists should turn out for WorldPride as a form of protest against the Trump administration, among other things, by joining the planned WorldPride LGBTQ and allied March on Washington for Freedom that took place June 8 and traveled from the Lincoln Memorial to the U.S. Capitol.
Capital Pride Alliance Executive Director Ryan Bos said that while the 1.2 million attendance number released by Destination D.C. is lower than what had initially been predicted, it is double the number of people who turn out for the city’s annual Capital Pride events.
“We’re thrilled about the number of folks that made it to Washington to experience WorldPride at a time when our community was under attack,” Bos told the Washington Blade. “And this report shows that this event, as our Capital Pride shows every year, is a strong economic engine for the District of Columbia,” he said.
“It was a challenging time,” Bos said. “But it was a historic WorldPride. We’re thrilled that we were able to bring the community together internationally, nationally, and locally.”
He said D.C. WorldPride included more than 300 events.
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