Local
Local news in brief: May 13
Kameny papers exhibit opens, Pride schedule announced and more
Kameny papers exhibit opens at Library of Congress
The Library of Congress has added two documents “of major historical significance” from the papers of gay rights leader Frank Kameny to a widely viewed public exhibit about the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
The library quietly placed the Kameny documents on display at its Thomas Jefferson Building across the street from the U.S. Capitol in late April without publicly announcing the development.
On Monday, organizers of the Kameny Papers Project announced in a press release that the documents were on display as part of the library’s “Creating the United States” exhibit.
The release says inclusion of the Kameny documents represents the first time “the history of gay and lesbian Americans” has been included by the library “in the story of the Constitution and its evolution as a living instrument of freedom.”
In 2006, the Kameny Papers Project donated about 50,000 documents and artifacts to the Library of Congress on Kameny’s behalf that the gay rights pioneer had produced during his more than 50 years of work on behalf of LGBT equality. The documents and artifacts, such as gay rights protest signs from the 1960s, are available to researchers. Kameny, 85, began working on gay rights activities in the late 1950s.
One of the documents now on display at the Library of Congress is Kameny’s 1961 petition to the U.S. Supreme Court contesting a decision in 1957 by the then U.S. Army Map Service to fire him as a civilian astronomer because he was gay. The petition is the first such document ever filed before the Supreme Court pertaining to a civil rights violation based on sexual orientation.
The Supreme Court denied Kameny’s petition, upholding the longstanding policy of the then U.S. Civil Service Commission banning gays and lesbians from working for the federal government. The policy remained in effect until 1975.
The second Kameny document included in the library’s exhibit is the original copy of a 1966 letter from John W. Macy Jr., the then director of the U.S. Civil Service Commission, to the Mattachine Society of Washington, the city’s first gay rights group that Kameny founded in the early 1960s.
In the letter, Macy sought to justify the federal government’s ban on gay employees by citing “the revulsion of other employees by homosexual conduct.”
The two Kameny documents are scheduled to remain on display at the library until October.
LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Delaware gays celebrate as Markell signs civil unions
Delaware Gov. Jack Markell was scheduled to sign into law a sweeping civil unions bill late Wednesday after Blade deadline.
The signing was scheduled to take place at the World Café Live in Wilmington and a large celebration of local LGBT people was expected to follow.
The new law extends all state rights of marriage to same-sex couples in a civil union. The measure passed the Senate last month by a 25-15 vote.
STAFF REPORTS
D.C. Pride events set to begin this month
Events associated with D.C.’s two main LGBT pride festivals — D.C. Black Pride and Capital Pride — are set to begin this month, and organizers say they are looking forward to a record turnout from local and out-of-town participants.
As it has since its founding, Black Pride is set to take place Memorial Day weekend, with events beginning on Thursday, May 26, and ending Sunday, May 29, with the annual Black Pride Health and Wellness Festival. The festival will take place 1-7 p.m. at D.C.’s Fort Dupont Park located at Minnesota Avenue and F streets, S.E. The location represents a change from last year’s festival, which was held at the D.C. Convention Center.
A series of Black Pride workshops covering a wide variety of topics ranging from domestic violence and heath care to black youth and transgender acceptance in the black community is scheduled to take place 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday, May 27, at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel at 14th and K streets, N.W.
A full list of Black Pride events can be viewed at dcblackpride.org.
The 36 annual Capital Pride celebration is set to take place June 2-12. The Capital Pride Parade will take place Saturday, June 11, and similar to past years, will begin at 23rd and P streets, N.W., travel around Dupont Circle to the 17 Street entertainment strip before ending at 14th Street, N.W., at Thomas Circle.
Also similar to past years, the Capital Pride Festival is set to take place 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on Sunday, June 12 on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., near the U.S. Capitol.
A wide variety of Capital Pride events are scheduled for the week preceding the parade and festival, including a June 1 kick-off party and panel discussion at the National Press Club; a June 5 Pride in the Park event at Six Flags amusement park in Upper Marlboro, Md.; and a June 6 Spirituality in the Gay Community Town Hall meeting at the Hotel Palomar at 2121 P St., N.W.
A weekly “Pride Idol” singing contest, to be held every Wednesday night beginning May 11 at Cobalt bar at 17th and R Sts., N.W., is a new addition to the Capital Pride events. Organizers say a final winner in the ongoing singing contest will be selected June 8. The prize: a three-month lease for a new Saab automobile, which is being donated by Saab as part of the company’s sponsorship of Capital Pride.
A full list of Capital Pride events can be viewed at www.capitalpride.org.
These additional Pride events are set to take place in conjunction with Capital Pride and Black Pride:
• Asian Pacific Islander Pride, May 23, 6-8:30 p.m., Café Asia, 1720 I St., N.W.
• Trans Pride, June 4, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Metropolitan Community Church of D.C., 474 Ridge St., N.W.
• Latino Pride, June 10, 6-9 p.m., Town nightclub, 2009 8th St., N.W.
LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Director of Baltimore’s LGBT community center resigns
Craig Wiley, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland (GLCCB) has resigned. He held the position for more than seven years and became the longest-tenured executive director in GLCCB history.
Wiley also served on the board of Centerlink: The Community of LGBT Centers. According to his bio on Centerlink, “Since joining the GLCCB he has systematically implemented expense-reduction strategies and indentified new and diverse revenue streams for the organization. Mr. Wiley has also fostered relationships with many organizational and community partners and municipal agencies, including the Baltimore City Health Department, the Baltimore Police Department, the Office of the Mayor, local colleges and universities, businesses, and nonprofits serving diverse constituencies that touch the LGBT community either directly or indirectly.”
“It is with regret that I write you to let you know Craig Wiley has stepped down as Executive Director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland (GLCCB),” GLCCB Board President Trevor Ankeny said in a statement. “Craig’s involvement with the GLCCB spanned more than a decade. From volunteering to serving as a board member to assuming the position of executive director, his support for the GLCCB has touched all facets of our work. In his role as executive director for the past seven years, Craig has tirelessly devoted himself to making the GLCCB a stronger institution so that we may better serve the community.”
In other Baltimore news, Trans-United Director Sandy Rawls has been named as Grand Marshall in the upcoming Baltimore Pride Parade, and Del. Mary Washington will be the Honorary Grand Marshall.
BALTIMORE OUTLOUD
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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