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Accusations fly as Equality Md. copes with crisis

State group could close; board blames fired director for mismanagement

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Equality Maryland will likely lay off its four remaining staff members and could be forced to close if sufficient funds aren’t raised to cover costs, according to its board president, who blames the organization’s former executive director for the crisis.

“We brought in an interim executive director to assess the state of our resources,” said Charles Butler, Equality Maryland’s board president. “She did a rapid assessment and confirmed our fear that Equality Maryland has been perhaps irreparably damaged by the previous executive director.”

Morgan Meneses-Sheets was fired as director last month. Butler claims she entered into expensive contracts on behalf of the organization and hired staff without the board’s approval or knowledge.

“The most serious of the harms that we’re facing now is the depleted financial conditions of the organization, which may require the termination of existing staff due to the financial commitments [Meneses-Sheets] made on the organization’s behalf,” Butler said.

He appealed to the LGBT community in Maryland to step up and save the organization with donations of money and volunteer time.

“Hopefully the LGBT community in Maryland will come together and support the organization financially because otherwise that will leave a void in the state,” he said.

Meneses-Sheets sharply disputed Butler’s accusations and in a candid interview took aim at Equality Maryland’s board and even the state’s eight-member LGBT Caucus.

“I wish he’d be a grown up and allow me to move on,” she said, describing her termination as “a groundless rash decision.”

She denied entering into contracts without the board’s knowledge and claimed she wasn’t authorized to sign anything in the last six months of her tenure without approval. Further, she said she could not pay any bill in excess of $1,000 without approval from the board treasurer.

“We produced monthly reports and there weren’t contracts or liabilities they weren’t aware of, it’s complete nonsense,” Meneses-Sheets said. “Maybe Chuck wasn’t paying attention to the reports but they were generated.”

But a second knowledgeable source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Meneses-Sheets agreed to a payment plan with a vendor that included a June 2011 balloon payment in excess of $10,000. The source said Meneses-Sheets did not inform the board of the obligation. In addition, the source claims that Meneses-Sheets brought on four staffers as contractors without the knowledge or consent of the board.

In addition to the accusations of financial mismanagement, Butler said there were other problems with Meneses-Sheets’ performance. He claims she made a controversial decision to remove a public accommodations provision from the state’s gender identity non-discrimination bill without informing the board. That decision riled some transgender activists, who pulled their support for the bill, which ultimately died. Again, Meneses-Sheets denies that she acted unilaterally and said the decision to pull the provision came from the bill’s sponsor, Del. Joseline Pena-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel Counties).

“It’s unfortunate that the board chair is pointing fingers,” Meneses-Sheets said. “Board members were consulted … the decision was made by the sponsor and our choice was to support the bill. It’s ridiculous to suggest that I was running around willy-nilly.”

Again, Equality Maryland insiders paint a different picture. The anonymous source said Meneses-Sheets approached national LGBT partner organizations and the bill’s sponsor and “made a deal without board approval or knowledge.” By the time the board found out the public accommodations provision had been stripped, the bill was already being written in Annapolis and it was too late to change it, the source claims.

Butler also claimed that Meneses-Sheets left Equality Maryland’s member and donor database in disarray. He said the database was damaged while merging information from another database but that Meneses-Sheets didn’t inform the board.

“That database is arguably our most valuable material asset,” Butler said, adding that most donor information obtained at the organization’s fall gala that raised $25,000 was lost. He urged Equality Maryland donors to proactively contact the group as some e-mail addresses and phone numbers can’t be found.

Once again, Meneses-Sheets tells a very different story. She claims the database was “a wreck” when she arrived at Equality Maryland and that the new problem surfaced in the fall but that she brought on a volunteer to clean it up and rebuild it.

“Wrong,” the anonymous source said, “she knew the database was damaged and did nothing about it.”

Meneses-Sheets made allegations of her own — that she never had performance reviews, was treated unprofessionally, left the organization with money in the bank and that the board deceived her about the stability of the organization when she was hired. “They were in the red and barely getting by,” she said. Despite the accusations, she said she didn’t contemplate a lawsuit after her departure and never filed for unemployment benefits. She found a new job and now works for Pride at Work.

She claims that the eight-member LGBT Caucus was a “major force in choosing me as the scapegoat.”

“Several sources told me they played a big role in deciding I would be the scapegoat,” she said. “Should the LGBT legislators decide who staffs the LGBT organization? They’ve created an untenable situation where they dictate everything.”

Sources dispute the claim that Equality Maryland was in the red at the time the group hired Meneses-Sheets and insist that she neglected her responsibility to raise funds.

“Her idea of development was to go to happy hours all over the state of Maryland and ask for $5 donations,” the source said. “Her fundraising plan was never more sophisticated than that.”

The flap over Meneses-Sheets’ termination has offered a glimpse into how state LGBT rights groups interact with national groups like the Human Rights Campaign, Freedom to Marry and the Gill Action Fund.

“The shit has hit the fan,” Meneses-Sheets said, “[the board] realizes there are major problems with the LGBT Caucus and that the national groups have their own agendas that have nothing to do with supporting Equality Maryland. They’ve gotten no money and they’re panicking.”

She claims that at the time she left the organization, there were rumors that HRC would keep Equality Maryland out of future efforts to pass a marriage equality bill, following this year’s failed attempt.

Butler confirmed that the national groups are involved in Maryland’s marriage fight. HRC’s regional field director, Sultan Shakir, began working at Equality Maryland’s headquarters office in Baltimore earlier this month.

“HRC is working with local and national groups to help build a strong campaign to pass Equality Maryland’s entire legislative agenda next year,” said HRC spokesperson Fred Sainz. “While HRC currently has a field staffer working in the Baltimore headquarters to support their new executive director, there are no set plans to keep him there,” he said.

Butler said the national groups are working on a campaign field strategy and a plan to combat an anticipated referendum to overturn a same-sex marriage law and that he’s unsure if that effort would be run out of Equality Maryland or be physically located elsewhere. Sainz denied rumors last week that HRC sought to install Shakir as the new Equality Maryland director.

But the marriage struggle in Maryland could be hampered if Equality Maryland is forced to close.

“We need your support, financially and otherwise, we need your involvement,” Butler said. “I’m fairly optimistic we can raise enough funds so that we can keep the organization running. I think we do have a realistic shot at getting the marriage bill and the gender identity bill passed in the next legislative session.”

Assuming the organization can raise funds to cover its expenses, Butler said the next step would be to hire an executive search firm to “find us a competent, strong director.” He said it’s important to work more closely with the community and, to that end, the organization now seeks to expand its board.

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Virginia

Virginia High School League reverses policy on transgender athletes

Trans athletes previously allowed to compete on teams that corresponded with gender identity

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Virginia flag flies over the state Capitol. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The Virginia High School League on Monday announced it will no longer allow transgender athletes to compete on teams that correspond with their gender identity following another executive order signed by President Donald Trump targeting trans people.

The VHSL announced their policy change on their X account. It undoes a 2023 announcement that said it would not change their policy that allowed trans athletes to compete on teams that affirmed their identities.

Following a Jan. 28 executive order signed that stopped hospitals and other medical institutions from providing gender-affirming care to minors under that age of 19, Trump on Feb. 5 signed another executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”

The ban seeks “to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls.” The NCAA and many other educational institutions agreed to implement the ban in fear of losing federal funding.

“The VHSL is an association comprising 318 member schools with more than 177,000 students participating yearly in sports and academic activities. The VHSL is the governing body, and our member schools look to and rely on the VHSL for policy and guidance. To that end, the VHSL will comply with the executive order,” said VHSL Executive Director John W. “Billy” Haun. “The compliance will provide membership clear and consistent direction.”

The VHSL also said staff will be making changes to their handbook and policy manual in the coming days, reminiscent of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrubbing all of the papers in its database of any now-banned language regarding LGBTQ people and attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The VHSL’s own data indicates only 29 of the student athletes it oversees have been reported as trans since 2022.

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District of Columbia

Booz Allen withdraws as WorldPride corporate sponsor

Company updated programs to comply with Trump executive orders

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(Screenshot courtesy of WorldPride's website)

The U.S. technology company Booz Allen Hamilton has confirmed it has withdrawn as a corporate sponsor for the international LGBTQ WorldPride events scheduled to take place in D.C. from May 17-June 8, according to a report by the Washington Business Journal.

In an exclusive story published Feb.10, the business publication reports that Booz Allen Hamilton disclosed in a statement that its decision to withdraw as a WorldPride sponsor was based on its need to comply with “recently issued presidential executive orders.”

Although the statement did not say so directly, it is referring to executive orders issued since Jan. 20 by President Donald Trump that, among other things, ban government agencies and companies doing business with the government through contracts from promoting or carrying out diversity, equity, and inclusion or “DEI” programs.

On its website, Booz Allen Hamilton describes itself as an “advanced technology company delivering outcomes with speed for America’s most critical defense, civil, and national securities priorities.” Among the government agencies it does business with, the website statement says, are the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

“We take this responsibility to our nation seriously,” Washington Business Journal quoted the Booz Allen Hamilton statement regarding WorldPride as saying. “It demands from us commitment to their best principle to flawless execution and to full compliance with all laws and regulations, including executive orders,” Washington Business Journal quotes the statement as saying.

The Washington Business Journal article includes a photo of more than a dozen of Booz Allen Hamilton employees marching in D.C.’s Capital Pride parade in 2017.

The company did not immediately respond to a request from Washington Blade seeking comment on its WorldPride decision.

Capital Pride Alliance, the group that organizes most D.C. LGBTQ Pride events and is the lead organizer of WorldPride 2025, in response to a request by the Blade released a statement responding to Booz Allen Hamilton’s sponsorship withdrawal.

“Booz Allen Hamilton is the only organization that has withdrawn its committed financial support for WorldPride,” the statement says. “CPA is proud of its many longstanding legacy sponsors, many of whom have already reaffirmed their commitments to participate in WorldPride this summer,” the statement continues.

“Just like many American companies and LGBTQ+ organizations, we are navigating current challenges and many unknowns,” the statement says. “We are confident, however, that we will have the support necessary to have a successful and safe WorldPride that meets this moment,” it says.

“That support includes families, organizations, and businesses from across our community and corporations that truly celebrate diversity and value equity and inclusion for all,” the statement concludes.

The Capital Pride Alliance website last year listed Booz Allen Hamilton as a corporate sponsor for the 2024 Capital Pride events in the category of a “True Colors” sponsor, which it said represented a donation of $75,000. But the Capital Pride Alliance statement to the Blade this week says, “We are not going to share they’re previously planned commitment for 2025.”

The statement adds, “Many in our community are extremely vulnerable right now, and standing up for them, standing with them, standing with us, in this movement is what we all need.”

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District of Columbia

Trump executive order prompts local hospitals to stop gender-affirming care for youth

Activists marched outside Children’s National on Feb. 2

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A protester stands outside Children's National Hospital in Northwest D.C. on Feb. 2, 2025. (Washington Blade photo by Linus Berggren)

Hospitals in the D.C. area are putting a prompt stop to aiding transgender youth and their families continue their transition after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that bans all gender-affirming care nationwide for minors under 19.

On Jan. 28, days after Trump took office, signed the executive order, “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” which immediately halted the prescription and medical treatment of gender-affirming care for all minors under the age of 19 across the country. The order use of “chemical and surgical mutilation” is in reference to the various kinds of gender-affirming care that youth may receive when in the care of a medical practice.

“Today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions.” says the executive order. “This dangerous trend will be a stain on our nation’s history, and it must end.”

The executive order laid out various guidelines for medical practices to follow that must be implemented within the coming months. These include “ending reliance on junk science,” in referring to following the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s guidelines for youth, and “defunding chemical and surgical mutilation,” which seeks to ban hospitals and medical schools to use federal funding for gender-affirming care.

Hospitals, medical schools, and clinics across the country have begun to abide by the executive order and drop trans and gender diverse youth as they dismantled programs that provided care of any kind that treated a child’s gender dysphoria. Children’s National Hospital in Northwest Washington is one of those institutions.

“Children’s National is committed to providing compassionate and comprehensive care in accordance with the law,” said Children’s National in a Jan. 30 press release. “As a result, we are currently pausing all puberty blockers and hormone therapy prescriptions for transgender youth patients, per the guidelines in the executive order issued by the White House this week. Children’s National already does not perform gender affirming surgery for minors.”

“We recognize the impact this change will have, and our commitment to creating a better future for children and families remains at the forefront of our mission,” it added. “We will do everything we can to ensure the same uninterrupted access to mental health counseling, social support, and holistic and respectful care for every patient at Children’s National. We are working directly with patients and providers to ensure every patient has access to the information and support services they need, and we appreciate their continued trust and understanding as we work through these changes.”

The hospital did not provide the Washington Blade with additional comment.

Activists in response to the decision organized a march that took place outside Children’s Hospital. on Feb. 2. D.C. Safe Haven, a group founded to “provide TLGBQ people in the DMV area with opportunities to transform their lives,” helped organize the march.

Similar protests have taken place across the country.

The Gender Liberation Movement organized the “Rise Up for Trans Youth” march in New York’s Union Square on Saturday. The group was one of the organizers of a march that took place in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 4 when the justices heard oral arguments in the U.S. v. Skrmetti case, which challenges a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for minors under 18.

“VCU Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU have suspended gender-affirming medications and gender-affirming surgical procedures for patients under 19-years-old in response to an executive order issued by the White House on Jan. 28, 2025, and related state guidance received by VCU on Jan. 30, 2025,” the hospital said in a statement. “Our doors remain open to all patients and their families for screening, counseling, mental health care, and all other health care needs.”

Equality Virginia, a queer advocacy group that works across the state, in a statement to the Blade criticized the executive order and response to it.

“Executive orders are not legislation, they are not law, and they do not supersede state laws,” said Narissa Rahaman, the group’s executive director. “The General Assembly has taken up bills on both transgender athletes and gender-affirming care, and in both cases, the general assembly has declined to pursue bans on either. State law is clear; what is unclear is why the Youngkin administration is spending its final year cozying up to the Trump administration and repeatedly singling out transgender Virginians for discrimination.”

“To the transgender and nonbinary athletes and youth seeking healthcare in Virginia who are feeling scared: Equality Virginia will not stop fighting for you, no matter who occupies the Governor’s Mansion or the White House,” added Rahaman.

Petitions are urging D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, Health and Human Services, and Children’s National to use D.C.’s human rights law to challenge the executive orders. Lambda Legal, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and the law firms Jenner & Block and Hogan Lovells have filed lawsuits against Trump’s mandate on behalf of families of trans youth.

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