Local

Gay candidate loses Rehoboth mayor’s race

‘Lack of experience’ cited by longtime incumbent

Published

14 years ago

August 14, 2011

Gay businessman Tom McGlone lost his bid to become mayor of the resort city of Rehoboth Beach, Del., on Saturday, finishing behind seven-term incumbent Mayor Sam Cooper by a vote of 665 to 483.

Gay restaurant owner Mark Hunker won his bid for a seat on the Rehoboth City Commission, the town’s legislative body. His election leaves two open gays on the six-member commission. Commissioner Pat Colluzzi, a lesbian, was not up for re-election this year.

McGlone’s status as an openly gay candidate did not emerge as an issue in a town that has long been a popular vacation destination for LGBT people in the Mid-Atlantic region, including Washington and Baltimore.

But he did emerge as an advocate for the town’s tourist oriented businesses, including bars and restaurants, which have complained that the Cooper-led town government was harming them through overly restrictive regulations.

Among McGlone’s supporters were the owners of the popular gay restaurant and bar Aqua Grill. One of its two owners was arrested last year for allegedly keeping the establishment’s outdoor patio open beyond a required 11 p.m. closing time.

Police later dropped the charge after discovering that Aqua Grill was exempt from the closing time restriction. Aqua Grill’s owners and customers, however, became outraged earlier this year when a town code enforcement officer informed the place that it was in violation of another ordinance for flying a flag over the sidewalk in front of the restaurant two inches lower that the code requirement.

Rehoboth gay activist Peter Schott said he’s concerned that Cooper’s re-election will be viewed as a signal for continuing a regulatory enforcement program that some view as targeting gay establishments.

Cooper has strongly disputed claims that the enforcement action was targeting any particular group or type of business. He said the enforcement effort targeted everyone found to be in violation of the town’s rules and laws pertaining to excessive noise or other ‘quality of life’ issues such as trash disposal.

In a phone interview with the Blade last month, Cooper said he welcomes the town’s diverse array of residents and visitors, including LGBT people. He said he was proud to have helped to build and maintain a town infrastructure that has resulted in a beautiful beach and boardwalk that attracts everyone to Rehoboth Beach.

Observers familiar with Rehoboth said Cooper appears to have succeeded in portraying McGlone as someone who lacked sufficient experience to become mayor because he never served in an elective post in the town or on a town board or committee.

McGlone argued that his experience as the owner of a successful financial planning business, a masters in business administration degree, and his commitment to improving the town’s relations with small businesses, among other skills, made him qualified for the job.

His supporters say he was well qualified to be mayor but note that the majority of the town’s voters consist of longtime residents and homeowners who tend to support Cooper and agree with Cooper’s position on regulating bars and other nightlife businesses. Although McGlone had the support of some longtime residents, observers say his base of support came largely from the growing but minority faction of voters who own homes in the town but don’t live there full-time. This group is eligible to vote under the Rehoboth election law, even though most live in D.C., Baltimore and other areas outside Delaware. They don’t turn out to vote as often as the permanent, full-time residents, according to observers familiar with the town.

“Well obviously I’m disappointed,” McGlone said after the election results were announced. “But I think that as a result of my running we lifted the bar. And I hope the current government has their ears open in terms of the issues that came up during the course of the campaign because I think those are still valid issues even though I didn’t get elected.”

Schott, who supported McGlone even though he lives just outside the Rehoboth town limits, said he and other McGlone backers were hopeful that a larger than usual turnout of voters, including new residents who tend to support entertainment businesses, would carry McGlone to victory.

But the results indicate that didn’t happen. The turnout of 1,148 people who voted for mayor in the Saturday, Aug. 13, election was slightly less than the 1,209 ballots cast for mayor in the August 2008 election. In that election, Cooper defeated challenger Paul Kuhns by a margin of 675 to 534 votes.

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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

Published

3 days ago

December 12, 2025

Staff reports

Loudoun County Public Schools building. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

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

Published

3 days ago

December 12, 2025

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

A scene from the 2024 Capital Pride Festival. (Washington Blade file photo by Emily Hanna)

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 250^th 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 80^th birthday and other events related to the U.S. 250^th 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 14^th and T Streets, N.W. and traveling along 14^th 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 2^nd Street near the U.S. Capitol, to around 7^th 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

Published

6 days ago

December 9, 2025

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Capital Pride Alliance announced three women will lead its board. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

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.