Local
Latino LGBT community center to open in D.C.
Casa Ruby to provide services, welcoming ‘home’ in Columbia Heights
Casa Ruby will be a touchstone for the local Latino LGBT community.
A Latino LGBT community services center called Casa Ruby is scheduled to open its doors in D.C.’s Columbia Heights neighborhood on June 6, according to transgender activist Ruby Corado, the new center’s founder and director.
Corado said the center will operate in a 750-square-foot office space on the lower floor of a converted townhouse at 2822 Georgia Ave., N.W. She said the rented office comes with additional outdoor patio space in the rear of the building, which is located a few blocks from the Columbia Heights Metro station.
“It’s going to be an LGBT center with a primary focus on Latinos, which is the population that I have been working with,” said Corado, a native Spanish speaker. “But it’s open to everybody.”
Corado said the city’s existing LGBT Community Center on the 1300 block of U Street, N.W., has been welcoming to the LGBT Latino community. But similar to most other LGBT groups in the D.C. metropolitan area, Corado said the existing center lacks Spanish speaking staff or volunteers. She said a sizable number of LGBT Latinos in the area aren’t fluent in English.
“Right now there is nothing for the Latino LGBT community that is run by LGBT Latinos,” Corado said.
According to Corado, each of the new center’s five-member volunteer staff will be fluent in English and Spanish.
David Mariner, executive director of the LGBT Community Center on U Street, said the Latino GLBT History Project rents office space at the center and other LGBT Latino groups have used the center’s space for various activities.
He said the center doesn’t have the resources at the present time to hire a Spanish speaking staff person.
“I love Ruby and look forward to working with her,” Mariner said.
Among other things, Corado said she envisions Casa Ruby as a one-stop community service center for Latino LGBT people that will provide support and referrals to other service providers on such matters as immigration issues, substance abuse, domestic violence, counseling, employment services and HIV/AIDS education and prevention.
The exterior of Casa Ruby, which Corado says will be named for her because she wants it to feel like a home. (Courtesy photo)
Corado said she decided to use her name for the center’s title to create an atmosphere of support and comfort and a place where people can socialize as well as seek services.
“I want this to this to sort of be a home,” she said. “I want them to feel this is their place. If they don’t have anything out there for their needs like a place to stay I want them to come and I will help them find that.”
Corado said she used her own personal funds to secure the lease and finance the start-up of the center. She said she established Casa Ruby as a project of Latinos En Accion, an LGBT organization she helped to found several years ago as a non-profit corporation with a 501 C (3) tax-exempt status.
Under the structure of the new center, supporters can make tax deductable donations, she said.
She said she has been speaking with D.C. government officials, including officials with the Office of Latino Affairs, over the possibility of obtaining city grants for various services.
Supporters of the center have already donated interior design services and furniture, computers and a flat-screen TV.
She said Casa Ruby will host a grand opening reception at the center starting at noon on June 6. She is hopeful that Mayor Vincent Gray will be among the notables attending the opening ceremony.
“I’m using my life savings to sustain this project for the next year,” said Corado. “I’m doing it because I believe there is a need for it and we can make a difference for the community we’re all a part of.”
(Courtesy photo)
She added, “I want to repeat that although the primary focus is with Latinos, it’s for everybody. That’s why I call it Casa Ruby because many people know me. And I want people to know that it’s a home for everybody.”
Mariner said the D.C. Center’s effort to seek a larger space in the city’s Reeves Municipal Building less than a block from its current office moved ahead last week when it submitted its formal bid for the new space.
“We’re cautiously optimistic,” he said.
The center’s bid is part of an official invitation by the city for potential tenants to offer a level of rent they are willing to pay for vacant office space at the Reeves Building. Mariner said the invitation, or request for proposal (RFP), was open to both non-profit organizations like the center or commercial businesses such as retail stores or restaurants. He said the center’s bid stresses that the center would provide an important community service that most businesses don’t offer and the city should give special consideration to granting the center a lease in the building.
The center is being forced to leave its current space in 2013, when the building in which it’s located will be razed to make way for a new hotel.
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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