Local
Gay man seeks to become Delaware’s next insurance commissioner
Crane could become state’s first openly gay statewide elected official
Photo courtesy of Mitch Crane
A former judge is poised to potentially become the first openly gay person elected to statewide office in Delaware.
Mitch Crane of Lewes will square off against incumbent Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart, Paul Gallagher and Dennis Spivack in the Democratic primary on Sept. 11. The winner will face Republican Benjamin Mobley and Libertarian Eisenhower David in the general election.
Then-Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn hired Crane, who was a district judge in Chester County, Pa., from 1982-1987, as a regulatory specialist for the Delaware Department of Insurance in 2007. Stewart succeeded Denn, who is now the lieutenant governor, in 2008. Crane stepped down in Jan. 2011 after he said he realized that his now opponent would not continue what he described as the “pro-consumer programs” that he said her predecessor put into place.
“A few months later some progressive members of the party asked me to run,” he noted. “I was hesitant about running against an incumbent Democrat — also a woman, but I was convinced it was important that the insurance commissioner be a consumer advocate. And if I didn’t run, someone less qualified or less able to do the job properly would run and either beat her or lose and we would be in the mess that we’re in now.”
A commitment to civil rights
Crane’s maternal grandparents became active in the civil rights movement in the 1930s — he was 16 when he and his grandmother were arrested in 1963 during a protest outside a Brooklyn, N.Y., hospital that was under construction. Crane later coordinated three buses that brought the West Chester, Pa., contingent to the 1963 March on Washington that Bayard Rustin, the openly gay adviser to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who grew up in the southeastern Pennsylvania city, organized. The University of Denver expelled him shortly before he was to have graduated in 1968 because he led a student rights movement.
“I come from a family of activists — my parents and my grandparents — in almost every aspect of the human rights movement,” said Crane. “I wasn’t brought up to become a rebel in the 60s. I actually was just following my family tradition of fighting for other people.”
Crane invited Rustin to speak at a local high school and West Chester University while he was on the West Chester Borough Council in 1981. He also spearheaded the effort to name a park next to his home in honor of the civil rights activist after his death in 1987. Crane became a permanent Delaware resident in 2002, but he remained involved in the effort to name a new West Chester high school in honor of Rustin.
Crane later played a role in the effort to add sexual orientation to the state’s non-discrimination laws. He was president of the Barbara Gittings Delaware Stonewall Democrats in May 2011 when state lawmakers passed a civil unions bill that Gov. Jack Markell signed into law. The statute took effect earlier this year, but the governor told the Huffington Post last month that he expects state lawmakers could debate a same-sex marriage bill as early as next year.
Crane’s opponents did not immediately respond to the Blade’s inquiries about whether they support either Delaware’s civil unions law or nuptials for gays and lesbians. Crane, who entered into a civil union with his partner of 14 years in February, told the Blade that he feels marriage is a federal issue that Congress and the courts should ultimately decide. He described the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act as the most important issue.
“To upset the applecart by herding legislators who are brave by voting for it is not worth a word,” he said, referring to what he said is a lack of support among Dover lawmakers for a same-sex marriage bill. Crane stressed that adding gender identity and expression to the state’s non-discrimination laws should remain a top legislative priority going into 2013. “I’m saying this and people aren’t going to like what I’m saying, but quite frankly you’ve got to pick your fights and you’ve got to do what’s helping people. And that’s always been my attitude. Fighting a battle you know you can’t win is only good if you can’t win something less than that.”
In spite of his skepticism over the timeline of a potential same-sex marriage bill, Crane stressed he would support it.
“If it comes up and I’m the insurance commissioner, I will testify in favor of it,” he said. “I’m fine with it; it’s just not the battle I choose to have at this point.”
Crane, 65, would join Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown as the country’s only other openly gay statewide elected official if voters elect him in November. The state’s Democratic Party, the Delaware State Education Association, the Victory Fund and House Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf (D-Rehoboth Beach) are among the groups and local officials who have endorsed him.
“It’s important that people see that it’s possible to be out, to be gay and to run and succeed in high elected office. That’s the significance of it.” said Crane when asked about the possibility of becoming Delaware’s first openly gay statewide official. “There are people in the legislature who are not out who maybe would come out if they saw it’s not going to hurt them.”
In an official statement released at the reveal event Capital Pride Alliance described its just announced 2026 Pride theme of “Exist, Resist, Have the Audacity” as a “bold declaration affirming the presence, resilience, and courage of LGBTQ+ people around the world.”
The statement adds, “Grounded in the undeniable truth that our existence is not up for debate, this year’s theme calls on the community to live loudly and proudly, stand firm against injustice and erasure, and embody the collective strength that has always defined the LGBTQ+ community.”
In a reference to the impact of the hostile political climate, the statement says, “In a time when LGBTQ+ rights and history continue to face challenges, especially in our Nation’s Capital, where policy and public discourse shape the future of our country, together, we must ensure that our voices are visible, heard, and unapologetically centered.”
The statement also quotes Capital Pride Alliance CEO and President Ryan Bos’s message at the Reveal event: “This year’s theme is both a declaration and a demand,” Bos said. “Exist, Resist, Have Audacity! reflects the resilience of our community and our responsibility to protect the progress we’ve made. As we look toward our nation’s 250th anniversary, we affirm that LGBTQ+ people have always been and always will be part of the United States’s history, and we will continue shaping its future with strength and resolve,” he concluded.
District of Columbia
Capital Pride board member resigns, alleges failure to address ‘sexual misconduct’
In startling letter, Taylor Chandler says board’s inaction protected ‘sexual predator’
Taylor Lianne Chandler, a member of the Capital Pride Alliance Board of Directors since 2019 who most recently served as the board’s secretary, submitted a letter of resignation on Feb. 24 that alleges the board has failed to address instances of “sexual misconduct” within the Capital Pride organization.
The Washington Blade received a copy of Chandler’s resignation letter one day after she submitted it from an anonymous source. Chandler, who identifies as transgender and intersex, said in an interview that she did not send the letter to the Blade, but she suspected someone associated with Capital Pride, which organizes D.C.’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, “wants it out in the open.”
“It is with a heavy heart, but with absolute clarity, that I submit my resignation from the Capital Pride Alliance Board of Directors effective immediately,” Chandler states in her letter. “I have devoted nearly ten years of my life to this organization,” she wrote, pointing to her initial involvement as a volunteer and later as a producer of events as chair of the organization’s Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, and Intersex Committee.
“Capital Pride once meant something profound to me – a space of safety, visibility, and community for people who have often been denied all three,” her letter continues. “That is no longer the organization I am part of today.”
“I, along with other board members, brought forward credible concerns regarding sexual misconduct – a pattern of behavior spanning years – to the attention of this board,” Chandler states in the letter. “What followed was not accountability. What followed was retaliation. Rather than addressing the substance of what was reported, officers and fellow board members chose to chastise those of us who came forward.”
The letter adds, “This board has made its priorities clear through its actions: protecting a sexual predator matters more than protecting the people who had the courage to come forward. … I have been targeted, bullied, and made to feel like an outsider for doing what any person of integrity would do – telling the truth.”
In response to a request from the Blade for comment, Anna Jinkerson, who serves as chair of the Capital Pride board, sent the Blade a statement praising Taylor Chandler’s efforts as a Capital Pride volunteer and board member but did not specifically address the issue of alleged sexual misconduct.
“We’re also aware that her resignation letter has been shared with the media and has listed concerns,” Jinkerson said in her statement. “When concerns are brought to CPA, we act quickly and appropriately to address them,” she said.
“As we continue to grow our organization, we’re proactively strengthening the policies and procedures that shape our systems, our infrastructure, and the support we provide to our team and partners,” Jinkerson said in her statement. “We’re doing this because the community’s experience with CPA must always be safe, affirming, empowering, and inclusive,” she added.
In an interview with the Blade, Chandler said she was not the target of the alleged sexual harassment.
She said a Capital Pride investigation identified one individual implicated in a “pattern” of sexual harassment related behavior over a period of time. But she said she was bound by a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) that applies to all board members and she cannot disclose the name of the person implicated in alleged sexual misconduct or those who came forward to complain about it.
“It was one individual, but there was a pattern and a history,” Chandler said, noting that was the extent of what she can disclose.
“And I’ll say this,” she added. “In my opinion, with gay culture sometimes the touchy feely-ness that goes on seems to be like just part of the culture, not necessarily the same as a sexual assault or whatever. But at the same time, if someone does not want those advances and they’re saying no and trying to push you away and trying to avoid you, then it makes it that way regardless of the culture.”
When asked about when the allegations of sexual harassment first surfaced, Chandler said, “In the past year is when the allegation came forward from one individual. But in the course of this all happening, other individuals came forward and talked about instances – several which showed a pattern.”
Chandler’s resignation comes about five months after Capital Pride Alliance announced in a statement released in October 2025 that its then board president, Ashley Smith, resigned from his position on Oct. 18 after Capital Pride became aware of a “claim” regarding Smith. The statement said the group retained an independent firm to investigate the matter, but it released no further details since that time. Smith has declined to comment on the matter.
When asked by the Blade if the Smith resignation could be linked in some way to allegations of sexual misconduct, Chandler said, “I can’t make a comment one way or the other on that.”
Chandler’s resignation and allegations come after Capital Pride Alliance has been credited with playing the lead role in organizing the World Pride celebration hosted by D.C. in which dozens of LGBTQ-related Pride events were held from May through June of 2025.
The letter of resignation also came just days before Capital Pride Alliance’s annual “Reveal” event scheduled for Feb. 26 at the Hamilton Hotel in which the theme for D.C.’s June 2026 LGBTQ Pride events was to be announced along with other Pride plans.
District of Columbia
Capital Stonewall Democrats elect new leaders
LGBTQ political group set to celebrate 50th anniversary
Longtime Democratic Party activists Stevie McCarty and Brad Howard won election last week as president and vice president for administration for the Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political organization.
In a Feb. 24 announcement, the group said McCarty and Howard, both of whom are elected DC Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners, ran in a special Capital Stonewall Democrats election to fill the two leadership positions that became vacant when the officers they replaced resigned.
Outgoing President Howard Garrett, who McCarty has replaced, told the Washington Blade he resigned after taking on a new position as chair of the city’s Ward 1 Democratic Committee. The Capital Stonewall Democrats announcement didn’t say who Howard replaced as vice president for administration.
The group’s website shows its other officers include Elizabeth Mitchell as Vice President for Legislative and Political Affairs, and Monica Nemeth as Treasurer. The officer position of secretary is vacant, the website shows.
“As we look toward 2026, the stakes for D.C. and for LGBTQ+ communities have never been clearer,” the group’s statement announcing McCarty and Howard’s election says. “Our 50th anniversary celebration on March 20 and the launch of our D.C. LGBTQ+ Voter’s Guide mark the beginning of a major year for endorsements, organizing, and coalition building,” the statement says.
McCarty said among the organization’s major endeavors will be holding virtual endorsement forums where candidates running for D.C. mayor and the Council will appear and seek the group’s endorsement.
Founded in 1976 as the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the organization’s members voted in 2021 to change its name to Capital Stonewall Democrats. McCarty said the 50th anniversary celebration on March 20, in which D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and members of the D.C. Council are expected to attend, will be held at the PEPCO Gallery meeting center at 702 8th St., N.W.
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