Local
EXCLUSIVE: Mizeur eyeing run for Md. governor
Lesbian lawmaker says she would make ‘a good chief executive’
Heather (right) and Deborah Mizeur at their Takoma Park home. Heather is contemplating a run for governor. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Heather Mizeur, a lesbian member of the Maryland House of Delegates, said she’s seriously considering a run for governor in an exclusive interview with the Washington Blade this week.
“I’m taking a very serious look at it,” Mizeur said. “I can’t say for sure what 2014 is going to bring but … I know that I would make a good chief executive. I have good ideas for keeping Maryland moving forward.”
A run by Mizeur would mark another key milestone in the LGBT rights movement. If successful, she would be the first to win election as an openly gay candidate for governor in the country. Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey announced he is gay and then promptly resigned from office in 2004 after disclosing he’d had an extramarital affair with a male adviser.
Mizeur said she only recently began thinking of running and was inspired by the results of last week’s elections.
“Right now we’re taking stock of what happened in the last election,” she said. “It was incredible to see a big win with Tammy Baldwin being elected the first openly gay senator and Kyrsten Sinema making history in Congress. It really has inspired us to keep pushing forward. So, yes, I’m seriously considering running for governor because we need more diverse voices at that level of government.”
Mizeur, who turns 40 in December, is a Democrat who represents the 20th District, which includes Silver Spring, Takoma Park, White Oak and other areas in progressive Montgomery County. She was first elected to the legislature in 2006.
Marylanders will elect their next governor in November 2014. Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley is serving his second and final term. Several high-profile figures are expected to run for the office, including Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, Attorney General Douglas Gansler, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Howard County Executive Ken Ulman.
Mizeur’s potential competitors have a significant advantage when it comes to cash on hand. Gansler has more than $4 million in cash on hand as of an April report; Ulman had $1.3 million as of June; and Brown had $810,841 according to a January report. Records show Mizeur had about $216,000 in cash on hand, according to a January report.
“That’s one of the biggest things I’m weighing in deciding to get in the race,” she said regarding fundraising. “I only started thinking about this race recently and the other candidates planning to run have been planning to do this for a really long time so they have a head start in the money chase. I also spent 2012 raising money and working on winning Question 6, rather than raising money for myself.”
She added that she won’t get in the race unless she can be competitive financially. Mizeur would certainly tap a national network of donors from her seven years as a Democratic National Committee member and experience working on the Hill and on political campaigns. She worked for former presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry’s campaign and famously endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2008 after attracting national attention over whether she’d back him or rival Hillary Rodham Clinton. Additionally, a Mizeur candidacy would likely attract support from the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund given the opportunity for a barrier-breaking race and from EMILY’s List considering there is only one Democratic female governor currently in office in the country. The Victory Fund endorsed her in 2006 and 2010 but said it is premature to discuss another endorsement at this time.
“At this point, our work to grow the number of out elected officials in America involves a lot of firsts, a lot of milestones,” said Victory Fund President and CEO Chuck Wolfe, when asked about a potential Mizeur run for governor. “One of those would obviously be helping to elect an out candidate as a governor, which has never happened. With more than 100 openly LGBT state legislators now in office, and the most-ever out members of Congress preparing to be sworn in, that day may come sooner than many imagine.”
When asked whether he had any thoughts about Mizeur’s potential gubernatorial campaign, O’Malley told the Blade on Tuesday, “Not really, I’m supporting Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown wholeheartedly for governor of Maryland.”
If she runs and wins, Heather Mizeur would be the first openly gay person to win a governor’s race in the country. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Mizeur declined to say when she expects to make a final decision on the race, noting that right now she’s dedicated to preparing for the upcoming legislative session in Annapolis. But to be competitive, she would likely need to make a final decision by early spring, just after the session ends.
“We have a robust slate of issues to address next year, including fracking, paid sick days for employees and job creation efforts,” she said.
Given the expected competition from a sitting lieutenant governor backed by the popular O’Malley — not to mention Gansler, who has long been vocal about his support for marriage equality — what makes Mizeur think she can compete?
“I’m out giving speeches and working with people across the state and they’re encouraging me to get in this race,” she said. “They’re telling me we need your passion and message — I’m not the candidate that’s just next in line or seeking a professional promotion; I’m out there expressing what I believe and trying to rally communities around those ideas and common purpose. And that’s where this came from — from the ground up.”
Some have speculated that Mizeur is positioning herself for lieutenant governor, a rumor that she dismissed with a curt, “I’m usually not a plan B person.”
Mizeur said Maryland’s next governor must focus on jobs and the economy. In a high-profile split with O’Malley earlier this year, she came out against ballot Question 7, which ultimately passed and allows for an additional casino to be built and for table games at existing casinos in the state.
“I spent a lot of time speaking against gaming as a failed form of economic development for the state and instead talked about a range of ideas for job creation — rebuilding schools, transportation is at a crisis point in the state … workforce development.” She said that construction of the Purple Line in the D.C. suburbs would create 27,000 jobs while Baltimore’s proposed Red Line would create another 15,000. She also noted that the state’s health care needs should bring another 120,000 related jobs over 10 years to the state. She has long worked on health-related issues and looks forward to playing a role in implementing the federal health care reform law.
Mizeur married her spouse, Deborah Mizeur, in 2005 at a ceremony along the Chesapeake Bay.
“We married in front of family and friends and God; we just didn’t get any rights associated with it,” she said. “Seven years later, here we are.”
The couple traveled to California and were married just before voters there enacted Proposition 8 in 2008, which ended same-sex marriage, though couples already wed remained legally married. She said they won’t have another ceremony now that Maryland has approved marriage equality, because their California marriage is now fully recognized here. The two live in Takoma Park with a dog, Chester, and two cats and own a consulting business, the Mizeur Group, which does federal policy analysis work. They also own an organic herb farm in Chestertown, Md.
She and Deborah spent election night at a Baltimore celebration along with O’Malley and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.
“Deb and I were all smiles — we hugged and embraced and said this is what a happy legally married couple looks like,” she said, upon hearing that Question 6 passed. “It’s still hard to put into words. You never want to have your civil rights put to a majority vote but it was incredibly fulfilling knowing that Marylanders across the state … stood up to do the right thing.”
The battle over Question 6 was a contentious one with a diverse coalition of in-state and out-of-state groups claiming a piece of the credit for its passage, sometimes leading to heated accusations. One advocate, who spoke on condition of anonymity, accused Freedom to Marry’s Evan Wolfson of telling a “big fat lie” when touting his organization’s contributions to the fight. Josh Levin, campaign manager of Marylanders for Marriage Equality, said that although Mizeur was helpful, she could have done more.
“Del. Mizeur helped raise some money for the campaign, but wasn’t closely involved,” Levin said. “She helped with a few events, but others did far more and her attention was clearly more focused on other priorities, including a potential statewide run.”
Mizeur disputes that characterization, noting her participation in fundraising events, testifying on behalf of the bill and delivering an emotional floor speech prior to the vote. Mizeur said she and the other seven openly gay and lesbian members of the state legislature devoted much of 2012 to the marriage cause.
“Each of us was working hard in our own way,” she said. “My entire public schedule was Question 6-related for months.”
With that fight over, she said the next job for the state’s LGBT advocates is to push for non-discrimination protections based on gender identity and to work on causes important to those who joined the coalition for marriage equality.
“It’s important for our community to be seen as coming together to work on issues that are outside LGBT priorities,” she said. “We only won Question 6 because we had an amazing coalition that crossed party lines, age, race. We can’t just be seen as fighting for this form of equality and turning a blind eye to other causes.” She cited hunger, school achievement gaps, living wage and reforming the criminal justice system as priorities.
Mizeur talks openly about her Catholic faith but said she did not encounter any anti-gay sermons over the marriage issue this year because she goes to parishes run by Jesuits who are more progressive. Despite the Catholic Church’s prominent role in funding anti-gay causes around the country, Mizeur contends it’s important not to abandon the church.
“We have to fight for change from within,” she said. “If all progressive Catholics left, there’d be no reason to live up to the church’s potential.”
Mizeur was raised in a tiny farming community in rural Illinois called Blue Mound, population 1,100. She’s from a fifth generation farming family, but her father was a factory worker and UAW member his entire career. She spent time with him on picket lines, which helped inspire her pursuit of public service.
The experience of walking picket lines “taught me the value of sacrifice and hard work and standing up for the courage of your convictions,” she said. “Catholic teachings on social justice also inspired me.”
Michael K. Lavers contributed to this report.
District of Columbia
Pride faith services in Washington, D.C.
Almost half of all LGBTQ adults in the U.S. are religious
Are you an LGBTQ person of faith or someone exploring spirituality? It is more common than people realize. According to a Williams Institute study published in October 2020, almost half of all LGBTQ adults in the United States are religious. This may seem counterintuitive as any LGBTQ people have complicated relationships with faith because of very real histories of abuse, trauma, and violence.
This violence still continues in the United States, especially following the Supreme Court’s March 2026 decision in Chiles v. Salazar, who ruled Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for minors violates the First Amendment, but not everyone has encountered this violence, nor do people who have faced it, separate themselves completely from religion. Many people may seek out affirming faith traditions which are prevalent in the DMV area.
For individuals seeking out faith services during Pride 2026, please check out the list below, which will be updated as more events are publicized.
Memorial Service for SaVanna Wanzer
May 17th at 1 pm
Westminster Presbyterian Church (400 I St SW, Washington, DC 20024)
Westminster Presbyterian will host a celebration of life for legendary DC trans rights activist and founder of DC Trans Pride and Black Trans Pride SaVanna Wanzer who was a long-time member of the church. Live music will begin at 12:15 pm before the start of the memorial service. The service will be livestreamed on the Westminster DC Facebook page. A meal will follow the Sunday service.
There will also be a celebratory vigil held on Saturday, May 16th from 6:30-8 pm for friends and family at the church led by LGBTQ organizer Raycee Pendarvis.
May 23th at 11 am
Downtown Westin (999 9th Street NW, Washington, DC 20001)
This intimate conversation is hosted by Janeé Lee, founder of Queer Ministry, between Black trans and queer people who are surviving religious trauma and navigating their relationship with the church. The workshop, hosted as part of Trans Pride DC, is a chance for people to share their stories at the intersection of queerness and spirituality and to walk away with a spiritual healing guide with affirming scriptures and inclusive theology.
DC Black Pride Worship Service
May 24th at 10 am
Remnant Christian Center (120 West Hampton Avenue, Capitol Heights, MD)
Hosted by The Community Church of Washington DC-UCC, this service will feature speakers and sessions on Black queer faith and unity, including host and speaker Robert D. Wise Jr. for a powerful Pentecost Unity Service. Attendees are encouraged to come dressed in and white.
June 5th at 7 pm
Sixth & I (600 I Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001)
Join Rabbi Jenna will be leading an inclusive, musical service celebrating the diversity of Jewish life in Washington, DC. Happy Hour, which is limited to people 21 and older, will start at 6 pm. The service will start at 7 pm, with dinner at 8:15 pm. The service is free but registration is required, and the kosher-style pescatarian meal does cost money. Register online here.
June 14th at 5 pm
Black Cat (1811 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20009)
Muslim Pride is a community-led and funded grassroots performance series centering queer and trans Muslim artists through music, drag and dance. The series was originally founded in 2020 as a way to create affirming spaces where faith, culture, and queerness can coexist. This year’s series features Mercedes Iman Diamond. This year, Muslim Pride expands to Washington, DC, New York City, and Los Angeles. Buy tickets here.
Pride Celebrations and Sunday Worship Service
June 14th all day
Riverside Baptist Church (699 Maine Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20024)
Join Riverside Baptist Church for a day-long Pride celebration beginning with Pride Weekend/Musical Theater Sunday worship service at 10 am. Later that morning and early afternoon, from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm, the church will be hosting a Pride Pageant, a technicolor celebration featuring a runway showcase, line dancing, food, and refreshments.
June 22nd at 7 pm
St. Mark’s Episocpal Church (301 A Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003)
Join this interfaith service celebrating affirming faith traditions and intertradition dialogue hosted by queer and trans faith leaders. The interfaith service has been hosted annually for over 40 years, and first began back in the 1980s with faith leaders and queer people of faith coming together to mourn and pray at the site of the AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall. Learn more about the history of the interfaith service here.
June 23rd at 6 pm
Holy Trinity Catholic Church (3513 N St NW, Washington, DC 20007)
Holy Trinity will be hosting its 6th annual Pride Mass. After its debut this past summer, the Pride Mass choir will be singing at the Pride Mass in June, and following the Mass, there will be an annual reception with ice cream and other goodies. Learn more about attending the reception and Holy Trinity’s LGBTQ+ Ministry.
Delaware
Blade Foundation awards 9th journalism fellowship to AU student
Thomas Weaverling will cover LGBTQ issues in Delaware this summer
The Blade Foundation this week announced the recipient of its 2026 Steve Elkins Memorial Fellowship in Journalism is Thomas Weaverling, who is scheduled to graduate from American University with a degree in communication, language, and culture this month.
He will cover issues of interest to Delaware’s LGBTQ community for 12 weeks this summer. The fellowship is named in honor of Steve Elkins, a journalist and co-founder of the CAMP Rehoboth LGBTQ community center. Elkins served as editor of Letters from CAMP Rehoboth for many years as well as executive director of the center before his death in March of 2018.
Kevin Naff, editor of the Blade, welcomed Weaverling and will introduce him to the Rehoboth Beach community at an event this week.
“If the applicants to our fellowship program are any indication, the future of American journalism is very bright,” Naff said. “Thomas stood out for his broad skillset and strong writing and reporting skills and we’re all excited to work with him this summer.”
Weaverling is the ninth recipient of the Elkins fellowship, which is funded by community donations at the Blade Foundation’s annual fundraiser in Rehoboth Beach. This year’s event is scheduled for May 15 at Diego’s and includes a generous sponsorship from Realtor Justin Noble and remarks from Ashley Biden accepting an award on behalf of her brother Beau Biden for his LGBTQ advocacy while serving as Delaware’s attorney general.
“I am incredibly honored and excited to receive the Steve Elkins Memorial Fellowship in Journalism,” Weaverling said. “Writing for the Washington Blade has been a goal of mine since I began my freshman year of college and I could not be more thrilled to have this opportunity. I am looking forward to getting to know the LGBTQ+ community in Rehoboth Beach and throughout Delaware.”
Weaverling is graduating cum laude with a concentration in journalism and Spanish. He studied in Spain in 2025 and worked in the office of Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) as a policy intern.
For more information on the fellowship program or to donate, visit bladefoundation.org.
District of Columbia
GLAA releases ratings for 18 candidates running for D.C. mayor, Council, AG
Mayoral contender Janeese Lewis Geroge among those receiving highest score
D.C. mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George, a Democrat, is among just four candidates to receive the highest rating score of +10 from GLAA D.C. who are competing in the city’s June 16 primary election.
GLAA, formally known as the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, has rated candidates for public office in D.C. since the 1970s. It rated 18 of the 36 candidates on this year’s primary ballot for mayor, D.C. Council, and D.C. attorney general based on its policy of only rating candidates who return a GLAA questionnaire asking for their positions on a wide range of issues, most of which are not LGBTQ-specific.
Among the candidates who did not return the questionnaire and thus did not receive a rating, according to GLAA, was Democratic mayoral contender Kenyan McDuffie, who along with Lewis George, is considered by political observers to be one of the two leading mayoral candidates running in the Democratic primary.
GLAA President Benjamin Brooks said that when the McDuffie campaign learned that GLAA announced it had released its candidate ratings and McDuffie was not rated because a questionnaire from him was not received a McDuffie campaign worker contacted GLAA. Brooks said the campaign worker told him they didn’t initially believe they received the questionnaire but they discovered this week that it landed in the spam folder of the campaign’s email account.
Brooks told the Washington Blade he informed the campaign worker it was too late for GLAA to issue a rating for McDuffie since the submission deadline for all candidates had passed. But he said GLAA will allow McDuffie to submit a completed questionnaire that it will post on its website along with the questionnaire responses of the other candidates who submitted them to GLAA.
McDuffie’s campaign in a statement to the Blade said the GLAA questionnaire “had gone to a spam folder tied to a campaign email address and was never seen by the campaign.”
“Kenyan McDuffie has long been proud of his record of standing with DC’s LGBTQ+ community,” reads the statement. “He has completed the GLAA questionnaire in every election since his first campaign and, in 2022, earned one of the top two ratings among candidates for the two at-large Council seats that election cycle.”
“Kenyan remains committed to fighting for equality, dignity, safety, and opportunity for LGBTQ+ residents across all eight wards, and our campaign welcomes the opportunity to continue engaging with GLAA and the LGBTQ+ community throughout this race,” it continues.
Lewis George and McDuffie, who each have long records of support for the LGBTQ community, are among a total of eight candidates running for mayor on the June 16 primary ballot: seven Democrats and one Statehood Green Party candidate. In addition to Lewis George, GLAA rated just two other mayoral candidates. Rini Sampath, a Democrat who self identifies as queer, received a +6.5 rating, and Ernest E. Johnson, also a Democrat, received a +4.5 rating
Under the GLAA rating system, candidate ratings range from a +10, the highest score, to a -10, the lowest possible score. In its ratings for the June 16 primary, the lowest score issued was +4.5. GLAA said in a statement that each of the 18 candidates it rated expressed strong support for LGBTQ-related issues in their questionnaire responses, indicating that the overall rating scores reflect the candidates’ positions on mostly non-LGBTQ-specific issues.
The three other candidates who received a +10 GLAA rating are each running as Democrats for the Ward 1 D.C. Council seat. They include gay candidate Miguel Trindade Deramo; Aparna Raj, who identifies as bisexual; and LGBTQ ally Rashida Brown. The only other Ward 1 candidate rated by GLAA is LGBTQ ally Terry Lynch, who received a +5.5 rating.
Ward 5 D.C. Councilmember Zachary Parker, the Council’s only gay member who is facing two opponents in the Democratic primary, received a +7 GLAA rating. The two challengers did not return the questionnaire and were not rated.
“In seven out of 10 of our priorities, every candidate indicated agreement,” GLAA said in its statement to the Washington Blade in referring to the candidates it rated. “Total consensus on core issues signals that whomever is elected to Council and mayor, we should expect to hold our elected officials accountable to our goals of protecting home rule, resisting federal overreach, advancing transgender healthcare rights, and eliminating chronic homelessness in the District,” the statement says.
“While candidates agree on the basics, they distinguish themselves in the depth and creativity in their responses, and their record on the issues,” according to the statement, which adds that candidates’ full questionnaire responses and ratings can be accessed on the GLAA website, glaa.org.
Like past election years, GLAA does not rate candidates running for the D.C. Congressional Delegate seat or the so-called “shadow” U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate seats.
With the exception of one question asking about transgender rights, none of the other nine of the 10 questionnaire questions are LGBTQ-specific. But most of the questions mention that LGBTQ people are impacted by the issues being raised, such as affordable housing, federal government intrusion into D.C. home rule, and access to healthcare and public benefits for low-income residents.
One of the questions asks candidates if they support decriminalization of sex work in D.C. among consenting adults, which GLAA supports. Lewis George is among the candidates who said they do not support sex work decriminalization at this time. The other two mayoral candidates that GLAA rated, Sampath and Johnson, said they support sex work decriminalization.
In the race for D.C. attorney general, GLAA issued a rating for just one of the three candidates running: Republican challenger Manuel Rivera, who received a +4.5 rating. Incumbent Democrat Brian Schwalb and Democratic challenger J.P. Szymkowicz were not rated because they didn’t return the questionnaire.
D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D), who is running unopposed in the primary, received a +6.5 rating. Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who is facing three Democratic challengers in the primary and who is a longtime LGBTQ ally, received a +6.5 rating.
In the special election to fill the at-large D.C. Council seat vacated by the resignation of then-Independent Councilmember McDuffie to enable him to run for mayor as a Democrat, GLAA has rated two of the three Independent candidates competing for the seat. Elissa Silverman received a +5.75 rating, and Doni Crawford received a +6.5 rating.
Finally, in the At-Large D.C. Council race GLAA issued ratings for five of the 11 candidates running in the primary, each of whom are Democrats. Oye Owolewa received a +9; Lisa Raymond, +7.5; Dwight Davis, +6.5; Dyana N.M. Forester, +6; and Fred Hill, +6.6.
The full list of GLAA-rated candidates and their detailed questionnaire responses can be accessed at glaa.org.
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