Local
Shelter sued for rejecting trans women
‘We don’t do transgenders here’

A privately operated shelter for homeless women funded by the D.C. government is violating the D.C. Human Rights Act by refusing to admit transgender women unless they provide “documentation” of a legal name change or gender reassignment surgery, according to separate complaints against the facility by two transgender women, as reported earlier this week by the Washington Blade.
In a lawsuit filed April 5 in D.C. Superior Court and a complaint filed with the D.C. Office of Human Rights on March 22, the two women charge that employees at the John L. Young Women’s Shelter at 119 D Street, N.W. said they could not be admitted because of their status as transgender women.
The shelter is located three blocks from the U.S. Capitol in a large building that houses shelters operated by other groups, including one of the city’s largest shelters run by the Community for Creative Non-Violence, a group that has advocate for the homeless since the 1980s.
An attorney with the D.C. Trans Coalition filed the lawsuit on behalf of Lakiesha Washington against New Hope Ministries, Inc. of Woodbridge, Va., which operates the John L. Young Women’s Shelter under a city funded contract.
The lawsuit says Washington, who was homeless, attempted to gain admission to the shelter on April 3, when the lawsuit says the alleged discriminatory action took place.
An unidentified female employee at the shelter asked Washington, “Are you a woman or a man,” the lawsuit says. “Ms. Washington replied, ‘I’m a transgender woman.’ The employee then asked Ms. Washington if she had any documentation, to which Ms. Washington replied that she did not.”
The lawsuit says the employee then told Washington, “We don’t do transgenders here. You have to leave.”
In a separate discrimination complaint filed with the Office of Human Rights, D.C. Trans Coalition member Andy Bowen says a shelter employee provided more details when Bowen asked about the facility’s policy regarding transgender women in a Feb. 5 phone conversation.
“The respondent stated that I would need to provide proof of a sex change,” Bowen said in her complaint with the OHR. “When I asked what would constitute proof, respondent answered that I would need to furnish documents of a name change or proof of surgery.”
Bowen told the Blade on Monday that she initiated her phone call to the shelter after learning that the John Young Shelter “has a history of refusing service to transgender women.”
John Shetterly, executive director of New Hope Ministries, told the Blade on Wednesday that his organization is taking immediate steps to make structural changes to better accommodate transgender women and plans to hold a special staff training session to address transgender-related issues.
“Because of the layout of the John Young Center, which has a communal bathroom and shower area and one large sleeping area, we just didn’t know how to appropriately accommodate them,” he said.
Shetterly said he was reaching out to the D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS) to arrange for the bathroom and shower modifications. A contract New Hope Ministries has with an umbrella group that funds the shelter through a separate city contract prevents New Hope Ministries from doing any repair work or making structural changes, Shetterly said.
“DHS is the one that has to do that,” he said.
The lawsuit states that Sterling Washington, director of the Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs, contacted Shetterly by phone on March 18, more than two weeks before Lakiesha Washington was refused entry to the Young Shelter. It says Sterling Washington informed Shetterly of reports he received that the shelter was refusing services to transgender women.

Sterling Washington, director of the Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs, told the director of a D.C. shelter for homeless women that refusing to admit transgender women violates the D.C. Human Rights Act, according to a lawsuit. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
The lawsuit says Sterling Washington told Shetterly that the shelter’s action violated the D.C. Human Rights Act, which bans discrimination based, among other things, on gender identity and expression.
“Nevertheless, Mr. Shetterly did not take action to bring John L. Young into compliance with the law, and Ms. Washington suffered injury as a result,” the suit says.
The lawsuit calls on the court to “[t]emporarily, preliminarily, and permanently enjoin defendant…from continuing to discriminate against transgender women.” It also calls for the court to order New Hope Ministries to pay a civil penalty to the city’s general fund and to grant the plaintiff an award of attorney’s fees and other expenses associated with the litigation.
Court records show the court has scheduled a hearing on April 12 to consider a motion filed on Washington’s behalf by attorney Jeffrey Light for a temporary restraining order to force the Young Shelter to stop refusing admission to transgender women while the lawsuit is pending.
Elliot Imse, a spokesperson for the D.C. Office of Human Rights, said the office would have to make a legal determination on whether New Hope Ministries is exempt from the Human Rights Act based on its religious status before the office can begin to review the case on the merits.
The Human Rights Act provides an exemption, under certain circumstances, to religious organizations that allows them to limit “employment, or admission to” the organization based on religious beliefs.
Shetterly told the Blade his organization’s religious beliefs do not prevent the group from providing services to transgender people or any other group.
“Quite to the contrary, our religious beliefs would say we’re in the business of serving anyone who is in need,” he said.
In its most recent IRS 990 report released to the public, which covers the period of July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011, New Hope Ministries says it generated $1.25 million in revenue and incurred $918,015 in expenses. The report shows that $817,509 of its revenue came from “government grants.”
Virginia
Education Dept. probes pro-trans policies in Northern Virginia schools
Investigation targets schools in Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William County

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights is investigating five school districts in Northern Virginia for pro-trans policies that may violate provisions of Title IX and run afoul of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 29 executive order prohibiting federally funded educational institutions from promoting what his administration calls “gender ideology.”
The Hill reported news of the probe on Monday, citing a Feb. 12 letter from the agency to America First Legal, a conservative organization founded by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, which indicated that an investigation had been opened into the Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William County school districts.
The letter comes in response to a complaint filed by America First Legal, which argued that “These school districts violate Title IX by maintaining policies that permit ‘gender
expansive and transgender students’ the ability to feel safe and comfortable by using
sex-segregated intimate facilities consistent with their ‘gender identity,’ while
denying similarly situated individuals, whose ‘gender identity’ is the same as their sex, the ability to feel safe and comfortable in the use of the sex-segregated common
restrooms and locker rooms of their sex.”
Per the Education Department’s letter, “the specific polices challenged by complainant are as follows: Alexandria City Public Schools’ ‘Nondiscrimination in Education’ policy; Arlington County Public Schools’ ‘Transgender Students in Schools’ policy; Fairfax County Public Schools’ Regulation 2603.2; Loudoun County Public Schools’ Policy 8040; Prince William County’s Regulation 738-5.”
America First argues that the five policies constitute unlawful sex-based discrimination as defined under Title IX because the “only option” available to cisgender students in these school districts who “feel unsafe and uncomfortable” in these spaces is to use “a private restroom or an alternative that ‘minimize[s] the loss of instructional time.'”
The organization further argues that provisions in these policies that instruct educators and staff to use the names and pronouns chosen by their students violate a provision of Trump’s executive order prohibiting schools from helping to facilitate their “social” gender transitions.
District of Columbia
‘AG Schwab! Do your job!’ D.C. activists protest for trans youth healthcare
Action comes days after anti-trans executive order

About 100 activists protested outside of the offices of D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb on Thursday, Feb. 13. The assembled protesters held signs in support of access to gender-affirming care and support for trans youth.
The activists called upon the D.C. Attorney General to “issue public guidance affirming that denying care based on gender identity is unlawful under D.C.’s anti-discrimination laws as well as use the full authority vested in their office to ensure this care is reinstated,” according to a statement.
This action comes days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning gender-affirming care nationwide for minors. D.C. hospitals, including Children’s National Hospital, began to comply.
Speakers at the rally included Rebecca York, director of youth development and community engagement for the D.C.-area LGBTQ youth services organization, SMYAL.

“SMYAL has long been a partner of Children’s National, a partnership we have been incredibly proud of, especially working with their Pride Clinic team,” York told the crowd. “Their dedication to providing gender-affirming care has been a lifeline for many young people and their families in our communities, offering relief, comfort and hope. But now those lifelines have been cut off. We are incredibly disappointed in and concerned by the hospital’s decision to suspend gender-affirming care to comply — in advance — with the administration’s executive order attempting to restrict healthcare for trans youth.”
“This decision was made out of fear: the fear of losing funding,” York continued. “And it has abandoned the very youth who need it most. This executive order, barely two weeks old has already had devastating impacts on the lives of trans and non-binary youth. These cruel policies are not abstract. They are real, they are dangerous and they are hurting our young people today.”
“Gender-affirming care saves lives for trans youth,” said York.
Also speaking at the event was Dr. Omar Taweh.
“In our youthful, vibrant, queer city, doctors provide compassionate care for trans people literally all the time.” Taweh told the assembled protesters. “And we’re just here to demand that our local government leaders, including AG Shwalb over here, join the rest of the states that are taking stances …to defend trans and gender-affirming care.”
Protesters formed a picket line and began a series of chants, including, “AG Schwab! Do your job!”
The action was organized by the Democratic Socialists of America.
District of Columbia
Death of D.C. gay robbery victim ruled a homicide
Police pursuing additional charges against two juveniles

D.C. police announced on Feb. 15 that the death of gay DJ and hairstylist Bryan Smith, 39, who police say was assaulted and robbed Oct. 27, 2024, in the 500 block of T Street, N.W., has been ruled a homicide.
Police said Smith was found unconscious at about 5 a.m. on the street where they believed he was assaulted and robbed and taken to a D.C. hospital. A short time later he was transferred at the request of family members while in a coma to a Northern Virginia hospital, where he died on Nov. 7.
“On Thursday, February 13, 2025, the Northern Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office advised that the cause of death for the victim was blunt force trauma and the manner of death a homicide,” the D.C. police statement says.
The statement notes, as the Washington Blade and other media outlets have reported, that D.C. police on Nov. 14, 2024, arrested two juvenile males, 14 and 16 years of age, on robbery and assault charges in connection with the assault and robbery of Smith.
At the time of the arrest, police said they had evidence showing the two juveniles were implicated in three other assault and robbery incidents that occurred on the same night as the assault and robbery of Smith in nearby locations.
According to the statement, D.C. police detectives are working with the Office of the D.C. Attorney General, which prosecutes crimes committed by juveniles, to determine whether “additional charges” should be brought against the two juveniles following the determination that Smith’s death was a homicide.
The arrest of the two juveniles was announced by D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith at a Nov. 15 press conference near the site where Smith was attacked.
“We are here today to announce the arrest of two suspects responsible for a series of robberies in this community on Sunday, Oct. 27, including the robbery of 39-year-old Bryan Smith, who was walking home in the 500 block of T Street, N.W.,” Chief Smith told reporters attending the press conference.
“On behalf of the Metropolitan Police Department as well as myself, I send my deepest condolences to Mr. Smith’s family as well as his friends,” Chief Smith said. “While nothing can undo this senseless loss, we hope today’s arrests are of some measure of justice and a step toward healing,” she said.
Chief Smith also said that police investigators had no evidence to indicate the assault and robbery of Bryan Smith was “motivated by hate or bias.”