Local
Latino GLBT History Project to hold 7th annual Pride
Event comes amid allegations groups not invited to take part
One of last year’s Latino Pride events at Town Danceboutique (Washington Blade file photo by Blake Bergen)
The ongoing immigration debate will provide the backdrop for the seventh annual D.C. Latino Pride that will take place at various locations throughout the city from May 30-June 6.
Unid@s Director Lisbeth Melendez-Rivera will moderate a panel co-organized by the Latino GLBT History Project and the D.C. Latino Pride Advisory Committee on how the issue impacts LGBT Latinos. James Ferg-Cadima of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Dilicia Molina of La Clínica del Pueblo are among those who will take part in the event on Thursday at the Human Rights Campaign.
Marco Antonio Quiroga, an undocumented gay immigrant who works for Immigration Equality, and Valerie Villalta, a trans advocate who received asylum in the U.S. in 2009 after she fled from her native El Salvador to D.C., will also discuss the issue.
The panel will take place nine days after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a comprehensive immigration reform bill that did not include amendments that would have allowed gay Americans to sponsor their foreign-born partners for residency and permitted married same-sex couples to apply for marriage-based green cards.
“Not only were our LGBT families painfully left behind, but politicians used my family as an excuse for discrimination,” Quiroga wrote in a May 24 post to Immigration Equality’s website. “When politicians and pundits talk about the Latino community and the gay community as separate communities, they exclude me. They exclude my family. This false separation hurts our communities.”
Members of the Latino GLBT History Project were among the tens of thousands of people who rallied for comprehensive immigration reform outside the U.S. Capitol last month. The group also worked with CASA de Maryland and Equality Maryland last year on a campaign designed to garner additional support for Maryland’s same-sex marriage law and in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants.
Both ballot measures passed during last November’s referendum.
“As an LGBT Latino group, immigration reform is very important to us,” David Pérez, president of the Latino GLBT History Project, told the Washington Blade.
In addition to the immigration panel, D.C. Latino Pride will also hold a bilingual Mass at Metropolitan Community Church in Northwest Washington on June 2 from 6 – 8 p.m. Joe El Especialista of El Zol 107.9 will deejay a party at Town on June 6 that Candy Citron from the Spanish-language radio station’s Pedro Biaggi en la Mañana program will emcee.
Founded by José Gutierrez in 2000, the Latino GLBT History Project has staged its annual D.C. Latino Pride for seven years. It also celebrated its eighth annual Hispanic LGBT Heritage Awards in 2012.
This year’s D.C. Latino Pride will also take place against the backdrop of a series of LGBT-specific advances that have taken place in countries throughout Latin America over the last several months.
Brazil’s National Council of Justice on May 14 ruled registrars cannot deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Gays and lesbians in neighboring Uruguay can begin to tie the knot in August. The Colombian Senate last month overwhelmingly rejected a bill that would have extended marriage rights to same-sex couples, but they can begin to register their relationships on June 20 if lawmakers fail to act upon a 2011 ruling from the South American country’s highest court that mandated them to pass legislation within two years that extends the same benefits heterosexuals receive through marriage to same-sex couples.
The Mexican Supreme Court in February released its decision that found a Oaxacan law that bans same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Justices with the same tribunal a few weeks later announced a ruling that found anti-gay slurs are not protected speech under Mexico’s constitution.
Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in May 2012 signed a law that allows people who have not undergone sex-reassignment surgery to legally change their gender without a doctor or judge’s approval.
“Pride is a really exciting time of the year where we can all celebrate our culture, our identity,” Pérez said. “There are definitely many reasons to celebrate LGBT equality and great activities and legislation that’s passing throughout Latin America as well as to renew our commitment to continue to fight for LGBT equality for equal treatment under the law for all Latinos here in the United States and in many of our members’ home countries throughout Latin America.”
Groups to hold alternate Latino Pride
Eleven groups, including Casa Ruby, the D.C. Center and other LGBT rights organizations, on Tuesday announced they plan to hold an alternate Latino Pride celebration that will take place at various locations throughout the metropolitan area from June 4-9.
Pérez disputed Casa Ruby CEO Ruby Corado’s claims that the Latino GLBT History Project left her group and others out of this year’s Pride celebrations.
“Casa Ruby was invited to be part of the advisory committee, but decided not to participate,” he said.
Delaware
Delaware fines Rehoboth bar $15,000 for discriminating against trans woman
Hideout told patron she had to use men’s room due to gender marker on driver’s license
The Delaware Human and Civil Rights Commission voted to fine Hideout Arcade Bar & Grille $15,000 last month due to a discrimination complaint filed by a trans woman over her use of the bathroom.
Katie Sorber, a transgender woman, said that on April 5, 2023, she was stopped by employees and told she could only use the men’s bathroom due to the “male” gender marker on her driver’s license. This occurred after Sorber presented her ID upon entering the bar and ordering a drink.
Sorber took to Facebook to complain about her experience at the bar after she was told to use the men’s bathroom.
On April 12, 2023, Sorber returned to the Hideout but was barred from entering due to her post on social media.
Following Sorber’s post, Bryan Derrickson, the owner of Hideout Arcade Bar & Grille, allegedly began enforcing a policy in which patrons had to use the bathroom that corresponded to the gender marker on their ID.
Derrickson was ordered to pay $10,000 to Sorber, $5,000 to the Special Administration Fund, as well as conduct anti-discrimination training with employees, remove the ban on Sorber from the establishment, and revise the bar’s bathroom policy.
The commission ruled that the bar and Derrickson had wrongfully discriminated against Sorber on the basis of her gender.
Derrickson’s explanations for the denial included safety concerns, a third-party patron complaint, and a reference to the health code. The panel found this to be inconsistent and lacking factual support upon cross-examination.
The case was evaluated under the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law, which explicitly prohibits discrimination and retaliation in places of public accommodation based on gender identity.
This was the second time that the bar has been fined for discriminating against a transgender woman. The bar received a $2,000 penalty in September of last year for denying a transgender woman entry in 2023.
Half of the fine went to Kathy Carpenter Brown, the trans woman who experienced the discrimination. Brown is the founder of TransLiance, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group in Delaware.
District of Columbia
Push to elect more LGBTQ ANC members yields results
31 of 43 known LGBTQ ANC members elected in 2024 seeking re-election
A 2026 list of candidates released by the D.C. Board of Elections shows that 31 of the 43 known LGBTQ candidates who won election in 2024 as Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners have filed the required petition signatures to be placed on the ballot this year to run for re-election.
The Washington Blade reported in 2024 that 43 known LGBTQ candidates won election to ANC seats that year in the November election
In a related development, the president of Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political group, said the group this year has recruited at least 39 LGBTQ candidates to run for Advisory Neighborhood Commission seats in the city’s Nov. 3 general election.
The group’s president, Stevie McCarty, an incumbent ANC member in the city’s Shaw neighborhood who is running for re-election, said the 39 candidates and possibly more responded to the group’s Queering ANCs campaign launched on July 7 that includes a website with detailed instructions for how best to run for an ANC seat.
“Since launching in early July, the site has drawn more than 20,000 views, and 39 candidates have used it to actually run,” McCarty said in a statement. He said he wasn’t sure if all the 39 candidates wanted to be identified as LGBTQ, and he was reviewing the list of incumbent LGBTQ ANC members who won election in 2024 to determine if any of the 39 candidates recruited were among those incumbents. He said he was not ready to release the names of the 39 candidates he said his group recruited to run for an ANC seat.
If none of the 39 candidates recruited by Capital Stonewall Democrats are among the 31 known LGBTQ ANC incumbents running for re-election, it would mean at least 70 LGBTQ ANC candidates will be on the city’s November election ballot.
McCarty said Capital Stonewall Democrats will send candidate questionnaires to the known LGBTQ ANC candidates as part of its process for endorsing candidates in the November election. He said he expects the group to help campaign for and provide financial support for the ANC candidates it endorses.
The D.C. local government is believed to be unique among U.S. cities in currently having 46 Advisory Neighborhood Commissions consisting of 345 single member districts in neighborhoods throughout the city in which unpaid Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners are elected for two-year terms.
The commissions are charged with considering a wide range of policies and programs impacting their neighborhoods, including traffic, parking, recreation, street improvements, zoning, liquor licenses, and economic development. Although ANCs do not have authority to set or reject policies or actions by city agencies, the agencies are required to give “great weight” to ANC recommendations, according to the law creating the ANCs.
“As an ANC member, I know firsthand how these seats shape our neighborhoods, from housing and public safety to sanitation,” McCarty said in the Capital Stonewall Democrats statement announcing the launch of the Queering ANCs campaign in July. “I’m proud to lead this effort to ensure more LGBTQ+ Washingtonians see themselves as leaders in their communities,” he said.
Some local LGBTQ activists, who asked not to be identified, said they were not aware of a significant boost in new LGBTQ ANC candidates from the Queering ANCs campaign. However, they praised the effort to recruit more LGBTQ ANC candidates and said the campaign could have yielded more candidates if it had started sooner than less than a month before the deadline for becoming a candidate.
McCarty said Capital Stonewall Democrats will continue to recruit LGBTQ D.C. residents to run as write-in candidates for ANC seats, especially in the 45 single member districts in which no candidate will be on the ballot. The Board of Elections candidate list shows many ANC single member districts that have just one candidate running without an opponent.
Following is a list of 33 known LGBTQ ANC candidates running in D.C.’s November 2026 election and the single member districts and neighborhoods in which they are running. All but two – Vita Rangel and J. Swiderski – are incumbents running for re-election. The Washington Blade will update this list if and when more LGBTQ ANC candidates become known.
1A04 – (Columbia Heights) Jeremy Sherman, he/him
1A10 – (Columbia Heights) Vita Rangel, she/ her [non-incumbent candidate]
1B03 – (Columbia Heights/U Street) J. Swiderski, they/he [non-incumbent candidate]
Jamie S. Sycamore, he/him
1B06 – (Columbia Heights/Meridian Hill) Miguel Trindade Deramo, he/him
1B07 – (U Street) Matthew Holden, he/him
1E01 – (Park View) Brad Howard, he/him
2B02 – (Dupont Circle) Jeffrey Rueckgauer, he/him
2B03 – (Dupont Circle) Vincent Slatt, he/him
2C01 – (Penn Quarter) Michael D. Shankle, he/him
2F05 – (Logan Circle) Christopher Dyer, he/him
2F07 – (Logan Circle) Kevin Cataldo, he/him
2G01 – (Shaw)Parker Griffin, he/him Howard Garrett, he/him
2G02 – (Shaw) Alexander ‘Alex’ Padro, he/him
2G04 – (Shaw) Steven McCarty, he/him
3B06 – (Wesley Heights) S. Robert Rodriquez, he/him
3F05 – (Van Ness/Cleveland Park) Adrian Jesus Iglesias, he/him
4B01 – (Takoma) Doug Payton, he/him
4B10 – (Lamond Riggs) Jinin Berry, she/her
4C06 – (Petworth) Christen Boss Hayes, they/them
4E02 – (16th Street Heights) Vince Micone, he/him
5B04 – (Brookland) Ra Amin, he/him
5B05 – (Brookland) Mónica Martínez López, she/her
5D05 – (Trinidad) Salvador Sauceda-Guzman, he/him
5F06 – (Eckington) Joe Bishop-Henchman, he/him
6B03 – (Capitol Hill) David Sobelsohn, he/him
6B09 – (Capitol Hill/Barney Circle) Karen Hughes, she/her
7C01 – (Deanwood) Brian Glover, he/him
7C03 – (Lincoln Heights) Carlos Richardson, he/him
7C04 (Deanwood) Anthony Lorenzo Green
7C08 – (Capitol View) Brandon M. Scott, he/him
8A01 – (Fairlawn) Tom Donohue, he, him
8B06 – (Garfield Heights) Marcus Thomas Hickman, he/him
Congress
Chris Van Hollen says the Democratic Party needs change. Is he the one to lead it?
Senator is backing anti-establishment Democrats across the country
By LEE O. SANDERLIN | The Democratic Party is having something of an identity crisis — losing to President Donald Trump twice in three elections will do that.
Should the party embrace anti-establishment figures who espouse progressive policy ideas like Medicare for all and rhetoric about unrigging the economy for the 1 percent? Or should Democrats try to appeal to moderates who want to return to semi-normalcy in a time of political upheaval?
Although he’s been in Congress since 2002, with key leadership roles throughout his tenure, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, 67, counts himself firmly in the anti-establishment camp.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Delaware fines Rehoboth bar $15,000 for discriminating against trans woman
Music icon and dear LGBTQ friend Dolly Parton remembered
Push to elect more LGBTQ ANC members yields results
Chris Van Hollen says the Democratic Party needs change. Is he the one to lead it?
New data shows record-high LGBTQ population amid Trump attacks
Exploring Renée Richards’s life through lens of a trans author
Why we need to protect ‘sacrilegious’ art
New GALA show about WWII spy full of conflict, intrigue
Proposed Indian foreign funding law overhaul could further pressure LGBTQ groups
Two awesome, affordable rides
-
Books4 days agoExploring Renée Richards’s life through lens of a trans author
-
Opinions4 days ago
Why we need to protect ‘sacrilegious’ art
-
Theater4 days ago
New GALA show about WWII spy full of conflict, intrigue
-
India3 days ago
Proposed Indian foreign funding law overhaul could further pressure LGBTQ groups
