Local
Mayor says LGBT groups could qualify for $100k city grants
Gray fields questions from Blade, audience at 3rd Annual Town Hall Pride interview
Washington Blade senior reporter Lou Chibbaro, Jr. and D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray (Washington Blade photo by Damien Salas)
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray told a Pride Week town hall gathering on Friday that non-profit LGBT organizations providing services to the community could be eligible for grants for as much as $100,000 under a new city program.
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Gray discussed the grant program and a wide range of other topics related to the LGBT community during the Third Annual Washington Blade Town Hall Pride Interview with the Mayor, held at the John A. Wilson City Hall building on May 31.
“We requested $15 million in support of the One City Fund,” Gray said in discussing the grant program, which he said is also known as the Innovation Fund.
“That would make available grants to non-profit organizations in the city,” he said. “And the criteria are broad and certainly would include the kinds of issues we are talking about here tonight.”
Gray added, “The entire $15 million was approved in this budget. And we will be ready on Oct. 1 to open the door to applications from organizations that want to get a grant.”
Gray raised the issue of the grants program in response to a question by transgender activist Ruby Corado, the founder and director of Casa Ruby, an LGBT community center in Columbia Heights that reaches out to the Latino and transgender communities.
Corado and David Mariner, director of the D.C. LGBT Community Center, which will soon move into its new home in the city’s Reeves Center building at 14th and U Streets, N.W., have each appealed to the city for funding for their respective community centers. Mariner has said D.C. is one of the nation’s only large cities that so far doesn’t provide city funding for an LGBT community center.
“We have organizations that do worthy work and don’t necessarily fit all the categories or any of the categories in the government [for existing grants],” Gray said. “So this is an opportunity for such organizations to be able to submit grant applications and get funding.”
In response to a question from another audience member about the problem of homelessness among LGBT youth in the city, Gray noted that the D.C. Council approved a proposal supported by his administration that will provide $500,000 this year and $1 million next year for emergency housing for homeless LGBT youth.
“We’re going to try to work with the relevant organizations to make sure that we understand what the scope of the need is [on LGBT youth homelessness] so we can effectively address it,” Gray said.
When asked by the Blade if he would like to make headlines at the town hall gathering by announcing whether he plans to run for re-election next year, Gray laughed and said he wasn’t ready to make such an announcement.
“I’m not going to answer that tonight. And I don’t have a specific date,” he said. “But I will say this. I believe we have done the things that we have set out to do.”
He listed a litany of accomplishments he said his administration has had in the two and a half years since he took office as mayor, including the city’s fiscal stability and booming economic growth, a significant reduction in unemployment, continuing “aggressive education reform,” and a sharp drop in the city’s murder rate.
“I love working with people,” he said. “I love, frankly, what we’ve been able to do to work with the LGBT community, to be able to move efforts along in this city. I want us to be the most friendly place, if you will, in the nation” for the LGBT community.
Gray said that similar to past years, he and members of his administration will participate in the Capital Pride Parade on June 8.
“I love to participate in the Pride Parade. I’m looking forward to that,” he said. “And anybody who would like to march with us, we’d love to have you.”
Among the audience members who spoke at the event was Alvin Bethea, the father of slain transgender woman Deoni JaParker Jones, 23, who was stabbed to death while sitting at a city bus stop in Northeast D.C. in February 2012.
A 55-year-old D.C. man has been charged with first-degree murder while armed in connection with Jones’ murder.
Bethea thanked Gray for his support for the transgender community and thanked the LGBT community for its support for his family at the time of Jones’ death.
Corado and transgender activist Daniel King thanked Gray for a job training program he established for transgender residents at the D.C. Department of Employment Services, which is believed to be the first such program in the country.
But King, Corado and another transgender woman who spoke at the town hall meeting said transgender people continue to face discrimination in the city.
Gray pointed to a city media campaign organized by the Office of Human Rights that seeks to educate the public about the transgender community and promote respect and discourage discrimination.
“I wish I could say money will solve this,” Gray said. “It’s hard to buy new attitudes. In fact, it’s impossible to buy new attitudes…There’s still a lot of discrimination and bias in this city towards people who are lesbians or bisexual, transgender, and gay,” he said.
“Even though we’ve made a lot of progress, we’ve got a long ways to go. But I do think we’re making progress and we’re putting in more dollars into efforts to make that happen.”
In response to questions from the Blade and audience members, Gray made these additional comments:
-He opposes a proposed liquor license moratorium for the 14th and U Street, N.W., corridor where many LGBT people live, that would prevent the opening of news restaurants and bars.
-The D.C. Department of Health is taking steps to arrange for services by other providers for clients of Transgender Health Empowerment, a local transgender advocacy and services group that has mostly ceased operating due to financial problems.
-The city has not had any discussions with a developer to sell the Reeves Center building, which might result in the displacement of the D.C. LGBT Community Center.
The Center is expected to move into the Reeves building in rented space later this month. The Washington Business Journal reported unnamed sources as saying the city was “discussing” the possibility selling or trading the Reeves building as part of a land deal to facilitate the building of a new soccer stadium.
“You know, if there were such discussions – and there haven’t been,” Gray said, “but if there were such discussions we certainly would want to work with the D.C. Center to make sure that whatever would happen they would have a permanent home. But that’s really so premature now. There just haven’t been any such discussions.”
District of Columbia
Capital Pride chair resigns from board after just 10 months
Anna Jinkerson ‘taking step back to move forward’
Anna Jinkerson, who has served as chair of D.C.’s Capital Pride Alliance Board of Directors for the past 10 months and has served on the board for the past four years, confirmed she is resigning from the board effective Sept. 30.
Capital Pride Alliance serves as the lead organizer of D.C.’s annual LGBTQ Pride events.
“I am taking a step back to move forward and plan to stay engaged in the community,” Jinkerson told the Washington Blade in a statement. “Serving as a volunteer leader during a period of transition following World Pride was both an honor and a challenge,” she said.
“Throughout my tenure, I focused on strengthening accountability, improving communications, supporting staff and volunteers, and helping position the organization for long-term success,” she told the Blade in her statement. “Meaningful organizational progress requires collaboration, dedication, and a shared commitment to serving the community, and I am proud of the work accomplished during this period.”
In February of this year, during Jinkerson’s tenure on the board, Capital Pride announced it had expanded the size of its board from 12 to 25 members.
Around that same time one of the existing board members, transgender activist Taylor Lianne Chandler, announced in a letter to fellow board members that the Blade obtained from an anonymous sender that she was resigning from the board. Among her reasons for resigning, she said in the letter, was the board’s failure to address “sexual misconduct” within the Capital Pride organization.
In the letter, which she confirmed for the Blade was authentic, Chandler said she and other board members raised “credible concerns” of alleged sexual misconduct within the Capital Pride organization and the board chose not to adequately respond to those concerns.
Chandler told the Blade a Capital Pride investigation identified an individual implicated in a “pattern” of sexual harassment related behavior, but said she was bound by a Non-Disclosure Agreement that applied to all board members and she could not provide further details.
When the Blade contacted Capital Pride for comment on Chandler’s allegations, Jinkerson responded with a statement saying Capital Pride was addressing her concerns.
“When concerns are brought to CPA, we act quickly and appropriately to address them,” Jinkerson 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,” she said.
In her statement to the Blade this week commenting on her planned resignation from the Capital Pride board, Jinkerson appeared to refer to the concern raised by Chandler.
“I am proud to have advocated for sexual harassment training, supported staff and volunteers when concerns were raised, engaged community leaders in important conversations, and helped advance practices that strengthen safety, transparency, and accountability,” she said.
“As I step away from board service, I do so with gratitude for the opportunity to serve and with confidence in the organization’s future,” she added. “I am taking a step back to move forward, and I look forward to remaining actively engaged in our community and continuing to support efforts that advance equality, belonging, and pride for all.”
District of Columbia
Over 2,000 turn out for Hands Around the Kennedy Center protest
Drag performer Tara Hoot serves as MC, Gay Men’s Chorus of DC performs, attendees shout for Trump to keep ‘hands off’ Kennedy Center
More than 2,000 supporters of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts turned out on Sept. 18, for a rally in support of the performing arts center and a vocal protest against President Donald Trump’s threats to permanently close the center and possibly demolish it.
The event was organized by a group called Hands Off the Arts, which initially called for participants to form a “human chain” around the Kennedy Center’s main building following a rally on the plaza in front of the building.
However, due to a decision by the Trump-controlled Kennedy Center’s board of trustees to close the center earlier in the week and install fencing around part of the building, participants could only form the chain around part of the building, according to organizers.
Drag performer Tara Hoot, who co-organized the event and served as master of ceremonies for the rally preceding the “human chain,” said the large turnout could have fully surrounded the building at least twice had the fencing not prevented a full encirclement.
Among the musicians and singing groups that performed at the rally was the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, which, like other rally performers, had performed at the Kennedy Center in past years. They drew loud applause after singing one of their favorite songs from the Broadway musical show Ragtime, which includes the lyrics, “Will justice be demanded by 10 million men? Make them hear you. When they hear you, I’ll be near you again.”
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Prior to their performance, Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington’s artistic director, Thea Kano, spoke at the rally, reminding participants that shortly after the Trump takeover of the center last year, Kennedy Center officials cancelled a concert the chorus was scheduled to perform there for World Pride 2025.
A Kennedy Center spokesperson said the cancellation was due to a scheduling conflict, but chorus members and LGBTQ activists believe it resulted from policies put in place by Trump and his leadership team at the Kennedy Center following Trump’s statements that he would end controversial “woke” performances that he claimed the majority of Americans disapprove of.
“Now this building sits empty in silence,” Kano told the crowd at the rally. “Let us raise our voices together and bring back the Kennedy Center as it was intended, a place where American culture could be celebrated and elevated, embracing the vibrancy with the spectrum of identify without censure and without politics,” she said.
Among the others who spoke at the rally were U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.), and D.C. Councilmember Robert White (D-At-Large).
Most speakers, along with LGBTQ participants in the hands-around-the-building event expressed strong opposition to Trump’s demand that the Kennedy Center name be changed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
At Trump’s request, his appointed board initially made that name change and placed Trump’s name on the front wall of the building along with the Kennedy name. But following legal action taken by opponents who pointed out that Congress must approve such a name change, a judge ordered the removal of Trump’s name from the building. Trump has said he will take steps to reverse that order and has said he will stop plans to renovate the Kennedy Center building and possibly demolish it if his name is not restored in the Kennedy’s Center’s official name.
Throughout the Sept. 18 rally, LGBTQ participants repeatedly responded to the Trump threats by shouting, “Hands Off!”
Chris Raleigh, one of the founders of Hands Off the Arts and a lead organizer of the Sept. 18 event at the Kennedy Center who spoke at the event told the Washington Blade that more similar events are being planned and he welcomes the support the event has received from the LGBTQ community.
“The LGBTQ community was here first, and we’re following them,” he said. “They’ve been the spearhead; they’ve been the vanguard. And I’m so thankful for heroes like Tara Hoot,” he said, adding, “It’s because they know what it means and how this is a safe place – the theater – for many LGBTQ people.”
The DMV’s own furry group was on full display on the Metro on Sept. 12.
Shutterpaws is a volunteer-led 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Maryland.
The furry group has been doing the FurRide event since 2024 and has blown up in popularity for furries around DMV. They showcased themselves on the Silver and Blue Lines near the Smithsonian on Sept. 12.
“A lot of careful planning goes into running these events, with the goal being a seamless and enjoyable experience for everyone who attends,” says Zayre, a Shutterpaws staff member. “There’s a lot that you learn just by trial and error, and as Shutterpaws hosts more and more events, our team of event organizers continues to learn and refine our approach to keep things running smoothly and finding new ways to engage with our community.”
With a larger growth of participation in the community comes many challenges with the group, especially when it comes to the Metro rides and organizing.
“The biggest challenge that we face as organizers is keeping things fresh and finding new and engaging venues to host events,” says Zayre. “Recently we saw a lot of success hosting a meet at On Target Battlezone, an indoor NERF gun battle arena where our crew was welcome to show up and play both with and without a fur suit.”
Nevertheless, Shutterpaws receive overwhelming support from the community and partners.
“Across the DMV there are so many amazing places to host a Shutterpaws event so we can pursue our mission of helping connect fur suiters and photographers, and we’re blown away with the amount of support we’ve received from our community partners,” says Zayre.
Shutterpaws plans to do more events for anyone in the DMV who is interested.
Their next event in collaboration with DC Fur Meet will take place at Pitchers (2317 18th St., N.W.) on Saturday. Visit Shutterpaws’ website for more information.
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