Local
50th anniversary of March on Washington nears
LGBT contingent planned for Aug. 24 commemoration
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington will be celebrated next month. (Photo in public domain)
Local organizers of the 50th anniversary commemoration of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 civil rights March on Washington are calling on members of the LGBT community to participate in the re-enactment of the historic march set to take place Aug. 24 on the National Mall.
D.C. statehood and gay rights activist Jerry Clark, who was appointed by Mayor Vincent Gray to a committee to help recruit volunteers and participants for the march, said he is calling on local and national LGBT groups to help organize an “identifiable” LGBT contingent in the march.
“I would like to see an eye-catching LGBT contingent,” said Clark, who noted that national organizers of the march are supportive of LGBT equality.
Clark said LGBT activists involved with the march are committed to the goals and objectives of the event set by national organizers, including officials with the groups that worked with Martin Luther King on the 1963 march. Among them are the NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the A. Philip Randolph Institute.
Also playing a key role in organizing the 50th anniversary march and a week of related events is the King Center, the Atlanta-based organization created by the late Coretta Scott King, King’s widow, and other King family members.
King’s daughter, Bernice A. King, CEO of the King Center, said in a June 23 statement announcing plans for the 50th anniversary commemoration that a broad coalition of civil rights organizations would be involved in a series of events leading up to the Aug. 24 march.
“Our coalition hopes to make the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and my father’s famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech a meaningful experience which addresses the urgent causes of jobs, justice and freedom,” Bernice King said.
A July 8 statement released by the New York City-based National Action Network, headed by civil rights leader and commentator Rev. Al Sharpton, named more than 20 civil rights, labor, and faith-based organizations that are recognized as co-endorsers of the march. Among them are five national LGBT groups: the Human Rights Campaign, National Black Justice Coalition, Family Equality Council, National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and Old Lesbians Organizing for Change.
Clark said members of Mayor Gray’s local organizing committee are encouraging supporters from all communities to sponsor local events during the week leading up to the Aug. 24 march. He said he expects at least one event to honor Bayard Rustin, the out gay civil rights organizers credited with playing the lead role in organizing the 1963 March on Washington as one of King’s top lieutenants.
Rustin died in 1987 at the age of 75.
A spokesperson for the King Center in Atlanta said on Tuesday that organizers have yet to announce the names of the speakers at the march and rally set to take place at the Lincoln Memorial, the same location where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Clark said he was hopeful that at least one LGBT representative would be selected to speak at the event.
Black gay activists in D.C. were credited with persuading organizers of the 1983 20th anniversary commemoration of the March on Washington to agree to allow black lesbian poet and writer Audre Lorde speak at that event.
The decision to allow Lorde to speak came after then D.C. congressional Del. Walter Fauntroy, one of the lead organizers of the 1983 march, initially opposed allowing an LGBT speaker. Fauntroy’s opposition prompted local black gay activists Phil Pannell, Mel Boozer, Ray Melrose, and Gary Walker to stage a sit-in at Fauntroy’s Capitol Hill office. The four were arrested in an action that drew national media coverage.
Following behind the scenes negotiations in which Gil Gerald, an official with the National Coalition of Black Gays, spoke directly with Coretta Scott King by phone, Mrs. King and other top leaders of the march agreed to have an out gay speaker.
Gerald, who isn’t involved in this year’s march, said he is hopeful that an LGBT person will be chosen as a speaker.
Virginia
DOJ seeks to join lawsuit against Loudoun County over trans student in locker room
Three male high school students suspended after complaining about classmate
The Justice Department has asked to join a federal lawsuit against Loudoun County Public Schools over the way it handled the case of three male high school students who complained about a transgender student in a boys’ locker room.
The Washington Blade earlier this year reported Loudoun County public schools suspended the three boys and launched a Title IX investigation into whether they sexually harassed the student after they said they felt uncomfortable with their classmate in the locker room at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn.
The parents of two of the boys filed a lawsuit against Loudoun County public schools in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. The Richmond-based Founding Freedoms Law Center and America First Legal, which White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller co-founded, represent them.
The Justice Department in a Dec. 8 press release announced that “it filed legal action against the Loudoun County (Va.) School Board (Loudoun County) for its denial of equal protection based on religion.”
“The suit alleges that Loudoun County applied Policy 8040, which requires students and faculty to accept and promote gender ideology, to two Christian, male students in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” reads the press release.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the press release said “students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.”
“Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality,” said Dhillon.
Outgoing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and outgoing Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in May announced an investigation into the case.
The Virginia Department of Education in 2023 announced the new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students for which Youngkin asked. Equality Virginia and other advocacy groups claim they, among other things, forcibly out trans and nonbinary students.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in February launched an investigation into whether Loudoun County and four other Northern Virginia school districts’ policies in support of trans and nonbinary students violate Title IX and President Donald Trump’s executive order that prohibits federally funded educational institutions from promoting “gender ideology.”
District of Columbia
Capital Pride announces change in date for 2026 D.C. Pride parade and festival
Events related to U.S. 250th anniversary and Trump birthday cited as reasons for change
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C. based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, has announced it is changing the dates for the 2026 Capital Pride Parade and Festival from the second weekend in June to the third weekend.
“For over a decade, Capital Pride has taken place during the second weekend in June, but in 2026, we are shifting our dates in response to the city’s capacity due to major events and preparations for the 250th anniversary of the United States,” according to a Dec. 9 statement released by Capital Pride Alliance.
The statement says the parade will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2026, with the festival and related concert taking place on June 21.
“This change ensures our community can gather safely and without unnecessary barriers,” the statement says. “By moving the celebration, we are protecting our space and preserving Pride as a powerful act of visibility, solidarity, and resistance,” it says.
Ryan Bos, the Capital Pride Alliance CEO and President, told the Washington Blade the change in dates came after the group conferred with D.C. government officials regarding plans for a number of events in the city on the second weekend in June. Among them, he noted, is a planned White House celebration of President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and other events related to the U.S. 250th anniversary, which are expected to take place from early June through Independence Day on July 4.
The White House has announced plans for a large June 14, 2026 celebration on the White House south lawn of Trump’s 80th birthday that will include a large-scale Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event involving boxing and wrestling competition.
Bos said the Capital Pride Parade will take place along the same route it has in the past number of years, starting at 14th and T Streets, N.W. and traveling along 14th Street to Pennsylvania Ave., where it will end. He said the festival set for the following day will also take place at its usual location on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., between 2nd Street near the U.S. Capitol, to around 7th Street, N.W.
“Our Pride events thrive because of the passion and support of the community,” Capital Pride Board Chair Anna Jinkerson said in the statement. “In 2026, your involvement is more important than ever,” she said.
District of Columbia
Three women elected leaders of Capital Pride Alliance board
Restructured body includes chair rather than president as top leader
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, announced it has restructured its board of directors and elected for the first time three women to serve as leaders of the board’s Executive Committee.
“Congratulations to our newly elected Executive Officers, making history as Capital Pride Alliance’s first all-women Board leadership,” the group said in a statement.
“As we head into 2026 with a bold new leadership structure, we’re proud to welcome Anna Jinkerson as Board Chair, Kim Baker as Board Treasurer, and Taylor Lianne Chandler as Board Secretary,” the statement says.
In a separate statement released on Nov. 20, Capital Pride Alliance says the restructured Board now includes the top leadership posts of Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary, replacing the previous structure of President and Vice President as the top board leaders.
It says an additional update to the leadership structure includes a change in title for longtime Capital Pride official Ryan Bos from executive director to chief executive officer and president.
According to the statement, June Crenshaw, who served as acting deputy director during the time the group organized WorldPride 2025 in D.C., will now continue in that role as permanent deputy director.
The statement provides background information on the three newly elected women Board leaders.
• Anna Jinkerson (chair), who joined the Capital Pride Alliance board in 2022, previously served as the group’s vice president for operations and acting president. “A seasoned non-profit executive, she currently serves as Assistant to the President and CEO and Chief of Staff at Living Cities, a national member collaborative of leading philanthropic foundations and financial institutions committed to closing income and wealth gaps in the United States and building an economy that works for everyone.”
• Kim Baker (treasurer) is a “biracial Filipino American and queer leader,” a “retired, disabled U.S. Army veteran with more than 20 years of service and extensive experience in finance, security, and risk management.” She has served on the Capital Pride Board since 2018, “bringing a proven track record of steady, principled leadership and unwavering dedication to the LGBTQ+ community.”
• Taylor Lianne Chandler (Secretary) is a former sign language interpreter and crisis management consultant. She “takes office as the first intersex and trans-identifying member of the Executive Committee.” She joined the Capital Pride Board in 2019 and previously served as executive producer from 2016 to 2018.
Bos told the Washington Blade in a Dec. 2 interview that the Capital Pride board currently has 12 members, and is in the process of interviewing additional potential board members.
“In January we will be announcing in another likely press release the full board,” Bos said. “We are finishing the interview process of new board members this month,” he said. “And they will take office to join the board in January.”
Bos said the organization’s rules set a cap of 25 total board members, but the board, which elects its members, has not yet decided how many additional members it will select and a full 25-member board is not required.
The Nov. 20 Capital Pride statement says the new board executive members will succeed the organization’s previous leadership team, which included Ashley Smith, who served as president for eight years before he resigned earlier this year; Anthony Musa, who served for seven years as vice president of board engagement; Natalie Thompson, who served eight years on the executive committee; and Vince Micone, who served for eight years as vice president of operations.
“I am grateful for the leadership, dedication, and commitment shown by our former executive officers — Ashley, Natalie, Anthony, and Vince — who have been instrumental in CPA’s growth and the exceptional success of WorldPride 2025,” Bos said in the statement.
“I look forward to collaborating with Anna in her new role, as well as Kim and Taylor in theirs, as we take on the important work ahead, prepare for Capital Pride 2026, and expand our platform and voice through Pride365,” Bos said.
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