Local

Grosso discusses first months in office

At-large councilmember said ethics and election reform remain top priorities

Published

12 years ago

July 17, 2013

Michael K. Lavers

D.C. Council member David Grosso (D-At-Large) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

D.C. Councilmember David Grosso (I-At Large) reflected upon his first seven months in office during an interview with the Washington Blade on Monday.

“It’s been a fairly exciting seven months,” Grosso said while speaking to the Blade in his office in the John A. Wilson Building. “I’ve been getting my feet wet, but also getting a well-rounded education on what happens up here.”

Grosso, who was an aide for then-D.C. Councilmember Sharon Ambrose from 2001-2006 and D.C. Congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s legislative director from 2006-2007, defeated then-incumbent D.C. Councilmember Michael A. Brown last November for the at-large D.C. Council seat reserved for a non-Democratic candidate.

Grosso said ethics and election reform remain his top priority.

He and Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D-Ward 5) in February introduced a bill – the Public Financing of Political Campaigns Amendment Act of 2013 – that would allow candidates to qualify for public financing if they receive contributions of $100 or less from individual donors. Each $100 a political hopeful raises would be matched by $400 under the measure.

“It gets more individuals engaged in the political process,” Grosso said, noting Connecticut and other states have implemented similar systems. “Somebody who donates $10 or $20 can see themselves as having the same political impact as somebody who donates $1,000. It kind of just opens up the doors of the political system.”

Grosso spoke with the Blade less than a week after the D.C. Board of Ethics and Accountability filed Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) $13,600 for accepting gifts from two city contractors.

The Washington Post on July 11 reported that Barry said in a statement he voluntarily disclosed the gifts and his “character and integrity remain intact.” He denied any assertions of an ethics scandal during an interview with MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry two days later.

“I find it extremely disappointing, just in general,” Grosso, who sits on the committee charged with reviewing the allegations against Barry and determining whether the Council should investigate them, said. He also pointed out he recuses himself from votes on city contracts of more than $1 million. “Councilman Barry has shown time and time again an unwillingness to play by the same rules as everybody else. And for me I think that’s just inexcusable.”

Grosso also supports non-partisan local elections and instant run-offs in contests where no candidate wins with a majority of votes.

“That’s a huge problem in our city, especially in special elections,” he said. “You have people winning with 15, 20, 30 percent of the vote, which is not a representative democracy.”

Government has ‘obligation’ to stop anti-LGBT discrimination

Grosso pointed out LGBT rights issues also remain an important part of his agenda.

The Council last month unanimously approved a bill that Grosso introduced alongside Barry and Councilmembers Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6,) Jack Evans (D-Ward 2,) David Catania (I-At-Large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) that expands the list of people who can officiate a wedding in D.C. Grosso also co-sponsored a bill his colleagues passed that will allow transgender Washingtonians to change the gender on their birth certificates without having undergone sex reassignment surgery.

Grosso, who received an endorsement from the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance during his campaign, noted the country continues to make “great strides” on LGBT-specific issues, but noted it has “a long way to go.”

“Every single day we’re going to find a new thing where discrimination was prevalent, and we’re going to have to fix it,” he said. “It’s our obligation as a government to fix those things.”

Councilman blasts AG vote, supports liveable wage bill

Grosso blasted the Council’s late night vote on July 10 to delay next year’s attorney general election that D.C. voters approved in 2010. He specifically criticized Evans and Councilmember Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) — who are both running for mayor in 2014 — for supporting the postponement of the referendum’s implementation.

“These people are running for mayor and they think they can just snap their fingers and do away with the peoples’ will,” Grosso said. “But they’re going to turn around in less than a year and ask for the people’s vote. I ask, when are people going to step up and say no, enough is enough with this kind of stuff.”

Grosso, who declined to tell the Blade whether he would support D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray if he were to seek another term in office, has also signed onto a bill that Wells introduced last week that would decriminalize small amounts of marijuana in the nation’s capital. Grosso said he is also working on a separate measure that would legalize the drug in D.C.

Grosso on July 10 also voted for the so-called Wal-Mart bill that would require the company and other large retailers to pay their D.C. employees at least $12.50 an hour – twice the city’s minimum wage of $8.50 an hour. Gray has yet to publicly say whether he will sign the measure into law.

“We must balance the interest of attracting large retailers to our less developed Wards 5, 7 and 8, while also attracting quality jobs to support our residents and their families,” Grosso said in a blog post on Wednesday.

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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

Published

20 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Staff reports

Loudoun County Public Schools building. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

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

Published

1 day ago

December 12, 2025

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

A scene from the 2024 Capital Pride Festival. (Washington Blade file photo by Emily Hanna)

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 250^th 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 80^th birthday and other events related to the U.S. 250^th 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 14^th and T Streets, N.W. and traveling along 14^th 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 2^nd Street near the U.S. Capitol, to around 7^th 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

Published

4 days ago

December 9, 2025

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Capital Pride Alliance announced three women will lead its board. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

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.