Local
T.H.E. no longer providing trans services
‘It’s just heartbreaking to see this happening’
‘It’s just heartbreaking to see this happening,’ said Earline Budd of the bankruptcy of Transgender Health Empowerment. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)
The executive director of Transgender Health Empowerment told a U.S. Bankruptcy Court proceeding on Aug. 8 that the financially struggling group was no longer carrying out its core mission of providing services and advocacy for the D.C. area transgender community.
Anthony Hall said the group, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 7, was devoting all of its limited resources to operating a temporary housing facility for crime victims under a non-LGBT related city grant. Hall and T.H.E. attorney Richard L. Gilman said the crime victims’ grant currently was the group’s only source of income.
Earlier this year, the D.C. Department of Health abruptly discontinued its grants for T.H.E. that funded transgender and LGBT-related programs since 2004. Mayor Vincent Gray said the city terminated the grants after learning that the IRS placed liens on the organization for its failure to pay more than $260,000 in employee withholding taxes over a period of at least three years.
The bankruptcy filing shows that T.H.E. also owes close to $50,000 in unpaid employee withholding and unemployment insurance taxes to D.C. and Maryland. Its total combined debt comes to more than $560,000, the bankruptcy filing shows.
Hall and Gilman answered questions about the organization’s finances and its plan to restructure and pay off its debt from two representatives of the bankruptcy court’s trustees in a proceeding known as a 341 Hearing. The hearing is named for a section of the bankruptcy code that allows both the trustee and creditors to question the person or organization in bankruptcy.
More than a dozen former T.H.E. employees attended the hearing.
In response to questions by veteran transgender advocate Earline Budd, one of the founders and longtime employee of T.H.E., Hall said it’s his strong desire to pay close to two dozen former and current T.H.E. employees’ wages that were unpaid for as long as two months. The bankruptcy filing shows Budd is owned $4,615 in back wages and most of the other employees are owed between $2,000 and $3,000 in back wages.
Hall and Gilman told Budd T.H.E.’s ability to resume its transgender and LGBT related programs would depend on whether the city agrees to reissue the grants it discontinued in April and May due to the IRS liens.
“It’s just heartbreaking to see this happening,” Budd told the Blade after the hearing. She said she is taking steps to help create a new organization to fill what she said was a vacuum in trans related services and advocacy brought about by T.H.E.’s financial collapse.
Hall and members of T.H.E.’s board have declined the Blade’s requests for comment.
Rehoboth Beach
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
Attendees encouraged to wear appropriate gear
Diego’s in Rehoboth Beach hosts a monthly leather happy hour. April’s edition is scheduled for Friday, April 10, 5-7 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to wear appropriate gear. The event is billed as an official event of BLUF, the free community group for men interested in leather. After happy hour, the attendees are encouraged to reconvene at Local Bootlegging Company for dinner, which allows cigar smoking. There’s no cover charge for either event.
District of Columbia
Celebrations of life planned for Sean Bartel
Two memorial events scheduled in D.C.
Two celebrations of life are planned for Sean Christopher Bartel, 48, who was found deceased on a hiking trail in Argentina on or around March 15. Bartel began his career as a television news reporter and news anchor at stations in Louisville, Ky., and Evansville, Ind., before serving as Senior Video Producer for the D.C.-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union from 2013 to 2024.
A memorial gathering is planned for Friday, April 10, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the IBEW International Office (900 7th St., N.W.), according to a statement by the DC Gay Flag Football League, where Bartel was a longtime member. A celebration of life is planned that same evening, 6-8 p.m. at Trade (1410 14th St., N.W.).
District of Columbia
D.C. Council member honored by LGBTQ homeless youth group
Doni Crawford receives inaugural Wanda Alston Legacy Award
About 100 people turned out Tuesday evening, April 7, for a presentation by D.C.’s Wanda Alston Foundation of its inaugural Wanda Alston Legacy Award to D.C. Council member Doni Crawford (I-At-Large) for her support for the foundation’s mission to support homeless LGBTQ youth.
Among those who attended the event was Japer Bowles, director of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, who delivered an official proclamation issued by Bowser declaring April 7, 2026 “A Day of Remembrance for Wanda Alston.”
Alston, a beloved women’s and LGBTQ rights activist, served as the city’s first director of the then newly created Office of LGBTQ Affairs under then-Mayor Anthony Williams from 2004 until her death by murder on March 16, 2005.
To the shock and dismay of fellow LGBTQ rights advocates, police and court records reported Alston, 45, was stabbed to death inside her Northeast D.C. house by a man high on crack cocaine who lived nearby and who stole her credit cards and car. The perpetrator, William Martin Parrott, 38, was arrested by D.C. police the next day and later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He was sentenced in July 2005 to 24 years in prison.
Crawford was among those attending the award event who reflected on Alston’s legacy and outspoken advocacy for LGBTQ and feminist causes.
“I am deeply humbled and honored to receive this inaugural award,” Crawford told the Washington Blade at the conclusion of the event. “I think the world of Wanda Alston. She has set such a great foundation for me and other Council members to build on,” she said.
“Her focus on inclusivity and intersectionality is really important as we approach this work,” Crawford added. “And it’s going to guide my work at the Council every day.”
Crawford was appointed to the D.C. Council in January of this year to replace then Council member Kenyan McDuffie (I-At-Large), who resigned to run for D.C. mayor as a Democrat. She is being challenged by four other independent candidates in a June 16 special election for the Council seat.
Under the city’s Home Rule Charter written and approved by Congress, the seat is one of two D.C. Council at-large seats that cannot be held by a “majority party” candidate, meaning a Democrat.
A statement released by the Alston Foundation last month announcing Crawford’s selection for the Wanda Alston Legacy Award praised Crawford’s record of support for its work on behalf of LGBTQ youth.
“From behind the scenes to now serving as an At-Large Council member, she has fought fearlessly for affordable housing, LGBTQ+ funding priorities, and racial justice,” the statement says. “Council member Crawford’s leadership reflects the same courage and conviction that defined Wanda’s legacy.”
Organizers of the event noted that it was held on what would have been Wanda Alston’s 67th birthday.
“Today’s legacy reception was a smashing success,” said Cesar Toledo, the Alston Foundation’s executive director. “Not only did we come together to celebrate Wanda Alston on her birthday, but we also were able to raise over $10,000 for our homeless LGBTQ youth here in D.C.,” Toledo told the Blade.
“In addition to that, we celebrated and we acknowledged a rising star in our community,” he said. “And that is At-Large Council member Doni Crawford, who we named the inaugural Wanda Alston Legacy Award recipient.”
At the request of D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) the Council voted unanimously on Jan. 20, 2026, to appoint Crawford to the Council seat being vacated by McDuffie.
Council records show she joined McDuffie’s Council staff in 2022 as a policy adviser and later became his legislative director before McDuffie appointed her as staff director for the Council’s Committee on Business and Economic Development for which McDuffie served as chair.
Calendar: April 10-16
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