Local
Team DC assists youth with scholarships
Seeks to encourage inclusion, empower athletes
One of Team DC’s scholarship recipients, Sarah Kerndt (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Team DC, the Washington area’s largest LGBT athletics organization, has a mission beyond organizing sports leagues and events for D.C.’s LGBT community. With its student-athlete scholarships, handed out annually to four to six outstanding LGBT athletes in the region, Team DC helps empower gay youth and encourage inclusion.
“By doing things like [the scholarships], I think we help push the conversation forward to be inclusive of LGBT athletes, and LGBT athletes themselves know they are supported and not alone,” said Brent Minor, executive director of Team D.C. “The scholarship program has given us more to be about than just organizing participation in the Gay Games. This helps to establish a stronger and a fuller identity for Team DC”
Team DC’s scholarships provide up to $2,000 for graduating high school seniors who reside in the D.C. metropolitan area and identify as LGBT. Recipients are chosen based not only on athletic success, but also on academic excellence and their promise of serving as positive role models for other LGBT youth.
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A diverse committee of educators and parents of LGBT student-athlete college graduates decide which students in the area fulfill the scholarship’s criteria. Although the scholarships are exclusively for LGBT youth, Team DC does not require the recipients to publicly disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“People think all gay youths are coming out now, but that’s definitely not true,” Minor says. “This program is not outing anybody at all. We’re happy to respect their desire to not be out. It adds extra difficulty to talk about not just openly gay students, but openly gay athletes.”
Team DC awarded four local LGBT student-athletes scholarships this year, including Laura Ventura and Sarah Kerndt.
Laura Ventura (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Ventura, a Silver Spring, Md., native who identifies as pansexual, received the Team D.C. scholarship for her talent as a rower on the crew team at Walter Johnson High School where she recently graduated. Ventura had positive experiences being out to her teammates, despite sometimes having to explain what pansexuality — attraction to people of all gender identities and biological sexes — is.
“A lot of people on my team were extremely accepting, or somewhere on the LGBT spectrum themselves. I had to explain [pansexuality], but after the initial explanation that was it,” Ventura says. “My team is a very close-knit team, where we call each other family.”
Ventura was heavily involved with raising awareness of LGBT issues at Walter Johnson, particularly as the president of the school’s Queer-Straight Alliance.
“We did a lot of events,” she says. “We went to D.C. Pride together, saw a lot of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington shows and did Day of Silence. We did a lot of events not just with the club, but with the whole school. I was really excited to win the scholarship because I felt like I had done a lot for my school in trying to gain awareness — on my team and at the school in general. It shows that what I’ve done to teach acceptance has been appreciated by the scholarship committee.”
Ventura is studying nursing at Pace University in New York City next year, which does not have a rowing team. She plans to row for outside clubs in the city.
Sarah Kerndt is a lesbian from Springfield, Va., who graduated earlier this year from West Springfield High School. Team DC awarded her with a scholarship for her gift as a forward on her high school’s basketball team and as a lacrosse goalie. Like Ventura, she largely had positive experiences being out on both teams and was able to confront teammates who made homophobic remarks.
“There were only a couple of incidents where somebody made a remark like ‘That’s so gay.’ I felt comfortable enough around my teammates to approach them about it,” Kerndt says. “I had other teammates who would support me.”
Basketball had always been Kerndt’s sport, but during her junior year she picked up lacrosse. Next year she starts her college career at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va., and plans to play for the school’s lacrosse team rather than continuing basketball.
Kerndt was initially waitlisted by Christopher Newport, which was her top-choice, but a chat between her high school lacrosse coach and the university’s lacrosse coach helped to expedite a decision. She wants to play college lacrosse not only because she loves the sport, but also to honor her coach who helped her out.
“I started applying to colleges, and from Christopher Newport I actually got waitlisted. My coach told me she knew the lacrosse coach there, and she told me she could probably get me off the waitlist and she did,” Kerndt says. “I definitely love lacrosse, but I also want to play it for my coach who helped me out.”
Kerndt was ecstatic to win the Team DC scholarship because she says it demonstrates the support LGBT students can find from their community and allows her to tell younger students about this support.
“My first reaction was freaking out over it, because I guess, it’s amazing to see that there are scholarships like Team DC out there,” Kerndt says. “There is a strong LGBT community out there to support everybody, including athletes. I was really honored to be accepted for this — who wouldn’t be?”
Kerndt’s sense of responsibility in educating others and setting a good example is precisely the goal of the Team DC scholarship program.
“Coaches and administrators are often unaware that gays and lesbians play sports, or that that’s even an issue. Sports are one of the last bastions where LGBT participation is not particularly encouraged,” Minor says. “The core mission of Team DC is how to dispel stereotypes. It’s about educating people about the LGBT community and offering more opportunities to play sports.”
Applications for the 2014 Team DC scholarships will start being accepted on Sept. 1. Visit teamdc.org for more information, or to apply for or donate to the Team D.C. scholarship program.
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.
Young people should know history of the fight for human rights
Dutch prime minister visits Stonewall Inn
Clavicular charged in alleged rape of teenage influencer
Gov. Whitmer to serve as keynote speaker for Saturday’s HRC National Dinner
Capital Pride chair resigns from board after just 10 months
A roundup of fall events not to be missed
Over 2,000 turn out for Hands Around the Kennedy Center protest
Furries take over the Metro
PHOTOS: Wanda Alston Foundation Fall Reception
