Local
Harry Jackson to deliver keynote at ‘ex-gay’ event
Event scheduled to take place in D.C. on September 30
Bishop Harry Jackson (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
An anti-gay Maryland pastor who vehemently opposes same-sex marriage is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at an ‘ex-gay’ event that is slated to take place in D.C. on September 30.
Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church of Beltsville, Md., is expected to deliver remarks at the first annual Ex-Gay Awareness Dinner and Reception that Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX,) a group that says it advocates on behalf of “former homosexuals and their families,” will host in the nation’s capital. Liberty Counsel Chair Mat Staver and Trace McNutt, a self-described “former Satanic drag queen,” will be honored during the event.
Dennis Jernigan, a Christian singer who identifies as post-gay, is also scheduled to perform at the dinner.
Voice of the Voiceless, a Virginia-based organization that claims to defend the rights of “former homosexuals, individuals with unwanted same-sex attractions and their families,” said a Capitol Hill lobby day to coincide with Ex-Gay Awareness Month will also take place on September 30.
“It is my great honor and privilege to address this historic celebration,” Jackson said in a press release that Voice of the Voiceless issued on Monday. “I know that I and many others will be encouraged to hear the amazing testimonies of the men and women who have left homosexuality when they share their stories on September 30.”
Voice of the Voiceless President Christopher Doyle applauded the controversial pastor in the same press release.
“Bishop Jackson has been a beacon of hope, a leader in the faith community and an example for all of us to follow,” Doyle said. “We are truly blessed to have such a powerful man of God address the first annual Ex-Gay Dinner and Reception on September 30.”
Groups challenge efforts to ban ‘ex-gay’ therapy to children
The D.C. event is scheduled to take place less than two months after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill that bans so-called “conversion therapy” to minors his state.
The Liberty Counsel last month filed a lawsuit in federal court that seeks to overturn the law on the grounds that it violates freedom of speech and religion under the New Jersey and U.S. Constitutions. The same group earlier this month appealed the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ August 30 ruling that upheld California’s 2012 law that bars licensed therapists in the state from trying to change the sexual orientation or gender identity and expression of a minor through “conversion” or “reparative” therapy.
Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, who claims God delivered him from homosexuality and has previously compared gays to drug dealers and prostitutes, withdrew from a city-sponsored concert that took place at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Southwest Washington at D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s request. Rev. Patrick J. Walker, president of the Baptist Convention of the District of Columbia and Vicinity, is among those who criticized the decision to disinvite McClurkin.
Prince George’s County Public Schools earlier this year stopped using an anti-bullying campaign that Doyle, who is a psychotherapist, wrote that included “ex-gay” references.
Doyle said “anti-ex gay extremism” prompted him to postpone a dinner at the Family Research Council’s downtown Washington headquarters and other events that had been scheduled to take place in D.C. in July.
Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.,) who introduced a bill that would amend the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage a day after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional, are among those who received invitations to attend the dinner at the Family Research Council. Former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, who is president of the Heritage Foundation, also received an invitation to attend the dinner.
Doyle told the Washington Blade during an interview on Monday he received threatening phone calls and hate mail at his home addressed to him and his wife after Voice of the Voiceless announced the July events.
Organizers of the September 30 event will vet those who register before they receive information. Doyle told the Blade attendees will also have to sign “a values policy” that states they “agree with the terms of ex-gay awareness and that they’re a supporter.”
He declined to say where in the D.C. area the gathering will take place.
“We’re not opening to just anyone who wants to come,” Doyle told the Blade. “Unfortunately we just get too much heckling and too many people who have bad intentions of coming to this and they’re not very supportive of our cause. I wish it wasn’t like that. I wish I could just open the doors for anybody to come.”
Besen: D.C. event ‘desperate, last gasp’ for ‘ex-gay’ movement
The American Psychological Association, the Pan American Health Organization and the majority of other leading mental health groups oppose “reparative” or “conversion” therapy. Alan Chambers, executive director of Exodus International, the oldest and largest “ex-gay” organization, in June apologized for the “pain and hurt others have experienced” before he announced his group was shutting down.
Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, an LGBT advocacy group that challenges the “ex-gay” movement, dismissed both Doyle and the scheduled September 30 events.
“What we are really looking at is a desperate, last gasp of air for a failing industry,” Besen told the Blade. “In the West, this psychological voodoo has been thoroughly discredited and nearly vanquished. This is why it is in the hands of people like Doyle, who have no credibility and little expertise.”
Celebrating the transgender community, Baltimore Safe Haven, an organization committed to empowering LGBTQ individuals in Baltimore City, plans to host their fourth annual Baltimore Trans Pride on Saturday.
Instead of the usual parade and march, this year’s Trans Pride will be a block party on Charles Street and between 21st and 22nd Streets. The event will start at 1 p.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and last until 10 p.m.
Community members can go on guided tours, enjoy refreshments by local vendors, listen to presenters, and watch performances by special guests.
Sukihana, the event’s headliner, plans to take to the stage to entertain the crowd, along with a variety of local performers, according to Melissa Deveraux, Baltimore Safe Haven’s executive assistant to Executive Director Iya Dammons.
“Some (are) prominently known, some (are) just making a name for themselves,” Deveraux said. Iya is always making sure that community talent is showcased at all of our functions.”
In company with Pride on Saturday, Baltimore Safe Haven will be opening its new building on Friday from 1-4 p.m.
“That is sort of going to be the prelude to pride,” Lau said. “Thanks to Sen. Mary Washington and the Weinberg Foundation, we were able to purchase the building outright, and it’s going to be a community hub of administrative buildings and 12-bedroom apartments.”
Renee Lau, administrative assistant for special projects coordinator for Baltimore Safe Haven, said the planning process for Baltimore Trans Pride began in January, and putting it all together was a collaboration of multiple city agencies and organizations.
“Safe Haven is an LGBT community organization, but we service the entire community, and that’s the message we try to spread,” Lau said. “We’re not just here for the LGBT community. We’re here to spread goodwill and offer harm reduction and housing to the entire community.”
Lau said the organization’s biggest goal for the event is to gain exposure.
“(We want) to let and let people know who we are and what our community is about,” she said. “Right now, because of what’s happening in DC, there’s a lot of bad untruths going on, and the total thing is bringing out the truth.”
Deveraux said having a place of inclusivity, acceptance, and togetherness is important in today’s political climate and the current administration.
“This event will have people seeing the strength and resilience of the transgender community, showing that no matter what we are going through, we still show up,” Deveraux said. “We are here, we will not be erased.”
The 2025 WorldPride Parade was held in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 7. Laverne Cox and Renée Rapp were the grand marshals.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key and Robert Rapanut)
District of Columbia
Man arrested for destroying D.C. Pride decorations, spray painting hate message
Court records show prosecutors did not list offense as hate crime
D.C. police this week announced they have arrested a Maryland man on charges of Destruction of Property and Defacing Private Property for allegedly pulling down and ripping apart rainbow colored cloth Pride ornaments on light poles next to Dupont Circle Park on June 2.
In a June 10 statement police said the suspect, identified as Michel Isaiah Webb, Jr., 30, also allegedly spray painted an anti-LGBTQ message on the window of a private residence in the city’s Southwest waterfront neighborhood two days later on June 4.
An affidavit in support of the arrest filed by police in D.C. Superior Court on June 9 says Web was captured on a video surveillance camera spray painting the message “Fuck the LGBT+ ABC!” and “God is Real.” The affidavit does not say what Webb intended the letters “ABC” to stand for.
“Detectives located video and photos in both offenses and worked to identify the suspect,” the police statement says. “On Sunday, June 8, 2025, First District officers familiar with these offenses observed the suspect in Navy Yard and made an arrest without incident.”
The statement continues: “As a result of the detectives investigation, 30-year-old Michael Isaiah Webb, Jr. of Landover, Md. was charged with Destruction of Property and Defacing Private Property.”
It concludes by saying, “The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating this case as potentially being motivated by hate or bias. The designation can be changed at any point as the investigation proceeds, and more information is gathered. A designation as a hate crime by MPD does not mean that prosecutors will prosecute it as a hate crime.”
The online D.C. Superior Court docket for the case shows that prosecutors with the Office of the United States Attorney for D.C. charged Webb with just one offense – Defacing Public or Private Property.
The charging document filed by prosecutors, which says the offense was committed on June 4, declares that Webb “willfully and wantonly wrote, marked, drew, and painted a word, sign, or figure upon property, that is window(s), without the consent of Austin Mellor, the owner and the person lawfully in charge thereof.”
But the charging document does not designate the offense as a hate crime or bias motivated crime as suggested by D.C. police as a possible hate crime.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request from the Washington Blade for an explanation of why the office did not designate the offense as a hate crime and why it did not charge Webb in court with the second charge filed by D.C. police of destruction of Property for allegedly destroying the Pride decorations at Dupont Circle.
The online public court records show that at a June 9 court arraignment Webb pleaded not guilty and Superior Court Judge Robert J. Hildum released him while awaiting trial while issuing a stay-away order. The public court records do not include a copy of the stay-away order. The judge also ordered Webb to return to court for a June 24 status hearing, the records show.
The arrest affidavit filed by D.C. police says at the time of his arrest, Webb waived his right to remain silent. It says he claimed he knew nothing at all about the offenses he was charged with.
“However, Defendant 1 stated something to the effect of, ‘It’s not a violent crime’ several times during the interview” with detectives, according to the affidavit.
The charge filed against him by prosecutors of Defacing Public or Private Property is a misdemeanor that carries a possible maximum penalty of 180 days in jail and a fine up to $1,000.
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