Local
LGBT activists rally for Gray at re-election kick-off
Mayor mentions gay, trans residents in first campaign speech


‘Today, I apologize to you for the pain that my campaign caused. I ask for your forgiveness,’ Mayor Vincent Gray said of his 2010 mayoral campaign. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
At least a dozen LGBT activists joined more than 500 city residents on Saturday for Mayor Vincent Gray’s first rally to launch his 2014 re-election campaign.
Several of the activists said Gray’s mention of LGBT people two times in his speech at the rally highlighted his long record of support for the LGBT community.
The event was held in a packed auditorium at an arts and recreation center on Mississippi Avenue in Southeast D.C. known as THEARC.
“I look around this room and I see folks from every part of our city,” Gray told the gathering. “I see enormous talent and tireless dedication. I see white, I see black, I see brown, and every color in between,” he said.
“I see straight, I see gay, and I see transgender. I see rich and I see poor,” he said. “But above all, I see what makes us the greatest city in the greatest country on Earth — I see a community.”
In another part of his speech Gray said the accomplishments of his first term included his longstanding effort to unify the city’s diverse and growing population.
“We are bringing together young and old, black, brown and white, Latino, Asian, immigrants from throughout the world, gay, straight, able and disabled,” he said.
Gray is being challenged by eight candidates in the city’s April 1 Democratic primary, including four City Council members, all of whom have records of support on LGBT issues.
Much of the coverage of Gray’s speech by the media focused on his apology to the city for the campaign finance irregularities associated with his 2010 mayoral campaign, which led to criminal charges and guilty pleas by four of his top campaign staff members. Gray has said the campaign finance law violations by the four staffers happened without his knowledge.
“I know that the 2010 campaign caused many people great pain,” Gray said in his speech. “I know that our city suffered embarrassment. Today, I apologize to you for the pain that my campaign caused. I ask for your forgiveness.”
Gray added, “Although I cannot apologize for the misdeeds of others, the 2010 campaign was my campaign, and I am deeply sorry for the pain and embarrassment it caused.”
The LGBT activists attending the rally joined virtually everyone one else in the packed auditorium in rising to their feet to give Gray a prolonged ovation in response to his apology. Many in the audience chanted, “Four more years, four more years” before sitting down to listen to the remainder of Gray’s speech.
“I thought it went extremely well,” said gay Democratic activist Lane Hudson, a member of Gray’s 2014 campaign finance committee.
“It’s an overflow crowd. There are hundreds and hundreds of people here,” Hudson said. “The mayor gave a great speech. He addressed very well the 2010 election issue and laid out a real clear vision for the next four years.”
Asked how the LGBT vote is likely to break down in the April 1 primary, Hudson said, “I think it will probably split just like it did in the last election. But one thing that’s clear is Vince Gray is the best mayor in the entire country on LGBT issues.”
At least four prominent transgender activists attended the rally, including Earline Budd, Jeri Hughes and Alexandra Beninda. Budd and Beninda were appointed by Gray to the D.C. Human Rights Commission as the first-ever transgender people to serve on the commission.
“He has done what I think is vital to this city in so many ways in terms of economic development,” said Beninda. “Within our transgender community he definitely has a place in our hearts because he has done so much – with Project Empowerment, with the Transgender Awareness Campaign,” she said in referring to a city-sponsored job training program and a trans related non-discrimination campaign initiated by Gray.
“He has done more than anybody else has ever done in the city for the transgender community,” Beninda said.
Hughes and Budd said Gray, while breaking new ground in his support for the transgender community, has an exceptionally strong record in support of the entire LGBT community. The two also said the city as a whole has prospered under Gray’s tenure as mayor.
LGBT activists who are backing other candidates, including Council members Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) and Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), have said those candidates are also strong supporters of LGBT rights and that LGBT people should select a candidate based on non-LGBT issues.
Longtime gay activists Deacon Maccubbin and Bob Summersgill said they are backing Wells over Gray, among thing things, because Wells has a stronger record on ethics in government issues.
Gay rights advocate and D.C. Department of Health official Ivan Torres, who attended the Gray rally on Saturday, said he believes Gray comes out ahead on non-LGBT issues.
“You can have any preferences that you like,” Torres said in referring to LGBT people supporting candidates running against Gray. “But you cannot deny that in the past four years Washington, D.C. has gone forward — forward in so many ways — economic development, the unemployment rate has gone down, and development is there, and the integration of us gay people, the gay and lesbian community, the transgender community into governance.”
Virginia
Virginia High School League reverses policy on transgender athletes
Trans athletes previously allowed to compete on teams that corresponded with gender identity

The Virginia High School League on Monday announced it will no longer allow transgender athletes to compete on teams that correspond with their gender identity following another executive order signed by President Donald Trump targeting trans people.
The VHSL announced their policy change on their X account. It undoes a 2023 announcement that said it would not change their policy that allowed trans athletes to compete on teams that affirmed their identities.
Following a Jan. 28 executive order signed that stopped hospitals and other medical institutions from providing gender-affirming care to minors under that age of 19, Trump on Feb. 5 signed another executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
The ban seeks “to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls.” The NCAA and many other educational institutions agreed to implement the ban in fear of losing federal funding.
“The VHSL is an association comprising 318 member schools with more than 177,000 students participating yearly in sports and academic activities. The VHSL is the governing body, and our member schools look to and rely on the VHSL for policy and guidance. To that end, the VHSL will comply with the executive order,” said VHSL Executive Director John W. “Billy” Haun. “The compliance will provide membership clear and consistent direction.”
The VHSL also said staff will be making changes to their handbook and policy manual in the coming days, reminiscent of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrubbing all of the papers in its database of any now-banned language regarding LGBTQ people and attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The VHSL’s own data indicates only 29 of the student athletes it oversees have been reported as trans since 2022.
District of Columbia
Booz Allen withdraws as WorldPride corporate sponsor
Company updated programs to comply with Trump executive orders

The U.S. technology company Booz Allen Hamilton has confirmed it has withdrawn as a corporate sponsor for the international LGBTQ WorldPride events scheduled to take place in D.C. from May 17-June 8, according to a report by the Washington Business Journal.
In an exclusive story published Feb.10, the business publication reports that Booz Allen Hamilton disclosed in a statement that its decision to withdraw as a WorldPride sponsor was based on its need to comply with “recently issued presidential executive orders.”
Although the statement did not say so directly, it is referring to executive orders issued since Jan. 20 by President Donald Trump that, among other things, ban government agencies and companies doing business with the government through contracts from promoting or carrying out diversity, equity, and inclusion or “DEI” programs.
On its website, Booz Allen Hamilton describes itself as an “advanced technology company delivering outcomes with speed for America’s most critical defense, civil, and national securities priorities.” Among the government agencies it does business with, the website statement says, are the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
“We take this responsibility to our nation seriously,” Washington Business Journal quoted the Booz Allen Hamilton statement regarding WorldPride as saying. “It demands from us commitment to their best principle to flawless execution and to full compliance with all laws and regulations, including executive orders,” Washington Business Journal quotes the statement as saying.
The Washington Business Journal article includes a photo of more than a dozen of Booz Allen Hamilton employees marching in D.C.’s Capital Pride parade in 2017.
The company did not immediately respond to a request from Washington Blade seeking comment on its WorldPride decision.
Capital Pride Alliance, the group that organizes most D.C. LGBTQ Pride events and is the lead organizer of WorldPride 2025, in response to a request by the Blade released a statement responding to Booz Allen Hamilton’s sponsorship withdrawal.
“Booz Allen Hamilton is the only organization that has withdrawn its committed financial support for WorldPride,” the statement says. “CPA is proud of its many longstanding legacy sponsors, many of whom have already reaffirmed their commitments to participate in WorldPride this summer,” the statement continues.
“Just like many American companies and LGBTQ+ organizations, we are navigating current challenges and many unknowns,” the statement says. “We are confident, however, that we will have the support necessary to have a successful and safe WorldPride that meets this moment,” it says.
“That support includes families, organizations, and businesses from across our community and corporations that truly celebrate diversity and value equity and inclusion for all,” the statement concludes.
The Capital Pride Alliance website last year listed Booz Allen Hamilton as a corporate sponsor for the 2024 Capital Pride events in the category of a “True Colors” sponsor, which it said represented a donation of $75,000. But the Capital Pride Alliance statement to the Blade this week says, “We are not going to share they’re previously planned commitment for 2025.”
The statement adds, “Many in our community are extremely vulnerable right now, and standing up for them, standing with them, standing with us, in this movement is what we all need.”
District of Columbia
Trump executive order prompts local hospitals to stop gender-affirming care for youth
Activists marched outside Children’s National on Feb. 2

Hospitals in the D.C. area are putting a prompt stop to aiding transgender youth and their families continue their transition after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that bans all gender-affirming care nationwide for minors under 19.
On Jan. 28, days after Trump took office, signed the executive order, “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” which immediately halted the prescription and medical treatment of gender-affirming care for all minors under the age of 19 across the country. The order use of “chemical and surgical mutilation” is in reference to the various kinds of gender-affirming care that youth may receive when in the care of a medical practice.
“Today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions.” says the executive order. “This dangerous trend will be a stain on our nation’s history, and it must end.”
The executive order laid out various guidelines for medical practices to follow that must be implemented within the coming months. These include “ending reliance on junk science,” in referring to following the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s guidelines for youth, and “defunding chemical and surgical mutilation,” which seeks to ban hospitals and medical schools to use federal funding for gender-affirming care.
Hospitals, medical schools, and clinics across the country have begun to abide by the executive order and drop trans and gender diverse youth as they dismantled programs that provided care of any kind that treated a child’s gender dysphoria. Children’s National Hospital in Northwest Washington is one of those institutions.
“Children’s National is committed to providing compassionate and comprehensive care in accordance with the law,” said Children’s National in a Jan. 30 press release. “As a result, we are currently pausing all puberty blockers and hormone therapy prescriptions for transgender youth patients, per the guidelines in the executive order issued by the White House this week. Children’s National already does not perform gender affirming surgery for minors.”
“We recognize the impact this change will have, and our commitment to creating a better future for children and families remains at the forefront of our mission,” it added. “We will do everything we can to ensure the same uninterrupted access to mental health counseling, social support, and holistic and respectful care for every patient at Children’s National. We are working directly with patients and providers to ensure every patient has access to the information and support services they need, and we appreciate their continued trust and understanding as we work through these changes.”
The hospital did not provide the Washington Blade with additional comment.
Activists in response to the decision organized a march that took place outside Children’s Hospital. on Feb. 2. D.C. Safe Haven, a group founded to “provide TLGBQ people in the DMV area with opportunities to transform their lives,” helped organize the march.
Similar protests have taken place across the country.
The Gender Liberation Movement organized the “Rise Up for Trans Youth” march in New York’s Union Square on Saturday. The group was one of the organizers of a march that took place in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 4 when the justices heard oral arguments in the U.S. v. Skrmetti case, which challenges a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for minors under 18.
“VCU Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU have suspended gender-affirming medications and gender-affirming surgical procedures for patients under 19-years-old in response to an executive order issued by the White House on Jan. 28, 2025, and related state guidance received by VCU on Jan. 30, 2025,” the hospital said in a statement. “Our doors remain open to all patients and their families for screening, counseling, mental health care, and all other health care needs.”
Equality Virginia, a queer advocacy group that works across the state, in a statement to the Blade criticized the executive order and response to it.
“Executive orders are not legislation, they are not law, and they do not supersede state laws,” said Narissa Rahaman, the group’s executive director. “The General Assembly has taken up bills on both transgender athletes and gender-affirming care, and in both cases, the general assembly has declined to pursue bans on either. State law is clear; what is unclear is why the Youngkin administration is spending its final year cozying up to the Trump administration and repeatedly singling out transgender Virginians for discrimination.”
“To the transgender and nonbinary athletes and youth seeking healthcare in Virginia who are feeling scared: Equality Virginia will not stop fighting for you, no matter who occupies the Governor’s Mansion or the White House,” added Rahaman.
Petitions are urging D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, Health and Human Services, and Children’s National to use D.C.’s human rights law to challenge the executive orders. Lambda Legal, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and the law firms Jenner & Block and Hogan Lovells have filed lawsuits against Trump’s mandate on behalf of families of trans youth.
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