Local
New LGBT alumni chapter at Morgan State
Group to debut at homecoming in October
Morgan State University (Photo by Stephreef; courtesy Wikimedia Commons)
A group of alumni from Morgan State University, with the support of President David Wilson’s LGBTQA Advisory Council, is planning to launch a new LGBTQA chapter on homecoming weekend in October.
The goals of the new chapter are to support current LGBTQA students and policy initiatives on campus, in conjunction with the Advisory Council, and to provide a sense of community for LGBTQA alumni through social events, communication and updates.
To join, you must have received an undergraduate or graduate degree from Morgan and be a paid member of the Alumni Association (as of July 1, 2016). Dues will be $30 per year in addition to 2016-17 Alumni Association dues.
“I am very excited to be bringing an LGBT Alumni Chapter to our Alma Matter, Morgan State,” Vanessa Bowling Ajavon, former president of Rainbow Soul, Morgan State’s official Gay-Straight Alliance, told the Blade.
“We are asking all LGBTQA allies to join the alumni chapter so we can help make Morgan an even more accepting community while keeping in touch with each other,” said Ajavon who met her wife while a freshman at Morgan State.
Adds Claudia Leight, a founder of Rainbow Soul: “[This] is one more step in Morgan’s affirmation of LGBTQA issues. I hope that some alumni will see that the campus climate is improving, with a variety of initiatives, among them: the existence since 2001 of the LGBTQA student organization, SOUL (formerly Rainbow Soul); the formation of the president’s LGBTQA Advisory Council; the strong Women’s and Gender Studies program; and our biennial academic symposium on Intersections of Sexuality, Gender, Race and Ethnicity — basically a queer studies conference, unique at an HBCU.”
For more information, contact Vanessa Bowling Ajavon at [email protected].
Photos
PHOTOS: Helen Hayes Awards
Gay Men’s Chorus, local drag artists have featured performance at ceremony
The 41st Helen Hayes Awards were held at The Anthem on Monday, May 19. Felicia Curry and Mike Millan served as the hosts.
A performance featuring members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and local drag artists was held at the end of the first act of the program to celebrate WorldPride 2025.
The annual awards ceremony honors achievement in D.C.-area theater productions and is produced by Theatre Washington.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
District of Columbia
Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals
Three LGBTQ icons to lead parade
WorldPride organizers announced Thursday that actress and trans activist Laverne Cox, powerhouse performer Reneé Rapp, and LGBTQ trailblazer Deacon Maccubbin will serve as grand marshals for this year’s WorldPride parade.
The Capital Pride Alliance, which is organizing WorldPride 2025 in Washington, D.C., revealed the honorees in a press release, noting that each has made a unique contribution to the fabric of the LGBTQ community.
Cox made history in 2014 as the first openly transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category for her role in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.” She went on to win a Daytime Emmy in 2015 for her documentary “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word,” which followed seven young trans people as they navigated coming out.
Rapp, a singer and actress who identifies as a lesbian, rose to prominence as Regina George in the Broadway musical “Mean Girls.” She reprised the role in the 2024 film adaptation and also stars in Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” portraying a character coming to terms with her sexuality. Rapp has released an EP, “Everything to Everyone,” and an album, “Snow Angel.” She announced her sophomore album, “Bite Me,” on May 21 and is slated to perform at the WorldPride Music Festival at the RFK Festival Grounds.
Deacon Maccubbin, widely regarded as a cornerstone of Washington’s LGBTQ+ history, helped organize D.C.’s first Gay Pride Party in 1975. The event took place outside Lambda Rising, one of the first LGBTQ bookstores in the nation, which Maccubbin founded. For his decades of advocacy and activism, he is often referred to as “the patriarch of D.C. Pride.”
“I am so honored to serve as one of the grand marshals for WorldPride this year. This has been one of the most difficult times in recent history for queer and trans people globally,” Cox said. “But in the face of all the rhetorical, legislative and physical attacks, we continue to have the courage to embrace who we truly are, to celebrate our beauty, resilience and bravery as a community. We refuse to allow fear to keep us from ourselves and each other. We remain out loud and proud.”
“Pride is everything. It is protection, it is visibility, it is intersectional. But most importantly, it is a celebration of existence and protest,” Rapp said.
The three will march down 14th Street for the WorldPride Parade in Washington on June 7.
2025 D.C. Trans Pride was held at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library on Saturday, May 17. The day was filled with panel discussions, art, social events, speakers, a resource fair and the Engendered Spirit Awards. Awardees included Lyra McMillan, Pip Baitinger, Steph Niaupari and Hayden Gise. The keynote address was delivered by athlete and advocate Schuyler Bailar.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
PHOTOS: Helen Hayes Awards
Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals
House passes reconciliation with gender-affirming care funding ban
PHOTOS: D.C. Trans Pride
Men convicted of murdering two men in NYC gay bar drugging scheme sentenced
Looking back at 50 years of Pride in D.C
WorldPride events round-up
Pope Leo XIV: Family based on ‘stable union between a man and a woman’
Wes Moore signs HIV decriminalization bill
