Local
Relatives, activists mourn trans advocate
Sharmus Outlaw succumbed to lymphoma
Sharmus Outlaw’s family members at a memorial service at MCC Church (Washington Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro, Jr.)
More than 20 family members of internationally known transgender and sex worker rights advocate Sharmus Outlaw joined LGBT activists for a memorial celebration of Outlaw’s life on Aug. 20 at the Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, D.C.
Outlaw, who most recently served a national policy advocate for the sex workers rights organization Best Practices Policy Project, died on July 7 at a hospice in Arlington, Va., from complications associated with lymphoma. She was 50.
Friends said she was a beloved figure and mentor to many in the D.C.-area transgender community through her advocacy work and numerous friendships.
“Sharmus Outlaw understood those who society marginalizes and the disenfranchised,” said Rev. Dyan Abena McCray-Peters, pastor of Unity Fellowship Church in D.C., in a eulogy for Outlaw.
“Sharmus was the Rosa Parks for the transgender community,” McCray-Peters said. “She was the Martin Luther King Jr. for those challenged with HIV/AIDS,” she said, adding, “God sent Sharmus Outlaw to this earth to do something special and she did it.”
Among those attending the memorial were Outlaw’s siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and nieces and nephews, including one baby and two small kids.
“We love you,” some of them said as McCray-Peters and others spoke of their interactions with Outlaw both professionally and personally.
D.C. transgender activists Ruby Corado, Earline Budd, and Darby Hickey each said Outlaw played an important role over the past dozen or more years in helping to improve the lives of transgender people.
Several of Outlaw’s family members, including her brother, referred to Outlaw as “he” and “him,” saying they understood and respected her transition as a trans woman but they could not think of her other than the person they knew and loved while growing up in North Carolina and later in suburban Maryland.
“We know they loved her and respected her despite the wrong pronouns,” said Budd, who noted that she has helped organize memorial services for numerous transgender women whose family members often grapple with how to describe their deceased loved ones.
At the conclusion of the service, Outlaw’s family members posed for a group photograph while standing in front of a poster size photo of Outlaw at the front of the church.
Maryland
Parents sue Anne Arundel schools, allege officials hid child’s gender transition
America First legal Foundation filed lawsuit on July 8
By CODY BOTELER | Two parents, backed by a conservative nonprofit group, are suing Anne Arundel County Public Schools over the school system’s policies related to transgender children.
The suit, filed Wednesday in Maryland’s U.S. District Court, accuses staff at an unidentified county high school of lying to the parents, identified as John Doe and Jane Doe, about their child, identified as Mary Doe.
The Does allege the school “socially transitioned” their child without notice or their consent by using a masculine name and masculine pronouns for Mary Doe.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
Campaign launched to elect more LGBTQ candidates to ANC seats
Capital Stonewall Democrats behind Queering ANCs effort
The Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political group, announced on July 7 it has launched a campaign to help elect large numbers of LGBTQ candidates to the city’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.
The D.C. local government is believed to be unique among U.S. cities in currently having 46 Advisory Neighborhood Commissions consisting of 345 single-member districts in neighborhoods throughout the city in which unpaid Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners are elected for two-year terms.
The commissions are charged with considering a wide range of policies and programs impacting their neighborhoods, including traffic, parking, recreation, street improvements, liquor licenses, zoning, economic development, police protection, sanitation and trash collection, and D.C.’s annual budget, according to the ANC website.
Although the ANCs do not have authority to set or reject policies or proposals, such as applications for liquor licenses, city agencies are required to give “great weight” to ANC recommendations, according to the law creating the ANCs.
Kent Boese, a gay former ANC commissioner, currently serves as executive director of the D.C. Office of ANCs.
“We are launching the most ambitious hyperlocal LGBTQ+ candidate pipeline initiative in the country,” said Stevie McCarty, the Capital Stonewall Democrats president, in a July 7 statement that announced the Queering ANCs campaign.
“As an ANC member, I know firsthand how these seats shape our neighborhoods, from housing and public safety to sanitation,” McCarty says in the statement. “I’m proud to lead this effort to ensure more LGBTQ+ Washingtonians see themselves as leaders in their communities,” he said.
The ANC Rainbow Caucus, which was created by LGBTQ ANC members, shows on its website that there are currently 38 caucus members consisting of elected LGBTQ ANC commissioners serving in the current 2025-2026 two-year term.
The website shows there are LGBTQ commissioners who are caucus members in each of the city’s eight wards, with six in Ward 1, eight in Ward 2, one in Ward 3, six in Ward 4, five in Ward 5, three in Ward 6, eight in Ward 7, and one in Ward 8.
The Washington Blade couldn’t immediately determine how many of them will be running for re-election in D.C.’s general election in November. But McCarty said Capital Stonewall Democrats hopes to recruit many more LGBTQ candidates to run for ANC seats.
The D.C. Board of Elections website shows the deadline for filing 25 required petition signatures to be placed on the ballot is Aug. 5.
A Queering ANCs website launched this week by Capital Stonewall Democrats provides details on how to run for an ANC seat and offers help for those interested in running.
“Think of someone in your building, neighborhood, friend group, community organization, or professional network who cares deeply about D.C. and would make a strong leader,” McCarty says in his statement. “Send them QueeringANCs.org and personally ask them to consider running,” he said.
The website can be accessed at QueeringANCs.org.
Baltimore
Ron Singer, owner of popular Mount Vernon gay bar Leon’s, dies
66-year-old’s funeral to take place Friday
By CAYLA HARRIS | Ron Singer, the owner of Baltimore’s popular gay bar Leon’s Backroom, died Tuesday, the venue announced in a social media post. He was 66.
“For more than 20 years, Ron made Leon’s a place so many people were proud to call home,” the post reads. “He will be deeply missed.”
The Mount Vernon bar, typically open from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily, is still open Thursday, but doors will close at midnight so staff can attend his funeral Friday morning. Services are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. at Sol Levinson’s Chapel.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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