Local
Playwright seeks interviews with those who lost parents to HIV/AIDS
Researchers will be in D.C. next week
The leader of a Portland, Ore.-based team of playwrights who are collecting stories from people who have lost a parent to HIV/AIDS and who could be featured as characters in a future play would like to interview such people in D.C. Sept. 21-22 or at another mutually convenient date.
Bruce Hostetler, the artistic director of CompassWorks, a theater group that plans to produce such a play, is asking people who know someone who lost a parent to HIV/AIDS to contact his D.C. representative, who hopes to schedule a series of appointments for interviews with Hostetler.
“Bruce will be in Washington, D.C., Sept. 21 and 22, and would like to expand his interviews to people in our area,” said Ella P. Curry, a D.C. resident and former nurse who says she’s serving as the historical and clinical content expert for the playwrights working on the project.
“I have agreed to coordinate the effort to find people ages 18 and older who have lost a parent to HIV/AIDS and are willing to be interviewed by Bruce while he is in town,” she said in a statement to the Washington Blade.
“CompassWorks is an organization founded in 2009 that creates powerful professional theater drawn from the stories of populations all around us,” Curry said in her statement. “We are dedicated to creating collaborations between the best theater artists and populations who hold stories that need to be told,” she said.
Anyone interested in being interviewed by Hostetler or who know someone who might be interested should contact Curry by email at [email protected] or by phone at 202-297-2802.
Virginia
VIDEO: LGBTQ groups march in Va. inaugural parade
Abigail Spanberger took office on Saturday
The inaugural ceremonies for Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger were held in Richmond, Va. on Saturday. Among the groups marching in the parade were Diversity Richmond and the Virginia Pride project of Diversity Richmond.
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Virginia
Va. Senate approves referendum to repeal marriage amendment
Outgoing state Sen. Adam Ebbin introduced SJ3
The Virginia Senate on Friday by a 26-13 vote margin approved a resolution that seeks to repeal a state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
Outgoing state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) introduced SJ3. The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee on Wednesday approved it by a 10-4 vote margin.
Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Virginia since 2014. Outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2024 signed a bill that codified marriage equality in state law.
A resolution that seeks to repeal the Marshall-Newman Amendment passed in the General Assembly in 2021. The resolution passed again in 2025.
Two successive legislatures must approve the resolution before it can go to the ballot. Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates have said the resolution’s passage is among their 2026 legislative priorities.
“It’s time for Virginia’s Constitution to reflect the law of the land and the values of today,” said Ebbin after Friday’s vote. “This amendment, if approved by voters, would affirm the dignity of all committed couples and protects marriage equality for future generations.”
Maryland
Layoffs and confusion at Pride Center of Maryland after federal grants cut, reinstated
Trump administration move panicked addiction and mental health programs
By ALISSA ZHU | After learning it had abruptly lost $2 million in federal funding, the Pride Center of Maryland moved to lay off a dozen employees, or about a third of its workforce, the Baltimore nonprofit’s leader said Thursday.
The group is one of thousands nationwide that reportedly received letters late Tuesday from the Trump administration. Their mental health and addiction grants had been terminated, effective immediately, the letters said.
By Wednesday night, federal officials moved to reverse the funding cuts by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, estimated to total $2 billion, according to national media reports. But the Pride Center of Maryland’s CEO Cleo Manago said as of Thursday morning he had not heard anything from the federal government confirming those reports.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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