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Comings & Goings
Inouye lands at Leadership Conference
The ‘Comings & Goings’ column chronicles important life changes of Blade readers.
The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected].
Shin Inouye
Congratulations to Shin Inouye who has started in his new position as director of communications and media relations at The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund. In that capacity he is responsible for directing and implementing the organizations’ communications strategy. He serves as point person on the development of institutional communications campaigns, including large-scale coalition-wide public advocacy campaigns.
Prior to this, Inouye served for eight years as an appointee in the Obama administration. From February 2009 to October 2014 he was director of specialty media in the White House Office of Communications where he served as the communications officer for a variety of specialty media outlets, including LGBT, AAPI, Native Americans, veterans and military families, youth/college, faith, rural and ethnic. As an official spokesperson for the White House, he handled incoming media inquiries regarding those groups and targeted outreach to specialty media. From October 2014 to January 2017 he was the press secretary and acting senior adviser for Intergovernmental and External Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
He worked in the Obama for America 2008 presidential campaign. Before that he was communications director for Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.).
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference Education Fund builds public will for federal policies that promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States.
Congratulations also to Scott Simpson who is the new public advocacy director at Muslim Advocates. Simpson will build out a new department that leverages communications and campaigns to impact policies, news coverage and public opinion about American Muslims.
Simpson was formerly at The Leadership Conference where he worked on major federal civil rights issues leading a campaign to document and publicize the resurgence of voting discrimination in the aftermath of the Shelby decision to gut the Voting Rights Act. He authored reports on polling place closures and the impact of Shelby in swing states.
He has edited “Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition” written by Rep. Shirley Chisholm and “From the Closet to the Courts: Expanded 30th Anniversary Edition” written by his great aunt, gay liberation leader Ruth Simpson. Simpson has managed political campaigns in the District of Columbia and ran to represent Ward One on the State Board of Education. Previously, he served as deputy press secretary to Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio); an HIV test counselor and youth advocate; president of the LGBT Congressional Staff Association and secretary of “Q” Street, the association of LGBT policy advocates and lobbyists.
He received his bachelor’s degree in marketing from Southeastern University and master’s degree in Strategic Public Relations from George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.
Muslim Advocates is a national legal advocacy and educational organization that works on the frontlines of civil rights to guarantee freedom and justice for Americans of all faiths. It is a 501(c)(3) charitable, tax-exempt nonprofit entity that is supported entirely by private donations.
Scott Simpson
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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