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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
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].
The Comings & Goings column also invites LGBTQ college students to share their successes with us. If you have been elected to a student government position, gotten an exciting internship, or are graduating and beginning your career with a great job, let us know so we can share your success.
Congratulations to Yadiel Meléndez, on their new role as Community Associate, with the Wanda Alston Foundation. Meléndez is piloting a new role as a Community Associate at the Wanda Alston Foundation, where they support queer and trans young people in finding their footing, building independence, and experiencing a housing community where they are seen, valued, and affirmed. They are coming into this role with more than a decade of experience as a community organizer and operations specialist, supporting diverse communities through service, advocacy, and program coordination.
Previously they worked for Right Proper Brewing Shaw as a server and bartender and at Sephora, Washington, DC, and at FreshFarm, DC, in bilingual food access. They also worked freelance to build foundational structures for local queer BIPOC performance art coalitions, producing variety shows to curate space for marginalized performance artists in the community. They were a production manager for Haus of Hart Productions, a BIPOC centric performance art production. They also worked as field staff with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in Stafford, Va.
Meléndez is bilingual, Spanish and English. Their work is guided by a commitment to dignity, safety, and trauma-informed engagement, particularly within LGBTQ and BIPOC communities.
Congratulations also to Ben Rosen LICSW, on his new role as program director, with the Wanda Alston Foundation. Rosen previously worked with Fountain House’s OnRamps program, helping to build a new, innovative outreach program for individuals considered chronically homeless, and living with serious mental illness, in the Times Square area of New York. Rosen is a Psychotherapist, having worked with SG Psychotherapy, and as the psychotherapist with the Nest Community Health Center (URAM).
Rosen has a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts: Musical Theatre, Minor in Psychology (Cum Laude) from Malloy University Conservatory; and his M.S.W. in Clinical Practice with Individuals, Families, and Groups, from The Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College, N.Y. He is independently licensed in New York and Washington, D.C.
Rehoboth Beach
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
Attendees encouraged to wear appropriate gear
Diego’s in Rehoboth Beach hosts a monthly leather happy hour. April’s edition is scheduled for Friday, April 10, 5-7 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to wear appropriate gear. The event is billed as an official event of BLUF, the free community group for men interested in leather. After happy hour, the attendees are encouraged to reconvene at Local Bootlegging Company for dinner, which allows cigar smoking. There’s no cover charge for either event.
District of Columbia
Celebrations of life planned for Sean Bartel
Two memorial events scheduled in D.C.
Two celebrations of life are planned for Sean Christopher Bartel, 48, who was found deceased on a hiking trail in Argentina on or around March 15. Bartel began his career as a television news reporter and news anchor at stations in Louisville, Ky., and Evansville, Ind., before serving as Senior Video Producer for the D.C.-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union from 2013 to 2024.
A memorial gathering is planned for Friday, April 10, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the IBEW International Office (900 7th St., N.W.), according to a statement by the DC Gay Flag Football League, where Bartel was a longtime member. A celebration of life is planned that same evening, 6-8 p.m. at Trade (1410 14th St., N.W.).
Minimal version of ‘Streetcar Named Desire’ heading to Dupont Underground
Comings & Goings
An effort to increase the number of psychiatrists of color
Calendar: April 10-16
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
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