Local
GLAA backs Newsham for D.C. police chief
‘Accessible, responsive and forthright’
The mayor has nominated Peter Newsham as the city’s police chief. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance is calling on the D.C. City Council to confirm Mayor Muriel Bowser’s nomination of Peter Newsham as the city’s police chief.
In remarks prepared to be delivered Friday, March 24, at a confirmation roundtable hearing of the Council’s Judiciary Committee, GLAA’s immediate past president, Rick Rosendall, called Newsham an “experienced and level-headed” police official who has been supportive of the LGBT community.
“We are pleased to endorse the confirmation of Peter Newsham as Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department,” Rosendall said in a statement. “In our experience and that of others who have spoken to us, Chief Newsham has been accessible, responsive, and forthright in his dealings with members of the LGBTQ community.”
Bowser named Newsham, an attorney who joined the MPD in 1989, as interim chief last September after then Police Chief Cathy Lanier resigned to take a job as head of security for the National Football League. In February, Bowser announced she was nominating Newsham as permanent chief after her office completed a national search for Lanier’s successor.
Rosendall and other LGBT activists have praised Newsham for appointing Acting Lt. Brett Parson, the former head of the police LGBT Liaison Unit, to oversee all of the police liaison units, which Newsham transferred into the Executive Office of the Chief of Police.
As a guest speaker on March 13 at a meeting of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, Newsham discussed his rationale for bringing back Parson to the liaison units and bringing the units under his office.
“I thought that was really important for us as a police department to do, to send that message,” he said. “MPD is going to continue to strive to be inclusive and to be diverse and to work with some of our vulnerable and underserved communities.”
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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)
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