Local

GLAA backs Newsham for D.C. police chief

‘Accessible, responsive and forthright’

Published

9 years ago

March 22, 2017

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Peter Newsham, gay news, Washington Blade

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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Virginia

VIDEO: LGBTQ groups march in Va. inaugural parade

Abigail Spanberger took office on Saturday

Published

4 hours ago

January 17, 2026

Michael Key

Diversity Richmond and the Virginia Pride project of Diversity Richmond march in the 2026 Inauguration Parade on the grounds of the state capitol in Richmond, Va. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

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.

View on Threads

*The LGBTQ contingent in the inaugural parade in Richmond, Va. pass by the review stand on Jan. 17, 2026. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)*

Virginia

Va. Senate approves referendum to repeal marriage amendment

Outgoing state Sen. Adam Ebbin introduced SJ3

Published

12 hours ago

January 17, 2026

Staff reports

(Bigstock photo)

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

Published

1 day ago

January 16, 2026

Baltimore Banner

Merrick Moses, a violence prevention coordinator, works at the Pride Center of Maryland in Baltimore. (Photo by Ulysses Muñoz for the Baltimore Banner)

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.