Local
‘Eyes on Chechnya’ protest targets Russian ambassador
Demonstration comes day before Tillerson meets with Russian official
Protesters demonstrate in “Eyes on Chechnya” protest. (Blade photo by Michael Key)
Protesters gathered before the D.C. residence of the Russian ambassador to the United States on Tuesday to call on Russia to investigate reports of anti-gay abuses and concentration camps in Chechnya and bring them to an end.
An estimated 75 people gathered before the residence of Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in a demonstration organized by the Human Rights Campaign intended to highlight the arrests and detentions of gay and bisexual men in the semi-autonomous Republic.
Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, spoke at the “Eyes on Chechnya” demonstration and called on the Russian government to take the lead to end the reported abuses.
“Instead of rounding up gay men, Russia must pressure Chechnya to arrest the real criminals, the torturers, the jailers and the executioners,” Griffin said.
Griffin said he also carried a message for the U.S. government: Let the victims of the reported abuses seek asylum in the United States. On the day before Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was set to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Griffin said the Trump official must raise the issue with his Russian counterpart.
“He must show the same leadership that German Chancellor Merkel did when she met with Putin just last week,” Griffin said, referencing a meeting in which Merkel publicly raised the issue of anti-gay abuses with the Russian leader.
The demonstration was the result of ongoing concern over reports from Chechnya that local authorities have arrested more than 100 gay men and sent them to secret prisons for torture. At least four men have reportedly died as a result.
Chechnya is led by Ramzan Kadyrov, who has denied the atrocities are happnening by asserting gay people don’t exist there. British Minister of state for the Foreign Office Sir Alan Duncan said on the floor of parliament he was told of alleged plans in Chechnya to “eliminate” the country’s gay community by the start of Ramadan, which begins May 26.
Rob Berschinski, senior vice president for policy at Human Rights First, said the reported attacks on gay men are “part and parcel of the Russian government’s program of repression.”
“From a propaganda law that targets members of the LGBT community and their allies, to an NGO law that says anyone critical of the Putin regime is an enemy of the state to invasions of Russian neighbors to support for the brutal Assad regime in Syria, to action at the United Nations hoping to tear down an international system based around human rights and international law, our eyes are on Russia,” Berschinski said.
At the protest, participants chanted, “Stop the Violence…Stop the Hate…Russia Must Investigate.” One sign read, “Say Something Don! Pooty Got Your Tongue!” a reference to Trump’s suspected ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom intelligence agencies said assisted the president’s election efforts with illegal hacking.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley has spoken out against the atrocities, but President Trump himself and Tillerson have said nothing. (For that matter, mainstream media reporters haven’t asked Trump about the matter even though he has participated in several interviews with the press.) The Washington Blade has repeatedly sought comment from the White House on the atrocities.
The protest concluded just minutes before news broke that President Trump had terminated FBI Director James Comey, who was investigating potential Trump collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
Jeremy Kadden, HRC’s senior international policy advocate, said the process by which gay people in Chechnya could seek asylum in the United States starts with the U.S. government signaling they’re welcome to come here, but that hasn’t happened yet.
“What we understand is happening now is that folks who are trying to get out need the U.S. government to say they are welcome to come here,” Kadden said. “That’s a step that speeds things along a lot faster.”
Kadden said Russian authorities may seek to reclaim the persecuted gay men if they escape to nearby countries, which is why U.S. asylum for them is important.
“The Chechnen families that are trying to track them down won’t go that far,” Kadden said. “But the farther the refugees can get from Russia, the safer they are, and so I think they definitely want to get to the United States.”
The Blade has placed a request with the State Department seeking comment on the status of allowing persecuted gay men in Chechnya to come to the United States.
Ellen Kahn, a 54-year-old lesbian resident of Silver Silver, Md., was at the demonstration and said she came to encourage greater action from the Trump administration on the reported hostilities.
“Given the atrocities in Chechnya, and the silence of our administration — with the very small exception of Nikki Haley mentioning it — we have to push our government to speak up,” she said. “This is like when I think about our friends dying of AIDS very early in the epidemic 30 years ago and Ronald Reagan not saying a word, and we had to take to the streets. To me, this is the same urgency.”
The Blade has placed a request with the Russian embassy seeking comment on the protest.
Virginia
DOJ seeks to join lawsuit against Loudoun County over trans student in locker room
Three male high school students suspended after complaining about classmate
The Justice Department has asked to join a federal lawsuit against Loudoun County Public Schools over the way it handled the case of three male high school students who complained about a transgender student in a boys’ locker room.
The Washington Blade earlier this year reported Loudoun County public schools suspended the three boys and launched a Title IX investigation into whether they sexually harassed the student after they said they felt uncomfortable with their classmate in the locker room at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn.
The parents of two of the boys filed a lawsuit against Loudoun County public schools in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. The Richmond-based Founding Freedoms Law Center and America First Legal, which White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller co-founded, represent them.
The Justice Department in a Dec. 8 press release announced that “it filed legal action against the Loudoun County (Va.) School Board (Loudoun County) for its denial of equal protection based on religion.”
“The suit alleges that Loudoun County applied Policy 8040, which requires students and faculty to accept and promote gender ideology, to two Christian, male students in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” reads the press release.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the press release said “students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.”
“Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality,” said Dhillon.
Outgoing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and outgoing Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in May announced an investigation into the case.
The Virginia Department of Education in 2023 announced the new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students for which Youngkin asked. Equality Virginia and other advocacy groups claim they, among other things, forcibly out trans and nonbinary students.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in February launched an investigation into whether Loudoun County and four other Northern Virginia school districts’ policies in support of trans and nonbinary students violate Title IX and President Donald Trump’s executive order that prohibits federally funded educational institutions from promoting “gender ideology.”
District of Columbia
Capital Pride announces change in date for 2026 D.C. Pride parade and festival
Events related to U.S. 250th anniversary and Trump birthday cited as reasons for change
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C. based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, has announced it is changing the dates for the 2026 Capital Pride Parade and Festival from the second weekend in June to the third weekend.
“For over a decade, Capital Pride has taken place during the second weekend in June, but in 2026, we are shifting our dates in response to the city’s capacity due to major events and preparations for the 250th anniversary of the United States,” according to a Dec. 9 statement released by Capital Pride Alliance.
The statement says the parade will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2026, with the festival and related concert taking place on June 21.
“This change ensures our community can gather safely and without unnecessary barriers,” the statement says. “By moving the celebration, we are protecting our space and preserving Pride as a powerful act of visibility, solidarity, and resistance,” it says.
Ryan Bos, the Capital Pride Alliance CEO and President, told the Washington Blade the change in dates came after the group conferred with D.C. government officials regarding plans for a number of events in the city on the second weekend in June. Among them, he noted, is a planned White House celebration of President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and other events related to the U.S. 250th anniversary, which are expected to take place from early June through Independence Day on July 4.
The White House has announced plans for a large June 14, 2026 celebration on the White House south lawn of Trump’s 80th birthday that will include a large-scale Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event involving boxing and wrestling competition.
Bos said the Capital Pride Parade will take place along the same route it has in the past number of years, starting at 14th and T Streets, N.W. and traveling along 14th Street to Pennsylvania Ave., where it will end. He said the festival set for the following day will also take place at its usual location on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., between 2nd Street near the U.S. Capitol, to around 7th Street, N.W.
“Our Pride events thrive because of the passion and support of the community,” Capital Pride Board Chair Anna Jinkerson said in the statement. “In 2026, your involvement is more important than ever,” she said.
District of Columbia
Three women elected leaders of Capital Pride Alliance board
Restructured body includes chair rather than president as top leader
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, announced it has restructured its board of directors and elected for the first time three women to serve as leaders of the board’s Executive Committee.
“Congratulations to our newly elected Executive Officers, making history as Capital Pride Alliance’s first all-women Board leadership,” the group said in a statement.
“As we head into 2026 with a bold new leadership structure, we’re proud to welcome Anna Jinkerson as Board Chair, Kim Baker as Board Treasurer, and Taylor Lianne Chandler as Board Secretary,” the statement says.
In a separate statement released on Nov. 20, Capital Pride Alliance says the restructured Board now includes the top leadership posts of Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary, replacing the previous structure of President and Vice President as the top board leaders.
It says an additional update to the leadership structure includes a change in title for longtime Capital Pride official Ryan Bos from executive director to chief executive officer and president.
According to the statement, June Crenshaw, who served as acting deputy director during the time the group organized WorldPride 2025 in D.C., will now continue in that role as permanent deputy director.
The statement provides background information on the three newly elected women Board leaders.
• Anna Jinkerson (chair), who joined the Capital Pride Alliance board in 2022, previously served as the group’s vice president for operations and acting president. “A seasoned non-profit executive, she currently serves as Assistant to the President and CEO and Chief of Staff at Living Cities, a national member collaborative of leading philanthropic foundations and financial institutions committed to closing income and wealth gaps in the United States and building an economy that works for everyone.”
• Kim Baker (treasurer) is a “biracial Filipino American and queer leader,” a “retired, disabled U.S. Army veteran with more than 20 years of service and extensive experience in finance, security, and risk management.” She has served on the Capital Pride Board since 2018, “bringing a proven track record of steady, principled leadership and unwavering dedication to the LGBTQ+ community.”
• Taylor Lianne Chandler (Secretary) is a former sign language interpreter and crisis management consultant. She “takes office as the first intersex and trans-identifying member of the Executive Committee.” She joined the Capital Pride Board in 2019 and previously served as executive producer from 2016 to 2018.
Bos told the Washington Blade in a Dec. 2 interview that the Capital Pride board currently has 12 members, and is in the process of interviewing additional potential board members.
“In January we will be announcing in another likely press release the full board,” Bos said. “We are finishing the interview process of new board members this month,” he said. “And they will take office to join the board in January.”
Bos said the organization’s rules set a cap of 25 total board members, but the board, which elects its members, has not yet decided how many additional members it will select and a full 25-member board is not required.
The Nov. 20 Capital Pride statement says the new board executive members will succeed the organization’s previous leadership team, which included Ashley Smith, who served as president for eight years before he resigned earlier this year; Anthony Musa, who served for seven years as vice president of board engagement; Natalie Thompson, who served eight years on the executive committee; and Vince Micone, who served for eight years as vice president of operations.
“I am grateful for the leadership, dedication, and commitment shown by our former executive officers — Ashley, Natalie, Anthony, and Vince — who have been instrumental in CPA’s growth and the exceptional success of WorldPride 2025,” Bos said in the statement.
“I look forward to collaborating with Anna in her new role, as well as Kim and Taylor in theirs, as we take on the important work ahead, prepare for Capital Pride 2026, and expand our platform and voice through Pride365,” Bos said.
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