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Comings & Goings
Fanning to lead aerospace association
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]. We also invite LGBTQ+ college students to share their successes with us.
Eric Fanning (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Congratulations to Eric Fanning who will start his position as president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) on Jan. 1, 2018. According to the AIA website, “The AIA, founded in 1919, only a few years after the birth of flight, is the most authoritative and influential trade association representing the U.S. aerospace and defense industry on Capitol Hill, within the administration and internationally. As the voice of American aerospace and defense, AIA’s strong advocacy is essential to protecting the interests of our nation and our industry.” Upon announcing Eric’s appointment, AIA Chair Dennis Muilenburg said, “Eric is an accomplished, respected leader whose broad government and national security experience will serve AIA and its member companies well.”
On accepting the position, Fanning said, “The aerospace and defense industry represents more than 2.4 million proud workers, representing over 13 percent of the nation’s manufacturing force from all 50 states, who passionately understand the gravity of their contribution to our economy and national security. …This is an exciting time, and I am proud to lead AIA in its role as the voice of American aerospace and defense.”
Fanning is well known in Washington, D.C. He served as the 22nd Secretary of the Army providing leadership and oversight of our nation’s largest military service. He previously served as chief of staff of the Secretary of Defense, Acting Secretary of the Air Force and Under Secretary of the Air Force, and Deputy Under Secretary and Deputy Chief Management Officer of the Navy. He is the only person to have held senior appointments in all three military departments and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. During his more than 25 years of distinguished government service, Fanning also worked on the staff of the House Armed Services Committee, and was a special assistant to the Secretary of Defense and associate director of political affairs at the White House.
Congratulations also to Chip Wheeler, who has been appointed to the position of Associate Director for Volunteer Recruitment and Selection at the Peace Corps. Creating the Peace Corps was one of the signature achievements of President John F. Kennedy. For more than five decades, Peace Corps volunteers in 140 countries have demonstrated ingenuity, creativity, and grit to solve critical challenges alongside community leaders.
Prior to assuming this position with the Peace Corps, Wheeler served for the past 10 years as national director, community investments, in the Office of Corporate Responsibility at Voya Financial. He also led the Voya Foundation supporting children’s education, financial literacy and diversity. Before joining Voya Financial, he served for 10 years as vice president for private sector initiatives at America’s Promise Alliance, which was founded by General Colin L. Powell.
In addition, he has served in leadership positions at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Council; as a Trustee of America’s Promise Alliance; on the board of the Association of Corporate Contribution Professionals; and on the corporate advisory board of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. Wheeler is a native of St. Louis and a graduate of Texas Christian University.
Chip Wheeler
District of Columbia
Mayor Bowser signs bill requiring insurers to cover PrEP
‘This is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS’
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on March 20 signed a bill approved by the D.C. Council that requires health insurance companies to cover the costs of HIV prevention or PrEP drugs for D.C. residents at risk for HIV infection.
Like all legislation approved by the Council and signed by the mayor, the bill, called the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act, was sent to Capitol Hill for a required 30-day congressional review period before it takes effect as D.C. law.
Gay D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) last year introduced the bill.
Insurance coverage for PrEP drugs has been provided through coverage standards included in the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. But AIDS advocacy organizations have called on states and D.C. to pass their own legislation requiring insurance coverage of PrEP as a safeguard in case federal policies are weakened or removed by the Trump administration, which has already reduced federal funding for HIV/AIDS-related programs.
Like legislation passed by other states, the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act requires insurers to cover all PrEP drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Studies have shown that PrEP drugs, which can be taken as pills or by injection just twice a year, are highly effective in preventing HIV infection.
“I think this is a win for our community,” Parker said after the D.C. Council voted unanimously to approve the bill on its first vote on the measure in February. “And this is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”
District of Columbia
Blade editor to be inducted into D.C. Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame
Kevin Naff marks 24 years with publication this year
Longtime Washington Blade Editor Kevin Naff will be inducted into D.C.’s Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame in June, the group announced this week.
Hall of Fame honorees are chosen by the Society of Professional Journalists’ Washington, D.C., Pro Chapter. Naff and two other inductees — Seth Borenstein, a Washington-based national science writer for the AP and Cheryl W. Thompson, an award-winning correspondent for National Public Radio — will be celebrated at the chapter’s Dateline Awards dinner on Tuesday, June 9, at the National Press Club. The dinner’s emcee will be Kojo Nnamdi, host of WAMU radio’s weekly “Politics Hour.”
“I am tremendously honored by this recognition,” Naff said. “I have spent a lifetime in the D.C. area learning from so many talented journalists and am humbled to be considered in their company. Thank you to SPJ and to all the LGBTQ pioneers who came before me who made this possible.”
Naff joined the Blade in 2002 after years in print and digital journalism. He worked as a financial reporter for Reuters in New York before moving to Baltimore in 1996 to launch the Baltimore Sun’s website. He spent four years at the Sun before leaving for an internet startup and later joining the mobile data group at Verizon Wireless working on the first generation of mobile apps.
He then moved to the Blade and has served as the publication’s longest-tenured editor. In 2023, Naff published his first book, “How We Won the War for LGBTQ Equality — And How Our Enemies Could Take It All Away.”
Previous Hall of Fame inductees include luminaries in journalism like Wolf Blitzer, Benjamin Bradlee, Bob Woodward, Andrea Mitchell, and Edgar Allen Poe. The Blade’s senior news reporter Lou Chibbaro Jr. was inducted in 2015.
Maryland
Supreme Court ruling against conversion therapy bans could affect Md. law
Then-Gov. Larry Hogan signed statute in 2018
By PAMELA WOOD, JOHN-JOHN WILLIAMS IV, and MADELEINE O’NEILL | The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a law banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ kids in Colorado, a ruling that also could apply to Maryland’s ban on the discredited practice.
An 8-1 high court majority sided with a Christian counselor who argues the law banning talk therapy violates the First Amendment. The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court to decide whether it meets a legal standard that few laws pass.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the court’s majority, said the law “censors speech based on viewpoint.” The First Amendment, he wrote, “stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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