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Comings & Goings
Former Trevor Project staffer previously worked in D.C. government
Amy Loudermilk (Photo courtesy Loudermilk)
The Comings and 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 Amy Loudermilk who has started a new consulting company called Yachay Consulting. It will provide consulting services including policy and legislative strategy/advocacy; training and technical assistance; workshops and presentations and program evaluation and planning on a variety of topics including but not limited to LGBTQ: mental health and suicide prevention, intimate partner violence and sexual assault; cultural competence and diversity matters. She said, “I look forward to this exciting new venture and to using all I have learned in my many positions to benefit my clients.”
Amy is leaving her current position with the Trevor Project to begin this new venture. At the Trevor Project she was director of government affairs. Prior to that Amy was an adjunct faculty member at the University of New England where she served as a field instructor for the semester and supervised and directed all activities of a graduate level, Master of Social Work candidate. In her varied career she has also held a number of positions with the D.C. government. In Vincent Gray’s administration she was deputy director of the Mayor’s Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Affairs where among other duties she managed the development and delivery of diversity trainings and employment protections for government agencies and community groups. She built relationships with and served as a liaison to other D.C. government agencies and stakeholders to create innovative programming in support of the LGBT community.
Prior to that she worked in the Office of Victim Services and was on the Sexual Assault and Victims’ Rights Task Force. Amy has served as vice-chair of the Rainbow Response Coalition. She was honored as a 2017 Capital Pride Hero; was a 2014 Recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services and in 2010 was given a Next Generation Award by Metro Weekly magazine.
She did her undergraduate work receiving her BS in political science and graduating cum laude from Towson University in Towson, Md., and received her Master of Social Work from George Mason University in Arlington, Va.
WorldPride 2025 concluded with the WorldPride Street Festival and Closing Concert held along Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. on Sunday, June 8. Performers on the main stage included Doechii, Khalid, Courtney Act, Parker Matthews, 2AM Ricky, Suzie Toot, MkX and Brooke Eden.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Celebrating the transgender community, Baltimore Safe Haven, an organization committed to empowering LGBTQ individuals in Baltimore City, plans to host their fourth annual Baltimore Trans Pride on Saturday.
Instead of the usual parade and march, this year’s Trans Pride will be a block party on Charles Street and between 21st and 22nd Streets. The event will start at 1 p.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and last until 10 p.m.
Community members can go on guided tours, enjoy refreshments by local vendors, listen to presenters, and watch performances by special guests.
Sukihana, the event’s headliner, plans to take to the stage to entertain the crowd, along with a variety of local performers, according to Melissa Deveraux, Baltimore Safe Haven’s executive assistant to Executive Director Iya Dammons.
“Some (are) prominently known, some (are) just making a name for themselves,” Deveraux said. Iya is always making sure that community talent is showcased at all of our functions.”
In company with Pride on Saturday, Baltimore Safe Haven will be opening its new building on Friday from 1-4 p.m.
“That is sort of going to be the prelude to pride,” Lau said. “Thanks to Sen. Mary Washington and the Weinberg Foundation, we were able to purchase the building outright, and it’s going to be a community hub of administrative buildings and 12-bedroom apartments.”
Renee Lau, administrative assistant for special projects coordinator for Baltimore Safe Haven, said the planning process for Baltimore Trans Pride began in January, and putting it all together was a collaboration of multiple city agencies and organizations.
“Safe Haven is an LGBT community organization, but we service the entire community, and that’s the message we try to spread,” Lau said. “We’re not just here for the LGBT community. We’re here to spread goodwill and offer harm reduction and housing to the entire community.”
Lau said the organization’s biggest goal for the event is to gain exposure.
“(We want) to let and let people know who we are and what our community is about,” she said. “Right now, because of what’s happening in DC, there’s a lot of bad untruths going on, and the total thing is bringing out the truth.”
Deveraux said having a place of inclusivity, acceptance, and togetherness is important in today’s political climate and the current administration.
“This event will have people seeing the strength and resilience of the transgender community, showing that no matter what we are going through, we still show up,” Deveraux said. “We are here, we will not be erased.”
The 2025 WorldPride Parade was held in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 7. Laverne Cox and Renée Rapp were the grand marshals.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key and Robert Rapanut)
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