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Comings & Goings
Perry named president of SCAN


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].

Kris Perry (Photo courtesy Perry)
Congratulations to Kris Perry who has been named president of the Save the Children Action Network (SCAN). SCAN is the advocacy arm of Save the Children. SCAN’s current president, Mark Shriver, will assume the role of CEO. Shriver said, “We are thrilled to have someone of Kris’ depth and experience in early childhood development and political strategy help us take SCAN to the next level, ensuring we have an even bigger impact for kids in this country and around the world.”
Perry said, “I’m thrilled to join the talented team at SCAN to help achieve crucial victories for children and families across America and around the world. … I look forward to helping SCAN’s noble work to make candidates’ and lawmakers’ support for young children a deciding issue when voters cast their ballots in 2018, 2020 and beyond.”
Perry has dedicated her career to advocating for young children and their families most recently as executive director of the First Five Years Fund, and previously as executive director of First 5 California, and executive director of First 5 San Mateo County. Perry served as a member of the SCAN board prior to accepting this position as president.
Many know Perry from when she and her wife Sandy were the plaintiffs in the Hollingsworth v. Perry legal challenge to California’s Proposition 8 that resulted in restoring marriage equality to the state of California. She received her bachelor’s from the University of California, Santa Cruz California and her master’s of Social Work, San Francisco State University.
Congratulations also to Dustin Wright, who was recently promoted into the Senior Executive Service (SES) after 21 years of federal service. Wright’s first assignment as a member of the SES will be as the Assistant Inspector General for Investigations with the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Inspector General. During his 21-year federal career, he has served in the U.S. Border Patrol and two other Offices of Inspector General.
He began his career as a Border Patrol agent in 1996 and worked his way up the ladder. Dustin said, “I am proud to have served in the federal government and to make it my career.” In his most recent position as Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Investigations in the Department of Energy, he received numerous awards for service and among his other accomplishments successfully wrote, revised and navigated a new department directive detailing reporting requirements of employees and contractors to the Office of Inspector General and supervised and innovated investigative and hotline operations.
Congratulations also to Chip Lewis, who begins his new position as director of communications at NMAC, formerly the National Minority AIDS Council. According to its website, “The new mission from NMAC calls on us to lead with race. NMAC’s urgency is the numbers. Black women are 20 times more likely to get HIV than white women. 50% of black gay men will have HIV by the time they are 35 (8% of white gay men are infected). Even with quality HIV services, the results for many black women and gay men of color are awful. What are we doing or not doing that makes HIV so racially polarized? Leading with race for NMAC means: Normalize discussion about race within the HIV movement; Bending the curve of new HIV infections; and Retaining people of color living with HIV in care.”
Prior to joining NMAC, Lewis spent a good deal of his career at Whitman-Walker Health in various roles including deputy director of communications. Prior to that he served as press secretary for Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.).

Chip Lewis (Photo courtesy of Lewis)
Photos
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)










