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GLAA celebrates 47th anniversary

Group honored as nation’s oldest continuously active LGBT civil rights group

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GLAA, gay news, Washington Blade

D.C. Council member Robert White, left, joins Council members Mary Cheh and Jack Evans in presenting GLAA President Guillaume Bagal with a Council proclamation recognizing GLAA’s 47th anniversary. (Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro Jr.)

Five D.C. Council members, the director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, and D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham joined about 100 people Thursday night for the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance’s 47th Anniversary Reception.

The event, held at Policy Restaurant on 14th Street, N.W., highlighted what many of the group’s longtime members and supporters say is its role as the nation’s oldest continuously active gay and lesbian civil rights organization that later expanded its mission to advocate for transgender rights.

It was founded in 1971 by a group of gay activists who worked that year on D.C. gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny’s election campaign for the city’s non-voting representative to Congress. Kameny lost the election but his highly visible campaign drew attention to the city’s emerging gay rights movement.

Guillaume Bagal, the group’s current president, said the turnout for the reception reflected the efforts by a new crop of officers who took charge of the group last year to expand its ranks.

“Just looking into the crowd I saw many of the old faces but so many new ones as well, which is really what we tried to achieve beginning last year – to bring in new members and even younger ones with fresh ideas,” Bagal said. “It gives me hope for the future of GLAA.”

Bagal and other GLAA officers presented the group’s annual Distinguished Service Award to one organization and two individuals that the group said advanced the cause of LGBT equality as well as helped uplift marginalized communities beyond just the LGBT community.

Among the recipients of the award was Check It Enterprises, formerly known as the Check It Gang, which was started by a group of young LGBT people that came together as a street gang to protect each other from being bullied and attacked because of their identities as gay, lesbian or transgender.

With the help and encouragement of D.C. youth advocate Ron Moten, Check It members transformed themselves from a gang into a fledgling business enterprise in which they produce, market and sell a line of clothing. Since the transformation began five years ago they have held several fashion shows that began in public spaces but are now held, along with other events, at their own headquarters office and production space in historic Anacostia.

“They also use the building as a safe haven and conduct activities and programming for LGBT youth and young adults,” according to a GLAA write-up about the group, which notes that Check It became the subject of an award-winning documentary film.

The two individuals receiving GLAA’s Distinguished Service Award on Thursday night were D.C. Council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), and Whitman-Walker Health Executive Director Don Blanchon.

GLAA noted that Cheh, among other things, has been a longtime supporter of LGBT rights and introduced and pushed through a bill in the D.C. Council in 2013 that prohibits so-called conversion therapy seeking to change people from gay to straight from being practiced on people younger than 18 years old.

Other accomplishments of Cheh cited by GLAA include the Death with Dignity Act of 2015, which she authored; her advocacy for legislation to protect the environment, improve the health of D.C. residents, efforts to combat homelessness and prosecute bias crimes against homeless people; and an effort to eliminate the statute of limitations for the prosecution of sexual assaults.

In presenting its Distinguished Service Award to Blanchon, GLAA said he has played a key role for the past 11 years as executive director of Whitman-Walker Health in providing “an affirming and safe healthcare environment to gender and sexual minorities and other marginalized communities in the District.”

In addition to Cheh, members of the D.C. Council who attended the GLAA anniversary reception were Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large), Robert White (D-At-Large), Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), and Elissa Silverman (I-At-Large). Also attending were former D.C. Council member and longtime LGBT rights supporter Carol Schwartz and D.C. Council candidate Ed Lazere, who’s running against Mendelson for the Council Chair seat in the June 19 Democratic primary.

Evans presented GLAA with an official proclamation unanimously approved by the D.C. Council recognizing GLAA’s anniversary. Sheila Alexander-Reid, director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, presented the group with an official proclamation issued by Mayor Muriel Bowser honing GLAA on its 47th anniversary.

D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham also attended the event along with Lt. Brett Parson, who oversees the department’s special liaison units, and Sgt. Jessica Hawkins, who serves as supervisor of the LGBT Liaison Unit.

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PHOTOS: Helen Hayes Awards

Gay Men’s Chorus, local drag artists have featured performance at ceremony

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Members of the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington as well as local drag artists joined hosts Mike Millan and Felicia Curry with other performers for a WorldPride dance number at the Helen Hayes Awards on Monday. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

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)

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Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals

Three LGBTQ icons to lead parade

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Deacon Maccubbin attends the 2024 Capital Pride Parade. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

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.

Laverne Cox (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

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.

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PHOTOS: D.C. Trans Pride

Schuyler Bailar gives keynote address

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D.C. Trans Pride 2025 was held at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library on May 17. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

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)

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