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Comings & Goings
Blade Foundation offers $2,000 reporting fellowship


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].
The Comings & 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 new job, let us know so we can share your success.

Congratulations to Sahand Miraminy who has joined the Capital Pride Alliance as its new Director of Operations. While The Capital Pride Alliance is primarily known for the annual Parade and Festival, there’s an impressive array of other events, programs, and advocacy they spearhead throughout the year. Next year will be the 45th anniversary of Capital Pride.
Upon accepting the position Miraminy said, “As a native to the area, the Capital Pride Alliance was integral to my personal journey as a gay man. I vividly remember attending my first Pride event, and the strong sense of community and belonging was overwhelming. I’m so excited to help others experience that in my new role.”
Miraminy has spent the last 10 years managing events and conducting fundraising in D.C. During that time he has planned more than 1,000 special events, festivals, and programs. He has always worked with non-profits having worked for the National Trust for Historic Preservation where he planned up to 120 events, including receptions for major corporations, lectures, races, music festivals, and weddings. Actually Miraminy still is a wedding planner on the side. He has volunteered with the Fairfax County Park Authority, Smithsonian Institution, and George Washington’s Mount Vernon. He calls himself a history nerd.
Miraminy was born in Fairfax and grew up there until moving to D.C. after college, just a few blocks from where his grandmother’s house was when he was growing up. He said he doesn’t have a simple coming out story but “remembers a point where I didn’t really care to keep it secret anymore toward the end of high school. I’m an identical twin, so I was constantly compared to him. Getting to start over and meet new people, especially while I worked at a restaurant to get through college, was a great opportunity to just be myself.”
He attended George Mason University and has a degree in anthropology and archaeology. He said “I wanted to be Indiana Jones in my past life.”
I hope the readers of this column will share the following information on an exciting opportunity for aspiring LGBTQ+ journalists.
$2,000 Blade Foundation Reporting Fellowship
The Blade Foundation is offering a paid fellowship to an aspiring LGBTQ+ journalist in the D.C. area to begin in early 2020. Applicants must be over 18 and must either be currently enrolled in a college journalism program or have an acceptance letter to a program.
The fellowship will require 15-20 hours a week with a focus on reporting and writing LGBTQ-specific stories in D.C. and Virginia. The fellowship recipient will report directly to a member of the Washington Blade’s editorial staff and will be expected to participate in weekly staff meetings.
To apply send a letter of interest, resume and links to three published articles to Blade Foundation Executive Director Kevin Naff at [email protected]. The deadline to apply for the fellowship is Dec. 2, and applicants will be notified of a final decision by Dec. 20.
All LGBTQ+ journalism students in the D.C. area are encouraged to apply and we especially encourage LGBTQ people of color, transgender and/or non-binary individuals to take advantage of this opportunity. The Blade Foundation would like to give special thanks to the DC Front Runners for raising money to fund this unique opportunity.
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)










