Gay Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Miguel Trindade Deramo on Nov. 18 announced his candidacy for the Ward 1 D.C. Council seat being vacated by incumbent Councilmember Brianne Nadeau.

Trindade Deramo, 39, became at least the sixth Democratic candidate competing for the Ward 1 Council seat in the city’s June 16, 2026, Democratic primary. Among his competitors is fellow gay Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Brian Footer, who announced his candidacy in July.

Footer serves as chairman of ANC 1E, which represents the city’s Howard University, Park View, and Pleasant Plains neighborhoods in Ward 1

Trindade Dermo serves as chairman of ANC 1B, which, according to its website, represents the neighborhoods of lower Columbia Heights, Cardozo, LeDroit Park, North Shaw, Meridian Hill, the U Street Corridor, and lower Georgia Avenue. The U Street Corridor is where multiple nightlife establishments are located, including at least 10 gay bars.

“I’m running for D.C. Council because I believe this community deserves a leader who will roll up their sleeves and turn progressive policy into action,” Trindade Deramo said in a statement announcing his candidacy. “Together we can unlock Ward 1’s full potential by tackling affordability, reimagining public safety, and addressing local neighborhood concerns,” he said.

His announcement statement says he was born in Michigan, where his mother immigrated from Brazil. It says he came to D.C. in 2012 to train as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer at the State Department. It says he chose to make D.C. his home in 2016 and says he “now lives at 14th and Chapin with his partner, Luis.”

A biographic write-up on his education and career posted on his campaign website states, “Miguel attended Northwestern University, where he immersed himself in LGBTQ+ activism and established himself as a student leader.”

It says that after graduating with a degree in international relations and political science, he became a Foreign Service Officer at the State Department. According to the write-up, after serving a tour in São Paulo, he pursued a graduate degree in Islamic studies at McGill University in Montreal and he later began another federal job as an intelligence analyst at the Department of Homeland Security.

“However, after witnessing the erosion of democratic norms under the Trump administration, the hyper-militarized response to the Black Lives Matter movement, and the insurrection of Jan. 6, Miguel acted on his deep sense of civic duty by leaving the federal government and joining the pro-democracy movement,” his campaign write-up says.

It adds that he soon became involved in electoral reform organizations and a short time later emerged as one of the lead organizers of the D.C. Initiative 83 campaign, in which D.C. voters overwhelming approved a ranked choice voting system as well as open D.C. primary elections.

The June 16, 2026, D.C. Democratic primary in which Trindade Deramo and Footer will be competing against each other and at least four other candidates will be the first time the city’s ranked choice voting system will be in place for D.C. voters.

Under the system, in elections where there are more than two candidates competing, voters can mark their first choice and their second, third, or more choices if they wish to do so. In the Ward 1 Democratic primary next June LGBTQ voters as well as all other voters will have the option of voting for Trindade Deramo or Footer as their first or second choice.

When asked by the Washington Blade what message he has for LGBTQ voters in Ward 1 who will be choosing among two gay candidates, Trindade Deramo said, among other things, he will point out that he has represented the U Street Corridor in his role as an ANC member.

“A huge mission of mine is to make that space for everyone,” he said. “And U Street unites everyone. All the different people from all over the city come there for theater, for clubbing, for thinking, for eating, whatever,” he added. “And that includes LGBTQ+ people.”

Footer didn’t immediately respond to a request by the Blade for comment on Trindade Deramo’s candidacy.

Trindade Deramo’s campaign website can be accessed here:

Brian Footer’s campaign website can be accessed here:

The Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court on Nov. 18 ruled the country’s National Police and Armed Forces cannot criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations among its members.

Human Rights Watch in a press release notes the landmark decision struck down Article 210 of the National Police’s Code of Justice and Article 260 of the Armed Forces’ Code of Justice.

Police officers and servicemembers who engaged in same sex “sodomy” faced up to two years or one year in prison respectively. Human Rights Watch in its press release said the provisions violated “constitutional guarantees to nondiscrimination, privacy, free development of personality, and the right to work” in the Dominican Republic.

“For decades, these provisions forced LGBT officers to live in fear of punishment simply for who they are,” said Cristian González Cabrera, a senior Human Rights Watch researcher. “This ruling is a resounding affirmation that a more inclusive future is both possible and required under Dominican law.”

Consensual same-sex sexual relations have been legal in the Dominican Republic since 1822, more than two decades before it declared independence from neighboring Haiti.

The Armed Forces Code of Justice had been in place since 1953. The National Police Code of Justice took effect in 1966.

Anderson Javiel Dirocie de León and Patricia M. Santana Nina challenged the policies in court.

“This decision marks a decisive step toward ensuring that these institutions, as well as any public or private body, adapt their rules and practices to guarantee that no person is discriminated against or sanctioned for their sexual orientation,” said Santana in the press release.

Dominican law does not ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, education, housing, and other areas. The country’s constitution defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

James “Wally” Brewster, who was the U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic from 2013-2017, is openly gay. Religious leaders frequently criticized him and his husband, Bob Satawake.

Brewster in a text message to the Washington Blade said the Constitutional Court ruling is “important.”

Loraine Adele Hutchins, a nationally known and acclaimed advocate for bisexual and LGBTQ rights, co-author and editor of a groundbreaking book on bisexuality, and who taught courses in sexuality, and women’s and LGBTQ studies at a community college in Maryland, died Nov. 19 from complications related to cancer. She was 77.

Hutchins, who told the Washington Blade in a 2023 interview that she self-identified as a bisexual woman, is credited with playing a lead role in advocating for the rights of bisexual people on a local, state, and national level as well as with LGBTQ organizations, many of which bi activists have said were ignoring the needs of the bi community up until recent years.

“Throughout her life, Loraine dedicated herself to working and speaking for those who might not be otherwise heard,” her sister, Rebecca Hutchins, said in a family write-up on Loraine Hutchins’s life and career.

Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Takoma Park, Md., Rebecca Hutchins said her sister embraced their parents’ involvement in the U.S. civil rights movement.

“She was a child of the ‘60s and proudly recalls attending Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech with her mother on the D.C. Mall,” she says in her write-up.  “She was steeped in the civil rights movement, was a member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and was proud to say she had an FBI record.”

The write-up says Hutchins received a bachelor’s degree from Shimer College in Mount Carroll, Ill. in 1970, and a Ph.D. in 2001 from Union Institute. It says she was also a graduate of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality’s Sexological Bodyworkers certification training program.

The family write-up says in the 1970s Hutchins became involved with efforts to assist tenants, including immigrant tenants, in affordable housing programs in D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood. 

“In 1991, she co-authored the groundbreaking book, ‘Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People SPEAK OUT’ with friend and colleague Lani Ka’ahumanu,” the write-up says. It notes that the acclaimed book has been republished three times and in 2007 it was published in Taiwan in Mandarin.

According to the write-up, Hutchins delivered the keynote address in June 2006 at the Ninth International Conference on Bisexuality, Gender and Sexual Diversity. In October 2009, D.C.’s Rainbow History Project honored her as one of its Community Pioneers for her activist work.

“Loraine is one of the few people who has explained, defended and championed bisexuality and made sure the “B” got into the LGBT acronym,” the Rainbow History Project says on its website in a 2009 statement. “Sensitivity to bisexual issues, civil rights, and social justice issues is Loraine’s life work,” the statement concludes.

The write-up by her sister says that up until the time of her retirement, Hutchins taught women’s and LGBT studies as well as health issues in sexuality at Montgomery Community College and Towson University in Maryland.

“She was a friend and mentor to many in the LGBTQ community,” it says. “She thoroughly enjoyed adversarial banter on the many topics she held dear: sexuality, freedom of speech, civil rights, needs and support of those with disabilities, especially in the area of mobility, assisted housing, liberal politics and many other causes,” it points out.

She retired to the Friends House community in Sandy Springs, Md., where she continued her activism, the write-up concludes. 

Hutchins was among several prominent bisexual activists interviewed by the Washington Blade at the time of her retirement in June 2023 for a story on the status of the bisexual rights movement. She noted that, among other things, in her role as co-founder the organizations BiNet USA and the Alliance of Multicultural Bisexuals, she joined her bi colleagues in prodding national LGBTQ advocacy organizations to improve their advocacy work for bisexuals, which Hutchins said had been inadequate in the past but had been improving in recent years.

Hutchins is survived by her sister, Rebecca Hutchins; her husband, Dave Lohman; nephew, Corey Lohman and his wife Teah Duvall Lohman; and cousins, the family write-up says.  

It says a private memorial service was scheduled for December and a public memorial service recognizing her contributions to the LGBTQ community will be held in the spring of 2026.