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Comings & Goings
Meet head of DNC’s new LGBTQ engagement effort
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].
Congratulations to Mathew S. Nosanchuk the DNC’s new Senior Advisor and Political Organizer for Jewish Outreach and LGBTQ Engagement. Upon accepting the position, Nosanchuk said, “I am thrilled to join great colleagues at the DNC, including Chair Tom Perez, LGBT Caucus Chair Earl Fowlkes, and many others to lead the party’s engagement with the LGBTQ and Jewish communities. Trump has cruelly targeted the LGBTQ community with a succession of policies that undermine our rights. The Democratic Party is firmly committed to advancing rights for the LGBTQ community so that the arc of the moral universe once again bends towards justice.”
Matt is co-founder of the New York Jewish Agenda, created as a liberal, left-of-center voice on advocating for domestic issues in New York, supporting Israel as a Jewish, democratic state, backing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and combatting anti-Semitism wherever it arises. He is also vice president and senior advisor with Quadrant Strategies in D.C.
Prior to this, Nosanchuk held numerous positions in the Obama administration. They included positions in the State Department as Associate Director Office of Public Engagement/Director of Outreach, National Security Council in the White House; and positions in the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice. He was legislative counsel to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and prior to that was counsel with Collier Shannon Scott, PLLC in D.C.
Nosanchuk has his bachelor’s in history with honors from Stanford and his J.D. from Stanford Law School. He has written extensively and won numerous awards including the American Bar Association’s Inaugural Stonewall Award recognizing contributions to LGBT civil rights. He is an adjunct professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center.
Congratulations also to Gabrielle Claiborne on her new TEDx talk “Building your courage muscles.” Upon its release, she said, “As it relates to my TEDx talk and my own personal experience, I’ve learned that authenticity is a journey, not a destination. We have to take each scary step, as it presents itself, without necessarily knowing our exact destination. And with each step we take, we get a little stronger, more courageous, less stuck, more authentic.”
Gabrielle Claiborne is co-founder and CEO of Transformation Journeys Worldwide, an inclusion training and consulting firm with a transgender focus. She travels extensively, helping cutting-edge organizations position themselves to attract and retain the best talent, foster collaborative working environments, thus maximizing innovation and directly impacting the bottom line by creating fully trans-inclusive cultures. Her clients have included Home Depot, Sun Life Financial, Royal Bank of Canada, Comcast, Mercedes Benz, and UPS.
Transformation Journeys Worldwide was chosen as the Out Georgia Business Alliance 2018 Small Business of the Year, and received the Atlanta Hawk’s prestigious 2019 True Comes in All Colors award. Claiborne is proud to be a trans-owned NGLCC certified LGBT Business Enterprise. She has been an out and active trans woman since 2010.
Claiborne holds a bachelor’s in mathematics from Emory University and pursued a degree in Civil Engineering at Georgia Tech. She is the proud parent of three adult children and lives in Atlanta.
Maryland
Evan Glass is leaning on his record. Is that enough for Montgomery County’s top job?
Gay county executive candidate pushing for equitable pay, safer streets, and cleaner environment
By TALIA RICHMAN | During a meet-and-greet at Poolesville Memorial United Methodist Church, Evan Glass got his loudest applause of the night with a plan he acknowledged was decidedly unsexy.
“Day one, I’ll hire a director of permitting services,” the county executive candidate said.
Doing so, he added, is a step toward easing the regulatory burdens that can stifle small businesses in Montgomery County.
The only problem? At least one of his fiercest competitors is making a similar pledge.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
D.C. bar, LGBTQ+ Community Center to mark Lesbian Visibility Week
‘Ahead of the Curve’ documentary screening, ‘Queeroke’ among events
2026 Lesbian Visibility Week North America will take place from April 20-26.
This year marks the third annual Lesbian Visibility Week, run by the Curve Foundation. A host of events take place from April 20-26.
This year’s theme is Health and Wellness. For the Curve Foundation, the term “lesbian” serves as an umbrella term for a host of identities, including lesbians, bisexual and transgender women, and anyone else connected to the lesbian community.
The week kicks off with a flag-raising ceremony on April 19. It will take place in New York, but will be livestreamed for the public.
“Queeroke” is one of the events being held around the country. It will take place at various participating bars on April 23.
As You Are, an LGBTQ bar in Capitol Hill, is one of eight locations across the U.S. participating. Their event is free and 21+.
On April 24, the D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center will hold a screening of “Ahead of the Curve,” a documentary about the founder of Curve, Franco Stevens. The event is free with an RSVP.
April 25, is Queer Women in Sports Day. And on April 26, several monuments in New York will be illuminated.
Virtual events ranging from health to sports will be made available to the public. Details will be released closer to the start of Lesbian Visibility Week. Featured events can be found on the official website.
Some ways for individuals to get involved are to use #LVW26 and tag the official Lesbian Visibility Week account on social media posts. People are encouraged to display their lesbian flags, and businesses can hand out pins and decorate. They can also reach out to local lawmakers to encourage them to issue an official Lesbian Visibility Week.
District of Columbia
Whitman-Walker Health to present ‘Pro Bono Excellence’ award to law firm
Health center set to celebrate 40th anniversary of legal services program
Whitman-Walker Health, the D.C.-based community healthcare center that specializes in HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ-related health services, announced it will present its annual Dale Edwin Sanders Award for Pro Bono Excellence to the international law firm McDermott Will & Schulte at a May 6 ceremony.
“This year’s award is especially significant as it coincides with the 40th anniversary of Whitman-Walker Health’s Legal Services Program, marking it as the nation’s longest running medical-legal partnership,” a statement released by Whitman-Walker says.
“As a national leader in public health, Whitman-Walker celebrates our partnership with McDermott to strengthen the health center and to enable Whitman-Walker to reach more medical and legal clients,” the statement adds.
“McDermott’s firm-wide commitment to Whitman-Walker’s medical-legal partnership demonstrates a shared vision to serve those most in need,” Amy Nelson, Whitman-Walker’s director of Legal Services, says in the statement. “Our work protects individuals and families who face discrimination and hostility as they navigate increasingly complex administrative systems,” Nelson said.
“Pro bono legal services – like that of McDermott Will & Schulte – find solutions for people who have no place else to turn in the face of financial and health threats,” she added.
“Our partnership with Whitman-Walker Health is a treasured commitment to serving our neighbors and communities,” Steven Schnelle, one of the law firm’s partners said in the statement. “We are deeply moved by Whitman-Walker’s unwavering dedication to inclusion, respect, and equitable access to health care and social services,” he said.
The statement notes that the award for Pro Bono Excellence honors the legacy of the late gay attorney Dale Edwin Sanders. It says Sanders’s pro bono legal work for Whitman-Walker clients “shaped HIV/AIDS law for more than four decades by securing key victories on behalf of individuals whose employment and patient rights were violated.”
It says the Whitman-Walker Legal Services program began during the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s at a time when people with AIDS faced widespread discrimination and often needed legal assistance. According to the statement, the program evolved over the years and expanded to advocate for transgender people and immigrants.
Whitman-Walker spokesperson Lisa Amore said the presentation of the Dale Edwin Sanders Pro Bono Excellency Award will be held at the May 6 fundraising benefit for Whitman-Walker’s Legal Services Program. She said the event will take place at the offices of the DC law firm Baker McKenzie and ticket availability can be accessed here: https://www.whitman-walker.org/gtem-2026/
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Evan Glass is leaning on his record. Is that enough for Montgomery County’s top job?
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