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Casa Ruby files complaint against D.C. gov’t agency

Dept. of Human Services accused of ignoring anti-trans discrimination

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Ruby Corado filed a complaint against the D.C. Department of Human Services, alleging one of its high-level officials engaged in anti-transgender discrimination. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Casa Ruby, the D.C. LGBTQ community services center, filed an administrative complaint on March 29 against the D.C. Department of Human Services, charging the agency with ignoring and failing to stop one of its high-level officials from allegedly engaging in anti-transgender discrimination and retaliation against Casa Ruby.

The six-page complaint, which was drafted by Casa Ruby’s attorneys and signed by Casa Ruby founder and CEO Ruby Corado, says the DHS official in question has acted in an abusive and discriminatory way toward Corado and other Casa Ruby employees while overseeing three DHS grants awarded to Casa Ruby that fund shelters to provide emergency housing for homeless LGBTQ people.

Corado provided a copy of the complaint to the Washington Blade on May 27 in which the name of the DHS official accused of discriminatory and abusive actions is redacted by being blacked out in dozens of places where it appears in the six-page document.

“Casa Ruby’s staff has repeatedly found [the unnamed official’s] demeanor and conduct toward them to be unprofessional, harassing, abusive, and discriminatory,” the complaint says.

“Further, [the unnamed official] has taken actions that are inconsistent with the DHS response to the outbreak of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) by failing to follow COVID-19 protocols and by failing to provide needed testing and other resources during this time, which has endangered the clients and staff of Casa Ruby,” the complaint alleges.

The complaint says the alleged COVID protocol violations occurred when the unnamed DHS official transferred clients from another shelter in which a COVID outbreak may have taken place to one of Casa Ruby’s shelters without having the clients tested for COVID.

Corado told the Blade that as of this week, neither she nor her attorneys with the D.C. law firm Van Ness Feldman have received a response to the complaint from DHS in the three months since it was filed. 
When contacted last week by the Blade, DHS spokesperson Lauren Kinard said DHS would have no immediate comment on the complaint while it is under investigation.

“The complaint is under investigation,” Kinard said. “So, we cannot comment on an investigation.”

However, Kinard said DHS could provide a response to a question by the Blade about DHS’s record of providing funding for other organizations that provide services to LGBTQ people in need.

Kinard said that among the organizations DHS has provided funding for transgender related services is Us Helping Us, People Into Living, a D.C. LGBTQ organization that provides health and social services to LGBTQ clients.

She said DHS also provides funding for the LGBTQ youth advocacy group SMYAL and the LGBTQ group Wanda Alston Foundation for transitional housing services for LGBTQ youth and adults. Kinard said Us Helping Us in partnership with the local group Damien Ministries received a DHS grant to provide employment related services and support for transgender and gender nonconforming D.C. residents.

Kinard said she would also try to provide a response this week to a separate question by the Blade asking about another Casa Ruby concern that DHS is now proposing to reduce its grant funding for the current fiscal year by 50 percent or more. But in an email to the Blade on Thursday, Kinard said the Casa Ruby letter was being reviewed by DHS officials and no immediate response could be given.

In a May 20 letter to DHS Deputy Administrator Hilary Cairns, Casa Ruby attorneys Jacob Cunningham and Ani Esenyn dispute claims by DHS that the funding cut was due to Casa Ruby’s alleged failure to provide a sufficient number of beds at its homeless shelters funded by DHS grants.

“Casa Ruby rejects your modification of the Grant Award, which is in violation of the clear language of the Grant Agreement,” the attorneys state in their letter. “Therefore, this decision is arbitrary, capricious, and not in accordance with D.C. law,” the letter says.

Corado said she believes the proposed funding cut is based on retaliation for the Casa Ruby complaint filed in March.  She said aside from the DHS proposed funding cut, the agency has withheld all of its scheduled grant payments to Casa Ruby for the past four months.

In its March 29 complaint against DHS, Casa Ruby makes these additional allegations and requests for DHS to respond to the complaint:

• The DHS official who is the subject of the complaint has “unnecessarily inserted herself in the management of these grants,” creating tension and making it difficult for Casa Ruby employees to carry out the grant’s emergency housing program.

• The DHS official has failed to adequately screen clients from other shelters that the official transferred to Casa Ruby facilities, some of whom “used homophobic and transphobic slurs and assaulted two Casa Ruby clients.” The complaint says Casa Ruby welcomes all clients in need to its facilities, but it alleges that the DHS official’s “careless transfer of clients from Covenant House inflicted additional trauma and stress on some of the most vulnerable individuals in the LGBTQ community.”

• On several occasions during conference calls and meetings with representatives of other shelters hosted by the DHS official, individuals misgendered Corado, a transgender woman, and the DHS official did not correct the misgendering. The complaint says the DHS official’s decision not to correct the misgendering is a sign of the official’s own anti-trans bias.

“Finally, these and other instances have made it clear to Casa Ruby staff that [the DHS official] harbors anti-transgender bias, in violation of D.C. and federal civil rights laws,” the complaint says.

Among other things, the complaint calls on DHS to consider terminating the DHS official from her position or at the very least, remove her from having any interaction with Casa Ruby. It also suggests the DHS official and other DHS employees be required to undergo bias and sensitivity training related to the LGBTQ community provided by transgender women of color.

Corado said that depending on the outcome of the complaint and DHS’s ultimate response, she will consider whether to file a lawsuit against DHS based on the allegations made in the complaint.

The proposed DHS funding cut for Casa Ruby comes at a time when Casa Ruby has been in negotiations with the landlord of its headquarters building at 7530 Georgia Ave., N.W. in a dispute over who should pay for needed building repairs, including repairs of the electrical wiring system found to be in violation of the city building code.

Corado said an agreement has been reached where the landlord and Casa Ruby will share the costs of the repairs based in part on the terms of the Casa Ruby lease for the building, which holds the tenant responsible for most infrastructure repairs. But Corado said the DHS withholding of its grant funds for Casa Ruby and its proposed cutting of the funds for the remainder of the fiscal year could make it difficult for Casa Ruby to pay its share of the building repairs.

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Virginia

Hashmi to face Reid in Va. LG race

State senator won Democratic primary on Tuesday

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Ghazala Hashmi (Screen capture via One Vote At A Time/YouTube)

State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Chesterfield) will face John Reid in the race to become Virginia’s next lieutenant governor. 

Hashmi won the Democratic primary with 27.49 percent of the vote. She defeated former Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, state Sen. Aaron Rouse (D-Virginia Beach), Babur Lateef, Victor Salgado and Alexander Bastani.

“Tonight, Virginians made history,” said Hashmi in a statement. “We didn’t just win a primary, we sent a clear message that we won’t be bullied, broken, or dragged backward by the chaos in Washington.”

Reid, a gay conservative talk show host, in April won the Republican nomination to succeed Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who is running to succeed Gov. Glenn Youngkin. 

The incumbent governor days after Reid secured the nomination called for him to withdraw his candidacy amid reports that a social media account with his username included “pornographic content.” Reid, who would become the first openly gay person elected to statewide office in Virginia if he wins in November, has strongly denied the reports.

Former state Del. Jay Jones defeated Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor in Democratic attorney general primary. Jones will face Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares in November.

Youngkin cannot run for a second, consecutive term.

Former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger will face off against Earle-Sears in November. The winner will make history as the first woman elected governor in the state’s history.

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Baltimore

More than 15K people attend Baltimore Trans Pride

Baltimore Safe Haven organized annual event

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(Bigstock photo)

More than 15,000 people attended Baltimore Safe Haven’s annual Trans Pride on Saturday.

“Last year we had maybe 2,500, and the year before that, we had 5,000,” Renee Lau, administrative assistant for special projects coordinator for Baltimore Safe Haven, said. “In today’s political climate, it’s absolutely amazing.”

Lau said allies and other groups “went into hiding” for about a month or two after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, but then all at once, different organizations started to reach out. 

“The community has really come together to support us,” Lau said. “It was a fun, exciting day.” 

Baltimore Safe Haven Executive Director Iya Dammons in a press release said the “historic turnout” showed the transgender community’s strength, as well as their unity to fight for justice and equality for all LGBTQ people.

At the event, attendees were seen waving flags and shouting “Trans Lives Matter,” showing their support for the community. 

On Friday, before Trans Pride, Baltimore Safe Haven opened their new building to the public, gathering notable attendees like the Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohan, Council Member Antonio Glover, and representatives from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.

“(It) was historic in itself because … we’re the only direct service providers for people in the LGBT community,” Lau said.

Providing housing for 18- to 24-year-olds, Lau said the new building also serves as a community hub and has office spaces for workers. 

With only a few hiccups of arguments between attendees and fixing street blockades during Trans Pride, Lau said the event showed what the community can do. 

“It was amazing that so many people came out and had that much fun. We were all giddy by Sunday morning,” Lau said. “(It gave) Safe Haven exposure and continuity. We are not just an LGBT organization, we are an organization that supports the entire community.”

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District of Columbia

Juvenile arrested for anti-gay assault in D.C.

Police say suspect targeted victim in house with Pride flags

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The gay man who was hit in the face by a rock thrown through the front window of his house, shown here, by the juvenile who was arrested told the Blade he and his husband covered the now boarded up window with a large Pride flag. (Washington Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro, Jr.)

D.C. police announced on June 16 that they have arrested a 13-year-old juvenile male on a charge of Assault With Significant Bodily Injury for allegedly throwing a rock through the window of a house in Northeast D.C. and “striking the victim in the face.”

In a statement announcing the arrest, police said the incident took place on Friday, June 6, and  “LGBTQ+ flags were displayed at the front of the home.”

A separate D.C. police incident report obtained by the Washington Blade states, “Victim 1 reports he was sitting in his living room at the listed location watching television when a rock came through the front window and struck him about his left eye. Victim 1 suffered a laceration under his left eye.”

The report adds, “Victim 1 states he observed Suspect 1 running away.”

According to the June 16 statement issued by police, “On Sunday, June 15, 2025, officers located the suspect and placed him under arrest. [A] 13-year-old juvenile male of Northeast D.C., was charged with Assault With Significant Bodily Injury (Hate/Bias).”

The statement says the house where the incident occurred is located on the 400 block of 20th Street, N.E.

Similar to statements D.C. police have issued regarding LGBTQ bias-related cases in the past, the statement announcing this case says that while the case is being investigated as being potentially motivated by hate or bias, that designation could be changed at any time during the investigation.

It adds that a hate crime designation by D.C. police may not be prosecuted as a hate crime by prosecutors. Under D.C. law, juvenile cases are prosecuted by the Office of the D.C. Attorney General. 

Since court records for cases involving juveniles are sealed from public access, the Blade could not immediately determine whether prosecutors designated the case as a hate crime.

It also could not immediately be determined if the juvenile charged in the case was being held in detention while awaiting trial at juvenile court or whether he was released to a parent or guardian and whether a judge set any conditions for release.

The police statement concludes by saying that the department’s Special Liaison Branch, which includes the LGBT Liaison Unit, is assisting with the investigation. 

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