Longtime D.C. LGBTQ rights advocate Kurt Vorndran has stepped down from his position as a member of the D.C. Police Complaints Board after serving on the board for 15 years under four D.C. mayors.

Mayor Muriel Bowser, who was among the mayors who asked Vorndran to continue his service on the board when she took office in 2015, nominated fellow LGBTQ rights advocate Earl Fowlkes to replace Vorndran. The D.C. Council, which must approve the mayoral appointees of four of the board’s five members, confirmed Fowlkes’ nomination last month. 

“For the first time in 15 years, I will not have the duty of attending the monthly meeting of the DC Police Complaints Board, from which I’m now retired and have been succeeded by the very able Earl Fowlkes,” Vordran said in a Facebook post.                                                            

The Police Complaints Board serves as an independent body charged with investigating citizen complaints about misconduct or abusive behavior by police officers.

LGBTQ rights advocates played a lead role in calling on the D.C. Council to create an earlier version of the board called the Civilian Complaints Review Board, which began its service in 1999. Local LGBTQ activists have said gay men and transgender women historically had been subjected to harassment by D.C. police in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. Transgender activists have reported instances of anti-trans harassment by D.C. police in recent years.

In 2004, the Council adopted revisions to create the current Police Complaints Board and its accompanying Office of Police Complaints, which has a staff of 40 specialists, including attorneys, that help the board investigate and adjudicate cases of citizen complaints against police officers.

The law that created the current board calls for the board to consist of five members with three-year terms of office. One of the members must be a member of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. The remaining four members must be civilian D.C. residents who cannot have any affiliation with the MPD.

In addition to Fowlkes, who is gay, the current board includes two other LGBTQ members, transgender activist Bobbi Strang and the board’s current chair, Paul Ashton, who’s gay.