Financial
Lesbian entrepreneur uses crime scene TikTok to educate
‘You can change people’s lives by returning things to pre-incident condition’
(Editor’s note: This is the second in a multi-part summer series of stories taking a closer look at how a group of diverse LGBTQ entrepreneurs survived and thrived during the pandemic. The series is sponsored by the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce.)
Spaulding Decon’s 4.2 million followers probably tune into the company’s popular crime scene cleaning TikTok to watch technicians scrub away blood or dismantle drug labs, but sometimes Founder and CEO Laura Spaulding slips in a little more.
“Today we’re going to be talking about the affordable housing crisis,” Spaulding, a former Kansas City police officer, tells viewers in an April teaser; later a young woman shares how difficult it has been surviving outside the benefits threshold.
Spaulding founded her multimillion-dollar business specializing in biohazard clean up in 2005, and in 2016 it became the first nationally franchised decontamination service.
However, the onset of the global pandemic threatened to derail the success of this lesbian entrepreneur.
When states were going into lockdowns in 2020, in a desperate effort to slow the pandemic’s death toll and contain the spread of the disease, many businesses struggled. According to Commerce Department data, real GDP across industry sectors fell sharply in the second quarter of 2020 as the world plunged into an economic recession.
Spaulding said surviving the crisis meant being able to navigate quickly in a new environment. Her business survived, in part, by reaching out via social media to the millions who unexpectedly found themselves locked down.
“We actually grew our business during the pandemic,” Spaulding told the Blade. “Other brands possibly didn’t do that because they were in crisis mode. But we showed viewers an insight into what disinfecting for COVID looks like. We gained a ton of followers because of that.”
In 2021, Spaulding Decon made the Inc. Magazine list of the 5,000 fastest growing private companies, an honor that gave Under Armor, Patagonia and Microsoft their first national recognition.
Inc. noted the “unprecedented challenges” this group of honorees faced in 2020, to not only survive but thrive with an average median three-year growth rate of 543 percent and combined median revenue nearing $11 million.
This was an achievement Spaulding said she never dreamed was possible. When she started her company, she did so with little outside investment and sheer determination.
“I’m just a regular person trying to build a business,” Spaulding said about her challenges. “[Being a lesbian business owner] hasn’t hindered me or benefitted me either. I’ve never gotten a contract because of it. But it will only hinder you if you let it.”
And she said the struggle for labor is real. Turnover among technicians is high.
Working long hours in protective equipment can be physically demanding, and cleaning up after violent deaths can take an emotional toll, but Spaulding enjoys working alongside those who tough it out with her.
“The people that I work with are amazing,” she said. “Since COVID, we’re operating with fewer staff members than we’ve ever had, but I enjoy being with them, side-by-side. We’re mission based.”
‘You can change people’s lives’
Today, Spaulding lives with her partner of four years and co-parents a 4-year-old, a 3-year-old, and a rescue dog named Sammy, a retriever mix. But back in 2005, she was a police officer facing a distraught homicide victim’s mom who wanted to know when they were returning to clean up the crime scene.
Spaulding told the Story Exchange in February she felt bad for the mother who had just been through so much, but the only answer she had for her was “We don’t do that.”
So, Spaulding left police work and went into the crime scene cleaning business. The work has been challenging, but years later she has no regrets.
“You can change people’s lives by returning things to pre-incident condition,” she told the Blade. “Especially the suicide clean ups because they don’t have to see it. You can’t get rid of the memory of [seeing the person like that], but we can put that room back together.”
Even before the pandemic created a captive audience, there was interest from the media in Spaulding Decon’s work due to the inherent drama involved.
“We were getting approached with reality show producers. But they could never get it sold because they thought it would be too graphic,” Spaulding explained.
“So, I was like let’s do it ourselves and post it to YouTube, and that’s how the social media series was born.”
Currently, Spaulding Decon’s Crime Scene Cleaning YouTube channel has more than 800,000 subscribers, and while much of the content can be graphic, some can be off-beat and unexpected, such as the 1980s E.T. Atari game unearthed during a hoarding clean up.
As the pandemic moves into its long-term and less acute stage, Spaulding Decon’s social media presence and popularity continue to hold strong. Its Crime Scene Cleaning series now has a spin-off focusing on in-depth interviews with people dealing with a variety of subjects.
“We get DMs [direct messages] on our social channels about how do I clean this particular thing?” Spaulding explained. “And we’ll do videos on that to make sure people are educated.”
This desire to educate pushed Spaulding to grow her franchise in a new direction.
“We have a spin off called ‘Talking Decon,’” she said. “Where we do more investigative-type interviews. The last one was with a victim of human trafficking.”
This new series provides a chance for the former cop to engage the community in a meaningful way.
“We take an educational approach to social media. So we have a cult-like following,” Spaulding said. “And we stay in communication with followers and fans.”
NGLCC: It’s a ‘community thing’
Spaulding has worked hard to make her business a success and she credits her staff and technicians for working just as hard in their “labor of love.”
However, her biggest tip for new entrepreneurs and LGBTQ business owners is to find a mentor to learn from early on.
“You will get to where you need to be faster than by learning from your mistakes,” she added.
Spaulding also pointed out the support she found as a member of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC). She found it nice to be able to bounce ideas off “our own people” in a safe and comfortable environment.
“It was more of a community thing,” she said. “And it’s important for all minorities to stay at the top of your game – it’s not an even playing field. It’s constant education. It’s constantly finding things that you can do better to overcome the competition.”
Economics professor M.V. Lee Badgett, a distinguished scholar at UCLA’s Williams Institute, has researched the benefits of LGBTQ equality on the economy. Her books have debunked the myth of gay affluence and instead highlight the economic challenges LGBTQ people face due to discrimination.
“The bottom line,” Badgett told the Blade. “Is that for an economy to perform as well as it could, it needs everyone to contribute as much as they have to offer.”
Justin Nelson, the NGLCC co-founder and president, also explained that resilience and community are important.
“Our community is sustained by our resilience and commitment to helping one another through the good times and the challenging ones,” Nelson said. “It has never been easier to go online or check with your local affiliate LGBT Chamber of Commerce to make sure you support the brands that have our community’s back.”
And Spaulding is committed to continuing to grow her company. An avid reader, she just finished Dan Sullivan’s “Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork” and enjoyed its insights.
“You can’t do everything alone,” she said. “I came up thinking I had to do everything and pay for everything myself, but sometimes you need to find the ‘who’ – that person who can help you do something, instead of just figuring out how to do it yourself.”
Her new goal is to grow her business from 56 locations to 100.
“I think it’s challenging,” she said. “But doable.”
Real Estate
No Rose, your interest rate has nothing to do with how many likes you got on Hinge
Many factors help determine rates these days
Picture it, you’re sitting in the lunchroom at work, and your coworker just bought a house. Another coworker bought one a few months ago and you hear that she got a totally different interest rate than the other one did, even though they both bought houses not that far from each other. Homebuyers everywhere have been wondering what interest rates they are going to get, lately. It’s easy to read an article online or see an ad on social media stating specific numbers, but there may be more than meets the eye going into a particular buyer’s interest rate.
What are the factors that can affect the interest rate a buyer eventually “locks in”?
- Property details – certain properties may be in neighborhoods with higher rates of foreclosure, or there may be specific census tracts that allow a buyer to participate in the “Fannie Mae Home Ready” and “Freddie Mac Home Possible” programs, which carry more flexible requirements such as various income limits and lower interest rates, to help people begin homeownership.
- Type of loan / loan amount– a conventional, conforming loan or a jumbo loan can have differing interest rates, as well as FHA loans.
- Credit score – most people are aware that this affects what interest rate is quoted, just like on a credit card. Some lenders will work with you on ways to improve a credit score if the goal is to buy six, nine, or 12 months from now.
- Lock period – do you want to lock in the rate for 30 days? 45? Market volatility can cause the rates to change so it will cost more money to hold onto a particular interest rate.
- Loan to value ratio – one can still buy a home with less than 20% down, but the rate that is quoted may be higher.
- Occupancy type – is this the primary residence or an investment property?
- Points bought or credits taken – A buyer can pay the lender a fee to buy down the interest rate, or the seller can sometimes offer a credit. This has become more popular in recent years.
- Market conditions – keep an eye on the news – as we are all aware, change is the only constant!
Lender Tina del Casale with Atlantic Union Bank says, “With jumbo fixed rates in the low 6’s, and first-time buyer down payment assistance loans such as DC Open Doors, rates are in the mid 7’s. With the added factors of your income, the address you are purchasing and your credit score factoring into the equation, interest rates are different from buyer to buyer these days. So, skip the online tools and make a few calls because that’s the only way to get an accurate quote these days!”
It might feel like an overwhelming amount of information to take on, but remember, there are people that help others take these big steps every day. A trusted lender and Realtor can guide their clients from start to finish when it comes to purchasing a home. And for that, you’ll be saying, “thank you for being a friend!”
Joseph Hudson is a referral agent with Metro Referrals. Reach him at 703-587-0597 or [email protected].
Real Estate
The best U.S. cities for LGBTQ homebuyers in 2025
Where strong equality scores, vibrant culture, attainable prices converge
Buying a home has always been a landmark of security and self-expression. For LGBTQ+ people, it can also be a powerful act of claiming space in a country where housing equality is still a work in progress. The good news? This year offers more options—and more protections—than ever. A record-breaking 130 U.S. cities now score a perfect 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index (MEI), meaning their local laws, services, and political leadership actively protect queer residents, reports.hrc.org. Meanwhile, national housing analysts at Zillow expect only modest price growth this year (about 2.6 percent), giving buyers a little breathing room to shop around.
Below are eight standout markets where strong equality scores, vibrant LGBTQ+ culture, and relatively attainable prices converge. Median sale prices are from March 2025 Zillow data.
1. Minneapolis–St. Paul, MN
Median sale price: $317,500
Twin Cities residents benefit from statewide nondiscrimination laws that explicitly cover sexual orientation and gender identity, a thriving queer arts scene, and dozens of neighborhood Pride celebrations beyond the mega-festival each June. Buyers also appreciate Minnesota’s down-payment assistance programs for first-time and BIPOC purchasers—many LGBTQ+ households qualify.
2. Philadelphia
Median sale price: $227,667
Philly combines East Coast culture with Mid-Atlantic affordability. “Gayborhood” anchors like Giovanni’s Room bookstore mingle with new LGBTQ-owned cafés in Fishtown and South Philly. Pennsylvania added statewide housing protections in 2024, closing the legal gaps that once worried trans and nonbinary buyers.
3. Pittsburgh
Median sale price: $221,667
Don’t let the steel-town stereotype fool you—Pittsburgh’s MEI score is 100, and its real-estate dollar stretches further than in comparable metros. Lawrenceville and Bloomfield have become hubs for queer-owned eateries and co-working spaces, while regional employers in tech and healthcare boast top Corporate Equality Index ratings.
4. Tucson, Ariz.
Median sale price: $328,333
This desert city punches above its weight in LGBTQ+ visibility thanks to the University of Arizona, a nationally ranked Pride parade, and some of the country’s most picturesque outdoor recreation. Arizona’s statewide fair-housing statute now explicitly lists gender identity, giving buyers added recourse if discrimination occurs.
5. Madison, Wisc.
Median sale price: $413,867
Madison blends progressive politics with a top-five public university and a booming tech corridor. Local lenders routinely promote inclusive marketing, and Dane County offers one of the few county-level LGBTQ+ home-ownership programs in the nation, providing up to $10,000 in forgivable assistance for low-to-moderate-income couples.
6. Atlanta
Median sale price: $359,967
The cultural capital of the Southeast delivers queer nightlife, Fortune 500 jobs, and a web of supportive nonprofits such as Lost-n-Found Youth. While Georgia lacks statewide protections, Atlanta’s 100-point MEI score covers public accommodations, contracting, and employer requirements—shielding homebuyers who choose in-town neighborhoods like Midtown or East Point.
7. St. Petersburg, Fla.
Median sale price: $354,667 Yes, Florida’s statewide politics are turbulent, but St. Pete has long held firm on LGBTQ+ equality. The city’s Pride festival draws nearly a million visitors, and local ordinances bar discrimination in housing and public services. Waterfront bungalows in Kenwood and more affordable condos near Uptown give first-time buyers options.
8. Denver
Median sale price: $563,500
Colorado passed some of the nation’s strongest gender identity housing protections in 2024, and Denver’s queer community remains one of the most visible in the Mountain West. Although prices run higher, buyers gain exceptional job growth and one of the country’s largest Gay & Lesbian Chambers of Commerce.
Smart Strategies for LGBTQ+ Buyers & Sellers
1. Build Your Dream Team Early
- Work with an equality-focused real-estate pro. The easiest way is to start at GayRealEstate.com, which has screened gay, lesbian, and allied agents in every U.S. market for more than 30 years.
- Choose inclusive lenders and inspectors. Ask whether each vendor follows HUD’s 2021 guidance interpreting the Fair Housing Act to cover sexual orientation and gender identity.
2. Know Your Rights—And Limitations
- Federal law bars housing bias, but enforcement can lag. Document everything and report issues to HUD, your state civil-rights agency, or Lambda Legal.
- In states without full protections, rely on city ordinances (check the MEI) and add explicit nondiscrimination language to your purchase contract.
3. Evaluate Neighborhood Fit
- Use local data: crime stats, school ratings, transit, and MEI scores of nearby suburbs.
- Spend time in queer-owned cafés, bars, and community centers to gauge true inclusivity.
4. For Sellers: Market With Pride—And Professionalism
- Highlight proximity to LGBTQ+ resources (community centers, Pride festivals) in your listing remarks.
- Stage neutrally but inclusively—rainbow art is great, but removing personal photos can protect privacy during showings.
The landscape for LGBTQ+ homeowners is evolving fast. By coupling inclusive laws, supportive culture, and attainable prices, cities like Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and Tucson stand out for 2025. No matter where you land, surround yourself with professionals who value every part of your identity. Start your journey at GayRealEstate.com, lean on the resources above, and claim your corner of the American dream—on your own terms, and with pride.
Scott Helms is president and owner of Gayrealestate.com.
Real Estate
Summer-ready rentals: How to prepare for the season
Inspect your A/C, upgrade the kitchen, and more
Now’s the time to get your property looking sharp for summer. In the D.C. rental market, summer is our version of the Super Bowl. Tenants are on the move, leases are flipping, and if your property isn’t ready for game time, you’re sitting on the bench while the competition scores.
Here’s how to get your rental property summer-ready, keep it competitive, and avoid the scramble once the heat (and the demand) is on.
First Impressions Count
In a walkable city like D.C., curb appeal isn’t a luxury, it’s your ticket to play. Prospective tenants don’t just scroll through listings from their couches; they walk the neighborhoods, eyeing buildings and row homes like it’s a real-life episode of House Hunters. If your property looks run-down from the sidewalk, it doesn’t matter how nice it is inside: you’ll already have lost their attention.
Start with a good power wash. Sidewalks, front steps, and that brick façade can collect a year’s worth of grime and pollen, and nothing says “we didn’t get around to it” quite like a dingy entryway. Once that’s done, grab a paintbrush and freshen up the details — front doors, railings, and window trim are often the first thing people see, and chipped or faded paint sends the wrong message. Landscaping doesn’t have to rival a botanical garden, but it should be tidy and intentional. A few potted plants, some trimmed bushes, and a weed-free yard show that you care. And don’t forget the lighting — a working porch light adds a layer of polish and safety. Think of curb appeal like a dating profile picture. If it’s not appealing, people won’t even bother to swipe right.
Handle Maintenance Before Repair Emergencies
Summer in D.C. means one thing: humidity. And it’s not just uncomfortable. It’s a property’s worst enemy if you’re not on top of things. Tenants will test that A/C the minute they move in, so don’t wait for a 98-degree day to find out the AC compressor is clogged and is not performing to its potential. While you’re at it, check those windows and screens. No one wants a unit that turns into a sauna because the windows won’t open or the screens are shredded.
Plumbing deserves a once-over, too. In some of D.C.’s older neighborhoods, tree roots have been known to snake their way into century-old pipes. If you’ve had slow drains or backups, now’s the time to act. And don’t skip out on pest control. Ants, roaches, and rodents all love a good D.C. summer, but your tenants sure don’t. A preventative visit now can spare you the late-night emergency call later.
Upgrade What Matters
If your place still has that “2008 Craigslist listing” look, now’s your chance for a low-cost glow-up that pays off in higher rent and better tenants.
You don’t have to renovate the entire kitchen, but a few strategic upgrades can keep your property feeling current without breaking the bank. Swapping out dated cabinet pulls or faucet fixtures is a quick win. Replacing an old Formica countertop with stone is a great add, albeit a bigger investment.
Installing a smart thermostat or keyless entry, especially if you’re trying to attract a tech-savvy tenant, adds a bit of glitz. And don’t underestimate the value of LED lighting. Not only is the lighting brighter, but energy efficiency is a real plus when Pepco bills start climbing.
Don’t Forget the Marketing Materials
The window for summer leasing moves fast. Between May and August, tenants are locking in their spots quickly, and they aren’t wasting time on listings that look outdated or vague. Having strong, current marketing materials can be the difference between locking in a new tenant over several weeks or watching your property sit vacant for several months while others get rented.
When writing your listing, make sure it reflects the strengths of the unit and its location. Is there a private balcony that catches the sunset? Mention it. Is the washer and dryer tucked inside the unit instead of down a shared hallway? Highlight that. And in the D.C. summer heat, central A/C and ceiling fans aren’t bonuses; they’re expectations. Mention any shaded outdoor spaces, or if you’re lucky enough to be close to a pool, splash pad, or one of the city’s beloved parks, say so.
Once the property is shining on the outside and tuned up inside, the final step is making sure that polish shows up in your marketing. Your listing needs to be more than just functional, it needs to sell. That starts with updated and clear photos. Snap new images once the landscaping is cleaned up, the paint has dried, and the light’s hitting just right. Don’t use older photos pre-2020 where the tree out front was still a sapling and the trash bins were in the shot. And please, always close toilet seats first! Prospective renters are savvy, and their intuition perks up when they see less than professional looking photos.
It’s All About Timing
This summer, make the most of the opportunity. In D.C., there’s a wave of renters moving for new jobs, internships, or simply trying to relocate before school starts. Landlords who prep early and market smartly are the ones who don’t just find tenants, they find good tenants. And they fill units faster.
Grab that to-do list, schedule those contractors, and maybe treat yourself to a cold one after a long day of touch-ups. You’ll thank yourself later when your rental is leased out and earning while others are still scrambling at the end of the season.
Scott Bloom is owner and senior property manager at Columbia Property Management. For more information and resources, visit ColumbiaPM.com.
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