District of Columbia
D.C. attorney gen’l files civil charges against Casa Ruby, Ruby Corado
Emergency motion asks court to freeze bank accounts

The Office of the D.C. Attorney General on Monday filed an emergency motion in D.C. Superior Court alleging that Casa Ruby and its longtime executive director Ruby Corado have violated the city’s Nonprofit Corporations Act in connection with its financial dealings.
The court motion, among other things, calls on the court to approve a temporary restraining order freezing all of Casa Ruby’s bank accounts and PayPal accounts into which D.C. government funds and private donations have been deposited.
The motion also calls on the court to appoint a receiver or another court-supervised official on a provisional basis to help stabilize Casa Ruby’s management and governance “to maintain and control the funds of Casa Ruby.”
The motion states that the restraining order is needed to prevent “Defendant Ruby Corado from making any withdrawals from any of those accounts, removing Corado’s authorization to control any of those accounts, requiring Corado to keep any funds already withdrawn from those accounts in the United States.”
The motion further states, “This preliminary and emergency relief is needed to prevent the ongoing misuse of Casa Ruby’s charitable funds by Corado, who is the only individual authorized to access Casa Ruby’s accounts, despite purporting to resign from the organization in the Fall of 2021.”
The preliminary relief is warranted, the court motion continues, “because the District is likely to prevail on the merits of its claims given Defendants’ diversion of funds away from their legitimate use by the organization to illegitimate uses.”
It says the illegitimate uses include “the personal benefit of Corado, leaving the organization unable to operate, including it being unable to pay rent on the transitional housing it is designated to provide vulnerable communities and it being unable to pay its employees and vendors for services rendered.”
The motion filed on Monday follows a separate complaint filed by the Attorney General’s office on July 29 against Casa Ruby and Corado in D.C. Superior Court alleging additional violations of the D.C. Nonprofit Corporations Act and common law.
Both the emergency motion for the restraining order and the complaint are the equivalent of a civil lawsuit filed against Casa Ruby and Corado by the D.C. government. They each allege that the Casa Ruby Board of Directors failed to provide required oversight over Corado’s action for as long as the past 10 years.
“In 2020, Casa Ruby reported its Board consisted of eight Directors,” the motion for the injunction says. “However, from 2012 until late 2020, the board apparently never met, and it generated no records or minutes to document any action,” the motion states. “Defendant Ruby Corado, then the executive director, acted without any Board oversight,” it says.
The court motion and complaint filed by the Attorney General’s office came a little over two weeks after Casa Ruby employees disclosed the organization had shut down all its programs and operations because it no longer had the funds to continue. The employees also reported that they had been unable to contact Corado in recent weeks after she had returned to El Salvador, where she has been spending most of her time for at least the past six months or longer.
The Blade couldn’t immediately reach Corado on Monday or two weeks ago at the time the employees disclosed Casa Ruby had shut down its operations.
NBC Washington reported on Monday that Corado told Telemundo 44 and News 4 Washington that she had never taken money from Casa Ruby that was not authorized by the board to do work in the community.
“Any money that was withdrawn was for work that was authorized, work that is still being done in the community today, and that was authorized by the board, this team of people, because I never did this work alone,” Telemundo quoted her as saying in an interview presumably from
El Salvador.
Corado told the Blade in an interview earlier this year that she had started a Casa Ruby in El Salvador last year with the full approval of the Casa Ruby board. But the complaint and motion for the restraining order filed by the Attorney General’s office says no documentation could be found to show that the board ever approved the creation of a Casa Ruby in El Salvador or that Corado could divert tens of thousands of dollars from the Casa Ruby in D.C. to the El Salvador operation.
“Casa Ruby’s operations suggest clear patterns of gross mismanagement and poor oversight of its programs and finances,” said D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine in a statement released on Monday. “Instead of fulfilling its important mission of providing transitional housing and support to LGBTQ+ youth, Casa Ruby diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars of District grants and charitable donations from their intended purpose,” Racine said.
“Their Executive Director appears to have fled the country, withdrawn at least tens of thousands of dollars of nonprofit funds, and has failed to pay employees and vendors money they are rightfully owned,” Racine says in his statement.
“Upon learning of the suspicious circumstances surrounding its collapse, our office immediately began investigating and is using our broad authority over District nonprofits to safeguard the organization’s assets and hold its leadership accountable,” Racine said.
District of Columbia
Opening of Pride exhibition at Smithsonian’s African art museum postponed until 2026
Exhibition initially planned to open before WorldPride

An exhibition of the works of art from LGBTQ African artists at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art was abruptly postponed due to “our current budgetary situation,” a museum spokesperson told the Washington Post.
The exhibition is entitled, “Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art.”
The Post, which broke the story about LGBTQ exhibition’s postponement on May 6, reports that the museum denied that the postponement was brought about by the Trump-Vance administration’s executive order restricting certain content at Smithsonian museums or the current political climate.
“This exhibition was on a very ambitious schedule to meet WorldPride, and we did not have enough time to secure all the private sector funds we had hoped to due to shifts in the fundraising environment,” the Post quoted Smithsonian spokesperson Jennifer Mitchell as saying.
Mitchell was referring to plans to open the exhibition in late May to coincide with the WorldPride events, which are scheduled to take place in D.C. from May 17-June 6.
The Post reports that the exhibition is now expected to open in February 2026 and to close at its originally scheduled closing time in August 2026.
The National Museum of African Art’s website describes the LGBTQ exhibition as consisting of “artists across Africa and the diaspora whose artworks connect to their identities and experiences as LGBTQ+ people.” It says those people are “featured as the first continental and diasporic survey of its scale and scope outside of Africa.”
The website statement adds, “The show assembles artists whose work has implicitly or explicitly challenged local and global legacies of homophobia and bigotry, offering images of alternative futures as well as celebrations of intimacy, faith, family, and joy.”
The Post reported that Mitchell “declined to say whether donors had withdrawn their support, explaining that she could not comment on private donors relations.”
Sources familiar with the Smithsonian have pointed out that private donors, including corporations, are the main source of funding for specific Smithsonian exhibitions. The federal government, with funds approved by Congress, traditionally has covered costs supporting the museum buildings, infrastructure, and upkeep.
District of Columbia
Bet Mishpachah to honor Fauci with lifetime achievement award
As part of its 50th anniversary celebration, Bet Mishpachah will present the Harvey Milk Chesed Award to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci in recognition of his groundbreaking leadership in infectious disease research and decades of service to global public health.

Bet Mishpachah, Washington’s LGBTQ synagogue, on Wednesday will honor former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci with an award for his lifelong devotion to public health and service.
Dr. Fauci will receive the Harvey Milk Chesed Award on May 7 at 7 p.m. in Cafritz Hall at the Edlavitch Jewish Community Center of Washington, D.C., at 1529 16th Street, N.W.
The award is given annually to someone who has made “outstanding” contributions to the LGBTQ+ and Jewish communities that “exemplify the virtue of chesed, or ‘lovingkindness.’” Fauci’s commitment to combating infectious diseases-HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis, malaria, Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19-as well as his leadership in public health policy, embodies this value, according to Bet Mishpachah President Joseph Pomper.
“Bet Mishpachah is honored to have this opportunity to recognize Dr. Fauci for his lifelong commitment to the health and well-being of millions of people around the world,” said Pomper. “As members of the LGBTQ+ community, we are especially thankful for his courage and dedication in the fight against HIV/AIDS. He stood with us at a time when our community was often shunned and stigmatized. Today, as members of our community are again under attack, his leadership in that crisis and throughout his career serves as a shining example of the spirit of chesed (lovingkindness) that we honor with this award.”
Following the presentation, Fauci will join his longtime friend and colleague Jeff Levi — emeritus professor at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University and former deputy director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy — for a conversation.
Fauci advised seven presidents on key health issues, most prominently HIV/AIDS, and helped create the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has saved more than 20 million lives globally.
The event is part of Bet Mishpachah’s 50th anniversary celebration. Registration is closed, but waitlist requests can be sent to [email protected].
District of Columbia
WorldPride permits for National Mall have yet to be approved
Organizers say application process is going according to plans

Less than two weeks before the first events of WorldPride 2025 in D.C. are scheduled to begin on May 17, the U.S. National Park Service has yet to officially approve the permits needed for what organizers say will be a small number of WorldPride events scheduled to take place on the National Mall and other federal park grounds.
In response to a request by the Washington Blade for information on the status of the permit applications, National Park Service Spokesperson Brian Hall said in a May 2 email only that at least one of the permits “is still being worked on and not final.”
Hall sent the Blade a chart showing what appeared to be five WorldPride events under consideration for a permit, with four of them set to take place on federal park grounds at or near the Lincoln Memorial.
Ashley Smith, president of Capital Pride Alliance, the nonprofit D.C. LGBTQ organization playing the lead role in organizing WorldPride 2025, said most of the several dozen WorldPride events expected to take place between May 17 and June 8 would be held at locations other than the National Mall and other federal spaces.
“There is really only a small number that we’re doing this with the National Park Service, because we’re not on a lot of federal land for everything,” he told the Blade. “But we have been in communication with them, and our team is consistently communicating with them,” Smith said.
Smith added, “We feel strongly that we will be able to move forward. I don’t believe there are major concerns with us not being able to move forward. We’re making sure we’re providing all the proper information we need to be successful.”
Some LGBTQ activists have expressed concern that the Trump administration, which has put in place policies hostile to the LGBTQ community, especially the trans community, might attempt to block the permits. But another National Park Service spokesperson said in a statement that the permit approval process does not take into consideration the political message of those applying for permits.
“Applications are approved provided no applications were previously submitted for the same dates and locations, and the organizers are able to ensure the preservation of park resources and the safety of all participants, park visitors, and community members,” according to NPS spokesperson Michael Litterst.
“It is a deliberate process that does not consider the content of the message presented,” Litterst added in a statement to the Blade last November after Trump’s election as president.
Sahand Miraminy, the Capital Pride Alliance director of operations, told the Blade in a statement that it is “customary” for the National Park Service to hold off on issuing a permit until about one week before an event is scheduled to begin.
“Oftentimes, this is also tied to the agency’s cost estimates for cleanup, turf restoration, and law enforcement reimbursements,” Miraminy said. “Typically, the National Park Service also has a policy of not sharing detailed event plans for applicants, and we certainly appreciate keeping our detailed event information secure, as it often pertains to the health and safety of our participants,” he said.
“We don’t believe it’s necessary to share with the broad public the exact permits we hold for our events as some reservations are tied to infrastructure and security measures,” Miraminy said, adding that the Capital Pride website is a “great resource” finding the numerous WorldPride events.
The website shows at least one leading event will take place on the National Mall: A June 8 International Rally and March for Freedom will begin on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and travel from there to near the U.S. Capitol Building, the website states. It says participants in the march will then join the WorldPride Festival and Concert on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. near the Capitol scheduled to take place June 7-8.
Vincent Slatt, an official with D.C.’s Rainbow History Project, is among the lead organizers of that organization’s WorldPride exhibition called “Pickets, Protests and Parades: The History of Gay Pride in Washington, D.C.” The exhibition, scheduled for May 17 through July 7, will be held in Freedom Plaza, the federal parklands site on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., between 13th and 14th streets.
Slatt points out that Rainbow History Project has applied for its own National Park Service permit for the exhibition and, like Capital Pride Alliance, is still waiting for the permit’s approval.
“I can share great news,” Slatt said in a May 4 message to the Blade, “Rainbow History Project had our latest meeting with NPS this morning and she stated that we are on track to receive our permit. There are no problems expected.”
Slatt added, “As of this morning, our permit is only pending the finalized copy of our insurance and safety plan. These are things my board will vote to approve at our May meeting. Everything looks GREAT for RHP and our activity.”
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