Maryland
Lesbian diversity expert running for City Council in Hyattsville
Meléndez Rivera worked on Latinx, faith issues for HRC
Lesbian activist and diversity consultant Lisbeth Meléndez Rivera has announced she is a candidate for the Hyattsville, Md., City Council in an Oct. 4 special election to fill a vacant seat.
The Ward 2 seat on the 10-member Council in the Prince George’s County suburban city became vacant when the incumbent Council member, Robert Croslin, won election as mayor, according to an announcement posted on the Hyattsville website.
The announcement says two other candidates in addition to Meléndez Rivera are running in the nonpartisan special election. It identifies them as community activists Emily Strab and Kelly Burrello.
Melendez Rivera currently operates BQN Consulting, a firm through which she provides support services related to organizing, training and capacity building, according to the firm’s website. In addition, she also operates a food catering service.
The website write-up on her career background says she served from 2014 to 2017 as Director of Latinx & Catholic Initiatives for the Human Rights Campaign, the D.C.-based national LGBTQ advocacy organization. Her LinkedIn page says she served from 2017 to 2021 as HRC’s Director of Faith Outreach & Training.
A separate write-up on her campaign website describers Meléndez Rivera as a 35+ year veteran in social justice movements with “extensive experience organizing and training at the intersections of sexual orientation, gender identity, racial/ethnic identity, faith, and culture related explicitly to communities of color in the United States.”
Her campaign website says she is a candidate for a doctorate degree in Ministry and Theology and Social Transformation. It says she currently holds a master’s degree in Theology & Social Transformation and a bachelor’s degree in biology and sociology.
“Lisbeth has worked with people of faith across denominations to ensure we can be who we are, love whom we love, and practice our faith free of judgment,” her campaign website states.
It says she is running to address, among other things, to ensure that the current rapid real estate development in Hyattsville is carried out in a way that housing remains affordable for all residents and doesn’t result in the displacement of longtime residents. Education, public safety, and the environment will also be issues she will address, she told the Washington Blade.
If elected, Meléndez Rivera would become the first out lesbian to serve on the Hyattsville City Council. An openly gay man, Jimmy McClellan, currently serves as a Ward 3 representative on the Council, which consists of two members from each of the city’s five wards.
Further information on Meléndez Rivera’s campaign and her positions on Hyattsville related issues can be viewed here.
Maryland
4th Circuit dismisses lawsuit against Montgomery County schools’ pronoun policy
Substitute teacher Kimberly Polk challenged regulation in 2024
A federal appeals court has ruled Montgomery County Public Schools did not violate a substitute teacher’s constitutional rights when it required her to use students’ preferred pronouns in the classroom.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision it released on Jan. 28 ruled against Kimberly Polk.
The policy states that “all students have the right to be referred to by their identified name and/or pronoun.”
“School staff members should address students by the name and pronoun corresponding to the gender identity that is consistently asserted at school,” it reads. “Students are not required to change their permanent student records as described in the next section (e.g., obtain a court-ordered name and/or new birth certificate) as a prerequisite to being addressed by the name and pronoun that corresponds to their identified name. To the extent possible, and consistent with these guidelines, school personnel will make efforts to maintain the confidentiality of the student’s transgender status.”
The Washington Post reported Polk, who became a substitute teacher in Montgomery County in 2021, in November 2022 requested a “religious accommodation, claiming that the policy went against her ‘sincerely held religious beliefs,’ which are ‘based on her understanding of her Christian religion and the Holy Bible.’”
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in January 2025 dismissed Polk’s lawsuit that she filed in federal court in Beltsville. Polk appealed the decision to the 4th Circuit.
By PAMELA WOOD | Dan Cox, a Republican who was resoundingly defeated by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore four years ago, has filed to run for governor again this year.
Cox’s candidacy was posted on the Maryland elections board website Friday; he did not immediately respond to an interview request.
Cox listed Rob Krop as his running mate for lieutenant governor.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Maryland
Expanded PrEP access among FreeState Justice’s 2026 legislative priorities
Maryland General Assembly opened on Jan. 14
FreeState Justice this week spoke with the Washington Blade about their priorities during this year’s legislative session in Annapolis that began on Jan. 14.
Ronnie L. Taylor, the group’s community director, on Wednesday said the organization continues to fight against discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS. FreeState Justice is specifically championing a bill in the General Assembly that would expand access to PrEP in Maryland.
Taylor said FreeState Justice is working with state Del. Ashanti Martinez (D-Prince George’s County) and state Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Arundel and Howard Counties) on a bill that would expand the “scope of practice for pharmacists in Maryland to distribute PrEP.” The measure does not have a title or a number, but FreeState Justice expects it will have both in the coming weeks.
FreeState Justice has long been involved in the fight to end the criminalization of HIV in the state.
Governor Wes Moore last year signed House Bill 39, which decriminalized HIV in Maryland.
The bill — the Carlton R. Smith Jr. HIV Modernization Act — is named after Carlton Smith, a long-time LGBTQ activist known as the “mayor” of Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood who died in 2024. FreeState Justice said Marylanders prosecuted under Maryland Health-General Code § 18-601.1 have already seen their convictions expunged.
Taylor said FreeState Justice will continue to “oppose anti anti-LGBTQ legislation” in the General Assembly. Their website later this week will publish a bill tracker.
The General Assembly’s legislative session is expected to end on April 13.
CMS moves to expand HIV-positive organ transplants
Shooter who killed 7 people inside Canada school was transgender
Russia’s anti-LGBTQ crackdown takes absurd turn
McPike wins special election for Va. House of Delegates
As Oscars approach, it’s time to embrace ‘KPop Demon Hunters’
PHOTOS: Drag in rural Virginia
New book explores homosexuality in ancient cultures
I keep getting rejected on the apps
Gay man details secret struggle with bulimia
