District of Columbia
IRS revokes tax-exempt status for Cherry Fund
Agency says org failed to file 990 form for three years

In a little-noticed development, the IRS announced on its website on Aug. 8 that it had revoked the tax-exempt status three months earlier on May 15, 2022 for the Cherry Fund, the D.C.-based LGBTQ nonprofit organization.
For the past 25 years, the Cherry Fund has raised large sums of money for HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ organizations through its annual weekend circuit party events usually held in April.
In an announcement posted on its website, the IRS included the Cherry Fund in a list of organizations for which it said their 501(c)(3) tax exempt status was āautomaticallyā revoked on grounds that they failed to submit a required annual IRS 990 finance statement for three consecutive years.
The IRS included this statement as part of its announcement: āJust because an organization appears on this list, it does not mean the organization is currently revoked, as they may have been reinstated.ā
An IRS spokesperson told the Washington Blade that as of two weeks ago, the Cherry Fundās tax-exempt status had not been reinstated.
Allen Sexton, the Cherry Fund president, or another Cherry Fund spokesperson have not responded to a Washington Blade request for comment.
District of Columbia
Dancing protesters denounce Trumpās Kennedy Center takeover
āThis is an attack, not only on free speech, but on artistsā

Waiting in the windy cold of a 45-degree February day in Washington, Tara Hoot stood in Washington Circle wearing a canary yellow dress, heels, and a rainbow feather boa. Hoot was waiting, along with about 100 others, although most of them were wearing layers of clothes, for a protest to begin.
āI am here because, well, I’m angry at the situation we find ourselves in,ā Hoot told the Blade amid a growing crowd of pro-drag and pro-LGBTQ protesters who gathered behind her. āI’m just so annoyed that this sitting president is attacking a marginalized population. It’s a distraction for the country when everything’s falling apart. The cost of eggs is up there, and inflation is rising, and he’s here attacking a marginalized population in D.C.? It’s like, go do your job, right? It’s immoral what he’s doing, and it’s weak to attack the marginalized population. He’s just showing his own weakness.ā
Last week President Trump promised followers that he would remove anyone that ādo not share our vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” specifically targeting drag performers at the Kennedy Center. On Wednesday he made that goal a reality by removing the 18 Democratic members on the formerly bipartisan Kennedy Center board, replacing them with Trump loyalists.
This raised questions of the legality of removing the board, and his seeming attempt to silence First Amendment rights. As a result, the Kennedy Center issued a statement following Trumpās post.
āPer the Center’s governance established by Congress in 1958, the chair of the board of trustees is appointed by the Center’s board members,ā the statement read. āThere is nothing in the Center’s statute that would prevent a new administration from replacing board members; however, this would be the first time such action has been taken with the Kennedy Center’s board.”
Of the newly appointed board members, all have stood behind the twice impeached president as he continues to slash the federal government. These loyalists include Richard Grenell, a gay man who served as Trumpās ambassador to Germany in his first term; Usha Vance, the second lady of the United States; Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff; and Patricia Duggan, a philanthropist and top GOP donor.
The newly appointed board then elected Trump as chair.
When asked what Hoot, a local drag icon who has performed at the Kennedy Center, would say to the current board, she was quick with an answer.
āWell darling, they missed their chance!ā Hoot said. āI was running for board president of the Kennedy Center, the people’s princess, I would say. Art is gorgeous and diverse and beautiful, and it’s a way that we all tell our stories. The board needs to keep the heart of the Kennedy Center in mind, no matter who their board chair is. They actually need to have a spine and push back when these ideas that art has to be one thing or another, the board needs to push back and keep the Kennedy Center a people’s place for art.ā
Brooke N Hymen, a self-described āprofessional crossdresserā and trans person explained that to them, the changes in public attitude is more than a silencing of free speech, but an erasure of trans people.
āI find that attacks on drag are not just an attack on my heart, my livelihood, but also a veiled attack on trans people,ā Hymen said. āThey want to code trans people and what they do in their daily expression as drag as a way to ban trans people. So if we don’t stand up against these attacks on drag, trans people are the first people that will be harmed.ā
Hymen went on to say there are clear and simple ways that the board could offset these actions that directly and negatively impact the LGBTQ community.
āMore drag programming, more queer artists, more queer musicians, and more queer casts,ā they said. āTara Hoot was running for board of the Kennedy Center. I don’t know how possible that is under Trump, but I think that it’s a lovely sentiment and something that we should all push for.ā
Putting Hoot back in the Kennedy Center was also on the mind of other participants of the protest dance party. John Borstel, a former arts administrator, also said that appointing someone like Hoot to the board would be beneficialāif only to ensure that someone would speak out at the Kennedy Center.
āGet out and let the bipartisan board back in,ā Borstel said. āGet out and get people who know the arts back in. Let Tara Hoot in here! The drag queen who’s performed at the Kennedy Center. She’s been outspoken about this. She’s gone on record where the Biden appointed and ousted board members won’t even make a public statement about what happened. They’re afraid for themselves. We’ve got drag queens speaking out. The bureaucrats won’t speak up.ā
His sentiment regarding the lack of response from former Kennedy Center officials was echoed in his grievances with other established members of the arts community who didnāt show up at the protest. It did make him proud in a unique way though.
āI have never been prouder than I am tonight, to be a gay man, to be queer, because it’s the queers who have come out to protest it ā but it’s affecting everybody,ā Borstel said. āHe’s going to cut it all down. Everybody should be out here. I worked in the arts sector for over 30 years here. Where are those folks? But the queers are here. And they’re dancing!ā

Bennett Shoop, one of the protest organizers with the Claudia Jones School for Political Education, told the crowd at Washington Circleājust before their march down New Hampshire Avenue to the front of the Kennedy Centerāthat drag is deeply intertwined with Washingtonās history and that ignoring it means erasing that history.
āDrag is really important to D.C. and it’s important to D.C. history,ā Shoop said to the diverse and growing crowd of people listening. āWilliam Dorsey Swann was the first drag queen in the United States, an enslaved person who called themselves āthe queen of drag,ā who threw drag balls right here in this city. Drag is a D.C. institution, one that Trump has decided is going to be one of his top targets for his fascist administration. But it’s not just about drag performers at the Kennedy Center. This administration wants to remove all kinds of gender non-conformity and LGBTQ people at large from public life, just like the Nazis did at the Hirschfeld Institute when they burned all of those books.ā
āThis is D.C.,ā he continued as the crowd cheered him on. āD.C. is the queerest city per capita in the United States. We may not have representation in the federal government, but we do have a fighting spiritā¦He could pass all the executive orders and do all of the fascist takeovers that he wants, but queer and trans people will still be here. You know, we will still dance, and that dance will long outlive them.ā
One of those members of the LGBTQ community who resisted oppression through dance and protest, Shoop explained as he concluded his speech, could be credited with sparking the modern gay rights movement.
āLet us never forget that it was none other than drag king StormĆ© DeLarverie who inspired the Stonewall uprising that led to the gay liberation revolution of the ā70s. Drag was a part of our revolution then, and it must be a part of our revolution now. I just want to end with a quote from the namesake of our school, Claudia Jones, who once said āthat a people’s art is the genesis of their freedom.ā So like our predecessors, let this be the genesis of ours.ā
Following speeches by the other organizing groups, the group of 200 or so walked in the middle of the road toward the Kennedy Center singing and occasionally stopping to dance. Onlookers from apartments along the road opened windows waving at the group, occasionally screaming words of support from stories up.
One of those marching in protest was Jennifer Ives of Germantown, Md. She was bundled up in a coat and hat while holding a sign, dancing along the protest route.
āIām here because I want to support the trans and gay communities,ā Ives told the Blade. āI believe that soldiers should get their hormone treatment, their therapy, their pills. I believe that Trump should get out of the Kennedy Center. I believe that right now, there’s an assault on the trans community, and we just can’t stand for it. So we gotta protest, and we gotta dance.ā
Another participant, dressed in full dragāfrom voluminous black and red hair to a sparkly, tinsel-covered suit and thick white heelsāemphasized that no matter what executive orders are signed or what bans pass through state legislatures, LGBTQ people have always been here and always will be.
āThe main reason is to show that even though these actions have been taken, and though they want to strip us of our power, that we’re still here,ā said drag performer Rhiannon LLC. āI think an important thing that stuck with me after the election, even though we lost, Kamala Harris, her main message was, we’re not going back. And if we let that message die, then we kind of go along with it. So to be here and to be out, it’s awesome.ā
They continued, saying that if they had the ability to say one thing to the Kennedy Center board, it would be two words: āHave integrity. Although Trump may be there for the next four years, you are there after. These actions will follow you, and your job right now is to support the arts. So support the arts.ā
One of the last speeches of the night was delivered directly in front of the Kennedy Center, its marble walls and gold columns providing a final backdrop for the protest. Pussy Noir, another local drag legend, was handed a mic to wrap up the night.
āThis is an intense time for all of us,ā said Noir, who currently has a residency with the Kennedy Center REACH program and performs in drag across the city. āI don’t know if you know this about me, but I’m the main drag queen that brought drag to the Kennedy Center, and with many other drag queens in this city, helped establish it as a real art form.ā
Noir took a moment to look out at the crowd, their faces illuminated by the glow of the Kennedy Center, before finishing with a message of resilience and solidarity for all drag artists ā those currently protesting in front of the Kennedy Center and those performing in hole-in-the-wall gay bars across the country.
āSo no matter what anyone says, If you are a drag performer, you are an artist. If you support drag, you are supporting artists. Right now this is an attack, not only on free speech, but on artists, on small business owners, and I think that’s something that everyone in this country can understand. We must be supportive of each other and kind to each other. More than anything, that is the only way that we can fight this.ā
District of Columbia
Protests against Trump executive orders to take place in D.C. on Thursday
Demonstrations will happen outside attorney general’s office, Kennedy Center

The Trump-Vance administration has taken an aggressive stance against the LGBTQ community by passing executive order after executive order that restricts the ability of transgender people to exist. In response, LGBTQ activists in Washington will take to the streets on Thursday to protest the slew of actions the White House has undertaken.
In back-to-back protests, demonstrators will rally against a federal ban on gender-affirming care for minors, followed by a protest at the Kennedy Center condemning a newly imposed ban on drag performances at the venue.
The first protest of the day will take place outside the D.C. Attorney General’s Office (400 6th St., N.W.) to oppose Trump’s executive order banning gender-affirming care for minors. Originally scheduled for the previous day but postponed due to snow, the protest will run from 12-2 p.m. Organizers aim to pressure D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb and Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Wayne Turnage to join 15 other states in issuing official public guidance against the order and declaring it unlawful.
Under the D.C. Human Rights Act, passed by the D.C. City Council in 1977, discrimination based on gender identity and expression is explicitly prohibited. The law defines gender identity and expression as āa gender-related identity, appearance, expression, or behavior of an individual, regardless of the individualās assigned sex at birth.ā Trumpās executive order, officially titled the āProtecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilationā order, directly violates this act by banning all forms of gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth, effectively preventing them from accessing medical care necessary for their transition.
The 15 other statesā that objected to the order include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
This protest was organized by the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America Bodily Autonomy Working Group, which focuses on āthe fight for queer, trans, and feminist liberation and against systems of patriarchal capitalist oppression that devalue women and LGBTQIA+ people, under the guidance of reproductive justice.ā
Organizers encourage protesters to bring friends and signs to get their voices heard.
The second protest of the day will take place in Washington Circle in between the Foggy Bottom and West End neighborhoods to protest Trumpās takeover of the Kennedy Center. Trump removed all 18 members that former President Joe Biden appointed to the Kennedy Center board and has started installing Trump loyalists into their roles.
The sudden board shake-up was first announced on Truth Social, Trumpās social media platform, as a response to what he called the boardās lack of āvision for a Golden Age in arts and culture.ā Many found this statement puzzling, given that Trump has openly admitted he has never attended a performance at the nonpartisan arts center.
The āTrans & Queer Dance Party and Protest,ā which will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the circle only a few blocks from the Kennedy Center, is an attempt by six DC based organizations to show the Trump administration that āas D.C. residents, we say the Kennedy Center is our house, and weāre not going to let fascists tell us what to do or censor our artists.ā The collaborating organizations encourage supporters of art, drag, the Kennedy Center, and the LGBTQ community to show up in āour best (warm) looksā to let the administration know that D.C. will not be silenced.
Richard Grenell, a gay man who served as Trumpās ambassador to Germany in his first term, was given the title of āinterim executive directorā of the Kennedy Center, tasked with realigning the arts center to better fit Trumpās agenda. The announcement initially caused confusion because before this announcement, there had never been an acting director, but a president elected by the board.Ā Ā
His agenda so far includes banning any performances in the famous performing arts center, including “Dancing Queens Drag Brunch,” “A Drag Salute to Divas,” and āDixie’s Tupperware Party,ā which were put on at the Kennedy Center and aimed at adults.
This protest was organized through a collaboration of six local left-leaning organizations. They include the DC Dyke March, Harrietās Wildest Dreams, Occupation Free DC, Good Trouble Cooperative, and Claudia Jones School.
For more information on the trans gender-affirming care protest, visit https://actionnetwork.org/events/schwalb-trans-rally or https://mdcdsa.org/. For more information on the Kennedy Center dance party protest, visit any of the organizers’ Instagram pages.
District of Columbia
Bill to repeal D.C. home rule would jeopardize LGBTQ rights: activists
Measure introduced by homophobic lawmakers

U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn) on Feb. 6 introduced legislation in the Senate and House calling for repealing the D.C. Home Rule Act, which would eliminate the cityās limited home rule government with a mayor and city council.
The two lawmakers named the bill the āBringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident Actā or the āBOWSER Act,ā saying in a statement that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser was responsible, in part, for leaving āour nationās Capital in crime-ridden shambles.ā
Lee and Robles each received a ā0ā rating, the lowest possible rating, on the Human Rights Campaignās Congressional Scorecard, which assesses the record of members of Congress on LGBTQ related issues.
Most political observers point out that far-right Republican lawmakers have introduced similar bills in the past, including one in 2024, which have died in committee with little support.
Both Democratic and some Republican lawmakers expressing opposition to the previous bills noted that under the existing D.C. Home Rule Act, Congress retains full authority to reject any legislation passed by the D.C. Council and signed by the mayor. They note that Congress also retains authority to impose any law it wishes on D.C.
But some observers, including LGBTQ rights advocates, say the prospects of the current bill could go further with the current GOP-controlled Congress and at a time when President Donald Trump raised the issue of alleged āout of controlā crime in D.C. during his presidential campaign. Trump has said he plans to issue one or more executive orders targeting D.C. home rule.
The bill introduced by Lee and Ogles does not address or propose who or what federal entity would operate D.C.ās local government after the Home Rule Act of 1973 is repealed. The two-page-long bill states, āEffective on the date that is 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the District of Columbia Home Rule Act (Public Law 93-198) is repealed.ā
Prior to the passage of the Home Rule Act of 1973, which Congress approved under the administration of then-President Richard Nixon, the city was governed by a commission whose members were appointed by the U.S. president and approved by Congress. A ācommissioner-mayorā appointed by the president served as the head of the commission.
LGBTQ rights activists believe a similar type of governing body under the current Republican Congress and the Trump administration could pose a threat to the LGBTQ rights laws currently on the books in D.C., including the cityās Human Rights Act, which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
āRepeal of Home Rule at this time can only be a negative for the LGBTQ community, especially the transgender community, because of the virulent antagonism toward that community of the MAGA Republicans in control of Congress,ā according to D.C. gay Democratic activist Peter Rosenstein.
Howard Garrett, president of the Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.ās largest local LGBTQ political organization, also expressed concern that repeal of D.C. home rule would pose a threat to the local LGBTQ community.
āRepealing D.C. home rule would be a direct attack on our cityās ability to govern itself and protect the rights of all residents, especially the LGBTQ+ community,ā Garrett told the Washington Blade. āWashington, D.C. has been a leader in advancing LGBTQ+ rights, from nondiscrimination protections to access to affirming healthcare,ā he said. āIf Congress were to strip away our autonomy, it would leave us vulnerable to reactionary policies that do not reflect the values of our residents.ā
Garrett added, āThis latest attempt to revoke home rule is nothing more than political interference that undermines democracy.ā
In a joint statement released on the day they introduced their D.C. home rule repeal bills, Lee and Ogles denounced what they called a āradically progressive regimeā of Bowser and the City Council.
āWashington is now known for its homicides, rapes, drug overdoses, violence, theft, and homelessness,ā Ogles said n the statement. āBowser and her corrupt Washington City Council are incapable of managing the city,ā he said.
Lee stated, āThe corruption, crime, and incompetence of the D.C. government has been an embarrassment to our nationās capital for decades. It is long past time that Congress restored the honor of George Washington to the beautiful city which bears his name.ā
Daniel Solomon, co-founder of D.C. Vote, a local nonpartisan group that advocates for D.C. statehood, said in a statement that supporters of the home rule repeal bill were putting out misleading information about crime in D.C.
āMake no mistake: This bill is a thinly veiled attempt to punish D.C. for political differences under the guise of public safety,ā he said. āWe all agree that public safety is paramount, but dismantling home rule will do nothing to make our communities safer,ā his statement continues.
āInstead, it will silence the voices of D.C. residents and threaten the progress weāve made on criminal justice reform, economic growth, and local accountability,ā he said.
Bowser, who has declined to comment specifically on the current bill to repeal D.C. home rule, has pointed out that violent crime in D.C. dropped by 35 percent from 2023 to 2024 and property related crime declined by 11 percent during that same period.
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