Connect with us

District of Columbia

Earline Budd honored with historic D.C. mural

Mayoral proclamation presented at alleyway dedication ceremony

Published

on

A mural depicting Earline Budd is in an alley next to the Atlas Performing Arts Center at 1333 H St., N.E. (Washington Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro, Jr.)

Longtime D.C. transgender rights advocate and community activist Earline Budd was honored on Dec. 19 at a ceremony officially unveiling a large mural depicting Budd as the first transgender person to be included in D.C.’s citywide wall mural program.

The mural depicting Budd is in an alley next to the Atlas Performing Arts Center at 1333 H St., N.E. that has been named an “Allery” to which the Budd mural now joins multiple other murals.

They are part of a citywide mural program called MURALSDC funded by the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Nearly 150 murals in all of the city’s eight wards have been commissioned under the program.

“As mayor of Washington, D.C., it is my pleasure to commend Earline Budd for more than 35 years of outstanding service to the LGBTQ+ community,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a proclamation presented at the Dec. 19 ceremony.

“As founder of Empowering the Transgender Community (ETC) and a transgender rights advocate, you have provided life-saving support and harm reduction services to our most vulnerable populations and used your platform to address critical issues affecting these communities,” the mayor’s proclamation says.

The proclamation refers to Budd’s longtime role in addition to director of ETC as a program manager for D.C.’s sex worker support and advocacy group HIPS where she “shepherded countless individuals through illness, homelessness, and family rejection.”

Japer Bowles, director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, read and presented the mayoral proclamation to Budd at the Monday ceremony.

“Ms. Budd has impacted, for the better, hundreds, if not thousands of LGBTQIA people’s lives through her direct services and her advocacy work that has made D.C. one of the leading cities in the world for our community,” Bowles said at the ceremony.

“The mural behind us is more than paint on a brick wall, and today is more than a gathering of community in an alley,” Bowles said. “It is a recognition of the hard work and perseverance of one woman, who has led and at points pulled the movement forward to better the lives of all, particularly our Black and Brown trans and GNC neighbors, friends and family,” he said.

Budd, 55, said she was honored when local artist Shani Shih contacted her about doing the mural. Shih told the Washington Blade she applied to participate in the MURALSDC program, and they assigned her to their art alley project.

“I hoped to use the opportunity to lift up a community story connected to H Street and having known of their critical work I reached out to HIPS DC, who connected me to Ms. Budd,” Shih said.

The dedication ceremony was followed by a reception, dinner and show at the Chateau Remix restaurant and club on Benning Road.

Budd said she’s been informed that city officials were planning a follow-up ceremony for the Earline Budd mural in February at the Atlas Performing Arts Center.

Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

District of Columbia

Whitman-Walker names new CEO for Health System unit

Heather Aaron credited with advancing LGBTQ health for seniors

Published

on

Heather Aaron (Photo courtesy Whitman-Walker)

Whitman-Walker Health, D.C.’s longtime LGBTQ and HIV health services provider, announced on March 26 that it has appointed Heather Aaron, a health care educator and executive for more than 30 years, as the new CEO for Whitman-Walker Health System.

Whitman-Walker Health System, a division of Whitman-Walker, among other things, advances the mission of Whitman-Walker through expanding its financial and fundraising capacity through the Whitman-Walker Foundation; the Whitman-Walker Institute, which conducts HIV-related research; and the Whitman-Walker Health System Real Property Holdings, according to a write-up on the Whitman-Walker website.

In a press release announcing the appointment, Whitman-Walker Health System Board Chair Ann Bonham called Aaron a “dynamic and collaborative leader that will help us to realize the vision and full potential of our health system … building revenue and growth opportunities that will further Whitman-Walker’s care, advocacy, education, and research goals in partnership with Naseema Shafi, CEO of Whitman-Walker Health.”

The Whitman-Walker Health System CEO position became open in April 2023 when former Health System CEO Dr. Ryan Moran left the position to become Deputy Secretary of Health and Healthcare Finance for the State of Maryland. Whitman-Walker named Cindy Lewin, a healthcare specialist with nonprofit organizations, as interim CEO while it conducted a national search for a permanent CEO.

“Heather has spent her entire career in health care, making a difference for the communities where she has served as Health Care Executive and Educator for more than thirty years,” the Whitman-Walker announcement of her appointment says. “She has worked tirelessly to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion in all her work,” it says, adding that her work experience includes services for members of the LGBTQ community and people with HIV/AIDS.

“In Connecticut, she operated the only continuum of care model which included a nursing home, independent living apartments and case management in one centralized community,” the announcement continues. “The care model was specifically designed for people living with HIV and AIDS,” it says. 

“I’m thrilled to be joining the Whitman-Walker family in service to the community,” Aaron said in the announcement press release. “I look forward to getting to know staff, patients, and engaging with D.C. in a meaningful way,” she said. 

Continue Reading

District of Columbia

Howard University, Gilead working to encourage HIV prevention

‘A strategic, community-centered approach to address systemic disparities’

Published

on

Howard University earlier this month hosted an event to support efforts in the Washington, D.C. area to spread HIV/AIDS awareness.

The event highlighted a collaboration between Howard University and Gilead Sciences’ new Setting the P.A.C.E  (Prevention – Arts and Advocacy – Community – Education)  initiative, which addresses HIV prevention, health equity and anti-stigma efforts for both cisgender and transgender Black women and girls. 

“By taking a strategic, community-centered approach to address systemic disparities and improve overall health outcomes, Gilead continues its commitment to advancing health equity for Black cisgender and transgender women and girls in the U.S. who continue to be disproportionately impacted by the HIV epidemic,” said Deborah H. Telman, executive vice president of Corporate Affairs and General Counsel, Gilead Sciences. 

Gilead’s Setting the P.A.C.E. Initiative is a three-year, $10 million commitment to increase HIV prevention, anti-stigma and health equity efforts for Black cisgender and transgender women and girls in the United States. Howard is one of Setting the P.A.C.E.’s grantees and through the program, it conducts HIV prevention training and informational resources, arts and advocacy, community and nonprofit capacity building, and education.

In 2021, Black women accounted for 53% of new HIV diagnoses among women aged 16 and older in the United States, despite comprising only 14% of the women living in the country, according to the Centers for Diseases Control & Prevention. Additionally, Black transgender women are likelier to be diagnosed with HIV and are likelier, more than their peers, to go undiagnosed and untreated. 

Through Setting the P.A.C.E., high-impact organizations and projects working to improve the HIV landscape receive specialized help that assists them in tackling barriers to equitable HIV health outcomes, and in receiving funding to support a variety of impactful projects to expand programs that provide culturally responsive HIV care training and leverage arts and media to engage local communities and address stigma. 

Because of the urgency of HIV awareness in the Black queer community, more than 75% of the organizations selected for P.A.C.E grants are led by Black women. Funding is directed toward initiatives spearheaded by Black women.

“Gilead’s Setting the P.A.C.E. initiative will help empower organizations to expand custom programs tailored toward fighting stigma and expanding access to HIV care in their communities,” said Telman. 

Continue Reading

District of Columbia

D.C. Council member proposes LGBTQ senior housing in Ward 2

Calls on mayor to include funding for project in FY 2025 budget

Published

on

D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) seeks to establish the city’s ‘first affordable housing for LGBTQQIA+ seniors in Ward 2.’

D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) is calling on Mayor Muriel Bowser to include $22.9 million in the city’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget to establish what Pinto calls the city’s “first affordable housing for LGBTQQIA+ seniors in Ward 2.”

In a Feb. 27 letter to Bowser proposing specific amounts of city funding on a wide range of issues, including the Council’s recently passed crime bill, Pinto told Bowser the need for affordable housing for LGBTQ seniors is pressing.

“Having faced decades of workplace and healthcare discrimination and been barred for most of their lives from marrying or having children, our LGBTQQIA+ seniors are more likely to face financial and health challenges and need housing and social supports as they age,” Pinto states in her letter.

“As the Council-funded task force meets to identify a site for a Ward 2 Senior Center, we should endeavor to locate a building that serves a dual purpose: a Ward 2 Senior Center as well as LGBTQQIA+ senior housing,” Pinto states. DHCD [D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development] should leverage federal Community Development Block Grants funding to produce at least 80 affordable units for low-and-moderate-income seniors and provide meals and other supportive services,” she wrote.

Pinto was referring to legislation passed by the D.C. Council and signed by the mayor creating a Wards 2 and 3 Senior Wellness Center Feasibility and Planning Task Force, which is assigned to “advise and guide” the mayor, the Council, and other city government agencies in the development of  senior wellness centers in Wards 2 and 3.

The task force, whose members are appointed by the mayor and the Council, has already met twice and has discussed one possible building in the Dupont Circle area that could be considered for a seniors wellness center and residence for seniors, according to John Fanning, a member of the staff of D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-Large). Bonds serves as chair of the Council’s Committee on Executive Administration and Labor, which oversees city programs pertaining to senior citizens.

Fanning, who is gay and a longtime D.C. LGBTQ rights advocate, and gay D.C. civic activist and former Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Mike Silverstein, are among those who have been appointed to the senior wellness center task force.

Silverstein said LGBTQ community members in the Dupont Circle area are suggesting the task force and the mayor consider arranging for the city to purchase a building owned by Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University at 1740 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., for the senior facility.

The university used the building for many years for its various educational programs before it moved its programs and offices into a newly renovated building on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., near the U.S. Capitol.

“Since the mayor’s budget hasn’t been released yet, there’s no telling whether there’s dedicated funding included for the purchase of this property,” Fanning told the Washington Blade.

A spokesperson for Johns Hopkins University’s D.C. office couldn’t immediately be reached to determine the price the university is asking for the building, which it announced last year it was planning to sell. The D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue states on its website that the 8-story building has been assessed for 2024 at a value of $35,894,220.

“Council member Pinto’s request to the mayor is a vitally important first step toward establishment of LGBT+ affirmative housing in the historic epicenter of our community,” Silverstein told the Blade. “The need is clear, as so many of our seniors are struggling to age in place with soaring rents and inflation eating away at savings or just dealing with the effects of social isolation that comes with the loss of a partner or close friends,” Silverstein said.

“There’s no question the District’s budget is very tight and this project as envisioned would be a very heavy lift,” Silverstein added. “But just putting this request on the table and perhaps setting up a task force to seek a way forward is a giant step forward,” he said.

Silverstein noted that a city-funded senior housing facility under existing law would have to be open to all city seniors, not just LGBTQ seniors, but he said it would be “LGBT+ affirmative,” making it an important and welcoming place for LGBTQ seniors.

News surfaced this week that Bowser, who had planned to release her budget proposal to the Council this week, needed more time to finalize the budget and it would be released sometime later.

Mayoral spokesperson Daniel Gleick told the Blade last week that ideas like the Pinto LGBTQ-supportive housing proposal would be part of the budget process discussions by the mayor and the Council in the coming weeks. 

Pinto’s proposal for an LGBTQ-supportive senior housing facility in Ward 2 comes six months after Mayor Bowser and other city officials participated in a groundbreaking ceremony launching the construction of Mary’s House for Older Adults, which is expected to be the city’s first home for LGBTQ seniors. The Mary’s House facility, which is located in the city’s Fort Dupont neighborhood in Ward 7, will include 15 single-occupancy residential apartments, compared to the 80 apartments that Pinto’s proposal calls for.

LGBTQ rights advocates nevertheless have called the Mary’s House Project, which is receiving city funds as well as support from private donors, an important project organized and founded by longtime LGBTQ community advocate Imani Woody, who is expected to operate the facility when it opens. 

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Advertisement

Sign Up for Weekly E-Blast

Follow Us @washblade

Advertisement

Popular