Local
Top 10 local news stories of 2022
Casa Ruby shuts down, As You Are opens
From the return of Pride to the shutdown of Casa Ruby, the Blade was busy in 2022 covering all the local LGBTQ news. Here are our staff picks for the top 10 stories of the year.
#10 As You Are bar overcomes hurdles to open
Plans of lesbian activists and businesswomen Jo McDaniel and Rachel Pike to open the LGBTQ café and bar of their dreams called As You Are in the Barracks Row section of Capitol Hill appeared uncertain at best in January 2022.
Some nearby residents raised objections to what they said would bring noise and neighborhood disturbances by plans for a second-floor dance floor at the bar’s 500 8th St., S.E. location. But as it turned out, many residents expressed support for the bar.
McDaniel and Pike, with help from their attorney, worked out an agreement with the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission, which gave its support for the bar’s liquor license application that was later approved by the city’s liquor board.
Although McDaniel and Pike say they still have some hurdles to overcome, the bar opened for business on March 22. Among the several dozen people who showed up on opening day were gay U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband.
#9 Gay Hyattsville mayor posthumously charged with embezzlement
Gay Hyattsville, Md., Mayor Kevin Ward, who took his own life on Jan. 25, was posthumously charged a few months later with embezzling more than $2.2 million from a D.C. charter school network where he worked as director of technology.
The revelations shocked LGBTQ supporters and Hyattsville city officials, who had praised Ward as a progressive and highly regarded public official who worked for the betterment of all of Hyattsville’s diverse residents.
U.S. Park Police said they found Ward deceased in a federal park in Northern Virginia from what authorities said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
News of the alleged embezzlement surfaced when federal prosecutors filed a civil forfeiture complaint against Ward’s estate charging, among other things, that he used the money he stole to buy at least 10 cars, a camper, sports memorabilia, and property in West Virginia.
#8 Loudoun County sexual assault case triggers opposition to trans policies
Transgender supportive public-school policies adopted in Loudoun County, Va., and throughout the state and beyond continued to face intense opposition in 2022 from a 2021 incident in which a 15-year-old boy initially believed to be transgender or gender fluid was charged with sexually assaulting two girls in separate high schools. One of the two assaults took place in a girl’s bathroom while he wore a skirt.
Although the boy’s mother has said her child is not transgender and identifies as straight, critics seized on the two sexual assault cases as grounds for reversing or opposing school policies that allow transgender students to use the bathrooms and other school facilities that match their gender identity.
In a separate development, the Loudoun County school board, which previously had adopted trans-supportive school policies, voted to uphold a decision by the school superintendent to remove the LGBTQ book ‘Gender Queer: A Memoir’ from high school libraries.
#7 Monkeypox hits D.C. gay, bi men
Officials with the D.C. Department of Health reported in July that gay and bisexual men and those in the category of men who have sex with men (MSM) appeared to comprise at least 90 percent of the reported monkeypox cases in Washington, D.C.
But that percentage declined a short time later when the DOE changed its reporting policies in an effort to reduce the stigma associated with monkeypox infections. Officials said they did not want to appear as if they were applying undue pressure on people to disclose their sexual orientation when they apply for a monkeypox vaccination or seek a monkeypox test or treatment.
That change in policy appeared to result in a lower number of newly reported cases being attributed to men who have sex with men and a higher number of cases attributed to an “unknown” risk group.
In late summer, some public health officials said the lead cause of monkeypox transmission appeared to be through sexual relations rather than casual contact such as from dancing.
#6 Ally Wes Moore wins election as Maryland governor
Maryland Democrat Wes Moore, an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ rights, won election in November as Maryland’s first African-American governor. In other LGBTQ related races, lesbian former Maryland state Del. Heather Mizeur lost her race for a U.S. House seat in the state’s Eastern Shore district.
In Delaware, transgender woman Sarah McBride won re-election to her seat in the State Senate. And in Virginia, transgender State Del. Danica Roem announced she will run for a seat in the Virginia Senate in 2023.
#5 Gay former D.C. cop Brett Parson arrested on sex with minor charge
Former D.C. police lieutenant Brett Parson, who served as supervisor of the department’s LGBT Liaison Unit before retiring from the force in 2020, was arrested in Boca Raton, Fla., on Feb. 12, for allegedly having sex with a consenting 16-year-old boy in violation of Florida’s age of consent law, which is 18, according to an arrest affidavit filed in court.
The affidavit says the 16-year-old told police he and Parson met on the gay online dating app called Growlr and agreed to meet for a sexual encounter in Coconut Creek after exchanging “explicit” photos of each other. It says the two engaged in consenting sex in Parson’s car while parked in a secluded parking lot at night.
An arrest warrant obtained by Coconut Creek police charges Parson with two counts of “Unlawful Sexual Activity with a Minor.” Parson was released on bond while awaiting trial. Court records show no trial date has been set and the next court status hearing for the case is scheduled for March 17, 2023.
#4 Youngkin creates uproar over proposed trans school policy
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia introduced a proposed directive in September requiring all the state’s 133 public school districts to adopt transgender “model policies” that, among other things, would require transgender students to use school facilities such as bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender at birth.
The proposed policies, which drew strong opposition from LGBTQ rights advocates, also would require students who want to change their name or gender on official school records to obtain legal documentation, such as a legal name change, with parental approval. Additionally, the Youngkin policies would call for teachers and other school employees to refuse to refer to trans students by their desired name or pronoun unless students’ parents request that change in writing.
Although the proposal received mixed reactions from the public through about 71,000 written comments during a 30-day review period, the state Department of Education postponed the policy directive’s implementation for more than a month following legal issues raised by opponents. Among the issues raised is that the policies would violate Virginia’s LGBTQ nondiscrimination law.
#3 Large-scale D.C. Pride events resume
Organizers of D.C.’s 2022 Capital Pride Parade and Festival say the two events attracted close to a record half-million people during the city’s Pride weekend in June when large-scale outdoor and indoor Pride events resumed following the scaled-back events in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID pandemic.
Organizers of the city’s Black Pride events, which take place each year during the Memorial Day weekend in May, said large-scale indoor celebrations, including conference sessions and dance parties, resumed in full force as well in 2022. The Blade’s annual Pride on the Pier celebration at the Wharf also returned to packed crowds.
Among those who joined the Capital Pride celebration was U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who made a surprise appearance on the Capital Pride Festival stage before a cheering crowd.
#2 D.C. election highlights LGBTQ political involvement
LGBTQ activists said among the highlights of the 2022 D.C. election was gay D.C. school board member Zachary Parker, who won election to the Ward 5 D.C. Council seat, becoming the first out LGBTQ person to serve on the Council since 2015.
Gay former D.C. police officer Salah Czapary lost his race for the Ward 1 D.C. Council seat, and two gay Libertarian Party candidates lost their races for the D.C. congressional delegate seat and the Ward 3 Council seat.
In the June Democratic primary, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Council Chair Phil Mendelson won in hotly contested races. In a development that surprised some political observers, the city’s largest LGBTQ political group, Capital Stonewall Democrats, endorsed Bowser and Mendelson’s lead opponents.
LGBTQ supporters of Bowser and Mendelson claim the large majority LGBTQ residents voted for Bowser and Mendelson, who have strong records of support on LGBTQ issues. Like all D.C. elections over the past 20 years or longer, virtually all candidates running in 2022 expressed support for LGBTQ rights.
#1 Casa Ruby shuts down
Casa Ruby, D.C.’s once highly regarded LGBTQ community services center, closed its operations in July due to a financial crisis brought about by the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in city funding and alleged mismanagement.
On July 29, shortly after the shutdown, the Office of the D.C. Attorney General filed a civil complaint against Casa Ruby and its founder and former executive director Ruby Corado, alleging that Casa Ruby and Corado had violated the city’s Nonprofit Corporations Act for the past several years.
The complaint said improper actions by Corado, including the unaccounted-for expenditure of city funds and a gross failure by the Casa Ruby Board of Directors to provide oversight, was the cause of the financial crisis. The AG’s office on Nov. 28 filed an amended complaint in D.C. Superior Court with new allegations, including claims that Corado withdrew more than $400,000 of Casa Ruby’s funds for unauthorized use in El Salvador.
Corado has denied any improper or illegal financial practices and blamed the D.C. government for Casa Ruby’s collapse. In an interview with the Blade in El Salvador, where she has lived most of the time for the past two years, Corado said the allegations against her, especially those made by the D.C. Attorney General, amount to “persecution.”
Virginia
LGBTQ rights at forefront of 2026 legislative session in Va.
Repeal of state’s marriage amendment a top priority
With 2026 ramping up, LGBTQ rights are at the forefront of Virginia politics.
The repeal of Virginia’s constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman is a top legislative priority for activists and advocacy groups.
The Virginia Senate on Jan. 17 by a 26-13 vote margin approved outgoing state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria)’s resolution that would repeal the Marshall-Newman Amendment. The Virginia House of Delegates earlier this month passed it.
Two successive legislatures must approve the resolution before it can go to the ballot.
The resolution passed in 2025. Voters are expected to consider repealing the amendment on Nov. 3.
The Virginia General Assembly opened with an introduction of a two-year budget — Virginia’s budget runs biannually.
In 2024 some funding was allocated to LGBTQ causes, and others were passed over. This year’s proposed budget leaves room for funding for a host of LGBTQ opportunities. One specific priority that Equality Virginia is promoting would ensure the state budget expands healthcare for LGBTQ individuals and extending gender affirming care.
Equality Virginia Communications Director Reed Williams told the Washington Blade the organization is also focused on passing three main budget amendments, and ensuring “LGBTQ+ students and their teachers have resources to navigate and address mental health challenges in K-12 schools.”
Along with ensuring school training, the organization wants funding in hopes of “establishing enhanced competency training for Virginia’s 988 Lifeline counselors and support staff to provide affirming care for LGBTQ+ youth.” This comes after the Trump-Vance administration shut down the specific hotline for LGBTQ young people that callers could previously reach if they called 988.
On a federal level, protections and health care access for LGBTQ people has taken a hit, as the Trump-Vance administration has continued to issue executive orders affecting the health care system. LGBTQ people no longer have federal legal health care protections, so local and state politics has become even more important for LGBTQ rights groups.
Equality Virginia has urged its supporters to call their local senators and stress the importance of voting to expand health care protections for LGBTQ people. The organization also plans to hold information sessions and a lobby day on Feb. 2.
Equality Virginia is tracking bills on its website.
District of Columbia
Faith programming remains key part of Creating Change Conference
‘Faith work is not an easy pill to swallow in LGBTQ spaces’
The National LGBTQ Task Force kicked off the 38th annual Creating Change conference in D.C. this week. This year, as with years past, faith and interfaith programming remains a key part of the conference’s mission and practice.
For some, the presence of faith work at an LGBTQ+ conference may seem antithetical, and Creating Change does not deny the history of harm caused by religious institutions. “We have to be clear that faith work is not an easy pill to swallow in LGBTQ spaces, and they’re no qualms about saying that we acknowledge the pain, trauma, and violence that’s been purported in the name of religion,” Tahil Sharma, Faith Work Director for the National LGBTQ Task Force, said.
In fact, several panels at the conference openly discuss acknowledging, healing from, and resisting religious harm as well as religious nationalism, including one scheduled today titled “Defending Democracy Through Religious Activism: A panel of experts on effective strategies for faith and multi-faith organizing” that features local queer faith activists like Ebony C. Peace, Rob Keithan, and Eric Eldritch who are also involved in the annual DC Pride Interfaith Service.
Another session will hold space for survivors of religious violence, creating “a drop-in space for loving on each other in healing ways, held by Rev. Alba Onofrio and Teo Drake.”
But Sharma and others who organized the Creating Change Conference explained that “a state of antipathy” towards religious communities, especially those that align with queer liberation and solidarity, is counterproductive and denies the rich history of queer religious activism. “It’s time for us to make a call for an approach to LGBTQ+ liberation that uses interfaith literacy as a tool rather than as a weapon against us,” Sharma explained.
Recognizing a local queer faith icon
Along with the panels, fighting religious nationalism and fostering communion with aligned faith activists and communities is at heart of this year’s faith work. As Sharma shared, “the person that we’re honoring this year for the faith award is Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt, and Dr. Betancourt is an amazing leader and someone who really stands out in representing UUs but also representing herself unapologetically.”
Based in the Washington, D.C. area, Dr. Betancourt has more than 20 years of experience working as a public minister, seminary professor, scholar, and environment ethicist, and public theologian. Her activism is rooted in her lived identities as a queer, multiracial, AfroLatine first-generation daughter of immigrants from Chile and Panama, and has been a critical voice in advancing the United Universalism towards anti-racist and pluralistic faith work.
Creating a faith-based gathering space
Sharma also said that faith fosters a unique space and practice to encounter grief and joy. For this reason, Sharma wants to “create a space for folks to engage in curiosity, to engage in spiritual fulfillment and grounding but also I think with the times that we’re in to lean into some space to mourn, some space to find hope.” The Many Paths Gathering Space serves this purpose, where visitors can stop for spiritual practice, speak with a Spiritual Care Team member, or just take a sensory break from the bustle of the conference.
This also means uplifting and foregrounding queer religious ephemera with an ofrenda to honor those who have passed, a display of nonbinary Korean American photographer Salgu Wissmath’s exhibition Divine Identity, and the Shower of Stoles, a collection of about 1,500 liturgical stoles and other sacred regalia representing the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people of faith.
The Shower of Stoles
The collection was first started in 1995 by Martha Juillerat and Tammy Lindahl who received eighty stoles that accompanied them and lent them solace as they set aside their ordinations from the Presbyterian Church. The whole collection was first displayed at the 1996 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in New Mexico. The stoles, according to the Task Force, “quickly became a powerful symbol of the huge loss to the church of gifted leadership.”
Each stole represents the story of a queer person who is active in the life and leadership of their faith community, often sent in by the people themselves but sometimes by a loved one in their honor. About one third of all the stoles are donated anonymously, and over three-quarters of the stoles donated by clergy and full-time church professionals are contributed anonymously.
The collection shows “not just the deep harm that has been caused that does not allow people to meet their vocation when they’re faith leaders, but it also speaks to how there have been queer and trans people in our [faith] communities since the beginning of our traditions, and they continue to serve in forms of leadership,” Sharma explained.
Explicit interfaith work
Along with creating a sacred space for attendees, hosting workshops focused on faith-based action, and recognizing DC’s rich queer religious history, Creating Change is also hosting explicitly faith services, like a Buddhist Meditation, Catholic Mass, Shabbat service, Jummah Prayer Service, and an ecumenical Christian service on Sunday. Creating Change is also welcoming events at the heart of queer religious affirmation, including a Name/Gender/Pronoun/Identity Blessing Ritual and a reading and discussion around queer bibles stories with Rev. Sex (aka Rev. Alba Onofrio).
But along with specific faith-based programs, Sharma explained, “we’re looking to build on something that I helped to introduce, which was the separation of the interfaith ceremony that’s happening this year which is a vigil versus the ecumenical Christian service which is now the only thing that takes place on Sunday morning.”
This includes an Interfaith Empowerment Service this evening and an Interfaith Institute tomorrow, along with “Sing In the Revolution,” an event where folks are invited “to actually engage in the joy and rhythm of resolution and what that looks like,” Sharma said. One of the key activators behind this work is Rev. Eric Eldritch, an ordained Pagan clergy person with Circle Sanctuary and a member of the Pride Interfaith Service planning committee.
Affirming that queer faith work is part of liberation
The goal for this year, Sharma noted, alongside holding space and discussions about faith-based practice and liberation and intentional interfaith work–is to move from thinking about why faith matters in queer liberation spaces to “how is interfaith work the tool for how we’re engaging in our understanding of de-escalation work, digital strategies, navigating a deeper visioning that we need for a better world that requires us to think that we’re not alone in the struggle for mutual abundance and liberation,” Sharma explained.
It may surprise people to learn that faith work has intentionally been part of the National LGBTQ+ Task Force since its beginning in the 1980s. “We can really credit that to some of the former leadership like Urvashi Vaid who actually had a sense of understanding of what role faith plays in the work of liberation and justice,” Sharma said.
“For being someone who wasn’t necessarily religious, she certainly did have a clear understanding of the relationship between those folks who are allies, those folks who stand against us, and then those folks who sit in between–those folks who profess to be of religious and spiritual background and also are unapologetically LGBTQ+,” he continued.
This year’s faith programming builds on this rich history, thinking about “a way to kind of open doors, to not just invite people in but our people to go out into the general scene of the conference” to share how faith-based work is a tool, rather than a hindrance, to queer liberation work.
Virginia
McPike prevails in ‘firehouse’ Dem primary for Va. House of Delegates
Gay Alexandria Council member expected to win 5th District seat
Gay Alexandria City Council member Kirk McPike emerged as the clearcut winner in a hastily called Jan. 20 “firehouse” Democratic primary for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Alexandria.
McPike, who was one of two gay candidates running in the four-candidate primary, received 1,279 votes or 60.5 percent, far ahead of gay public school teacher Gregory Darrall, a political newcomer who received 60 votes or 3 percent.
Former Alexandria City School Board member Eileen Cassidy Rivera came in second place with 508 votes or 24 percent and Northern Virginia criminal law defense attorney Chris Leibig finished in third place with 265 votes or 12.5 percent.
Each of the candidates expressed strong support for LGBTQ-related issues.
With less than a week’s notice, Democratic Party officials in Alexandria called the primary to select a Democratic nominee to run in the Feb. 10 special election to fill the 5th District House of Delegates seat being vacated by state Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-Alexandria).
Bennett-Parker won the Democratic nomination for the Virginia State Senate seat being vacated by gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria), who is resigning from his seat to take a position in the administration of Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who took office on Jan. 17.
Bennett-Parker won the nomination for Ebbin’s state Senate seat in yet another firehouse primary on Jan. 13 in which she defeated three other candidates, including gay former state Del. Mark Levine.
McPike, a longtime LGBTQ rights advocate, first won election to the Alexandria City Council in 2021. He has served for 13 years as chief of staff for gay U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and has remained in that position during his tenure on the Alexandria Council. He told the Washington Blade he will continue as chief of staff until next month, when he will resign from that position before taking office in the House of Delegates.
He received the endorsement of Ebbin, U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), and the LGBTQ Victory Fund in his race for the 5th District Va. House seat. Being an overwhelmingly Democratic district, virtually all political observers expect McPike to win the Feb. 10 special election.
He will be running against Republican nominee Mason Butler, a local business executive who emerged as the only GOP candidate running for the delegate seat.
“Thank you to the voters of Alexandria for choosing me as the Democratic nominee in the House of Delegates District 5,” McPike said in a statement released shortly after the vote count was completed. “It is an incredible honor to have the opportunity to fight for our community and its values in Richmond,” he said.
“I look forward to continuing to work to address our housing crisis, the challenge of climate change, and the damaging impacts of the Trump administration on the immigrant families, LGBTQ+ Virginians, and federal employees who call Alexandria home,” he stated.
He praised Ebbin for his longstanding support for the LGBTQ community in the Virginia Legislature and added, “If elected to the House of Delegates in the Feb. 10 general election, I will continue to fight to protect the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ+ Virginians from my new position in Richmond.”
Gay candidate Darrall’s campaign website said he is a “proud progressive, lifelong educator, and labor leader running to put people first.” It says he is a political newcomer “with more than 20 years in the classroom” as a teacher who played a key role in the successful unionization of Fairfax Public Schools.
“He is a proud member and staunch supporter of the LGBTQIA+ community,” his website statement said.
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