District of Columbia
D.C. court disputes claim by trans group over why LGBTQ crime victim housing facility was closed
Court never promised specific number of residents for ETC apartments: agreement
A spokesperson for the D.C. Superior Court released a statement to the Washington Blade on Jan. 11 disputing claims by the local organization Empowering the Transgender Community, known as ETC, that it was forced to suspend operation of its temporary emergency housing facility for LGBTQ victims of violent crime because the court reneged on a promise to send enough residents to financially sustain the facility.
ETC announced in March of 2022 that it had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the D.C. court’s Crime Victims Compensation Program to provide temporary emergency housing specifically for LGBTQ crime victims for up to 30 days through an arrangement with the courts.
Earline Budd, ETC’s executive director, said ETC had rented a small apartment building to operate a housing facility that she said last March could accommodate up to 26 individuals or a smaller group of families for the crime victims program. Court officials have since said the number was reduced to 22 because a few of the apartments in the building would be used for ETC staff offices.
The location of the facility had to remain confidential, Budd said, as part of the agreement with the courts to ensure the safety of its residents.
But in December Budd informed the Blade that ETC had to suspend its operation of the housing facility in November because the court did not provide enough tenants to financially sustain the facility. Budd said the director of the Crime Victims Compensation Program, Blanche Reese, told her and others during a visit to the ETC facility last March that the program expected to fill the facility to its capacity with crime victim residents.
Budd said the far fewer than expected residents sent to the ETC facility by the court created a financial shortfall when the overhead costs of renting the building and paying staff to operate the program exceeded the reimbursement payments they received from the court.
“The court never promised ETC a specific number of claimants to be housed by this provider,” said Douglas Buchanan, director of Media and Public Relations for the D.C. Courts, in a statement to the Blade.
Buchanan pointed to the four-page Memorandum of Understanding between ETC and the courts, which Buchanan sent to the Blade. The document, which was signed by Budd on Feb. 15 2022, makes no mention of the number of “victim/claimants” the court would send to the ETC facility.
The MOU states that the reimbursement by the Crime Victims Compensation Program (CVCP) to ETC “for each emergency housing stay is limited to a period of 30 days at the rate of $100.00 per day.”
The MOU states that CVCP would reimburse ETC for the costs of food if food is provided to the victim/claimants. “The amount shall not exceed $100.00 per week up to a total of $400.00,” the MOU says.
Buchanan also provided the Blade with comments from Crime Victims Compensation Program Director Blanche Reese, regarding Budd’s claim that Reese made a verbal promise to send enough tenants to fill the ETC facility to capacity.
“The managers were told that the facility would probably stay full because the facility was so beautiful and some of the other facilities were not as nice,” Reese said. “My statement was taken out of context,” Reese added. “They were also informed of how placement is decided. For example, if a crime happened in S.E. (where the facility is located) we would try to place the claimant away from the crime location, unless the claimant signed a disclaimer.”
According to Reese, “Ultimately, the claimant makes the decision if they want to stay at the facility that CVCP suggests…ETC was never promised a specific number of claimants. They were told that it would vary.”
Budd said ETC’s financial problems were heightened when the court program failed to send its reimbursement payments on time, sometimes sending them a month or two after they were due.
In his statement to the Blade, Buchanan said the delays in reimbursement payments were caused by ETC submitting inaccurate invoices. The MOU calls for ETC to provide invoices related to the claimants who stayed at the ETC facility.
“In the beginning, the delay in payments were due to inaccurate invoices submitted by ETC,” Buchanan said. “The CVCP director and accounting officer had a meeting with the [ETC] board to explain the process and clear up any discrepancies,” he said. “It was at that time the ETC board authorized the CVCP to correct any inaccurate invoices submitted and process the payments to address the delay in processing payments.”
In response to concerns raised by ETC that the court also didn’t fully reimburse ETC for the cost of food for crime victims and their family members sent to the facility, Buchanan said ETC was aware of restrictions by “food caps” set by the CVCP rules
In her statement sent to the Blade by Buchanan, Reese said the court “had no idea that ETC relied on the CVCP as their sole source of funding.” Reese said she was contacted by the attorney representing the ETC organization asking for a meeting with her to discuss the group’s finances.
“It was at this meeting that they informed me that the ETC board had made a decision to temporarily cease providing housing because of accounting issues,” Reese said. “At this meeting we also discussed staffing concerns because I was informed that the entire staff had resigned,” said Reese. “We were supposed to revisit the viability of the ETC organization in January 2023.”
Budd has said staffing issues surfaced when the lower reimbursement of funds from the court due to fewer residents than expected caused a shortfall in funds preventing ETC from paying some of its staff and paying the rent for the building.
She said ETC remained hopeful that it could reopen the emergency housing facility for the crime victims program if its arrangement with the court could be revised. She said ETC was also in discussion with the D.C. Department of Human Services over the possibility that the ETC facility could be used as a low-barrier shelter for homeless people.
Budd said that due to the privacy restrictions required for the crime victims program, she didn’t think the ETC building could be used for both crime victim residents and homeless residents at the same time.
But in his statement to the Blade, Buchanan said, “The decision to use the facility for other purposes would totally be up to the ETC executive director and board.”
Buchanan said the court would also like to revisit its relationship with ETC, although he said the ETC attorney or ETC board members had not contacted the CVCP about resuming the program as of earlier this week.
“We are looking forward to ironing some things out and we are optimistic that the courts and ETC are going to get together in the coming months in an effort to try to hammer out some of these issues and try to pave a path forward that benefits those that ETC and the DC Courts serve,” he said.
Budd and the ETC attorney, Charles Ross, couldn’t immediately be reached to get their reaction to the statements sent to the Blade this week from Buchanan and CVCP Director Blanche Reese.
Buchanan sent a copy of an email that attorney Ross sent to Buchanan this week in which Ross said he would not be responding to the Blade’s request for comment at this time.
District of Columbia
Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals
Three LGBTQ icons to lead parade
WorldPride organizers announced Thursday that actress and trans activist Laverne Cox, powerhouse performer Reneé Rapp, and LGBTQ trailblazer Deacon Maccubbin will serve as grand marshals for this year’s WorldPride parade.
The Capital Pride Alliance, which is organizing WorldPride 2025 in Washington, D.C., revealed the honorees in a press release, noting that each has made a unique contribution to the fabric of the LGBTQ community.
Cox made history in 2014 as the first openly transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category for her role in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.” She went on to win a Daytime Emmy in 2015 for her documentary “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word,” which followed seven young trans people as they navigated coming out.
Rapp, a singer and actress who identifies as a lesbian, rose to prominence as Regina George in the Broadway musical “Mean Girls.” She reprised the role in the 2024 film adaptation and also stars in Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” portraying a character coming to terms with her sexuality. Rapp has released an EP, “Everything to Everyone,” and an album, “Snow Angel.” She announced her sophomore album, “Bite Me,” on May 21 and is slated to perform at the WorldPride Music Festival at the RFK Festival Grounds.
Deacon Maccubbin, widely regarded as a cornerstone of Washington’s LGBTQ+ history, helped organize D.C.’s first Gay Pride Party in 1975. The event took place outside Lambda Rising, one of the first LGBTQ bookstores in the nation, which Maccubbin founded. For his decades of advocacy and activism, he is often referred to as “the patriarch of D.C. Pride.”
“I am so honored to serve as one of the grand marshals for WorldPride this year. This has been one of the most difficult times in recent history for queer and trans people globally,” Cox said. “But in the face of all the rhetorical, legislative and physical attacks, we continue to have the courage to embrace who we truly are, to celebrate our beauty, resilience and bravery as a community. We refuse to allow fear to keep us from ourselves and each other. We remain out loud and proud.”
“Pride is everything. It is protection, it is visibility, it is intersectional. But most importantly, it is a celebration of existence and protest,” Rapp said.
The three will march down 14th Street for the WorldPride Parade in Washington on June 7.
District of Columbia
LGBTQ leaders celebrate Frank Kameny’s 100th birthday at Supreme Court
Advocates march, deliver speeches to remember activist’s many contributions
More than 100 people joined the leaders of a dozen prominent national LGBTQ rights organizations on May 21 to celebrate the 100th birthday of iconic D.C. gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court building in the nation’s capital.
Kameny, who passed away on Oct. 11, 2011, on National Coming Out Day, has been hailed as one of the founding leaders of the modern LGBTQ rights movement.
Among other things, he became the first openly gay man to file an appeal about gay rights to the U.S. Supreme Court, which was among the reasons organizers of his birthday celebration chose to hold it at the Supreme Court.
“Today is the 100th birthday of Frank Kameny, the founder of the LGBTQ civil rights movement,” said Malcolm Lazin, who served as national chair of the committee that organized the Kameny 100th birthday event. Frank is one of the nation’s most consequential civil rights leaders,” Lazin told the gathering in opening remarks.
“We are in front of the Supreme Court because Frank believed in the Constitution’s promise of equality for all Americans,” he said. “He based his liberation strategy against systemic homophobia on that promise.”
Participants in the event, many of whom were young LGBTQ activists from New York City, carried 100 candles to commemorate Kameny’s birthday.
They were joined by the national LGBTQ organization leaders who formed a ceremonial picket line carrying replicas of the “homosexual rights” signs used in the 1965 historic first gay protest outside the White House organized by Kameny and his supporters from the Mattachine Society of Washington, a gay rights group that Kameny helped to form.
Among speakers at the event was Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the same-sex marriage lawsuit that resulted in the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. Obergefell noted that the Kameny birthday celebration marks the 10th anniversary of the high court’s marriage decision and recalls for him Kameny’s role as a strong supporter of legalizing same-sex marriage.
Obergefell and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), the Senate’s first openly lesbian member, served as national honorary co-chairs of the Kameny 100th birthday celebration.
Ross Murray, a vice president of GLAAD, told how Kameny used an effective strategy to fight homophobia both for the public and to many in the LGBTQ community who experienced internalized homophobia due to societal pressure.
“So, using the model of ‘Black is Beautiful,’ Frank turned perceptions upside down when he coined ‘Gay is Good,’” Murray said. “And he carried that on a picket sign in 1970 at the first New York Pride Parade.”
Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff told the gathering that the early 1960s era newsletter of the Mattachine Society of Washington, that Kameny helped to start, evolved into the early version of the Washington Blade in 1969.
“Frank recognized the importance of community building and engagement by having a reliable community news source,” Naff said. “We are honored to join in the 100th birthday tribute to one of our founders, Frank Kameny.”
Japer Bowles, director of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, said the mayor’s office is proud that the city hosted Kameny’s 100th birthday celebration. Bowles announced that Bowser issued an official mayoral proclamation declaring May 21, 2025, Frank Kameny Centennial Day.
In her proclamation Bowser recites many of Kameny’s accomplishments in advancing LGBTQ rights in D.C. and across the nation and concludes by stating she commends “this observance to all Washingtonians with a reminder to always remember, as Frank Kameny often said, ‘Gay is Good.’”
Others who spoke included Keith Joseph of the LGBTQ group Equality Forum, Ben Garcia of the American LGBTQ+ Museum, Saul Levin of the American Psychiatric Association, Kevin Jennings of LGBTQ attorneys’ group Lambda Legal, Elliot Imse of the LGBTQ Victory Institute, Jay Brown of the Human Rights Campaign, Philadelphia City Council member Rue Landau, D.C. Capital Pride Alliance and WorldPride organizer June Crenshaw, Anya Marino of Advocates for Transgender Rights, Sultan Shakir of PFLAG, and Aaron Tax of SAGE.
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), who is gay, was scheduled to speak at the event but had to cancel due to a House committee vote scheduled around the same time, Lazin told the Blade. Rep. Mark Takano, who’s gay, spoke at a lunch after the event to the LGBTQ leaders and praised Kameny’s many contributions to the LGBTQ movement.
District of Columbia
Blade’s Lou Chibbaro subject of new film premiering May 29
‘Lou’s Legacy’ looks back at 50-year career
Longtime Washington Blade reporter Lou Chibbaro Jr. is the subject of a new documentary film premiering on May 29 in D.C.
The world premiere of the film by Emmy-nominated director Patrick Sammon will take place at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library auditorium in D.C. on May 29 at 6:30 p.m.
“Lou’s Legacy: A Reporter’s Life at the Washington Blade”(29 minutes) tells the story of D.C.’s tumultuous and inspiring LGBTQ history through the lens of veteran reporter Lou Chibbaro’s reporting during nearly five decades at the Blade. The film features renowned D.C. drag performer Donnell Robinson who has been entertaining Washington’s LGBTQ community since 1975 as “Ella Fitzgerald.” Chibbaro and Robinson reflect on their careers and discuss the rising backlash against the LGBTQ community, including laws targeting drag performers.
As a reporter, Chibbaro made a point of focusing on the people and issues that were regularly ignored or distorted by mainstream outlets: the HIV/AIDS epidemic, hate crimes, and the fight for LGBTQ civil rights.
“Lou and Donnell are cornerstones of D.C.’s LGBTQ community,” said Sammon, the film’s director and producer. “I have great respect for both of them and hope this film celebrates in some small way their contribution to our city. It’s especially appropriate to premiere this documentary during WorldPride as people from all over the world gather in D.C. to celebrate our community and find inspiration to continue fighting for LGBTQ equality.”
Sammon and his production team were given unprecedented access to more than 300 archival boxes of meticulously kept reporter’s files, documents, and audio tapes that Chibbaro saved and donated to George Washington University’s Gelman Special Collections Library. In addition, the Washington Blade granted Sammon access to its photo archive of compelling and emotional images, most of which have not been seen for decades.
Charles Francis, president of Mattachine Society said, “The Mattachine Society is so proud to have played a role in making this film happen, especially in this time of total erasure and efforts across the country to rewrite our history. With our work and support, Lou was able to preserve, donate, and help curate his thousands of pages of papers at George Washington University. That history cannot be erased. This film tells the story.”
Pate Felts, co-founder of the Mattachine Society, said, ”Lou’s archive, including more than 300 cartons of reporter’s files, holds thousands of stories of the men and women who suffered and fought for LGBTQ dignity and equality, at great professional and personal cost. Patrick’s film focuses on some of the most powerful ones to help educate all of us, especially younger generations, about the dues paid, the courage displayed and the hope that we all carry forward today.”
A panel discussion will follow the premiere screening of “Lou’s Legacy.” Aside from Chibbaro, Robinson, and Sammon, the conversation will feature Bladepublisher and co-owner Lynne Brown. D.C. journalist Rebekah Robinson will moderate the conversation.
“Lou’s Legacy: A Reporter’s Life at the Washington Blade” will broadcast in late June on MPT and WETA, the region’s leading PBS stations. The WETA broadcasts are set for Saturday, June 21 at 8 p.m. and Monday, June 23 at 9:30 p.m. The film will also stream on PBS.org starting June 21.
“Lou has had a front-row seat to 50 years of historic events; from covering the trial of Matthew Shepard’s murderers to observing the inauguration of President Obama from the Capitol Steps, Lou has seen it all,” said Blade editor Kevin Naff who has worked with Chibbaro for more than 20 years. “The film captures Lou’s dedication and tenacity and reminds us how far we’ve come as a community.”
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