Maryland
Ashanti Martínez poised to represent District 22 in Md. House of Delegates
Howard University alum is Afro-Latino and openly gay
Ashanti Martínez is set to become the first man of Latino descent to represent District 22 and the first openly gay member of the Maryland House of Delegates to represent Prince George’s County.
Following his unanimous selection from the Prince George’s County Democratic Central Committee to fill a vacant House seat on Feb. 9, his nomination now goes Democratic Gov. Wes Moore, who has 15 days to make the appointment official.
Martínez, 26, is a Howard University alum. He would succeed now-state Sen. Alonzo Washington (D-Prince George’s County), who the committee nominated to finish Maryland Energy Administration Director Paul Pinsky’s term in the House after he joined Moore’s administration.
Martínez, 26, felt honored by the nomination.
“For me, titles and positions are important, but they’re not all it is — it’s about doing the work,” Martínez told the Washington Blade on Monday during a telephone interview. “And so being able to be in a position where I have a larger platform to continue the work that I’ve been doing … it’s an honor of a lifetime.”
Likewise, he believes his selection shows how Prince George’s County is “embracing diverse voices of leadership.”
Martínez, who ran for the House seat twice before and didn’t win, finds the opportunity to serve a “little bit of a delay, but not a denial,” he said.
“Also, I think I give a different lived experience than a lot of the other members,” he added. “I think there’s a lot of great aspects of our county that oftentimes don’t get highlighted because folks don’t live through those experiences. So, encompassing all of the things that I bring to the table, is going make people feel more seen and involved in government.”
Recognizing the period to introduce a bill has passed, Martínez said he will look for other ways to create legislative work on the House floor and co-sponsoring other lawmakers’ measures. Martínez added he will let the public know that his office is open to them.
“I will serve for as long as my community wants to have me,” he said. “I don’t necessarily have a goal about, ‘I want to be in this position, or in this place,’ I just want do the most that I can, for as many people as I can, for as long as I can.”
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Tuesday signed a bill that decriminalizes HIV in the state.
State Dels. Kris Fair (D-Frederick County) and Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore City) are among the lawmakers who sponsored House Bill 39 or the Carlton R. Smith Act, which is named after the long-time activist known as the “mayor” of Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood who died in May 2024.
Smith was a member of the Coalition to Decriminalize HIV in Maryland that advocated for the bill. FreeState Justice, a statewide LGBTQ rights group, was also part of the coalition.
“At FreeState Justice, we are proud to stand with advocates, health experts, and lawmakers who worked diligently to advance this bill. The bipartisan support for the Carlton R. Smith Act is a testament to the power of education, research, and courageous leadership,” said FreeState Justice Executive Director Phillip Westry in a statement. “It sends a clear message: Maryland is committed to evidence-based policymaking and to ending the criminalization of people living with HIV. We honor the memory of Carlton R. Smith by continuing the work of building a more just, inclusive, and informed society.”
Maryland is the fifth state to decriminalize HIV.
North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong, a Republican, in March signed a bill that decriminalized HIV in his state.
Maryland
A Baltimore theater educator lost jobs at Johns Hopkins and the Kennedy Center
Tavish Forsyth concluded they could not work for Trump
BY WESLEY CASE | Tavish Forsyth had come to a conclusion: They could not work for President Donald Trump.
So the 32-year-old Baltimore resident stripped down, turned on their camera, and lit their career on fire.
“F—— Donald Trump and f—— the Kennedy Center,” a naked Forsyth, an associate artistic lead at the Washington National Opera’s Opera Institute, which is run by the Kennedy Center, said in a video that went viral. The board of the nation’s leading cultural institution had elected Trump just weeks prior as its chairman after he gutted the board of members appointed by his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Maryland
Md. schools plan to comply with federal DEI demands
Superintendents opt for cooperation over confrontation
By LIZ BOWIE | Deciding not to pick a fight with the Trump administration, Maryland school leaders plan to sign a letter to the U.S. Department of Education that says their school districts are complying with all civil rights laws.
The two-paragraph letter could deflect a confrontation over whether the state’s public schools run diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that the Trump administration has called illegal. The Baltimore Banner reviewed the letter, which was shared by a school administrator who declined to be identified because the letter has not yet been sent.
Maryland school leaders are taking a more conciliatory approach than those in some other states. Education leaders in Minnesota, New York, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, and Wisconsin said they will not comply with the federal education department’s order, the demands of which, they say, are based on a warped interpretation of civil rights law.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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