Maryland
Md. man charged with targeting male victims he met on Tinder
Rodney J. Richardson charged with rape, kidnapping, robbery and other offenses

Prince George’s County, Md., police announced on Thursday they have charged a 26-year-old man with multiple criminal offenses, including raping one male victim, and carjacking another male victim after meeting the two men on a dating app and luring them to locations where he attacked and robbed them.
A statement released by police says the suspect, Rodney J. Richardson of Brandywine, Md., has been charged with rape, kidnapping, handgun offenses, armed robbery and multiple additional charges in connection with his encounter with two adult males he met on the dating app that NBC Washington identified as Tinder.
The TV station said it obtained charging documents filed in the Maryland District Court for Prince George’s County in Upper Marlboro.
“On February 12, 2023, detectives were notified of a sexual assault that occurred on February 10, 2023, in Brandywine,” the police statement says. “The preliminary investigation revealed Richardson met the victim, an adult male, on a popular dating app. The two agreed to meet in Brandywine,” the statement continues.
“During that encounter, Richardson raped the victim at gunpoint,” it says. “In addition, he drove the victim to the victim’s bank and forced him to take out money.”
In the second case, the police statement says Richardson met the victim on the dating app and arranged for the two to meet in person, after which he carjacked the victim at gunpoint. The statement says the Prince George’s County Police Department’s Carjacking Interdiction Unit identified and charged Richardson with armed carjacking after conducting a “thorough investigation.”
The statement doesn’t say how police ultimately identified and located Richardson, but it calls on anyone who has information about Richardson to call the department’s Sexual Assault Unit detectives at 301-772-4908.
In obtaining court documents for the case, NBC Washington reporter Aimee Cho provided details in her broadcast report on Thursday that police did not include in their statement. She reported that police said Richardson invited one of the two victims to his own house on a date, where he raped him at gunpoint and demanded his phone, ID and Social Security number.
Cho’s news report says Richardson forced the victim to stay in a car trunk all night, threatened to kill him and his family, and drove him the next morning to the victim’s bank and made him withdraw $4,500 before eventually letting him go.
Concerning the carjacking incident with the second victim, which police say occurred on Feb. 2, NBC Washington reports that Richardson, after meeting the victim on the Tinder app, arranged for the two to drive to a dirt road, where he robbed him at gunpoint of his phone, wallet and car. Cho reported that Richardson also took the victim’s crutches, which he needed to walk, “leaving him stranded in the freezing cold.”
An off-duty police officer driving by saw the victim crawling on his hands and knees, NBC Washington reports, and immediately called for help.
Online court records show that police and prosecutors have charged Richardson with a total of 15 criminal offenses. He is being held without bond and is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on March 15.
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.
Maryland
FreeState Justice: Transgender activist ‘hijacked’ Moore’s Transgender Day of Visibility event
Maryland Commission on LGBTQIA+ Affairs describes Lee Blinder’s comments as ‘call to action’

FreeState Justice on April 11 released a statement criticizing the way that Trans Maryland Executive Director Lee Blinder treated Gov. Wes Moore during a Transgender Day of Visibility event.
FreeState Justice was extremely disappointed with the criticisms of Moore on the Transgender Day of Visibility, saying it was “hijacked by public hostility” by Blinder. The Baltimore Banner reported how Blinder “laid out how the Democratic governor has let down transgender Marylanders by not putting money in the budget and not backing needed policy changes.”
The Washington Blade interviewed Blinder after the March 31 event.
“The intention of what I shared is to show to the governor that this is a community in distress. You know, we are in a real state of emergency for the trans community and there are very few opportunities that the community has to share this directly with the governor.” Blinder told the Blade. “We’re really grateful to the governor for everything that he’s done in the past for this community, but the circumstances have changed and we really need to see very specific actions taken in order to ensure this community has the ability to exist in public space.”
FreeState Justice said Moore did not deserve such criticisms during the event and added in a Blade oped it is “time for new leadership on the Maryland LGBTQIA+ Commission. Leadership that values and prioritizes coalition over conflict. Leadership that invites feedback and shares power. Leadership that understands how Annapolis operates, how budgets are constructed, and how community victories are won.”
“We’re not saying don’t challenge power. We’re saying do it with purpose. Do it with facts. Do it with a strategy. If you’re going to call yourself a leader in this movement, show us the policy platform. Show us the data. Show us the budget line. Show us the work,” wrote FreeState Justice.
The Maryland Commission on LGBTQIA+ Affairs has met to address FreeState Justice’s statements.
“During the Transgender Day of Visibility ceremony at the State House, the commission’s chair offered remarks reflecting the real fears, concerns, and hopes of the trans community. These remarks were not a call-out, but a call to action,” the commission said in their call to action statement it sent to the Blade. “The chair’s words echoed the thousands of voices we’ve heard across the state through phone calls, emails, and messages on social media to our staff, commissioners, and their affiliated organizations.”
The statement outlines what the call to action entails, addressing what the commission found to be the most pressing issues for transgender Marylanders. They include a lack of dedicated funding, barriers to affirming healthcare, housing insecurity and homelessness, discrimination in education and employment, and escalating violence, harassment, and hate.
“We remain deeply committed to working in partnership with the Moore-Miller administration, the General Assembly, state agencies, nonprofit organizations, and community partners to ensure LGBTQIA+ Marylanders are seen, protected, and supported in policy, budget, and in practice,” reads the statement.
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