District of Columbia
Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs honors Earline Budd
Transgender activist received Toast to LGBTQIA+ Elder award

Longtime D.C. transgender rights advocate and community activist Earline Budd was honored on Wednesday as the first recipient of an annual Toast to LGBTQIA+ Elder award initiated by Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs.
About 50 people, including D.C. Councilmember Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), attended a ceremony hosted by the mayor’s office to honor Budd on her selection for the recognition. The event was held at the Atlas Performing Arts Center at 1333 H St., N.E.
“The Toast to LGBTQIA+ Elders is a way for the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and greater community to give thanks and recognition to those who paved the way for many of us in the LGBTQIA+ community today,” said Japer Bowles, director of the Mayor’s LGBTQ Affairs Office, in a statement.
Bowles said he and the mayor’s office were honored to have selected Budd for the first annual Toast award.
“We thank Ms. Budd for her 35+ years of outstanding and extraordinary dedication to the most vulnerable of our communities through support and harm reduction services,” Bowles said in the statement. “Known as THE Advocate, Ms. Budd has been steadfast in community outreach, an accomplishment of immense significance, especially to our LGBTIA+ youth.”
Budd’s selection as the first Toast to LGBTQIA+ Elder recipient came one month after she was honored in a ceremony unveiling a large wall mural painting of Budd in an alley next to the Atlas Performing Arts Center, making her the first trans person to be portrayed in D.C.’s citywide wall mural program.
Among those attending Tuesday’s elder recognition event was local artist Shani Shih, who designed and painted the Budd wall mural.
Also attending was Sean Cuddihy, a member of the staff of D.C. Councilmember Robert White (D-At-Large), who presented Budd with a resolution introduced by White and passed unanimously by the Council called the Earline Budd Recognition Resolution.
The resolution, among other things, credits Budd for dedicating “decades of her life to advocacy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other gender and sexual minority (LGBTQ) communities in the District of Columbia, especially those struggling with substance abuse, mental health challenges, homelessness, and HIV/AIDS.”
It also mentions Budd’s role as founder and executive director of the D.C. group Empowering the Transgender Community and her work as Re-entry Program Manager for the D.C. organization HIPS, which provides support and services for sex workers and those impacted by drug use.
Parker became the first openly gay member of the D.C. Council since 2015 when he took office in January. He presented another Council resolution at the Wednesday Toast to Budd event recognizing the life of trans woman Jasmine Star Parker, who was found murdered on a street in Northeast D.C. on Dec. 7.
Parker presented the Jasmine Star Parker Memorial Recognition Resolution of 2023 to members of Parker’s family, including her mother and sister, who attended the Wednesday event. Parker credited Budd’s efforts to draw attention to the Jasmine Parker murder, including Budd’s role in organizing a vigil honoring Jasmine Parker, with prompting him to introduce the Jasmine Parker resolution.
“The Council of the District of Columbia honors Jasmine Star Parker’s memory, joins with those privileged to have known her in mourning her untimely death and condemns all forms of hate and violence directed towards members of the LGBTQ+ community, particularly Black trans women,” the resolution states.
In his remarks at the Wednesday event, Parker said his current role as the city’s only Black openly gay council member was made possible by people like Earlene Budd.
“Before there was ever a Zachary Parker there was an Earline Budd,” he told the gathering. “Thank you for serving as a personal inspiration for me and countless other youth and individuals across the District,” Parker said. “On behalf of more than 90,000 residents of Ward 5 and every LGBTQIA+ person in the District, thank you.”
Among the others who spoke at the event about the important role Budd has played in helping to secure LGBTQ rights were D.C. event host and longtime LGBTQ advocate Rayceen Pendarvis, who served as host at the Tuesday event; and longtime local trans rights advocate Jeri Hughes.
“I’m so honored to have the privilege to host this wonderful event as we honor a living legend,” Pendarvis told the gathering. “Not many people in their lifetime can say that they know a living legend,” Pendarvis said, pointing to Budd. “I am honored to call you a friend, sister, and colleague.”
Hughes said she and Budd have been friends for at least 17 years and have worked together on numerous projects related to human rights.
“Earline Budd has always been defined in my eyes as a woman of service,” Hughes said. “She’s one of the most selfless human beings that I’ve ever known. She spends most of her days thinking of ways to care for others and help others.”
Budd, who spoke at the conclusion of the event, recited the names of the many community activists and government officials she has interacted with in her years of community organizing and advocacy and praised them for their help in her endeavors. She expressed strong gratitude and called for recognition of Shih for her painting of the Budd wall mural.
“Let me say with an honor to God, it is not by any means a false profit that I find myself here, because God knew before that this day would come,” Budd said. “I didn’t know it, that it would come, I’m here to say I’ve been to so many places. And I tell people that if this were my last day, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, I have lived a good life.”
District of Columbia
Ruby Corado sentencing postponed for third time
Attorneys say former Casa Ruby director has ‘significant medical issues’

A federal judge on April 8 approved a request by defense attorneys to postpone the sentencing of Ruby Corado, the founder and executive director of the now closed D.C. LGBTQ community services organization Casa Ruby on a charge of wire fraud, from April 29 to July 29.
Court records show that Judge Trevor N. McFadden of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia approved a motion filed by Corado’s two defense attorneys on that same day calling for the sentencing postponement on grounds of health issues.
“Ms. Corado has significant medical issues,” the April 8 motion states. “She has an important medical appointment related to one of her diagnoses scheduled in June 2025 and will need time to recover from that appointment,” it says.
The motion gives no further details on Colorado’s medical issues. A.J. Kramer, director of the D.C. Office of the Federal Public Defender, whose attorneys are representing Corado, said the office has a policy of never disclosing specific medical related information regarding its clients.
Court records show that prosecutors with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C. did not object to the defense motion seeking the third sentencing postponement.
The records show that an earlier postponement of the sentencing, from March 28 to April 29, was initiated by the judge due to a scheduling conflict. The first postponement from Jan. 10 to March 28 came at the request of Corado’s attorneys, court records show.
Corado pleaded guilty on July 17, 2024, to a single charge of wire fraud as part of a plea bargain deal offered by prosecutors. The charge to which she pleaded guilty says she allegedly diverted at least $150,000 “in taxpayer backed emergency COVID relief funds to private offshore bank accounts for her personal use,” according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Prosecutors have said funds that Corado allegedly diverted for her own use were intended to be used by Casa Ruby in support of its various programs, including housing services for homeless LGBTQ youth and support for LGBTQ immigrants.
The U.S. Attorney’s statement also notes that in 2022, when “financial irregularities at Casa Ruby became public,” Corado sold her home in Prince George’s County, Md. and “fled to El Salvador.” It was at that time that Casa Ruby ceased its operations.
Court records show that FBI agents arrested Corado on March 5, 2024, at a hotel in Laurel, Md., shortly after she returned to the U.S. At the request of her attorney and against the wishes of prosecutors, another judge at that time agreed to release Corado into custody of her niece in Rockville, Md., under a home detention order.
The release order came seven days after Corado had been held in jail at the time of her arrest by the FBI.
Under the federal wire fraud law Corado could be sentenced to a possible maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s statement. However, court observers have said that due to Corado’s decision to waive her right to a trial and plead guilty, prosecutors will likely ask the judge to hand down a lesser sentence than the maximum sentence.
The statement by prosecutors points out that Corado’s decision to plead guilty to the one charge came after she had been charged in a criminal complaint filed on March 1, 2024, with bank fraud, wire fraud, laundering of monetary instruments, monetary transactions in criminally derived proceeds, and failure to file a report of foreign bank accounts.
All those charges except for the wire fraud charge were dropped at the time of her guilty plea.
District of Columbia
A room with Pride: D.C.’s LGBTQ history finds a new home at the Eaton
New suites highlight city’s queer community

Blocks away from where Frank Kameny once organized the first pickets for gay rights in Washington, a new hotel suite invites guests to relax, recharge, and revel in the LGBTQ history of the city with the capital’s first-ever Pride-themed room at the Eaton Hotel.
From the walls covered in Washington Blade archival photos from the past 50 years, to a vinyl library that spans decades and genres of music celebrated by LGBTQ fans, and little affirmations written on the mirrors, it becomes clear as soon as you open the door that this room is one of a kind.
The Blade sat down with Nina Ligon, the director of culture for the Eaton, in the suite to discuss why the boutique hotel has chosen to debut a Pride-themed room and how their unique mission-driven hospitality is at the center of it all.
Starting with how the relationship between the Blade and Eaton came to be, Ligon explained that the collaboration with D.C.’s principal LGBTQ newspaper has been around longer than she has been with the hotel.
“The Blade has always been present,” Ligon said. “It’s one of the entities here in the city that’s just always been around. When I came into my position here at Eaton, Sheldon Scott — our original director of culture who helped open the hotel — already had a relationship with Stephen [Rutgers] and other members of the Washington Blade. Through that we have been able to establish a really strong relationship in the city.”
That relationship flourished after the boutique hotel, which sees itself as more than a hotel — but a cultural hub for those wishing to explore Washington — was nominated for the Best of LGBTQ DC Awards, given out and published by the Blade.

“Beginning in 2022 we were first voted for best LGBTQ hotel in the city by the Best of LGBTQ DC Awards,” she said. “In 2023 we fell off, but that’s all right. We did get Editor’s Choice in 2024, and we’re gonna make a comeback.”
That comeback, Ligon hopes, is aided by the addition of the new Capital Pride-themed hotel suite, which used feedback from LGBTQ hotel staff to determine what went in the room.
“It’s community. We have a really great team here at Eaton, so we were able to put together a committee with anyone who wanted to be involved and have some say. And that’s not just the pride suite specifically, but World Pride in general — in our pride efforts, 365, right throughout the year. A lot of these,” she said, pointing to the walls covered in framed photos taken from the Blade archive, “are ideas that came up during those early meetings just a few months ago. There were discussions of inflatable chairs and disco balls, and I was for it. I’m here to support their creative vision. And you know, we have to involve the corporate folks, and they’re a little more traditional than some of us. But the team really came together with some of the pieces and the timeline wall art that we’re working on.”
Ligon continued, explaining that special attention was given to ensure diverse LGBTQ experiences are represented in the room. From the pictures of LGBTQ icons like Marsha P. Johnson and RuPaul, to the music on their sound system (including Chappell Roan’s “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” and Troye Sivan’s “Bloom”), and the quotes on the walls, their goal was to uplift the whole LGBTQ community rather than one particular identity.
“My colleague, Eduardo [Romero], who’s been just a beam of light in my life, brought this to my attention. As a Black woman, I was reading through the Blade’s archive links and was sifting through some of those and he was like, ‘Okay, yeah, these look good, but there’s some people who are missing.’ Capital Pride has been traditionally cis, white male led. He helped me, as a Black woman, to step back and say. ‘Say, oh, wait, there’s more that we can be representing here. There are more people we could be representing.’ And so I reached out to DC Black Pride to see what image imagery they may have had and what input they had. And we were able to come up with a little something.”
As the tour of the room came to a close, Ligon told the Blade what she hopes people get from staying in this suite.
“When it comes to Pride, Pride is resistance,” she said. “Pride is more than just a party. Pride is an opportunity. It started with people who were fighting for their rights and their mere existence. And so I really want people, whether they come here to party or to take a load off, I really want them to take some time to reflect and see Pride for what it is, and that first being a form of resistance as we chart the course forward into a brighter future for the LGBTQ community and for all. None of us are free until we are all free. And I hope that this will be a reflection of that.”
The Eaton Hotel is at 1201 K St., N.W.

District of Columbia
Little Gay Pub to host April 25 celebration of life for Patrick Shaw
School teacher, D.C. resident praised for ‘warmth, humor, kindness’

Co-workers and friends will hold a celebration of life for highly acclaimed schoolteacher and D.C. resident Patrick Shaw beginning at 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 25 at The Little Gay Pub 1100 P St., N.W.
Little Gay Pub co-owner and Shaw’s friend, Dusty Martinez, said Shaw passed away unexpectedly on April 19 from a heart related ailment at the age of 60.
“Patrick touched so many lives with his warmth, humor, kindness, and unmistakable spark,” Martinez said. “He was a truly special soul – funny, vibrant, sassy, and full of life and we are heartbroken by his loss.”
In an Instagram posting, Shaw’s colleagues said Shaw was a second-grade special education teacher at the J.F. Cook campus of D.C.’s Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School.
“Patrick brought warmth, joy, and deep commitment to Mundo Verde,” his colleagues said in their posting. “His daily Broadway sing-alongs, vibrant outfits, and genuine love for his students filled our community with energy and laughter.”
The posted message adds, “Patrick was more than a teacher; he was a light in our school, inspiring us all to show up with heart, humor, and kindness every day. His spirit will be deeply missed.”
The Washington Blade is preparing a full obituary on Patrick Shaw to be published soon.
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