Virginia
Arlington LGBTQ organization plans transition to Equality NoVa
Longstanding group to officially expand coverage to Alexandria, Fairfax
The Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance, which was founded in 1981 and is the oldest continuously operating LGBTQ organization in Virginia, is officially expanding its mission and activities to the neighboring city of Alexandria and Fairfax County and is changing its name to Equality NoVa.
A statement released last week by AGLA President Daniel L. Hays says the organization’s board of directors voted unanimously to begin operating as “AGLA now known as Equality NoVa,” with plans to transition in about five months to operating as “Equality NoVa formerly known as AGLA.”
Hays told the Washington Blade that in about a year, following community engagement events, including a town hall meeting, the sole name of Equality NoVa will likely be adopted. At that time, Hays said, the group will change its longstanding registration with the IRS and the state of Virginia as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to reflect the new name.
“This decision was not made in haste, but rather in recognition of where LGBTQ+ organizations stand in Northern Virginia,” according to Hays’ statement released on March 25. “Since the organization’s founding in 1981 it has helped to form similar groups in Alexandria and Fairfax County among others,” the statement continues.
“The organizations in Alexandria (the Alexandria Gay & Lesbian Community Association) and Fairfax County (Equality Fairfax) over the past decade have ceased to operate due to a number of factors, including the inability to sustain active boards,” Hays’ statement says. “We have been going as the Arlington-Alexandria Gay and Lesbian Alliance for roughly 7 years to ensure Alexandria has had representation,” it says.
“The 2023 board of directors wanted to make sure we are operating as we need to ensure coverage for Fairfax County, too,” Hays’ statement says. “Additionally, the 2023 board of directors recognized that the name we operate under needed updating to reflect the entirety of the LGBTQ+ community, not just only gays and lesbians. This was the basis for us now operating as Equality NoVa.”
Hays told the Blade that the board’s plans include retaining the organization’s status as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that continues its longstanding three-part mission: “safe social activities; community service; and non-partisan political awareness.”
He points out that under its current status, the group cannot endorse candidates running for public office and must remain as a nonpartisan group. Hays said that although IRS rules for 501(c)(3) organizations allow a limited degree of legislative lobbying, the group long ago decided not to engage in direct lobbying.
“So, our approach has been to have town halls when issues come up to disseminate information to all of those individuals, including members who are on our mailing list, about the issues that are happening in Richmond or in D.C. on Capitol Hill,” he told the Blade. “And to not do explicit lobbying or policy advocacy, but to go the political awareness route,” he said, to enable people to “make their own decision as to whether they’re going to contact their representative or other decision-makers.”
Hays’ statement says AGLA’s immediate past president, TJ Flavell, will continue to be involved through a newly formed Advisory Committee “focused on organizational sustainability and producing a planning blueprint for long-term success.”
Virginia
Prominent activists join ‘Living History’ panel at Freddie’s Beach Bar
Event organized by owner of new Friends of Dorothy Café in Alexandria
Six prominent LGBTQ community leaders and elders, including a beloved drag performer, talked about their role in advancing the rights of LGBTQ people and their thoughts on how the upcoming generation of LGBTQ youth should get ready to join the movement participated in an April 23 “Living History” panel discussion at Freddie’s Beach Bar.
The event was organized by Dorothy Edwards, who plans to open Friends of Dorothy Café in Alexandria. She said the café will be an LGBTQ community “intergenerational space” that will host events like the one she organized at Freddie’s Beach Bar.
“It will be a space for connection, storytelling, and belonging, especially for LGBTQ+ youth and community members who don’t always have places like that,” she said in a statement announcing the event at Freddie’s.
The six panelists at the Freddie’s event included Kierra Johnson, president of the D.C.-based National LGBTQ Task Force; Freddie Lutz, owner of Freddie’s Beach Bar located in the Crystal City section of Arlington, Va.; Donnell Robinson, who for many years performed in drag as the icon Ella Fitzgerald; Taylor Chandler Walker, a local transgender rights advocate, author and public speaker; Heidi Ellis, coordinator of the D.C. LGBTQ Budget Coalition; and Leti Gomez, an LGBTQ Latino community advocate and chair of the board of the American LGBTQ+ Museum.
Dr. Ashley Elliott, an LGBTQ community advocate and clinician who also goes by the name Dr. Vivid, served as moderator of the panel discussion, asking each of the panelists a serious of questions before opening the event to questions from the audience.
Among the issues discussed by the panelists was who was “centered” and who was excluded in the earlier years of LGBTQ organizing. Elliot also asked the panelists to address topics such as racism within queer spaces, gender dynamics, and strategies for coalition building between the LGBTQ community and other movements, including civil rights, feminism, and immigrant rights.
Each of the panelists expressed various thoughts on how the LGBTQ rights movement can make changes in response to the questions: “What can we do better?” and “Who is being left out?”
“I’m overwhelmed and so thankful that everyone on this panel said yes and agreed to come,” Edwards told the Washington Blade at the conclusion of the event. “I think every one of those people, including the moderator, was so brilliant and has done such good work for this community,” she said.
Edwards noted that each of the panelists, who have been involved in LGBTQ advocacy work for many years, talked about how they interact with younger LGBTQ people who are just beginning to become involved in activism.
“Truly, it’s an intergenerational conversation, and their wisdom and their words and their experiences can be disseminated to younger generations and people who want to do this work, people who want to fight for our community,” Edwards said.
“I was pleasantly surprised,” Lutz said. “I thought it was a good turnout, and everybody was very enthusiastic and engaged,” he said. “And I think it was great and fabulous.”
Lutz has operated Freddie’s Beach Bar for more than 25 years and has hosted numerous LGBTQ events. A sign above the front entrance door to the popular LGBTQ bar and restaurant says, “Straight Friendly Gay Bar.”
Edwards said the April 23 event was recorded and she will make arrangements for the recording to be released for others to view it. The Blade will post the link in this story when it becomes available.
Virginia
Va. voters approve HRC-backed redistricting plan
10 of state’s 11 congressional districts now favor Democrats
Virginia voters on Tuesday narrowly approved a congressional redistricting plan ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The referendum passed by a 51-48 vote margin.
Virginia’s last Census happened in 2020. The next time maps would have been redrawn was intended for 2030, but the referendum results allow for redistricting to happen this year, while allowing the standard district procedures to resume after the 2030 Census.
Many congressional maps have been redrawn since the Trump-Vance administration took office, adding seats for both Republicans and Democrats. Ten of 11 of Virginia’s congressional districts will now favor Democrats.
The Human Rights Campaign PAC supported the referendum.
“Virginians made their voices heard today, rebuking Republicans’ attempts to stack the deck in their favor in the 2026 midterm elections and beyond,” said Human Rights Campaign PAC President Kelley Robinson in a statement. “This year, we’re going to take Congress back from the fringe extremists who have bent the knee to President Trump’s historically unpopular agenda at every turn.”
“Virginians just put anti-equality, anti-democracy, and anti-freedom lawmakers on notice — together, we are fighting for a future where every single American’s vote matters and where every elected official must earn their constituents’ trust,” she added.
A gay man was murdered in Petersburg, Va., on March 13.
Shyyell Diamond Sanchez-McCray, who was also known as Saamel and Mable, was a drag queen who won the Miss Mayflower EOY pageant in 2015. Reports also indicate Sanchez-McCray, 42, was a well-known community activist in Virginia and in North Carolina.
Local media reports indicate police officers found Sanchez-McCray shot to death inside a home in Petersburg.
Sanchez-McCray’s brother, Jamal Mitchell Diamond, in a public statement the Washington Blade received from Equality Virginia and GLAAD, said Sanchez-McCray was not transgender as initial reports indicated.
“Our family has always embraced the fullness of who he was. He used the names Saamel, Shyyell, and Mable interchangeably, and we honor all of them. There is no division within our family regarding how he is being represented — only a shared commitment to preserving his truth with love and respect,” said Diamond.
“He was also deeply committed to community work through Nationz Foundation, where he worked and completed multiple state-certified programs to support marginalized communities,” added Diamond. “That work meant a great deal to him.”
Authorities have not made any arrests.
The Petersburg Bureau of Police has asked anyone with information about Sanchez-McCray’s murder to call Petersburg-Dinwiddie Crime Solvers at 804-861-1212.
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