Maryland
Md. congressman helps organize Pride Resource Fair in P.G. County
Glenn Ivey speaks out against anti-LGBTQ bills
U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), whose district includes most of Prince George’s County, is one of the lead organizers of an LGBTQ Pride Resource Fair scheduled for June 24 at the Oakcrest Community Center in Capitol Heights.
A longtime LGBTQ community ally, Ivey told the Washington Blade he is hopeful that the Pride Resource Fair will provide information about state and local government resources for Prince George’s County’s LGBTQ community in addition to helping celebrate Pride month.
Ivey is organizing the event jointly with openly gay Maryland state Delegate Ashanti Martinez (D-Prince George’s County) and Prince George’s County Council member Krystal Oriadha, who is bisexual.
The event is scheduled to take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Oakcrest Community Center at 1300 Capitol Heights Blvd. in Capitol Heights.
“We thought it would make sense to do an outreach event in celebration of Pride month,” Ivey told the Blade in an interview at his Capitol Hill office. “This is a resource fair, but the idea is to make sure the community is getting what it needs,” he said.
An announcement of the Pride Resource Fair says state and local officials will be available at the event “to answer questions, provide resources, and more.”
Ivey said he has been following the many Pride-related events in the D.C. area as well as President Joe Biden’s hosting of the largest ever Pride celebration at the White House last week.
“I want to see us do more in Prince George’s County as well,” he said. “I know we’ve been a little behind the curve on these issues to some extent,” he told the Blade. “And I think it’s time for us to catch up.”
Ivy points out that he is a member of the House Equality Caucus, which advocates for LGBTQ rights, including legislation supporting LGBTQ equality. The Equality Caucus is chaired by openly gay U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.) and co-chaired by eight other openly gay and lesbian members of the House.
“This year, the Equality Caucus is celebrating Pride with our largest membership to date, 194 members — all of whom are devoted to fighting for equality for our community,” said Pocan in a statement on the caucus’s website.
The website includes the names and photos of each of the 194 members, who consist of Pocan as chair, the other eight out gay and lesbian members who serve as co-chairs, and 185 allied House members, including Ivey and D.C. Congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D).
Missing from the list of Equality Caucus members is U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who pleaded not guilty in May to a 13-count federal indictment accusing him, among other things, of wire fraud, money laundering, and theft of public funds. In his election victory in 2022 from his Long Island district, Santos became the first openly gay Republican to win a seat in Congress as a non-incumbent.
Ivey, an attorney, who also won election to the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in 2022, served two terms as the elected state’s attorney for Prince George’s County from 2002-2011 in the role of the county’s lead prosecutor. Ivey has also served for many years as a congressional staffer.
He has worked as chief counsel to former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), as counsel to former U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.), on the staff of U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), and as chief majority counsel to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee.
With that as a backdrop, Ivey said as a longtime supporter of equal rights for minorities, including LGBTQ people, he is troubled over the large number of anti-LGBTQ bills that have surfaced and passed in state legislatures over the past year.
Although no such legislation has surfaced in Maryland, Ivey said he is committed to working with the House Equality Caucus to oppose the legislation in other states, especially including legislation targeting transgender young people.
“It’s sad that they’re now targeting kids,” Ivey said. “The argument is they’re doing it to protect kids. But clearly, they’re attacking kids, these trans kids who are vulnerable and have really difficult times socially,” he said. “So, I hope we can win this fight. But it’s going to be a tough stretch for a lot of these folks, these young people who are going through it now.”
Added Ivey, “I can’t fix things in Florida or Utah or wherever, but we can make an impact here in Maryland. And that’s what we’re trying to do.”
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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