District of Columbia
Ruby Corado arrested on federal bank fraud, money laundering charges
Casa Ruby founder will appear in D.C. court on Friday

Ruby Corado, the founder and longtime executive director of the now defunct D.C. LGBTQ community services organization Casa Ruby, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday at a hotel in Laurel, Md., on charges of bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and other offenses based on allegations that she embezzled at least $150,000 from Casa Ruby before it closed its doors in 2022.
The Office of the United States Attorney for D.C. announced the arrest in a statement released Wednesday, stating that Corado was being held until at least Friday when she will appear for a detention hearing at U.S. District Court for D.C., when a judge will decide whether she can be released while awaiting trial.
Corado had been living in El Salvador for at least the past two years or more following her decision to step down as executive director of Casa Ruby in 2022. Charging documents filed in federal court in D.C. on Wednesday do not say why Corado returned to the U.S., when she returned and how FBI investigators learned of her return.
“According to court documents, Corado received more than $1.3 million from the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program,” a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office says.
The two federal programs were put in place at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic to assist businesses and community organizations adversely impacted by the pandemic.
“Instead of using the funds as she promised, Corado stole at least $150,000 by transferring the money to bank accounts in El Salvador, which she hid from the IRS,” the statement says. “During 2022, when financial irregularities at Casa Ruby became public, Corado sold her home in Prince George’s County and fled to El Salvador,” the U.S. Attorney’s statement continues.
“FBI agents arrested Corado on March 5, 2024, at a hotel in Laurel, Md., after her unexpected return to the United States,” the statement says. “Corado is being held pending a detention hearing on Friday.”
Patricia Hartman, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, pointed to court documents for the Corado case released on Wednesday that say they were held under seal until Corado’s initial court appearance.
In addition to the FBI, the criminal case against Corado is being investigated by D.C. Office of the Inspector General, court documents show.
The U.S. Attorney’s statement points out that the charges filed against Corado are serious. Bank fraud carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, wire fraud carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years and money laundering also carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Among the details disclosed in a 19-page affidavit in support of Corado’s arrest filed in U.S. District Court initially under seal on March 1, Casa Ruby effectively ceased operating in July 2022 when it closed its transitional housing facilities for homeless LGBTQ youth, it had not paid its employees and was being evicted from several of its properties for failing to pay rent.
Corado was outspoken in identifying as a transgender woman and provided services for trans youth and spoke out for trans rights in her role as director of Casa Ruby. But in what may come as a surprise to those who knew her, the arrest affidavit states that Corado transferred the money she is now accused of embezzling from Casa Ruby to a bank account in El Salvador she opened using her birth name.
Corado’s arrest comes close to two years after the Office of the D.C. Attorney General filed a civil suit against Casa Ruby and Corado on grounds that Casa Ruby, under Corado’s leadership, violated the D.C. Nonprofit Corporations Act in its alleged improper financial dealings.
The local LGBTQ youth services organization Wanda Alston Foundation, which a D.C. Superior Court judge named to take over Casa Ruby as a court appointed receiver, has also filed a lawsuit against Corado and Casa Ruby’s former board members seeking monetary damages to compensate former employees and former Casa Ruby clients who lost services when Casa Ruby closed its doors.
District of Columbia
Booz Allen withdraws as WorldPride corporate sponsor
Company updated programs to comply with Trump executive orders

The U.S. technology company Booz Allen Hamilton has confirmed it has withdrawn as a corporate sponsor for the international LGBTQ WorldPride events scheduled to take place in D.C. from May 17-June 8, according to a report by the Washington Business Journal.
In an exclusive story published Feb.10, the business publication reports that Booz Allen Hamilton disclosed in a statement that its decision to withdraw as a WorldPride sponsor was based on its need to comply with “recently issued presidential executive orders.”
Although the statement did not say so directly, it is referring to executive orders issued since Jan. 20 by President Donald Trump that, among other things, ban government agencies and companies doing business with the government through contracts from promoting or carrying out diversity, equity, and inclusion or “DEI” programs.
On its website, Booz Allen Hamilton describes itself as an “advanced technology company delivering outcomes with speed for America’s most critical defense, civil, and national securities priorities.” Among the government agencies it does business with, the website statement says, are the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
“We take this responsibility to our nation seriously,” Washington Business Journal quoted the Booz Allen Hamilton statement regarding WorldPride as saying. “It demands from us commitment to their best principle to flawless execution and to full compliance with all laws and regulations, including executive orders,” Washington Business Journal quotes the statement as saying.
The Washington Business Journal article includes a photo of more than a dozen of Booz Allen Hamilton employees marching in D.C.’s Capital Pride parade in 2017.
The company did not immediately respond to a request from Washington Blade seeking comment on its WorldPride decision.
Capital Pride Alliance, the group that organizes most D.C. LGBTQ Pride events and is the lead organizer of WorldPride 2025, in response to a request by the Blade released a statement responding to Booz Allen Hamilton’s sponsorship withdrawal.
“Booz Allen Hamilton is the only organization that has withdrawn its committed financial support for WorldPride,” the statement says. “CPA is proud of its many longstanding legacy sponsors, many of whom have already reaffirmed their commitments to participate in WorldPride this summer,” the statement continues.
“Just like many American companies and LGBTQ+ organizations, we are navigating current challenges and many unknowns,” the statement says. “We are confident, however, that we will have the support necessary to have a successful and safe WorldPride that meets this moment,” it says.
“That support includes families, organizations, and businesses from across our community and corporations that truly celebrate diversity and value equity and inclusion for all,” the statement concludes.
The Capital Pride Alliance website last year listed Booz Allen Hamilton as a corporate sponsor for the 2024 Capital Pride events in the category of a “True Colors” sponsor, which it said represented a donation of $75,000. But the Capital Pride Alliance statement to the Blade this week says, “We are not going to share they’re previously planned commitment for 2025.”
The statement adds, “Many in our community are extremely vulnerable right now, and standing up for them, standing with them, standing with us, in this movement is what we all need.”
District of Columbia
Trump executive order prompts local hospitals to stop gender-affirming care for youth
Activists marched outside Children’s National on Feb. 2

Hospitals in the D.C. area are putting a prompt stop to aiding transgender youth and their families continue their transition after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that bans all gender-affirming care nationwide for minors under 19.
On Jan. 28, days after Trump took office, signed the executive order, “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” which immediately halted the prescription and medical treatment of gender-affirming care for all minors under the age of 19 across the country. The order use of “chemical and surgical mutilation” is in reference to the various kinds of gender-affirming care that youth may receive when in the care of a medical practice.
“Today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions.” says the executive order. “This dangerous trend will be a stain on our nation’s history, and it must end.”
The executive order laid out various guidelines for medical practices to follow that must be implemented within the coming months. These include “ending reliance on junk science,” in referring to following the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s guidelines for youth, and “defunding chemical and surgical mutilation,” which seeks to ban hospitals and medical schools to use federal funding for gender-affirming care.
Hospitals, medical schools, and clinics across the country have begun to abide by the executive order and drop trans and gender diverse youth as they dismantled programs that provided care of any kind that treated a child’s gender dysphoria. Children’s National Hospital in Northwest Washington is one of those institutions.
“Children’s National is committed to providing compassionate and comprehensive care in accordance with the law,” said Children’s National in a Jan. 30 press release. “As a result, we are currently pausing all puberty blockers and hormone therapy prescriptions for transgender youth patients, per the guidelines in the executive order issued by the White House this week. Children’s National already does not perform gender affirming surgery for minors.”
“We recognize the impact this change will have, and our commitment to creating a better future for children and families remains at the forefront of our mission,” it added. “We will do everything we can to ensure the same uninterrupted access to mental health counseling, social support, and holistic and respectful care for every patient at Children’s National. We are working directly with patients and providers to ensure every patient has access to the information and support services they need, and we appreciate their continued trust and understanding as we work through these changes.”
The hospital did not provide the Washington Blade with additional comment.
Activists in response to the decision organized a march that took place outside Children’s Hospital. on Feb. 2. D.C. Safe Haven, a group founded to “provide TLGBQ people in the DMV area with opportunities to transform their lives,” helped organize the march.
Similar protests have taken place across the country.
The Gender Liberation Movement organized the “Rise Up for Trans Youth” march in New York’s Union Square on Saturday. The group was one of the organizers of a march that took place in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 4 when the justices heard oral arguments in the U.S. v. Skrmetti case, which challenges a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for minors under 18.
“VCU Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU have suspended gender-affirming medications and gender-affirming surgical procedures for patients under 19-years-old in response to an executive order issued by the White House on Jan. 28, 2025, and related state guidance received by VCU on Jan. 30, 2025,” the hospital said in a statement. “Our doors remain open to all patients and their families for screening, counseling, mental health care, and all other health care needs.”
Equality Virginia, a queer advocacy group that works across the state, in a statement to the Blade criticized the executive order and response to it.
“Executive orders are not legislation, they are not law, and they do not supersede state laws,” said Narissa Rahaman, the group’s executive director. “The General Assembly has taken up bills on both transgender athletes and gender-affirming care, and in both cases, the general assembly has declined to pursue bans on either. State law is clear; what is unclear is why the Youngkin administration is spending its final year cozying up to the Trump administration and repeatedly singling out transgender Virginians for discrimination.”
“To the transgender and nonbinary athletes and youth seeking healthcare in Virginia who are feeling scared: Equality Virginia will not stop fighting for you, no matter who occupies the Governor’s Mansion or the White House,” added Rahaman.
Petitions are urging D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, Health and Human Services, and Children’s National to use D.C.’s human rights law to challenge the executive orders. Lambda Legal, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and the law firms Jenner & Block and Hogan Lovells have filed lawsuits against Trump’s mandate on behalf of families of trans youth.
District of Columbia
LGBTQ-friendly senior living community to open near Dupont Circle
Luxury assisted living apartments located in the former Fairfax Hotel

An upscale senior and assisted living apartment building located two blocks from Dupont Circle, which is scheduled to hold a grand opening ceremony on Feb. 12, has announced it is “LGBTQ+ friendly.”
A statement released by the new seniors home, called the Inspir Embassy Row, located at 2100 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., says it is proud to have received recognition as a SAGECare Platinum Credentialed Provider from the New York City-based LGBTQ seniors advocacy and training group SAGE.
“To earn this prestigious credential, a minimum of 80 percent of Inspir’s management and non-management staff completed comprehensive training in LGBTQ+ aging cultural competency,” the statement says.
“The program covered crucial topics including historical and contemporary LGBTQ+ struggles, proper terminology usage related to sexual orientation and gender identity, and strategies to address the unique challenges faced by this demographic,” according to the statement sent to the Washington Blade.
Inspir Embassy Row’s general manager, Tim Cox, who is gay and said he lives with his husband just five blocks from the soon to open facility, provided the Washington Blade with a tour of the senior living building. He said it includes 174 apartments, including studio apartments and one and two-bedroom apartments.

Residents have signed up for about 45 of the apartments so far, Cox said, including some LGBTQ residents, who will begin moving in on Feb. 18. He said the upscale building is open to seniors who currently do not need assisted living services as well as those who need different levels of care, including memory loss care.
He said a doctor and nurse practitioner will be among the staff team providing services for residents. Although most of the apartments have a kitchenette with a refrigerator and microwave but no cooktop and a limited number have full kitchens, Cox said three meals a day will be served in the building’s large, first floor dining room. The building also includes common areas with spaces for entertainment such as the showing of movies and a large grand piano for visiting performers.
“At Inspir Embassy Row, we’re dedicated to creating an inclusive environment that celebrates the diversity of our residents,” Cox said in the statement released by the building, which is the former home of the Fairfax Hotel.

“This SAGECare certification is a testament to our commitment to providing personalized, compassionate care that respects and honors the identities and experiences of all our residents, including those in the LGBTQ+ community,” Cox said.
He added, “Our goal is to create a home where every resident feels valued, respected and free to be themselves. The SAGECare certification is just the beginning of our journey to set a new standard for inclusive senior living in Washington, D.C.”
But the monthly rent for residents of Inspir Embassy Row will likely place it out of reach for many potential senior residents. Cox said the monthly rent for a one-room studio apartment is $8,100, with the monthly cost of a one-bedroom apartment ranging from $11,500 to about $15,000. A two-bedroom apartment will cost $18,500 per month.
Some of those costs will be covered for residents who have long-term care insurance, Cox said.
Asked if potential residents who can afford the monthly costs at Inspir Embassy Row would be better off staying in their own homes and hiring staff and others to comfortably assist them, Cox said Inspir provides far more than just meals and a place to stay.

When remaining at your own home “you’re isolated, you’re lonely, you don’t have activities,” he said. “When you have people coming to care for you, they’re not there as companions,” Cox said. “So, for this, we give them opportunities. We take them to the Kennedy Center. We have music here on a daily basis.”
Cox added, “We have authors come in. We have speakers that are renowned coming in. Since we’re on Embassy Row, we’ll have ambassadors come in to introduce their country. So, really it is being able to get to know our community better and being social, interactive.”
The statement released by Inspir Embassy Row says the facility will provide “LGBTQ+ specific activities, events, or support groups to allow residents the opportunity to share similar experiences with other residents,” and there will be “partnerships with local LGBTQ+ organizations.”

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