District of Columbia
Meet Jay Jones: Howard’s first trans student body president
‘Be the advocate that the child in you needed most’
Jay Jones was born to a conservative Christian family where she said being gay was not socially acceptable. This year, she was named Howard University Student Association’s first transgender president.
When Jones was younger, she enjoyed activities that are traditionally “feminine.” She said she has always had a higher-pitched voice, talked with her hands and preferred playing inside with Barbie dolls.
Jones came out as gay in eighth grade to her sister who said, “Girl, I been knew.”
“I think that was very much a turning point year for me because it was a year where I kind of knew how I was feeling,” Jones explained. “There were emotions I felt ever since I was younger, but I never could put verbiage or language to it,” she said.
That same year, Jones was elected as the first student body president of her middle school. She said that is where her leadership journey began and that year was pivotal in her life.
When Jones won her first campaign as HUSA vice president, she was feeling unsure about her gender identity after she was asked which pronouns she wanted to use.
“I said ‘I don’t really know because I don’t feel comfortable using he/him pronouns because I don’t think that expresses who I am as a person,’ but at that time, I don’t think I was to the point where ‘she/her’ was necessary,” she said.
Outside of student government, she was part of a traditionally all-male organization at Howard, Men of George Washington Carver Incorporated. There, she said she always felt like the sister to all of her brothers.
“I remember I would cringe sometimes when they would call me brother,” she said.
Even though she felt like she aligned with she/her pronouns she said she was “scared” of what it could mean for her moving forward.
She knew that her given pronouns were not a reflection of who she was but wasn’t sure what to do about it. She was talking with Eshe Ukweli, a trans journalism student who asked Jones a simple question that clarified everything.
“‘If you were to have kids or if your brother or your sister or someone around you was to have kids, what do you imagine them calling you?’ and I realized, it was always ‘mom,’ it was always ‘sister,’ and it was always ‘aunt,’” she said.
Jones still looks to Ukweli as a mentor who provides her with wisdom and guidance regularly.
“She knows what it’s like to do hormones, she understands what it’s like to be in a place of leadership and to be in a place of transition,” she said. “There is no amount of research, no amount of information, no amount of anything that you can take in, that could ever equate to that.”
In 2023, Jones’s junior year, Howard University was named the No. 1 most inclusive Historically Black College or University for LGBTQ-identifying students by BestColleges.
Howard has a storied past with the queer community. In the 1970s, Howard hosted the first National Third World Lesbian and Gay Conference, according to a 1979 Hilltop archive. However, multiple articles in the ‘90s highlighted homophobia on Howard’s campus.
“’There is the feeling … that by coming out there will be a stigma on you,” said bisexual Howard student, Zeal Harris in a 1997 Hilltop interview.
As a result, multiple LGBTQ advocacy organizations were created on Howard’s campus to combat those stigmas.
Clubs like The Bisexual, Lesbian, and Gay Organization of Students At Howard (BLAGOSAH) and the Coalition of Activist Students Celebrating The Acceptance of Diversity and Equality (CASCADE) were formed by Howard University students looking to create a safer campus for queer students.
However, Jones didn’t know much about this community when she was entering Howard. She recognized Howard as the HBCU that produced leaders in the Black community, like Thurgood Marshall, Toni Morrison, and Andrew Young.
“This university has something about turning people into trailblazers, turning people into award-winning attorneys, turning people into change makers,” she said. “I think that was one of my main reasons why I wanted to come here, I wanted to be a part of a group of people who were going to change the world.”
So, as she entered her junior year at Howard, she set out to begin her journey to changing the world by changing her school.
This school year she ran for HUSA president, the highest governing position on Howard’s campus. She said that this was the hardest campaign she has ever run at Howard and that she warned her team the night before election result announcements that she would start weeping if their names were called.
“During the midst of that campaign season, I was in an internal kind of battle with members of my family not accepting me, not embracing me, calling me things like ‘embarrassment’ and not understanding the full height of what I was trying to do and who I was becoming,” she said.
Jones said the experience was mentally draining and a grueling process but that she leaned on her religion to help her see the light at the end of the tunnel.
“I’m a very devout Christian and for me, I was like, ‘It was nothing but God that got me through, it was nothing but God that got me through this,’” she said. “If people knew what I went through you would be falling on your knees and weeping too.”
Jones said that in high school she had to really work through her relationship with God because she was raised in a church that said gay people were going to hell. So, when she came out as a trans woman she had to re-evaluate the relationship she worked so hard to create with God, again.
She reflected and realized that God didn’t use the perfect people in the Bible but that he works through everyone.
“So if God can use all of those people, what is there to say that God can’t use the queer? What is it to say that God can’t use trans people,” she said.
After she graduates next year, Jones hopes to work in campaign strategy. She said the ‘lesser of two evils’ conversation isn’t working anymore for Gen-Zers and wants to pioneer new ways for young voters to engage with politics.
“Really working on engaging and mobilizing young voters on how to understand and utilize their power, especially as it relates to Black and Brown people,” she said.
When she became vice president of HUSA last year she said she did it for for all the little Black queer children down South who haven’t gotten their chance to dance in the sun yet.
“If there was anyone ever coming in who’s trans, the No. 1 piece of advice that I can give you is, be the role model that the inner child in you needed most, be the advocate that the child in you needed most,” she said “And most importantly, be the woman that the child saw in you but was too scared to be.
District of Columbia
Man arrested for destroying D.C. Pride decorations, spray painting hate message
Prosecutors initially did not list offense as hate crime before adding ‘bias’ designation
D.C. police this week announced they have arrested a Maryland man on charges of Destruction of Property and Defacing Private Property for allegedly pulling down and ripping apart rainbow colored cloth Pride ornaments on light poles next to Dupont Circle Park on June 2.
In a June 10 statement police said the suspect, identified as Michel Isaiah Webb, Jr., 30, also allegedly spray painted an anti-LGBTQ message on the window of a private residence in the city’s Southwest waterfront neighborhood two days later on June 4.
An affidavit in support of the arrest filed by police in D.C. Superior Court on June 9 says Web was captured on a video surveillance camera spray painting the message “Fuck the LGBT+ ABC!” and “God is Real.” The affidavit does not say what Webb intended the letters “ABC” to stand for.
“Detectives located video and photos in both offenses and worked to identify the suspect,” the police statement says. “On Sunday, June 8, 2025, First District officers familiar with these offenses observed the suspect in Navy Yard and made an arrest without incident.”
The statement continues: “As a result of the detectives investigation, 30-year-old Michael Isaiah Webb, Jr. of Landover, Md. was charged with Destruction of Property and Defacing Private Property.”
It concludes by saying, “The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating this case as potentially being motivated by hate or bias. The designation can be changed at any point as the investigation proceeds, and more information is gathered. A designation as a hate crime by MPD does not mean that prosecutors will prosecute it as a hate crime.”
The online D.C. Superior Court docket for the case shows that prosecutors with the Office of the United States Attorney for D.C. charged Webb with just one offense – Defacing Public or Private Property.
The charging document first filed by prosecutors on June 9, which says the offense was committed on June 4, declares that Webb “willfully and wantonly wrote, marked, drew, and painted a word, sign, or figure upon property, that is window(s), without the consent of Austin Mellor, the owner and the person lawfully in charge thereof.”
But the initial charging document did not designate the offense as a hate crime or bias motivated crime as suggested by D.C. police as a possible hate crime.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office on Tuesday didn’t immediately respond to a request from the Washington Blade for an explanation of why the office did not designate the offense as a hate crime and why it did not charge Webb in court with the second charge filed by D.C. police of destruction of Property for allegedly destroying the Pride decorations at Dupont Circle.
However, at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 11, the spokesperson sent the Washington Blade a copy of an “amended” criminal charge against Webb by the U..S. Attorney’s office that designates the offense as a hate crime. Court records show the amended charge was filed in court at 10:18 a.m. on June 11.
The revised charge now states that the criminal act “demonstrated the prejudice of Michael Webb based on sexual orientation (bias-related crime): Defacing Public or Private Property” in violation of the D.C. criminal code.
The U.S. Attorney’s spokesperson, Patricia Hartman, did not provide an explanation of why the U.S. Attorney’s office is not prosecuting Webb for the Destruction of Property charge filed by D.C. police for the destruction of Pride decorations at Dupont Circle.
The online public court records show that at a June 9 court arraignment Webb pleaded not guilty and Superior Court Judge Robert J. Hildum released him while awaiting trial while issuing a stay-away order. The public court records do not include a copy of the stay-away order. The judge also ordered Webb to return to court for a June 24 status hearing, the records show.
The arrest affidavit filed by D.C. police says at the time of his arrest, Webb waived his right to remain silent. It says he claimed he knew nothing at all about the offenses he was charged with.
“However, Defendant 1 stated something to the effect of, ‘It’s not a violent crime’ several times during the interview” with detectives, according to the affidavit.
The charge filed against him by prosecutors of Defacing Public or Private Property is a misdemeanor that carries a possible maximum penalty of 180 days in jail and a fine up to $1,000.
District of Columbia
D.C. police investigating threat of shooting at WorldPride festival
Police chief says weekend was ‘success without incident’
D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a June 9 press conference that police investigators are looking for a man who reportedly threatened to “shoot up” the WordPride festival on Sunday, June 8, inside the fence-enclosed festival grounds.
Smith, who joined D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser at the press conference to discuss public safety issues, said aside from the shooting threat, WorldPride events took place “without an incident’ and called WorldPride 2025 D.C. a success.
“I think last evening at the festival footprint there was an individual inside the festival who said there was an individual who was there and that they were going to shoot up the place in some terminology they used,” Smith told news media reporters.
“As you know, the event went off without incident,” she said. “We did have appropriate resources down there to address it. We did put out a photo of the individual – white male. That’s all we have right now. But our team is working very diligently to find out who that individual is.”
Smith added that D.C. police made 15 arrests during the WorldPride weekend with at least 23 violent crimes that occurred across the city but which she said were not related to WorldPride.
“There was a lot going on,” she said. “But I’m so grateful we were able to have a WorldPride 2025 in this city that was very successful.”
In response to reporters’ questions, Bowser said she regretted that an incident of violence took place in Dupont Circle Park shortly after she persuaded the U.S. Park Service to reverse its earlier decision to close Dupont Circle Park during WorldPride weekend.
The mayor was referring to an incident early Saturday evening, June 7, in which two juveniles were stabbed inside the park following a fight, according to D.C. police. Police said the injuries were nonfatal.
Bowser noted that she agreed with community activists and nearby residents that Dupont Circle Park, which has been associated with LGBTQ events for many years, should not be closed during WorldPride.
Park Service officials have said their reason for closing the park was that acts of vandalism and violence had occurred there during past LGBTQ Pride weekends, even though LGBTQ Pride organizers have said the vandalism and violent acts were not associated with Pride events.
“I think if I were standing here this morning and we hadn’t opened up the park you would be asking me were there any requests for not pushing hard to have a D.C. park opened that’s important to the LGBT community during Pride,” Bowser told reporters.
“So, any time that there is harm to someone, and our responsibility, we regard it as our number one responsibility to keep the city safe and keep from harm’s way, certainly I have some regrets,” she said. “But I know I was working very hard to balance what our community was calling for with our preparations. And that was the decision I made,” she said, referring to her call to reopen Dupont Circle Park.
Bowser also noted that the National Park Service would not likely have agreed to reverse its decision to reopen Dupont Circle Park if an event had not been planned to take place there over the WorldPride weekend.
She was referring to a Saturday, June 7, D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation “DISCO” party in Dupont Circle Park, which took place after the decision to reopen the park.
“Step Outside, Feel The Beat, And Shine With Pride,” a flyer announcing the event states.
District of Columbia
WorldPride wraps up after epic weekend of events
Historic LGBTQ celebration brings color, music, activism to nation’s capital
After more than two years of preparation, thousands of volunteers, countless LGBTQ community members and allies, queer celebrities, and hundreds of events across the District, WorldPride in Washington has come to a close.
“It has been an extremely powerful three weeks,” Ryan Bos, executive director of the Capital Pride Alliance, told the Blade on Sunday at the International March on Washington for Freedom. “This weekend has been well above expectations in relation to the energy and the crowds.”
WorldPride celebrations were set to kick off on May 31 with Shakira’s “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour,” but following reports of stage issues, the Colombian superstar canceled her D.C. show — and her Boston stop the day prior.
The festivities got into full swing on June 4 with the 2025 Human Rights Conference. Held at the J.W. Marriott, the three-day gathering brought together more than 800 attendees, including Jessica Stern, Spanish Sen. Carla Antonelli, Peruvian Congresswoman Susel Paredes, and Mariann Edgar Budde of the Washington National Cathedral.
Following the conference, Capital Pride hosted the annual Capital Pride Honors and Gala, recognizing outstanding figures in LGBTQ advocacy. Honorees included Cathy Renna, Jerry St. Louis, Ernest Hopkins, Lamar Braithwaite, Rev. Dr. Donna Claycomb Sokol, Kriston Pumphrey, Gia Martinez, Kraig Williams, and SMYAL.
As the week went on, the tone shifted from formal to festive. Venues across the city filled with partygoers draped in glitter and rainbows, dancing and celebrating love in all forms. From the 17th Street Block Party and Full Bloom celebration to Kinetic’s dance events and the Pride on the Pier boat parade and fireworks (presented by the Washington Blade), nearly every corner of D.C. turned into a dancefloor. The Wharf was transformed into a Pride dance party on both Friday and Saturday nights for the Blade’s annual Pride on the Pier and culminated in the city’s only Pride fireworks display.
The annual Pride Parade was a standout. The nearly six-hour-long march drew hundreds of thousands to 14th Street, stretching toward the Capitol. A 1,000-foot rainbow flag led the way as parade grand marshals Renée Rapp and Laverne Cox waved to cheering crowds. Confetti, beads, condoms, and joy poured from elaborate floats.
The parade fed into the WorldPride Street Festival and Concert, which for the first time spanned two days. The festival featured hundreds of booths — from queer merch and leather vendors to nonprofit fundraisers — and drew thousands of LGBTQ attendees under sunny skies.
Evenings wrapped with free concerts headlined by LGBTQ talent and allies, including Cynthia Erivo and Doechii. Other crowd favorites included Khalid , David Archuleta, and Kristine W.
At the RFK Stadium grounds, the WorldPride Music Festival drew thousands for powerhouse performances by Troye Sivan, RuPaul, Kim Petras, and Renée Rapp. Under glowing rainbow lights, fans danced and sang through the night.
Despite security concerns, no major issues were reported, though a few minor incidents occurred.
One of the biggest pre-event concerns was safety for LGBTQ attendees amid rising anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and anti-trans policies from the Trump administration. Multiple countries issued travel warnings for trans and gender-nonconforming individuals visiting the U.S., but turnout — including trans folks and their allies — remained strong and visible throughout.
Another flashpoint was the temporary closure of Dupont Circle, a cornerstone of D.C.’s — and the nation’s — LGBTQ rights movement. The U.S. Park Service initially closed the park, citing the need to “secure the park, deter potential violence, reduce the risk of destructive acts and decrease the need for extensive law enforcement presence” — despite the MPD chief’s request to keep it open. Strong public backlash led to a reversal, and soon the park was full of rainbow-clad LGBTQ people celebrating freely.
On Saturday night following the parade, two juveniles were stabbed in Dupont Circle. However, MPD later confirmed the incident was unrelated to WorldPride celebrations.
The weekend ended with the International Rally and March on Washington for Freedom. Hundreds of LGBTQ people and allies gathered at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to hear prominent activists speak on why Pride is still essential in 2025. Speakers called out rising hate and violence — and named Trump directly. As rain began to fall, the crowd only grew, marching from the Memorial to the Capitol, signs raised high, ending WorldPride as the first Pride began — as a protest.
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