District of Columbia
In D.C., 28 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ
Advocacy groups, D.C. agency respond to increase in numbers
Editor’s Note: This article is part of our 2024 contribution to the D.C. Homeless Crisis Reporting Project in collaboration with other local newsrooms. The collective works will be published throughout the week at bit.ly/DCHCRP.
The LGBTQ operated and LGBTQ supportive homeless shelters and transitional housing facilities in D.C. are operating at full capacity this year as the number of homeless city residents, including LGBTQ homeless residents, continues to increase, according to the latest information available.
The annual 2024 Point-In-Time (PIT) count of homeless people in the District of Columbia conducted in January, shows that 12 percent of the homeless adults and 28 percent of homeless youth between the age of 18 and 24 identify as LGBTQ.
The PIT count shows an overall 14 percent increase in homelessness in the city compared to 2023. This year’s count of a total of 527 LGBTQ homeless people marks an increase over the 349 LGBTQ homeless people counted in 2023 in D.C. and 347 LGBTQ homeless counted in 2022.
Representatives of the LGBTQ organizations that provide services for homeless LGBTQ people have said the actual number of LGBTQ homeless people, especially LGBTQ youth, are most likely significantly higher than the annual PIT counts.
Liz Jaramillo, director of Youth Housing for the D.C. LGBTQ youth advocacy group SMYAL, which provides transitional housing for at least 55 homeless LGBTQ youth through four housing programs, said SMYAL staff members have observed a clear increase in the number of LGBTQ youth facing homelessness or housing insecurity.
She said the increase has been a topic of discussion with other groups providing homeless services for LGBTQ youth as well as with officials from the D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS), which provides support and funding for LGBTQ homeless related programs.
“So, I do think there has been an increase,” Jaramillo said. “We see it during our meetings when we are talking with DHS and talking about the need for what the next steps will be for growing LGBTQ housing in general across the city.”
Among other things, Jaramillo and officials with other LGBTQ organizations, including the D.C. LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition, are calling on the city to expand its funding for LGBTQ homeless programs to keep up with the need to address the increasing number of LGBTQ homeless people in the city.
SMYAL began its housing program for LGBTQ youth in 2017. It was preceded by D.C.’s Wanda Alston Foundation, which opened the city’s first transitional housing program solely dedicated to LGBTQ youth facing homelessness between the ages of 18 and 24 in 2008. As of 2022, the Alston Foundation had opened two more LGBTQ youth homeless facilities.
Both SMYAL and the Alston Foundation provide a wide range of services for their LGBTQ youth residents in addition to a safe and stable shelter, including food and nutrition services, case management services, mental health counseling, crisis intervention, and employment related skills development and education services.
The two groups also have designated at least one of their housing facilities to offer their LGBTQ residents extended transitional housing for up to six years.
In September of 2021, at the time when the LGBTQ community services center Casa Ruby lost its city funding for its own longstanding LGBTQ youth homeless shelter, the Department of Human Services awarded a grant for the opening of a new LGBTQ youth homeless shelter to Covenant House, a nonprofit group that provides homeless youth services nationwide. In 2022, Casa Ruby closed all its operations.
At the time, Covenant House announced the facility would serve as a 24-bed LGBTQ youth shelter called Shine in the city’s Deanwood neighborhood. In response to a request by the Washington Blade for an update on the status of the Shine facility, DHS released a statement saying the facility has been expanded to 30 beds and continues to receive DHS funding.
With most of the LGBTQ-specific homeless facilities in D.C. focusing on youth, the DHS opened the city’s first official shelter for LGBTQ adults in August of 2022 following a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. The 40-person shelter is located at 400 50th St., S.E.
“DHS continues to support LGBTQ adults through its low-barrier shelter, Living Life Alternative,” DHS said this week in its statement to the Blade. The statement says the facility is operated by The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, which refers to itself as TCP, through a DHS Sole Source grant. According to the statement, TCP “sub awards the grant funding” to a company called KBEC Group, Inc., which specializes in providing comprehensive social services and residential living for youth and adults.
“KBEC proactively offers intensive care management services allowing residents to overcome long-standing obstacles preventing them from obtaining and maintaining permanent housing,” the DHS statement says in describing KBEC’s involvement in the LGBTQ adult housing facility.
“These include connections to Behavioral Health Services, Substance Use Disorder (SUD) resources, Supportive Employment Job Training Programs, direct access to health care within the shelter at least once a month, and a comprehensive curriculum of Life Skills to include Financial Literacy Classes, Music Therapy, Art Therapy Classes, and Group Therapy sessions,” the statement says.
It says the goal of the program associated with the LGBTQ adult shelter is to enable its residents to be able to leave the facility within six months through assistance from programs leading to self-sufficiency.
“KBEC has successfully connected more than 50% of residents to some type of housing subsidy, whether through the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs, DHS Housing Vouchers, or Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH),” the statement says.
A least two other non-LGBTQ locally based organizations – the Latin American Youth Center and Sasha Bruce Youthwork – also provide services for homeless LGBTQ youth, including housing services, the two groups state on their website.
Jaramillo, of SMYAL, and Hancie Stokes, SMYAL’s communications director, told the Blade this week that SMYAL and other local LGBTQ organizations continue to advocate for LGBTQ cultural competency training for the staff at non-LGBTQ organizations or private companies that provide LGBTQ-related homeless services.
“We work closely with our community partners to make sure that when a queer young person is matched into their program or placed into their program that they are equipped with basic cultural competency to be able to provide those supportive services to folks,” Stokes said.
“But there is a great need for increased funding for programs like SMYAL and Wanda Alston, which is why we partner with the LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition to advocate for more funding on behalf of all LGBTQ+ housing programs,” she told the Blade.
One example of a possible consequence of inadequate cultural competency training surfaced in April of this year when a transgender woman filed a discrimination complaint against a D.C. homeless shelter after it refused to allow her to stay in the women’s section of the shelter, forcing her to stay in the men’s sleeping section.
The complaint was filed against the shelter operated by the Community for Creative Nonviolence at 245 2nd St., N.W., which is one of the city’s largest privately operated shelters. A spokesperson for the shelter did not respond to a phone and email message left by the Blade asking for a response to the complaint.
Transgender rights advocates have said the denial of the placement of a transgender woman in the female section of a place of public accommodation such as a homeless shelter is a violation of the D.C. Human Rights Act’s ban on gender identity discrimination.
Jaramillo and Stokes said SMYAL has responded to yet another growing need for homeless and housing services related to the city’s immigrant community. Shortly after the shutdown of Casa Ruby, Stokes said SMYAL created an LGBTQ youth street outreach program that focuses on Spanish-speaking LGBTQ youth.
“A lot of folks are experiencing homelessness,” Stokes said. “But this is particularly working with queer and trans Spanish-speaking youth who are experiencing homelessness to either get them connected to housing services, health care, legal documentation or legal support, and education,” she said.
“And so, our team goes out to areas like Columbia Heights and other areas where we know a lot of these migrant populations are setting up communities. And this is an outreach directly to them and it builds rapport in the community.”
District of Columbia
HIV Vaccine Awareness Day set for May 18
Whitman-Walker joins nationwide recognition of efforts to develop vaccine
Whitman-Walker Health, the D.C.-based community healthcare center that specializes in HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ-related health services, will join health care advocates from across the country to support efforts to develop an HIV vaccine on HIV Vaccine Awareness Day on May 18.
“HIV Awareness Day, observed annually on May 18, was established to recognize and thank the volunteers, scientists, health professionals, and community members working toward a safe and effective prevention HIV vaccine,” Whitman-Walker said in a statement.
“Led by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the day is also an opportunity to educate communities about the critical importance of preventive HIV vaccine research,” the statement says.
It adds, “The reality is that any new vaccine discovery must be built community by community, institution by institution, and then it must reach everyone – especially the communities who have carried the heaviest burden of this epidemic.”
On its own website, the National Institutes of Health says HIV Vaccine Awareness Day also highlights its longstanding efforts, coordinated by its Office of AIDS Research, to support researchers’ efforts to develop an HIV vaccine.
“Researchers are making promising headway in efforts to develop a safe, effective HIV vaccine,” it says in a statement on its website.
A Whitman-Walker spokesperson said Whitman-Walker was not holding a specific event to observe HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, but it will recognize the day as a way of encouragement for its ongoing work to address the AIDS epidemic and support for vaccine research.
“Today, no one has to die from HIV,” said Whitman-Walker’s Health System division’s CEO, Dr. Heather Aaron in the Whitman-Walker statement. “We have the treatments, the technology, and the research to change outcomes, and yet people in our community are still dying from HIV//AIDS,” she said in the statement.
“That is unacceptable, and it is exactly why our work continues,” she added. “Here in D.C. with more focus on Southeast D.C., the Whitman-Walker Health System remains committed to making a difference through cutting-edge research, policy advocacy, and philanthropy, because fair access to life-saving treatment is not a privilege. It is a right.”
District of Columbia
Capital Stonewall Democrats endorses Janeese Lewis George for D.C. mayor
Group also backed D.C. Council, Congressional delegate, AG candidates
The Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political organization, announced on May 14 that it has endorsed D.C. Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) for mayor in the city’s June 16 Democratic primary.
Lewis George along with former D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D-At-Large) are considered by political observers to be the two leading candidates among the seven candidates competing in the Democratic primary election for mayor.
Both have strong, long-standing records of support on LGBTQ issues, indicating Capital Stonewall Democrats members, like LGBTQ voters across the city, are likely choosing a candidate based on non-LGBTQ related issues.
In a May 14 statement, the group announced its endorsements in seven other Democratic primary races, including D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson, who is running unopposed in the primary. Also endorsed is D.C. Councilmember Robert White (D-At-Large), who is one of five Democratic candidates competing for the position of D.C. delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.
D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) is among the four candidates competing with White for that post, and who like White has a strong record of support on LGBTQ issues.
In the At-Large D.C. Council race for which incumbent Anita Bonds is not running for re-election, Capital Stonewall Democrats has endorsed community activist and LGBTQ ally Oye Owolewa in a nine candidate race.
For the Ward 1 D.C. Council election, in which five LGBTQ supportive candidates are competing, the group did not make an endorsement because none of the candidate received a required 60 percent of the endorsement vote cast by Capital Stonewall Democrats members, according to the group’s former president, Howard Garrett.
The statement announcing its endorsements shows that it decided to list its “Preferred Ranking” of each of the Ward 1 Democratic candidates as part of the city’s newly implemented ranked choice voting system. It lists gay candidate Miguel Trindade Deramo as first, bisexual candidate Aparna Raj second, Jackie Reyes Yanes third, Rashida Brown fourth, and Terry Lynch fifth.
In the remaining ward Council races, Capital Stonewall Democrats endorsed Councilmember Matt Fruman (D-Ward 3), who is running unopposed for re-election; Councilmember Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), the Council’s only gay member who is being challenged by two opponents; and Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who is running unopposed for re-election.
The group also chose not to make an endorsement in the special election for another At-Large D.C. Council seat that became vacant when then-Independent Councilmember McDuffie resigned to enable him to run for mayor as a Democrat. Under the city’s Home Rule Charter adopted by Congress, that at large sweat is restricted to a “non-majority party” candidate, meaning a non-Democrat.
The three candidates running for the seat, all Independents, include incumbent Doni Crawford, who was appointed to the seat earlier this year; former D.C. Councilmember Elissa Silverman; and Jacque Patterson. All three have expressed support on LGBTQ related issues.
“The organization’s endorsement process included candidate questionnaires, public forums, and direct voting by active CSD members,” the statement announcing its endorsements says. “Each endorsement reflects the collective voice of 173 LGBTQ+ Democrats who voted in the process and are committed to building lasting political power in the District,” according to the statement. “Candidates that reached 60 percent support received the endorsement.”
Garrett, the group’s former president, acknowledged that with nearly all candidates running in D.C. elections expressing strong support for the LGBTQ community, many if not most of the group’s members most likely chose a candidate based on issues other than LGBTQ related issues.
He said he believes Lewis George, who he is supporting and is viewed as a progressive candidate who self-identifies as a Democratic Socialist, compared to McDuffie, who is viewed as a moderate Democrat, captured the group’s endorsement based on the view that she is the best person to lead the city going forward.
“I believe that Capital Stonewall members voted for Janeese Lewis George because we’re tired of the status quo and we need a new, bold leader to not only move our city forward but also to stand up to Donald Trump and his administration,” Garrett told the Washington Blade.
McDuffie’s LGBTQ supporters, including former Capital Stonewall Democrats presidents David Meadows and Kurt Vorndran, have argued that McDuffie’s positions on a wide range of issues, including LGBTQ issues, show him to be the best candidates to lead the city at this time and In future years.
The group’s endorsement of Lewis George comes one week after GLAA DC, a nonpartisan LGBTQ advocacy group, awarded her its highest candidate rating of +10.
District of Columbia
Pride faith services in Washington, D.C.
Almost half of all LGBTQ adults in the U.S. are religious
Are you an LGBTQ person of faith or someone exploring spirituality? It is more common than people realize. According to a Williams Institute study published in October 2020, almost half of all LGBTQ adults in the United States are religious. This may seem counterintuitive as any LGBTQ people have complicated relationships with faith because of very real histories of abuse, trauma, and violence.
This violence still continues in the United States, especially following the Supreme Court’s March 2026 decision in Chiles v. Salazar, who ruled Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for minors violates the First Amendment, but not everyone has encountered this violence, nor do people who have faced it, separate themselves completely from religion. Many people may seek out affirming faith traditions which are prevalent in the DMV area.
For individuals seeking out faith services during Pride 2026, please check out the list below, which will be updated as more events are publicized.
Memorial Service for SaVanna Wanzer
May 17th at 1 pm
Westminster Presbyterian Church (400 I St SW, Washington, DC 20024)
Westminster Presbyterian will host a celebration of life for legendary DC trans rights activist and founder of DC Trans Pride and Black Trans Pride SaVanna Wanzer who was a long-time member of the church. Live music will begin at 12:15 pm before the start of the memorial service. The service will be livestreamed on the Westminster DC Facebook page. A meal will follow the Sunday service.
There will also be a celebratory vigil held on Saturday, May 16th from 6:30-8 pm for friends and family at the church led by LGBTQ organizer Rayceen Pendarvis.
May 23th at 11 am
Downtown Westin (999 9th Street NW, Washington, DC 20001)
This intimate conversation is hosted by Janeé Lee, founder of Queer Ministry, between Black trans and queer people who are surviving religious trauma and navigating their relationship with the church. The workshop, hosted as part of Trans Pride DC, is a chance for people to share their stories at the intersection of queerness and spirituality and to walk away with a spiritual healing guide with affirming scriptures and inclusive theology.
DC Black Pride Worship Service
May 24th at 10 am
Remnant Christian Center (120 West Hampton Avenue, Capitol Heights, MD)
Hosted by The Community Church of Washington DC-UCC, this service will feature speakers and sessions on Black queer faith and unity, including host and speaker Robert D. Wise Jr. for a powerful Pentecost Unity Service. Attendees are encouraged to come dressed in and white.
June 5th at 7 pm
Sixth & I (600 I Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001)
Join Rabbi Jenna will be leading an inclusive, musical service celebrating the diversity of Jewish life in Washington, DC. Happy Hour, which is limited to people 21 and older, will start at 6 pm. The service will start at 7 pm, with dinner at 8:15 pm. The service is free but registration is required, and the kosher-style pescatarian meal does cost money. Register online here.
June 14th at 5 pm
Black Cat (1811 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20009)
Muslim Pride is a community-led and funded grassroots performance series centering queer and trans Muslim artists through music, drag and dance. The series was originally founded in 2020 as a way to create affirming spaces where faith, culture, and queerness can coexist. This year’s series features Mercedes Iman Diamond. This year, Muslim Pride expands to Washington, DC, New York City, and Los Angeles. Buy tickets here.
Pride Celebrations and Sunday Worship Service
June 14th all day
Riverside Baptist Church (699 Maine Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20024)
Join Riverside Baptist Church for a day-long Pride celebration beginning with Pride Weekend/Musical Theater Sunday worship service at 10 am. Later that morning and early afternoon, from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm, the church will be hosting a Pride Pageant, a technicolor celebration featuring a runway showcase, line dancing, food, and refreshments.
June 22nd at 7 pm
St. Mark’s Episocpal Church (301 A Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003)
Join this interfaith service celebrating affirming faith traditions and intertradition dialogue hosted by queer and trans faith leaders. The interfaith service has been hosted annually for over 40 years, and first began back in the 1980s with faith leaders and queer people of faith coming together to mourn and pray at the site of the AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall. Learn more about the history of the interfaith service here.
June 23rd at 6 pm
Holy Trinity Catholic Church (3513 N St NW, Washington, DC 20007)
Holy Trinity will be hosting its 6th annual Pride Mass. After its debut this past summer, the Pride Mass choir will be singing at the Pride Mass in June, and following the Mass, there will be an annual reception with ice cream and other goodies. Learn more about attending the reception and Holy Trinity’s LGBTQ+ Ministry.
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Pride faith services in Washington, D.C.
