District of Columbia
Drag artists lead protest march to Kennedy Center
Queens and kings denounce Trump administration policies
Local drag artists and their supporters gathered for a march from Washington Circle to the Kennedy Center on Saturday to protest the Trump-Vance administration’s anti-transgender policies and the decisions made by the President Donald Trump-appointed Kennedy Center board of trustees.
The March for Drag began with a rally at Washington Circle near George Washington University.
One of the organizers of the March for Drag was drag king Lord Henry. The local performer addressed the gathered activists at Washington Circle.
“We demand that the Kennedy Center Board reinstate queer programming, including but not limited to drag-oriented workshops and shows and any other equity and DEI initiatives at the Kennedy Center,” Lord Henry said. “We want to force Congress to drop the multiple attempts at criminalizing gender non-conformity, including Trump’s executive order conflating sex and gender and the attack on drag artists through budget amendments, denying funds to organizations supporting and protecting this queer art form.”
“We care deeply about D.C. home rule,” Lord Henry concluded. “If home rule goes away, drag goes away in D.C.”
Other speakers at the event included the drag performers Crystal Edge, Indiana Bones, Cake Pop!, Tara Hoot, Mari Con Carne, Blaq Dinamyte, Mx.Noir, and Ricky Rosé.
“Drag is not just an invaluable form of self expression, but is a means of self discovery,” drag artist Brooke N Hymen told the crowd. “And not only are our livelihoods and artistry as drag artists under attack by the current administration, but the very existence of trans people as well.”
Brooke N Hymen, who identified himself as a trans man to the gathered protesters, continued discussing the effect of Trump’s policies on trans people.
“Beyond the executive orders meant to erase trans people from public life, Trump and his cronies want to define living in a trans body and expressing yourself in a way that aligns with your gender identity as ‘doing drag,'” Brooke N Hymen continued. “So, by attacking drag and attempts to outlaw drag on local and national levels, Trump is simultaneously attempting to outlaw trans people’s very existence.”
Sister Sybil of the D.C. Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence was slated to give a non-religious benediction before the march.
“This evening as we walk down the streets of our capital city, we are walking in the footsteps of our queer ancestors who fought tooth and nail for every right that we have ever attained,” Sister Sybil said.
“And now, one of our oldest and most sacred art forms, the art of drag, is again under attack,” Sister Sybil continued. “Our queer culture is now on the chopping block. And the only political party with any positioning to do anything about it has abandoned us: The Democratic Party.”
“But we have been here before,” Sister Sybil said. “Our culture and our community has never known a time without governmental targeting and neglect based on who we love, how we look, artistic expression, or even who we know ourselves to be, regardless of our birth certificate.”
“We must reclaim our community wisdom,” Sister Sybil told the crowd. “Our queer ancestors gave us tools to protest the indignities of heteronormative oppression. They gave us art, dance, disco, ballroom. They gave us drag as we know it. Most importantly, they gave us a love for our queer culture and a pride for being who we are. They loved and supported each other. They acted up. They organized, marched, lobbied, and tonight, after we are done marching, we must continue to do those things.”
Drag artist Mari Con Carne spoke at the rally in Washington Circle before the march. The local performer said, “As our queer ancestors have shouted out before, our community has always been here, we have always been queer, but they have yet to get used to it.”
“It is time we stop asking for their approval for our existence and it’s time we stop looking at ourselves as something to get used to,” Mari Con Carne continued.
“Our ancestors have always had to fight against a government that actively tries to erase us,” Mari Con Carne said to the gathered activists. “Think of the Stonewall riots, the AIDS epidemic protests and the queer liberation movement. Now it’s time to look up to them and see the fight for queer acknowledgment and acceptance only stopped because we wanted the system to get used to us.”
“It is now time for us to take our queer power and fight back,” Mari Con Carne concluded. “It is now time to defend our trans siblings and is now time that we stop wanting to get used to and begin fighting for acknowledgment and acceptance.”
The activists then marched down New Hampshire Avenue, N.W., chanting slogans and waving flags along the way. There was no police escort or presence in the march, yet activists were met with a small line of Kennedy Center security officers when they arrived near the front of the building.
The crowd stopped on the access road in front of the Kennedy Center and a second set of speeches began. A number of busses and cars attempting to access the venue were temporarily inconvenienced.
Cake Pop!, a well-known local drag performer and DJ, addressed the crowd gathered in front of the Center.
“The reprehensible leadership of Donald Trump and his supporters isn’t just about politics anymore,” Cake Pop! said. “It’s a full-on assault on free speech, on art and on self-expression. The takeover of the Kennedy Center is not just a political move, it’s a direct attack on every single artist, on queerness itself, and on anyone who dares to exist outside of his narrow, hateful vision of America.”
“We are living proof that no matter how much they try to erase us, silence us or shame us, we are still here,” Cake Pop! continued. “We are still fighting and we will not back down, because drag is a protest. Drag is resilience and drag is the very embodiment of joy in the face of oppression.”
Blaq Dinamyte, a drag king performer and president of the activist organization Qommittee, spoke in front of the Kennedy Center when addressing the gathered activists.
“What’s happening isn’t new,” Blaq Dinamyte said. “Throughout history, we’ve seen this before. The Nazi’s ban what they label as ‘degenerate art’ anything that didn’t fit their narrow vision of culture: Art that showed freedom, showed difference, complexity, all banned. Now it’s us.”
“When the government bans art from our national stage, they are not just attacking performers: They are attacking ideas,” Blaq Dinamyte continued. “They target drag because we are liberation. Our art makes a world where you can be who you are: Whoever that is. We are a threat to governments that would want to control how we live and express ourselves. Drag performers have always been at the front lines. Here in D.C., we’re seeing this play out on federal property. These bans hit our communities first, but they never stop with us.”
Following the march and rally, participants were invited to a dance party at the LGBTQ establishment As You Are.
“NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Feb. 10 as part of an announcement of his appointment of Richard Grenell to serve as the interim executive director of the Kennedy Center.
Trump then announced on Feb. 12 on Truth Social that he had been “unanimously voted” Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Center.
The Kennedy Center cancelled a performance of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington that was to be held in May.
See photos from the March for Drag here.
District of Columbia
Community mourns passing of D.C. trans rights advocate SaVanna Wanzer
Acclaimed activist credited with founding D.C. Trans Pride
Three D.C.-based LGBTQ advocacy organizations released statements on April 24 announcing that highly acclaimed D.C. transgender rights advocate SaVanna Wanzer has passed away.
A family member told the Blade that Wanzer died on Friday, April 24 of natural causes. She was 63.
Among other things, the advocacy groups noted that Wanzer is credited with being the lead founder of the D.C. Trans Pride and D.C. Black Trans Pride celebrations and events.
“As a trailblazing transgender activist, educator, and founder of D.C. Trans Pride, D.C. Black Trans Pride, and May Is All About Trans, SaVanna created and led transformative transgender programming during D.C. Black Pride that ensured trans voices, stories, leadership, and lived experiences were centered, celebrated, and protected,” according to the statement from the Center for Black Equity, an LGBTQ organization.
“Her work was not just about representation, it was about liberation, community, and making sure Black Trans lives were honored in rooms, stages, policies, and movements that too often overlooked them,” the statement says.
In its own statement, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, called Wanzer an icon of D.C.’s Black trans community and longtime leader in many LGBTQ organizations.
“SaVanna Wanzer was a D.C. legend,” Tori Cooper, HRC’s Director of Strategic Outreach and Training, said in the statement. “She advocated for many years for the trans community and for people living with HIV, and served with many organizations, including D.C. Black Pride, Capital Pride, and NMAC [National Minority AIDS Council],” the statement adds.
“I can say firsthand that SaVanna will not just be missed for her work, but for her sisterly wisdom and her sense of humor,” Cooper said in the HRC statement.
In its own statement, Capital Pride Alliance, which organizes D.C.’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, called Wanzer a “trailblazer” in her role as founder of Capital Trans Pride, D.C. Black Trans Pride, and the May Is All About Trans events. It says she served on the Capital Pride Board of Directors
“SaVanna was not just an advocate and community organizer but also a knowledge holder and elder voice in our movement,” the statement adds
In an undated statement on its website released before Wanzer’s passing, the D.C. group Food and Friends, which provides home-delivered meals to people in need, including people with HIV and cancer, says Wanzer had been one of its clients in the past. It says she had been living with heart problems since she was 16 and learned she had HIV in 1985 when she went to donate blood while working at the time for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. It also says she had diabetes, which was under control.
Among her many involvements, Wanzer also served as a volunteer for D.C.’s Whitman-Walker Health, which provides medical services for the LGBTQ community along with other communities. In 2015, Whitman-Walker selected Wanzer as the first recipient of its Robert Fenner Urquhart Award for her volunteer services at Whitman-Walker for more than 20 years.
The Center for Black Equity appeared to capture the sentiment of those in the LGBTQ community who knew Wanzer in the concluding part of its statement on her passing.
“Her vision continues to guide us,” it says. “Her courage continues to inspire us. Her impact will continue to live through every person, every Pride, and every space made more possible because she dared to lead,” it says. “Rest in power, SaVanna Wanzer. Your light remains with us.”
The family member said funeral arrangements are expected to be announced early next week. This story will be updated.
District of Columbia
Second trans member announces plans to resign from Capital Pride board
Zion Peters cites ‘lack of interest in the Black trans community’
Zion Peters, a member of the Capital Pride Alliance Board of Directors who identifies as transgender, told the Washington Blade he plans to resign from the board “due to the lack of interest in the trans community, specifically the Black trans community.”
Peters continued, “Nobody has checked on me in the last two months so that shows their level of unprofessionalism towards their board members and the community as a whole.”
If he resigns, Peters would be the second known trans person to resign from the Capital Pride board since February, when longtime trans activist Taylor Lianne Chandler informed the board of her resignation in a detailed letter that was sent to the Blade by an anonymous source.
Chandler, who served as chair of the Capital Pride Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, and Intersex Committee, stated in her Feb. 24 letter that she resigned from the board out of frustration that the board had failed to address instances of “sexual misconduct” within the Capital Pride organization. The organization’s and the board’s transgender-related policies were not cited in her letter as a reason for her resignation.
The Blade learned of Peters’s plans to resign from an anonymous source who thought Peters had already resigned along with four other board members identified by the anonymous source. The others, who Capital Pride confirmed this week had resigned, include Anthony Musa, Bob Gilchrist, Kaniya Walker, and Dai Nguyen.
Musa and Gilchrist told the Blade they resigned for personal reasons related to their jobs and that they fully support Capital Pride’s work as an organization that coordinates the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events.
The Blade has been unable to reach Walker and Nguyen to determine their reasons for resigning.
Capital Pride CEO Ryan Bos and Board Chair Anna Jinkerson didn’t respond to a Blade question asking if they knew why Walker or Nguyen resigned.
In response to a request by the Blade for comment on the resignations and the concern raised by Zion Peters about trans-related issues, Bos and Jinkerson sent separate statements elaborating on the organization and the board’s position on various issues.
“We can confirm that the individuals you referenced, except for Zion, no longer serve on the Capital Pride Alliance Board of Directors,” Jinkerson said in her statement.
She added that following the WorldPride festival hosted by D.C. last May and June that was organized by Capital Pride Alliance, the group anticipated a “significant level of board transition,” with many board members reaching the end of their terms. But she said many board members chose to extend their service or apply for an additional term, showing a “powerful reflection of commitment.”
Without commenting on the specific reasons for the resignations of Peterson, Walker, and Nygun, Jinkerson noted, “As with all volunteer leadership roles, transitions occur for a range of personal and professional reasons, and we appreciate those transitions with both understanding and gratitude.”
In his own statement, Bos addressed Capital Pride’s record on transgender issues.
“The Capital Pride Alliance is committed to supporting and uplifting the Trans community through our work with the Trans Coalition under the Diversity of Prides Initiative, our partnership with Earline Budd on the LGBTQ+ Burial Fund with a focus on our Trans siblings, our collaboration with the National Trans Visibility March, and our ongoing investment in programming for Transgender Day of Visibility and Transgender Day of Remembrance,” Bos said in his statement.
“We also recognize there is always continued work to be done, and we always welcome feedback from our community to ensure our commitment remains unwavering,” he said.
At the time of her resignation in February, Chandler said she could not provide specific details of the instances of sexual misconduct to which she referred in her resignation letter, or who allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct, saying she and all other board members had signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement preventing them from disclosing further details.
Board Chair Jinkerson in a statement released at that time said she and the board were aware of Chandler’s concerns but did not specifically address allegations of sexual misconduct.
“When concerns are brought to CPA, we act quickly and appropriately to address them,” she said. “As we continue to grow as an organization, we’re proactively strengthening the policies and procedures that shape our systems, our infrastructure, and the support we provide to our team and partners,” she said.
District of Columbia
Curve magazine honors Washington Blade publisher
Lynne Brown named to 2026 Power List
Washington Blade Publisher Lynne Brown has been named to the 2026 Curve Power List celebrating LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary individuals in North America who are blazing trails in their chosen fields.
“From sports and entertainment icons to corporate leaders and lawmakers, these individuals are breaking barriers, challenging norms, and shaping the future,” Curve Foundation/Curve magazine said in announcing this year’s list, which includes ABC newscaster Robin Roberts, comedian/actress Hannah Einbinder, and singer/actress Renee Rapp, among others.
Brown has worked for the Washington Blade for nearly 40 years. She was named publisher in 2007 before becoming a co-owner in 2010.
“I am honored to be recognized by Curve magazine during Lesbian Visibility Week,” Brown said. “Receiving this Curve honor is twofold. I was an early subscriber to Curve. I enjoy the product and know its history. Its journalism, layout and humorous features have inspired me.
“As an owner/publisher, receiving recognition from a similar source acknowledges my work and efforts, with a sincerity I truly appreciate. Franco Stevens, the publisher of Curve, is a business person of duration, experience, and purpose. The fact that they are in the media business, and honoring me and my publication makes it a tiny bit sweeter.”
Nominations for the Curve Power List come from the community: peers, mentors, fans, and employers.
Curve explained the significance of the list in its announcement: “An annual, publicly nominated list of impactful LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary changemakers is crucial in current times to counter discrimination, legislative rollbacks, hostility, and the invisibility of queer women within mainstream and marginal spaces and endeavors. Such a list also fosters encouragement and solidarity, and elevates voices and achievements—from high-profile roles to under appreciated areas of life.”
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