Local
D.C. LGBTQ rights advocate Jeri Hughes dies at 73
‘Force of nature’ credited with pro-trans policy at city jail
Jeri Hughes, a longtime D.C. transgender rights advocate who has worked closely with activists in support of the local LGBTQ community, died March 18 at her home after a seven-year battle with lung cancer. She was 73.
Hughes, who has worked for the past 11 years at the D.C. Department of Employment Services, most recently as a Workforce Development Specialist, became involved in local LGBTQ rights and transgender rights endeavors since she moved to D.C. around 2005.
Among other endeavors, Hughes, along with D.C. transgender rights advocate Earline Budd, has served for more than a decade on the D.C. Department of Corrections’ Transgender Housing and Transgender Advisory committees.
Budd this week said Hughes played an important role in ensuring that Department of Corrections officials continue to follow a 2009 policy of allowing transgender inmates to choose whether to be placed in the men’s or the women’s housing units at the D.C. jail.
“In her toughness and determination, Jeri was a force of nature,” said Rick Rosendall, former president of the D.C. Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance. “She pressed the D.C. Department of Corrections for more humane and respectful treatment of transgender inmates,” Rosendall said.
“She pressed the D.C. government to set an example by hiring more trans people,” according to Rosendall, who added that Hughes interacted with D.C. police officials, including former D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham, to push for respectful treatment of trans people by the police.
Hughes’s LinkedIn page shows that prior to working at the D.C. Department of Employment Services she served as housing coordinator for a local social services organization called T.H.E. Inc., where, among other things, she “monitored and mentored a diverse population of LGBT youth.”
Her LinkedIn page shows she also worked from June 2009 to May 2010 as an administrative assistant at the D.C. Anacostia Watershed Society.
Hughes’s brother, Lou Hughes, who said the Hughes family is originally from Ohio, told the Washington Blade Jeri Hughes served in the U.S. Navy after high school as a torpedo operator in a submarine in the South Pacific. He said a short time later Jeri Hughes moved to New York City, where she operated a company that provided commercial laundry service to restaurants and hospitals.
Lou Hughes said his sister Jeri moved to D.C. around 2005 and initially lived with him and his wife in a basement apartment in their house before moving to her own apartment in Northwest D.C. where she remained until her passing.
He said it was around 2005 that his sister informed her family that she planned to transition as a transgender woman at the age of 54. “And our family fully supported her decision, helped her finance the various surgeries,” Lou Hughes said. “And once she went through the transition it was like she was fully reborn.”
“And that’s why all these negative comments about transgender people right now – it’s very hurtful to our family because she was really the classic transgender person who was really simply born in the wrong body and gave our entire family a real sensitivity and understanding of what that meant,” Lou Hughes said.
Denise Leclair, one of Jeri Hughes’s closest friends and former roommate, said among Jeri Hughes’s many interests was boating. Leclair said Hughes persuaded her to join Hughes in purchasing a 45-foot sailboat in 2019, shortly after Hughes was diagnosed with lung cancer.
“We spent the next two months getting it fixed up and we started sailing,” Leclair recalls. “And we did quite a bit of sailing, so she really put her heart and soul into restoring this boat.”
Leclair said the boat was docked in a harbor in Deale, Md., just south of Annapolis. She said up until a few months ago, after her cancer prevented her from working full-time, Hughes spent most of her time living on the boat until her illness forced her to return to her D.C. apartment.
“My Dearest Sister Jeri, born April 30, 1951, left our restless Earth in the early morning of March 18, 2025, succumbing to the lung cancer which she battled against so bravely for seven years,” Lou Hughes says in a statement. “As we all know, Jeri was a person of high intellect, incredible energy and fearless in the face of adversity,” her brother wrote.
“Whether through acts of quiet charity, tireless advocacy, or simply offering a listening ear, Jeri made it a mission to uplift, support, and care for every person she encountered,” his statement says. “Her life was a testament to empathy in action, leaving a lasting legacy of love, hope, and selflessness that will continue to inspire all who knew her.”
In addition to her many friends and colleagues in D.C., Jeri Hughes is survived by her brother, Lou Hughes; sister-In-law Candice Hughes; daughter, Casey Martin; son-in-law Wally Martin; grandson Liam Martin; granddaughter, Mirella Martin; niece, Brittany Hughes; and nephew Klaus Meierdiercks.
A memorial service and celebration of life for Jeri Hughes is scheduled to be held May 10 at D.C.’s Metropolitan Community Church at 1 p.m., according to Earline Budd.
Virginia
DOJ seeks to join lawsuit against Loudoun County over trans student in locker room
Three male high school students suspended after complaining about classmate
The Justice Department has asked to join a federal lawsuit against Loudoun County Public Schools over the way it handled the case of three male high school students who complained about a transgender student in a boys’ locker room.
The Washington Blade earlier this year reported Loudoun County public schools suspended the three boys and launched a Title IX investigation into whether they sexually harassed the student after they said they felt uncomfortable with their classmate in the locker room at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn.
The parents of two of the boys filed a lawsuit against Loudoun County public schools in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. The Richmond-based Founding Freedoms Law Center and America First Legal, which White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller co-founded, represent them.
The Justice Department in a Dec. 8 press release announced that “it filed legal action against the Loudoun County (Va.) School Board (Loudoun County) for its denial of equal protection based on religion.”
“The suit alleges that Loudoun County applied Policy 8040, which requires students and faculty to accept and promote gender ideology, to two Christian, male students in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” reads the press release.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the press release said “students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.”
“Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality,” said Dhillon.
Outgoing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and outgoing Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in May announced an investigation into the case.
The Virginia Department of Education in 2023 announced the new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students for which Youngkin asked. Equality Virginia and other advocacy groups claim they, among other things, forcibly out trans and nonbinary students.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in February launched an investigation into whether Loudoun County and four other Northern Virginia school districts’ policies in support of trans and nonbinary students violate Title IX and President Donald Trump’s executive order that prohibits federally funded educational institutions from promoting “gender ideology.”
District of Columbia
Capital Pride announces change in date for 2026 D.C. Pride parade and festival
Events related to U.S. 250th anniversary and Trump birthday cited as reasons for change
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C. based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, has announced it is changing the dates for the 2026 Capital Pride Parade and Festival from the second weekend in June to the third weekend.
“For over a decade, Capital Pride has taken place during the second weekend in June, but in 2026, we are shifting our dates in response to the city’s capacity due to major events and preparations for the 250th anniversary of the United States,” according to a Dec. 9 statement released by Capital Pride Alliance.
The statement says the parade will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2026, with the festival and related concert taking place on June 21.
“This change ensures our community can gather safely and without unnecessary barriers,” the statement says. “By moving the celebration, we are protecting our space and preserving Pride as a powerful act of visibility, solidarity, and resistance,” it says.
Ryan Bos, the Capital Pride Alliance CEO and President, told the Washington Blade the change in dates came after the group conferred with D.C. government officials regarding plans for a number of events in the city on the second weekend in June. Among them, he noted, is a planned White House celebration of President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and other events related to the U.S. 250th anniversary, which are expected to take place from early June through Independence Day on July 4.
The White House has announced plans for a large June 14, 2026 celebration on the White House south lawn of Trump’s 80th birthday that will include a large-scale Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event involving boxing and wrestling competition.
Bos said the Capital Pride Parade will take place along the same route it has in the past number of years, starting at 14th and T Streets, N.W. and traveling along 14th Street to Pennsylvania Ave., where it will end. He said the festival set for the following day will also take place at its usual location on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., between 2nd Street near the U.S. Capitol, to around 7th Street, N.W.
“Our Pride events thrive because of the passion and support of the community,” Capital Pride Board Chair Anna Jinkerson said in the statement. “In 2026, your involvement is more important than ever,” she said.
District of Columbia
Three women elected leaders of Capital Pride Alliance board
Restructured body includes chair rather than president as top leader
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, announced it has restructured its board of directors and elected for the first time three women to serve as leaders of the board’s Executive Committee.
“Congratulations to our newly elected Executive Officers, making history as Capital Pride Alliance’s first all-women Board leadership,” the group said in a statement.
“As we head into 2026 with a bold new leadership structure, we’re proud to welcome Anna Jinkerson as Board Chair, Kim Baker as Board Treasurer, and Taylor Lianne Chandler as Board Secretary,” the statement says.
In a separate statement released on Nov. 20, Capital Pride Alliance says the restructured Board now includes the top leadership posts of Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary, replacing the previous structure of President and Vice President as the top board leaders.
It says an additional update to the leadership structure includes a change in title for longtime Capital Pride official Ryan Bos from executive director to chief executive officer and president.
According to the statement, June Crenshaw, who served as acting deputy director during the time the group organized WorldPride 2025 in D.C., will now continue in that role as permanent deputy director.
The statement provides background information on the three newly elected women Board leaders.
• Anna Jinkerson (chair), who joined the Capital Pride Alliance board in 2022, previously served as the group’s vice president for operations and acting president. “A seasoned non-profit executive, she currently serves as Assistant to the President and CEO and Chief of Staff at Living Cities, a national member collaborative of leading philanthropic foundations and financial institutions committed to closing income and wealth gaps in the United States and building an economy that works for everyone.”
• Kim Baker (treasurer) is a “biracial Filipino American and queer leader,” a “retired, disabled U.S. Army veteran with more than 20 years of service and extensive experience in finance, security, and risk management.” She has served on the Capital Pride Board since 2018, “bringing a proven track record of steady, principled leadership and unwavering dedication to the LGBTQ+ community.”
• Taylor Lianne Chandler (Secretary) is a former sign language interpreter and crisis management consultant. She “takes office as the first intersex and trans-identifying member of the Executive Committee.” She joined the Capital Pride Board in 2019 and previously served as executive producer from 2016 to 2018.
Bos told the Washington Blade in a Dec. 2 interview that the Capital Pride board currently has 12 members, and is in the process of interviewing additional potential board members.
“In January we will be announcing in another likely press release the full board,” Bos said. “We are finishing the interview process of new board members this month,” he said. “And they will take office to join the board in January.”
Bos said the organization’s rules set a cap of 25 total board members, but the board, which elects its members, has not yet decided how many additional members it will select and a full 25-member board is not required.
The Nov. 20 Capital Pride statement says the new board executive members will succeed the organization’s previous leadership team, which included Ashley Smith, who served as president for eight years before he resigned earlier this year; Anthony Musa, who served for seven years as vice president of board engagement; Natalie Thompson, who served eight years on the executive committee; and Vince Micone, who served for eight years as vice president of operations.
“I am grateful for the leadership, dedication, and commitment shown by our former executive officers — Ashley, Natalie, Anthony, and Vince — who have been instrumental in CPA’s growth and the exceptional success of WorldPride 2025,” Bos said in the statement.
“I look forward to collaborating with Anna in her new role, as well as Kim and Taylor in theirs, as we take on the important work ahead, prepare for Capital Pride 2026, and expand our platform and voice through Pride365,” Bos said.
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