District of Columbia
D.C. observes second annual LGBTQ+ Veterans Day celebration
Event also marks 14th anniversary of repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
About 75 people, including LGBTQ military veterans and current members of the military and their supporters, turned out on Sept. 19 for D.C.’s second annual LGBTQ+ Veterans Day celebration.
The event, held at the Spark Social House non-alcoholic bar and coffee shop, was organized by several LGBTQ veterans and military groups and received the full backing of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs and Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs.
Among the groups organizing the event and whose leaders and members spoke were the Modern Military Association of America, which describes itself as the nation’s largest organization of LGBTQ+ service members, military spouses, veterans, their families and allies that provides “a united voice for the LGBTQ+ military and veteran community.”
Other groups participating in the event were Transgender Veterans of America, Minority Veterans of America, and Sparta Pride, which describes itself as a “group of transgender people” who currently serve or have served in the military.
“Fourteen years ago, the discriminatory policy that barred service members from serving openly with their sexuality, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, was overturned,” a statement released by organizers of the event says. “Join us for an evening of reflection, remembrances, and community as we enter a new moment in advocating for transgender service members and veterans impacted by current events.”
President Trump issued an executive order banning trans people from serving in the military.
Among those who spoke about the progress of LGBTQ service members since the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the challenges and discriminatory policies faced by LGBTQ service members, especially transgender service members, brought about under the Trump administration, was the event’s keynote speaker, Colonel Bree Fram.
An officer in the United States Space Force, Fram, an astronautical engineer and transgender rights advocate, served in the U.S. Air Force during the Iraq War. After coming out as trans in 2016, she became the first known transgender person to be promoted to the rank of colonel and is believed to be the highest-ranking transgender officer in the U.S. armed forces. She was among many trans service members separated by Trump’s January order.
“So, to start off with, I do have to give that disclaimer,” she told the those attending the event. “You know, I am here in my personal capacity. My views don’t necessarily reflect those of the Department of Defense,” she said. “But it is a joy to be with you here tonight. It’s amazing to be here.”
She went on to tell of the challenges and accomplishments during her military career and joined other speakers in calling on LGBTQ service members, veterans, and their LGBTQ community supporters to remain united in the struggle to overcome potentially discriminatory policies during the current times.
Kathy Marcello, interim executive director of Modern Military Association, who served as moderator of the LGBTQ+ Veterans Day Celebration, among other things, introduced speakers who served or were discharged during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” years as well as those who currently serve in the military.
The event included a period of silence for LGBTQ service members who have passed away and a “moment of remembrance” for those who served during “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Also presented and read during the ceremony was an official proclamation issued by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declaring Sept. 20, 2025, the second annual LGBTQ+ Veterans Day in the District of Columbia.
Although Modern Military Association has called on Congress to designate May 20 as an annual national LGBTQ+ Veterans Day, the Republican-controlled Congress has declined to do so. Just a few states and D.C. have designated May 20 as LGBTQ+ Veterans Day in their states and D.C.
“The whole point of this event was to be around ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and to reclaim that anniversary of repeal,” said Japer Bowles, director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, who attended the event. “It is bringing the community together to convene and talk about the fight forward, which the organizers did a great job of doing,” he said.
Ashley Cruthers, a Modern Military Association board member, appeared to capture the sentiment and emotions of many of the LGBTQ veterans and service members attending the event at a time of a hostile political climate.
“I know tonight everything looks really, really scary outside,” Cruthers said. “But tonight, at Spark House we are noticing we are among family,” Cruthers continued. “So tonight, if you want to cry, cry. If you want to laugh, laugh. If you want to tell your story, tell your story. We’re your family. It’s OK.”
The event’s program concluded with what organizers called a “special performance of celebration” by local drag performer Makayla Starr.
District of Columbia
Gay priest credited with boosting church support for LGBTQ Catholics
Fr. Tom Oddo’s biographer speaks at Dignity Washington event
The author of a biography of a U.S. Catholic priest said to have advocated for support by the Catholic Church of gay Catholics in the early 1970s has called Father Thomas ‘Tom’ Oddo a little known but important figure in the LGBTQ rights movement.
Tyler Bieber, author of the recently published book “Against The Current: Father Tom Oddo And the New American Catholic,” told of Oddo’s life and work on behalf of LGBTQ rights at a March 22 talk before the local LGBTQ Catholic group Dignity Washington.
Among Oddo’s important accomplishments, Bieber said, was his role as a co-founder of the national LGBTQ Catholic group Dignity U.S.A. in 1973 at the age of 29.
But as reported in the prologue of his book, Bieber presented details of the sad news that Oddo died in a fatal car crash in 1989 at the age of 45 in Portland, Ore., where he was serving as the highly acclaimed president of the University of Portland, a Catholic institution.
“He was a major figure in the gay rights movement in the 1970s, an unsung hero of that movement,” Bieber told Dignity Washington members, who assembled for his talk in a meeting room at St. Margaret Episcopal Church near Dupont Circle, where they attend their weekly Catholic mass on Sundays.
“And Dignity U.S.A. saw intense growth in membership and visibility” during its early years under Oddo’s leadership, Bieber said. “The story of Father Tom and his contemporaries is a story largely untold in the history of the gay rights movement, but one worth knowing and considering,” he said.
As stated in his book, Bieber told the Dignity Washington gathering Oddo was born and raised in a Catholic family on Long Island, N.Y., and attended a Catholic high school in Flushing Queens. It was at that time when he developed an interest in becoming a priest, according to Bieber.
After studying at the University of Notre Dame and completing his religious studies he was ordained as a priest in 1970 and began his work as a priest in the Boston area, Bieber said. It was around that time, Bieber told the Dignity Washington audience, that gay Catholics approached Oddo to seek advice on how they should interact with the Catholic Church. It was also around that time that Oddo became involved in a group supportive of then gay Catholics that later became a Dignity chapter in Boston.
In a development considered unusual for a Catholic priest, Bieber said Oddo in 1973 testified in support of gay rights bill before a committee of the Massachusetts Legislature and collaborated with then Massachusetts gay and lesbian rights advocate Elaine Noble.
In 1982, at the age of 39, Oddo was selected as president of the University of Portland following several years as a college teacher in the Boston area, Bieber’s book states. It says he was seen as a “vibrant and capable administrator who delivered real results to his campus,” adding, “His magnetism was obvious. One student described him as ‘John Kennedyesque’ to the university’s student newspaper.”
Bieber said that although Oddo was less active with Dignity U.S.A. during his tenure as UP president, he continued his support for gay Catholics and what is now referred to as LGBTQ rights.
“For those that knew him prior to his term at UP, though, he represented something greater than an accomplished university administrator and educator,” Bieber’s book states. “He was a new kind of priest, a gay man living and ministering in a world set loose from tradition by the Second Vatican Council,” the book says.
It was referring to the Vatican gathering of worldwide Catholic leaders from 1962 to 1965 concluding under Pope Paul VI that church observers say modernized church practices to allow far greater participation by the laity and opened the way for sympathetic consideration of gay Catholics.
District of Columbia
HRC to host National Rainbow Seder
Bet Mishpachah among annual event’s organizers
The 18th National Rainbow Seder will take place at the Human Rights Campaign on Sunday.
The sold out event is the country’s largest Passover Seder for the Jewish LGBTQ community.
Organizations behind the event include Bet Mishpachah, a local D.C. LGBTQ synagogue that Rabbi Jake Singer-Beilin leads, and GLOE, an Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center program that sponsors events for the queer Jewish community. The theme for this year’s Seder is “Liberation For All Who Journey: Remembering, Resisting, Rebuilding.” Rabbis Atara Cohen, Koach Frazier, and Avigayil Halpern will lead it.
The Seder will honor the late GLOE co-chair Michael Singer. Singer also served on the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center’s board.
“This Seder is both a celebration of how far we have come and a call to continue building a more just and inclusive world.” Bet Mishpachah Executive Director Joshua Maxey told the Washington Blade.
District of Columbia
Trans Day of Visibility events planned
Rally on the National Mall scheduled for Saturday
The Christopher Street Project has a number of events planned for the 2026 Trans Day of Visibility, including a rally on the Mall and an “Empowerment Ball” at the Eaton Hotel. Plenaries, panel discussions and meetings with members of Congress are scheduled in the three days of programming.
Announced speakers include N.H. state Rep. Alice Wade; Commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago Precious Brady-Davis; activist and performer Miss Peppermint (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”); Lexington, Ky. Councilwoman Emma Curtis; Rabbi Abby Stein; D.C. activist and host Rayceen Pendarvis; Air Force Master Sgt. Logan Ireland; among other leaders, advocates and performers.
Conference programming on Thursday and Friday includes an educational forum and a Capitol Hill policy education day. Registration for the two-day conference has closed.
The “Trans Day of Visibility PAC Reception” is scheduled for Thursday, March 26 from 7:30-9 p.m. at As You Are (500 8th St., S.E.). Special guests include Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nevada) and Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.). Tickets are available at christopherstreetproject.org starting at $25.
The National Council of Jewish Women and the Christopher Street Project host a “Trans Day of Visibility Shabbat” on Friday, March 27 from 7-8 p.m. at Sixth & I (600 I St., N.W.). The service is to be led by Rabbi Jenna Shaw and Rabbi Abby Stein.
The “Now You See Me: Trans Empowerment Social & Ball” is scheduled for Friday, March 27 from 6-11 p.m. at the Eaton Hotel (1201 K. St., N.W.). The trans-themed drag ball is hosted by the Marsha P. Johnson Institute with support from the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs, the Capital Ballroom Council, the Christopher Street Project, the Center for Black Equity, Generation for Common Good, and Parenting is Political. RSVP online at christopherstreetproject.org.
The National Transgender Day of Visibility Rally is scheduled for Saturday, March 28 on the National Mall at 11 a.m. The rally will include speakers and performances. Following the rally, attendees are encouraged to participate in the “No Kings” rally being held at Anacostia Park.
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