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Comings & Goings
Victory Fund, HRC name two top new leaders
The ‘Comings & Goings’ column chronicles important life changes of Blade readers.
The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected].
Ruben Gonzales
Ruben J. Gonzales is now vice president of leadership initiatives at the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and Institute. The Institute is dedicated to advancing LGBT equality by identifying, recruiting, training and supporting openly LGBT public officials as well as building a pipeline of LGBT leaders. Ruben oversees the organization’s international and domestic programs, including its congressional internship and fellowship programs, Presidential Appointments Project and candidate and campaign trainings. He will also focus on growing support for these programs from private foundations and corporations to expand the number of LGBT leaders reached.
Prior to joining Victory this year, Ruben led all fundraising efforts at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. Ruben also previously served as the chief development officer at the United Cerebral Palsy, deputy vice president for resource development at the National Council of La Raza, director of development at the Urban Assembly, a school management organization based in New York City, and with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation as director of volunteer management. Ruben is also recognized as an expert on the role of Latinos in philanthropy and has been invited by the Association of Fundraising Professionals to present on this topic.
In 2013, Ruben was named by “Advocate” magazine as one of its Top 40 Under 40 for his leadership on behalf of LGBT Latinos. Ruben also serves on the board of directors of the Latin American Youth Center, which is headquartered in Columbia Heights. Ruben holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Santa Clara University. He is married to Joaquin Tamayo.
The Human Rights Campaign has named Jay Brown as the organization’s new communications director. HRC said, “Brown will serve as an organizational spokesperson and lead a team responsible for advocating for LGBT equality in the media as well as supporting and amplifying HRC programs.”
Jay Brown
Brown currently serves as HRC’s director of research and public education, “where he has helped shape the organization’s approach to generating research and educational campaigns aimed at enhancing the lives of LGBT people,” according to a statement. In his new role he will work closely with senior vice president of communications and marketing Olivia Alair Dalton. According to Dalton, “Jay is an incredibly talented communicator who has also led an impressive career as an advocate. He has spent a decade working to ensure equality for LGBT people at every intersection of their identities and lives. There is no one better equipped to lead our talented communications team and ensure we are ready to meet the challenges ahead in the fight for full equality.”
Brown said, “I couldn’t be more excited to join the communications team at such a pivotal time in the movement for LGBT equality. We still have so many stories left to tell about who we are, and the obstacles that still stand in front of so many LGBT people, in the United States and around the world.”
Brown worked at HRC from 2000 to 2006 where he managed communication strategies around the defeat of the Federal Marriage Amendment, advancing understanding of transgender people, and building support for hate crimes prevention legislation and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” among other issues.
According to the HRC website, “prior to working with HRC Jay held director positions at Reading Is Fundamental and Carnegie Mellon University, focusing on integrated marketing and online communications. Jay is an out trans man and lives in Maryland with his spouse, Kendra, and their two children.”
Maryland
Parents sue Anne Arundel schools, allege officials hid child’s gender transition
America First legal Foundation filed lawsuit on July 8
By CODY BOTELER | Two parents, backed by a conservative nonprofit group, are suing Anne Arundel County Public Schools over the school system’s policies related to transgender children.
The suit, filed Wednesday in Maryland’s U.S. District Court, accuses staff at an unidentified county high school of lying to the parents, identified as John Doe and Jane Doe, about their child, identified as Mary Doe.
The Does allege the school “socially transitioned” their child without notice or their consent by using a masculine name and masculine pronouns for Mary Doe.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
Campaign launched to elect more LGBTQ candidates to ANC seats
Capital Stonewall Democrats behind Queering ANCs effort
The Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political group, announced on July 7 it has launched a campaign to help elect large numbers of LGBTQ candidates to the city’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.
The D.C. local government is believed to be unique among U.S. cities in currently having 46 Advisory Neighborhood Commissions consisting of 345 single-member districts in neighborhoods throughout the city in which unpaid Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners are elected for two-year terms.
The commissions are charged with considering a wide range of policies and programs impacting their neighborhoods, including traffic, parking, recreation, street improvements, liquor licenses, zoning, economic development, police protection, sanitation and trash collection, and D.C.’s annual budget, according to the ANC website.
Although the ANCs do not have authority to set or reject policies or proposals, such as applications for liquor licenses, city agencies are required to give “great weight” to ANC recommendations, according to the law creating the ANCs.
Kent Boese, a gay former ANC commissioner, currently serves as executive director of the D.C. Office of ANCs.
“We are launching the most ambitious hyperlocal LGBTQ+ candidate pipeline initiative in the country,” said Stevie McCarty, the Capital Stonewall Democrats president, in a July 7 statement that announced the Queering ANCs campaign.
“As an ANC member, I know firsthand how these seats shape our neighborhoods, from housing and public safety to sanitation,” McCarty says in the statement. “I’m proud to lead this effort to ensure more LGBTQ+ Washingtonians see themselves as leaders in their communities,” he said.
The ANC Rainbow Caucus, which was created by LGBTQ ANC members, shows on its website that there are currently 38 caucus members consisting of elected LGBTQ ANC commissioners serving in the current 2025-2026 two-year term.
The website shows there are LGBTQ commissioners who are caucus members in each of the city’s eight wards, with six in Ward 1, eight in Ward 2, one in Ward 3, six in Ward 4, five in Ward 5, three in Ward 6, eight in Ward 7, and one in Ward 8.
The Washington Blade couldn’t immediately determine how many of them will be running for re-election in D.C.’s general election in November. But McCarty said Capital Stonewall Democrats hopes to recruit many more LGBTQ candidates to run for ANC seats.
The D.C. Board of Elections website shows the deadline for filing 25 required petition signatures to be placed on the ballot is Aug. 5.
A Queering ANCs website launched this week by Capital Stonewall Democrats provides details on how to run for an ANC seat and offers help for those interested in running.
“Think of someone in your building, neighborhood, friend group, community organization, or professional network who cares deeply about D.C. and would make a strong leader,” McCarty says in his statement. “Send them QueeringANCs.org and personally ask them to consider running,” he said.
The website can be accessed at QueeringANCs.org.
Baltimore
Ron Singer, owner of popular Mount Vernon gay bar Leon’s, dies
66-year-old’s funeral to take place Friday
By CAYLA HARRIS | Ron Singer, the owner of Baltimore’s popular gay bar Leon’s Backroom, died Tuesday, the venue announced in a social media post. He was 66.
“For more than 20 years, Ron made Leon’s a place so many people were proud to call home,” the post reads. “He will be deeply missed.”
The Mount Vernon bar, typically open from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily, is still open Thursday, but doors will close at midnight so staff can attend his funeral Friday morning. Services are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. at Sol Levinson’s Chapel.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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