Local
D.C. to enforce ban on insurance bias
Gender Identity and expression cannot be basis for exclusion, city says


Sterling Washington of the Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
The D.C. Department of Insurance, Securities, and Banking announced on March 15 that it would immediately begin enforcing an existing city law that prohibits health insurance companies from denying or limiting insurance coverage based on someone’s gender identity or expression.
In a new directive issued that day, the DISB said insurance companies found to have exclusionary language in application forms for health insurance policies pertaining to transgender patients would have 90 days to remove that language from the forms. Such exclusionary provisions pertaining to transgender people that violate the law could no longer be enforced by the companies, the directive says.
“Prior to this new directive being issued, numerous health insurance companies operating in the District had explicit policies that excluded transgender women and men from many of the same services that they provided to their non-transgender patients,” a statement released by the Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs says.
“Some of the services denied to transgender individuals, but approved for other patients, included mastectomies for breast cancer, hormone replacement therapy, and high blood pressure medications,” the statement says.
According to the statement, the new directive informs insurance companies that the city’s Unfair Trade Practices Act includes explicit language prohibiting health insurance companies from discriminating against people based on gender identity and expression as well as other categories, such as sexual orientation, race and ethnicity.
“With the issuance of this directive, the District becomes one of the first places to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and expression in health care and insurance,” the Office of GLBT Affairs statement says.
Photos
PHOTOS: Helen Hayes Awards
Gay Men’s Chorus, local drag artists have featured performance at ceremony

The 41st Helen Hayes Awards were held at The Anthem on Monday, May 19. Felicia Curry and Mike Millan served as the hosts.
A performance featuring members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and local drag artists was held at the end of the first act of the program to celebrate WorldPride 2025.
The annual awards ceremony honors achievement in D.C.-area theater productions and is produced by Theatre Washington.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)


























District of Columbia
Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals
Three LGBTQ icons to lead parade

WorldPride organizers announced Thursday that actress and trans activist Laverne Cox, powerhouse performer Reneé Rapp, and LGBTQ trailblazer Deacon Maccubbin will serve as grand marshals for this year’s WorldPride parade.
The Capital Pride Alliance, which is organizing WorldPride 2025 in Washington, D.C., revealed the honorees in a press release, noting that each has made a unique contribution to the fabric of the LGBTQ community.

Cox made history in 2014 as the first openly transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category for her role in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.” She went on to win a Daytime Emmy in 2015 for her documentary “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word,” which followed seven young trans people as they navigated coming out.
Rapp, a singer and actress who identifies as a lesbian, rose to prominence as Regina George in the Broadway musical “Mean Girls.” She reprised the role in the 2024 film adaptation and also stars in Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” portraying a character coming to terms with her sexuality. Rapp has released an EP, “Everything to Everyone,” and an album, “Snow Angel.” She announced her sophomore album, “Bite Me,” on May 21 and is slated to perform at the WorldPride Music Festival at the RFK Festival Grounds.
Deacon Maccubbin, widely regarded as a cornerstone of Washington’s LGBTQ+ history, helped organize D.C.’s first Gay Pride Party in 1975. The event took place outside Lambda Rising, one of the first LGBTQ bookstores in the nation, which Maccubbin founded. For his decades of advocacy and activism, he is often referred to as “the patriarch of D.C. Pride.”
“I am so honored to serve as one of the grand marshals for WorldPride this year. This has been one of the most difficult times in recent history for queer and trans people globally,” Cox said. “But in the face of all the rhetorical, legislative and physical attacks, we continue to have the courage to embrace who we truly are, to celebrate our beauty, resilience and bravery as a community. We refuse to allow fear to keep us from ourselves and each other. We remain out loud and proud.”
“Pride is everything. It is protection, it is visibility, it is intersectional. But most importantly, it is a celebration of existence and protest,” Rapp said.
The three will march down 14th Street for the WorldPride Parade in Washington on June 7.

2025 D.C. Trans Pride was held at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library on Saturday, May 17. The day was filled with panel discussions, art, social events, speakers, a resource fair and the Engendered Spirit Awards. Awardees included Lyra McMillan, Pip Baitinger, Steph Niaupari and Hayden Gise. The keynote address was delivered by athlete and advocate Schuyler Bailar.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)










