Maryland
FreeState Justice executive director resigns, says board has ‘white supremacist culture’
Former staffers sharply critical of Jeremy LaMaster
FreeState Justice Executive Director Jeremy LaMaster on Monday announced their resignation after they said the organization’s board of directors declined their request to step down.
“This morning, I requested the FreeState Justice board of directors to submit their immediate resignations due to persistent violations of our board handbook, consistent failures in their fiduciary responsibilities, and using positions of power to engage in partisan lobbying within FreeState Justice and their repeated refusal to add new members and leadership to the board,” said LaMaster in an email they sent from his FreeState Justice email account. “They declined, and it is with a heavy heart that I announce my resignation as executive director and make a public call for their resignation instead: For the resignation of Lindsey Young, board president; Riley Roshong, board vice president; Brianna January, board secretary; Lee Carpenter, Brenda Dorsch, Andrew Adelman and Jess Landers Hopkins.”
LaMaster in June 2020 succeeded Mark Procopio as executive director.
LaMaster in his email noted they “exhausted every avenue over the past two years to get our board fully staffed and running, and I made good faith efforts to work with the board to ensure that our clients and low-income LGBTQ Marylanders remained at our center.”
“Instead, the board has refused to accept any new board members since 2021 and refused to staff and run core board activities as per our handbook,” wrote LaMaster. “Instead, they have worked to consolidate power and amend the board handbook in secret to lower the minimum number of board members required and ensure that our policy positions prioritize relationships with legislators, not the best interests of our clients and community. I have provided clear warnings and consistent concerns over these issues that were repeatedly ignored.”
“These are the hallmarks of white supremacist culture: the concentration of power, power hoarding, defensiveness, right to comfort, fear of open conflict, hyper-individualism, and a false sense of urgency,” added LaMaster.
A link to LaMaster’s letter can be found here.
The Washington Blade has reached out to Carpenter for comment on LaMaster’s allegations.
Former FreeState Justice Education and Outreach Director Ezra Halstead in an email they sent to the Blade on Monday sharply rebuked LaMaster.
“The claims that are being made are 100 percent false, and the reality is that Jeremy has single-handedly destroyed the organization on their own,” wrote Halstead.
Halstead attached a letter that former FreeState Justice Legal Director CP Hoffman wrote to the organization’s board on March 31, 2022, the day their resignation took effect.
Hoffman in their letter noted “historically poor provision of legal services” that “centered almost entirely on name and gender change cases for transgender individuals” and a “poor reputation statewide, especially among the transgender community and communities of color.” Hoffman also noted “employee retention has been a longstanding issue for FreeState Justice” along with “hiring decisions” and “board disengagement.”
Hoffman also made specific allegations against LaMaster.
“Mr. LaMaster’s mismanagement extends well beyond myself and the leadership team at the time he assumed office,” wrote Hoffman in their letter. “Numerous employees hired over the past two years have come to me to express concerns regarding his management, citing concerns from discriminatory pay structures and broken promises about advancement, inappropriate delegation of personal tasks, providing little or no instruction or oversight of delegated tasks, and even inappropriately using the legitimacy of a minority-led organization as a front for grant applications where the majority of funding would go directly to FreeState Justice.”
A copy of Hoffman’s letter can be found here.
The Blade has reached out to LaMaster for comment on the allegations that Hoffman and Halstead have made against him.
Hoffman told the Blade they are unable to comment because of the “non-disparagement agreement” they were asked to sign “as a condition of my severance.”
“As such, I am contractually unable to offer public comment at this time about FreeState’s former executive director, Jeremy LaMaster,” said Hoffman. “I will, however, confirm that I did draft the March 31 memo, that it was sent to the FreeState Justice board of directors, and that I stand by the recommendations made in that memo.”
FreeState Justice on Tuesday announced Phillip Westry will succeed LaMaster. Tina Jones will be the organization’s new deputy executive director.
The announcement said FreeState Justice on Sept. 16 fired LaMaster “after prolonged and thoughtful deliberation.”
“Every effort was made to make this transition as efficient and amicable as possible,” said FreeState Justice. “In the wake of LaMaster’s termination, he issued a statement that does not reflect the views or ideals of FreeState Justice’s board and staff. The board of directors has earnestly fulfilled its fiduciary duties to the organization and takes these responsibilities very seriously. In working to fulfill FreeState’s mission, the board also remains committed to promoting diversity and inclusion within the organization and in the larger LGBTQIA+ community.”
Maryland
White House threatens Anne Arundel schools over gender identity policy
District faces possible legal action or loss of federal funding
By JESSICA CALEFATI | The Trump-Vance administration on Monday threatened to punish Anne Arundel County’s school system with legal action or the loss of federal funding for allegedly withholding information about a student’s gender identity and transition from the child’s parents.
The U.S. Education and Justice Departments together determined that the suburban Maryland district treats students’ gender identities as confidential medical information that cannot be shared with parents, in violation of federal student privacy law, according to a news release. A federal lawsuit filed against the district earlier this month made similar claims.
“As a mother and a grandmother, it is unconscionable that any school district would hide the most sensitive information about children in their care from their own parents,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. “This is not only an affront to basic moral principles, but also to parents’ rights under federal law.”
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Maryland
Christa Tichy hopes to preserve LGBTQ representation in Md. House of Delegates
Queer Democrat running to succeed retiring state Del. Bonnie Cullison
When longtime Maryland state Del. Bonnie Cullison (D-Montgomery County) announced she would retire, Christa Tichy immediately saw an opportunity.
The queer Democrat advanced from the June primary and will appear on the November ballot, hoping to succeed one of Maryland’s first openly LGBTQ legislators and preserve LGBTQ representation in Annapolis.
“But when Bonnie made that announcement, I knew right away that that’s what I was supposed to do,” Tichy told the Washington Blade during a recent interview. She always felt connected to Cullison’s background, which she said is very similar to her own.
Some of these shared traits include a background in teaching and a strong connection to Leisure World of Maryland. Cullison has inspired her in the past and feels motivated to take her place. She had always hoped to be her successor.
Besides their shared background, she also understands how important it is under the Trump-Vance administration to advocate for LGBTQ rights, as Cullison had in the past.
“I think there’s a lot of fears with the present administration of losing certain rights. And you know, Bonnie was a big advocate for marriage equality. I want to continue that, and you know, make sure that legislation that protects that is in place,” Tichy said.
Beyond specific policy priorities, Tichy said preserving LGBTQ representation in the General Assembly was equally important.
“I mean, of all the candidates that ran, I was the only female. […] I thought we needed that voice. We could not just let that voice be forgotten,” Tichy said.
Tichy said she believes serving in the Maryland General Assembly is where she can have the greatest impact on the issues she cares most about; including education, labor, and working families.
“I knew that this was my passion, and I felt this is where I could be most effective on a state level when it came to education, labor, for working with families,” Tichy said.
Throughout the campaign, Tichy said one unexpected source of enthusiasm came from her personal life. She and her now-wife, Jodie Bekman, were married during the campaign, and constituents closely followed their journey.
“A lot of my constituents knew that I was engaged in getting married, and they met my now wife, and our marriage was like part of the campaign,” Tichy said. “So, like our ring, the date, […], Jodie would come along with me just about at every event, so people got to know her and couldn’t help but like her.”
She believes that openness helped voters connect with her campaign on a personal level.
“I think there was an energy and an excitement to seeing two people that much in love that actually could win. I think that all contributed to it,” Tichy said.
Tichy also credited support from other LGBTQ elected officials, including state Del. Kris Fair (D-Frederick County), who chairs Maryland’s LGBTQ+ Caucus, and Montgomery County Councilmember Evan Glass. She said Fair was among the first elected officials to publicly endorse her campaign.
She also praised the volunteers who helped propel her through the primary election, from canvassing neighborhoods to enduring rainy weather on Election Day.
“When I think of how they stood out […] in the rain on election day with raincoats and umbrellas pouring down, holding walk cards that were like just folding over. They were so wet and damp. That’s the type of dedication that we had,” Tichy said.
Outside of politics, Tichy has built a career breaking barriers in the skilled trades. She became Maryland’s first female licensed Master Electrician and now teaches electrical trade courses, helping students prepare for careers in the field.
She said many of her students come from underserved communities and that helping them find stable careers has reinforced her commitment to workforce development.
A lot of her policies focus on workforce development and encouraging more women to join career trades.
Her experiences in the electrical trade also shaped many of her policy priorities. Tichy said she has advocated for better workplace conditions, including properly fitting equipment for women and paid time off for workers who were often reluctant to take leave.
Working in a male-dominated profession, she said, was not always easy.
“I remember how many times I wanted to say, ‘I’m going to give up. I’m not going to do this. It’s too hard,’ and I always thought — I’m a mom. I have, you know, four boys now, but they needed me, and I was all they had, right?” Tichy said.
Looking ahead to November, Tichy said she hopes to continue the success of her campaign thus far and to keep reaching out to her community for support.
“Our diversity is our greatest strength, and by working together, there is no challenge we cannot overcome,” she said in a statement after winning the Democratic primary.
Other LGBTQ candidates also advanced to the general election, which can be found here.
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.
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