Local
No progress on key LGBT priorities during Md. session
Equality Maryland director looks back as legislature adjourns
The executive director of Equality Maryland said although state lawmakers didn’t act this year on two LGBT priorities, progress was made in the recently ended legislative session.
Morgan Meneses-Sheets talked with DC Agenda about that progress, this year’s biggest accomplishments and disappointments and the work that remains to be done.
DC Agenda: You just experienced your first Maryland General Assembly session as executive director. What are your thoughts regarding the process?
Morgan Meneses-Sheets: While we are disappointed that our two key priorities — marriage equality and gender identity anti-discrimination — did not move this year, we have made progress. We knew going into the 2010 session that it was a building year. The Religious Freedom & Civil Marriage Protection Act gained four new co-sponsors in the General Assembly, including the chair of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, where the bill is heard in the State Senate. …
The Gender Identity & Expression Anti-Discrimination Act gained four new co-sponsors from key geographic areas across the state. For the first time, the Maryland AFL-CIO came out in support of the gender identity bill and testified at the hearings. This is a big move forward in terms of our relationships with the labor community. We also had a wide range of coalition partners standing with us on these bills and other proactive efforts.
We are also pleased that we were successful in halting a large number of bills aimed at rolling back our rights, including bills to invalidate out-of-state [marriage] licenses, bills to halt state agencies from honoring out-of-state licenses and constitutional amendments that could have not only eliminated future access to civil marriage, but also prevented any type of recognition, including the many partnership protections that we won in the past, including medical decision making, the inheritance tax exemption and hospital visitation.
DC Agenda: What do you see as your major accomplishment and what was your biggest disappointment during the session?
Meneses-Sheets: It was a busy session. We worked hard to continue to build momentum and prevent setbacks. We organized successful hearings, had a large lobby day turnout, generated media attention, engaged activists and lobbied legislators, mobilized new activists, held legislative briefings and identified new coalition partners. We are in a stronger position than at the start of the session and that in itself is truly a major accomplishment. …
For me, the biggest disappointment was the turn of events around the de facto parent bill. This bill provides an individual who has served in a parental role with a minor child with the duties and obligations, as well as the protections of being viewed as a de facto parent by judicial determination. An individual must satisfy a set of standards to be granted de facto parent status in order to be granted the right to request custody and visitation. …
Children deserve the continuity and security of having lasting relationships with those who parent them. Sadly, this bill never had a chance because our opponents [acted] to twist a procedural rule to forward their anti-gay agenda on the back of this bill. We were warned that because marriage is under Family Law and custody is under Family Law that they would have the ability to add an amendment to this bill that would prevent the recognition of the [state] attorney general’s opinion [recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriages]. We were concerned that they might have the votes in committee to do so. We had also heard threats that they would try to wage a nasty battle on the floor to strip protections for same-sex couples. We talked with our sponsors and in the end had to agree to pull the bill.
This is a truly sad example of how the political process can work at times. It is also yet another example of anti-gay extremists ignoring their own pleas for family values when they ignore the needs of our families and our children in order to advance their personal agendas.
DC Agenda: By the end of 2010, we will have completed four years with a Democratic governor and a majority of Democrats in the General Assembly. But other than adding names as co-sponsors, the bills to provide transgender protections and marriage equality have not advanced out of committee. Why should the next four years be any different?
Meneses-Sheets: A great deal of progress has been made in the past four years. We expanded protections available to LGBT couples, including statutes to protect hospital visitation and medical decision-making and a repeal of the inheritance tax for domestic partners. We beat back efforts to repeal rights for transgender residents of Montgomery County. We also successfully fought back each and every attempt to set us back. There are many states where that is not the case. This in itself is something to celebrate. We continue to gain ground in Maryland in our efforts to create true and lasting equality.
Adding new co-sponsors is an important endeavor. These are people signing their name on the dotted line and committing to stand with us when these important issues come up for a vote. This is also proof of the ever-increasing momentum behind equality not only here in Maryland, but throughout the country. … The next four years can and should hold much more for the LGBT community.
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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