Local
LGBT supporters remain loyal to Gray
U.S. Attorney says mayor knew about 2010 ‘shadow’ campaign
Mayor Vincent Gray has not been charged in the case of the so-called ‘shadow campaign.’ (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Similar to their straight counterparts, many LGBT supporters of D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray said their commitment to his re-election has not wavered over allegations by the U.S. Attorney on Monday that Gray knew about an illegal scheme to raise more than $660,000 for his 2010 election campaign.
New details about Gray’s alleged knowledge of a so-called “shadow” campaign surfaced at a hearing in U.S. District Court Monday morning in which businessman Jeffrey E. Thompson pleaded guilty to secretly channeling more than $2 million in illegal contributions to federal and local political campaigns.
In a news conference following the court hearing, Ronald Machen, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said someone identified in court documents as “Mayoral Candidate A” was among the recipients of the illegal contributions. Although Machen did not say so directly, it was clear to reporters and court observers that Mayor Vincent Gray was Mayoral Candidate A.
Machen declined to say whether Mayoral Candidate A or other candidates receiving illegal campaign contributions from Thompson were being targeted for prosecution, saying only that the government’s investigation was ongoing.
Gray has not been charged in the case and has repeatedly denied he had any knowledge of illegal actions by Thompson and others associated with the campaign.
“This doesn’t change my level of support for the mayor,” said gay Democratic activist Lane Hudson, who has served as a volunteer fundraiser and coordinator of the Gray campaign’s outreach to the LGBT community. “In fact, it probably increases it.”
Hudson was among the Gray supporters that questioned Machen’s motive behind the government’s decision to file felony campaign violation charges against Thompson and linking Gray to the fundraising scheme less than a month before the city’s April 1 mayoral primary.
Gray told the Washington Post and at least two local TV news stations that Thompson’s accusations that he knew about the illegal campaign scheme were “lies.”
Noting that Thompson made the accusations as part of a deal in which he pleaded guilty on Monday in exchange for a more lenient sentence and a promise to cooperate with prosecutors, Gray said Thompson’s credibility was in doubt.
Thompson, 58, is the former chairman and CEO of a company that had a multi-million dollar city contract to process Medicaid-related services and other health-related services for the D.C. government.
He pleaded guilty on Monday to a federal charge of conspiring to violate federal campaign finance laws and to submit false filings to the IRS. He also pleaded guilty to a D.C. offense of conspiring to violate D.C. campaign finance laws by “defrauding the District of Columbia’s Office of Campaign Finance,” according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
“Jeff Thompson is a man who’s trying to cling to his freedom and offered allegations that have not been substantiated or repeated by anyone else,” Hudson told the Blade. “And until the U.S. Attorney provides evidence to the contrary, Mayor Gray is entitled to the presumption of innocence, especially when his reputation is far more valuable than an admitted felon.”
Gay Democratic activist Peter Rosenstein, another Gray supporter, said he and others in the LGBT community were not condoning illegal campaign practices.
“I believe Thompson should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law as should anyone else found to have knowingly participated in his schemes,” Rosenstein said. “Knowing the mayor and Thompson I am still inclined to believe the mayor. If there is definitive proof the mayor knew what was going on the U.S. Attorney owes it to the citizens of the District to share it now,” he said.
“All I know is that Mayor Gray is a great friend of the LGBT community and denies the allegations,” said Rick Rosendall, president of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance. “Machen’s news conference and charges against Thompson seem suspiciously timed given the upcoming primary election, which is galling given the paternalistic position the U.S. Attorney is in over the District,” he said.
Rosendall was referring to longstanding complaints by D.C. home rule advocates that the city’s prosecutors are federally appointed rather than elected, as is the case with most other cities and states.
Transgender activist Ruby Corado, founder and director of the LGBT community center Casa Ruby, is among many in the city’s transgender community who view Gray’s support for transgender rights as groundbreaking and among the strongest in the nation for an elected official.
“Whatever happens, the only thing I know is I’m supporting the mayor,” Corado said. “I hope everything goes well for him. Nobody is perfect,” she said. “But I know the LGBT community is doing the right thing by standing with him.”
Lateefah Williams, an attorney and former president of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest LGBT political organization, was less certain about the impact of the U.S. Attorney’s actions on the LGBT community as a whole.
“I think the news surrounding Jeffrey Thompson’s guilty plea will have an impact on LGBT voters, just as it will have an impact on all other District voters,” Williams said. “Diehard Gray supporters will probably remain loyal, but those who are on the fence or who respect Gray’s accomplishments but have always been uncomfortable with the shadow campaign allegation, will find it much harder to support him,” she said.
U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen speaks at news conference about allegations linking Mayor Gray to ‘shadow’ campaign funds in 2010. (Washington Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro, Jr.)
During the news conference, Machen said the federal investigation into campaign finance law violations in D.C. was continuing and that the information released so far amounted to “the tip of the iceberg.”
In charging documents filed in court, the U.S. Attorney’s office said Thompson’s scheme involved making hidden and illegal campaign contributions totaling $1.3 to seven candidates seeking public office in D.C. between 2006 and 2011.
The documents also say Thompson funneled $608,750 between February and May 2008 for a shadow campaign for a U.S. presidential candidate. Last month, news media outlets reported they learned through sources that the presidential candidate was Hillary Clinton. Clinton has so far not commented on the reports, but people familiar with her 2008 presidential campaign have said she had no knowledge of the alleged shadow campaign.
In addition to the 2010 mayoral campaign, in which Gray was the alleged beneficiary, the charging documents say Thompson funded shadow campaigns for a candidate running in the city’s 2006 mayoral election; the 2007 special election for a Ward 4 Council seat; the 2008 election for an at-large Council seat; the 2010 elections for Ward 1 and Ward 6 Council seats; and the 2011 special election for an at-large Council seat.
Machen declined to name the Council candidates that allegedly received Thompson’s illegal contributions or to say whether they were under investigation for having knowledge of the illegal contributions. However, he said in a number of the cases under investigation, the candidate was unaware that the contributions were illegal and would not be a target for prosecution.
According to the charging documents, Thompson “disbursed approximately $140,000 in excessive and unreported corporate contributions” for a City Council candidate running in 2010 in Ward 1, where gay D.C. Council member Jim Graham was running for re-election. The Washington Post identified the candidate as Jeff Smith, one of two candidates challenging Graham in the Democratic primary.
“I have been seriously victimized by the huge illegal donation to my opponent,” Graham said in a statement released on Monday in referring to Thompson’s donation to Smith. “I want to note also that Jeff Smith failed to file his final month campaign report and his final total campaign report, which was very disturbing to me,” Graham said.
Smith couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
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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